Jays (Gausman) vs Red Sox (Houck): 4/9/25, 6:45pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

[Laika]

ez win today

why even play the game tbh? 

[Brownie19]

must win game.

[Grant77]

We're going to light up s.hitty Houck.

[Terminator]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

must win game.

For the Red Sox

[Masterbather]

Gausman has become a bit of an enigma these days. 

If they show discipline on the splitter it could be a rough day. 

Meanwhile it's nice to finally have some left-handed hitters to throw at Houck. I feel like that's been a real problem in the past for us against him. 

I have no idea which way this is going to go. 

 

[Terminator]

Waking up this morning in 1st place after Easton Lucas spun a gem last night

 

 

[Laika]

14 minutes ago, Masterbather said:

Gausman has become a bit of an enigma these days. 

If they show discipline on the splitter it could be a rough day. 

Meanwhile it's nice to finally have some left-handed hitters to throw at Houck. I feel like that's been a real problem in the past for us against him. 

I have no idea which way this is going to go. 

 

Definitely feels nice to have Santandar and Gimenez up top and then Roden and Wagner at the bottom, against big split righties. 

I wonder if they also get Lukes in there. Put Wagner at 3B, DH Santander. 

Why the f isn't Daulton Varsho playing games ugh. His spring was such a tease. 

[Terminator]

1 hour ago, Masterbather said:

Gausman has become a bit of an enigma these days. 

If they show discipline on the splitter it could be a rough day. 

Meanwhile it's nice to finally have some left-handed hitters to throw at Houck. I feel like that's been a real problem in the past for us against him. 

I have no idea which way this is going to go. 

 

Yeah Gausman is looking more like a #3 these days than the ace he was a couple years ago.

The velo appears to be back which gives me some hope that he can recapture some of his former glory but the splitter doesn't seem to be splitting as much anymore

[Laika]

Gausman's Stuff+, Location+, and of course Pitching+ so far this year are his highest of the Stuff+ era. 

Interesting. 

[Jays24]

1 hour ago, Laika said:

Definitely feels nice to have Santandar and Gimenez up top and then Roden and Wagner at the bottom, against big split righties. 

I wonder if they also get Lukes in there. Put Wagner at 3B, DH Santander. 

Why the f isn't Daulton Varsho playing games ugh. His spring was such a tease. 

Ya I think Varsho could easily contribute more to the team by being a DH/Pinch Hitter/Pinch Runner than Schneider/Lukes.  

[Terminator]

Will be interesting to see what they do when Varsho is back. My guess is they just go lefty heavy and option Schneider.

• Varsho back in the OF means Santander is a more permanent DH unless he's giving old man Springer a half day off
• Roden/Straw platoon in the OF though I'd expect Roden to play against some lefties still
• Wagner/Clement platoon at 3B
• Lukes can toil away on the bench which is fine since he's a 30 year old rookie. If they feel they are too OF heavy they could go for Stefanic in this role but he's not on the 40-man

[Orgfiller]

31 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Will be interesting to see what they do when Varsho is back. My guess is they just go lefty heavy and option Schneider.

• Varsho back in the OF means Santander is a more permanent DH unless he's giving old man Springer a half day off
• Roden/Straw platoon in the OF though I'd expect Roden to play against some lefties still
• Wagner/Clement platoon at 3B
• Lukes can toil away on the bench which is fine since he's a 30 year old rookie. If they feel they are too OF heavy they could go for Stefanic in this role but he's not on the 40-man

I think Varsho being back means Lukes might be s*** out of luck once more. Hard to justify multiple 4th OF types, Straw is a much better defender and baserunner, and his right handedness makes him somewhat more playable against lefties. I don't even know who Lukes pinch hits for if everyone is healthy and Schneider is optioned. Ernie perhaps, but if he's starting then one of Wagner/Roden is on the bench and you'd rather them hitting in that spot over Lukes any time. And the obvious PR/defensive replacement sub in the OF is Straw every single time.

[Terminator]

10 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

I think Varsho being back means Lukes might be s*** out of luck once more. Hard to justify multiple 4th OF types, Straw is a much better defender and baserunner, and his right handedness makes him somewhat more playable against lefties. I don't even know who Lukes pinch hits for if everyone is healthy and Schneider is optioned. Ernie perhaps, but if he's starting then one of Wagner/Roden is on the bench and you'd rather them hitting in that spot over Lukes any time. And the obvious PR/defensive replacement sub in the OF is Straw every single time.

Yeah his PT is absolutely screwed no matter what.

But given his age I think he might be able to survive a demotion as a seldom used bench warmer. His spot is unlikely to play much so it's hard to see them using Barger (he's another lefty anyway), Leo Gimenez (who has been hurt) or Orelvis in that spot since they need everyday ABs to develop. 

