GDT: Spring Training Games, Week of 3/9 - 3/15

[Spanky99]

Wagner showing life the last few days... 😎

[Orgfiller]

By far the best Bloss has looked this ST. Fastball reaching up to 96 with regularity and good command of it, with an impressive breaking ball which was eating up the righty hitters. 5 swings and misses in an inning of work.

[Orgfiller]

Bloss summary:

3 IP
0 R
5 K
1 BB
1 H

The stuff: 12(!!) swings and misses on 37 pitches

Fastball: 94.7 mph avg, T-96. 18 inches of iVB, 2 whiffs

Slider: 86.3 mph avg (thrown slower on purpose?), 2600 RPM, threw it as often as the 4SFB. 9 whiffs on 15 pitches

Curveball: 77.5 mph avg, 2700 RPM. Only threw 4 of them, more of a get-me-over pitch for stealing strikes

Changeup: 88.2 mph avg. Only threw 3, got a whiff on one

[Spanky99]

1 hour ago, Orgfiller said:

By far the best Bloss has looked this ST. Fastball reaching up to 96 with regularity and good command of it, with an impressive breaking ball which was eating up the righty hitters. 5 swings and misses in an inning of work.

He looked so sharp today.

[Jays24]

2 hours ago, Terminator said:

JD Martinez would be a decent fit for some teams but probably not ours. Wagner and Roden look like better options.

It's just weird using extremely young players at the DH spot unless youre an Alvarez type.  There should be enough ABs for Wagner/Rodon even if we added Martinez with injuries/day offs expected. 

Heck, I don't think J.D. is a savior but the middle of the lineup is so sad that he'd still be an upgrade from what we have currently.

[Spanky99]

Jays are up on the MLBN for 30/15, cool beans.

 

[Terminator]

20 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

It's just weird using extremely young players at the DH spot unless youre an Alvarez type.  There should be enough ABs for Wagner/Rodon even if we added Martinez with injuries/day offs expected. 

Heck, I don't think J.D. is a savior but the middle of the lineup is so sad that he'd still be an upgrade from what we have currently.

JDM isn't an upgrade though. If we signed him he'd project to be our 16th best hitter, just ahead of Leo Jimenez and Orelvis Martinez. 

[BatFlip]

21 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

It's just weird using extremely young players at the DH spot unless youre an Alvarez type.  There should be enough ABs for Wagner/Rodon even if we added Martinez with injuries/day offs expected. 

Heck, I don't think J.D. is a savior but the middle of the lineup is so sad that he'd still be an upgrade from what we have currently.

Why is it weird if he can hit?  I think there's way more flexibility/utility to the organization looking out past this year to have someone like Wagner/Rodon have at bats and see what we have.   

I don't think J.D. is a big enough (or sure enough) short term upgrade to negate that future value to the org.  

[Brownie19]

22 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

It's just weird using extremely young players at the DH spot unless youre an Alvarez type.  There should be enough ABs for Wagner/Rodon even if we added Martinez with injuries/day offs expected. 

Heck, I don't think J.D. is a savior but the middle of the lineup is so sad that he'd still be an upgrade from what we have currently.

Just pretend Taters is the DH and Roden is the LFer.  I suspect that would be the configuration a lot if Roden plays himself into a full-time role.

It sure looks like they are trying to find ways to get Wagner in the lineup at various positions.

[Terminator]

https://x.com/BlueJays/status/1899180188157596076

 

Barger absolutely pummeled this ball. Wasn't that bad of a pitch either. 95 mph fastball down and in.

[Orgfiller]

32 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

It's just weird using extremely young players at the DH spot unless youre an Alvarez type.  There should be enough ABs for Wagner/Rodon even if we added Martinez with injuries/day offs expected. 

Heck, I don't think J.D. is a savior but the middle of the lineup is so sad that he'd still be an upgrade from what we have currently.

Don't you think it's even weirder blocking your DH slot with a 37 (turning 38 in August) year old on the decline? At this point in his career it's more likely that JDM gets worse as opposed to him bouncing back.

Wagner and Roden are both lefties, can play a semblance of a position, and aren't among the slowest runners in the league only to get even slower. Obviously they're rookies so the error bars are greater, but they also literally project better than JDM. Most importantly, they earn the league minimum and won't blow up our tax bill and any additional penalties that arise as a result.

It should also be noted that Wagner and Roden are not extremely young, they're in their physical primes. They need to be given an opportunity now while they're at their best physically.

[Brownie19]

13 minutes ago, Terminator said:

https://x.com/BlueJays/status/1899180188157596076

 

Barger absolutely pummeled this ball. Wasn't that bad of a pitch either. 95 mph fastball down and in.

Holy f***ing aggression.  I still have hope he can figure it out and be a solid MLB contributor.  We need guys like him to step the f*** up.

[Spanky99]

Yeah, I'm off the JDM kick, thanks guys, now Robertson and Grandal sound good. That trio concerning Kirk as well are putting up some sexy stats and W's.

Seriously, extend Kirk. He's killing baseballs again, with sublime tools other than baserunning. It needs to be done.

