Any word on who Gibbons has chosen as interim closer?

Seung-hwan Oh has experience, but that means little if Gibbys changes his mind.

hypobole, my guess is that Gibbons doesn't worry too much about who his closer is when he has Stroman starting.

The whole team looks mentally messed up.

hot bats are cooling down and cold bats are staying cold.

stro was both bad and unlucky. our SP are killing us.

At this point what is more the more likely scenario:

Stroman finishes 2018 with an ERA south of 4.60 or Kevin Pillar finishes 2018 with an OPS over .780?

Who's going to break it up?

Or does Paxton get it?

This will not go down as one of the great days in Jays history.

Credit where it's due. Heck, he probably would have no-hit the Jays even if they hadn't screwed him over when he decided to go back to college rather than sign with them.

Buck and Pat didn't have a clue (on air at least) of the backstory with Paxton and Beeston. "How did he fall to the fourth round?" Pat wondered. Maybe because Beeston destroyed his college eligibility and Paxton ended up in Indy ball.

That was a different game. Not every day you get to attend a no-hitter AND see the home crowd cheering loudly for the visiting pitcher in the 9th inning. Great play by Seager late in the game. Not many fans left before the end. Lots to like in a loss. Stroman though.

That says more about the mental state of the Team, than the actual ability of their pitcher.

Simply put, if Sanchez and Stroman are this bad, the Jays have no chance. The Jays chances of getting to the second Wild Card were only so-so but they can't afford this many things to go wrong. I was all for giving Morales a chance to rebound but now that it is clear that he needs to be gone. Right now, the Jays have Diaz, Grichuk, Pearce, and Tulo all hurt and Travis in the minors so they don't have the roster crunch but once players start coming back, I'll be very disappointed if they don't move on.

I'm really glad that the draft has changed so that what happened with Paxton cannot happen again.

Sanchez is 2 and 3 with an ERA of 4.14. Not great, but still better than last year.
Stroman is 0 and 5 with an ERA around 8. At some point you send him back to AAA to sort himself out.

It wasn't to do with the draft, it was NCAA eligibility rules, i.e. kids can't have an agent, then go back to school. As far as I know that hasn't changed. Beeston ratted out that Paxton had an agent.

As for Morales, the need for him to be gone would be greater if we were contending. Easier to carry dead weight for a team that doesn't really have a shot at the playoffs.

Regardless of the outcome of the Osuna investigation, I predict Osuna will not be a member of the Jays in 2019 - As with Yunel Escobar, Rogers will not let this linger & probably best for both player & Team. If Osuna is suspended for more than 15 days, I think it delays his FA by a year, that's a lot of cash, certainly an incentive to reach a back door understanding with his accuser & it would not surprised me if she becomes uncooperative as with Jose Reyes's wife and others. Of course, an additional year of control makes him more attractive to his acquiring team.

With the quality of the Teams at the top of the AL - NY/BOS/HOU/CLEV , the 2nd WC does have a lot of value this year (except maybe to Seattle), it's not worth mortgaging the future & certainly not using up a year of Vladdy's control - in fact, it's an incentive to be big sellers in July - I hope the Jays take advantage of the opportunity.

With the quality of the Teams at the top of the AL - NY/BOS/HOU/CLEV , the 2nd WC does have a lot of value this year (except maybe to Seattle)

Does have or doesn't have a lot of value? Don't quite understand.

Regardless of the outcome of the Osuna investigation, I predict Osuna will not be a member of the Jays in 2019 - As with Yunel Escobar, Rogers will not let this linger & probably best for both player & Team. If Osuna is suspended for more than 15 days, I think it delays his FA by a year, that's a lot of cash, certainly an incentive to reach a back door understanding with his accuser & it would not surprised me if she becomes uncooperative as with Jose Reyes's wife and others. Of course, an additional year of control makes him more attractive to his acquiring team.

How about waiting at least until what the victim's account of what happened is made public?  And perhaps Osuna's response might be important too?

Domestic violence covers a large range of bad behaviour from a push or shove to the Ghomeshi/Schneiderman type allegations to worse. 

