General Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2023)

[Laika]

I'm not so sure the Yankees profile any better than the Blue Jays long term

 

Toronto could be better than Boston and the Yankees indefinitely. Who knows.

[Spanky99]

I'm not so sure the Yankees profile any better than the Blue Jays long term

 

Toronto could be better than Boston and the Yankees indefinitely. Who knows.

 

Agreed, the O's, Rays and Jays will battle for awhile now, me thinks.

[WryNGinger]

I'm not so sure the Yankees profile any better than the Blue Jays long term

 

Toronto could be better than Boston and the Yankees indefinitely. Who knows.

 

Agree in principle but we seem to be the team that is beating ourselves the most.

[Krylian]

Agree in principle but we seem to be the team that is beating ourselves the most.

 

It's what ordinary teams do.

[Laika]

Agree in principle but we seem to be the team that is beating ourselves the most.

 

It's been a bad few weeks.

[bones10]

Its May, but woof.

[RobinThicc]

Schneider is not the one. He's not even close to good enough.

[Buster]

I wasn't sold on the varsho trade when it happened. Now it looks horrendous. Jano+Moreno was the move.

[BigCecil]

Schneider is not the one. He's not even close to good enough.

 

The FO already hired and fired Buntoyo. Hired and extended Schneider. Hard to see Atkins use another lifeline and fire another Manager that he hired. I don’t think he is anything special but I don’t think John is a material issue for the team. Players have to perform, and overall they are not consistently enough. Incredibly we are still on an 88 win pace.

[Stangstag]

Its May, but woof.

 

I feel like the Jays have historically performed badly in May the last few years

[Spanky99]

I wasn't sold on the varsho trade when it happened. Now it looks horrendous. Jano+Moreno was the move.

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Spanky99

[connorp]

 

You and the crew jizzed all over yourself and the board with Varsho. It was a giant circle jerk

[Spanky99]

You and the crew jizzed all over yourself and the board with Varsho. It was a giant circle jerk

 

I guess I have to bold the part I'm referencing, so stupid people like you can understand, 3 foot. Nothing wrong with that trade, it was fine.

[gruber92]

The Leafs finally moved on from their dweeb GM, now it's time for the Jays to punt Atkins into the sun. I've said it a thousand times before that we'll never win anything with Ross leading the way.

[Buster]

I guess I have to bold the part I'm referencing, so stupid people like you can understand, 3 foot. Nothing wrong with that trade, it was fine.

This team would be better if the catchers were Jano and Moreno

[gruber92]

This team would be better if the catchers were Jano and Moreno

 

The fact that our GM had horse blinders for Varsho where he gave up a top five MLB prospect for while banking on a fire hydrant of a man in Kirk is very troubling.

 

There had to be different options in improving our outfield defence while getting a bit more left handed without giving up Moreno.

[John_Havok]

The Leafs finally moved on from their dweeb GM, now it's time for the Jays to punt Atkins into the sun. I've said it a thousand times before that we'll never win anything with Ross leading the way.

 

He’s under contract until the end of the 2026 season. Think they’d turf him with 3 years to go? Maybe. Though I think end of 2024 is more realistic if the don’t make a couple of deep runs in the playoffs this year and next.

[John_Havok]

Found a vid from Kirk’s rookie ball days dancing to the batters walk up music.

 

https://www.tiktok.com/@espnatbat/video/7233594814732963118

[gruber92]

He’s under contract until the end of the 2026 season. Think they’d turf him with 3 years to go? Maybe. Though I think end of 2024 is more realistic if the don’t make a couple of deep runs in the playoffs this year and next.

 

I think this season should define Atkins' future. Swallowing a few GM contract years is not a huge deal.

[gruber92]

Found a vid from Kirk’s rookie ball days dancing to the batters walk up music.

 

https://www.tiktok.com/@espnatbat/video/7233594814732963118

 

Lol.. I saw this a few days ago and thought of Kirk instantly.

[John_Havok]

I think this season should define Atkins' future. Swallowing a few GM contract years is not a huge deal.

 

Well, it’s pretty much time to push all the chips in for him. This season plus 2 more of Vlad and Bo, so aside from Tiedemann my guess is every prospect is in play to try and land a couple legit arms for the pen and some solid bench depth.

 

As it stands now, the rotation as it is now is fully intact until the end of 2024. That’s why I’m thinking he gets until end of that season before he’d be canned.

[WryNGinger]

I am for the most part an optimistic fan of the team and usually focus on the upside of the team/player potential but there are a few things that have me worried lately.

 

1) The team invested a huge amount of money in a "state-of-the-art" training facility but several players are clearly not in optimal condition? There shouldn't be a disconnect between what your facility is capable of producing and what the output is. Highly paid professional athletes plus highly invested facilities should produce a consistent output. This isn't the case with the current Jays roster.

 

2) Schneider/Mattingly - For a team that is obviously focused on winning it all this year, the choice to run with Schneider is a great PR win if it works...but as of right now it looks like the front office was hoping for a 1A and 1B and it isn't working. I love Shneids but he needs more seasoning to be ready to manage a WS capable team.

 

3) Hitting strategy - I will use Varsho as the most obvious candidate...every team in the league knows he will swing at everything a bit above the strike zone.

