Laika

The Blue Jays bullpen is bad by WPA -1.59 is the fourth worst figure in MLB But Jeff Hoffman alone is -1.65, hilariously. If Joffman didn't exist they'd probably be 12-12 (The Jays pen was good by WPA in 2025 and decent to very good in 2026 by most meaningful measurements)

Sanchez tonight for me

What kind of mental illness is it that makes people think that anyone who replies to them and disagrees with their opinion is "triggered"? Some sort of personality disorder, most likely Tommy Nance has like, +1 fWAR in 63 innings as a Blue Jay. Complaining about his mere existence in the bullpen is a good way to label yourself as someone who doesn't know a lot about modern baseball.

It's not some kind of genius insight to say that if they had better players they would have a better record. If they had better hitters they would have more wins, too. I don't know what some of you even want the guy to do differently, in terms of process. He: Acquired Varland, who is elite Signed Rogers, who is elite Developed or found Fluharty and Fisher Found Little who was elite for half a season Spent capital on rentals like Seranthony when needed Cut ties with guys like Green or demoted Y Rod when it made sense Has successfully cycled through helpful backend guys like Mantiply It's like your entire critique is that they signed Jeff Hoffman and he sucks and therefore Atkins is terrible at bullpens. I guess he should have swung again and signed Edwin Diaz or Devin Williams this past offseason?

I was expecting Sean Keys to be leading AA in wRC+ but he is surprisingly not. Franklin Arias might be a problem. 20 years old, destroying AA with godly contact rates. Several Jays farmhands are in the top 12 for all of the affiliated minor leagues, by qualified wRC+ Peyton Williams must be rehabbing? Cunningham and him need to be in AA tomorrow. Geezers. What got into Tucker Toman? Did something click last year for him and nobody noticed after 2+ years of futility? He had a 125 wRC+ from June 1st on, in 2025. 139 wRC+ from June 1 2025 to present. He is still not ancient, but on the edge of relevance for age vs. level as far as actual prospects go. AA bound as well? # Name Team Level Age PA BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO Spd BABIP wSB wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+ 1 Franklin Arias BOS AA 20 54 9.3% 7.4% 1.25 .444 .519 .933 1.452 .489 3.1 .389 -0.5 19 11.6 .598 251 2 Ben Ross MIN AA 25 72 16.7% 13.9% 1.20 .424 .528 .797 1.324 .373 5.7 .455 0.7 23 13.7 .571 236 3 Bennett Thompson CLE A+ 23 52 38.5% 21.2% 1.82 .344 .596 .750 1.346 .406 1.1 .444 -0.3 18 10.2 .586 235 4 Danny Serretti ARI AA 26 60 25.0% 13.3% 1.88 .386 .550 .818 1.368 .432 6.1 .406 -0.4 20 11.6 .576 226 5 Victor Figueroa BAL A+ 22 56 10.7% 19.6% 0.55 .380 .446 .820 1.266 .440 5.5 .394 -0.4 17 9.3 .535 218 6 Carter Cunningham TOR A+ 25 87 13.8% 25.3% 0.55 .338 .471 .721 1.192 .382 6.4 .415 -0.7 24 12.6 .520 213 7 Sean Keys TOR AA 23 69 13.0% 21.7% 0.60 .351 .464 .825 1.288 .474 5.1 .353 0.0 21 10.9 .533 213 8 Colby Shelton CHW A+ 23 71 12.7% 16.9% 0.75 .400 .493 .717 1.210 .317 8.1 .455 0.4 21 11.1 .524 212 9 Josh Adamczewski MIL A+ 21 51 21.6% 17.6% 1.22 .333 .490 .769 1.259 .436 4.5 .320 0.0 15 8.0 .541 206 10 Peyton Williams TOR A,A+ 25 56 19.6% 17.9% 1.10 .415 .518 .610 1.128 .195 4.3 .485 -0.2 15 7.6 .512 204 11 Tucker Toman TOR A+ 22 57 19.3% 22.8% 0.85 .372 .509 .605 1.113 .233 4.5 .483 -0.1 15 7.6 .504 204

Can't listen to the audio but mailing cards to players for signatures does seem like something from the past. Nowadays these guys sign thousands of signatures for Topps etc., under commercial agreements. In the old days you could mail a player a card and they would probably appreciate having such a good fan. And they didn't just sign 1000 baseball cards on the weekend. Just a different era. Sad though.

