If the Jays win the opener, it will almost assuredly be against their bullpen. Castillo has made 5 starts. He hasn't given up a HR, but he's given up 5 runs total in 2 of the starts. The other 3:

18.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 21 K.

As for Teo, down to 1.9 BB%. Despite his 6 HR's, his wRC+ is at 95, basically what Espinal and Biggio had last year.

As for BB%, in the last thread I asked who is the only MLB player with a higher % than Kirk. That would be Ryan Noda, who was a PTBNL in the Stripling trade. A's took him with the 2nd pick in this offseason's Rule 5. 228/397/404, 140 wRC+.

Teoscar started slow last year, too - he was only hitting 185/250/293 on May 31. Then he hit 285/331/536 the rest of the way to almost match his 2021 season.

I'm fine with the Jays moving on, but Teo was a fun player to watch, and I hope he gets a warm reception.

Yeah, other than the seeds. After this weekend, best of luck to him. I remember Goldstein at FG raving about Teo's work ethic.

The last 9 games have been vs. RHP. The next 10 are scheduled to be as well. 19 straight games vs. RHP.

https://batflipsandnerds.com/2023/04/27/what-happened-to-matt-chapmans-defence-in-2022/ Good piece on Chapman's defense, suggesting that his problem last year was transferring the ball.

Keep poking the Teoscar bear and it will erupt.

I figure Teoscar will hit a homer at some point this weekend, but the smart move for Jay pitchers will be to avoid throwing him strikes as he'll be trying too hard most likely to show the Jays they made a mistake trading him. #1 rule will be not to run on his arm. Biggio will get a lot of playing time, as will Belt with all the RH pitching so lets hope both can do what they are capable of instead of what they did early on this year (Belt seems to be doing OK since bottoming out April 8th with a 207 OPS he has hit 300/364/500. Biggio's bottom was April 22nd 394 OPS, then he hit a home run the next game, 0 for 3 the game after that so I don't think he is back to his 2019/20 form).

Hernández was the most handsome player on the team.

It's great to see Springer right back in the lineup after leaving last game early with a HBP. Schneider is rolling with the A-team tonight.

World Series re-match: Philadelphia vs. Houston.

Hernández was the most handsome player on the team.

The addition of Kevin Kiermaier and his piercing blue eyes made Teo superfluous. Credit : FG.

whole lineup is a bunch of handsome devils, really.

except for Alejandro, but he's easily the most adorable.

Earlier this year, the ancient Mariner, Tommy Milone, logged major league innings for the 13th straight season. So old timey is his skillset -- guile rather than raw stuff -- that I was surprised to learn that he is only 36 and not 46.

Yikes. Manoah missing the glove by feet.. not just inches..again.

except for Alejandro, but he's easily the most adorable.

Good one.

Man do I ever love Kirk. What a rocket off a top tier pitcher. He’s now hitting .248/.408/.370.

nice throw nice tag.

both starters up around 80 pitches thru 4. bullpens and bullpen management will decide this one.

Manoah’s arm and mechanics may have it’s challenges, but not his heart.

hopefully that's a slumpbuster for George.

He’s obviously had a great night at the plate, but I think Kirk has called a really good game behind the plate. He kept working different approaches for Manoah and nothing predictable from the relievers.

Varsho needs some time near the bottom of the order.

Don't know if it was mentioned, but Kirk's HR was the 1st off Castillo this year.

that's some quick tidy work by the bullpen.

and i think Merrifield is the full time 2B now. and possibly back playing at his peak level.

Swanson is pitching his way into the setup man role. He was sharp tonight.

Might as well bump Kirk up a slot in the order. Nothing wrong with Springer-Bo-Vladdy-Chapman-Kirk. That’s a powerful top five.

