Grant77

Jays games on Apple was the equivalent of them not being broadcasted at all, so that's a plus. Will NBC be blacking out games from Sportsnet as well? If yes, does that include playoff games? I don't really care about MLB.tv, but I do care about MLB Audio. I wonder if they will be retaining rights to that. I prefer the radio guys when I've driving or doing chores during the games.

Our record remains safe. That's the second time they have hit 9 this year.

Defensively, I'd rather keep Barger at 3rd and go after an outfielder, but I can't deny that Murakami is intriguing.

Max Scherzer revealed on on a podcast why MLB wouldn't allow George Springer to return from his concussion even though the Jay's doctors had cleared him. He wasn't able to correctly answer the question "What is a parallelogram"?

I'm not saying that this is the case, but consistent umpires don't get much grief from the players, even if the data shows that they missed a lot of calls.

I was taught that the latter usage is only acceptable because so many people make the same mistake as Zwelling does.

We're facing the AL and NL ERA leaders on back to back days. I wouldn't be surprised if that has only happened a handful of times in history.

Arden Zwelling constantly mispronounces the saying 'champing at the bit'. I swear he uses at least once it in every segment. It bugs me a bit in day-to-day parlance, but hearing a professional journalist not know how to speak is really annoying. I've also heard him say 'for all intensive purposes'. He knows his baseball, but you wonder how these guys get jobs sometimes.

I predicted the other day that this would happen, with Berrios and Lauer piggybacking on Saturday and Gausman taking his regular turn on Sunday. I can still see that happening.

Cabrera has been promoted to the big league roster, but it's in place of Alan Roden, who is out for the season with a thumb sprain.

Just to throw it out there, here's what I think will happen (not should happen). This is contingent on there being no injuries. Lauer went over 100 pitches last night, which is a bit unusual. Berrios is going today. They seem like the most tired pitchers on our staff and it makes sense to piggyback them. I think they go through the Pirates series on turn with Gausman, Scherzer, and Bassitt. After that there's an off day, so everyone gets an extra day of rest. Then you open up the Marlins series with Bieber (send down Fluharty), Berrios/Lauer, and then Gausman again. You have Lauer available on full rest in the Bieber start as well, should things go south. Then you have the Twins series and yet another off day after that. I mapped it out and with a 6 man rotation, someone would pitch on 8 day's rest, which is a little much.

I'm not opposed to a 6 man rotation for guys like Berrios, Bieber, and Lauer, but I'm concerned about how it will affect our two most likely playoff starters in Gausman and Scherzer. I'm doing what is best for those two guys, as well as Bieber.

Boston doesn't have the talent to catch us, as they are exceeding their talent level by double digit wins, as evidenced by their extraordinary luck on the pitching side. The bullpen as a whole is outperforming their xFIP by nearly a full run, which is insane. The Yankees undoubtedly have the talent to make a run and catch us, but they haven't shown any signs of doing so. The battle is really with Detroit, Houston, and Seattle and we have to beat our 2/3 of them. Detroit is hot, has a lead, and has a a very easy schedule. I think they finish with the best record of those three. Seattle has extremely poor defense, very little depth, and a mediocre bullpen. Unlike the Jays, a key injury or two could absolutely cripple them. As good as the rotation is, I just can't see them making up 5 games, especially with a very difficult schedule. I like Houston, but again, we have a 5 game lead. Injuries continue to cripple them with Hader going down. The Jays could completely implode, but even if we go like 17-19 and get 90 wins, I just don't see us falling into the WC round. The AL just isn't very good this year.

This offense has proven that they can get to any pitcher, including Eovaldi. I'm confident that we can get him out after 5 or 6 and scratch out a couple of runs. It's up to Berrios to keep us in it.

Berrios looks fatigued to me. I get that he has a streak going, but I think that a phantom stint on the IL with arm soreness would greatly benefit him.

Are you speaking of the last 6 games? Keep in mind that 2 of them were Cy Young award winners and two were against excellent pitchers in Glasnow and Boyd. We scored against Assad and sure, we should have lit up Horton, but I'm not particularly concerned about a 6 game sample that came directly after the best offensive performance in franchise history.

I wouldn't say that it has been mostly inept. Since the break, we're first place in wRC+ at 142, even ahead of the Brewers. In that time we've faced a ridiculous about of Cy Young winners or finalists in Verlander, Webb, Ray, Rodon, Fried, Lugo, Kershaw, Snell, Glasnow. It's really been quite impressive facing what I would imagine is the best pitching that any team in the league has seen and still coming out on top.

You could make that argument. Perez has looked pretty good as a rookie.

I was looking ahead at the probable pitchers and while we've faced the opposing team's best two pitchers in pretty much every series so far, including the next two, we might get a break in Miami. If they stay on turn, we'll miss both Alcantara and Cabrera.

He's always like that, no big deal. Maybe he wanted to know what kind of cologne the skip was wearing?

I missed most of the game. What's this about Schneider and Scherzer?

Owen Caissie is being called up. We may get to see a Canadian debut in Canada.

No broken bones for Amaya

I'm not right or wrong, neither are you. It's not possible to measure accurately over a few innings. xBA doesn't really account for barely fair homers, balls hit directly at fielders, really close plays that don't go your way, or blown calls in key situations. It essentially compares the velo and launch angles to a large sample. You're being ridiculously obtuse over this. I might think the line drive to Tucker is lucky for them. You might think it's just good defense. As said before, it's simply perception and inherently open to interpretation. Your use of childish insults instead of logic makes it obvious that you know this.

xBA doesn't have a whole lot of utility for a part of a single game. People should just bow to your supreme wisdom, Tyche.