[ALCS GM 5] Blue Jays (Gausman) vs Mariners (Miller): 10/17/25, 6:08pm

[saskjayfan]

2 minutes ago, Big_Walleye said:

I'm not usually one to dig into the stats pages as I normally have better things to do and prefer to watch the games with my eyes but I couldn't resist today.

Here are some 2025 numbers.

Hoffman - .805 OPS vs lefties

Dominguez - .816 OPS vs lefties

Little - .592 OPS vs righties .601 OPS vs lefties

Raleigh, Polanco and Naylor to begin the 8th last night.  3 dangerous lefties in a row.  Would you want Dominguez or Hoffman to face them with those numbers or flip the first 2 to the right side and have Little face them?

It's the easiest thing to say "I told you so" after the fact when something doesn't work out (Joe Siddall are you listening?) anyone can do that.   Not so easy to make tough decisions in the heat of a baseball game.

The home run Raleigh hit was a glorified pop-up.  It could just as easily been caught by Straw and things might have turned out differently.  It's luck, it's baseball, that's the way it goes sometimes.

The Jays aren't even in this position if it weren't for Little taking the ball (and being extremely nasty) more than any other reliever in the league this year.  

As for John Schneider, put yourself in those shoes for a day and have all your decisions scrutinized the the nth degree, and have an entire country want to rip off your head when it doesn't work out.

Have some empathy for these people.  They're trying to bring us a championship and taking years off their life in the process.  Schneider has his players backs and they have his.  It's what got them this far and it's what will allow them to win the next 2 games.

The problem is Little accumulated those stats early in the season.  He's been shaky in September and in the post season.  He just doesn't look confident on the mound.  Hoffman gave up 1 run in September and his stuff wasn't really that great.  He was mostly just executing  and commanding what he had.  In the post season his stuff has looked better.  Maybe it's the adrenaline, maybe just more time off has helped the arm.  He's just been pitching really good lately.  

[jaysthebest]

Every analyst criticized JS, but there's one guy who defends his decision here lol.

[Terminator]

3 hours ago, jaysblue said:

So according to you, this proves that the Jays don't have many viable late inning options to close out a close 2-1 or 3-1 game in the Postseason, especially from the 6th inning on. 

Jays victories in the Postseason:

10-1

13-7

5-2

13-4

8-2

Other than Game 4 against the Yankees which was close and a BP game, the Jays bats have been pretty much the difference maker throughout the Postseason. When their bats are swinging and putting up big numbers, Jays win.

The Jays need to be up by at least 4-5 runs to win games. 

No that’s absurd. Just because we win 10-1 doesn’t mean we can’t also win 2-1.

I guess you stumbled into something somewhat accurate with the bolded part in that the team has a deep bullpen but it doesn’t necessarily have an elite lockdown guy. Varland, Hoffman, SerAnthony and even Little have shown that ability on occasion but they haven’t done it consistently. 

[Big_Walleye]

8 minutes ago, saskjayfan said:

The problem is Little accumulated those stats early in the season.  He's been shaky in September and in the post season.  He just doesn't look confident on the mound.  Hoffman gave up 1 run in September and his stuff wasn't really that great.  He was mostly just executing  and commanding what he had.  In the post season his stuff has looked better.  Maybe it's the adrenaline, maybe just more time off has helped the arm.  He's just been pitching really good lately.  

I agree that Hoffman has been better recently and Little has been shaky.  I think Little has been shaky from the amount of wear and tear this year.  They were hoping his arm would bounce back after 4 days off I believe. 

The problem with scrutinizing these decisions as a fan is the fact that we don't have all the information.  Maybe Hoffman didn't feel right yesterday.  They're not going to come out and tell the opposition that he's down.  We just don't know.  

[Terminator]

22 minutes ago, Big_Walleye said:

Here are some 2025 numbers.

Hoffman - .805 OPS vs lefties

Dominguez - .816 OPS vs lefties

Little - .592 OPS vs righties .601 OPS vs lefties

Wow!

[Eat My Shatkins]

All right. I vented, I'm done crying in my soup.

 

Fact is, the Jays are still in this fight and worked their asses off all year to have home advantage for moments like these. Two wins in a row is EFF ALL for this team. They swept those pesky Rays at home to clinch 1st in the AL. They got this!

 

Yesavage was "built for this"

[neverbeenhere]

Jay fans, boo John Schneider on Sunday

[Big_Walleye]

3 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

Jay fans, boo John Schneider on Sunday

You think that'll help them win the game?

That's no different than fans booing Springer when he was down last night.