Stefanic could make sense as an infielder and right handed hitter but he's not on the 40-man. I suppose Clase could be an option if they feel they could carve out a role for him? He's off to a fast start and is a switch-hitter but he's kind of like Straw and they might want Clase playing more to develop too.

Or I guess they could keep Schneider and just play him less. His last 400 ABS have been BRUTAL though.

[Orgfiller]

24 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Yeah his PT is absolutely screwed no matter what.

But given his age I think he might be able to survive a demotion as a seldom used bench warmer. His spot is unlikely to play much so it's hard to see them using Barger (he's another lefty anyway), Leo Gimenez (who has been hurt) or Orelvis in that spot since they need everyday ABs to develop. 

Stefanic could make sense as an infielder and right handed hitter but he's not on the 40-man. I suppose Clase could be an option if they feel they could carve out a role for him? He's off to a fast start and is a switch-hitter but he's kind of like Straw and they might want Clase playing more to develop too.

Or I guess they could keep Schneider and just play him less. His last 400 ABS have been BRUTAL though.

I wonder if Berroa would be an option. Switch hitter, although I have no idea if he's any good against lefties, presumably a better baserunner than Lukes based on his AAA steal totals, can play CF in a pinch (although wouldn't be necessary with Straw around) and presumably decent in the corners. It just feels like Lukes would have literally zero utility, whereas someone like Berroa could be used more strategically across multiple scenarios.

[Omar]

2 hours ago, Laika said:

Gausman's Stuff+, Location+, and of course Pitching+ so far this year are his highest of the Stuff+ era. 

Interesting. 

But what happened to his splitter then?  Seems he has lost it since he needs the fastball to set up the splitter. Strike outs have evaporated for him. We should be worried I think.

[BB17]

2 hours ago, Laika said:

Gausman's Stuff+, Location+, and of course Pitching+ so far this year are his highest of the Stuff+ era. 

Interesting. 

Yet whiff rate is wayyyy down.

[Laika]

2 minutes ago, Omar said:

But what happened to his splitter then?  Seems he has lost it since he needs the fastball to set him the splitter. Strike outs have evaporated for him. We should be worried I think.

something's gotta give

[John_Havok]

With Gausman it's usually as simple as locating his fastball down in the zone well enough, especially early. You can pretty much scroll through his game logs, find the ones where his swing and miss sucks, and see his fastball locations were mostly up, which allows hitters to just "see low, let it go" because they can reasonably guess it's a splitter that won't be a strike. In games where his fastball location is down more than up, he's laughing

[Vancouverite]

let's go jays

time for tony taters and vladdy jr to crank a few out of the park today!

[Masterbather]

40 minutes ago, Laika said:

something's gotta give

It's still early enough and his velocity does look crisp. I think we need to give it a few more starts to really assess. 

He may yet give us an ace caliber year.

If not, let's hope he's at least a really good number two to slot in behind Easton 🙂

[Brownie19]

We really need another RH OF bat that kills lefties.  Luckily, I believe that's ones of the easiest positions to fill in all of baseball.

Go get Austin Hays or Chas McCormick please.

[jaysblue]

Would be nice to take this game, so we get 3 of 4 guaranteed. 

 

[glory]

No Springer in the lineup today.

SS Bo
DH Vlad
LF Tony
2B Gimenez
1B Wagner
CA Kirk
RF Roden
3B Clement
CF Lukes

 

[Brownie19]

que the outrage because the hottest hitter in baseball isn't in the lineup...fire everyone!

[Masterbather]

3 minutes ago, glory said:

No Springer in the lineup today.

SS Bo
DH Vlad
LF Tony
2B Gimenez
1B Wagner
CA Kirk
RF Roden
3B Clement
CF Lukes

 

Going heavy on the left-handed bats. I ain't mad. It's the right approach. 

[jaysblue]

5 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

que the outrage because the hottest hitter in baseball isn't in the lineup...fire everyone!

[max silver]

24 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

que the outrage because the hottest hitter in baseball isn't in the lineup...fire everyone!

Jays24 will show up at some point to rage away about a likely partial day off for Springer after spending much of spring training raging about how the team simply couldn't afford to play Springer anywhere other than the bottom of the order. 

[Omar]

2 hours ago, Masterbather said:

It's still early enough and his velocity does look crisp. I think we need to give it a few more starts to really assess. 

He may yet give us an ace caliber year.

If not, let's hope he's at least a really good number two to slot in behind Easton 🙂

His K% is trending less than half of what it was last year and on top of that his Barrel% is going through the roof vs last year. That is a hell of a doom and gloom combination.  

[Stangstag]

Must-win game tonight. Season is in jeopardy if we drop this one