glory

James Click rubbing his hands together seeing how things are unfolding right now.

“Shut up Fat Boy” is Schneider’s legacy. He literally hasn’t done anything else worth anything.

Varsho finally not batting 4th anymore. He’s going to get better with the bat but let him do it towards the bottom of the order first. Thankfully Belt is resembling a big league hitter now so easier to make that switch.

Yeah the negativity about this team shouldn’t be about the quality of the 2023 team but the division they play in. Hell, it wasn’t even 2 seasons ago that the Jays won 91 games and missed the playoffs. It’s not out of the realm of possibility to happen in 2023 as well. The long term outlook for the team is a bit more worrisome to me when I look at a team like Baltimore and how they are set up, not to mention the Rays who are always good, and the Yankees who haven’t finished below .500 in like 30 years. This division forces excellence so the bar has to be set higher.

Springer looked safe on the replay but still a bad decision on his part.

The issue with the Jays is they have prioritized middle infielders who hit like middle infielders. It's hard to turn those guys into passable outfielders unless they somehow become plus CF'ers where offense isn't as important as RF/LF. On top of that the outfielders they have drafted over the past few years have not been able to hit as they climbed the ladder in the minors. I actually think it's a drafting issue in general, not just an outfielder issue. The amateur drafting since 2016 aside from hitting on Bichette and Manoah has been ass cheeks for the most part. Bichette was drafted 7 years ago. They haven't developed a homegrown drafted position player at any position even close to that level since (Kirk/Moreno were international FAs). The Cardinals drafted Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, and Alec Burleson in a 5 round draft in 2020, as an example. The prospects are there, the Jays just don't seem to be identifying them as well as other teams, and it shows in the current state of the farm system. Even the international drafting since Moreno/Kirk has been suspect, although to be fair with international prospects you need to give more time due to how young they are. It's actually a credit to Atkins for how good the MLB team is given the lack of real farm development over the years. He's done really well on a lot of trades and signings, to his credit.

Bases loaded, 0 out with Weber on the mound, Belt/Vlad/Springer hitting, and the Jays only get a run in. That’s pretty bad.

The hypothetical of "we could have gotten X for Kirk" is pointless. The decision to trade Moreno instead of Kirk isn't. There were arguments to keep or trade any of the 3 catchers during the off season. The only thing we don't know for sure is what the offers were for the others (or even the other offers available for Moreno), so we can safely assume the Jays went with the trade they perceived as being the best value, but we can still debate whether they chose the right player to trade. To clarify, I was fine with them trading Moreno for Varsho. Whether it was fair value player for player or not is debatable, but the team's window is 2023-25, and Kirk/Jansen was probably the safest way of maximizing that window without the risk of having to wait to see if Moreno turned into something (if he ever does). Plus getting a legit defensive CF who can also hit is becoming very difficult, never mind the Jays inability to develop OF'ers internally over the years. If you asked me which catcher I would have wanted to keep long term it would have been Moreno because I don't trust Kirk's aging curve, but Moreno being an all star in 2026 does nothing for 2023-25's window with Vlad/Bo so that had to be the main consideration.

We’d have to compare Moreno/Varsho to whatever deal we may have been able to get for Kirk. Of course unless those offers are leaked then we will never know what the true alternative was. With that said, if Varsho continues to be a 3 to 4 WAR player again and Kirk finds his extra base power, then it won’t matter what Moreno becomes.

I think down the road there will be a real debate about whether the Jays traded the right catcher (Moreno instead of Kirk), but otherwise, the trade was a logical “use a surplus to get a need” trade. Maybe it will look like an overpay if Moreno pans out quickly, Kirk continues to look like the powerless fatty he’s looked like for about 5 months now (July-Sept 2022, April-May 2023), and Varsho isn’t a league average bat, but even if Varsho is a 100-110 wRC+ bat and a good/great defensive CF, then he should give the Jays exactly what they traded for. Anything more than that and the Jays will be very happy.

Pitching to Jansen instead of putting him on to set up the DP with Espinal at the plate was Buntoyo levels of 4D Chess but thanks Boone.

That horn in between pitches (to get the crowd to yell charge) is really annoying the 800th time you hear it.

Yes but they don't make that trade if they were going to tank the following year so the chances of getting that pick are very slim (unless they have an awful season which won't be by design).

Glad the Raptors traded a 2024 pick for RFA Poeltl and avoided having a chance at getting a top 5 pick in this draft. The play-in game, the 13th pick in 2023, and no pick in 2024 seems like the better alternative. Yes, still bitter about that trade. Not about Poeltl, he is a good player, but about what that trade meant direction wise.

Yeah, if the Jays were tipping pitches and Judge/the Yankees caught it then it is what it is, but Judge's response had a lot of Altuve "last time I did that I got in trouble with my wife" energy.

Kirk's base running is horrendous.

If Pearson wasn't so injury prone I would have tried to stretch him out and use him as a SP (gradually working the innings/pitch count up) but that ain't happening, so it's gotta be Mitch White at this point and accept whatever results come out of it. Manoah is broken and needs to be fixed.

Lol at Kirk running to 1st.

Can Manoah stop starting home games at least? Being down before the Jays even have an at bat in the game is getting old with him.

A few more regular season home games against the Yankees and Red Sox > consistent playoff revenue Makes sense.

Wasn’t Swanson warming up? Why on earth didn’t they bring him in to face the top of the order? Man, Schneider sucks.

I'd be ok with having no divisions. Just an AL and NL. Top 6 teams in each league make it. Top 2 in each league get a bye to the DS, and then 4 WC teams. With the balanced schedule and every team facing each other throughout the season, the divisions are essentially meaningless. It only serves to the get the historically low spending teams (both Central divisions) into playoff contention when they'd otherwise be way out of it (ex. the AL Central this season).

If you told me before the season that Orelvis' BB% would be around 8.0, K% around 23.0, and ISO over .300, I would think he's in the midst of a breakout season. It's crazy how bad his numbers are even after the last couple of games.

Great outing by Bassitt and really glad Schneider went against his norm and didn’t go to the pen.

Not watching the game, but please tell me no one is warming up. I know Schneider probably has the sweats right now wanting to make a pitching change.