[Terminator]

George Springer might want to get off to a hot start this year if he wants to keep his job

Barger, Roden, Schneider, Lukes and even Berroa and Straw are all hitting the s*** out of the ball this spring

[Spanky99]

I just noticed or was reminded the Jays ended up 4th in our division in '21, what a f***ing bastard of a year and finish. 😥

[Spanky99]

Gerrit Cole is having TJS tomorrow, ouch.

[glory]

51 minutes ago, Terminator said:

George Springer might want to get off to a hot start this year if he wants to keep his job

Barger, Roden, Schneider, Lukes and even Berroa and Straw are all hitting the s*** out of the ball this spring

Yeah whatever you think about Roden or Barger, I think being better than 2023-24 Springer isn't a high bar, so curious to see how much rope they give George this season. Best case scenario is a dead cat bounce, but in the event that he's the same ~100 wRC+/1.5 WAR player he's been for two years now (or worse), they need to be prepared to pull the plug a lot sooner since there are actual options to replace him now. 

[John_Havok]

1 hour ago, glory said:

Yeah whatever you think about Roden or Barger, I think being better than 2023-24 Springer isn't a high bar, so curious to see how much rope they give George this season. Best case scenario is a dead cat bounce, but in the event that he's the same ~100 wRC+/1.5 WAR player he's been for two years now (or worse), they need to be prepared to pull the plug a lot sooner since there are actual options to replace him now. 

Unless he looks truly awful he's likely gonna play. The issue they need to be cool with is moving his ass down the lineup instead of keeping him in the top 4. 

[Gen.Disarray]

3 hours ago, Terminator said:

https://x.com/BlueJays/status/1899180188157596076

 

Barger absolutely pummeled this ball. Wasn't that bad of a pitch either. 95 mph fastball down and in.

Lol holy s*** that is satisfying. Can't stop watching...

[Laika]

Barger and Orelvis bring the smoke 

Roden and Wagner bring the elite plate discipline and bat control 

As I have been saying for a year, the Jays' farm is criminally underrated. 

f*** windows 

[Spanky99]

1 hour ago, Gen.Disarray said:

Lol holy s*** that is satisfying. Can't stop watching...

Did you watch Roden and Wagner or Barger go down and get it against Tampa? s*** was sick. I remember seeing two big league dingers on pitches that were good. Down and away pulled, and down and away taken oppo, it was beautiful.

 

 

[Spanky99]

I think this team can hit, when oiled up.

[Spanky99]

43 minutes ago, Laika said:

Barger and Orelvis bring the smoke 

Roden and Wagner bring the elite plate discipline and bat control 

As I have been saying for a year, the Jays' farm is criminally underrated. 

f*** windows 

You're not the only one!

 

[Gen.Disarray]

55 minutes ago, Spanky99 said:

Did you watch Roden and Wagner or Barger go down and get it against Tampa? s*** was sick. I remember seeing two big league dingers on pitches that were good. Down and away pulled, and down and away taken oppo, it was beautiful.

 

 

The Roden and Barger ones yeah. So good :)

[BB17]

6 hours ago, Spanky99 said:

Yeah, I'm off the JDM kick, thanks guys, now Robertson and Grandal sound good. That trio concerning Kirk as well are putting up some sexy stats and W's.

Seriously, extend Kirk. He's killing baseballs again, with sublime tools other than baserunning. It needs to be done.

I’ve been saying this since the winter! Kirk is one of the most important players on the team, especially since the downgrade to second on the depth chart is such a drop off. 
 

Even if you have to overpay a little on an extension ($17-20M a year for his FA years) it’s better than trying to be too cute and risk losing him in FA after next season. If he puts up a 3-4 win season without an extension he’s very likely just going to test FA given he’s so close.

[jaysblue]

You guys don't remember Gabe Gross at all?

It's great seeing a lot of the Buffalo guys raking so far during ST though you need to temper expectations. There's also two plus weeks left in ST as well. Hopefully we can get one or two of them sticking in the lineup on a regular basis. 

[jaysblue]

9 hours ago, BB17 said:

I’ve been saying this since the winter! Kirk is one of the most important players on the team, especially since the downgrade to second on the depth chart is such a drop off. 
 

Even if you have to overpay a little on an extension ($17-20M a year for his FA years) it’s better than trying to be too cute and risk losing him in FA after next season. If he puts up a 3-4 win season without an extension he’s very likely just going to test FA given he’s so close.

You don't need to extend Kirk for $20M AAV per season lol. 

I think you can extend him for way less. Sean Murphy two years ago got 6 years/$73M at $12.17M AAV and was coming off a 5.2 WAR season and was 27-years-old. 

As well, if I recall, there hasn't been a catcher in free agency who got big bucks over the last two years, so nothing really for Kirk's camp to compare with. 

[Laika]

On an individual basis none of these Buffalo guys are special and they are more likely to bust than not 

HOWEVER the Blue Jays have literally never had this kind of viable young position player depth. At least not that I can remember. One or two of these guys could have a Reed Johnson or Kevin Pillar type of impact 

[Brownie19]

12 hours ago, Laika said:

Barger and Orelvis bring the smoke 

Roden and Wagner bring the elite plate discipline and bat control 

As I have been saying for a year, the Jays' farm is criminally underrated. 

f*** windows 

Waves to talent are starting to crash onto the shores of Toronto.

[Laika]

Exactly 

Waves of talent 

Sustainable success 

46 years of control 

54% winning percentage forever