It was really cool to see the crowd cheering Paxton in the 9th inning, and Pillar did a good job in his post-game interview of expressing his thoughts about that. Once it got to two strikes against Donaldson you could feel the crowd was unsure whether they should be full out clapping for Paxton to lock down the no-hitter there, as they would for an Osuna save.

Maybe the manager wouldn't think the bullpen arms are overworked if he allowed his starter to throw more than 88 pitches when the Jays are already down 5-0 and don't have a hit. It doesn't help when, in absence of a true long man, he uses 4 different relievers to get the last 12 outs. That's a spot for Brian Tallet to come in and clean up the rest of the game.

I wouldn't have cycled through so many relievers either, but the club was coming off a day off and has a day off next Monday and the following Monday.  It might have been reasonable to go through two or at the most three.  Petricka had been called up for Osuna and hadn't pitched in 4 days, so he was a natural.  You could have easily had him throw 2 innings though. 

By the way, does it make any sense for the Blue Jays to have the day off on Victoria Day in the middle of a homestand?  I guess something has to give when the schedule-makers balance a number of different considerations.

Last year's top-5 home attendance has dropped to 17th this year.

2001: 23rd
2002: 25th
2003: 23rd
2004: 24th
2005: 23rd
2006: 18th
2007: 18th
2008: 18th
2009: 22nd
2010: 26th
2011: 25th
2012: 23rd
2013: 14th
2014: 17th
2015: 8th
2016: 3rd
2017: 5th
2018: 17th


Getting right back down into Rogers' comfort zone, looks like.

"With the quality of the Teams at the top of the AL - NY/BOS/HOU/CLEV , the 2nd WC does have a lot of value this year (except maybe to Seattle), it's not worth mortgaging the future & certainly not using up a year of Vladdy's control - in fact, it's an incentive to be big sellers in July - I hope the Jays take advantage of the opportunity."


Agreed. I don't think the Jays necessarily have to rebuild, and it's not a good time for that anyway with Stroman, Sanchez, and Osuna either struggling on the field or off of it (those are the players you trade if you want to rebuild). However, trading off some of the veteran players and hoping to add a couple of Teoscar type prospects at the deadline who can help in 2019 would be ideal (preferably rotation options since the Jays need a lot of help there). Aim higher in the return for Happ and Donaldson, obviously.

Still don't understand why the 2nd WC has a lot of value except for Seattle.

Seems typo-ish. It looks to me look it doesn't have a lot of value. Obviously things can change, but right now you'd probably give WC2 at most a 45% chance to win a play-in game against Boston or New York.

Things will sort themselves out between now and the end of July, but right now, 11 NL teams are at least 2 games over .500, and none of those 11 are the Dodgers. Even if a few surprises have staying power, that's where the sellers market will be.

Definitely a typo - 2nd wildcard has value for Seattle, I assume, because they haven't been to the playoffs at all in so long.

But the chance at the playoffs certainly has to be in the calculations for any potential trades the Jays make in terms of "selling assets". There are no guarantees the Jays will be a .500+ team again in the near future, and the division is once again top heavy, so taking another kick at the can this year makes the most sense to me.

It's too early to tell.  I really wish that Morales wasn't in an everyday role- these kinds of decisions are ultimately demoralizing for the entire club, and they have enough other things to overcome. 

I am not sure why the club's starters (save for Happ) have had such a difficult time throwing strikes.  Personally, I'm not worried about the starters giving up their share of solo homers; this club is going to score some runs.  It's the big innings. 

One other thing I've noticed this year, and just checked:  the shift does not work for Aaron Loup.  He has a unique delivery which seems to result in a more even rate of balls being pulled and sent the other way.  Over his career, opponents have hit .356/.372/.513 when the Jays shift  and .292/.295/.378 when they don't.  I wouldn't with him, and certainly not against a LHB.  I had the feeling that the same thing was true of Brett Cecil, and the numbers suggest that it was so, but to a somewhat lesser degree. 

bad news:

https://globalnews.ca/news/4196728/roberto-osuna-holding-cell/amp/

"A police source confirmed to Global News that the arrest happened in the 14 division and that it was a “domestic related” incident.

