The Toronto Sun is not where I look for baseball insight.

Tonight's game is too late for me.
Jackson wasn't very good in his PCL outings.
They'll have to make some moves before Wednesday.

The early returns on the Pillar deal don’t look promising for either team - to put it politely.

Morales has been traded to the Yankees.

If you want a decent return on your players, you have to move them when they still have market value. You can't have it both ways, that is, by holding on to them for as long as possible to extract maximum value and then trying to trade them when it's clear that they really aren't worth that much anymore.

7 3 2 2 0 17

I think Chris Sale might be getting back to his usual self.

This FO definitely has a tendency to wait too long before moving a player, whether due to ownership or their own choosing. Of course in the case of Donaldson it was injury and with Osuna it was unexpected legal trouble, so bad luck has also factored in.

With Pillar, it's hard to say when the right time to move him would have been. Teams typically don't trade good prospects for defensive-only outfielders so Pillar definitely had more value to a team that wanted to make the playoffs in 2016-18 than he would have as a trade asset. De Paula is a lottery ticket but I don't think waiting would have accomplished much better. Between what the Jays got back and what they did immediately afterwards, it seems Pillar was more of a salary dump for the Grichuk extension.

making quick decisive moves is too risky.

Shapiro said he wanted to tear down after 2016, but ownership said no. You can believe him or not, but I'm sure Rogers is aware of his comments and he wouldn't still be here if he was outright lying, since it's ownership's prerogative to retain or fire him.

There was a Hardball Times story last year on contention cycles. The one team that went into rebuild mode while many felt they should still be attempting to contend was Frank Wren's Atlanta Braves. For that (and I'm sure other things) Wren ended up with a pink slip.

there it is.

what a shot, baby boy.

Can't be very often that an AL pitcher gets his first hit before his first win.

Vladdy's 438-foot blast to center field was the second-longest by a Blue Jay this season and the exit velocity of 111.3 mph was third-hardest home run by a Blue Jay.

A shot indeed.

Ian Hunter @BlueJayHunter
1h
That home run for Vladdy was 111.3 MPH off the bat to dead centre field.


Ben Nicholson-Smith @bnicholsonsmith
57m
Now a single for Vlad Jr. at 111.6 m.p.h.

Sure seems like he's hitting his stride #BlueJays


Ben Nicholson-Smith @bnicholsonsmith
21m
Vlad Jr. just hit a foul ball 120 m.p.h.

For context: no one does that

Oh my.

The monster is unleashed.

Vlad and Thornton - the backbone of our offence.

113.7mph exit velo

The kid looks ready.

And just like that vladdy's up to a 101wrc+.

Now watch him fly.

Thornton looks infinitely more capable at the plate than any OF on the team not named Grichuk. Free Thornton CFer!!!!!

Pillar played that one like Clark Kent.

The Jays are a bad team. The Nats have Scherzer, Strasburg and Corbin. The Jays have a better W-L record than the Nats.

We also pulled even with the Giants last night. Jays and Giants have been very similar under-achievers the past 2 seasons. The Giants had a bet-hedging offseason, similar to the Jays a year prior. Seems highly likely the Giants will finally do their sell-off this year.

If you ran the FO of an aging fringe contender, what odds % would it take for you to keep trying? Dan Zips at FG suggested 10%, but for me it would have to be double that.

Depends what you mean by trying.

If all trying means is spending more money to keep a winning core together, then there's not much downside to trying.

Edwin Jackson activated. Pannone to Buffalo. Shoemaker to 60 day IL.

There's not much downside as a fan to just keep spending money on an aging core, even though almost invariably it doesn't work. It may stave off the inevitable for a season or 2 or it may not.

And unless the FO has a really strong relationship with the owner, it will probably cost their jobs, which again as fans, has no downside.

If the Jays decide to sell off at the deadline, as seems extremely likely, our main trade chips look pretty good: Giles has been one of the best relievers in the game again, Stroman has started fairly strong, and Smoak, though unlucky, has excellent underlying numbers. Add to that the unexpected contributions of Sogard and Galvis, and there aren't really significant trade candidates who have thus far underperformed. The problem, of course, is that few of the putative replacements for these guys have stepped up. Our bullpen without Giles would look pretty terrible, for example.

I don't think that Smoak has any trade value.