Yeah, our bullpen 4 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 8 K.

season stats

* 1. RF Springer 110pa, .282obp, 71wrc+
* 2. SS Bichette 117pa, .368obp, 147wrc+
* 3. 1B Guerrero 117pa, .402obp, 161wrc+
* 4. 3B Chapman 105pa, .448obp, 210wrc+
* 5. DH/C Kirk 74pa, .419obp, 135wrc+
* 6. 2B Merrifield 81pa, .383obp, 129wrc+
* 7. CF Kiermaier 75pa, .338obp, 117wrc+
* 8. C/DH Jansen 53pa, .264obp, 78wrc+
* 9. LF Varsho 104pa, .288obp, 70wrc+

* B. PH Belt 62pa, .258babip, 59wrc+
* B. UT Espinal 42pa, .238babip, 40wrc+
* B. UT Biggio 46pa, .196obp, 28wrc+

Yeah I’d boot Belt and Varsho down to 6 and 8 and put Merrifield between them. For a bit of separation. The top 5 can hit righties and lefties

On merit, the first six batters in the lineup should all be right-handed, with the last three hitters being left-handed (Varsho, Belt, KK). Makes it a bit challenging to alternate RH and LH bats in the order.

It is tough to balance when your LH hitters are struggling. One solution is to keep Kirk getting semi regular DH ABs against RH’s. Belt and Varsho are really struggling against any kind of velocity.

There were a ton of good ABs tonight by the RHs against Castillo. Really fun to watch.

Hernandez was 0/4 with 3 Ks. Really not missing him that much. Sure Varsho is struggling with the bat right now but both his base running and defence are very good so I don’t mind that much being patient.

A lot of people were disappointed with the Merrifield acquisition last summer. But he has worked out really well for the Jays. Underrated pickup.

In 64gms, 211pa with the Jays White is at a 123wrc+ and a 4.0+ war pace.

Whit not White.

I believe someone referred to Whit and the other players we acquired at the deadline as “bottom roster slop.”

As for the players we gave up, Taylor is in AAA and hitting fairly well (120
wRC+). Frasso is crushing it in AA (1.50 ERA and a 3:26 BB:K in 18 innings). The others aren’t doing much of anything.

The best lineup the Jays can field still involves both catchers starting. Belt has done better in his last 30+ plate appearances, and they will obviously give him more rope before making a decision given his salary, but the eye test and the expected numbers both tell the same story to me so far. Hopefully something clicks and he becomes a capable LHB in the lineup at some point. I just don't see it based on what he's shown so far.

I concur that the Merrifield pickup has been excellent in hindsight. He was very good for the team last season and it has carried over to this one. He should definitely be the everyday 2B at this point, although given that he's also the 4th OF, I suspect he will be playing practically everyday regardless.

My favourite was Ben Clemens making a life experience analogy of each teams deadline. This was the Jays:

"Look, shopping at Wayfair isn’t glamorous, but it makes your house look better and doesn’t cost that much."

béisbol de la liga nacional!

¡vivir! en MÉXICO

los padres contra los gigantes.

17-9 is very good. Ironically, it's only good for 3rd place but that's not important right now.

Varsho is very good defensively.  He's not an offensive player, but he should be better than replacement value offensively (which is were he currently stands.) I expect him to hit around .235 in September.

If Belt doesn't improve, a prospect should be given a shot eventually.
I'd say wait until June and see who is doing what. Lots of time, still.
Ultimately, the DH slot is pretty easy to fill at the trade deadline.

Merrifield was one of the most talked about trade options for years.
It's hard to bench a guy who is hitting .324. His OBP is .383. Very nice to have in the bottom of the order.

Looking at FG's playoff odds, Jays are 1 of only 3 teams projected for 90 wins, along with Atlanta and TB.

AL East SOS is brutal. Orioles (.513) have the toughest remaining schedule in MLB, Boston (.511) 2nd, TB (.508) tied with Colorado for 3rd. Jays (.504) and Yankees (502) have the "easiest". For context, none of the 10 Central teams have a tougher schedule than NYY. And the Yankees vs SF are the only 3 games of 27 they've played against a sub-.500 team.

I don't really get caught up in the standings until the end (or at trade deadline if we're a bubble team).

We're winning at a 106win clip. If we keep doing that the standings will take care of themselves.

