glory

Benching two of the hottest hitters on the team on the same day probably wasn't a good idea. Lineup balance is kinda pointless when you have guys like Belt who can't catch up to 89 anymore, and Varsho who is struggling big time. At least I would expect Varsho to improve eventually, not sure about Belt.

That half inning was awful by the top 3.

Whit's days off are probably a combination of giving him more rest during the year due to age + Schneider having a history with Biggio and him/the org wanting to see if Cavan can turn things around. Schneider's bullpen usage is questionable, but he's been pretty reasonable with lineup decisions (unlike Buntoyo).

The Jays have no SP depth beyond their starting 5, and Schneider is going to run RP’s into the ground if he doesn’t get a long man to give him length out of the pen. White will have a role here. Bass is likely gone soon, and either Pop/Pearson probably going down due to their options.

One of the better fan rants you will hear on a radio show.

The Rays are 2-4 against the only good teams they have faced this season. Of course they face the White Sox next.

Samad Taylor has potential, and hopefully he gets a shot with the Royals at some point, but yeah that's looking like a sneaky good trade in hindsight. Merrifield clearly has something left in the tank, and has basically been playing like a ~3 WAR player since the trade. He's been a huge pickup given that Espinal looks more like a utility IF and there's a good chance Biggio stinks. There's no way the Jays pick up that 2024 option, but wouldn't shock me at all if they brought Merrifield back on a multi year deal assuming both sides are interested. Not like the internal options on the Jays for 2B or 3B look promising right now with Chapman's impending free agency. They could use the depth/insurance. Still a lot of season left though, so a lot can change.

Biggio pinch hitting for Springer can't be good.

When you see who owns the White Sox, it probably shouldn’t be a huge surprise. I hate the Rays with a passion but they just signed Franco to a massive deal before he had a year of service. I mean that deal is still going to be a steal for them but $182m guaranteed is a big commitment for a team like that.

We will see how Pearson looks once he gets Schneider'd and pitches 3 games in 4 nights for the first time, but seeing 100 coming out of the pen is exciting.

Someone tell Schneider it is 7-0, he can use Bass or Pearson here instead of Jimi.

The 2 catcher lineup is still the best lineup the Jays can field. They'll give more rope to Belt, but hopefully not too much more if he still looks this washed.

Berrios being good again would be an amazing development.

I could see his logic, though. He would have been a free agent at age 31, a full three seasons away, and at this point it looks like he's a corner OF instead of a CF which diminishes his value a bit. There was a lot going against him waiting for free agency. He tried to force his way out, which may have gotten him a bigger extension if he were traded to a non-cheap team, but when that ship sailed, he took the guaranteed money/security rather than risk waiting. It's a good deal for the Pirates, and Reynolds at least gets to say he got a $100 million contract. As much as I would hate to see Nutting rewarded for his cheapness, I hope this is the beginning of a nice run for the Pirates. That fanbase will support a consistent winner and they have one of the best stadiums in the league. Cherington did alright all things considered. He took over a lousy team in 2020, stripped what was left of it down, and by 2023 they are starting to at least look competitive. We will see how long that lasts this season, and what happens in the future.

I hope for Ohtani's sake the Angels trade him at the deadline so he has a chance to play in the post season this year. I'm guessing Arte would rather lose him for nothing than risk a 2nd half nosedive in attendance, but maybe logic will prevail in the end.

Agreed it's awful.

Chaim Bloom is legitimately terrible so while historically the Red Sox don't stay down for long, I'm not sure that will apply as long as he is the GM.

The Jays feed has some awful camera angles.

The winner of the AL Central will have fewer wins than the last place team in the East. If not, then it will at least be close.

Yeah the follow up to this will be important. They need to extend key young players as well as supplement with the right veteran pieces. A lot could go wrong, but they are in a good spot, especially since they look like they are capable of being a .500ish team already without making an effort to contend yet.

Did a quick glance at the Orioles top prospects, and practically everyone in the top 10 in the system is performing well right now. Some of those position players will likely need to be converted to pitchers via trade, but that's still a great position to be in. They have little to no financial obligations other than whatever they owe Chris Davis to sit at home, so extensions are realistic for their young players at some point. I thought they should have made more of an effort to add SP in the off season, but Grayson is up now, and if he pitches to expectation while the rest of the rotation can at least be collectively average, then they are going to be a problem.

75 pitches for Gausman who is dominating so probably good idea to have someone warm up.

Bass, Cimber, and Richards being in the big league bullpen while a healthy Pearson is wasting valuable innings on his arm in AAA is infuriating. Although I guess "a healthy Nate Pearson" with John Schneider's bullpen usage is probably not a realistic scenario, so Nate's arm might be better off in AAA for now.

I don't think so. They'll likely have analytics that dictate pitching decisions and use them regardless of what the actual results on the field are. I can't imagine that changing any time soon. Trusting Mayza to get a righty out rather than Gausman on 90 pitches in a playoff game was likely just a way of warning us of what's to come.

Jays are spending close to $88m just on starting pitchers, yet don't want them to throw over 80 pitches when things are going well. Makes sense.