Terminator

Well yeah last year was much easier. We finished as WC1 with a 6 game lead over WC3 and 9 games ahead of the Orioles who were the first team out. But I wasn't comparing the WC race to last year.

Do not despair. This Indians series sucked but it was a 5-2 road trip while dealing with numerous injuries. The reinforcements are coming soon (Bo, KK, Romano, Richards and Green). We have 3 off days in the next two weeks. 7 off days over the final 7 weeks of the season. Given that, it's time to dump the 6th starter. We've got a stacked bullpen 1-8 and the 8th bullpen guy is going to be more useful to us than the 6th starter. Ryu has looked serviceable and with the Mariners nipping at our heels it's time to send Manoah to AAA. I'd much rather have that 8th reliever (Jay Jackson or Genesis who have both been very good) than Manoah and the same holds true for the 9th reliever (Francis has looked like a very good long reliever). Rotation: 1. Gausman 2. Berrios 3. Bassit 4. Kikuchi (L) 5. Ryu (L) Minors- Manoah Bullpen: CL-Romano SU- Hicks SU- Mayza (L) MR- Garcia MR- Green MR- Richards MR- Jackson MR- Cabrera (L) LR/Sept- Francis Minors- Pearson That's one hell of a pitching staff to close out this season. Combine it with elite defense and some hitting that will SURELY be better with RISP eventually and that team has got to be able to make it in as the 3rd WC. And if it does that could set things up nicely with the Twins in the first round (they suck) and the Rangers (hello old friends) in the 2nd. There's still a legitimate path to the WS here.

He's incredibly frustrating to watch. And this probably isn't fair but the light hearted antics while he's struggling to be above replacement level make him tough to like.

Well you can't list off the Royals, A's, White Sox and Mets as easy for the Mariners and then say that the Nats, Rockies, A's and Royals stretch is "easy" for the Jays but you're not so sure. They are literally the 4 worst teams in baseball.

I was going off of Fangraphs who I trust more.

Yeah we've got an easier schedule than they do.

Jays schedule is probably easier. We are still the favorites but they could pull it off.

Mariners are right on our heels and they have a pretty cake schedule coming up. Might actually have to cheer for the Orioles.

Jays should have kept Olerud for the entirety of his career and also let him pitch.

Can you use normal names when referring to players? I had to take the unnecessary step of googling FTJ (which resulted nothing of note) and then FTJ baseball before I figured out who you were talking about.

lol

I read something along the lines that the Jays had 6 All-Stars last year that combined for about 15 WAR. Those same 6 players are on pace for about 3 WAR this year. It's amazing we are even in contention at all at this point.

Kris Bryant has been worth 0.1 WAR in 107 games since signing his 7 year, 182 million dollar deal two years ago. Ouch.

Gotta say I'm pretty torn on that one.

I don't know Spank but it's disgusting. I've been minding my own business this entire time and I'm constantly harrassed.

Yeah his entire statcast page isn't drenched in blue anymore. And you guys are getting better at reading the color coded statcast page, I'll give you that. If anything comes from this bit I've been running for over a year now I'll at least have taught you all something. But speaking of expected stats, his xwOBA is .338 which is in the 65th percentile. It's above average but not necessarily "objectively awesome" as it's a far cry from his 96th percentile wOBA. I still maintain that if he signed here with our luck, he'd be underperforming his xwOBA by 60 points instead of overperforming it by that amount.

So just to clarify, you think that Bellinger can and will over perform his wOBA by 60 points moving forward, all because of this new approach that you're ascribing to him? I guess it's possible, has anyone ever consistently over performed like that before Jim? I know it can happen with other stats like FIP but I haven't seen it with xwOBA.

Well he resurrected his career by cutting his K rate which makes him serviceable again but I can't predict that someone is going to over perform their wOBA by 60 points, Jim. No one can. He's got career low exit velos (by far), barrel rate and hard hit %.

Not sure what they are doing down in Buffalo. Barger is playing more OF lately, Clement at SS and De Los Santos at 3B. We need LF and 3B next year and if we were going to start Barger anywhere next year you'd think it would be 3B but he's been playing that the least. They probably envision him being a UT guy and are getting him OF reps to prep him for that. EDIT: Whoops I forgot Orelvis. He's been playing 3B mostly that's why Barger has been playing more OF.

Seems like they don't trust Schneider to play 3B? And they wanted to play Biggio because of the game winning homer the night before (partly as a reward and partly to see if he can do it again)? The reward part is kind of stupid but I have heard that it's one of those unwritten baseball rules where if you hit a home run you play the next day. Probably doubly true for a game winner. But if Schneider can't play 3B and they felt they need to play Biggio then they should have played Chapman yesterday and sat him today. Sitting two bats when Bo and KK are already out with injury is stupid. We dumbed down the lineup to Cleveland's level and gave away the advantage that we had. DUMN

Batters will get a boost next year when the foul territory is reduced by about 3,000 square feet.

Fair

True but with KK out there are some opportunities in LF and also to pinch hit. They've also been sitting the regulars during this 17 game stretch which would have provided him some ABs too.

I get that they don't want to call up prospects only to have them ride pine but there is no way in hell anyone can convince me that Espinal, Biggio and Lukes are all better than Horwitz, Barger and Clement. I'm not saying all 3 need to be up but with Kiermaier and Bo out it would have been a great time to at least call up a guy like Horwitz and give him some ABs. He can play some LF and Whit can play 2B.