Blue Jays (Taillon) vs Royals (Lynch IV): 9/4/26, 8:10pm

[Brandon Glick]

Standings Watch: The Blue Jays are 0.5 games behind the Cleveland Guardians for the final AL Wild Card spot.

[Brandon Glick]

	SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	TOT
Tyler Rogers	0	0	0	0	9	9
Spencer Miles	17	0	16	0	18	51
Spencer Arrighetti	0	0	62	0	0	62
Ricky Tiedemann	0	0	21	0	0	21
Paul Sewald	0	0	0	18	0	18
Michael Lorenzen	0	0	20	0	0	20
Mason Fluharty	0	0	0	0	30	30
Louis Varland	0	0	0	0	18	18
Joe Mantiply	0	0	22	0	0	22
Brendon Little	0	0	0	15	0	15
Braydon Fisher	10	0	0	27	0	37

[Terminator]

• Taillon vs. Lynch XI
• Scherzer vs. Lugo
• Spaghetti vs. Dobnak

[Laika]

We just saw Lugo and Dobnak and Lynch isn't that good so hopefully the bats show up 

They also just saw Scherzer and Spaghetti but pasta is more of a bullpen game anyway. Maybe JS has learned his lesson and won't try to get 4 innings out of him unless completely necessary 

[Omar]

[Governator]

1 hour ago, Terminator said:

• Taillon vs. Lynch XI
• Scherzer vs. Lugo
• Spaghetti vs. Dobnak

Pretty sure none of them are anyone's fantasy team.

[ComeTogether]

All hands on deck. 

[ComeTogether]

 

 

[Terminator]

Not sure that this is the game to do it, but with all the talk about getting Keys some ABs in LF, what about playing Josh Smith there instead? He's got good sprint speed and he's played a little bit of LF at this level. 

I guess Straw has been kind of sneaky-good since the ASB though. 112 wRC+ since the start of August.

[G-Snarls]

Want to go at least 4-2 over the next 6 games

Let's start by winning today

[John_Havok]

1 hour ago, G-Snarls said:

Want to go at least 4-2 over the next 6 games

Let's start by winning today

Exactlyy. Just worry about going 1-0 today before thinking about series

[Omar]

Need TB Rays to do us solid here and win some games against the Rangers.

[max silver]

2 hours ago, Terminator said:

Not sure that this is the game to do it, but with all the talk about getting Keys some ABs in LF, what about playing Josh Smith there instead? He's got good sprint speed and he's played a little bit of LF at this level. 

I guess Straw has been kind of sneaky-good since the ASB though. 112 wRC+ since the start of August.

Smith has proven to be a sneaky good pickup by Atkins as he's infused some much needed power off of the bench. My primary complaint about Atkins previous trade deadlines has been the lack of effective offensive support and Atkins killed it this time around with both Smith and Bateman proving to be offensive catalysts as the team has run up the standings.

Straw does deserve a lot of credit for turning his season around. I believe the Sanchez disaster class game in left field in the Trop was a bit of a starting point for seeing more and more of Straw in the lineup but he's been earning his keep and then some. His last 35 games/98 PA have seen him produce 117 wRC+/0.7 FWAR which is a pretty dramatic turnaround for his first 4 months of the season where he was sitting at 62 wRC+/0 FWAR.

[Forever92]

Big game as KC usually play well against us. 

[Bob_Gratton]

5 hours ago, Terminator said:

• Taillon vs. Lynch XI
• Scherzer vs. Lugo
• Spaghetti vs. Dobnak

This look like 3 loss, unless Scherzer still have the eyes of tiger. But Spag and Tail are cooked, they barely can reach the 4 inning.

[jaysblue]

1 hour ago, max silver said:

Smith has proven to be a sneaky good pickup by Atkins as he's infused some much needed power off of the bench. My primary complaint about Atkins previous trade deadlines has been the lack of effective offensive support and Atkins killed it this time around with both Smith and Bateman proving to be offensive catalysts as the team has run up the standings.

Straw does deserve a lot of credit for turning his season around. I believe the Sanchez disaster class game in left field in the Trop was a bit of a starting point for seeing more and more of Straw in the lineup but he's been earning his keep and then some. His last 35 games/98 PA have seen him produce 117 wRC+/0.7 FWAR which is a pretty dramatic turnaround for his first 4 months of the season where he was sitting at 62 wRC+/0 FWAR.

I think “Atkins killed it” is a little generous here.

Smith has definitely given them some useful power off the bench (but he's not really a power hitter lol) and Bateman has had some big moments, so I’ll give Atkins credit for adding pieces that have helped. But we’re still talking about relatively small samples, and neither move suddenly fixes the larger issue that this lineup has lacked consistent impact bats for most of the season.

Same thing with Straw. He absolutely deserves credit for the way he’s played over the last 35 games, but 98 PA doesn’t erase the first four months where he gave them basically nothing offensively. A 117 wRC+ over that stretch is great, but I’m not suddenly viewing him as an everyday player because of one hot month. We can all cherry pick stats over a 3-4 week period. 

To me, Straw is still ideally your 5th OF/defensive replacement who gets 150–200 ABs in a season. If he gives you stretches like this, fantastic, that’s found value. But expecting a 30-year-old with his career offensive track record to suddenly sustain above-average production going forward is probably asking too much.

