jaysblue

Supposedly the Jays could be bidding for the ASG in 2028. Between them and Baltimore.

Yeah I think you have to go with a lefty masher in Philly.

Are you kidding? I think Sportsnet will show it. Opening Night this season was a Netflix exclusive and I ordered Netflix just for it, and it wasn't even airing on Netflix here in Canada. Sportsnet actually aired the game that night, so what a waste haha.

Who do we got in the HR derby tonight? I'm going with Schwarber or Harper since both are from Philly, but would like to see Murakami or Caglianone steal the show.

She was awful yesterday. As well, with the bad calls when the managers came out to express their case, you can tell both Stammen and Schneider felt awkward when they were arguing with her and they both kept it toned down for optics. Just my two cents. Agreed. I responded to his first part of the post which was baseball related. I don't understand how his last statement had anything to do with baseball or Maddison Shipman broadcasting her first games.

I really like Madison Shipman, and I think she’s done a great job. I’m not just saying that for the sake of it either. She genuinely offers valuable insight, whether she’s in the booth calling the game or on the pre- and post-game panel. I like Ben Shulman as well. He’s grown into the role nicely and brings a solid presence to the broadcast. Overall, Sportsnet has a really strong team covering the Jays. Between the play-by-play, analysis, and studio crew, we’re pretty lucky as fans.

2026 just doesn’t feel like the Jays’ year. Between the injuries at the start of the season, the poor record against bad teams, the overworked bullpen through parts of May and June, disappointing seasons from Vladdy and Springer, the lack of power in the lineup, and the team not being nearly as sharp defensively as last year, it’s been one frustrating issue after another. They’re lucky the rest of the AL hasn’t exactly been anything special. They’re only 2.5 games back of the Mariners for the third Wild Card spot, so they’re still technically right there. But there are also a lot of teams they need to jump over, including Houston, Minnesota, Baltimore, and Boston. WC3 is still dangling in front of them. It feels close, but also so far away. They really can’t afford to mess around after the All-Star break. They need to come out and go on some kind of run - something like winning 7 or 8 out of 10 and they need their key guys to finally step up. Vladdy and Kirk have to produce offensively, and arms like Gausman, Bieber, and Yesavage need to stabilize the rotation. Otherwise, they’re just going to keep spinning their wheels. And if they keep squandering these opportunities, that 2.5-game deficit is going to turn into something much harder to overcome later on in the season.

Like Stang said earlier, his postseason performance probably set expectations sky-high among fans and media. A lot of us likely thought he could step in right away as a potential #1/#2 starter, or maybe even have a Paul Skenes-type early impact. But in reality, if the BB/9 remains a concern and we’re seeing 6- or 7-walk outings every so often, some of his starts are going to be frustrating while he works through the growing pains. The encouraging part is that he’s still only 22, so there’s plenty of time for him to mature, refine the command, and correct some of these issues. But if the BB/9 sits in the mid-to-high 4s long term, that probably caps his ceiling closer to a #3/#4 starter. If he can bring the walks down while maintaining the strong K/9 rates, then you can start talking about him as a solid #2 or even a 1A-type arm for stretches.

Manoah pretty much posted a 4 WAR season in 2022 after his rookie season in 2021. Not sure if we see that from Yesavage right out of the gate, especially with the high BB/9 rates.

Misiorowski won't pitch today in the Brewers series finale with the Pirates. Damn, it would have been an epic pitching matchup with Misiorowski vs. Skenes. Was looking forward to it 🥲

Gimenez isn’t being moved unless the Jays are willing to send money back in a deal. That contract makes him tough to move straight up. Straw as a 4th outfielder is fine. He gives you defense, speed, and late-game flexibility. But if he’s playing every day in CF, that could become an issue pretty quickly, especially if the offense is already struggling. As for Varsho, if the Jays fall out of contention and he makes it clear he isn’t interested in signing an extension here, then I could definitely see them exploring a trade. At that point, it would make sense to at least see what the market looks like rather than risk losing him for nothing later.

Yeah, I had to relook at his career numbers, and throwing strikes has never exactly been a major strength of his. He’s always had elevated BB/9 rates, so the control issues aren’t coming completely out of nowhere. That said, this was already his second 7-walk performance of the season, and he’s also had outings with 6 and 5 walks. At some point, that becomes more than just a one-off bad command day. You can live with occasional wildness if the stuff is good enough, but you can’t have these blowup walk performances happening every couple of starts. That puts way too much pressure on the bullpen and makes it almost impossible to consistently win games he starts.

Think something is wrong with Yesavage health wise? His BB/9 is extremely worrisome.

The smug “we are scientists and you are pleb” routine doesn’t make your argument stronger. It just makes it sound like you’re hiding behind spreadsheets while ignoring part of the actual sport. I’m not saying BABIP, HR rate, or pitch mix, don’t matter. Of course they do. But pretending those are the only things that matter is where I disagree. Baseball isn’t played in a lab. There is a psychological component to the game, especially for relievers, and especially when you’re talking about the 9th inning. Acting like there’s no sample size here is ridiculous. We’re not talking about two bad outings; we’re comparing two full seasons in Philadelphia against his 2025 season and the early part of 2026 in Toronto. Hoffman’s issue has never been that he lacks stuff. The stuff is clearly good enough. The concern is what happens when the command starts to go and the inning begins to snowball. That’s where mound presence, composure, role, leverage, and confidence matter. You can dismiss that as “random variance” all you want, but not everything in baseball is neatly explained by BABIP and HR rate. If your entire argument is that anything outside the spreadsheet is fantasy, then you’re not analyzing the full picture - you’re just choosing the parts of the game that are easiest to quantify.

Crazy to think the White Sox could make the Postseason.

Ross Atkins at the trade deadline:

When the Jays were down 2-1, was saying they need to get to the Padres before they bring in their late-inning weapons. Huge 5th inning and taking the lead there was so important. Didn't want to have to face guys like Bradgley, Morejon and Miller in the late innings.

I'm going to buy an Okamoto jersey. How many HR's do you think he finishes with? O/U 35?

I don't understand why some on here can't just accept the facts that he's a better pitcher when he's not being used as a closer. Look at his two seasons with the Phillies before signing with Toronto.

I bought his jersey online back in April haha. Smart buy 😁

Welcome Ryan Sprock!

He's in love with the Mall of America.

Petco is one of my favourite parks. Most away teams stay at the Omni Hotel right attached to the ballpark. I remember seeing Mark Reynolds in line at the Starbucks and Mike Matheny at the hotel bar when I saw the Padres play the Cardinals in 2015 haha. Nice guys!

Yeah, those guys need to pick up the slack. If they added another impact bat, you’d hope it could help lengthen the lineup and maybe spark Vladdy and Kirk in the second half.

He’d be a very frustrating player to watch because he’s constantly in and out of the lineup for a few days at a time, either because he’s banged up or dealing with some minor injury. There always seems to be a short IL stint or two every season as well. To be fair, that’s actually an improvement for him compared to pre-2025, when any injury seemed to knock him out for significant chunks of time. As a short-term rental, I think he’d be fine. You’d probably have to keep him at DH most of the time to maximize his durability and keep his bat in the lineup. But as a long-term solution in CF after Varsho leaves as a free agent? I don’t think that’s ideal.