Smoak has minimal trade value and that isn't going to really change. Too many 1B types available. Giles, Stroman, and Sanchez are the guys with value/potential value of the veterans. Best hope of getting more value is hoping some of the middle relievers pitch well because teams always need relievers.

The Jays just picked up Jimmy Cordero off waivers from the Nationals.

Our OF is young now. Probably the main positive.

I think we should obtain a young, quality, OF that can play CF, RF and LF. We probably do that in the off season because we are not trying to win this year. Next year I think is a "see as it goes" year.

We have a list of young OFs on the 40 man roster but the "quality aspect" is not yet evident. We should know by seasons end who is good.

Other examples of surplus assets are A Diaz, T Thornton and Pillar. Thornton is the only player who has to establish what value he has.

We traded DSJ, E Olivares and Lane Thomas all in minor deals. St Louis traded Grichuk and S Piscotty in deals where they did not fleece anyone. I think Oakland, St Louis and Toronto are all happy with those trades. Everyone gave up something surplus for their individual needs.

Cordero apparently throws very hard (His 4-seam fastball has averaged 98 MPH in the majors, his sinker 97 MPH). Has terrible control which is why he doesn't succeed anywhere. Worth a shot to see if you can fix something in Buffalo.

Cordero was a Blue Jay until the Ben Revere trade.

in case you were wondering about the other half of that Ben Revere trade, Alberto Tirado may be out of baseball at the tender age of 24.

First and third no outs and the Jays can't score a run (Hernandez K, McKinney GIDP). Hopefully Montoya isn't dissuaded by the result of taking the safety squeeze off for McKinney with a 2-0 count, as it was the right decision.

Any time the FO decides to cut bait on Hernandez and/or Mckinney I will be supportive. I’m not saying that it needs to happen right now but I would have no complaints if they decided to try Plan B in the OF.

Both McKinney and Teoscar have 2 remaining options. Has there been any update on Pompey?

I am thoroughly unimpressed by Billy McKinney. He does nothing well. Maybe he will eventually hit RHP well enough to be a passable platoon OF, but so far I see a player who doesn't hit the ball hard, doesn't field well in any corner, and doesn't provide base running value. You can at least dream on Teoscar's 2018 stat cast numbers. There could be some untapped power potential, and his minor league BB% was a lot better so improvement there might be sustainable. Either way, both him and McKinney look like entirely replaceable pieces that should be pushed aside the moment a better option presents itself. Luckily for them the OF across the entire organization is poor, so they have some time.

Funnily enough, I’ve always been more optimistic about McKinney than Hernandez because his flaws are less pronounced. But, my optimism was founded on the assumption that he could at least be an average defender in the corners. I don’t see that from him. He’s leaking value defensively, and with the rest of his offensive and base running profile, that isn’t going to cut it. He probably has a longer leash because the Jays really don’t have another LH OF until Pompey comes back or they try Biggio in the OF. As for Hernandez, the power potential is intriguing but he isn’t young and the major league sample size for him is getting big and ugly.

If the season ended today, I'd expect the hitting coach to be replaced.
However, we're barely starting the meaningful portion of the schedule, lots of baseball to play.

Is it just me, or has Teoscar Hernandez lost quite a bit of weight?  Last year, he reminded me in stature of Jesse Barfield.  This year, he appears to me to be closer to Enos Cabell (OK, he's a bit bigger than Enos). 

The Bisons tweet that Richard Urena has been recalled, and that Socrates Brito passed through waivers.  No word yet on the corresponding move for the Urena transaction.

Teoscar has been optioned to Buffalo with Urena coming up.

1 option left for Teoscar, 2 for McKinney. Although it's getting to the point where that's about as important as how many options Brito has; as in "don't know, don't care".

And the grumpy old man in me hopes that's the end of those sunflower showers.

Stop planting sunflowers on my lawn?

As I said yesterday, no complaints from me with that move. I don’t hold out much hope for it but stranger things have happened than Hernandez reappearing as a useful player down the road but I have zero issues with him working away in Buffalo on that. Now, recalling Urena is an odd choice given the need for an OF. I assume we’ll see a healthy dose of Drury and Sogard in the OF. That wouldn’t be my first choice.

I'm thinking the outfield is set with Grichuk, Davis, Mckinney and Drury.
Might as well start McKinney against the righties.

Urena has played well enough when he was here to earn a recall.
Might have to rest Galvis to get him some playing time though.
Alternatively, he's an other left bat for that starter with really bad splits.