And the really good news is we're winning at that clip despite our fair share of poor individual performances in every area of the team.

Yeah ull stand by that "bottom roster slop" comment for the trade deadline performance. Even if one of them has turned out to be a very good bottom roster player.

I love adding smart cheap distressed value assets. But i don't think those should be the prime targets for a big market team like the Jays. Sometimes they work out great, many times they don't. The Jays should always be adding primetime assets first and foremost, and then also adding smart value cheap distressed assets underneath.

I don’t think there is a hard and fast rule about what kinds of moves an elite team should be making. The non-“prime time” moves the FO made in acquiring Merrifield and Swanson have been very beneficial. Also, as I pointed out at the time, Merrifield had been hitting better in July 2022 (132 wRC+), so maybe the Jays saw something they liked there. Since then he has posted a wRC+ of 119 last year and 129 this year, with around the same WAR as Juan Soto over that timeframe. And acquiring Soto and his big arb salaries probably would have cost the Jays Bo plus a substantial portion of the farm.

I’m pretty impressed with what the front office has done in recent years, at least at the major-league level. The farm system seems to be going through a bit of a dry spell in terms of talent acquisition and development.

imo the only hard and fast rule is that they should always be adding prime time impact players.

and I don't think adding distressed assets like Whit - who cost us virtually nothing at all - should have much impact at all on the team's pursuit of primetime assets.

Some of us thought Merrifield should start right when he was acquired, despite Espinal being an All-Star.

I'm a Biggio stan, but he shouldn't be starting over Merrifield right now. If Schneider wants him in the lineup it should've been for Belt or Varsho.

I'm surprised they didn't challenge the pick up at second.
Gaus was one pitch away from loading the bases.
It looked close enough to take a gamble on.

Varsho should get a day off to reset. It’s not just that the results are bad, the process is awful.

Elevation - Coors Field - Denver, Colorado - 5,200 ft. (1,580 m)
Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium - México City - 7,500 ft. (2,285 m)
Dimensions:
L - 332 ft.
C - 400 ft.
R - 332 ft.
currently 28° C (82° F)

June 2016 Drafted 4th round by Tampa Bay
October 2022 Selected off waivers by Boston
November 2022 Purchased by Seattle
April 2023 Humiliating Toronto

Before Chapmans hit, McGee had pitched 6.2 innings with two K's. So the Jays had zero hits on 18 balls in play. Thats not normal.

the dissappointing thing about Varsho is that he started the season so patient at the plate, and was talking about how he was making a concerted effort to be more patient....and then gone.

Maybe Varsho needs to do what Jansen did (from the opposite side) and focus primarily on being a power-hitting pull hitter.

It’s a thin lineup when all of Varsho, Belt, Biggio and KK are in. The run prevention is keeping up though.

balanced, tho.

Everybody seems be preaching to the converted. Schneider seems to be the only one that thinks continuing to bat Varsho in the heart of the order is a good idea.

I would say a Biggio DFA is probably coming. A rebuilding team like Detroit would be wise give him a try. It's been quite a feat that he's managed to man a roster spot for how poorly he's performed over a three season stretch....but a team who's got nothing to lose would be wise to give him 500 at bats to see if he can look more like the player he was in his first season with the Jays.

robot umps please

I think we now know who the #2 reliever on the team is.

Petey, who would replace Biggio if he's DFA'd? Vinnie Capra?

As I was saying. Pull it, Varsho!

good for varsho, hopefully that boosts him going forward.

but that really should have been a Kirk pinch hit situation.

108 win pace

<br>you're welcome everybody. I just tuned in for the bottom of the 10th.
All those Ks... Wow!

34 K's for the Jays staff the past 2 days. Have they ever done that before?

Bullpen this series: 7 IP, 0 H, 1 BB, 14 K, 2-0 record.

I dunno UO, I think showing confidence in Varsho was important in that situation. Also, LH hitter with speed versus slow RH hitter (Kirk) in bases loaded situation.

balanced, tho.

