General Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2022)

[Ehjays]

give the 40 man spot to adrian hernandez and get him up here

 

 

^ this ^

[Solaxys]

 

espinal day off; Jansen/Kirk both in lineup. No Tapia/Zimmer.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Solaxys

[Laika]

"no Tapia/Zimmer"

 

niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[max silver]

 

espinal day off; Jansen/Kirk both in lineup. No Tapia/Zimmer.

 

Damn that line up is a thing of beauty compared to the garbage we've typically been subjected to.

[Eat My Shatkins]

Gausman on the bump

Awesome looking line up

Guaranteed loss incoming

 

lol

[BigCecil]

I feel like this is ALMOST threadworthy, but not quite...

 

 

This one stings a bit. He did a camp in Calgary with my kid and others. He was just great over 2 days. Nice kid. Great arm and the org stuck with him a long time.

 

He has the stuff, if he can learn to command it, to have a sustained dead cat bounce, but we gave him so many chances. Disappointing but its the right call.

[BigCecil]

Gausman on the bump

Awesome looking line up

Guaranteed loss incoming

 

lol

 

lol. I love this line up. In TOR for a meeting from Calgary, so so excited to be catching the game tonight. Don't spoil my buzz!!

[Jimcanuck]

Espinal is on bench as backup C, that is all.

[keggy]

Also article about how the front office/Charlie are load managing the Jays/lineups: https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/how-the-blue-jays-approach-workload-and-rest-for-position-players-and-bullpen/

 

I mean just watching the games you can see that Charlie's managing the position players like it's a spring training split squad game and the relievers like it's Game 7 of the World Series.

 

Everything in the article is just front office doublespeak.

[Laika]

I definitely have more confidence that Merryweather can figure his s*** out at this level than Borucki.

 

Borucki has no idea where anything is going - can barely hit the strike zone anymore.

 

Merryweather can actually throw strikes. His problems are less extreme. Just missing in or around the zone. Also probably being very unlucky.

[The Iceman]

I would stretch RB out again as a SP.

 

He does not seemed well suited to come in and blow guys away for an inning.

If he isn't claimed stretch him out, let him get his feel for the strike zone back and hopefully have a valued MLB pitcher again.

[Laika]

I think a s***** team claims him. Lefty with gooooood stufffffff and a few years of control

[Solaxys]

Don't wanna jinx it but if you thought Sunday's lineup for the Jays was interesting, this is the White Sox lineup for today:

 

[max silver]

I definitely have more confidence that Merryweather can figure his s*** out at this level than Borucki.

 

Borucki has no idea where anything is going - can barely hit the strike zone anymore.

 

Merryweather can actually throw strikes. His problems are less extreme. Just missing in or around the zone. Also probably being very unlucky.

 

Merryweather looks like he could benefit tremendously from altering his pitch usage a bit. He would likely benefit from lowering his fastball usage as he has been torched the last few seasons. The statcast numbers don't really suggest he's been unlucky with the pitch either as he's likely benefited from the deadened baseball. His xWOBA of .625 against fastballs is actually worse than the staggeringly bad .543 WOBA. Throwing this pitch over half the time to the tune of 52.1% makes no sense when it appears as though the opposition is likely sitting on this pitch.

 

When you look at the results against his other pitches you see a completely different picture of dominance emerge;

 

Slider: .191 WOBA/.148 xWOBA, 46.2% whiff rate, 23.7% usage. This is a money pitch, he should likely throw this half of the time until hitters show they can touch it

 

Changeup: 0.00 WOBA/.087 xWOBA, -24 degree launch angle, 16.7% whiff rate, 14.2% usage. Another money pitch, not a lot of whiffs but generating an insane 72.1 MPH exit velocity. Maybe it doesn't play up as much if he reduces fastball rate too much.

 

Curveball: 0.00 WOBA, .142 xWOBA, 28.6% whiff rate, 72.4 MPH exit velocity, 10% usage. Yet another potentially elite secondary pitch.