The source said that police saw “significant injuries” on the alleged victim, who provided a video statement to officers.

It was the concierge at the front desk of the residence who called police, the source added."

That's a complete disservice to Paxton, who was brilliant.

Too many of the big contracts the Jays have are not tradeable, and I mean really untradeable. The only thing to do is hope things turn out for the better with these players. The problems with the Offense lie with the Rotation.

The main problem and the biggest concern of the Jays with the Starting Rotation is Marcus Stroman. His issue that delayed him so much in Spring Training actually started in early-ish January. (He said he had trouble getting loose since January.) So what is or could be wrong? Which is possible:
1) There is an unknown structural issue that Stroman doesn’t know is there or he’s stubbornly trying to work through the issue; and/or,
2) There is a problem with what he sees. He’s not missing his spot by much, just enough to be a ball. Is there a vision problem; and/or,
3) I firmly believe he’s lost his confidence in his stuff, in his ability and he’s full of doubts.

There is no quick answer to Marcus Stroman and it’s taking too long to work it out otherwise. At some point very soon this must be resolved because the Jays need bettter than a guarenteed loss every fifth time through the Rotation.

That's a complete disservice to Paxton, who was brilliant.

Jevant, I think you are responding to a comment Richard S.S. made quite a few comments ago (his comment was "That says more about the mental state of the Team, than the actual ability of their pitcher").  It's hard to follow unless you cite it.  FWIW, Paxton was obviously throwing very well and would have been tough to hit even at the best of times. 

Analyzing the team the day after a no-hitter and the Osuna news is a bad bad idea. So I will only add one thought. This was built to be a .500ish team, it currently is a .500ish team and to me looks like it will be a .500ish team when all is said and done. The hitting was due to regress and the SP is due to get better. For me, following the younger players is the most interesting part of this year. In that vein, my main worry right now is that Stroman will need an extended DL visit. He just doesn't look right to me.

I might say they were built to be a mid-80s win team and are currently performing like a mid-80s win team.

and overall I would say the hitting is no longer overachieving on the season, while the pitching probably is underachieving on the season.

that being said, I don't really like to take any kind of stock until the end of May.

The Jays must assume worst case scenario with Roberto Osuna and expect him to miss a significant amount of time - how much is not known at this time, but it could be months. Inhouse might provide a temporary, even a long-term solution if the Jays go that way. If not, the Royals have a Closer for sale.

This has been a bad 24 hour period for the Jays. Osuna, Stroman and a No-Hitter tend to over-shadow a significant development. The third option is now the Jays’ starting Short-Stop. And last but not least, the third Outfield option is now on the Bench. Despite all this, the Jays are only 3-5 this month with 20 games still to play.

"Jevant, I think you are responding to a comment Richard S.S. made quite a few comments ago"...

That was the comment I was responding to. Perhaps I use a different view or something? It shows up nested for me?

Thank you, Jevant.  I use flat rather than nested view.  Maybe I should change that!

martin playing 2B tonight.

which makes travis in AAA doubly weird.

Blue Jays acquire Geovany Urshela, for some reason.

hmm. Josh DHing and we pick up a defensive 3B.

Martin is playing third base, according to the lineup posted by Shi Davidi:
Hernandez 9, Donaldson 0, Solarte 4, Smoak 3, Pillar 8, Martin 5, Gurriel 6, Maile 2, Pompey 7. 

Martin is playing 3B, and there is nothing weird about Travis being in AAA. Calling him back up as a reactionary move to Diaz going on the DL wouldn't have made sense.

Gio Urshela is an odd acquisition. The front office must have liked what they saw in 2014. Perhaps they are thinking about a roster sans Morales, and want to have a good defensive 3B when Donaldson is the DH (or traded).

Is there any news on Grichuk's return from the DL? It's better for the club if Alford is playing every day in AAA.

It's better for the club if Alford is playing every day in AAA.

Agree, and better for him.  Maybe the Urshela move will lead to that. 

