John_Havok

He has the clutch gene tho.

Well, we're gonna have to live with Bateman in CF. I think Lukes will be gone, Sanchez likely non-tendered, Straw's option declined. I feel like the'll try to bring Straw back at a lower number and i hope it happens because he's as good a 4th OF there is in baseball defensively and still hits lefties well so the compliment to Bateman is a tangible. They may even try to bring Sanchez back as a strong side platoon until Barger is ready since he actually hits RHP well and at keast represents a power threat off the bench against RHP. Could easily live without him though and just roll with Pinango in that role though. OF free agents is a cesspool so barring Atkins making a boss trade befire or after the lockout, inagreebthe OF looks average at best offensively.

Go and look at the team babip they ran during their streak. It was so high it deserves to be studied. It was like .550 or something. That's insanely lucky

Not really, Ernie is a slap hitter that puts a lot of balls in play, he's a decent bet to put something on the ground to at least get the force at home, or an average fly ball where you can keep the runner at 3rd.

Look at the starting outfield right now. Are we screwed?

Total body soreness is the diagnosis. He'll be fine. Theyll give him a day or two and he'll be back

You can't convince me thay Springer isn't better defensively in the OF than either Sanchez or Pinango. Granted, Sanchez is probably non-tendered but Pinango has a decent chance of starting next year beside Bateman and Lukes until Barger comes back

Were you questioning it over the past 3 or 4 years when virtually none of them were hurt? Didnt think so.

What year did the complex in Dunedin get renovated to add that player performance lab? Edit: spring of 2021. 5 years. Is that about the length of time you'd start to see more consistency in development on a year to year basis? Theres so many variables in this, how does one even gauge how successful the complex and its 3 performance labs have been? Do we look at the pure numbers like velo increases? Pitch shapes and spin rates? Or... increases in K rates with decreases in walk rates? Health? How many pitchers have to show these increases and improvements? What if all those improvements still don't translate to the on-field results as often as they should (in theory). What if they show major inprovements as a forgotten 19th rounder from complex league to AA and then fizzle? Is that success or not?

Not sure how much to read into this but Stanifer's last 2 appeaeances in New Hampshire have been out of the pen. Not an innings limit thing as he's still about 25 innings short of last years totals.

Defense is always underappreciated by fans, until it's gone

Eggheads. I look at whether his girlfriend is hot or not, and whether they drive a Porsche 911 with a quadraphonic blaupunkt. Oh, and whether he announces his presence with authority. everything after that is statistical noise

No idea, i'm sure Lehr gets input from literally everyone along with whatever data and metrics they use from the lab and doesn't just make arbitrary decisions just to make them. It's also probably a very different process for veteran arms than it is for high school kids that were just drafted.

Another arm to abuse for a few games until some others can be shuffled back up again. Lee sucks.

Whomever gave that stat was incorrect. They beat the Cardinals 5-1 aug 1st, Boston 6-0 july 25th, and a couple blowouts in a row in San Francisco July 7th and 8th. Varland pitched in one of the SF games. Still, the overall point remains true.... offense sucks. A part of him looking human over his previous few outings has also been bad defense. 3 of the 6 runs allowed were unearned.

I'm legit curious as to the overall hierarchy. Like, i can absolutely envision Walker having next to 0 input on a pitcher's develooment in the minor leagues since he doesnt see them everyday and he's probably got more than enough on his plate with keeping the 13 arms on the 26 man roster pointed in the right direction and dealing with their day-to-day. I very much doubt Walker knows more than 20 pitchers names off hand in the entire system below the 40 man roster. From the sounds of it Lehr is now the guy who decides the what and the why of each pitcher's development track and my guess would then be it's a combination of the pitching coaches at each level, the roving coordinators and the strength and conditioning that are responsible to put each plan into action on a day to day basis, at least from A+ and up. The Dunedin and Complex level guys probably get additional help from the pitching lab in addition to the above.

Exactly. The reason as to why they need to appeal at 3rd, even though theres already 3 outs, is what confuses people. The fact that he never tagged at 3rd bjt still crossed the plate before the 3rd out means the run scores. Getting a runner out from failing to tag is NOT a force out. So, since its not a force out, the run would score by rule definition that only a 3rd out force out would negate a run that has already crossed the plate before the 3rd out. The need to appeal to 3rd to get the "4th out" is exactly why the rule exists.

Justin Lehr - Director of Pitching development and Joe Sclafani - director of player development would be responsible for the overall direction of the system and what to focus on broadly. As for how this gets executed at each level and for each prospect would be a little more conviluted of you were trying to identify the eaxct reason why player or pitcher X isnt improving the way they wanted or as fast etc. Lehr hasnt even been there for 2 full seasons yet.

So no Rogers, and hopefully no Varland though he will probably be available. Dude has thrown a ton lately.

Just a guess on my part but i think the delay was deciding what to do when they realized they never gave the Jays the opportunity to appeal given the confusion of the outs. They probably realized early enough in the process what the rules say and the run should score, butvtheybalso realized they dun f*cked up in the way they handled it. Its almost reminiscnet of a playoff game i recall where a catcher threw the ball back to the pitcher. But the hitter, who was in the batters box, had stuck his arm and bat out a bit to adjust his sleeve and the ball hit the bat and rolled on to the field. Defense reacted initially to get the ball while the runner from third started home but then the home plate ump waved evrything off and declared the play dead so the defense stopped trying to get the ball though the runner continued and crossed home plate. Thats situation took a while to resolve too and the run scored, as it should by the rulebook. Defense argues they were robbed of the opportunity to make the out because the ump declared the play dead so they stopped trying. That situation wasnt quick to resolve either even though the rules were pretty clear and the umps just bungled the on-field play while it happened. Very memorable. Easily the single most memorable thing about that otherwise boring game.

Yeah true. I think the thing that hangs up anlot of peoples brains on this type of play is that players being caught not tagging after a fly ball is a force play when it's not. Only force outs as the 3rd out negates a run of the guy has already crossed the plate before the out was registered. The only legit beef here was the fact the Jays were denied a chance to appeal at 3rd.

Its no different than if a guy leaves early before a catch and the defense doesnt appeal. He scores without tagging up. The 4th out rule is on the books for this exact play

Commin misconception. You absolutely can if they don't appeal

They ran a near .600 babip in that stretch