General 2020 Blue Jays Discussion Thread

[BlueRocky]

Not sure if posted but this is on Fantrax:

 

Pearson will be promoted to the Blue Jays' active roster July 29, Jamie Campbell of Sportsnet reports.

 

6 days to "polish his command"

[Jonn]

6 days to "polish his command"

 

They have a pretty good built in excuse. He only threw 63 pitches. Could easily say rhey want him to get up to 80-85 pitches in a simulated game to get built up for his major league debut

[Ex Player]

So according to news reports Jays have 5 options left after Shittsburgh deal falls through.

 

4 if you count Buffalo

3 if you discount Dunedin (which you should)

[Jimcanuck]

so, rain delay

 

this season is going to be a clusterf***.... schedule is compressed, how are rainouts going to be made up

 

and the forecast is the hurricane season this year is going to be a bad one

 

2020 sucks

[Stangstag]

so, rain delay

 

this season is going to be a clusterf***.... schedule is compressed, how are rainouts going to be made up

 

and the forecast is the hurricane season this year is going to be a bad one

 

2020 sucks

 

Since the schedule is so condensed this year, I bet rainouts only get made up at the end of the season if absolutely necessary.

[WILLIEUPSHAW]

Every city that has ever lost its only MLB baseball team since the 1900's got one back eventually.

 

Yeah interesting point. But this is Montreal not an American city and the past is not necessarily a prediction of the future (or however the investment disclaimer goes).

 

I agree with the idea that this fiasco could sour MLB on putting another team in Canada. Also as I mentioned, Rogers loves having all of Canada to themselves, so they may even try to work against any attempts to bring another team to Canada....

[Spanky99]

so, rain delay

 

this season is going to be a clusterf***.... schedule is compressed, how are rainouts going to be made up

 

and the forecast is the hurricane season this year is going to be a bad one

 

2020 sucks

 

Games are only being suspended this year, no PPD. Having teams play in the East should be easy to make up.

[BlueRocky]

[THANOS]

 

Guessing Kay makes the team and starts that game?

[WILLIEUPSHAW]

Lazy bones Puig is basically better than any option the Jays have right now.

 

Remember when Greinke signed with the Diamondbacks and referred to a former fellow Dodger, who was the worst clubhouse cancer he had experienced in his career (by far)!? Pretty sure (99.9%) that Puig was the guy to which he was referring.... Jays don't need his attitude!!

[Bobthe4th]

Due to my irrational hatred of Brandon Drury, I've been trying to work out how he may be excluded from the opening 30 man squad now that Espinal is rumoured to be making the team.

 

I reckon if we go with 15 (or 16) hitters, he makes it, but if we want an extra pitcher and only have 14 then the bench would have an extra outfielder instead: McGuire, Fisher (assuming Hernandez starts), Espinal, Panik, Alford/Davis.

 

Either way when the rosters are reduced in 2 weeks, we won't be carrying Drury, Espinal and Panik at that point.

[jerb]

[Ex Player]

Now it might be Dunkin' Donuts Park....LOL

 

https://www.blogto.com/sports_play/2020/07/toronto-blue-jays-home-games-dunkin-donuts/

[z3r0s]

god damn I can't wait to watch some Jays baseball.

[Laika]

Tom Hatch breaking camp with the team, wow.

[saskjayfan]

Tom Hatch breaking camp with the team, wow.

 

No Drury? Bit surprised Borucki is on the taxi squad. I thought he might make the roster. We only have 3 left handers right now.

[Orgfiller]

No Drury? Bit surprised Borucki is on the taxi squad. I thought he might make the roster. We only have 3 left handers right now.

 

Drury and Chase Anderson will begin the year on the IL. Both will likely bump someone off the team if/when they get healthy.

[BlueRocky]

 

Nate Pearson on the taxi squad means he gets to follow the team on road trips but won’t earn service time. I guess it’s better than sitting in Buffalo for a week.

 

Both Thomas Hatch and Shun Yamaguchi could play a key LR role, or as piggyback starters.

[Pendleton]

Snorucki didn't crack the opening night roster. Bodes well for the improved pitching depth, still likely will see him at some point this summer.

[BTS]

 

I think it's going to be a long 60 games.

[Pendleton]

I think it's going to be a long 60 games.

 

It's a lot more exciting than last year's opening night roster though - heading in the right direction.

[BTS]

It's a lot more exciting than last year's opening night roster though - heading in the right direction.

 

Yeah. Vlad, Bichette, Biggio, Gurriel, and Pearson are going to be a ton of fun to watch, and Ryu and Giles are elite. There's talent here for sure. But there's a lot of guys on that roster who are probably going to be very, very bad. Given the crazy strength of schedule and the fact that they're homesless I'm expecting a lot of losing this year.