Urshela looks like another infielder who can't hit much. He's spent significant time in AAA each year from 2014 to 2017, and his batting average has not been lower than .266, nor higher than .276. He doesn't have much power, doesn't walk much, and is a poor percentage base stealer. The consistency has been evident in his 2 partial big league seasons as well, as he hit .225 in 2015 and .224 in 2017, with OPS numbers of .608 and .551, and he amassed a WAR of minus 0.8 in those 2 seasons. No doubt he is a better hitter than Ngoepe. I doubt he'll do much, if any, better than what Tim Lopes would contribute. I don't get it.

Stupid fan grabbed a ball in play. They need to show security escorting these people out of the stadium. Gotta send a message to stop this kind of stuff.

If we don't have the stupidest fans in baseball, we're pretty close. Did you see how many people reached out to try to grab a fair ball?

I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing but this is our most well-played game in a while.

Is that Nicasio or Bundy?

So I guess Clippard will get 1st crack at closing now.

I swear we were losing when I posted that.

Donaldson is DH tonight. On the telecast Buck said that Donaldson's shoulder is still not right.

question about substitution:

Urena is a shortstop. When he substitute Granderson, Urena plays second base. Is there a reason for such assignment instead of Gurriel Jr. switching to second base?

I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing but this is our most well-played game in a while.

Always a good thing, even if they were losing at the time. (Although the statement does more or less say that they haven't been playing very well lately.)

The Jays' catchers are surprisingly nimble on the base paths - they're catchers, and one of them is 35 years old. Granted, Kendrys Morales is their teammate. And as the great Roger Angell once remarked (about Choo-Choo Coleman) it's an attribute roughly as useful for a catcher as having nice penmanship.

I think Urena went to second so that Gurriel didn't change position. He had been playing there all night and mentally its easier for him not to change.

Is there a reason for such assignment instead of Gurriel Jr. switching to second base?

I think it's an indication that Gurriel has played well enough at shortstop to be considered THE shortstop for the time being. It's a point of honour.

hey if donaldson is gonna DH for a bit....do we have any 3b in the high minors that might be interesting to get a look at?

So the Jays will soon be featuring an infield with 3 of 4 players having an OPS south of 600, and a DH who is either injured, or one who is incompetent.

Ouch.

Ugly, are you talking about Jason Leblebijian?

hehehe.

nah grjas smoak and solarte are both way over .600.

and hey all 3 OF are over .890!

Grandy .936
Pillar .895
Teoscar .892
Solarte .877
Smoak .785
Donaldson .777

So Jaime Garcia throws his rare, but always welcome mid-Rotation start, and the Offense says oops, but we’re back. 12 hits are always encouraging. Can the Jays go more than once through the Rotation without spitting the bit? They need to start getting back into the race and May is usually the month for it (4-5 with 19 to go).

"How about waiting at least until what the victim's account of what happened is made public? and perhaps Osuna's response might be important too?"

I'm flabbergasted at that comment since I made no comment or assertion about the merit of the case or Mr. Osuna's action - I merely opined that regardless of the outcome of the investigation, even if the case is dropped, Osuna having gotten himself into a situation in which police have charged him with a serious and socially repugnant criminal act, a corporate entity such as Rogers will not want such an employee to remain associated with them and I will be very surprised if Roberto Osuna is a member of the Jays in 2019 - no judgement about the merit of the charges.

Donaldson is on his walk year and is looking for a mega contract. However, he's clearly injured. He keeps pinching his right trapezoid, whatever that means. I'm really not sure he would bring more in a trade than the second round pick he'll bring back.  The Jays might have one or 2 highly sought after relievers though.

They have more underachievers than overachievers, They are still above .500.
They probably give Guerrero a call in September even if they're not in hit.

Last night was pretty good. The attendance was really low.
Garcia struck out Gordon and got credited for a wild pitch. Should have been a passed ball.
When it's in the dirt, you have to block it, not glove it.
The Jays are the only team without a credited passed ball.

