glory

A lot of this is just noise, though. Like, Biggio has a .412 BABIP and .290 xwOBA. He's going to regress hard, though if they use him based on matchups which they appear to be doing, then maybe they can mask that a little bit. Bichette is going to get better. Vlad (hopefully) is going to get better. Kirk and Springer can't possibly get any worse, and Jansen is back now. IKF's underlying numbers are actually pretty good, so while I don't expect him to continue to hit this well, he may not be the 80 wRC+ player that he's been in the past. But still, very SSS. I think the best part of the season so far in terms of offense has been the way they have maximized the DS/IKF/Clement/Biggio performance. Much like last season, this team's offensive upside is going to come down to which Vlad shows up. If he's a 115 wRC+ player who drills GB's like he's doing it on purpose and is a 1 WARish 1B with s*** defense/base running again, then it's going to put a lot of pressure on the ancillary pieces to carry the load again. If he's even the 2022 version of Vlad (130 wRC+, 30 HR) then it would drastically change the outlook of the offense. Unfortunately, I think even that bar is too high to expect from Vlad at this point. Something is not right with him.

Varsho, Orelvis, Barger, and Schneider is actually a pretty decent start to a new core (on paper), assuming Varsho is back to being a 100+ wRC+ player and can finally play CF regularly. Bring Jansen back on a long term deal (with his injury history baked in it should in theory lower the cost), and put Roden in AAA to see if he's a potential late 2024 or 2025 contributor. That combined with a lot of money to play with in free agency/trades. I'm ready.

Excited about Barger, if true. Not sure where he would play since I don't think he has played LF, and I don't see them putting him at 3B over IKF who is actually doing well so far, but we will see.

Vlad is either going to break out on another team or this is what he is now.

Vlad missing a catch that most of us would have gotten cost the Jays the game tonight. The team does have bigger issues (the offense) but losing a game because of that is infuriating.

Seriously, it wasn't a normal Bo Bichette throw that was off line and Vlad had to stretch for it. IKF's throw was perfect. Like how the f*** do you miss that?

Damn Vlad, that was a perfect throw by IKF.

Man I wish Jansen was starting tonight.

I would assume Garcia and Romano are not going to be used tonight (would be 4th time in 5 days for both). Gonna need the bats to wake up and/or get some length out of Gausman here.

DS starting at 2B tonight. If I'm counting correctly, then this is his 8th start in the team's last 10 games. He's slowly getting a more regular role, which as you said is the right call.

I mean, the fat one is looking like a powerless slap hitting backup catcher as well at this point (granted with good defense), but either way, if Varsho is a 4 WAR player with a 100 or better wRC+ like he was pre-2023, then it really doesn't matter what Moreno does. The Jays badly needed a controllable OF who could play CF and had 3 catchers. If Varsho holds up his end, then the Jays got what they traded for. They might regret not having Moreno in 2025 when the only catcher on the 40 man roster will be Kirk and his now noodle bat, but they could bring back Jansen or sign/trade for another catcher as well. Cross that bridge when you get there. Either way, good to see Varsho performing well. With Vlad's 2023 bleeding into 2024 now, the Jays are going to need as much offense/WAR from others as possible.

I don't have an issue with the way they have used the bullpen so far. Yimi should be facing the best hitters on the opposing team given how he's looked so far. He's locked in. We will see if JS pivots his plan and uses Jimi in the 9th inning if the opposing team's best players are up at that point.

According to Gameday, he stuck out Soto on 4 pitches that were 101, 100.3, 101.8, and 103.3 mph. If velocity is a big reason for the pitching injuries, then I can't imagine this is sustainable for him short or long term, but maybe there are exceptions.

Looks like the "build an expensive vet pitching staff through FA and trade" will continue, and I honestly don't mind that if the pitchers they acquire are good/durable, and they are able to build a core of young position players again. Never count on pitching prospects.

Yeah, I don't have an issue with Yariel's innings being limited given his circumstances and Manoah taking his spot, but Manoah actually has to be fixed for that to make any sense. That's a pretty scary thing to bank on. Hopefully they give him a few more AAA starts and if all goes well there, then they can make that move.

So we are in agreement, but just arguing two different things. My post was in reference to "Pearson fanboys", which might have been a Term troll job, but still, I don't think there is a single Pearson fanboy on earth. Dude looks like a major bust. I don't think anyone was thinking he's a great reliever, just that he's better (or at least a more high upside guy to keep around) than Genesis is. The thing that hurt the Yankees game was Green being injured, not the Pearson demotion.

I don't know about the defense, but I'm not sure Jimenez will hit well enough in the Majors. Good plate discipline from the looks of it, but seems very much like a utility infield type. Unless the team is high on Kasevich (who has similar concerns with the bat), I'd definitely consider signing Kim/Adames this winter if they decide to move on from Bo. Of course, if the Jays have to throw 12/600 at Soto or something equally crazy and as a result have to go cheap(er) at short, then I could live with that.

Try to keep up with what? Genesis Cabrera stinks. He had one good season surrounded by basically sub replacement level performance. Both he and Pearson had options. One was performing poorly (in line with like 90% of his career so far) and the other was a former top prospect who was performing well. I'm not sure what you can't seem to understand. I'm not even talking about the Yankees game, and never even brought it up (now or at the time). I'm talking about the reaction at the time. Posters were questioning demoting Pearson when Genesis also had options. That was the criticism that I was referring to. If people were also complaining about the Yankees game, then wonderful.

Trading Bo and signing Kim or Adames makes a lot of sense. The latter two should come a lot cheaper than whatever Bo values himself at, and are much better defensively. I’ve said before I don’t think Bichette’s bat is going to age well. Someone mentioned Tim Anderson, and I could definitely see that type of drop off as he gets older and his bat speed diminishes. Trading him prior to this season when he had two cost certain years left and a s***** FA market for SS’s would have been better but I get that they wanted to compete this season and Bo is still a 4 WAR caliber player until proven otherwise. Give Soto $50m a year and surround him with young players from the farm system, and I’ll be fine with that. He’s practically the same age as most of them anyway so the timelines match up.

Pearson being better than Genesis Cabrera was the complaint, not that Pearson was a lockdown reliever.

Really glad to see Varsho doing well with the bat. Him being good again offensively would be huge for this team.

Yeah I honestly don't know how Cabrera with options stayed on the team over Pearson, and Atkins even drafted Pearson so you would think he'd be more invested in getting something out of him now that he's actually doing well. Hopefully when Green comes back they keep Nate this time.

Schneider thinking Genesis is a high leverage reliever is terrifying.

Yeah, I said at the time, the Jays are s*** at developing pitchers which is why I could see the logic behind keeping Tiedemann, but he's such a risky prospects due to lack of innings (combined with the usual caveats with pitching prospects) that he would have been the ideal prospect to trade. I don't think the Jays had the pitching depth to trade that the Padres wanted for Soto, but that would have been the main option aside from ideally trying to trade for a more controllable position player. Oh well. TINSTAAPP. Atkins building around "young position players + vet starters" was the right way to go. Copy that same formula for the next core.