General Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2023)

[John_Havok]

Special announcement. Laika is very smart guy, smart guy knows how system works gets money, then knows how funding works gets investors, has social skills and knows a bit about persuasion, all of a sudden very special announcement. Special funding group put together to buy Toronto Blue Jays with Laika as chairman of the board.

 

First day after purchase Laika decides to interview all the departments. However Laika very clever, holds off interviews and decides to do some research first. Laike very good at digging. Has some contacts with NY Yankees, Tampa Bay, quietly talks to his contacts and asks very special questions.

 

Laika arm chair fan but digs into numbers. He has this theory about Vladdy Guerrero Jr. Asks other teams, good teams, about hitting. What is hitting strategists? What is special hitting coordinator? What is special pitching machines? What psychologists and drills do hypothetically guys like Aaron Judge talk to? How to get most of hitters. Laika digs, digs, digs, asks questions.

 

Then big day comes. All departments must report to Laika for special interview. Love to be a fly on the wall and hear interview with Toronto Blue Jays special hitting coordinator, hitting strategists, and "high" (a.k.a. low) performance team when Laika grills them on exactly what they do all day.

 

What the actual f*** was that lol

[Olerud363]

Special announcement. Laika is very smart guy, smart guy knows how system works gets money, then knows how funding works gets investors, has social skills and knows a bit about persuasion, all of a sudden very special announcement. Special funding group put together to buy Toronto Blue Jays with Laika as chairman of the board.

 

First day after purchase Laika decides to interview all the departments. However Laika very clever, holds off interviews and decides to do some research first. Laike very good at digging. Has some contacts with NY Yankees, Tampa Bay, quietly talks to his contacts and asks very special questions.

 

Laika arm chair fan but digs into numbers. He has this theory about Vladdy Guerrero Jr. Asks other teams, good teams, about hitting. What is hitting strategists? What is special hitting coordinator? What is special pitching machines? What psychologists and drills do hypothetically guys like Aaron Judge talk to? How to get most of hitters. Laika digs, digs, digs, asks questions.

 

Then big day comes. All departments must report to Laika for special interview. Love to be a fly on the wall and hear interview with Toronto Blue Jays special hitting coordinator, hitting strategists, and "high" (a.k.a. low) performance team when Laika grills them on exactly what they do all day.

 

Big day comes. Laika does interviews. Laika grills them. Asks very smart questions. Very smart. High (a.k.a. low) performance team just laughs their ass off.

 

f*** you Laika. You think this job is easy? We have 10 special pitching machines. We put these guys in front of it and turn it low slider mode and tell them not to swing, they swing anyway, we give them every hitting tip known to man, they have 3 nutritionists each and some of them still show up looking like Norm from Cheers. You watch Cheers? Older show. Karl Malone not the best mailman ever. Sorry that dates me. Maybe you are younger.

 

Anyway I'd quit but I don't get as good severance, you are welcome to fire me though. Good f***ing luck with these guys.

[WryNGinger]

Big day comes. Laika does interviews. Laika grills them. Asks very smart questions. Very smart. High (a.k.a. low) performance team just laughs their ass off.

 

f*** you Laika. You think this job is easy? We have 10 special pitching machines. We put these guys in front of it and turn it low slider mode and tell them not to swing, they swing anyway, we give them every hitting tip known to man, they have 3 nutritionists each and some of them still show up looking like Norm from Cheers. You watch Cheers? Older show. Karl Malone not the best mailman ever. Sorry that dates me. Maybe you are younger.

 

Anyway I'd quit but I don't get as good severance, you are welcome to fire me though. Good f***ing luck with these guys.

 

Put down the pipe buddy

[G-Snarls]

What the actual f*** was that lol

 

Classic Olerud363 post that's what

[Pendleton]

Yeah what Clement is doing is interesting and Lopez has sucked so bad this year. I don't know what his deal is.

 

But about 140 AAA ABs ago, Lopez was a real prospect having a good year and Clement was a nobody. Maybe Clement would have been the better choice but like you said 40 man roster considerations probably played a role. Regardless, I hope they give Lopez the lion's share of the bench ABs to see what he's got.

 

[Terminator]

 

Good moves.

[Stangstag]

 

Good moves.

 

Glad we’re giving Clement a potential shot. I mean he probably won’t play much if at all, but still not a bad try.

[Terminator]

Glad we’re giving Clement a potential shot. I mean he probably won’t play much if at all, but still not a bad try.

 

Yeah they've really shortened the bench lately. Biggio hasn't started a game in a while. Espinal has started two games in the past week and Lukes started one. So if they give Clement all of the bench starts (and frankly why not at this point) he could get a couple of starts a week.

 

His stats in AAA are good right now. Crazy low K rate and his walks are up as well as his power. He's been playing everywhere with most of his time at SS which tells me he should at least be passable at 3B and 2B? Maybe he can stick?

[max silver]

You hear a lot of good hitters say they like to drive the ball up the middle or oppo, and that’s what Vlad/Chapman/Bo/Springer/Kirk/etc have been doing. But for whatever reason they aren’t getting enough power on it to knock them out.