I merely opined that regardless of the outcome of the investigation, even if the case is dropped, Osuna having gotten himself into a situation in which police have charged him with a serious and socially repugnant criminal act, a corporate entity such as Rogers will not want such an employee to remain associated with them and I will be very surprised if Roberto Osuna is a member of the Jays in 2019 - no judgement about the merit of the charges

Maybe you are right- Rogers are just a bunch of simpletons.  I'd like to think however that they have the good sense to realize that not all assault charges result from "serious and socially repugnant criminal acts", and if this one isn't of that type, they would act accordingly.    Unfortunately, it is statistically true that most assault charges in domestic violence cases do result from serious and socially repugnant acts- but why rush to judgment? 

Conversely, even if the case is dropped because the Crown cannot prove its case to the criminal standard of proof, this does not mean that MLB and Rogers cannot act.  Patience.

Based on preseason projected lineup:

SP: disastrous
RP: Closer out indefinitely

SS1: out indefinitely
SS2: out indefinitely
3B: Injured and mediocre
RF: out indefinitely
2B: in AAA
DH: out indefinitely
LF: missed time to injury
1B: missed time to paternity


and yet here we sit with a borderline playoff calibre record (and a record supported at least by Pythagoras, though not Baserunsius).

pretty amazing really.

John Lott has a wonderful article over at the Athletic on a conversation with Russell Martin about playing the infield, among other things.  Martin says that he would be happy to end his career as a super-utility guy.  I hope he ends his playing career here and ends up in the organization if he wants that.  Smart man. 

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/roberto-osuna-the-blue-jays-and-the-limits-of-presuming-innocence/

That's a really interesting take on the Osuna situation. I had been feeling that the tone from the Jays felt different than some of these situations, and it's nice to see someone compare this history of these sort of releases to see why.

If I had to speculate, I'd expect it's a combination of the Jays knowing more than is public right now, and a focus on highlighting the importance of women's safety. As awful as this entire Osuna situation is, I have been impressed with how the Jays have handled it so far, organizationally.

Agreed jevant - it was refreshing to hear the team not even attempt to use weasel words in their statements.

What do we know about Y Solarte. He will be 31 July 7th. Good Avg and K rate. Decent power and BB rate. He could be breaking out. EE and JB did close to that age.

What is his contract situation?

The Donaldson situation is what interests me.

While his injury and mediocrity right now sucks, I can't help thinking that this only helps our chances of signing him to a good deal.

bpoz - here is the best place for contract info

http://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/al-east/toronto-blue-jays/

I don't think Sol;arte is breaking out as much as playing in a better hitting environment.

And that is a nice contract with the 2 team options.

The Donaldson situation is what interests me.

While his injury and mediocrity right now sucks, I can't help thinking that this only helps our chances of signing him to a good deal.

That's true, but the reason he might be cheaper is also the reason to be hesitant about trying to sign him long-term at all.

As one of the higher spending teams, I can see signing Donaldson to a deal. Of course he does come with age and injury issues.

The question is how/where does he fit into the New Young Core of players that are starting to announce their readiness.

He will have to be a part of the new schedule towards contending. The elite like Vlad will become ML elite on their own schedule.

That's true, but the reason he might be cheaper is also the reason to be hesitant about trying to sign him long-term at all.

And the reason Donaldson himself might not bother attempting to pursue a long-term contract. If he struggles with health and performance all season, he might target a one-year pillow contract for 2019 to re-establish his value and the market might be of the same mind.

And he could well decide that Toronto is as good a place as any for a pillow contract. That could buy Guerrero some time if the plan isn't for him to become a regular next season.

The Jays will have Martin ($20.0 M), Tulowitzki ($20.0 M) and Morales ($12.0 M) next year with A rbitration costs rising. With all their other holes to fill, resigning Josh Donaldson might not be possible, even at a bargain price. Attendence is at about 447,935 full and 418,126 empty seats, with TV viewership remaining high. Better Attendence and Postseason Play are all keys to future budgets, but Josh Donaldson dominating is the biggest key.

Martin says that he would be happy to end his career as a super-utility guy.

He fielded third base like vintage JD last night. But as far as super-utility goes, where else could he defend reasonably well (other than catcher, of course)? Second base would seem to be a stretch. And the outfield seems even more of a stretch.