I think part of the theory went beyond just mixing in some LH batters - I think it was also about simply having some different types of hitters. This had been a lineup made almost entirely of RH batters who swung for the fences at all times. That's what those hitters need to do - it's what they do best - but I suppose it made game planning against them relatively uncomplicated.

Coming into the year, it was uncertain how Swanson would do in high leverage situations. No more.

Now can poor Gausman get some run support. He seems to be Stieb part 2...despite his team mates actually liking him.

One thing with McGee is that the Jays were maybe a little too aggressive.
It's alright to hunt the first pitch, but if the first guy makes an out on one pitch, the second hitter in the inning should probably take the time to look at a couple of pitches.

Gott takes his second loss in 2 days.
It's not a good look on the Mariners bullpen if they have nobody else who can pitch an extra inning.
It looks like Gott is their setup guy, but I'm really thankful here that they didn't save Matt Brash and his 17.7 K/9 for this inning.
Gott hardly walks anybody but that's no help when you need to strand the runner on second.

When you get 2 hits in 10 innings, it doesn't matter who hits 5th and who hits 8th.

People are starting to wonder which White Sox player won't be available at the trade deadline.
Anderson, probably.

I'd give the spot to Nathan Lukes. He's a guy who should get a shot. He's similar in age to Biggio but doesn't have the name recognition. I think he's better hitter and he'd be a better outfielder than Biggio too.

Plus, with Merrifield playing so well and Espinal healthy they don't really need another backup infielder.

I just think this organization needs to move on from this guy.

Petey, Lukes is already on the roster.

I agree that some of the needed balancing was in offensive profiles. That doesn’t have to involve L/R. For example, when Kirk, Espinal and Merrifield are in the lineup you have a better blend of offensive skills.

I’d have thought that Belt would be first up on the chopping block given his positional limitations. Given his salary and how the team has started we’re a long way from that.

It's April 29th. Varsho will be better and Jorge Mateo won't be a top player in MLB batting .350 with a .1050 OPS. April 29th...

Biggio has less than 50 PA this year, and still has a career 100 OPS, I hardly think that is worth moving on from someone that is 10th or 11th or 12th in the position player depth chart and plays marginally above average defense at 2b, averagish at the corner infielder, and below average but tolerable in the outfield and is above average at stealing bases. He's a useful piece now, and if we do get roboumpires soon, that would add at least half a war to his hitting since his eye is generally better than the umpire's eye.

Blue Jays, Orioles and Rays, all 8-2 in the last 10.
Yankees have gone 4-6 and are now only 1 game ahead of Boston.

The Rays are hosting the Pirates and the Yankees next before going to Baltimore.
The Jays will go to Boston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

That should be an interesting span. 

Philadelphia is Toronto's designated rival in the National League.

Interleague schedule: " a home and road two-game series against a so-called natural rival and a single three-game series against each of the 14 other clubs in the opposite league. "

A little lost in the shuffle, perhaps.

7 innings, 13 K, walk, 108-74 pitches-strikes.

Kevin Gausman with a Tour de Force.

Jays have acquired Tyler Heineman from the Pirates for Vinny Capra.

I am not sure why the Jays did this. Stevie Berman did go on the IL recently so that might have precipitated this deal.

Michael, one more Biggio fact. Biggio as a LH pull hitter should typify what the ban on shifting was supposed to help.

From SN:
"Biggio was the most-shifted Blue Jay in each of the last two seasons, with less than 20 percent of his at-bats coming against traditional defences."

On the other hand, in a very limited sample, it really hasn't helped for 2 reasons.

His pull rate is down to 34.6% from 46% last year. He should be pulling more, not less. More worrisome is his Exit Velocity. 88.2 career, 87.9 last year, it's down to 83.4 so far. That's bottom 1% in baseball.

Rob Brantly hasn't played in a couple of days so that could be the reason too.

Heineman has been added to the 40 man roster with Luplow assigned to Buffalo.

Congrats to the Leafs for breaking their 19 year curse.

Here's a very Leafy Blue Jays item I'd never heard before, found at today's Sunday Notes.

