glory

Montoyo watched Giles blow his arm out and let him throw a few more pitches after that. He's not taking Vlad out until Vlad himself says something.

Yankee fans obviously want their team to win, but also hate the way the team is managed/built, so they seem to voice their displeasure whenever something bad happens. They view Boone the same way we view Charlie.

3 run bomb by Renfroe, 3-0 Boston. Damn.

I like how now "3rd time through the order" is a thing when it wasn't 24 hours ago. And Matz tonight has been better than Ray last night.

Snell was dominating the Dodgers. Ray's velocity seemed a bit down and he was far from dominating regardless of how many runs he gave up until the big inning by the Yankees.

Kirk rarely plays now. I wouldn't take his cold streak to mean much. If he plays once, then doesn't play again for a few days, rinse and repeat, then it gets harder to build any sort of rhythm. Keep in mind he also missed a lot of the season due to injury. Montoyo just wants to use all 3 catchers because like a good little league coach he wants to give everyone a chance. I don't think there is any method to his madness when it comes to the catchers.

It's splitting with the Twins that hurt. If they win 3/4 like they should have, then the Jays are tied for WC2 right now and in a much better spot. Losing 2/3 to a hot Yankees team is not the end of the world, but they needed to take advantage of the weak schedule and didn't do it (at least with the Twins). I'm not expecting a sweep of the O's, more likely 2/3, which means we have to hope the Red Sox and M's both lose 2/3. I don't think that's happening.

I think that's the frustrating part in all of this. An otherwise smart front office doesn't seem to see what fans and media see clear as day. This is not armchair QB's who nitpick everything, this is universally across the board accepted that Montoyo's in game decisions are awful. They were awful in 2019 but the team was tanking so no one cared. The team's entire 2019 season hinged on trade returns, and yet he let Ken Giles pitch 3 days in a row right after coming off the DL/IL, which got him re-injured and untradeable. Even the easiest things couldn't be done by him. Now there is a full 162 game sample of how bad he is, and right when the team's competitive window has begun. Chances are they won't let him be a lameduck so they'll either extend him or fire him, and I'd be absolutely shocked if he's fired. The Jays need a Masai Ujiri type in the front office who doesn't mind firing the coach of the year because being good is not the objective, it's being great. What they do with Buntoyo is going to tell a lot about their mindset, IMO. You can find a lot of managers who can keep a clubhouse happy, and that's really all he seems to know how to do well.

If you believe in the Nightengale curse, which is statistically proven, then this might be an underrated reasoning behind the Jays demise. They have gone 8-8 since that Tweet.

Jays have to sweep the O’s and then hope Boston and Seattle at best win 2/3. Still doable but not bloody likely especially with this version of Ryu starting one of the BAL games.

Pinch hitting for Grichuk was fine but using Valera? I guess it’s on brand for Charlie though.

I’m not a Grichuk fan but pinch hitting Valera for him is kinda insulting.

Jays miss the playoffs while Montoyo gets extended in the off season is nightmare fuel.

Boston about to drop 2/3. They were literally handing us a 2nd WC chance. f***.

Showalter's teams made the playoffs 3 times in 5 years the last time he managed (2012-16) with a roster that many times had no business doing it. I wouldn't say he's even as bad as Charlie, much less worse. He's definitely above him. Montoyo is the bottom of the barrel, and that's not an exaggeration.

The Jays have needed to move on from Buck and Pat for years now. If this is what finally does it, then great. I can't understand why teams don't see how important attracting younger audiences is. Having two "get off my lawn" men like Buck and Pat calling games and expecting younger audiences to tune in is just crazy. Shulman is great. He needs fresh blood next to him.

Tonight's lineup is out. Anyone wanna guess who is catching? It's the catcher you would expect Buntoyo to start in a game where a loss could mean the end of the season.

It's exaggerated in the sense that we can't determine how many wins it may have cost the team, but I don't think it's exaggerated in terms of playing a factor. These are human beings. They are big leaguers who had to play in non-MLB facilities for most of their home games, and while in theory baseball is baseball wherever it is played, I think there is a real difference between big league amenities and whatever they got in Dunedin/Buffalo. Nevermind the advantage of having an actual home crowd and not 2000-5000 locals mostly cheering for the other team or cheering for the sake of cheering since they didn't have a dog in the fight. If the Jays were allowed to play in Toronto 1-2 months earlier, I wouldn't be shocked at all if it meant the difference between being 1 game back of WC2 and being in a WC spot.

Along with Montoyo, the bolded is the correct answer. By the end of the season, the Jays will have played 36 real home games all year. Any other team who played 36 games at home and 126 games on the road may have underachieved in a similar fashion, although a competent manager would have weathered some/a lot of that storm. Montoyo + Canada. 2021's biggest determining factors by a landslide.

2015 Gibby was borderline Montoyo. Not full Montoyo, because no one is that stupid, but in a similar category. Had no idea who his best relievers were, defensive lineups were bad (pre trade deadline), and the team at the deadline was .500 with a huge positive RD, multiple MVP candidates, etc. The division was much weaker that year so they were able to win the division with their 2nd half run. The 2021 team is in the most stacked division in the league so their 2nd half run is likely going to fall short. Definitely some revisionism with Gibby, but in 2016-18 I thought he was a perfectly competent manager, and really that's all the team needed in 2021. Put Gibby on this team this season and it's leading the WC right now. No question in my mind. But they could definitely do better, and the job is much more appealing now than it was when Buntoyo was hired.

I did not like Gibby at all in 2015, which saw the team ironically underachieve their pythag in a similar manner as the 2021 team, but he got remarkably better in 2016-18. I'd be fine with bringing him back, but ultimately, anyone who can tell the difference between his best players and his worst players would instantly be an improvement over Montoyo. Replacing Charlie is about the easiest improvement the team can make. It can't get worse, and I don't think anyone is as bad as him, so worst case is a minor improvement regardless of who it is.

If the Jays go 4-1 the rest of the way, then there's probably a glimmer of a chance, but that would mean the Red Sox would have to go 3-2 and IMO they are more likely to go 4-1 than the Jays are. That's not even factoring the M's. I think the Jays are going to run out of time, or possibly already have. Maybe they surprise and go 5-0 the rest of the way, but they may have peaked in September about a week too early.

I wish Montoyo was the M's manager so their record would be closer to their run differential (probably worse). Finishing behind them would be embarrassing.

I'm in NY, so blacked out on MLB.tv for me, and I'm too lazy to go downstairs to watch it on cable. Stanton just did me a favor, I'm glad I wasn't watching.

Watching on Gameday, but really want to see video of that strike 1 on Stanton based on where the location was.