 

Almost wonder if MLB tampered with the ball again and the Jays FO didn’t get the memo.

 

It looks like this year's baseball is a lot livelier than the shot put ball from last season.

 

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/drag-dashboard#:~:text=As%20a%20general%20rule%20of,ball%20distance%20by%205%20feet).

[G-Snarls]

Clement looks potentially decent. TBH didn't even know he was in our minor league system.

 

Almost glad White had his IL stint extended

Edited May 23, 2023 by G-Snarls

[max silver]

Yeah they've really shortened the bench lately. Biggio hasn't started a game in a while. Espinal has started two games in the past week and Lukes started one. So if they give Clement all of the bench starts (and frankly why not at this point) he could get a couple of starts a week.

 

His stats in AAA are good right now. Crazy low K rate and his walks are up as well as his power. He's been playing everywhere with most of his time at SS which tells me he should at least be passable at 3B and 2B? Maybe he can stick?

 

I hadn't caught wind of Clement's numbers in AAA, that's a very impressive K/BB ratio he's running. Fangraphs pegs him as a 70 runner as well so he could be another spark plug at the bottom of the lineup aka Kiermaier if the offense can translate to MLB. It looks like a very good time to call him up as he's on a real heater over the last few weeks, .457/.545/.674/1.219 good for a 216 WRC+ with sparkling peripherals at 16.1%BB/1.8%K.

[John_Havok]

White to the 60 day DL is a master stroke of genius on a level not seen in the past 10 years. Saves a DFA for now.

[JaysFan99]

I hadn't caught wind of Clement's numbers in AAA, that's a very impressive K/BB ratio he's running. Fangraphs pegs him as a 70 runner as well so he could be another spark plug at the bottom of the lineup aka Kiermaier if the offense can translate to MLB. It looks like a very good time to call him up as he's on a real heater over the last few weeks, .457/.545/.674/1.219 good for a 216 WRC+ with sparkling peripherals at 16.1%BB/1.8%K.

 

In 745 collegiate at-bats, Clement struck out only 31 times. Hopefully he keeps making contact at a high rate.

[John_Havok]

In 745 collegiate at-bats, Clement struck out only 31 times. Hopefully he keeps making contact at a high rate.

 

He's been a high contact, low strikeout guy his entire minor league career too. Really no power to speak of though. Maybe something has chnaged as he's hit 5 this season already and he had only hit 11 in his entire minor league career prior to this season.

 

Looks like slappy mcslaperson with the bat. Doesn't K much and probably wont walk much.

[keggy]

Clement has more HR than Ks this year. That's insane.

[Terminator]

What if Ernie Clement is good?

[John_Havok]

What if Ernie Clement is good?

 

Then we finally have a functional bench piece that isn't an embarassment to the profession.

[RobinThicc]

Probably better than Biggio

[G-Snarls]

Probably better than Biggio

 

That's what we're all thinking

[G-Snarls]

A slim looking Ryu shown at the park today

 

I still want Manoah to turn it around of course, but if he doesn't Ryu maybe could actually get some starts this season

[philly30]

After watching Moreno this week, maybe the Jays should have kept him

[BCZ]

Man I was just gonna start bitching about how the Blue Jays have barely scored more than 6 runs all year... then they go and do this and ruin all my fun...

[Brownie19]

Man I was just gonna start bitching about how the Blue Jays have barely scored more than 6 runs all year... then they go and do this and ruin all my fun...

 

you should try playing in traffic instead!

[G-Snarls]

After watching Moreno this week, maybe the Jays should have kept him

 

Lets face it

 

Decent chance he has the best career among Jansen, Kirk and himself

 

Trade grade depends very ouch in how good Varsho is for rhe next 3.5 years

 

And hopefully Kirk finds his stroke again

[Spanky99]

 

Good moves.

 

Wow... 60 day, lol. They extended his rehab till June, right? I'm not schooled on the intricacies of rehab days etc...

[BigCecil]

There’s also potential for improvement as he hits his mid-late 20s when power normally surges. Vlad is still very young and people tend to forget

 

Possible. He isn't signed past 26/27 years old, so I hope Vlad surges now.

 

An alternative view might be the amount of leg and hand movement timing in his swing to generate that elite bat speed and EVs doesn't stand up well to age, health or conditioning issues.

 

Its hard to say. Harper has had wildly fluctuating seasons and might go to the HOF. In his full season '16 his wRC+ was 111 but its 142 career - with 170 and 197 outliers on the high side.

[jaysblue]

Clement to waivers in the LOD please!

[Pendleton]

Clement to waivers in the LOD please!

 

Why would I drop him to waivers? Just picked him up this morning

[jaysblue]

Why would I drop him to waivers? Just picked him up this morning

 

Haha, thought he made his debut and never played in the Majors. My bad!

[Carlos Danger]

A lot of talk about the putrid offense (apart from Tuesday). However, if the pitching staff is giving up more than 5 runs, it is on them. 5 runs or less it is on the offense.

 

We are losing a lot of games where the opponent is scoring more than 5 runs..That issue is not going to solved by hitters getting out of slumps etc..

 

Pitching, pitching, pitching..