General 2018 Blue Jays Discussion Thread

[Bobthe4th]

I see. Why did they send him down in the first place? He had a .347 xwOBA which isn't bad at all. He's also one of the unluckiest hitters in MLB this year with a -.115 difference between is xwOBA and actual wOBA.

 

No idea mate, IMO going forward Gurriel has a better chance of being successful as the roster’s utility guy than Urshela.

[Terminator]

No idea mate, IMO going forward Gurriel has a better chance of being successful as the roster’s utility guy than Urshela.

 

Urshela is garbage. He's the replacement level player with no options guy. He also has no upside. I hate players like that.

[Jonn]

Blue Jays middle infield is hot garbage. I can't believe Urshela is our everyday SS for the foreseeable future. Edited May 22, 2018 by Jonn

[Jimcanuck]

Prospects most ready for MLB, in order?

 

I have:

 

Vlad

Alford

Gurriel

Jansen

Borucki

Pompey

Bichette

[Terminator]

Blue Jays middle infield is hot garbage. I can't Urshela is our everyday SS for the foreseeable future.

 

He's horrible. I wonder why they sent Gurriel down. I wonder if there was some sort of discipline issue or something? That's pure speculation but when Diaz went down it made no sense to option Gurriel IMO.

[Terminator]

Prospects most ready for MLB, in order?

 

I have:

 

Vlad

Alford

Gurriel

Jansen

Borucki

Pompey

Bichette

 

Good list but I'd drop Alford down quite a bit. Maybe right above Bo. I'm not giving up on him but he just hasn't played a ton of organized baseball due to football and injuries. He needs a full healthy year in AAA IMO.

[Terminator]

[Bobthe4th]

This does not sound like a good plan:

 

[Jonn]

He's horrible. I wonder why they sent Gurriel down. I wonder if there was some sort of discipline issue or something? That's pure speculation but when Diaz went down it made no sense to option Gurriel IMO.

 

He was awful in that game against Sale but Sale makes a lot of hitters look bad. I thought they were pretty quick to demote after giving him more opportunity. It was a bizarre move for sure. He should have been given an extended opportunity to play Shortstop. He was hitting the ball hard was getting extremely unlucky and advanced stats showed that as well.

 

I wonder if they will have Grichuk use his full rehab time to get as many at-bats as possible. We don't really have a pressing need for him in the Outfield.

[Spanky__99]

Would be nice to get Grichuk back tbh. Move Teoscar to LF, Grandy to DH and Grichuk in RF. Would improve the defense and get Morales out of the lineup.

 

Perhaps Travis could actually start hitting and he could DH some too.

 

I wonder if this means that Diaz will be back soon. Urshela is the only SS on the roster now.

 

[Spanky__99]

This does not sound like a good plan:

 

 

lol

[Captain Adama]

I leave for one week and I see Ryan Goins 2.0 is the everyday short stop.

 

Why must the injury plague be so cruel?

[TheHurl]

He's horrible. I wonder why they sent Gurriel down. I wonder if there was some sort of discipline issue or something? That's pure speculation but when Diaz went down it made no sense to option Gurriel IMO.

 

He was half a win on the negative. I mean people expect them to dump Morales and his $11M (as do I) but Lourdes was just as bad

[Orgfiller]

He was half a win on the negative. I mean people expect them to dump Morales and his $11M (as do I) but Lourdes was just as bad

 

Lourdes was ridiculously unlucky, his defense looked pretty stable and his baserunning is very good. It's not like he was lost out there and showed no signs of improving.

[Terminator]

He was half a win on the negative. I mean people expect them to dump Morales and his $11M (as do I) but Lourdes was just as bad

 

Does WAR take into effect his xwOBA or batted ball profile? I agree with you, he struggled and doesn't scream big league starter to me but there were some things there that I thought warranted him playing over the Urshela's of the world. Hit the ball pretty hard, seems to have decent footspeed and a strong arm.

[TheHurl]

Lourdes was ridiculously unlucky, his defense looked pretty stable and his baserunning is very good. It's not like he was lost out there and showed no signs of improving.

 

I actually like Lourdes a lot...but it's not like you can say "why did they send him down?", and not factor in that he didn't help the team when here and he struck out 8.5 times more than what he walked. He has to put up better power numbers (or prove to be a BABIP beater) to counter that he's never going to walk.

[Pendleton]

lol

 

Let Russel live out his dreams of playing SS so we can get Jansen up.

[Spanky__99]

 

Gurriel Jr?

[Captain Adama]

 

Vlad called up?

 

Lol jk

[Bobthe4th]

Vlad called up?

 

Lol jk

 

Likely to be a shortstop. So Bo.

[Bobthe4th]

A bit surprised at this:

 

[Sorrow]

Pompey according to Davidi.

[Spanky__99]

 

I assume we'll be seeing Solarte play SS this series. Urshella suxxxxxx

[Brownie19]

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/go-see-the-two-seamer-before-its-gone/

 

I thought this was an interesting....albeit it's not earth shattering news. We've talked before on here about how hitters have become much better low ball hitters to counteract the predominant philosophy to "keep it down" and recent trends of using the 2 seamer more often.

 

I fully expected we'd see a shift to high 4 seamers and it appears that revolution is happening. It's time for the hitters to adjust. In the meantime, it would be really nice if our staff could be ahead of the game a bit. Stro went from throwing lots of 4 seamers with success in 2014 to falling in love with the 2 seamer. We also pushed 2 seamer on Happ when he was first signed from Pittsburgh for absolutely no good reason.

[Spanky__99]

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/go-see-the-two-seamer-before-its-gone/

 

I thought this was an interesting....albeit it's not earth shattering news. We've talked before on here about how hitters have become much better low ball hitters to counteract the predominant philosophy to "keep it down" and recent trends of using the 2 seamer more often.

 

I fully expected we'd see a shift to high 4 seamers and it appears that revolution is happening. It's time for the hitters to adjust. In the meantime, it would be really nice if our staff could be ahead of the game a bit. Stro went from throwing lots of 4 seamers with success in 2014 to falling in love with the 2 seamer. We also pushed 2 seamer on Happ when he was first signed from Pittsburgh for absolutely no good reason.

 

Just by the eye test this season, you can see more and more pitchers going up in the zone to counteract the loft hitters are getting on pitches down in the zone throughout the MLB. Haven't read it yet, but should be good, thanks for sharing.

 

Edit: That article was under-whelming, to say/assume the 2 seamer will become obsolete is lazy. The 2 seamer absolutely has it's place in the game as does the 4 seamer, it just needs to be mixed in right, as does the curveball and slider... meh, dumn.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Spanky99

[Brownie19]

Just by the eye test this season, you can see more and more pitchers going up in the zone to counteract the loft hitters are getting on pitches down in the zone throughout the MLB. Haven't read it yet, but should be good, thanks for sharing.

 

Edit: That article was under-whelming, to say/assume the 2 seamer will become obsolete is lazy. The 2 seamer absolutely has it's place in the game as does the 4 seamer, it just needs to be mixed in right, as does the curveball and slider... meh, dumn.

 

Sorry to disappoint Spank!

[Spanky__99]

Sorry to disappoint Spank!

 

lol... you didn't, Sawchik did!

[Terminator]

 

Tonight's lineup doesn't look too bad. We are the rare AL team that doesn't lose much when we play in an NL park.

[Jonn]

I don't understand why that Petricka dude is here he has gave up 18 hits 7.1 innings pitched and has never struck people out in his career.

[Jimcanuck]

A bit surprised at this:

 

 

Excellent. He will be a useful piece on future Jays teams.