[SeranthonySantander]

I don't care that Hoffman has had some good results recently.  Still don't like him and don't like it anytime he goes in.  I refuse to pretend he is a good closer.  Most of the time we've used him recently hasn't been high leverage.  2 bb in the close game against Tampa he closed a few weeks ago and 2 hits and a walk to yankees in 1.1 when we put him in with a 4 run lead.  I think Little wasn't as bad as everyone says.

[Omar]

For the record Siddall didn't just criticize the Little move after the fact. He mentioned it while Little was warming in the bullpen. Half the gdt posters also said the same before Little entered the game. Anyone who has watched this team the past month could see the writing on the wall before Little threw his first pitch. 

[neverbeenhere]

1 minute ago, Big_Walleye said:

You think that'll help them win the game?

That's no different than fans booing Springer when he was down last night.

Booing JS will let him know he screwed it up and we don't like it.

 

Springer was booed at Seattle ball park

[neverbeenhere]

Little has been like that all season, it was anybody but Little situation last night 

[JFD]

The JS haters were right, they were always right. Some people around here owe them an apology 

[SeranthonySantander]

3 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

Little has been like that all season, it was anybody but Little situation last night 

8/79 reg season games with more than 1 bb.  1 HR in the last 75 regular season games.  So it was just a bad result.  Probably the pressure and he wasn't expecting to go.

[Stangstag]

3 minutes ago, Omar said:

For the record Siddall didn't just criticize the Little move after the fact. He mentioned it while Little was warming in the bullpen. Half the gdt posters also said the same before Little entered the game. Anyone who has watched this team the past my month could see the writing on the wall before Little threw his first pitch. 

Yeah, but people complain about Little all the time, pretty much every time he pitches and usually he’s OK. This time he sucked. I feel like Little gets way too much hate for the kind of numbers he’s put up on the season. Yes, the walks are bad but overall, he usually does a good job.

that being said, I don’t think this was the right time to use him.

 

[Omar]

3 hours ago, jaysblue said:

You should never get that emotional over a game. At the end of the day, the world continues to move on. We're not the ones who are playing on that baseball field. The Blue Jays players don't care about what happens in your life or get emotional for you when you're dealing with certain issues or in certain circumstances. At the end of the day, sports is entertainment. 

The allure of professional sports is all about emotion. That's what draws people in. The sheer spectacle of the Roman colesium to present day. It's why most people watch whether they are aware of it or not. 

If not you can just read the boxscore after the game, don't waste your time watching if you're so detached. 

[neverbeenhere]

1 minute ago, SeranthonySantander said:

8/79 reg season games with more than 1 bb.  So it was just a bad result.  Probably the pressure and he wasn't expecting to go.

For almost every outing, Little would walk 3, throw 6 wild pitches, strike out 2. Team knows how to handle him, just do nothing, you will get on bases anyway,

I am sorry you are trying to defend the undefendable.

[Omar]

14 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Yeah, but people complain about Little all the time, pretty much every time he pitches and usually he’s OK. This time he sucked. I feel like Little gets way too much hate for the kind of numbers he’s put up on the season. Yes, the walks are bad but overall, he usually does a good job.

that being said, I don’t think this was the right time to use him.

 

This was no ordinary game. It was the most important game of the season thus far. 

If JS sticks to his principles and thinks Little was the right option he shouldn't hesitate to use him in game 7 high leverage right?  He won't. You know it and I know it and more importantly John Schneider knows it. 

[SeranthonySantander]

Just now, neverbeenhere said:

For almost every outing, Little would walk 3, throw 6 wild pitches, strike out 2. Team knows how to handle him, just do nothing, you will get on bases anyway,

I am sorry you are trying to defend the undefendable.

Yea he has been wild but more than 1 walk in roughly 10% of his appearances.  If he was that bad he wouldn't be on the roster.

[Omar]

10 minutes ago, JFD said:

The JS haters were right, they were always right. Some people around here owe them an apology 

After the Yankees series I said that JS has "cemented himself as the best manager in the AL". I'm no JS hater but I can't get my head around the Little move or the post game justification of it. 

[neverbeenhere]

1 minute ago, SeranthonySantander said:

Yea he has been wild but more than 1 walk in roughly 10% of his appearances.  If he was that bad he wouldn't be on the roster.

I actually think he should not be on the roster. Having said that I am not blaming Little for what happened, he is who he is and that is all he could do. The culprit is John Schneider who used him in that situation. 

