John_Havok

It doesnt help that Kikuchi is all over the place tonight.

Another 3 hangers not even offered at that inning. Hard to beat a guy when you're not swinging at the heart of the plate offerings. I get that he's pretty good and has some deception but some of thesse meatballs need to be mashed.

Im not quite convinced yet. they might just have the greatest advanced scouting system in the game by far... always seems like the hitters know exactly how they are going to be pitched and are ready for everything thrown their way. And i dont mean sign stealing or pitch comm interception or stuff like that, just that maybe their video guys have built such a perfect way to scout opposing pitcher's tendencies to throw a certain pitch here, then a different one there, pitch sequencing predictions etc.

Hopefully. Just looking at the approaches of the two teams, Tampa is just always ready to hit mistakes. Jays are really just looking and looking like theyre going to wait him out or something. Hanging lsider to a lefty... mashed. Hanging change to Siri... murdered. Mclanahan has throw 5 pitches in the heart of the plate and has only had 1 swing on them, Springer's first hack at the fastball.

f***in hell - Kooch has 0 changeup tonight. everything wide arm side

f***ing buzzsaw through this lineup. He has hung some pitches tho... but with no swings on them, but happy to swing at the stuff up out of the zone and way down and in (merrifield). I think McClanahan is just in their head, like he's in pretty much everyone's head. They have to be geared up for 96+ but he can just drop those 85 mph changes and curves in whenever he wants.

And he got it right back... danm this guy is so maddenly inconsistent, but the stuff is just so good...

f***, Kikuchi lost his offspeed stuff ... dangit

I disagree with throwin nothing but fastballs to Paredes, he was obviously sitting on it and had the timing down

Heh, Springer check swings a 96mph fastball, goes off the tip of his bat for a foul ball. Franco check swings a 96 mph fastball, into RF for a hit. then Dribbler IF hit, ends up with a run. If that's not the Jays and Rays seasons in a nutshell right now, not sure what is.

Picking locked

Nobody brave enough to take Clement??? A career minor league vs arguably the best left hander in the game?

Well now im pulling for him for sure.

Its the Buck Martinez specialty... "save some for tomorrow boys..."

Vladdy - 1 Point - jays4life19 Bichette - 1 Point - Omar, mphenhef, jaysblue Chapman - 2 Points - Jonn Varsho - 2 Points Springer - 2 Points , StangStag, JohnHavok, wilko, WryNGinger Jansen - 3 Points Merrifield - 5 Points Lukes - 7 Points Clement - 7 points Off the bench: 10 Points

Awe crap... if wilko picks Springer I might have to change it up. He sucks at this.

I will also take Springer.

We agree there.

Don't conflate opinions of other people with mine. If you want to call Baltimore a WS contender, that's fine. Ditto Texas. That's not my opinion, nor was it my opinion that Baltimore and Texas would be trash. My early ST opinion on Texas was that they could be either really good or really bad depending on things breaking right or wrong for them in their highly variable and injury prone roster. So far it's definitely landed in their favour as they beat up on a ton of soft teams and been very healthy overall, save for DeGrom. They've lost series to Atlanta and Baltimore, and won a series vs the Yankees. That's about the extent of their season facing good teams. Texas hasn't had even 2 consecutive series so far against good teams. Theyre doing well, as they should be, but you dont learn anything about a team whos played that many softies early on. As for Baltimore, there's clear red flags with the starting rotation. Pen is solid in the back end. Offense can bludgeon people. They haven't had a bad stretch yet. They will. We'll see what they are and how they react when that happens. Just like we're seeing what the Jays are and how they are reacting in their current bad stretch.

Was Baltimore a Word Series contender last year?

Of their series with the Royals, As, Reds and Rockies, their differntial is +75. Lo0oking at when they played the decent teams, its always been when theyve been in the midst of a slump... except for Atlanta. They got the Yankees before they got hot, Houston before they were good, Philly right off the start when they were terrible... They've only lost 3 series, to Atlanta, the Cubs and Cinci (lost all 3 games by a total of 4 runs). Yeah, I'm not ready to call them a legit WS contender yet. Lets see until they get an extended run against some good teams, which... doesnt really happen in the near future. They'll play 1 good team then get 1 soft series and a mediocre series.

A lot of the run differential is padding from multiple series against Oakland and KC also. I’ll do the math later but against other good teams it’s probably closer to around +20 or less. They’re a good team for sure, not sure I’d put them in a top tier of any rankings list though.

Vlad was going old school tonight, just noticed in the highlights he went with a bat that was completely devoid of lacquer and paint. Nothing but sanded wood. Also went with no batting gloves in the 9th.

Pythagorean record would agree.