glory

I'm not saying Bass is bad, but he's not Giles. You don't 'have to' bring him in to pitch the 9th, especially since he's not striking anyone out this season and his track record is not that good.

Romano only threw 9 pitches, but the 9th is not his role, so bring the inferior pitcher in to close it.

Panik is 0-3 with 2 K's, but those AB's were about as professional as you will ever see.

Ryu at 92 pitches is probably a good time to take him out. If this is 2-3 weeks from now, then that's a different story.

I agree. I thought this was a .500 ish roster prior to Covid, but others were more bullish on this team. With the offence this bad and the regional schedule they are likely sub-.500 and out of the playoff picture barring the bats turning around quickly.

Man, this offence is really, really bad right now.

What a shitshow.

Since the start of 2018, Panik has a 75 wRC+ in 902 PA, hitting .247/.309/.330. He's not old at 29, but aside from making a lot of (weak) contact, he doesn't really provide anything of value as an offensive player, and if he's not playing 2B, then his defensive value is equally bad. I think we are being fair to Panik here. He's pretty bad. 2015 was a long time ago. He's not that guy anymore. This is likely a case of hoping for Eric Sogard 2.0, but that happening again is unlikely. Playing him over Drury/Tellez is fine with me, and the club seems to have no intention of trying to give Alford at bats (probably for the better if they want to win games), so the options are pretty scarce. If he's playing over Tellez, and only Tellez, then I can live with it. When Fisher comes back, he should be getting those AB's.

The Jays have played 13 straight road games. HFA in baseball probably isn't as big of a deal but hopefully playing Buffalo provides some of it. Most of the Jays hitters have played in Buffalo anyway, so there's familiarity, and Panik is so professional he can hit anywhere.

Agreed. Alford is being used probably in his best role, which is pinch runner/defensive replacement. Drury sucks. Tellez sucks. McGuire is a backup catcher. There's not much else there. It's disappointing that Shatkins signed Shaw, but never bothered to upgrade the utility IF position with a backup who could hit LHP. Wilmer Flores signed for like $3.5m with the Giants. Instead the Jays signed Panik, who not only sucks but doesn't complement the roster at all, and then kept Drury whose only good quality is fielding 3B. If the Jays want to become good, they have to upgrade the offence, and in the absence of that, at least be able to utilize platoons to compensate for lack of quality starting options. In hindsight, the roster is kind of a mess, which is made to look worse by Vlad who is struggling badly (let's face it, Vlad has to become a beast for this team to do anything).

Panik has started a game over Fisher and over Hernandez this season. That's 15% of the games played where Panik has started over a superior option (Fisher at least has some potential upside). At least in this case it's for Tellez, who can't field, run, or hit (other than the occasional HR), so no harm there, but this is far from over. Panik will be starting over Vlad one day, and it's coming soon.

It's stupid, but there's a strong chance Tellez sucks, so if he had to bench anyone to get Panik into the lineup, at least it's Tellez. I'm trying to be somewhat positive.

Man, I kinda wish they kept it a dump so he did opt out.

Teams manipulate service time = great. Players do it = bad. Yeah, don't feel bad for the Mets here.

Much better lineup from Montoyo. Maybe the embarrassment of his Hernandez batting 8th quote finally smartened him up.

Here's the issue with Grichuk. In 2018, he was fine. I don't like low OBP sluggers in general, but put 2018 Grichuk in CF everyday, and you've got a good player. The problem, aside from the stupid contract, is that the coaching staff made some sort of adjustments with him last season, which I can only assume was designed to lower the K% and increase contact, and his best attributes were completely marginalized ever since. He's not barrelling the ball as much as he used to, launch angle has declined, and while he's K'ing less, he's also a lot less productive as a hitter. In other words, the coaching staff. Development. The same dudes who are letting Vlad hit GB's like he's facing prime Kevin Brown every night are not getting the best out of its players, and that's important when the roster is essentially all young players. What should Shatkins do differently? Fix the coaching staff. First and foremost. Roster also needs upgrades obviously, but it seems like a clown show in the dugout with the coaches.

Should have had Teoscar bat 9th so he could have been at 2nd with Biggio up.

Roark is going to get torched.

Roark is no where near the plate.

As much as I like Montoyost as a nickname, I actually think that would be an insult to Ned. Even Yost had things that he did right now and then.

Much respect to Charlie for saying that in public (his reasoning for Teoscar batting 8th). He's very open about how bad he is, so can't hate on him too much.

Montoyo's man crush on Panik is at least understandable when you dumb down the logic. Charlie is a minor league manager with no business on a big league field, so he's going to try to respect the vetrin at the end of the bench and play him even though he hasn't been good in years. But why Tellez batting clean up? Hernandez destroys him in practically every statcast indicator you could possibly find (so don't tell me power is a reason), and Tellez had a 80 wRC+ against righties last year (40 so far this year), so there's no established platoon advantage either. Oh well. At least Hernandez is in the lineup for now. Hopefully Panik is ready to pinch hit just in case.

One of the things I noticed about him last year was that it felt like he rarely played the same lineup consecutively. I guess in a tanking year it made no difference, but that approach of trying to get everyone in the lineup is not conducive to winning. Bench players are bench players for a reason. Play your starters until they need a day off or need to be platooned. If he's more worried about whether Joe Panik is getting AB's, then he's not trying to win games.

Agreed about the coaches. I know it's normal to think that coaching doesn't matter or makes little difference, but the two biggest franchise stars of the 2010's were a direct result of Dwayne Murphy/Cito Gaston and Luis Mercedes. Making some little adjustments can lead to success. Obviously you have to have the talent for those little tweaks to mean anything, but the Jays aren't lacking in talent. I'm 100% on board with Bonds as hitting coach for the Yelich example alone. Yelich was hitting a lot of GB's too, and still does, but it's not preventing him from being a superstar at the plate with monster power.

Which is why I said MLB development, not the minors. This goes back to the Yankees/Urshela being brought up. Certain orgs are better at developing talent at the big league level than others. Certain orgs are better at identifying talent period. Certain orgs are better at identifying managers/coaches (yes, that's another dig at Buntoyo). The Jays right now have not seen the results at the big league level, at least on the hitting side. Again, as I said previously, a year or two from now this might be a different discussion. Vlad is a glaring issue because other than his weight you couldn't mold a better offensive prospect with clay. If two of the 7 "years" the Jays have of him are going to be wasted on him hitting hard GB's like past prime Kendrys Morales, then that's definitely a big deal. It doesn't mean the entire development side is bad, but it's not like the Yankees where we can point to near dozens of examples of success. Again, I will reiterate, I am just as high on the young players on this team (Vlad/Bo/Biggio/Gurriel/Jansen) as others, and probably higher on Teoscar than most, so I'm not writing them off. My point is simply we are not at a point where we can look at this front office and not question their ability to identify/correct talent. So yeah, harping on Urshela is pointless, but the difference in orgs (Yanks/Jays) from a development standpoint is very real and large. For now.