General Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2023)

[connorp]

This always happens with Biggio and you guys. First off, he can’t hit LHP and isn’t an every day player. Don’t let it get lost that he’s a platoon guy at best. He gets spot starts, avoids the best pitchers, then he gets more playing time and goes backwards. Rinse and repeat

[BlueBaller]

An ump should be calling balls and strikes from a remote location. None of this hiding behind the catcher and guessing with perspective.

[Olerud363]

Looked like I could be wrong about Vlad, but outside of one breakout partial season based perhaps on playing in Buffalo, he really hasn't looked like anything special. Maybe if he finally gets serious about his conditioning.

 

All Road Parks - .282 .355 .474

Rogers Center - .258 .329 .446

TD Ballpark - .410 .529 .897

Sahelen - .329 .398 .656

 

AA (age 19) - .402 .449 .671

AAA (age 19/20) - .343 .420 .593

 

The park factors of all the minor league stadiums should be well known so you can figure out what advantage they gave him. The differences in numbers between Rogers center and the other home fields are so great that they can not be explained by park factors.

 

There is something else going on here.

 

1. As a minor league hitter he is hall fame level

2. As a major league hitter in mainor league parks he is hall of fame level

3. As a major league hitter on the road he is good

4. As a major leage hitter at home in Rogers center is is OK, but not good given position.

[BlueBaller]

So frustrating!

[Sorrow]

Since May 1st Biggio had a 125 wRC+. I believe in the adjustments.

 

Also Laika looking at that spray chart does he seriously only have 7 balls into LF of fastballs and sinkers?

[Terminator]

Everyone keeps saying Biggio has been hitting since May 1st or May 26th but it's barely over 100 ABs in that span bc he has played so sparingly. Even the worst bottom 10 percent of big leaguers will have good 100 AB streaks from time to time.

 

The article Spanky shared is fine but nothing in his numbers has changed other than his barrel % spiking to 11%, far above his career norms. That's higher than Bo's which makes me think he won't be able to keep it up. On the other hand, it's not like it's some wild number that is unsustainable either. It's possible for him to keep barreling the baseball like that.

 

As we all know, I have some doubts but we shall see.

[spanky the idiot]

Everyone keeps saying Biggio has been hitting since May 1st or May 26th but it's barely over 100 ABs in that span bc he has played so sparingly. Even the worst bottom 10 percent of big leaguers will have good 100 AB streaks from time to time.

 

The article Spanky shared is fine but nothing in his numbers has changed other than his barrel % spiking to 11%, far above his career norms. That's higher than Bo's which makes me think he won't be able to keep it up. On the other hand, it's not like it's some wild number that is unsustainable either. It's possible for him to keep barreling the baseball like that.

 

As we all know, I have some doubts but we shall see.

 

I totally agree that Spanky is an Idiot

[spanky the idiot]

Spanky is the biggest IDIOT AND MORON of this Forum

[Grant77]

Everyone keeps saying Biggio has been hitting since May 1st or May 26th but it's barely over 100 ABs in that span bc he has played so sparingly. Even the worst bottom 10 percent of big leaguers will have good 100 AB streaks from time to time.

 

The article Spanky shared is fine but nothing in his numbers has changed other than his barrel % spiking to 11%, far above his career norms. That's higher than Bo's which makes me think he won't be able to keep it up. On the other hand, it's not like it's some wild number that is unsustainable either. It's possible for him to keep barreling the baseball like that.

 

As we all know, I have some doubts but we shall see.

 

I don't necessarily disagree about the long term sustainability, but I don't think it really matters right now. We played Chris Colabello knowing full well that he wouldn't keep it up, but it's August and you just ride the hot hitters. I'd play Nathan Lukes every day if he started getting 2 hits a game as well.

[Laika]

Since May 1st Biggio had a 125 wRC+. I believe in the adjustments.

 

Also Laika looking at that spray chart does he seriously only have 7 balls into LF of fastballs and sinkers?

 

Yeah. That's the statcast spray chart with only those two pitches selected. It's pretty f***ing nuts.

[Spanky99]

I'm flattered, bitch. lol

[hanton]

Biggio gets f***ed majorly on a regular basis by umpires. It's basically criminal.

 

At the very least if we can't get robot umpire for the strikezone. The ability to challenge a strike call needs to happen. These terrible called strikes change the course of history.

