Blue Jays (Francis) vs Astros (Gusto): 4/23/25, 7:40pm

[Spanky99]

24 minutes ago, L54 said:

Spanky nobody is claiming anything is simple 

People are just voicing their opinion that the offense still lacks power

Go roll a J, J 

Heh... you still haven't answered the f***ing question?
 

You seem to think it's simple?

 

[Big_Walleye]

15 minutes ago, L54 said:

Spanky nobody is claiming anything is simple 

People are just voicing their opinion that the offense still lacks power

Go roll a J, J 

Should the offense really be lacking power though?

The top 4 hitters in the lineup today should hit 120 bombs without breaking a sweat.  Throw in 10 or so each from the likes of Gimenez, Kirk, Clement, Roden, Wagner etc and 20 from Varsho and you're near 200.

The problem is they're pressing already.  Bichette saw 4 pitches the whole game tonight. He's pressing! Vlad is rolling over everything to the left side.  He's pressing!  Tony is swinging wildly at every fastball he sees, even if they're a foot high or off the plate.  He's pressing.

Maybe they need a head coach instead of a hitting coach.

[G-Snarls]

1 hour ago, Fighting_Yeti said:

And now the Yankees.  Great.

And it's not like Judge is on an epic tear... 🙃

[jaysblue]

1 hour ago, L54 said:

The question is were you a staunch skeptic of a Joc Pedersen signing after a 150 double you are see plus season or are you actually the 20/20 hindsight captain

He actually owns Pederson in two dynasty leagues lol. 

[L54]

2 hours ago, Big_Walleye said:

Should the offense really be lacking power though?

The top 4 hitters in the lineup today should hit 120 bombs without breaking a sweat.  Throw in 10 or so each from the likes of Gimenez, Kirk, Clement, Roden, Wagner etc and 20 from Varsho and you're near 200.

The problem is they're pressing already.  Bichette saw 4 pitches the whole game tonight. He's pressing! Vlad is rolling over everything to the left side.  He's pressing!  Tony is swinging wildly at every fastball he sees, even if they're a foot high or off the plate.  He's pressing.

Maybe they need a head coach instead of a hitting coach.

I mean…. yes? They lacked power last year and the year before. They brought in one power hitter. It’s not a surprise they aren’t hitting home runs but it’s going to be talked about when it’s the most obvious weakness 

Bo has always been an aggressive hitter. Vlad always looks like a little leaguer in April. I’m guessing here but Santander is probably the kind of guy who hits .210 for a month and the next will hit .350 with 7 homers 

I don’t think anyone is pressing 

[L54]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

He actually owns Pederson in two dynasty leagues lol. 

Sounds like pain to me

[jaysblue]

To keep the positivity up around here:

Phillies also just got swept by the Mets and fell to 13-12. They have a tough weekend road matchup at Wrigley Field coming up.

Their bullpen has been in shambles outside of Alvarado and Strahm. 

Their lineup outside of Harper, Schwarber, Casty and Stott have struggled heavily.

So Blue Jays aren't the only team in a bit of a rut. It's still early and things can turn around quickly in baseball. 

[SuperFuzzBigMuff]

Vladdy is on pace for 7 home runs and 65 RBI's this season! The 500 million dollar man is laughing all the way to the bank!

[John_Havok]

10 hours ago, L54 said:

I mean…. yes? They lacked power last year and the year before. They brought in one power hitter. It’s not a surprise they aren’t hitting home runs but it’s going to be talked about when it’s the most obvious weakness 

Bo has always been an aggressive hitter. Vlad always looks like a little leaguer in April. I’m guessing here but Santander is probably the kind of guy who hits .210 for a month and the next will hit .350 with 7 homers 

I don’t think anyone is pressing 

Santander career splits my month:

 

Vlad career splits by month

[mphenhef]

While we are talking splits,  Here's Vlad by position in the batting order.  Is it time to give in and just let his $500 million dollar head bat third?

[glory]

I thought I read last year that Vlad prefers batting 3rd. Don't know if that was an actual quote or not, but if that's true, then yeah just put him 3rd in the lineup. Now that Springer is hitting again, do something like Springer-Bo-Vlad-Tony. Won't magically solve anything, but why not?

[Brownie19]

17 minutes ago, glory said:

I thought I read last year that Vlad prefers batting 3rd. Don't know if that was an actual quote or not, but if that's true, then yeah just put him 3rd in the lineup. Now that Springer is hitting again, do something like Springer-Bo-Vlad-Tony. Won't magically solve anything, but why not?

Because if he's that much of a mental midget, then we shouldn't have signed him in the first place.  