[BlueRocky]

This offense went from bottom 5 to top 10 after Bo Bichette’s debut last season. We just saw this offense play toe to toe with the Red Sox lineup, which was no fluke. Their rotation is a mess but their lineup is still very strong.

 

We also went from a team that had 21 different starting pitchers last season, reaching all the way down to the independent leagues for starts, to now a solid mix of veterans and young pitching depth:

 

Ryu

Pearson

Shoemaker

Roark

Anderson

Thornton

Borucki

Kay

Hatch

Yamaguchi

Murphy

Waguespack

SRF

Zeuch

[Boxcar]

There's conversely also the thing where we don't assume players going through an obvious decline over several seasons are suddenly going to resume past production. Both players have similar projections at this point, so to suggest that Puig is magically going to outwar Hernandez by 1.5-2 WAR is pretty fantastical thinking.

 

I'd say a 15 wRC+ difference in projection isn't very similar but whatever.

[BTS]

This offense went from bottom 5 to top 10 after Bo Bichette’s debut last season. We just saw this offense play toe to toe with the Red Sox lineup.

 

We also went from a team that had 21 different starting pitchers last season, reaching all the way down to the independent leagues for starts, to now solid mix of veterans and young pitching depth:

 

Ryu

Pearson

Shoemaker

Roark

Anderson

Thornton

Borucki

Kay

Hatch

Yamaguchi

Murphy

Waguespack

SRF

Zeuch

 

There's a realistic chance that Vlad shows up from first pitch as 150 wRC+ monster. Adding that kind of bat to the heart of a lineup that looks like it will have a bunch of hitters who are a bit above average really makes things look better.

[Boxcar]

No other team in baseball also not touching Puig kind of speaks volumes. The Jays need OF help more than most, sure, but a lot of teams could've had him for dirt cheap and probably upgraded their OF. Maybe he's more of a hassle internally than we think.

 

Personally I won't really care if we do/don't sign Puig. Gurriel and Grichuk are locked into two OF spots, and I don't blame Atkins for giving Fisher/Alford/Teoscar one more chance to see if there's something there.

 

Or maybe he isn't and was waiting on a better contract. No one knows.

 

Puig was a poor Cuban kid with immense talent. Gets signed for millions of dollars as a young man in a free country. I think it's pretty reasonable to expect someone like that to become a bit of a douchebag. It's kind of like poor people winning the lottery. They don't know how to handle it. Puig obviously worked super hard to get to the majors, then got paid and I guess took his foot off the gas. He realizes that now and I'm honestly surprised he would admit openly about his laziness. That doesn't really seem like a guy who dodges responsibility. Obviously, in MLB, getting lazy is a death sentence. Puig recognizes that and is trying to overcome it.

 

Frankly, I'm a bit surprised by guys like Max not recognizing Puig's difficult path through life. He regrets how he acted when he was younger. Should that stain his reputation for the rest of his life? The Dodgers hated him when he first came up and then started to drop off. We've all seen the video of JT chucking Puig's luggage in the street. We've also seen Puig and JT take the CN Tower edgewalk together when they were here.

 

Whatever Puig was in his younger days, I am having a very hard time finding evidence that he's the same person now. People can grow. I mean, I think if Jose Fernandez (RIP) ever dropped off from his utterly elite form, people might be saying the same thing about him.

 

Final point, even IF there's a small gap between him and Teoscar (which I disagree with, but let's roll with it) it's hard to deny that there is a sleeping giant in Puig that could be awakened, a late career resurgence. He's a genuine 5 tool player. Would anyone be shocked to see put up 4 WAR? Maybe, but you could buy it based on his obvious talent. Even if he never hits that, and stays as a 2-ish WAR player, that's still a massive improvement over Hernandez at a quite minimal cost. Teoscar is a terrific bench option on a good team, he can hit at an average level with power and cover all three OF positions reasonably ok, so I don't want to get rid of him. He's just very obviously not starting calibre.

[Ziggyy108]

I don't know much about service time so just a quick question ... If holding down Pearson for a week gives us an extra year, would that not also be the case for Hatch and possibly Kay?

[Boxcar]

I don't know much about service time so just a quick question ... If holding down Pearson for a week gives us an extra year, would that not also be the case for Hatch and possibly Kay?

 

Hatch, yes, Kay no because he has already accrued service time.

[BTS]

I don't know much about service time so just a quick question ... If holding down Pearson for a week gives us an extra year, would that not also be the case for Hatch and possibly Kay?

 

Guys like Hatch and Kay are extremely unlikely to stick permanently while they have options. It doesn't make sense to worry about service time clocks for them.

[Orgfiller]

Guys like Hatch and Kay are extremely unlikely to stick permanently while they have options. It doesn't make sense to worry about service time clocks for them.

 

Yeah as exciting as it is to have Hatch start the year on the MLB team, he'll almost certainly get the boot when Chase Anderson, Pearson are activated or when the rosters dwindle to 28 and 26 players later in the season.