Laika

Strikeouts are a positive result for Vlad at this point

The Blue Jays have a fetish for this swing. If you look at all hitters from 2023 to present with the sharpest attack angle, and turn off the minimum qualifiers, the top 50 includes: Tapia Pinango Harold Ramirez Vlad Daz Cameron Jon Berti Stefanic Bo Will Wagner All former or present flames. REVOLTING HE SWINGS LIKE A GIRL!!!!!!!!!

I mean I presume Lorenzen is better than SWR and Lazaro Estrada and maybe even Dad Challas, but I like him a bit

Michael Lorenzen has a locker in the #BlueJays’ clubhouse today. Lorenzen was recently released by the Rockies. ^ not a bad move at all. he sucked in Colorado but most do. probably a good enough chunker to use a few times

Buddy, Freddie Freeman is a 99th percentile outcome for Vlad at this point Almost no chance he is that good Edwin Encarnacion or Adrian Gonzalez might be an 80th percentile outcome We are looking at an Eric Hosmer situation Vlad has 21 fWAR, what are the odds he even gets to 40 in his career? He might be lucky to get to 30. He literally sucks. If he can piece together 6 more 2 WAR seasons that might be a decent outcome because he sucks balls

always assumed Ross and Shapiro had no interest in giving him that contract but Rogers made them

This makes a lot of sense.

Donaldson, Votto, Cito, Kyle Boddy's mom, there are lots of options here

My theory on that is simply that it's pretty easy to time up batting practice baseballs Even with a horrible approach angle, if your timing is bang on and you hit the ball that hard, it's going out Just doesn't translate to games because most of your swings will not be on time. You will be a couple degrees early or late. I do think he is a cement head and that makes it even more egregious that they gave him so much money

Like, who thought it was a good idea to invest so much money at a guy who swings almost literally down on the ball? If this guy was a little league the coaches would be saying "it's not a sword, Vlad"

He's just not a good enough player. It's sad and unfortunate, but his swing path is FLAWED and the Blue Jays did not realize it until now. I don't actually KNOW any of this but my guess is that when you have a 1st percentile attack angle, your timing needs to be even better than the average player because of how your swing path lines up with the trajectory of the ball. Every pitch is coming into the zone moving down, right? The typical MLB swing is going to approach the ball at a 10 degree attack angle; a slight uppercut. That means the sweet spot is moving at that angle when it makes contact. Which also means that it matches a ball dropping at that same angle. So that player can be a bit late or early and still put the sweet spot on the ball. It seems like Vlad does not have that benefit. If he is a bit late or a bit early his contact quality suffers more. It's like his sweet spot is not on plane with the pitch for as long as it is for a standard slugger. He needs new hitting coaches and he needs to spend the entire offseason rebuilding his swing so that his attack angle is more normal. And I guess a bit more tilt would be nice, but I am not comfortable thinking in an additional dimension. Ted Williams always preached a slight uppercut swing. Vlad is the product of some pretty bad hitting philosophy. This is not even complicated stuff.

Are we trying or tanking? This team makes no sense Trade for Soriano and then just let Brendon Little walk everybody every other game It's like they want to miss the playoffs by exactly two games

I have never hated a Blue Jays offense this much It's just so bad, and even when it's not it's pathetic and frustrating and makes no sense

There are many ways to win They could also just get lucky and win a bunch of games where the other time throws the ball away etc. while Cleveland has the opposite kind of luck Pray for luck While knowing that the worst case scenario will happen - barely missing the playoffs.

I would expect the Location+ numbers on the offspeed stuff to be an aberration in this start. Nerves. But the STUFF is surprisingly low. Maybe one of those guys who puts up elite K-BB numbers in the minors but does not have the STUFF to make that completely translate to MLB. You see this from time to time, a dude will have like a 12 K/9 in AA because of his poise and command and a good changeup or something, but ends up with more of an 8 k/9 in MLB

The worst offense I have even witnessed from the Blue Jays

His sprint speed and arm strength are also down. Probably a slipped disc or something

Still laughing at the Guerrero flyout in the first inning to be honest 50 times this year the dude has done exactly that on the most hittable pitches imaginable

Luckily the Royals suck It's 5-0 against a real team

We insulted and then DFA'd Eric Lauer for this dude...

So sick of this old fart Can't believe they brought him back

Bieber, 2026 playoff hero arc incoming

Basically running three bullpen or replacement level SP slots And trying to catch a team running out Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee, Parker Messick, Foster Griffin, and Joey Cantillo while supporting them with Jose Ramirez and Kwan/DeLatuer/Bazzana/Genao/Lowe/Adell and the pen with the second best K-BB% in MLB and the 3rd easiest remaining schedule Cleveland should run away with this WC3 and Toronto might be lucky to end up within 5 games of them tbh

I am tempted to say "and so are the Blue Jays" but it's not like Bieber has provided much benefit this year, on balance

Just go 20-10 from here and see what happens Decent chance that does it Don't care how you win 20. Lose the next ten games and the win the last 20, if you want