 

I don't even feel it would slow down the game that much. You ask for a review and they literally have technology that will give them the answer instantly.

 

Little chance we get full on robo umps but the strike challenge is more likely, it's being tested now in the minors but the word is it's not coming until 2025 at the earliest

[Grant77]

Little chance we get full on robo umps but the strike challenge is more likely, it's being tested now in the minors but the word is it's not coming until 2025 at the earliest

 

It's been a success in tennis and has hardly impacted the speed or flow of the game.

[hanton]

It's been a success in tennis and has hardly impacted the speed or flow of the game.

 

Probably the best use of video review is when they used it for line calling. but I believe they have to ask for a challenge correct?

[Grant77]

Probably the best use of video review is when they used it for line calling. but I believe they have to ask for a challenge correct?

 

That's correct, but it seems to cover most of the incorrect calls. Those line judges are actually pretty amazing.

[max silver]

Biggio gets f***ed majorly on a regular basis by umpires. It's basically criminal.

 

At the very least if we can't get robot umpire for the strikezone. The ability to challenge a strike call needs to happen. These terrible called strikes change the course of history.

 

I don't even feel it would slow down the game that much. You ask for a review and they literally have technology that will give them the answer instantly.

 

I want full ABS instead of a challenge system. Early chatter I've heard suggests each team would only have the ability to challenge three calls for an entire game which isn't nearly high enough. If going the challenge system route I'd probably give at least a challenge for each team's at bat/inning, if not going further and allowing each player one challenge per at bat.

[Captain_Obvious]

I want full ABS instead of a challenge system. Early chatter I've heard suggests each team would only have the ability to challenge three calls for an entire game which isn't nearly high enough. If going the challenge system route I'd probably give at least a challenge for each team's at bat/inning, if not going further and allowing each player one challenge per at bat.

 

I believe you only lose the challenge if it is unsuccessful. So you can have infinite successful challenges if you don't get to 3 unsuccessful ones.

 

But we all know that Vlad will start challenging everything and lose all of ours in the first inning. Vlad is innovative at finding ways to lower his WAR.

[Brownie19]

I thought Biggio was the best of our young players when he first came up (I didn't trust Bo's approach and over aggressiveness, and I just never really loved the way Vladdy looked like as a hitter either and hated the shape he was in despite everybody glowing about him, also don't like his clown antics). I loved Cavan's eye at the plate, seemed to have good line drive swing, seemed serious about the game. Enjoyed watching him hit.

 

Well, OBVIOUSLY wrong about Bo, it works for him, still wish he would show a LITTLE more patience but can't really complain much about his production.

 

Looked like I could be wrong about Vlad, but outside of one breakout partial season based perhaps on playing in Buffalo, he really hasn't looked like anything special. Maybe if he finally gets serious about his conditioning.

 

Started to feel really stupid about how much I liked Biggio initially though LOL. He looked absolutely lost for a while, looked like he just couldn't catch up to fastballs, and I completely gave up on him. I held on through last year, but I was pretty much over him early on this year.

 

I hope this is real. We need a bat like his from the left side. He could still stand to benefit by cutting down the K's, but that's also a byproduct of his approach and getting routinely f***ed by umpires, but maybe he could learn to spoil close pitches better as he goes forward.

 

I'm rooting for him, back on the bandwagon, don't hurt me twice Cavan.

 

I'm right there with you man - on every point. It was a bit eerie reading it to be honest, but I'm always rooting for Cavan.

[jaysblue]

I thought Biggio was the best of our young players when he first came up (I didn't trust Bo's approach and over aggressiveness, and I just never really loved the way Vladdy looked like as a hitter either and hated the shape he was in despite everybody glowing about him, also don't like his clown antics). I loved Cavan's eye at the plate, seemed to have good line drive swing, seemed serious about the game. Enjoyed watching him hit.

 

Well, OBVIOUSLY wrong about Bo, it works for him, still wish he would show a LITTLE more patience but can't really complain much about his production.

 

Looked like I could be wrong about Vlad, but outside of one breakout partial season based perhaps on playing in Buffalo, he really hasn't looked like anything special. Maybe if he finally gets serious about his conditioning.

 

Started to feel really stupid about how much I liked Biggio initially though LOL. He looked absolutely lost for a while, looked like he just couldn't catch up to fastballs, and I completely gave up on him. I held on through last year, but I was pretty much over him early on this year.

