Blue Jays (Cease) vs Athletics (Lopez): 09/07/26, 10:05 PM

[Olerud363.354]

11 minutes ago, Terminator said:

That was a crappy game but sometimes it happens. Just need to flush it and win today.

But the botched run-down, botched abs challenges, and botched infield positioning isn't just luck.   I think. 

Watching a few World Series clips I'm like 'how the *** were the Dodgers positioned so well ?'

Watching the game last night 'how the ** was Giminez positioned so bad'

McNeil grounder to the left side probably average 75 mph.   Why was he playing him like he expected a 115 mph grounder from Vladimir Guerrero Jr ?  Gruber is right in this case., 

[Terminator]

6 minutes ago, Olerud363.354 said:

But the botched run-down, botched abs challenges, and botched infield positioning isn't just luck.   I think. 

Watching a few World Series clips I'm like 'how the *** were the Dodgers positioned so well ?'

Watching the game last night 'how the ** was Giminez positioned so bad'

McNeil grounder to the left side probably average 75 mph.   Why was he playing him like he expected a 115 mph grounder from Vladimir Guerrero Jr ?  Gruber is right in this case., 

Yeah it was a combination of bad luck, bad umpiring, and definitely some bad plays by the Jays. 

And yes, not positioning for the 52 mph dribbler cost them in the end. That ball had a .090 xBA so it was either an extremely lucky hit or s*** positioning by the Jays. Probably both but if he plays in and a ball squirts by him you could critique the positioning all the same. I don't really know enough about infield positioning to comment much more than that.

[Terminator]

+1.5 runs is just awful work. Investigate Chad Un-Fairchild.

[glory]

The Guardians took 3/4 from a bad Tigers team when they should have lost all 4. These are the types of games the Jays need to win. They put themselves in this position to have to go on a crazy run to end the season. Losing games like this should not happen. 

[Spanky__99]

That's baseball for ya, as Term said just flush it and move on.

[Terminator]

[G-Snarls]

1 hour ago, glory said:

The Guardians took 3/4 from a bad Tigers team when they should have lost all 4. These are the types of games the Jays need to win. They put themselves in this position to have to go on a crazy run to end the season. Losing games like this should not happen. 

The Guardians didn't have a lead in a single game the entire 4 game series until the very end of the 3 they walked off 

Insane

[Spanky__99]

6 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Heidy-Ho, fella! Jays hottest team in MLB, we've got people dumping their pants just like that turd. 

[Stangstag]

1 hour ago, Terminator said:

+1.5 runs is just awful work. Investigate Chad Un-Fairchild.

That’s diabolical 

[Brownie19]

2 hours ago, Olerud363.354 said:

McNeil has 14th percentile exit velocity, his opp-o ground balls will presumably be even slower. 

Dave Roberts would have had GIminez 10 feet closer in. 

Probably just play everyone in.  McNeil's known for his blazing speed after all.  Gimenez is obviously too stupid to know where to play.  He needs his hand held for everything.  Wish we still had a real shortstop like Bo on the team.

[Terminator]

You could almost argue that Gimenez was positioned correctly. 

McNeil took an awkward inside-out hack that put some bizarre spin on a slow roller, and he still only beat it out by a fraction of a second.

Olerud wants the Jays to position the infielders for this extremely unlikely scenario. Maybe we should have also had Okamoto, Ernie, and Vlad all playing in as well in case a dribbler was hit in their direction? Maybe even bring a 5th infielder into the game to cover the dribblers to an even greater extent?

Heck, just leave Bateman out in CF on his own and bring in 6 infielders to cover all possible dribblers. McNeil wouldn't have had a chance then!

But on the other hand, it had such an extremely low xBA that maybe Gimenez was playing too deep? Who knows but sucks to lose a game that way.

[Olerud363.354]

35 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Probably just play everyone in.  McNeil's known for his blazing speed after all.  Gimenez is obviously too stupid to know where to play. 

It looked on TV like he playing a deep short like you would for Mike Stanton or Vlad. 

Oh well, at least he was ready for a 115 mph scorcher ...

You guys are acting like the choices are deep short on the outfield grass or on the infield grass... you know you can choose any position between those two?

If he was even a step or two in McNeil wouldn't have beat that out.  

[Olerud363.354]

Blue Jays message board interviews next Blue Jays manager

Question would you instruct your coaching staff and players to make subtle positioning changes based on hitter trends?  Like would you move them a few steps based on data or let them decide?

Candidate1 - I'd expect all this data pregame, prep the players, then expect it fed on an ipad hitter to hitter, and we'd move fielders a few feet in and out batter to batter based on spray charts and exit velocities. 

Candidate2 - I'd either play them on the infield grass if we thought a bunt was coming, or a runner on third, and on the outfield grass otherwise. 

Blue Jays Message Board - Candidate2 seems really sharp!

[Spanky__99]

They do number one Olerud, jesus christ...