[Jays24]

Agreed that

20 minutes ago, glory said:

I thought I read last year that Vlad prefers batting 3rd. Don't know if that was an actual quote or not, but if that's true, then yeah just put him 3rd in the lineup. Now that Springer is hitting again, do something like Springer-Bo-Vlad-Tony. Won't magically solve anything, but why not?

Ya he's stated a few times he prefers to bat 3rd.  We have absolutely NOTHING to lose by going with the Springer - Bo - Vlad - Santandar lineup. 

I know Schneider wants to split up the lefties by putting the righties in there but it really shouldn't matter given our current results. 

[Laika]

People won't like this but maybe Gimenez should leadoff. Bo 2nd, Vlad 3rd, George 4th, Potatoes 5th. 

Speed at the top for Bo and Vlad to bring in with their single fetish. 

Taters 5th is more of a natural spot for him. Big swings if a couple of guys get on in front of him. 

[Jays24]

7 minutes ago, Laika said:

People won't like this but maybe Gimenez should leadoff. Bo 2nd, Vlad 3rd, George 4th, Potatoes 5th. 

Speed at the top for Bo and Vlad to bring in with their single fetish. 

Taters 5th is more of a natural spot for him. Big swings if a couple of guys get on in front of him. 

We wouldn't want Gimenez getting that extra AB over a guy like Springer right now.  Just bat Gimenez 9th to achieve the same results while maximizing your "best hitters" getting the most ABs as possible within a game. 

[Laika]

1 minute ago, Jays24 said:

We wouldn't want Gimenez getting that extra AB over a guy like Springer right now.  Just bat Gimenez 9th to achieve the same results.  

he has the 4th best xwOBA on the team if you ignore Heineman and Lukes 

if you hit him 9th you are arguably slotting him below like five inferior hitters 

he is a decent leadoff guy for "traditional" reasons. 

[Pendleton]

The second worst team BA in a three game series in franchise history - worst since 1981. 

[Jays24]

9 minutes ago, Laika said:

he has the 4th best xwOBA on the team if you ignore Heineman and Lukes 

if you hit him 9th you are arguably slotting him below like five inferior hitters 

he is a decent leadoff guy for "traditional" reasons. 

I'm always good with trying different lineups to hopefully find one that clicks unless there's a proven track record we're messing with. 

We literally have nothing to lose and that's probably the only card we can play at this stage until we get closer to the trade deadline.  

[Laika]

5 minutes ago, Pendleton said:

The second worst team BA in a three game series in franchise history - worst since 1981. 

And they were facing.... Ronel Blanco and some Gusto guy I didn't know existed until last week. 

[Brownie19]

Imagine being Schneider and the coaching staff - sitting down and trying to strategize how you get a steaming pile of sh*t to not be a steaming pile of sh*t.

They'd probably have as much luck building voodoo dolls of the opposing pitchers and they will moving people around in the lineup.

Moving guys who are hitting well up in the lineup to get them more at bats is logical.  Changing the lineup because it isn't producing is a desperate plan, void of logic.  If it works, it's probably just circumstantial and luck.  But that's 100% where we are.  Bat Vlad and Taters 8th and 9th - send a message that they're effort to date is unacceptable.

[mphenhef]

51 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Because if he's that much of a mental midget, then we shouldn't have signed him in the first place.  

I tend to agree hence my play on 10 cent head/500 million dollar head.  It makes zero sense that where you bat in the lineup should impact your numbers, but the numbers back up Vlad's opinion he hits better at 3rd.

[John_Havok]

4 minutes ago, mphenhef said:

I tend to agree hence my play on 10 cent head/500 million dollar head.  It makes zero sense that where you bat in the lineup should impact your numbers, but the numbers back up Vlad's opinion he hits better at 3rd.

Types of analysis like this though don't prove themselves to be predictive. These are descriptive markers, that don't really mean anything other than what happened in the past. 

Trying to drill down the reason why his numbers are better hitting 3rd makes more sense, but that's like trying to ascertain why his wRC+ in May is  lower than April... there's no real rhyme or reason to it, most likely. 

Simply, Vlad has spent the majority of his career hitting 3rd, so... it stands to reason since he is an above average hitter overall that his best results have come hitting 3rd. 

[Pendleton]

18 hours ago, Laika said:

People won't like this but maybe Gimenez should leadoff. Bo 2nd, Vlad 3rd, George 4th, Potatoes 5th. 

Speed at the top for Bo and Vlad to bring in with their single fetish. 

Taters 5th is more of a natural spot for him. Big swings if a couple of guys get on in front of him. 

 

Leading off seems like a far more natural fit than hitting in the middle of the lineup. Clearly more suited for table setting than the cleanup spot. 

[Spanky99]

On 4/24/2025 at 12:28 AM, jaysblue said:

He actually owns Pederson in two dynasty leagues lol. 

What does that have to do with anything ya f*cking dingleberry?