He could certainly back up first base, as well as third base and catcher.  Let's imagine that you have a player like Curtis Granderson, who can be the LH part of a DH platoon and a 5th outfielder.  Martin can be the RH part of a platoon and back up those 3 positions.  You have room for 3 other position players on your bench- a back-up middle infielder, a 2nd catcher and a 4th outfielder/pinch-runner.  It's a nice compact bench. 

A utility guy that has value at 3rd, catcher and likely first, has some real value to me, even if he's 'emergency only' at 2B or in the OF.  And I assume he could be passable in a pinch in LF. 

In that same Lott article Gibbons is quoted saying Martin is a helluva 3B and that he wants to use him at SS. If your super-utility guy can handle C as well there's quite a bit of value there, you would just have to carry a backup middle infielder too. The article also stated that Martin's hard contact % is at a career-high, and had several quotes from Russell relaying his confidence that his numbers will turn around.

Cokes on me.

"Cokes on me."

Gross. You might want to clean that up :)

I did not recall that Gurriel's contract runs to 2023. 

So far, he looks like a capable fielder in the middle of the diamond and a decent hitter with surprising power.  His baseball sense seems to be a work-in-progress, and he needs to cut down somewhat on his swings on pitches outside the zone. 

nah grjas smoak and solarte are both way over .600.

Yeah you’re right UO. I realized after I posted that somehow I had forgotten Solarte , which should be hard to do!

I like gurriel's power too, and his ability to cover the strike zone......but I'm not sure I'd call him even a decent hitter yet, and while he's obviously athletic in the field he's also had enough misplays to give me pause defensively too.

Gurriel has been hitting the ball hard, and has been very unlucky.  His BABIP of .239 is a classic sample size fluke.  He is hitting line drives, hitting the ball hard, hasn't popped up once and runs well (so he gets his share of infield hits).  Statcast has his expected slugging at .575; it's a crude tool but I'd venture a guess that he ends up with a slugging percentage north of .400.

I still like Travis better, but I understand why the club wants to give Gurriel a chance. 

A different lineup today:
Granderson 7 Donaldson 5 Solarte 4 Hernandez 9 Smoak 3 Pillar 8 Martin 2 Morales 0 Gurriel 6

I'd have Pompey 7 and Granderson 0, but otherwise I like it. 

A different lineup today: Granderson 7 Donaldson 5 Solarte 4 Hernandez 9 Smoak 3 Pillar 8 Martin 2 Morales 0 Gurriel 6

When your "signed-to-hit" DH is batting 8th.. You know his rope is getting a little shorter..

OR:
Left, Right, Switch Hitter, Right, Switch Hitter, Right, Right, Switch Hitter, Right - more balance.

The fangraphs article makes 2 points.

The second is that apart from Axford, Osuna was the only reliever with a good FIP.
It will be interesting to see how predictive that is of the rest of the season.

Well, if smoke-and-mirrors Clippard (1.40 ERA/4.30 FIP) bombs, there's always Fangraphs-approved Jake Petricka and his 0.17 FIP. :)

Solarte shirt night. I already feel some good vibes.

How does a groundball off the bat of Cano get through the 3-4 hole? That's a ball the Jays' opponent has been turning into an out (or two) all season.

Baseball sense, Exhibit A.  Josh Donaldson waiting at the bag for the ground ball to come to him and catching it bare-handed and then the DP.  Smart man.

Jays not showing much fight here. A lot of early swings at Leake.

Pete Walker must be exhausted. As soon as it appears one starter is back on track, another looks lost out there. A difficult job, with no clear path to how to get all of them back together again. A new blanket strategy for all? Try to deal with it case by case? Hopefully something works, because obviously, it's having a domino effect on the team's fortunes.

That was the worst start J.A. Happ has had in a long time. The Pitchers were basically throwing batting practise, well almost. My biggest question is how the Jays can hit multi-run HRs with no one on base. That’s an amazing talent! Oh wait, not?

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2769629-the-best-player-like-ever-the-painful-story-of-troy-tulowitzki

serious question - what the hell is going on with our starting pitching?