"In 1992, Blue Jays East — one of two teams Toronto fielded in the Dominican Summer League — won its first 37 games and went to finish the regular season 68-2. They proceeded to lose in the first round of the playoffs."

Biggio is on the Batter's Box banner, he must stay.

The other thing about Biggio is he's always hit the ball in the air a lot more than the average player. So he's not really affected much by infield shifts.

Carrying a 3rd catcher in that never-used last bench spot would let us start both Kirk and Danny freely.

So he's not really affected much by infield shifts.

Except shifts weren't only infield. Teams would have an infielder in short right. So line drives often ended up in gloves. MLB average LD% last year was 20.3%. Biggio has been better than that every season, highest 27.6%, lowest 20.9%. 12.5% so far this year.

For the 10 guys with the most PA's on the Jays OPS+ is ugly for 4 (Jansen, Varsho, Springer, Belt all 74-51), meh for 1 (Kiermaier 109), nice for 3 (Merrifield, Kirk, Bo all in the 120-130s), sweet for 1 (Vlad 155), and Bondsian for one (Chapman at 216).

By BR WAR Chapman is at 2 already, Bo & Vlad the only others over 1.

ERA+ for the rotation has Gausman at 184, Kikuchi at 143 (who'd have thunk), then drops big time to Berrios 91, Bassitt 89, Manoah 88 (could those 3 be tighter?). For oddity you have Kikuchi giving up 6 HR (most on the team) but walking only 6. Kikuchi, Gausman both having 6 walks, Berrios 5 so far, Bassitt a dozen, Manoah 20.

League Leaders: Kikuchi in win%, Romano in saves, Gausman in K's, Manoah & Gausman in starts. In the 'who knew' Manoah has 3 HBP, only half as many as the league leader who is Ohtani - guess he has to get meaner to be effective.

Batting Leaders: Chapman in WAR, Batting Average, OBP, Total Bases, Doubles, Adjusted OPS+, Runs Created, Adj Batting Runs, Adj Batting Wins, extra base hits, Times on Base, Offensive Win %; Bo in hits, singles; Kiermaier in triples; Varsho in SB%. Phew, Chapman just slightly dominating the leaderboards eh? Surprisingly no Jay is in the top 10 for home runs so far (10 leads, 7 to get on top 10, 5 is the best for the Jays by Bo, Vlad, & Chapman).

Fun looking at this stuff, although the stats can shift drastically in just 1 game at this point. Just 27 games in but that is nearly half the season for 2020 (the freak show year statistically).

Kelenic struck out on 5 pitches to end the inning. This is 4 runs on the ump.

Wow. That’s ridiculous garbage. Bassitt threw two pitches that were strike three to end the inning. Stupid stupid stuff.

Obviously it’s early.

Robot. Umps. NOW!

While Bassitt did not get a couple of calls, he threw a lot of uncompetitive pitches that the hitters didn't even think of swinging at.

Agreed, Gerry. He didn’t help himself with those curveballs that missed outside by a mile.

What bothers me more is the inconsistency. Vlad took a called strike on a ball in the left handed batters box. I don’t understand how you can be a professional in any line of work and consider that acceptable performance

Nice response.

That was a bomb.

Great to see the Jays hitters response. Can't remember Jays having success against Gonzales. Do remember lack of success in the past.

The 2nd and 6th pitches to Varsho in the 3rd were in the exact same location and the same pitch type (4 seamers). First was a strike. Second was a ball.

we like our team, barry.

Two players coming into the game batting under .180 with clutch hits, drive in 3 and open a 4 run lead.

Quite the day to see the score in mid 1st and decide not to watch the game. Didn't matter though, when I tried, Sportsnet app gave me 1 cast AB before crashing and refusing to work (it connected to the TV, but wouldn't play on the TV). Just a garbage app. Didn't used to be so bad.

I'm hoping everyone winds up with a .200+ BA after today's game.

Wow. That’s ridiculous garbage. Bassitt threw two pitches that were strike three to end the inning. Stupid stupid stuff.


