My funny valentine, sweet comic valentine

It seems that Jays’ pitcher are not happy when the Jays score. Too often they’ve been giving those runs back. So who’s side are they on?

can't keep our heads above water with starting pitching this horrendous.

The Draft may be the only way to get a stud #1 Starter. High school or College/University doesn’t matter as long as they have extreme upside.

Saw an interesting stat today - there are 44 players in MLB making $20 million or more, and precisely half of them (22) have delivered 0.5 WAR or less. The Jays, naturally, have three of those players - Tulo, Martin and Donaldson. Yikes.

I thought McGuire looked really good. Mid-90's fastball and nasty 12-6 curveball.

There were 13 4 fWAR pitchers last year. Only 5 (Strasburg, Kershaw, Nelson, Nola, DeGrom) pitched all season for the team that drafted them.

Severino was an IFA signing by the Yankees, Carrasco was an IFA acquired in trade while in the minors. Kluber and Archer were also acquired in trade while in the minors.

Sale and Verlander were already aces when traded. Scherzer and Greinke were Free Agent signings.

So lots of ways to get an ace pitcher.

The Jays are 0-12 all time in New York against the Mets.

I'm starting to wonder if we should be grateful for Donaldson not signing an extension.
It's a long season. Things could turn around in June, but it's starting to look doubtful.

The Jays are 0-12 all time in New York against the Mets.

If they can't make it there, they can't make it anywhere
It's up to you TO, TO

"Saw an interesting stat today - there are 44 players in MLB making $20 million or more, and precisely half of them (22) have delivered 0.5 WAR or less. The Jays, naturally, have three of those players - Tulo, Martin and Donaldson. Yikes."

0.7war for the top $60m on the payroll sounds bad......until you look at the next $60m on the payroll (happ, Estrada, Morales, Garcia, Stroman, Pearce) and see that they've been worth -0.8war so far.

We should be thankful that the Jays don't have 6 players in the non-producing $20m category - Price/EE/Bautista as some had advocated previously.

Two comments about the starting pitching.  Gaviglio is probably one of the best five options at this point.  If he can be at least tolerable, that would make three, which is a start. Secondly, you do not want to send Solarte out at second base regularly when your starting pitching is struggling.  He's a good replacement for a day at second base and a little better at third base, but ideally suited to mostly a DH role.  At this point, the club would be better off to commit to a second baseman- be it Travis, Gurriel Jr. (and don't play him at shortstop), or even Biggio.  Any of the three of them can actually play the position on a regular basis. 

I haven't commented about the Carlos Ramirez DFA because I simply don't know enough about his health to have an informed opinion.  He had an elbow injury this spring, returned and walked 13 batters in 10 innings.  Maybe he is headed for TJ. 

Deck McGuire pitched three innings yesterday so he is headed back to Buffalo. Danny Barnes gets todays shuttle ticket to New York.

The Deck got shuffled off to Buffalo?

Nice one MG.

Jeff Z ranks MLB lineups. Yankees #1, Sox #3. Jays:

12. Toronto Blue Jays: Credit the Jays for chugging along despite getting next to nothing from Kendrys Morales, Devon Travis, Troy Tulowitzki and Randal Grichuk. No one would be happy to have that many voids, but Yangervis Solarte is looking like a genius addition. The big secret might be Teoscar Hernandez, the return last July from the Astros for Francisco Liriano; he's currently slugging .537. Even at the time, Hernandez looked like a steal. Now he's looking like a borderline All-Star.

Twins have lost Jason Castro for the year. Would you offer them either Martin or Maile?

refreshing performance today from everyone.

hopefully it shakes them out of their funk.

T Hernandez has claimed RF. 4th most ABs on the team. It may still be his when Grichuk returns.
Donaldson has not contributed his usual. Injuries.

The rotation has produced below expectations mainly due to Stroman. Sanchez and Happ have done ok. Expected more from Sanchez. Estrada has given 3 good outings of 8. Not good enough. Garcia has given 2 good, 3 OK and 2 bad outings. So overall quite good for a #5.

There is room for improvement. But no 2nd WC if it will take 90 wins. 85-77 would be quite acceptable. They don't stink. Staying in the WC race should generate fan interest and help revenues.

The Osuna loss will be felt soon.

refreshing performance today from everyone.

I'd forgotten how much fun it is to beat the other fellow senseless.

T Hernandez has claimed RF. 4th most ABs on the team. It may still be his when Grichuk returns.

I'd expect Grichuk to assume platoon duties with Granderson with Pearce's return thereafter possibly muddying that arrangement.

I agree that Hernandez has claimed a full time starting OF job on this team and I'd expect him to toggle between LF and RF based on which of Granderson or Grichuk is playing.

This recent rash of injuries has temporarily postponed roster decisions that will eventually have to be made. Too many bodies for the 25 slots.