 

I hope this is real. We need a bat like his from the left side. He could still stand to benefit by cutting down the K's, but that's also a byproduct of his approach and getting routinely f***ed by umpires, but maybe he could learn to spoil close pitches better as he goes forward.

 

I'm rooting for him, back on the bandwagon, don't hurt me twice Cavan.

 

I thought when Cavan came up, he could be similar to a Chase Utley minus the high batting average if everything went right.

 

If Biggio can put up numbers like Danny Espinosa in 2011/2012 though with a higher OBP, probably can turn in a couple 3 WAR seasons.

[Spanky99]

[Eat My Shatkins]

WC lead down to half a f***ing game.

 

Wake up Jays

[jaysblue]

WC lead down to half a f***ing game.

 

Wake up Jays

 

Hope the Jays could take 2 of 3 in Cincy. The Reds have cooled off since their hot July.

[jaysblue]

Article on Vlady's 2023 season from MLB.com

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/explaining-vladimir-guerrero-jr-confusing-2023-season

[Brownie19]

Article on Vlady's 2023 season from MLB.com

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/explaining-vladimir-guerrero-jr-confusing-2023-season

 

That's a really good article. It addressed several of the potential issues we've discussed on this board, including the one about how he needs to pull the ball more:

 

While it’s popular to say that he’s not pulling the ball in the air enough, which we’ll get to in a second, that seems to be an oversimplification, because he’s A) pulling those high-value barrels more than he did in 2021, and getting less distance on his pulled barrels (352 feet) than he is towards center field (379 feet) or opposite field (358 feet). He’s lost dozens of feet of distance just on pulled barrels, which makes it hard to say “do that more.”

 

and lineup protection (a casual fan favourite argument):

 

Aside from the fact that many studies have been done over the years that suggest that lineup protection doesn’t manifest in the way tradition would have you believe – mostly because if the point is to not walk a lesser hitter ahead of a good hitter, why pitch to the lesser hitter in a way that makes him a better hitter? – the specifics of this case don’t match up. Guerrero isn’t seeing fewer pitches in the zone than in 2021; he’s seeing more. It doesn’t address the weird home/road split, or the gap between his actual and expected contact. Besides, Chapman, Belt and Springer are established veterans behind him who are hardly Minor League fill-ins.

 

It’s almost certainly not this. It’s never this.

 

Thanks for posting friend

[Delgalladay]

So the conspiracy theorist in me says they're pitching him dead balls and that's why it's not going as far, ha ha.

 

All of that is really interesting with no clear cut explanation.

[jaysblue]

Jays/Reds game tonight on Apple TV again. Those maf***ers!

[Laika]

That's a really good article. It addressed several of the potential issues we've discussed on this board, including the one about how he needs to pull the ball more:

 

While it’s popular to say that he’s not pulling the ball in the air enough, which we’ll get to in a second, that seems to be an oversimplification, because he’s A) pulling those high-value barrels more than he did in 2021, and getting less distance on his pulled barrels (352 feet) than he is towards center field (379 feet) or opposite field (358 feet). He’s lost dozens of feet of distance just on pulled barrels, which makes it hard to say “do that more.”

 

and lineup protection (a casual fan favourite argument):

 

Aside from the fact that many studies have been done over the years that suggest that lineup protection doesn’t manifest in the way tradition would have you believe – mostly because if the point is to not walk a lesser hitter ahead of a good hitter, why pitch to the lesser hitter in a way that makes him a better hitter? – the specifics of this case don’t match up. Guerrero isn’t seeing fewer pitches in the zone than in 2021; he’s seeing more. It doesn’t address the weird home/road split, or the gap between his actual and expected contact. Besides, Chapman, Belt and Springer are established veterans behind him who are hardly Minor League fill-ins.

 

It’s almost certainly not this. It’s never this.

 

Thanks for posting friend

 

I wonder if he is using a different bat or something

[wilko]

 

Yes! Plz DFA DeJong when he comes back.

[Brownie19]

Why wouldn't Bo be in the lineup for tonight? Why's he say Saturday?

[Daniel Labude]

So the conspiracy theorist in me says they're pitching him dead balls and that's why it's not going as far, ha ha.

 

All of that is really interesting with no clear cut explanation.

 

If there is a difference in distance between home and road...its actually accurate, but due to the humidor. Jays crank that up to help pitching