Brownie19

I suspect he wanted Ward and Henke brought in. Real men from an era when baseball cutthroat.

@manfredsburner • Instagram reel WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM manfredsburner on April 21, 2026: "The story of Brett Phillips and Chloe Grimes is one of those moments where baseball... This is old, but it's a good one. Phillips understood the assignment. He played the game full of joy. The way it was meant to be played. Love this sh*t

At this point, it's probably worth finding out. Even if it just helps his confidence a bit.

I'm sorry, but this is nonsense. Rash decisions based on small sample sizes rarely work out in the long run. Baseball is a long grind full of statistical noise, and short-term results are often outside a player’s control. That’s why you constantly hear players, coaches, and managers preach a level‑headed, consistent approach. You keep putting in consistent, process based work and don’t overreact to every high or low. Will this approach be perfect? Obviously not. The nostalgia driven “winner’s mentality” narrative from 30+ years ago ignores how modern baseball actually works. Teams that consistently win now do so by trusting process, information, and probabilities - not by yanking players at the first sign of variance and calling it accountability. Mistaking impatience for decisiveness doesn’t make a team smarter, it just makes outcomes noisier. Overreaction isn’t a winning mentality; it’s how you lose the edge over a 162‑game season. Culture doesn’t replace performance, but it’s what allows performance to stabilize instead of fluctuation turning into chaos. We were inches away from winning the World Series last year and we heard all kinds of great benefits of the culture that JS has instilled in the clubhouse. It's also a reason players now want to come to Toronto.

That's a nice development. We'll probably need him this year.

Puig and Fernando Rodney in the IBL (now the CBL) is pretty cool. I'll have to catch a game or two when he's playing in Barrie. One of my son's coaches also plays for the Toronto Mets, so maybe we'll get a Puig autograph!

That's a bizarre statement. I'm neither salty, nor was anything I said about Hoffman particularly wrong. I'm just pointing out how hypocritical and inconsistent you are. Nothing more. Picking Eric Lauer as the hill you're willing to die on is certainly a choice.

That's wild. Puig to the IBL!

Were you not pushing for him to be our high leverage lefty out of the pen this offseason? Or was that your brother?

He's #1 in my heart Brock. Ernie Pillar John MacDonald O-Dawg Kawasaki (that's in no particular order)

He's actually significantly worse.

I prefer to use results when it spans a long sample size. Lauer's numbers since August 2025: 5.40 ERA 5.50 FIP / 4.77 xFIP 3.5 BB/9 1.49 WHIP 2.0 HR/9

Devin Williams was doing this best Hoffman impression before tonight (inflated ERA, BABIP >0.500, high HR/9, high K's). But he was awful tonight.

I think I made a similar comment last week. I'd like the minor league prospect thread under the Toronto Blue Jays Talk section as well. It used to be my favourite thread.

So you can't compliment 2 players at a time? Brilliant stuff. Still waiting for the example.

Care to provide at least one example of this? And FWIW - complimenting players on your favourite team seems like a perfectly logical thing to do.

Tyler Rogers?

I have no problem admitting Hoffman hasn't been good over that stretch (although you should use xERA and xFIP like a big boy - his xFIP is 3.96 over that stretch). It's been a struggle, but there are still indicators to suggest he's not completely useless. Stuff+ is one of them, so your dig at that remains stupid. Heaven forbid a fan of the Blue Jays tries to find a bright spot in what's been a hellish start to the season. All you try to do is sh*t on anyone who shows optimism, or who tries to use more advanced metrics to better understand what might be happening (likely because you don't understand them very well). That's kind of you're not well liked around here. That said, you suggesting you prefer large sample sizes and some rational approach to judging players might be the funniest thing you've ever said on this site. It illustrates your complete lack of self awareness.

Have you been the Chase Field? I asked this in another GDT earlier in the series. It looks cool, but I never see anyone talking about it and I don't know anyone who's ever seen a game there.

Seems odd. You can see Quantrill tapping his head before Young even gets to 3rd base (when I would consider the play to be "over"). I think the ump f*cked that one up.

Interesting. He hasn't pitched well at all since going to Minnesota.

You keep filtering this in as a pot shot at others. Do explain who and what's wrong with this team all might baseball Yoda. I'd love to learn from one of the truly brilliant baseball minds of our era. Is Popkins the issue? I heard for years that Martinez was the issue when we couldn't hit, so I'd assume that means it's now his fault. Is it Atkins again?

Yes - that seems like the rational thing to do.