I don't know if I can remember a stretch of Jays baseball where the starting pitching has been this bad for this long.

Even Happ, who's been by far the best starter this year, has a 4.80 era after last night's outing.

Happ has pitched very well this season, despite the mundane ERA.   His W and K rates are excellent, and he's not giving up a lot of hard hit balls.  Somehow he has still managed to give up a HR/FB of 22% and a BABIP of .315.  That will come down to earth and his ERA will be fine by the end of the year.

The Mariners did hit him hard yesterday. I give them a lot of credit for that.  Everybody in their lineup, even the LHH, hit left-handers well.  The key at-bat was Healy's before the Seager slam.  Healy fought hard for the walk, and I think it wore out Happ who grooved the pitched to Seager. 

Every starter other than Happ has ranged from below average to bad. 

Morales now has the same 24wrc+ as Travis had, but Morales has received 50% more plate appearances.

Well yeah, it's not like there's a better defender for Morales' spot :)

In fairness to Morales, he's been extremely unlucky this year.  Still, he's a cumulative 0 fWAR over the 2014-18 period.  Presumably some of Pearce, Grichuk, Tulo and Diaz will get healthy and the club will finally acknowledge the reality. 

"In fairness to Morales, he's been extremely unlucky this year."

Only to a point Mike. his batted ball profile is horrific, especially for someone that is barely able to outrun a potted plant.

One of the issues contributing to the run prevention problems is that this is currently a poor defensive club (partly due to injury, partly due to personnel choices). As but one small example, when you have Solarte and Smoak at 3-4 you have serious range issues on that side of the IF. Outside of CF and C, there was a below average defender at every position on the diamond last night (to be fair, I don't know about Gurriel - he looks pretty good at 2B but stretched at SS, but time will tell). I don't yet have a good sense of how much damage the defence is doing - I guess the good news is that I'm confident in saying that it certainly isn't doing as much damage as it did last year. I also think that with improved health, there is a way for them to field at least an average defensive team most nights and maybe better. Whether they choose to do that, is another issue.

uh oh.



Ben Nicholson-Smith @bnicholsonsmith
2m
#BlueJays place Marcus Stroman on the DL with right shoulder fatigue, retroactive to May 9 per team

Gaviglio and Biagini called up. Both were starting in buffalo, but gaviglio was doing it better.

Only to a point Mike. his batted ball profile is horrific, especially for someone that is barely able to outrun a potted plant

In the "did you know" department.  Kendrys Morales is the second slowest DH in the league.  The slowest is Nelson Cruz, and he's a lot slower.  Anyways, I'm not defending Morales.  He hasn't been as bad as his 24 wRC+, but even if he had ordinary luck, he'd be below replacement level for a slow DH. 

Stroman to the DL?  I can't say that I am surprised.  I imagine that they'll give Gaviglio a start, given that he has performed better than Biagini in Buffalo. 

To Nigel's point about the defence.  Solarte would make a better DH than Morales, and Travis would be better than Solarte at the second base.  You'd probably end up with better defence and no loss in offence.

Hope Stroman heals fast and becomes good again.

Would Joe Biagini and Sam Gaviglio “tandem-start”, or does one Start and the other be Long Relief?

Mike, that would get my vote too although I think the optimal IF set up right now would be Solarte at 3B, Gurriel at SS, Travis at 2B and Smoak at 1B with Donaldson DHing. Just like Stroman didn't look right, neither does Donaldson.

Donaldson looked right to me last night, but hasn't always.  You could certainly split the 3B/DH roles between Donaldson and Solarte. 

On a related point, I had a thought about the Donaldson and Guerrero Jr. situation.  Let's suppose that the club wanted at some point to bring up Guerrero Jr.  this year.  Would there be any harm to either player in splitting the third base and DH roles?  Anyways, the club does have a lot of balls in the air for the 3B/SS/2B positions over the next 16 months- Donaldson, Guerrero Jr., Tulo, Diaz, Gurriel Jr., Bichette, Travis, Biggio and Solarte.  This is a good problem to have. 

How much do you think we should really worry or work around the idea that Vladdy will actually be a 3B?