[gruber92]

Well, it’s pretty much time to push all the chips in for him. This season plus 2 more of Vlad and Bo, so aside from Tiedemann my guess is every prospect is in play to try and land a couple legit arms for the pen and some solid bench depth.

 

As it stands now, the rotation as it is now is fully intact until the end of 2024. That’s why I’m thinking he gets until end of that season before he’d be canned.

 

I hear you, but you can find reasonings in every year on why the org should keep giving Ross another year. He's had enough time imo and this year should be the last straw if things don't work out. This year's trade deadline should be his last kick at the can.

 

The pen has been constructed to possibly get you to the playoffs, but you're not winning anything with the lack of swing and miss stuff versus other playoff calibre teams.

 

The bench has never been strong since his time here and there's not much coming up through the system.

 

He hit on the Bassitt and KK signing so far but has missed more than he's hit on during his tenure. The fact that he actually rostered Zimmer and had him play as much as he did in the bigs is still mind blowing. What was he waiting for to happen?

[max silver]

I hear you, but you can find reasonings in every year on why the org should keep giving Ross another year. He's had enough time imo and this year should be the last straw if things don't work out. This year's trade deadline should be his last kick at the can.

 

The pen has been constructed to possibly get you to the playoffs, but you're not winning anything with the lack of swing and miss stuff versus other playoff calibre teams.

 

The bench has never been strong since his time here and there's not much coming up through the system.

 

He hit on the Bassitt and KK signing so far but has missed more than he's hit on during his tenure. The fact that he actually rostered Zimmer and had him play as much as he did in the bigs is still mind blowing. What was he waiting for to happen?

 

The current stats don't really back this up you know. Right now the Jays bullpen ranks 2nd in all of MLB with a 14% swinging strike rate. For combined swinging/called strike rate they are first in MLB. I don't think a lack of swing and miss is the issue here, I think a team wide lack of command among the relief core is more to blame for the issues the pen runs into. The team doesn't rank very well in walk rate, and poor command has led to the propensity to serve up plates of spicy meatballs. The club is accordingly near the bottom in home run rate as well. That's led to middle of the pack team wide bullpen ERA and bottom third FIP ranking.

[John_Havok]

I hear you, but you can find reasonings in every year on why the org should keep giving Ross another year. He's had enough time imo and this year should be the last straw if things don't work out. This year's trade deadline should be his last kick at the can.

 

The pen has been constructed to possibly get you to the playoffs, but you're not winning anything with the lack of swing and miss stuff versus other playoff calibre teams.

 

The bench has never been strong since his time here and there's not much coming up through the system.

 

He hit on the Bassitt and KK signing so far but has missed more than he's hit on during his tenure. The fact that he actually rostered Zimmer and had him play as much as he did in the bigs is still mind blowing. What was he waiting for to happen?

 

I think Atkins record on signings and retaining is actually pretty good overall. He pulled lots of wizardry early on in his tenure that most people forget now, like trading Drew Hutchison for 3 guys, including Liriano who was great for them, then traded before he fully pumpkined for a hound Teoscar. The Matz trade, the Giles trade, Robbie Ray trade, even that half season acquiring of Taijuan Walker.

 

He’s also been pretty good at letting guys go rather than hanging on or resigning guys getting past their expiry dates.

 

I’d argue hits hits have outweighed his misses by a fair margin in the process of building the current team. His challenge and struggle has been putting the finishing touches on the build.

 

Pretty much the same problem AA had before he left. The building process went great, then the finishing process flopped.

[John_Havok]

The current stats don't really back this up you know. Right now the Jays bullpen ranks 2nd in all of MLB with a 14% swinging strike rate. For combined swinging/called strike rate they are first in MLB. I don't think a lack of swing and miss is the issue here, I think a team wide lack of command among the relief core is more to blame for the issues the pen runs into. The team doesn't rank very well in walk rate, and poor command has led to the propensity to serve up plates of spicy meatballs. The club is accordingly near the bottom in home run rate as well. That's led to middle of the pack team wide bullpen ERA and bottom third FIP ranking.

 

This.

 

Swing and miss problem was identified and fixed, but in its place they now have a HR giving up problem. Bunch of guys with 1 elite pitch that get roasted when they make even the slightest mistake.

[Omar]

At least Lukes is getting the start in LF today instead of Biggio.

[BigCecil]

Speaking of catchers with noodle bats Kirk has an AVG EV - 4th percentile. 18th percentile hard hit rate.

 

His BB rate and K rate are elite. Unfortunately when he does make contact with runners on its often a rollover GIDP.

 

Anyone concerned about him?

[Stangstag]

At least Lukes is getting the start in LF today instead of Biggio.

 

Gross

[Stangstag]

Speaking of catchers with noodle bats Kirk has an AVG EV - 4th percentile. 18th percentile hard hit rate.

 

His BB rate and K rate are elite. Unfortunately when he does make contact with runners on its a rollover GIDP.

 

Anyone concerned about him?

 

Not really too concerned…. He’s a great hitter. I think maybe his conditioning this offseason went out the window with his Wife’s pregnancy and birth during spring training. That few weeks of missed time really f***ed him.

 

I’m really just seeing parallels with Vladdy’s 2020. Kirk has to work on his weight this offseason.