BlueRocky

Yeah. If his command can stay consistent he’ll be a fine addition to the bullpen.

Kids have taken over the top of the lineup

His slider has been a good pitch and can touch 98, problem is the changeup can be kinda iffy

Hey look it’s Jordan Romano

That’s a very cool little feature. Can we make it work on mobile or not worth the trouble?

BJAggr is awesome

Well if you’re shopping for frontline SP, there’s no way to avoid spending money. Whether if it’s worth inking a 28-32 yr old vet into a long term contract is another debate. Gerrit Cole would be our no. 1 starter and we could do a lot worst.

I am happy for Edwin, great guy. He’s one of the most beloved BJs of recent memory and I’ll root for his success. I personally wanted him back but we ended up with Morales. 4/80 was fair and 3/60 was a great deal at the time.

https://2080baseball.com/2019/06/backfields-notes-4/ Notes from extended spring training:

Joe is one of the nicest humans on the planet and down to earth. But I’m not sure he would be giving people hitting tips on an online forum.

Did he say that? Hmm I’m not sure then. Most of my good guesses doesn’t match this criteria. I’m thinking of a ex-blue jays hitter between the age of 27-32 that played 2000-2009

Okay we need some clues. Were you on the team when Gibby had royal rumble with Ted Lilly or is that too far back?

Joe Carter?

The backend SP depth looks at least half decent in 2021, but we’re really lacking in frontline starters. I can at least imagine where the hitting is going to come from in 2021, but the pitching is a real question mark. We’re basically banking on Nate to be a bonafide ace and at least one or two guys over-performing projections, while also getting lucky with pickups like Shoemaker (or 2015-2016 Estrada) to seriously be contending.

Not worth the trouble

https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa3005720&position=OF Julio Rodriguez He had a fracture on his left hand but was raking in the lower minors

Yeah a couple things were edited out, but probably because the pod was getting a little bit too lengthy. John did a great job making us sound like we were mostly on track (Thanks John). We ranted a lot, steered away from draft topics, and I also personally stumbled a few times and had a few bloopers. Like we laughed about how Orioles GM’s mic was messed up and he didn’t have a chance to talk about his no. 1 overall pick Adley Rutschman, and more elaboration why the draft show is bad and how they could improve it. I added some stuff to the Kirk discussion (I think) about how good his numbers were in Lansing and Dunedin, most of the stuff that made the cut were talking about his defense. We also had like a good 30 min discussion of various Blue Jays prospects after the recording ended that never made the cut, stuff like Gabriel Moreno, Riley Adams, Nate Pearson, Gurriel Jr’s production in LF (& how his ideal development would’ve been similar to Tim Anderson)

Alan can be a little silly at times but I feel he injects a lot of personality to the podcast. He sometimes has really hot takes, but will call out players for being bad and very blunt about his evaluations. No ******** approach. People don’t always agree with everything he says, and it makes for some interesting conversations. Part of why I started listening to this pod weekly in the past. Nick and Mike also often add lots of insight into topics and sometimes disagree with Alan which does a lot of good of keeping the pod interesting My friends that tuned in to the pod this week (who knows absolutely nothing about baseball and not a BJ fan) said Alan was really funny and actually listened to the whole thing which surprised me.

Hey man really appreciate the feedback. It’s a little bit cringe I talked so slowly during the recording, will try to do better next time. Had a lot of notes in front of me and was constantly looking things over things haha

Yeah especially when we see stuff like: If a couple of these salvage prospects turn out to be anything, the Ross Atkins criticisms should die down a little bit.

Wall pretty much is a centerfielder. His glove is not as good as Jonathan Davis, but Wall has plus speed too. The only weakness I'd say is his arm strength, it's prob below average. But it's not that big of an issue if he can stick at CF and you don't need to move him around the corners. All he really has to do is 'hit for average' to leap over the guys in front of him in the depth charts, he's got a better hit tool than both Alford and Davis. He's been crushing it too, his May stats are .327/.409/.515, OPS .924. So far it's continued in June. The 'below average' raw power in his bat should play up when he hits triple-A with the juiced MLB balls. Also it's nice Forrest bats left-handed.