 

I think with a drop of 4 seam fastball use to something of the 30-40% range will likely do Merryweather a world of good as up to this point the opposition has been totally shut down by his secondary pitches.

Edited June 1, 2022 by max silver

[Pendleton]

 

Blue Jays players attempt to draw the Toronto skyline in 60 seconds.

[Omar]

[Omar]

 

Already posted I see.

[Omar]

Failed starter...failing reliver. What's next? Where was Thornton pitching? I only see 3IP in AAA so far this year.

 

Coming soon to the LA Angels bullpen.

[Deadpool]

I think a s***** team claims him. Lefty with gooooood stufffffff and a few years of control

 

I look forward to facing him several times when we FINALLY play the f***ing O's.

[Laika]

Merryweather looks like he could benefit tremendously from altering his pitch usage a bit. He would likely benefit from lowering his fastball usage as he has been torched the last few seasons. The statcast numbers don't really suggest he's been unlucky with the pitch either as he's likely benefited from the deadened baseball. His xWOBA of .625 against fastballs is actually worse than the staggeringly bad .543 WOBA. Throwing this pitch over half the time to the tune of 52.1% makes no sense when it appears as though the opposition is likely sitting on this pitch.

 

When you look at the results against his other pitches you see a completely different picture of dominance emerge;

 

Slider: .191 WOBA/.148 xWOBA, 46.2% whiff rate, 23.7% usage. This is a money pitch, he should likely throw this half of the time until hitters show they can touch it

 

Changeup: 0.00 WOBA/.087 xWOBA, -24 degree launch angle, 16.7% whiff rate, 14.2% usage. Another money pitch, not a lot of whiffs but generating an insane 72.1 MPH exit velocity. Maybe it doesn't play up as much if he reduces fastball rate too much.

 

Curveball: 0.00 WOBA, .142 xWOBA, 28.6% whiff rate, 72.4 MPH exit velocity, 10% usage. Yet another potentially elite secondary pitch.

 

I think with a drop of 3 seam fastball use to something of the 30-40% range will likely do Merryweather a world of good as up to this point the opposition has been totally shut down by his secondary pitches.

 

I do not disagree with you necessarily

 

But his FB is getting hammered more this season than ever

 

I actually don't know how good the secondaries are with him anymore. Higher usage and those figured will dip. Some of the stuff like whiff rates don't look amazing or elite in past seasons.

[Dagagad]

They are being very careful with 40 man spots I notice, even though there are a number of pretty expendable guys.

[Terminator]

Too many injuries for Merryweather and now he's over 30. Probably changed his arm talent, definitely affected his development and now he's smack in the middle of his physical decline years. He'll be joining Borucki soon.

[Deadpool]

They are being very careful with 40 man spots I notice, even though there are a number of pretty expendable guys.

 

There's only 38 people currently on the 40 man, so other than "out of options" like Borucki, there's no pressing need to remove anyone.

[Omar]

Too many injuries for Merryweather and now he's over 30. Probably changed his arm talent, definitely affected his development and now he's smack in the middle of his physical decline years. He'll be joining Borucki soon.

 

Merryweather has enough of an arm to take a few ticks off his FB and improve his control. His stuff has not been good but the Jays won't give upon him, the raw material is still good.

[max silver]

I do not disagree with you necessarily

 

But his FB is getting hammered more this season than ever

 

I actually don't know how good the secondaries are with him anymore. Higher usage and those figured will dip. Some of the stuff like whiff rates don't look amazing or elite in past seasons.

 

His results on fastballs in 2021 were pretty uninspiring as well with a .377 WOBA/.429 xWOBA. I don't pretend to have the answers of why this is, whether it's command related, fastball is too straight, lacks deception, hitters sitting dead red etc. but this is several seasons in a row where his fastball has largely been getting hammered.

