glory

The Jays having a longer rope for 2025 holdovers would at least make sense to me, but why they are so enamored with Sosa is mind boggling.

Sportsnet cameraman wanted to troll Jays fans there.

Heineman is 34, a career journeyman, and has been awful this season. He's not someone another team is going to value enough to give up anything for him.

Sosa is starting, so the Jays definitely going to explode offensively today.

Grichuk and the FO must have had a falling out or something. He's made sense as a pickup for a while and the Jays have the financial muscle to spend. Trading someone to the Rockies might be unforgivable though, so not sure I blame Grichuk.

Even numbered year Davis Schneider sucks. Put him in AAA and call him up in 2027.

With Shapiro and Atkins both getting big fat contracts this past winter, I wonder what plan they decide to go with at the deadline if they are still looking like a middling team. I don't see the Jays overtaking the Yankees or Rays, so they'd basically be playing for one of the last 2 wild card spots in a season where 82 wins might get them there. Does it really make sense to be big time buyers in that scenario? Rogers wants stadiums filled in the summer so that probably answers that question but either way if the Jays are buyers then I hope they are more conservative buyers unless the division and/or WC1 looks realistic.

Yeah it's the years that are bad, not the money. At this point it is what it is.

He will get to 3000 hits at some point if he stays healthy, so I guess Rogers (or whoever owns the team in 2050 or whenever his contract ends) will get some money off that, but there's going to be a lot of negative WAR years. Just a matter of how many.

Yeah I don't see a 2025 style run this summer (unless Springer suddenly becomes a 6 WAR player again, among other positives), so the division is probably a pipe dream. I'd be shocked, and honestly ashamed if the Jays can't get the 3rd WC though. The AL is awful. Like legitimately awful. A .500 record might get in. Just sneak in.

Valenzuela essentially putting himself in a 2 strike count to bunt the tying run to 3rd with 0 out when he's been one of the few hitters with pop in this lineup so far (not his fault), and then Springer up 3-0 in the count and proceeds to swing through 3 straight balls. Infuriating to watch.

Wow awful AB for Springer there. Bednar didn't throw a single strike.

JS without the 2025 voodoo is really annoying. No reason to bunt there at all.

My guess is the plan was to (pray) that Yariel got through 1.1 innings and then Hoffman for the 9th (assuming Varland was unavailable). The alternative would have been using Hoffman against Judge-onwards, and then hoping Yariel or Flu could pitch the 9th. Who knows. I think I would have gone with Hoffman against the meat of the Yankees order and took my chances with getting by the 9th if they got there with the lead, but JS does not manage like that so it is what it is.

2025 JS made these illogical decisions all the time and it worked so often that it was comical (in a good way). Baseball Gods might be taking all of that back this year.

Pinango against LHP in the minors: 2026: .951 OPS, 29 PA 2025: .736 OPS, 92 PA 2024: .762 OPS, 117 PA At one point last season JS pinch hit IKF for Barger late in a game, so clearly his idea of analytics are "RHB vs LHP = best way to go", but I really see no reason why Pinango can't start against a LHP when f'n Sosa is the alternative, nevermind how bad DS has been.

Realistically, the biggest issues are Vlad and Springer. Okamoto: .215 ISO, 116 wRC+ Varsho: .170 ISO, 115 wRC+ Gimenez: .159 ISO, 82 wRC+ Clement: .107 ISO, 94 wRC+ Straw: .127 ISO, 119 wRC+ Valenzuela: .188 ISO, 107 wRC+ Sanchez: .148 ISO, 94 wRC+ Aside from Valenzuela who has no previous track record, all of the above performances seem pretty reasonable from an expectation standpoint (Straw is likely just noise based on sample size but his wOBA and xwOBA is almost identical so no luck involved). Gimenez likely stinks offensively and you hope he ends up closer to league average than what he was last season. Clement is hitting pretty much like he always has. Then you get to Vlad and Springer, and it's a mess. A combined 9-10 WAR in 2025 and we might be lucky to get half of that this year. Even if Springer's low years (2023-24), his xwOBA showed that he was significantly underperforming. Not the case this season. He's been legitimately bad and given his age that may not be a shock. The lack of Kirk and too much damn Heineman is another big issue that hopefully resolves itself soon. If Vlad gets hot (he likely will) and Springer at least creeps closer to league average (maybe, he's looked bad so far, age isn;'t on his side), then we might see the numbers start to normalize as a whole.

I don't know if the Jays being a game back of a playoff spot is encouraging or sad given how they've looked all season. Maybe both. But whatever, just find a way to get in. Lots of baseball still left.

I hope the media asks Lauer for his thoughts when the Dodgers use him out of the pen.

Demoting Pinango and then having Barger get hurt the next day is some nonsense.

For Will f’n Wagner. Ross was cooking with that deal. He looks like a legit big league backup catcher.

The AL is all kinds of ass this season. I would assume some other teams are going to start to break away from the pack to follow the Yankees and Rays, but could be one of those years when a WC spot can be had with a low/mid 80's win total.

Three of Pinango's balls in play tonight: 103.1, 107.9, 109.6 EV. He's likely the odd man out when Barger gets back, but there's some potential there. If only he was a good defender.

The Cavs were the best matchup for the Raptors (the Raps would have gotten stomped by the Knicks or Celtics), but even I wasn't expecting 7 games. I thought 5, possibly 6 at best. I expect the Cavs to win at home, but neither side has a true clutch playoff performer (Harden specifically has a history of shrinking in Game 7's) so who knows. As far as Varland, JS has always looked at a 4 run lead as a time to use the closer. Not sure why, but that's how he manages.