glory

Bichette, Vlad, and Biggio come from money. They have HOF or very good MLB level fathers who made millions playing in the league. I could see all of them waiting until free agency. This is not an Acuna/Albies situation where AA took advantage of kids who came from little/nothing. The Jays are going to have to ante up here.

After this weekend, 14 of the Jays last 20 games are against the Yankees and Phillies. I thought the 8th spot was in the bag but if the f’n Tigers decide to be a .500 team all of a sudden, then that becomes a lot more questionable. Anything can happen in a small sample size. I guess this is the “fun” part of the 60 game schedule.

Tigers leading 6-1 over the Brewers in the 6th. With a win tonight, the Tigers are somehow half a game behind the Jays.

No sane baseball person will ever follow the "best hitter bats 8th" thing unless it is a punishment to the hitter. I thought maybe there's some statistical explanation for "s***** hitter bats 3rd" that Montoyo seems to love to do, but likely the same 4D chess that always explains his moves. I'll just add that I liked what Buntoyo did with the pitching tonight. Offense was the downfall.

Pitching was very good tonight. Offense has been s***.

Is there some kind of analytical data that shows the #3 hitter in the lineup could be one of your worst hitters and it won't matter? Montoyo has used Jansen, Shaw (not the worst but has been bad this season), and Villar in that spot. He's used Tellez there as well, but at least he's been decent this season. Just seems like he doesn't take that particular spot in the lineup seriously. Maybe someone who knows about lineup structure better than me can explain this.

Disagree. Other than his first (2?) outings where they brought him into the game in the 10th with a runner on 2nd, he's been very good.

McGuire is worse than Thole.

Merryweather better be in the 2021 rotation. He's legit.

Apparently, he will start one of the double header games on Friday. Ray following Merryweather tonight. Not sure what that means about either pitcher's role for the rest of the season. My guess is Stripling is more likely to be in the rotation than Ray.

Villar playing SS and batting 3rd tonight.

I'm fine with Shaw against RHP. Might as well see if that EV/hard hit rate can turn into better production with more PA's. Just bat him lower in the lineup. Villar should play 3B against LHP once Bichette is back at SS.

Williams is rule 5 eligible in December 2023. Conine in December 2021. Robertson (if he's the one going for Walker) in December 2022. I don't think it's fair to say cleansing the roster of potential Rule 5 clutter was a consideration in any of these moves. Whether Williams for Stripling was worth doing is another story. I know nothing about Williams and he's a few years away. Stripling comes with 2 years and a month of control, and his numbers as a SP in 2018-19 were very good (176.1 IP, 3.47 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 3.08 xFIP). Given where the Jays are in their competitive cycle, this was likely a fair trade if they envision serious contention in 2021-22, which I'm guessing they do, and if they think Stripling will pitch to his 2018-19 form moving forward (which I'm sure they do otherwise they don't make this move). The only reason this might look bad in hindsight is because the Dodgers player development is excellent, but as mentioned if Williams ends up being even as good as Stripling it would be an accomplishment. Pitching prospects suck.

I can buy that pulling SPs early is above Buntoyo's pay grade. That is likely an upper management decision. Anyone who is dumb enough to bunt excessively and think Joe Panik is a good MLB player because he's "professional" definitely wouldn't be as 'analytical' with pulling pitchers as Charlie has been.

If Drury gets picked up by the injury ravaged Yankees or even the Rays, someone will have to periodically check on Atkins to make sure he's not panicking. The Urshela flashbacks will be strong.

The season will turn around when Joe Panik is batting lead off.

Espinal will be out for Villar. I like your thinking though.

Buntoyo must be stopped.

Jays got Ross Stripling.

Keep Hatch in next inning, Charles.

Seriously, what is Vogelbach doing on this team? If you think he has upside, cool, but if you also want to make the playoffs in a good spot, then he's not someone you hoard on your roster.

Even if removing Anderson is the right call, bringing Font in is not. (And for the record, I would have had no issues keeping Chase in).

"Intelligence is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Charlie Montoyo

I hope they got him to try to sneak him through waivers. There is no reason to have 3 DH's on the roster.

I like the Villar pickup (assuming nothing of real value is being traded). Solid utility player with speed, and hopefully enough vetrin presents to push Panik down in Charlie's eyes.