Laika

Between Little, Seranthony, and Hoffman, a good chunk of the Jays pen is just scattershot up there. Varland is a nice counterbalance to that though. Historically Yimi has been great so hopefully he gets back this year.

Jeff Hoffman has horrible command and almost always has. It's just been masked by whiffs from 2023 to present. He has a 3.00 K/9 even after last night, somehow. His location+ is a 92 though. That's like 30 grade command. And it was that bad from 2020 to 2023 as well. 2024 was his only outlier command year with a 99 location+. Most of the homers he gives up are command based. Middle-middle misses, hung splitters... He has fundamental issues.

Every pitch Mason Fluharty threw was perfect for the situation I still can't get over it He executed more pitches against those two batters than Jeff Hoffman has executed since June 1st

Jays, Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners, Astros, Rangers, Tigers TBH the AL is wide open, all of these teams have their strengths and flaws

fWAR ranks Position Players: Jays #1, Seattle #9 (6.3 fWAR gap; Seattle has a horrible defense) Arms: Jays #24, Seattle #19 (1.9 fWAR gap) Org is right. The Ms pen is surprisingly thin. They have 3.5 good relievers and then some real slop. Their bats can be pitched to. It's a good offense now but most of their core bats have big holes somewhere. They are scary in a short series because Gilbert/Woo/Kirby could just dominate though. The problem with their rotation and lack of WAR there would be the other arms. Logan Evans sucks, Bryce Miller has been brutal as well. These guys are not starting playoff games. Luis Castillo probably doesn't either. I mean, if the Ms win the playoffs it's because those three SP dominate and they hit a bunch of homers and Cal Raleigh is WS MVP. If they lose in the playoffs we probably see some of the core bats strike out too much + the pen blows some games where the SP can't go deep. If a team can work Woo/Kirby/Gilbert and get them out at 5 innings or less, they have a good shot. Toronto is a more "complete" team IMO but they don't have that playoff SP package.

She had a 91% call success rate today which is below average and bad but it was her first game, lots of pressure. I'm sure she'll be "fine".

The entire pen was gone other than Fluharty and 34 year old journeyman Nance It never really made complete sense to go to Fluharty until the platoon advantage made it make sense If he went to Nance against Call for example, he's committing to Nance against Ohtani. Wild closers like Hoffman can find their release point and suddenly be nearly unhittable. For *most* of Hoffman's outing it still made sense to kind of think that could happen. Obviously if they still had Little to use they probably would have deployed the replacement RP sooner - against Call or Freeland.

Seems like this kind of guy, you just give up on the SP thing next year and make him a good LHRP

My quarter chicken dinner just arrived Perogies on the side

Still can't get over Fluharty throwing 12 straight nearly perfect pitches to Ohtani and Betts

Embarrassing post Go watch a league of legends stream or something

I might even order Swiss Chalet before it closes

I dunno how that first pitch to Ohtani in the ninth wasn't a swing He almost did a 360

I feel high right now on this win. This is what first place teams do. They don't win every series but they find a way to do things like avoiding getting swept on the road against the best team in baseball. I'm going to have two Labatt Blues after the kids fall asleep

Jeff Hoffman should be embarrassed. John Schneider deserves a lot of credit for being so aggressive with the pen today. He won them the game despite Hoffman trying to blow it twice. It's almost like Jeff bet on the Dodgers today.

I don't think Mason Fluharty missed by two inches on a single pitch? Every single pitch was executed perfectly He struck out Ohtani twice and got Betts without sweating. Wow.

MASON f***ING FLUHARTY BALLS OF STEEL

Kershaw got very lucky last night. That bases loaded line drive double play was brutal. The bats are good

Hang two breaking balls in a row, damn.

I think we need a couple more runs boys Lots of good approaches against Kershaw but missing that extra base pop so far I like the approach though, sit soft don't try to do too much He's not walking anyone so gotta swing

Mookie sucks now eh

So pumped for the next nine games. All good teams. Good pitchers. I think the Jays will rise to this just like they have some against good teams all year.

lmao holy s*** he's worse than Ricky

okay but who is the most underrated Blue Jay of all time? hint: it's gregg zaun if he was born 30 years later he would be some fWAR OBP framing and defense god catcher

What did Aaron Hill do!?