Were they though? His Stuff+ by game is 90, 79, 85, 87, 78 He only had four games all of last season with Stuff+ in the 80s, and zero below 87 So these last four games are his worst Stuff+ games over his entire Blue Jays tenure (and perhaps his whole career) Unless he has mono, I am not sure what the narrative is. I can buy the flu for a start but the tape is weird. What is going on?

Him to STFU and just pitch?

Yeah I haven't looked at the numbers but he probably has a relatively low Zone% Lots of relievers with nasty stuff have a low Zone% and when people are swinging they are good but when people lay off they suck Ryne Stanek, Genesis Cabrera, Jose Alvarado. You know the type. Hoffman is weird in this respect though because hitters ARE SWINGING. His command wobbles game to game seem to lead to players keyholing him and hunting, not just laying off and waiting for walks. So the K rate is maintained but the results are ugly.

Anthony Volpe has an 85 career wRC+ and the cut throat Yankees have handed him the starting SS job for years. The reality is that if players continue to PROJECT WELL then organizations will continue to give them opportunities and trust them. When exactly certain organizations will jump off the train of a declining player is just influenced by how their internal projection models differ, or perhaps how in tune they are to the root causes that might drastically influence future projections that the models are not picking up yet (scouting stuff and personal information, injuries, personality and so forth). Jeff Hoffman's feelings are extremely irrelevant.

There are two types of people in this world. People who ride Eric Lauer's dick People who don't Choose wisely

This Lauer guy is a buffoon

I should go easier on Eric Lauer. Ultimately, today, he was not put in a position to succeed. He should have been deployed behind an opener.

decent chance we see Mr. Romano this game?

But the offense isn't nibbling at the zone and then throwing 88 mph "heaters" and then flapping his yap in between starts They were also facing a pretty good starter lol

Despite Eric Flower Power's best efforts to get his ERA higher than Hoffman's, the Jays could still win this one. Soriano is out and the Angels bullpen is atrocious.

2 homers, 2 walks throwing 88 are we going to make excuses for Eric Lauer all year? at least the Hoffman truthers could point to strikeouts and other objectively positive information

He has not been excellent lol He was terrified of the Angels that inning, is throwing 88, and has more walks than strikeouts

LMAO Gameday is calling every single Lauer fastball a changeup

Interesting Hoffman commentary

Gimenez

Gausman, Cease, Yesavage, Bieber Hoffman, Rogers, Varland, Fisher, Fluharty, Yimi, Nance Corbin/Scherzer/Berrios/Lauer for two spots Who are you cutting or trading if everyone is healthy? Two need to go. Nance is out of options and has decent projections/stuff so he would be claimed. We have already cut Miles and demoted Mantiply here. The team isn't likely to put two starters in the pen as long-men. Berrios is not liquid, cannot be traded Scherzer could perhaps be put on the gentleman's IL Maybe Corbin could be traded for cash/PTBNL if he is pitching well There isn't really a reason to prefer Lauer to Corbin. Corbin was also pretty solid in 2025, made 30 starts and was worth 1.9 fWAR. There is no "stuff gap." Lauer's gaping yap is not helping his case Of course it's baseball so there will be enough injuries for this to not ever matter

Lauer also might be DFA bait if nobody wants him f***ing 86 Stuff+ this year and making 4x what Patty Corbin signed for Corbin and Lauer are both just sort of a bet on who can fake it with plus command for 15 starts or so Scherzer and Berrios might be in the same bucket This collection of has-beens is becoming pretty funny

I think he's trade bait for sure The Astros are a mess and need pitching desperately and Toronto-Houston are trade buddies The Cards are miraculously 14-9 but have one of the grossest rotations out there

How can Vlad be so good at SLIDING INTO HOME (elite poke last night and a dozen epic dives and decisions in his career) but so bad at ALL OTHER BASERUNNING DECISIONS AND THINGS ???