glory

2003 Roy Halladay would have thrown 170 innings if John Schneider managed.

Kirk is back. What a season he’s having.

Vlad not in the lineup tonight.

I know "Donnie was a great hitting coach, it was the hitters that sucked" is the hill you want to die on and you have been consistent with that for years, but if you truly believe nothing has changed from a philosophy standpoint this season (on the hitting side) then we can just agree to disagree because I don't think you're ever changing your opinion on that. And I'm sure you'll bring it up again in 2027 or whenever the Jays aren't hitting as a team again, but not one person has said a hitting coach can turn bad hitters into good ones, simply that a good hitting coach/philosophy can point players with talent into a direction that could get them in better position to maximize that talent. The hitter still has to do the job, but if he's "fighting against his natural muscle memory" (quote about Barger from March 2025) due to adjustments suggested by the org, then you're probably not maximizing his chances of panning out. Mattingly was not that guy, and again if you believe he was, then we can agree to disagree on that. Also, whether the Jays continue to hit this well moving forward also remains to be seen.

In the same way the 2022 Wild Card series forced a drastic change in the FO's thinking (arguably not in a good way), it's possible the 2024 season had the same type of impact. The worst bullpen in the history of the sport combined with a slap hitting singles offense guided by Donnie Baseball led to 2024's abysmal season, but it forced them to bring in a completely different hitting philosophy, and something has to have changed with the pitching development because the Jays haven't developed relievers in like 10 years. Now suddenly every AAA no name RP they call up is having success. Of course, SSS and all, but man things look so much better now than they did 6 weeks ago.

Yeah the offensive bar isn’t high. Even an 80 wRC+ with that defense is going to be a high WAR player. Hoping he’s at least passable offensively because he’s a highlight reel defensive player every night.

Massive win.

That hurts. Hoffman with a 1 run lead given his gopher-itis this season is not fun.

Kirk's wRC+ up to 122 now.

Usain Bolt couldn’t have run faster than John Schneider just did to take the ball from Berrios’ hand.

I'd be pretty shocked if Vlad isn't voted in as the starting 1B. As far as Clement, super utility IF that can hit LHP (hopefully that part of his offensive game is sustainable) is fine. The Jays are going to twist themselves into a pretzel to get him everyday AB's this season, so he will get a lot of PA's, but ultimately he's someone you'd want on the bench to cover all the IF positions.

I remember reading that Cherington was apparently trying to trade for Horwitz for a while. So just demote Roden, let him have a 1.100 OPS in AAA by hitting nothing but 89 mph line drives, and then trade him to Pittsburgh.

There’s definitely some necessity involved here, but Francis has a -1.0 WAR. Easton Lucas had 2 good starts followed by 2 bad starts and was immediately demoted. He came up and pitched really well as a long man and was demoted again. Lauer actually has a MLB track record as a serviceable back end #5 SP, and they are using him in a bulk role rather than trying to get him to eat up as many innings as possible. I’m not saying Lauer and Lucas would be any good but better than a -1.0 WAR and 19 HR in 60 IP? It would be difficult to be as bad as that, much less worse than that. Either way maybe you get lucky and someone surprises for a few weeks/months. That’s really all they need. They’ll definitely make a trade closer to the deadline so they just need to keep throwing s*** at the wall and hope something sticks until then. You can’t keep throwing Francis out there and expecting different results when nothing indicates that what he’s doing now is a fluke. Would they be giving him this much rope if those 9 starts last year didn’t happen? Maybe but I doubt it. Either way, as others have said, they really need to make a trade soon rather than closer to the end of July, Margin for error isn’t very big for this team, and they won’t last with 3 SPs and 2 bullpen games a week. I agree Alcantara is a great target as a buy low and the Marlins are beyond cheap. Don’t think the Marlins would sell low like that but who knows.

It's amazing how much rope Francis has been given due to essentially 9 starts in 2024. Before those last 9 starts in 2024, he had a 5.64 ERA/5.61 FIP in 44.2 IP (10 HR allowed) that season. Then he went on a fluke run for 2 months, and now they are allowing him to give up 19 home runs and 24 walks in 60 innings apparently without fear of losing his rotation spot. Hopefully it's just a timing thing and he's the next demotion.

Francis and Swanson pitching 4 of the 5 innings today and the Jays only being down 3 is probably a miracle. Still a winnable game, but I have no clue how they get through another 3 innings in relief, much less 4 if the offense actually does come back from this. The Jays are going to have to decide if they want to maximize Lauer's effectiveness or not run the pen into the ground. He can't be a 3 inning bulk guy when Francis is also in the rotation. The pen is on fumes because of that.

Turnbull throwing 86 mph is better than Francis. Make the switch.

Bring the pen in and demote Francis after the game to get a fresh arm tomorrow. That's all you can do at this point. Keeping him in is just asking to lose this game.

Shulman mentioned that possibility (Swanson in the 9th) during the broadcast, which terrified me, but thankfully it didn’t happen. He was just spitballing assuming Hoffman wasn’t available.

That was more my fear of Swanson in the 9th, but yeah Fisher might be safe in more high leverage spots.

7 HR's allowed for Hoffman already. Not good. Hopefully it's correctable as the rest of his numbers look fine. Another good win on the road. Nice to get the first 2 with Francis up next.

Not watching the game so not sure who is warming up, but I'd have Fisher pitch a 2nd inning before I trust Swanson with a 1 run lead in the 9th.

Fisher + Swanson to end the game (possibly). Let the rain come down hard now.

Green is going to end the season with a -1.0 WAR and 3.80 ERA.

6 IP/3 ER against is a great start for Gausman against Minnesota. All I remember the past couple of years is him getting wrecked by the Twins. Now need the bats to wake up.

Big time win on the road.