[Laika]

The worst thing about last night, other than the loss, is that Vlad made an all time 1B defensive play and it didn't matter so it won't be remembered 

No other 1B makes that play. Maybe no other 1B ever? Lol

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, Olerud363.354 said:

It looked on TV like he playing a deep short like you would for Mike Stanton or Vlad. 

McNeil is slower than Vlad.

Fire Schneider for letting Varland throw a pitch that McNeil couldn't hit hard!  

[Terminator]

[Brownie19]

Confirmed - gotta play the infield in more often.

[Terminator]

We have good defensive metrics despite giving up the most infield hits.

So perhaps we are in fact cheating by playing back a bit? Which would make us give up more infield hits but maybe we steal more would-be-hits from sneaking through?

But as Chris Black says, we are giving up the weakest contact on infield hits, so our pitchers being good is playing a part of this too.

Regardless, Olerud has done it again by stirring up some though provoking debate in a way that only he can.

[Spanky__99]

The A's scored 4 runs while only hitting 1 ball to the OF yesterday, let that sink in, walks and our SP not controlling the running game did them in, at least the Jays showed character fighting and clawing back into it. Meh...

[Brownie19]

26 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

The A's scored 4 runs while only hitting 1 ball to the OF yesterday, let that sink in, walks and our SP not controlling the running game did them in, at least the Jays showed character fighting and clawing back into it. Meh...

We should be teaching our pitchers to field the ball better and hold runners.  More PFP's boys.  Our decision not to cost Cody Ponce his season.  What a massive failure of this organization.  

[Jays24]

It was bases loaded with 2 outs so every base had a force play.  f***er hit a ball in an unlikely spot at that speed.

Id rather focus on the numer other screw ups from the Jays like Kirk not knowing what a strike is all of a sudden, being too fat/lazy to tag the runner out, stopping the running game, etc.

[Spanky__99]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

We should be teaching our pitchers to field the ball better and hold runners.  More PFP's boys.  Our decision not to cost Cody Ponce his season.  What a massive failure of this organization.  

 

[Spanky__99]

36 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

It was bases loaded with 2 outs so every base had a force play.  f***er hit a ball in an unlikely spot at that speed.

Id rather focus on the numer other screw ups from the Jays like Kirk not knowing what a strike is all of a sudden, being too fat/lazy to tag the runner out, stopping the running game, etc.

The running is on the pitcher you dingleberry, Cease couldn't hold a runner to save his life, the staff itself has issues, our catchers aren't at fault.

I agree with the former though, that's batted ball luck.

[Stangstag]

2 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

McNeil is slower than Vlad.

Fire Schneider for letting Varland throw a pitch that McNeil couldn't hit hard!  

Or… maybe just acknowledge the possibility that Gimenez wasn’t in the best position given the batter at the plate? 

This isn’t a Y/N scenario, there’s room to discuss why he was playing so deep in the oppo hole with such a weak hitter at the plate.

[Stangstag]

1 hour ago, Spanky__99 said:

The A's scored 4 runs while only hitting 1 ball to the OF yesterday, let that sink in, walks and our SP not controlling the running game did them in, at least the Jays showed character fighting and clawing back into it. Meh...

Typical stupid 2026 Jays loss. Defense has not been the tightest this year and the offense leaves no room for error

[Spanky__99]

5 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Typical stupid 2026 Jays loss. Defense has not been the tightest this year and the offense leaves no room for error

We have the 2nd best defense in the MLB, in Catching it's first by a country mile, just chuck it out the window and move on folks. Tough loss was yesterday.

[Brownie19]

50 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

It was bases loaded with 2 outs so every base had a force play.  f***er hit a ball in an unlikely spot at that speed.

Id rather focus on the numer other screw ups from the Jays like Kirk not knowing what a strike is all of a sudden, being too fat/lazy to tag the runner out, stopping the running game, etc.

Are you kidding me?  You've been complaining about this ad nauseam all f*cking year.  You never shut up about it.

It almost appears the coaching staff actually tried to do something about it - telling Kirk to stop wasting challenges and yet you're still pissed off.

Just so we're clear - it's Schneider's fault that Kirk isn't good at challenges AND it's Schneider's fault for telling Kirk to stop challenging so often?  Brilliant stuff man.  Never change.

[John_Havok]

4 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

Probably just play everyone in.  McNeil's known for his blazing speed after all.  Gimenez is obviously too stupid to know where to play.  He needs his hand held for everything.  Wish we still had a real shortstop like Bo on the team.

Nobody would be playing in when all you need is a force at any bag. You can't plan your defense around a 51 mph dribbler. It's just s*** luck

[Brownie19]

13 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Or… maybe just acknowledge the possibility that Gimenez wasn’t in the best position given the batter at the plate? 

This isn’t a Y/N scenario, there’s room to discuss why he was playing so deep in the oppo hole with such a weak hitter at the plate.

It's bases loaded with a slow runner at the plate.  Force play on everywhere.  You range up to cover as much ground as possible.  You aren't moving the defense around to defend against some 29 MPH squibber.  

It's bad luck - not bad managing FFS.