No doubt they are/were both puppets for the front office, so neither one is different from the other, but Montoyo was playing scrubs regularly (Panik, Valera, etc) and had horrendous batting orders. Schneider at least has logical batting orders and doesn’t play the back of the bench guys unless he has to (for the most part).
Schneider will get to bust a nut tonight with the amount of relievers he can use now. And it’s only game 1 of this series so fun on the way for the pen. I hope they enjoyed their off day.
Grayson since coming back on 7/17:
6 GS, 1.0 WAR, 3.03 ERA, 2.96 FIP, 35.2 IP
Those starts were against the Dodgers, Rays, Yankees, Jays, Astros, and Padres.
He's been very good since he came back up.
Another team to keep an eye on is the Rangers. They lead the West by 2.5 on the Astros and 3 on the Mariners heading into tonight (and 3.5 up on the Jays). Conceivable that they could be passed in the standings by one or both of Seattle/Houston, which muddies up the WC even more. The Jays also have 4 games against the Rangers in September.
Yeah it hasn't just been Manoah but a bunch of important players having off years at the same time (Vlad, Kirk, Varsho, Springer primarily). Even Chapman since May 1 has an 86 wRC+ (.208/.301/.362) and 1.2 WAR in 385 PA (yes he was that good in April). It's a testament to how good the pitching has been that the Jays are even this good record-wise. Varsho and Springer have at least been coming on lately.
All 3 of the Jays, M's, and Astros have relatively easy schedules down the stretch. It's going to come down to the wire. The Rays have a tougher schedule but may have enough distance between them and the Jays to not worry too much. Six games is catchable but not ideal.
Yeah say what you want about Stroman’s personality but he unquestionable works hard and rises up to challenges. If Manoah had that work ethic he’d probably still be in the big league rotation and actually contributing to it.
It certainly explains why Elias wasn’t spending money on pitching this past winter. Turns out he didn’t need to but he’s working for a guy who wants to build like the Rays and cry poverty.
Yeah they absolutely have to destroy the easy part of the schedule. Hopefully Bichette being back is the spark they need to at least be a decent offensive team down the stretch. More Jansen in the lineup would help as well.
The Jays own the tiebreaker over the Astros but not over the Mariners. So the Jays are actually closer in the standings to the Astros now. If all 3 finish in a 3 way tie, then the Mariners and Jays would advance as both own the season series over the Astros. Rooting for the Astros demise seems more fun anyway.
If he was 83 pitches in the 3rd inning and struggling, he would have been kept in. That’s just how Schneider is. Get to 5-6 innings and then he can have his little wet dream of using his entire bullpen the rest of the way.
Shocked that they actually punted DeJong. It was the right move but was not expecting them to drop the vetrin and keep the young guy they never played.
This is how I’m coping with this. Even if the Jays make the last playoff spot, I have no faith in them being able to hit Sonny Gray and Pablo Lopez so if they make it then great, but if not, at least it should (in theory) lead to more significant change.
If DeJong were an established starting caliber player I would agree, but no chance I’d give this much rope to a role/bench player when he’s been as bad as he has been. Schneider had like 2 bad games and never played again. I just don’t see the logic here but clearly they want defense even if it negatively impacts the offense so they are doubling down on it.
Holding on to DeJong who just put up a -1.0 WAR in 2 weeks when you’re leading the WC by half a game is insanity, but vetrin presents and I guess whatever prospect they gave up for him is going to hold more weight.