glory

If Atkins is going to be the one to rebuild/retool, then I'd rather they try to go for it. His strength is not acquiring young players in trades. Other than Teoscar, he's had an awful track record with acquiring prospects and turning them into anything useful. A big reason why the 2021-24 core isn't a lot better is because of the failed trades of 2017-19. Combine that with the poor drafting/player development, and it's actually a testament to how good Atkins is with free agent signings that the team was able to have a three year run at 90ish wins per season. I don't know if Shapiro will fire Atkins. That seems like a very tight friendship. Shapiro even signed Atkins to an extension one year beyond Shapiro's contract. I feel like they might be a package deal, and if that's the case, then Shapiro needs to go.

Yeah it’s hard to see this given how he looks, but Atkins is a former player. That might explain why he thinks Don Mattingly is a solution to anything coaching related in 2024 rather than using a more analytical approach/hire. The Jays aren’t cutting edge in anything. Atkins is good at what he’s good at but what he’s good at isn’t a sustainable model (signing 1 year vetrins) without a better player development pipeline in place. If the Jays were developing talent at a high rate, then Atkins would be fine since he could surround them adequately at the big league level. I’m typically fine with Shapiro but I’d be ok if he left. He’s the one who hired Atkins and refuses to make changes there, so what exactly are we holding on to? Maybe another prez wouldn’t be able to talk Rogers into paying the CBT, but maybe that person would create a better infrastructure that wouldn’t require the team to pay the tax in order to be competitive.

According to MLB.com's standings, the Jays expected record is 12-20. Honestly that record seems more reasonable to how they have looked all season. They really are lucky to be 15-17. As far as the "who could the Jays have gotten" argument, I think people are missing one important one: they could have moved on from the Vlad/Bo core. This isn't hindsight, I said at the time (and others may have as well) that trading Bichette was a very logical decision if they decided to go that route. Trading Vlad less so, since it would have been selling low, but the best FA SS was a washed Tim Anderson, and Bichette came with 2 cost certain years of control. You also knew/know that he's salivating to test free agency. Very reasonable player to trade in that scenario, especially when you saw how 2023 played out. If you wanted to keep Vlad and Bo and then go for it (AA 2015 style), then it wouldn't have been that smart but at least it would have been grounded in some logic. Keeping both and doing what they did has/had very limited upside. Of course, it's early, so no one should be giving up. I think what makes things worse is that the 2024 team, much like 2023, is one of the most boring, frustrating, vanilla, cookie cutter teams in the league from an entertainment standpoint. It sucks to watch them. At least entertain us if you're going to frustrate us.

Neither JS or Buntoyo resembled anything close to managers at the highest level. I think it speaks more to Atkins for hiring them than it does about them specifically. A high end decision maker hiring two managers that look like they have no business being in the dugout isn't a good sign. I'm not sure firing JS will accomplish anything. They'll just hire another guy just like him/Charlie who will follow orders. If the "run prevention" is going to regress, then this team is in trouble. They basically needed a repeat of the 2023 pitching (SP and bullpen), and it doesn't appear either one is going to repeat that. The offense doesn't have much upside either, especially if Springer is closer to washed than he is to being productive. The best hitters on the team (now and likely by the end of the season barring injury) are both FA's after this season. It's hard to look at 2024-25 with any sort of optimism.

Vogelbach batting clean up and Jansen batting 6th is ridiculous. Just do Jansen-Varsho-DS-Fatty-IKF-Barger to break up the lefties. They don’t even use Vogelbach as a late game pinch hitter and he starts like once a week at best. He has no defensive or base running value. Like, what’s the point of his existence on this roster?

His pull % is way down this season (even worse than last season) and his power is practically non existent. In his last 115 PA prior to tonight he has a 78 wRC+ and .069 ISO (which is not counting tonight's 0-4 with 3 K's). Washed compared to what he was? Absolutely. Washed in terms of sub 100 wRC+ player? Tough to say. His numbers should improve based on his luck so far but I'm not expecting much better than a 2 WAR/105 wRC+ type of season regardless. Father time gets everyone.

Of course Biggio is up in this spot.

Manoah is going to walk 5 tonight and be deemed ready for the big leagues.

It's baffling that this team (especially this team given its weaknesses) didn't view him as an everyday player. Maybe now they do, or at least now they view him as someone who should be playing most of the time, but seeing him benched for Biggio, IKF, KK, etc, early in the season was just demoralizing. Biggio hit a HR on opening day that would have only been a HR in 11 parks, and since then, he's hitting .221/.338/.279 with a 31% K% and .349 BABIP (5 HBP helping the OBP). The underlying numbers don't suggest anything positive for him. Once KK comes back, just start DS at 2B everyday against RHP, and then against LHP have DS in LF. Only way that works is if they concede that Biggio shouldn't be playing regularly, which from this front office and manager combination would be like telling them to sit their own son. Hopefully logic eventually prevails.

Jansen and DS in the lineup at the same time changes the dynamic significantly. Two guys who pull the ball and try to hit it in the air versus the alternative of a bunch of guys trying to hit hard singles the other way. Those two should be in the lineup as much as possible. Unfortunately you have to enjoy Jansen when you can because you don’t know how long he will hold up.

Man it's good to have Jansen back.

Yeah, starting him in LF was awful considering he never played there before. Starting him at 3B is fine. Unfortunately it's possible he's not good defensively at 3B, but at least he's had experience there before.

Yeah, maybe the Jays had a point when they questioned Barger's future position.

If there were 7 games in a week, Kirk was playing at least 6 of them when Jansen was on the IL. It was ridiculous. Serven isn't even a minor league quality catcher, much less a big league one, but maybe get a better 3rd string catcher if the alternative is using your one healthy one (who is also grossly out of shape) every single game. Hopefully Jansen gets the bulk of the playing time now, maybe 4 of every 7 games or something like that, and Kirk's performance over the season trends up.

Yeah I think there's a chance Vlad turns his career around after leaving the Jays. Not sure what the reason for his struggles here are, whether it's his own stubbornness, coaching, injury, or all of it, but it's year 6. It's time to stop dreaming on him regardless of what the underlying numbers say. There is a disconnect somewhere. That's the frustrating part for me. I can definitely see a scenario where he's non tendered or traded for scraps after this season and then has an amazing 2025, and we can't even say "Jays should have kept him" because he wouldn't have done that in a Jays uniform. Just have to accept that as a real possibility.

Vlad/Bo coming into this game with a combined -0.1 WAR and sub 100 wRC+, and both of those figures likely not moving much after this game, makes it a damn miracle that this team is 14-15. We keep hoping that once that turns around and both get hot, then things will start to get better, and hopefully that happens, but man seeing how bad both have been this season is eye opening.

I'd much rather have Jimi face Muncy than the 2024 version of Mayza.

Bassitt not getting the high strike calls.

Yeah if Barger was going to be an option in LF in case of injury, then I'm not sure why they didn't have him play there a bit in the minors.

Letting Vogelbach hit against a LHP when they had Turner and DS on the bench is ridiculous.

Vogelbach has a career 35 wRC+ against LHP.

Turner against a righty seems like a better matchup than Vogelbach against a lefty.

Big to hold it to 3-1. I know it's asking a lot but scoring some runs now would be nice.

Yeah probably shouldn't have put him in a spot he's never played before.

Barger in LF tonight.