[Big_Walleye]

16 minutes ago, Omar said:

For the record Siddall didn't just criticize the Little move after the fact. He mentioned it while Little was warming in the bullpen. Half the gdt posters also said the same before Little entered the game. Anyone who has watched this team the past my month could see the writing on the wall before Little threw his first pitch. 

Joe Siddall should consider himself lucky if him and his big mouth still have a job come game time on Sunday.  He's a moron afaic and it wouldn't bother me one bit if he got kicked to the curb.

[saskjayfan]

15 minutes ago, SeranthonySantander said:

I don't care that Hoffman has had some good results recently.  Still don't like him and don't like it anytime he goes in.  I refuse to pretend he is a good closer.  Most of the time we've used him recently hasn't been high leverage.  2 bb in the close game against Tampa he closed a few weeks ago and 2 hits and a walk to yankees in 1.1 when we put him in with a 4 run lead.  I think Little wasn't as bad as everyone says.

He's pitched 4.1 innings in the post season with 5Ks and 1BB and the run he gave up was pitching to the scoreboard.  He gave up 1 run in September in 11 outings.  He's not a lights out closer, but he's the best we have.  I don't really care what your personal bias is. Little gave up a homer and 2 walks.  I mean he could have given up 3 straight homers.  That would have been worse, but short of that his outing last night was really bad.  It just was. 

[SeranthonySantander]

 

3 minutes ago, saskjayfan said:

He's pitched 4.1 innings in the post season with 5Ks and 1BB and the run he gave up was pitching to the scoreboard.  He gave up 1 run in September in 11 outings.  He's not a lights out closer, but he's the best we have.  I don't really care what your personal bias is. Little gave up a homer and 2 walks.  I mean he could have given up 3 straight homers.  That would have been worse, but short of that his outing last night was really bad.  It just was. 

Well he hasn't had any high pressure situations.  We are lucky for that.  We all knew whoever it was, the bullpen would blow a close one.  It was happening weekly for us.

[Omar]

4 minutes ago, Big_Walleye said:

Joe Siddall should consider himself lucky if him and his big mouth still have a job come game time on Sunday.  He's a moron afaic and it wouldn't bother me one bit if he got kicked to the curb.

Okay. I see you have some really strong feelings on this matter. No problem.  The Jays are not done yet. 

[Big_Walleye]

1 minute ago, Omar said:

Okay. I see you have some really strong feelings on this matter. No problem.  The Jays are not done yet. 

You're right, they're not done.  But they would be if JS threw people under the bus the way Siddall does.

[saskjayfan]

2 minutes ago, SeranthonySantander said:

 

Well he hasn't had any high pressure situations.  We are lucky for that.  We all knew whoever it was, the bullpen would blow a close one.  It was happening weekly for us.

Jeff has had high pressure situations in the past.  He's also failed in the post season. I think you learn more from failure.  I'm sure Little will learn from this too. I agree, that our bullpen is the weak spot.  We just need to score lots of runs the next 2 days and god forbid let a starter throw 115 pitches if they are rolling.  It's time to manage the game with feel.  Who's hot, who's confident.  Who do you trust to get out of jams.  It's do or die time.  

[Stangstag]

12 minutes ago, Omar said:

After the Yankees series I said that JS has "cemented himself as the best manager in the AL". I'm no JS hater but I can't get my head around the Little move or the post game justification of it. 

I’ve been on the Schneider hate-train since the 2022 wildcard BS and i’ve been consistent about it.

But im not gonna get upset about this, we don’t have a clear option to go to in tight games like this. Nobody has been reliable and consistent enough. Thats on Atkins for not getting a lockdown guy like Duran or Miller at the deadline.

[Stangstag]

12 minutes ago, saskjayfan said:

He's pitched 4.1 innings in the post season with 5Ks and 1BB and the run he gave up was pitching to the scoreboard.  He gave up 1 run in September in 11 outings.  He's not a lights out closer, but he's the best we have.  I don't really care what your personal bias is. Little gave up a homer and 2 walks.  I mean he could have given up 3 straight homers.  That would have been worse, but short of that his outing last night was really bad.  It just was. 

This organization has been consistent in their dismissal of the short sample size and playing the long game looking at a larger body of work. Except when it comes to hitting matchups for some reason…

[saskjayfan]

4 minutes ago, Big_Walleye said:

You're right, they're not done.  But they would be if JS threw people under the bus the way Siddall does.

I don't think John made the right call last night, but he was the guy that used a rookie in game 2 of the post season.  He's the one that opted for a bullpen game against the Yankees and navigated a tough Yankee lineup.  He used IKF the last 2 games and he's come through.  Like Jon has got a lot right. It's fine to be critical, but you can't omit success.