Here’s my skinny on big Nate today. Fastball command was a little bit off the whole game, especially the first two innings. I think it was just one of those games where he was overthrowing a bit and couldn’t locate it. I think he dialed it down a tad bit to 95-98 mph just to keep it under control (hit 100 like once or twice). Thats a tick lower considering many of his past starts he sat 97-100 and top 102. But when a guy dials it down and STILL hits 95-97 it’s pretty hilarious. Nate got himself into hitter’s counts quite a few time and still managed to not walk a single batter, and only allowing an infield single to a really fast dude that beat it out to 1B (and got caught stealing for challenging Riley Adam’s cannon). The lower K’s I feel was because Nate wasn’t in a lot of 0-2 and 1-2 counts this game, which gave hitters more chance to put the ball in play. A lot of weak contact and lazy flyballs. It’s good to know he can be effective even in games where his command isn’t quite there or his stuff isn’t sharp. His slider is just pure filthy because Nate locates it so well & mixed in with his heater. Guys seeing high 90s sprayed all over the plate and suddenly gets baffled by his slider. I think all three of his K’s were sliders, one might’ve been a changeup, not too sure but it was definitely off-speed. I saw a couple curveballs used to steal strikes and hitters just shook their heads. I think hitters are glad he doesn’t throw it more often, what is a guy supposed to do when it’s difficult enough getting nailed by triple-digit heaters and a power slider, then he throws a high 70s/low 80s hammer for strikes? There’s just too much velo separation for double-A guys to handle. He pitches strictly from the stretch and his delivery is very deliberate from a high 3/4 arm slot, his right foot almost goes head level while he leans slightly glove side to finish his delivery, and Nate is 6-6. (see pics below) Just a side note, Riley Adams threw out two guys today, one of them was a speedster and the other guy was thrown out so badly he didn’t even bother jogging to 2B cuz the throw beat him by a mile. Adam’s arm is not a joke. He seems to be decent in his catching skills as well, Nate had some wild throws and he blocked most of them with one exception that dug a hole in the ground. I hear those these two guys are tight since their rehab days in Dunedin, similar to Jansen/Borucki. One last thought, Forrest Wall has really come into his own. Not even looking at all the hits and walks he’s racking up, he’s putting up some very good ABs, seeing and fouling off a lot of pitches. The Ump screwed him over on ball 4 in a 3-1 count, he ended up fouling off a couple then turned it into a double off the wall. Kids sometimes sulk in that situation and he turned it into a double instead. He also stole 3B in the 6th inning btw, standing up.. after a K at the plate. Man has got some jets. I’m covering a lot more on the lower minor kids (like double-A guys) in part 3 of the article you can find on the RadioScouts blog later this coming week, part 1 and 2 are currently up for viewing which segments all our prospects from last season and this year. Go read em if you’re interested in this kind of thing: https://www.radioscouts.com/

Yep he wasn't like that in the minors. No this isn't the chart of Vlad's batting practice... unless you count every minor league game as batting practice.

Haha thanks for that. Interestly this came out a few days after that recording: https://www.mlb.com/news/best-hauls-of-the-2019-mlb-draft Jim Callis says the Blue Jays were one of the 7 teams with the best drafts this year. Considering teams that didn't have any extra picks (10 picks in 10 rounds). Probably not as good as the Mets, but better than the Reds. To be honest, the grade A is a bit homer-ish, but you can argue anywhere between B to A. We signed multiple difficult to sign guys (including Philip Clarke) and basically ended up with two first-round talents on day 1. Not to mention the cape cod standout bats we signed all have upside, and I might be especially high on Dasan Brown (age), Will Robertson (bat) and Cameron Eden (tools).