The Ump Scorecard will not consider the 2 shoulda been outs, but will look at them as inividual blown 3rd strike calls. Good idea, but flawed execution.

Glad how Bassitt settled down after the grand slam.

This game is ridiculoushttps://twitter.com/bluejaysbeat/status/1652754788323323906
Was it 4BB that got totally blown by ump and Jays?
Was it a balk? not called one by broadcast or in boxscoreWas there a SB? as called by broadcast, but not in boxscore. Not corrected by broadcast.

This is not good.

I think it was a balk. Vlady was running on a 3-2 count - the pitch was outside - but the catcher didn't throw and Vlady slowed up and the umpire pointed to 2nd. Whit got an explanation and absolutely no one complained about it. It had to have been a balk and therefore no pitch.

Bass continues to be a problem. His ERA was hugely fluky last year but this level of regression seems a bit harsh.

ump sandwiches the afternoon nicely by screwing us in both the 1st inning and the 9th.

True, but also get what you deserve when you walk Tommy La Stella. Bass and Garcia have become a problem this season.

A Canadian boy on one team was not available to get a save, so a Canadian boy on the other team got a save.

And a Canadian boy took the loss. Oh Canada.

Frustrating loss. 5/19 with RISP. 11 LOB.

Need a new scouting report on this Raleigh fellow.

Maybe stop attacking the bottom of the zone on a hitter that can’t do anything with a ball above his belt? The middle middle fastball was BP worthy, the back to back sliders was just dumb.

Bullpen collapse was awful.

Tampa's collapse that is. White Sox looked to be losing their 11th in a row, down 9-5 in the bottom of the ninth. Rays bullpen coughed up 7 runs in the ninth, and lost to Chicago 12-9.

Mexico City:

Saturday - San Diego 16 - San Francisco 11 - final score

mlb.com: " At altitude of 7,300 feet, the [Padres and Giants] combined for 11 home runs, two shy of the [MLB] record set by the D-backs and Phillies in 2019. Ten players went deep, equaling the Major League mark set in that same game. "

" With [Nelson] Cruz’s third-inning blast, he became the oldest player in franchise history to homer, surpassing a mark held by Rickey Henderson. That was one of five hits for Cruz, making him the second-oldest player in big league history with a five-hit game [Pete Rose]. "

SF - Crawford - Wade Jr.*
SD - Cruz
SF - Haniger
SD - Soto - Bogaerts*
SD - Tatis Jr. - Machado 1*
SF - Sabol - Villar*
SD - Machado 2

*consecutive batters

Sunday - San Diego 6 - San Francisco 4 - final score

Tampa's collapse that is.

Not to mention the Yanks losing 15-2. Humbling afternoon for ALE leaders, other than the Orioles who soldier on.

Tough loss. I thought Pearson might have slotted in, but understand why he didn’t. If nothing else this implosion may have given him a bit of runway in the coming days. I’d like to see him really take off.

March-April win / loss record, per uniform:

home white 5 - 2
light blue 7 - 2
dark blue 4 - 4
road grey 2 - 2

And a Canadian boy took the loss. Oh Canada.

And the Kingston kid (Matt Brash) gets the save.

Tough lost for sure.
If Bassitt doesn't walk 2 and hit Teo before finding where the ump has the strike zone, it's a totally different game.

The Jays have a few relievers who are 2 pitch pitchers with a great pitch and an ordinary one.
Good hitters can just sit on the bad pitch which seems to have happened in every almost every relief inning.

Richards, great change, straight 4-seamer. He can command the fastball and get hammered on a pitch delivered to perfection.
Bass, great slider, mediocre fastball. It's the same idea and both have big splits.
Pop, great 2-seam, mediocre slider. Reverse situation here.

It's the same issue Gaus has with his splitter.
One thing Gaus does is throw the fastball low to confuse the hitter, but another key thing is to be able to throw the split for a strike.
Those relievers need to do something of the sort.
Move the good pitch around. Keep the bad pitch out of the strike zone.