Angels (Detmers) vs Blue Jays (Cease): 5/8/26, 7:07pm

[RA Whiffleball]

Cease is mustard.

BP slams the door, nice job by Hoffman to pitch around the leadoff double.

Offence still sucks: 7 hits in the last 17 innings and 20 scoreless innings in the last 21.

The 28th ranked bullpen held us to 1 hit over 4.1 innings. Dreadful.

[Jays24]

1 hour ago, Spanky__99 said:

Go to an Island of Dicks and Eat!

[Jays24]

41 minutes ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

It's going to be a fun summer when the bats get going and we're rolling Cease/Gausman/Yesavage/Bieber out there on a regular basis.

 

Has there been any updates on Bieber lately? Is he at least throwing?

With the way Lukes was hitting before he got hurt, I really want to see the following lineup on the field man: 

Springer - Lukes - Vlad - Okamoto - Barger - Kirk - Varsho - Clement - Gimenez 

[jaysblue]

3 hours ago, Spanky__99 said:

Yeah, he's been good lately, guess who's been better, Dylan Cease! 😎

Definitely Cease's best start! AL Cy Young!

[Stangstag]

56 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

With the way Lukes was hitting before he got hurt, I really want to see the following lineup on the field man: 

Springer - Lukes - Vlad - Okamoto - Barger - Kirk - Varsho - Clement - Gimenez 

Pretty much the same as last year, just sub Okamoto for Bo

Not as good

[jaysblue]

10 hours ago, Jays24 said:

With the way Lukes was hitting before he got hurt, I really want to see the following lineup on the field man: 

Springer - Lukes - Vlad - Okamoto - Barger - Kirk - Varsho - Clement - Gimenez 

We know Lukes can get hot in short stretches, but expecting that level of production over a full 162-game season feels like wishful thinking. At the end of the day, he’s a platoon bat/4th outfielder, and that’s probably where his value is best suited. The Jays clearly seemed to view it the same way, given that they pursued Kyle Tucker and later traded for Jesus Sanchez.
 

[jaysblue]

9 hours ago, Stangstag said:

Pretty much the same as last year, just sub Okamoto for Bo

Not as good

Impressed with the power Okamoto has provided so far. He’s definitely a nice middle-of-the-order power bat to have in the lineup.

That said, I don’t think it’s as simple as saying Okamoto replaces Bo and problem solved. When healthy, Bo brought a lot to the table offensively, and the Jays are still missing that type of impact bat. Atkins clearly knew that too, which is why they went hard after Kyle Tucker in the offseason.

[Stangstag]

54 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

Impressed with the power Okamoto has provided so far. He’s definitely a nice middle-of-the-order power bat to have in the lineup.

That said, I don’t think it’s as simple as saying Okamoto replaces Bo and problem solved. When healthy, Bo brought a lot to the table offensively, and the Jays are still missing that type of impact bat. Atkins clearly knew that too, which is why they went hard after Kyle Tucker in the offseason.

Kyle Tucker is a bum with no chin though, they should’ve gone hard for Bellinger

The offense MIGHT have a chance at being good with a guy like Bellinger in there

Thanks to Shatkins, it stinks

[jaysblue]

22 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Kyle Tucker is a bum with no chin though, they should’ve gone hard for Bellinger

The offense MIGHT have a chance at being good with a guy like Bellinger in there

Thanks to Shatkins, it stinks

Yeah Bellinger looking really good right now.

Don't blame Atkins at all - they tried signing someone like Tucker. Not sure about Belly. You need both parties to agree anyways when it comes to free agency. 

[max silver]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

We know Lukes can get hot in short stretches, but expecting that level of production over a full 162-game season feels like wishful thinking. At the end of the day, he’s a platoon bat/4th outfielder, and that’s probably where his value is best suited. The Jays clearly seemed to view it the same way, given that they pursued Kyle Tucker and later traded for Jesus Sanchez.
 

Lukes was a really valuable contributor for the majority of last season before a September slump. If I recall correctly he was sitting at something approximating 112-115 wRC+ heading into September last season. I do agree he's a platoon bat 4th outfielder type as he can man all of the outfield positions albeit with him being a little stretched athletically in center field. 

[max silver]

30 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

Yeah Bellinger looking really good right now.

Don't blame Atkins at all - they tried signing someone like Tucker. Not sure about Belly. You need both parties to agree anyways when it comes to free agency. 

I don't think Bellinger would be producing away from Yankee Stadium to a level commensurate with his contract. He yet again has massive home/away splits this season and I think he's just built for Yankee Stadium. In 2025 and the first 6 weeks of this season Bellinger has a combined 169 wRC+/88 wRC+ home/away split.

[Jays24]

12 hours ago, Stangstag said:

Pretty much the same as last year, just sub Okamoto for Bo

Not as good

Im comparing it to what we've seen this year... should be a good upgrade there.  Still need to add a power bat but the starting pitching upgrade should be able to carry for the most part. 

[Stangstag]

9 hours ago, Jays24 said:

Im comparing it to what we've seen this year... should be a good upgrade there.  Still need to add a power bat but the starting pitching upgrade should be able to carry for the most part. 

Bo to Okamoto is an obvious downgrade, sorry

Also don’t agree with the starting pitching being an “upgrade”

Gausman 1 year older

Cease is hot now but his ERA will balloon like usual, he basically replaces Bassitt

Bieber probably never pitches

Yesavage is unproven, wouldn’t rely on him

Scherzer, Berrios and Lauer all seem like trash this year

We have 3 starters, all of them worse than the Yankees top 3 starters

 

[Olerud363.354]

9 hours ago, Stangstag said:

Bo to Okamoto is an obvious downgrade, sorry

Unless you think Okamoto is a mirage and the exit velocities and defensive metrics say he isn't, then that is not true. 

Based on data we have so far Okamoto is an upgrade.  Exit velocities are great, defense passes the eye test, and the defensive metrics agree.  Slightly above average 3b with 90+ percentile exit v related metrics. 

Do you think he is going to fall apart or something?

Bo .290 .330 .450 can't run, can't field too well *

Okamota .250 .440 .480 can't run, can field surpisingly well **

* in 2026 one of the worst players in baseball, could be fluke

** very limited data which could change