So yes, Atkins deserves credit for Smith and Bateman helping during this run, and Straw has played much better lately. I just wouldn’t use a good 4–5 week stretch to rewrite what these players are or declare the deadline some huge massive success. My expectations are still tempered given the sample size, but that’s just me. 

Bateman is probably the one I’m most intrigued by going forward. Can he keep this up in 2027 and beyond? That’s the big question, and I’m still a little skeptical given the sample size, but I’ve definitely become a huge fan of his. If the Jays do make the postseason, though, he’s going to deserve a lot of credit for helping them get there.

[jaysblue]

6 hours ago, Governator said:

Pretty sure none of them are anyone's fantasy team.

Have you ever seen the League of Despair?

[ComeTogether]

 

 

[max silver]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

I think “Atkins killed it” is a little generous here.

Smith has definitely given them some useful power off the bench (but he's not really a power hitter lol) and Bateman has had some big moments, so I’ll give Atkins credit for adding pieces that have helped. But we’re still talking about relatively small samples, and neither move suddenly fixes the larger issue that this lineup has lacked consistent impact bats for most of the season.

Same thing with Straw. He absolutely deserves credit for the way he’s played over the last 35 games, but 98 PA doesn’t erase the first four months where he gave them basically nothing offensively. A 117 wRC+ over that stretch is great, but I’m not suddenly viewing him as an everyday player because of one hot month. We can all cherry pick stats over a 3-4 week period. 

To me, Straw is still ideally your 5th OF/defensive replacement who gets 150–200 ABs in a season. If he gives you stretches like this, fantastic, that’s found value. But expecting a 30-year-old with his career offensive track record to suddenly sustain above-average production going forward is probably asking too much.

So yes, Atkins deserves credit for Smith and Bateman helping during this run, and Straw has played much better lately. I just wouldn’t use a good 4–5 week stretch to rewrite what these players are or declare the deadline some huge massive success. My expectations are still tempered given the sample size, but that’s just me. 

Bateman is probably the one I’m most intrigued by going forward. Can he keep this up in 2027 and beyond? That’s the big question, and I’m still a little skeptical given the sample size, but I’ve definitely become a huge fan of his. If the Jays do make the postseason, though, he’s going to deserve a lot of credit for helping them get there.

Dude what's with the ultra nitpicky response? I think Atkins did a fine job threading the needle of buying and selling in and around the trade deadline and deserves a lot of credit for his acquisitions helping the team to surge up the standings. He also managed to add some nice minor league talent as well so the plaudits are well deserved. I was concerned that the team was short a leverage arm after shipping out Hoffman at the deadline but the acquisition of Sewald along with Miles covering more leverage innings has helped to bridge the gap. Both of Bateman and Smith have been very steady contributors up to this point and as such the GM deserves credit despite your consternation for reasons I don't really comprehend. Up until this point I believe you can easily declare the deadline to have been a massive success and I don't see why you feel the need to declare that you can't say it was successful because we don't have the ability to travel forward in time in order to know how the next month unfolds. It's just a bad look to pick a fight based on what may or may not happen in the future when I was simply stating my opinion on what the new acquisitions have provided up until the present.

What's with the "cherry picking" accusation with Straw? I made a point of mentioning his offensive futility up until the current hot streak so your derision is not appreciated or even remotely necessary unless you are looking to start a stupid pointless argument. He's going to cool off eventually as he has a long term history of well below average offensive contributions, but at the same time I still believe he deserves a lot of credit for stepping up offensively at the most important time of the season. I hope that Schneider learned his lesson about giving Straw far too many plate appearances in the post season given the fact that post season level pitching chews him up and spits him out, but for now it's a welcome development that he's been one of the club's more important contributors when their backs were up against the wall. 

Bateman is going to need to improve his underlying numbers if he is to continue to enjoy anywhere close to this level of success. He's reliant on well placed ground balls finding their way past gloves up until this point, and unless he finds a way to cut down on the strikeouts, stop the excessive chasing on pitches out of the zone and/or add a little loft/impact to his batted balls he's all but sure to eventually start seeing his results regress to a great degree. For now I can appreciate the spark that he's been able to provide at the top of the lineup.

[ComeTogether]

Lol

 

 

 

[ComeTogether]

Better news 

 

 

[Laika]

24 minutes ago, ComeTogether said:

 

 

Lukes should be one spot higher 

No sense going L-R-L with only two LHB starting. Just gives them a chance to LHRP you later.

[SeranthonySantander]

So we will have healthy Trey and prime orioles santander back for the playoffs 

[hanton]

vs LHP we're 2nd last in the league in wOBA and wRC+ 

[Omar]

5 minutes ago, hanton said:

vs LHP we're 2nd last in the league in wOBA and wRC+ 

Jays are a different team since August 3,

Post trade deadline.

[Omar]

[JaysFan99]

Good AB by Vlady. Springer shouldn’t have been swinging until he got a strike.

Let’s get a run here!

[Slade]

Come on got to cash in this first run. 

[Slade]

Lets go Kirky!

[neverbeenhere]

Lovin' it