[Ehjays]

https://www.mlb.com/bluejays/roster/transactions

 

Checked on the transaction page and noticed this:

 

05/24/22 Los Angeles Dodgers traded RHP Francisco Lucumi to Toronto Blue Jays.

 

Googled it and all i could come up with was a Jays Journal write up. Does anyone know anything about this guy?

 

Here is what I found:

 

Blue Jays acquire prospect RHP Francisco Lucumi from the Dodgers

Some minor league transactions news to report, with the Toronto Blue Jays brokering a deal with past trade partners in the Los Angeles Dodgers that will see right-hander Francisco Lucumi head to the Jays franchise.

 

A product of Cali, Columbia, Lucumi signed with the Dodgers back in 2019 as a 17-year-old through international free agency and is an interesting player right from the get-go, as it appeared that he was going to be joining the San Diego Padres the year prior but ended up signing with L.A. a year later, with the events still remaining a bit of a mystery at this time.

 

As a professional baseball player, Lucumi spent last year in the Dominican Summer League and authored a 4.20 ERA through 18 games out of the bullpen. The righty pitcher struck out 30 batters and earned a 9.0 K/9 while walking batters at a 2.7 BB/9 clip, eventually finishing the year with 32 hits and 14 earned runs through 30.0 innings of work. One concerning stat, albeit still in development and very low in the Minor League levels, is that he gave up five home runs to earn a 1.5 HR/9 stat on the season, which is a bit elevated from what one would like to see.

 

Now 19 years old, Lucumi stands at 6’2″ and not much is known of the Blue Jays’ newest player at this time. Per his MiLB page, it appears that the Blue Jays will have him joining the DSL Blue Jays this season down at their Boca Chica complex, joining other prospects like Manuel Beltre, Luis Meza, and Martin Gimenez down in the Dominican Republic, with the league set to get underway next week.

 

It does not appear any player is heading the opposite way to the Dodgers in the transaction, at least at the time of writing this article.

[Laika]

Perfect example of Merryweather's issues tonight.

 

Blows the first two hitters away.

 

Gets ahead of the next two s***** hitters and then inexplicably grooves fastballs, centre of the zone.

 

It's like when he misses he does so in the middle of the zone.lol

[John Balkabella]

Perfect example of Merryweather's issues tonight.

 

 

 

Blows the first two hitters away.

 

Gets ahead of the next two s***** hitters and then inexplicably grooves fastballs, centre of the zone.

 

It's like when he misses he does so in the middle of the zone.lol

 

Yup. You groove 97-98 middle middle, MLB batters are going to barrel it.

[Spanky99]

I thought the hitting approach noticeably changed in the first St. Louis game and has continued since. There were so many good at bats in that game.

 

It has, since that series, patience and bats are coming through.

[Olerud363]

It has, since that series, patience and bats are coming through.

 

Just need to get Vlad on board with this. The at bats I watched last night were terrible.

 

Runners 2nd and 3rd 1 out - he took two balls then swung awkwardly at ball 3 inside. Then fouled a border line fastball back and made home plate lady not flinch. Struck out on a border line low change up. No pitch to really hit, probably a walk if he doesn't swing, or at worst a 3-2 count.

 

Runners 2nd and 3rd 1 out - I believe he took a ball, then swung at a another border line pitch, 72 mph ground out.

 

8th bases empty - swung at a pitch outside, then weak ground out.

 

I wonder if his wrist is bothering him? If so he needs a few days off. Otherwise needs the sports psychologist to sit down with him every day. Or just needs to have a new game plan. Swing hard but less.

 

I'm not trying to be coach here, more like Captain Obvious, but the 4 years of Vlad have been just as much disappointment as greatness. In fact the so-called 80 hit tool has only been there for 2 and a half months. April to mid June 2021. Even though the last 90 games of 2021 were good, they weren't 80 hit tool good.

 

80 hit tool you expect him to take all these close pitches and barrel much more. It's actually Kirk who has the best 'hit-tool' on the team, Vlad still better because of the better power tool.