We shouldn't worry about it, but the club is best off to settle on a position for him before he arrives.  The Cardinals brought up Pujols (direct from the Midwest League!) to play third base and left field for a while before settling on first base as a landing spot.  It can work, but I think that you are better off to to put a player like Guerrero Jr. at one position and let him stay there a while. 

I think Mike's right about that. I also think the issue of him being able to play 3B is much more important in the context of a situation where you have a log jam of 1B/DHs that you want to get in the line-up. The Jays aren't in that situation and aren't likely to be next year or going forward. The Jays currently have too many players (again) whose best position is 1B/DH (Morales, Smoak, Granderson, Pearce, maybe even Solarte) but those players are either unlikely to be here next year or shouldn't factor into anyone's decision about anything, let alone what is the best position for the best prospect in baseball to play on your club.

yeah i agree with all of that.

I guess I just really don't see vladdy being able to stick at 3B for very long, or even being average there at his peak. But i guess it's worth trying.

but part of me just wishes they would already be trying to turn him into the best defensive 1B they can.

Just to emphasize that point. Since August 1, 2017, Smoak has had just over 400 PAs and his OPS during that period is .735. Smoak's career OPS is .735. If you wanted to put Vladdy Jr. at 1B (even this year), Smoak shouldn't act as a barrier to that.

Not that I think Vladdy Jr. will come up this year owing to the financial issues associated with that decision. I agree with the view that he will magically resolve any remaining issues about his defence in early May of next year, just like a few years ago when the Cubs suddenly became satisfied with Kris Bryant's defence about a month into the season.

The other thing about potential generational talents is that I'm sure they get more latitude to pick their position. I suspect that if Vladdy Jr wants to play 3B (and I have no idea if he does or doesn't) then he gets to play there until it becomes obvious to all that he can't play there.

Friday lineup notes:
1. Gaviglio is listed in the pen, which presumably means Biagini gets Stroman's rotation slot
2. Morales has hit Sale well over his career and gets a promotion to the six slot in the order
3. Luke Maile gets another start, as does Alford

Bryant's an interesting comp. Both in progression/promotion and on defense.

not in overall quality though - Vladdy is three years ahead of where Bryant was.

I thought it was funny that Buck kept on going on about how he thought Jean Segura was the best #2 hitter in the league because he "really knows how to handle the bat". This in a series where Josh Donaldson was the other #2 hitter.

In a league where Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, JD Martinez, Tommy Pham, Kris Bryant, Manny Machado, Jose Altuve, Joe Mauer, Ozzie Albies, Christian yelich, Jeimer Candelario, Anthony Rendon, CJ Cron, Corey Seager, and others all hit in the 2 hole.

And then i looked at today's lineup, and again saw Teoscar and Donaldson hitting #1-2, and it made me feel really good about our manager again.

I don't know why, UO.  The 3 most important slots in the lineup are 4, 2 and 1 in that order, per the Book.  The Blue Jays best hitters against a left-handed starter at this point are probably Donaldson/Hernandez, Hernandez/Donaldson and Pillar.  Smoak is hitting 4th tonight, after hitting 5th last night against a RHB (that's weird because he hits RHPs better).  None of this matters very much, and I can understand why the Manager wants to leave things alone. Butt from a purely technical perspective, it's not quite optimal.

Bad typo...but from a purely technical perspective....

for me, getting the best hitters the most plate appearances is the only thing that really matters, Mike.

Well, there's always a lot of good 1B/DH option on the free agent market and they don't necessarily need a designated DH anyway.  They certainly don't have a surplus of 3B options that are viable 3 or 4 years from now.

Gaviglio is probably the long man. Nothing wrong with that.

Stroman's injury is a bit like Grichuk's. They both missed time in spring training and never got going.
Hopefully, Stroman gets a long rehab and comes back on fire.
It's nice to see some backups in the meanwhile.

It's not the stats that worries me about Happ, it's the trend. A bad start, followed by a terrible one.
He was missing badly in the first inning. He's not a guy who usually waste pitches.
Wouldn't shock me to see him on the DL too.