"I don’t feel like this is really an occasion for me to talk about what I’ve done to support Baseball Canada," said Votto. "I feel a strong connection to them and I make a point to stay connected with them, but ultimately my comments were completely disrespectful, no matter how much I support them or what actions I take. My words were reckless and the message sent to the younger players across the country, both girls and boys, the coaches, the umpires, all the parents, everybody that supports them, my message, wow, could not have been more selfish and further from how I feel.”

Good for Votto. That’s as sincere an apology as you can give.

Yeah, he must have gotten a lot of feedback.
He also said something about not being drafted by the Jays. (They took Russ Adams)

When you want to avenge a blowout loss, there's an Happ for that.

scottt, totally agree. A facebook LIKE.

When your AL pitcher has 2 hits and a walk and only gives up 2 hits and no walks, it is going to be a fun day.

Going to my first game of the year tonight as part of a family outing. Hoping for more of the same.

Twins have lost Jason Castro for the year. Would you offer them either Martin or Maile?

I would trade a catcher for a pitcher if the values were fair.  The Twins might be a match, even though they are fellow wild card competitors. 

Statcast's data on outfielders for 2018 suggests that Teoscar Hernandez has been pretty good, Kevin Pillar has been all right and Curtis Granderson/Steve Pearce have been ideally suited to DH.  It's a big improvement for Teoscar over 2017 (I think that it has helped him staying in right field), and more of the same from the other three. 

Grichuk also a plus, and I'd assume pompey and alford would both be plus as well.

Baseball is weird.

Dodgers batters - 5.1 fWAR (14th)
Marlins batters - 0.9 fWAR (29th)

Dodgers pitchers - 4.0 fWAR (13th)
Marlins pitchers - 0.2 fWAR (30th)

Dodgers record 16-26
Marlins record 16-26

In less than 5 opportunities, Pompey was positive and Alford negative.  I assume that both would be positive in a larger sample. 

The Dodger/Marlin mystery is all about performance vs. Pythagoras, hypobole. This has been a non-issue for the Blue Jays in 2018; I am sure the solid performances from Axford, Loup, Oh, Clippard and Tepera have a lot to do with that. 

TorontoStar @TorontoStar
7s
#BlueJays pitcher Roberto Osuna must remain 100 metres away from a downtown Toronto building and has been ordered not to communicate with the woman he’s accused of assaulting earlier this month, according to a court document. thestar.com/sports/bluejay…

Wow hypobole. Marlins are on pace to be sellers. LAD ???????????

Mike, there are various factors that play into the Marlin/Dodger records, probably starting with the Dodgers bullpen blowing 10 saves, but I still think it's bizarre that the Dodgers have more than 8 times the WAR of the Marlins.

9.1 total vs 1.1 total seems massive.

That's only part of it, hypobole.  The Marlins have been worse than their actual record by Pythagoras (and by Base Runs).  They have been more like a .333 team or just slightly better than what a replacement level team would do.  The 9 times multiple has as much to do with that, as the Dodgers Pythagorean underperformance. 

The Dodgers defeated the Marlins 7-0 today.  The teams have now played 6 times- the Marlins are 4-2 despite getting outscored 24-22.  Can we call it the Jeter effect or is it too soon?

The Jays send this lineup to face Andrew Triggs, who is going by Jackson for one night only:  Granderson 9, Donaldson 5, Smoak 3, Solarte 4, Pillar 8, Martin 2, Morales 0, Smith 7, Urena 6. 

Teoscar has a sore back, he is day to day.

Great.  A two man bench of Urshela and Maile then.  The 8 man pen may (or may not) be necessary for a day or two, but tonight is a classic illustration of the problem when it carries on for longer than that. 

9.1 vs 1.1 doesn't seem that bad when you remember that WAR is not a natural number.

How does 1.1 vs -2.4 seem?

0 WAR should produce a .294 winning record (or something like that.)
At this point that's 13-30, which is pretty close to the Marlin's Pythagorean.
Add 9 to that and you get 22-21, which is pretty close to the Dodgers 21-21's Pythagorean record.

Looks all good to me, just one team "unlucky" and losing lots of close games.

can we let the pitchers hit again?

May as well since they clearly can’t pitch.

Sanchez may well yet be a reliever... just saying...

JD Martinez has a 1000+ OPS for Boston this year, just as he did for both Arizona and Detroit last year. It's odd to see such a thing on his BBRef page. Three teams, in a 14 month period, getting to enjoy that same calibre of hitting.

Sanchez may well yet be a reliever... just saying..

Could be but so far he’s their second best starter, frightening as that may be.

Thanks, Scott (and Mike). Total brain cramp with Marlins/Dodgers. I had even looked up their Pyth's on BBref and it still didn't click. Totally forgetting replacement isn't 0 wins is embarrassing enough, but looking at it as 8 times instead of 8 more was really stupid.