max silver

If I wanted any of your lip I'd undo my belt.

What has Romano done or not done to warrant all star consideration? He's second in MLB in saves while only blowing 3 opportunities, has a statcast page full of red and by FWAR is tied for the team lead in wins above replacement. Pop is unfortunately a bit of a victim of the options game, but as a player without options he's going to have to earn his way back onto the major league roster. White has done nothing this season to earn his way of the roster either, so his place on the 26 man roster currently has little to nothing to do with Pop's fate right now.

What's wrong with Romano exactly? He's second in MLB in saves while blowing only 3 save opportunities, and has produced a full win above replacement at the all star break.

No I'm not the opposite of the doomers. I'm definitely on the more positive side of the ledger, but to be opposite of the doom crowd I would need to be making statements about how the Jays are the best team in baseball, are a lock to win the division, have baseball's best lineup, rotation and bullpen etc. I can recognize this is a team with flaws and areas in need of improvement, but at the same time can also recognize the team is stacked with talent which hasn't always produced to what it should be capable of. I've seen so many online commenters stating how the season was over in May for crying out loud, and the proclamations about how the manager and front office should be fired every time the team loses a few games in a row. I for one can recognize that a baseball season is 6 months long and there are bound to be ups and downs over the course of the season. I've never seen such a sense of entitlement among the fanbase with the amount of negativity around a team which will be heading into the all star break battling for a playoff position. It sucks how the offense has disappeared at times with today's no hitter being one such example, but the extremity of the negativity that surrounds this team is so over the top that it's honestly baffling to me.

Another starter would be nice but until there is injury where would you even stash this extra starter? Arms like Francis could be sent down, but once Green and Ryu are ready available roster spots would be in short supply at that point.

A lot of those are actual comments I've seen from posters on various platforms this season, including on this forum. I don't recall seeing this much derision for a team that is actually had a pretty decent season up to this point. It's disappointing that they are battling for a wildcard spot and not the division no doubt, but to see the collective internet meltdown that's occurred up to this point is goddamn baffling.

I didn't say the 2015 team wasn't legitimately great, I bristled at the suggestion you could add both Ohtani and Trout to the current squad and the 2015 team would still be better. Adding two of MLB's best hitters and another ace to this year's team would likely create the most talented Blue Jays team of all time.

Completely tongue in cheek bro.

Just imagine one of MLB's best relievers at the trade deadline. Except in this case if things work out as well as hoped for Green is going to be a Blue Jay for many years to come. This could eventually turn out to be one of the more impactful additions to this team if Green can return to anywhere close to previous levels of performance.

They should have had 60 wins a month ago. I blame Sportsnet for pumping this team's tires so much in the offseason, you can tell that the players spend as much time as we do reading s*** about them online and let the positive press go to their heads. Atkins deserves to be fired. A real GM would be on the field before games to teach the players how to hit with runners in scoring position. He took too much of a risk bringing Manoah back up this soon. Anyone with a brain could tell this wouldn't be nearly enough time for Alek to drop the 80+ extra pounds he's carrying around this year. The true experts among the fanbase were all in agreement that Alek's issues were almost exclusively a result of the extra weight he was carrying around. A piddly month wouldn't be nearly long enough for him to become less of a lardass, and if he were to struggle this could really ruin his confidence for good. Struggling against a team of rookies in the complex league is one thing, but imagine the horrors on the young man's psyche if he were to struggle against a major league squad! Schneider needs to be fired as well. The fact that this team has played at nearly a 95 win pace for him so far they should be playing at a 110 win pace at minimum. The biggest example of what a doofus he is was the move to take Berrios out after only 7 innings. Jose Berrios is an alpha dog and he needs to be allowed to run free, and not tethered to a leash by the puppet manager. Bringing in Richards was totally a bad move, what with him only striking out 5 of the 6 runners he faced.

I have really fond memories of the 2015 squad but it wasn't THAT good.

Heading into this season White's minor league numbers were nothing spectacular, but good enough that he earned his way onto the major league roster of a stacked team like the Dodgers. He had a 3.70 ERA/3.87 FIP. He really struggled in AAA this year as he worked his way back from injury, but it appears as though he might have righted the ship upon his call up back to the majors. Prior to being acquired by the Jays last season he pitched pretty well over the course of several stints with the Dodgers. He produced a 3.58 ERA/3.87 FIP. For a guy acquired primarily to be used as a swing man/6th starter these numbers are just fine. The results last season as a Blue Jay are admittedly ugly, but there are signs that suggest his ERA was inflated due to some pretty terrible luck on batted balls. He avoided barrels and kept the ball in the park, but despite an average exit velocity of only 87.8 MPH he surrendered a batting average on balls in play of .368. There is a massive gap between his ERA and FIP of nearly 4 full runs which further suggests the high ERA is something that may have normalized over time. Frasso is a fun prospect to follow but he hasn't exactly been lighting AA on fire. This is his second season spending time in AA, and his total AA line shows a 4.41 ERA/3.13 FIP. He's experienced a lot of injuries over his young career and as such has a very high likelihood of ending up as a reliever. He's only averaged 3 innings per start in his AA time so it seems somewhat unlikely that he will be able to remain as a starter long term. De Jesus is having a nice run of success in Vancouver right now. He's upped his season WRC+ to 120 after a few very good months at the plate. Over his last 49 games he's produced a 141 WRC+ including 9 home runs. He's starting to show why the front office was willing to ship out Frasso as part of the White trade. White being used in low leverage situations doesn't take away from the fact that he's pitched well for the team so far. Low leverage relief has been a big weakness for this team, as key low leverage relievers such as Cimber and Phelps have either been hurt/ineffective or retired in the case of Phelps. Pop showed promise in this role before he eventually started to struggle and ending up on the injured list, so if White can be effective in this role he can eventually work his way out of mop-up innings and start pitching in closer games.

This is speculative in nature but I'd be more inclined to think the lack of extra base power is a function of timing/not being locked in at the plate vs a conscious decision to slap balls the other way. Orelvis wasn't locked in for the first month of the season, and he offered literally nothing at the plate as he didn't walk, provided no power, and wasn't even picking up the odd single. In May he went on a power surge, and the walk rate started ticking up while a few more batted balls were falling in for hits. In June the power largely dried up but the strikeout and walk rates are stellar and he's producing a lot of base hits. I'm very encouraged he is able to contribute offensively when he's not squaring up the baseball with regularity.

This may come as a surprise to you (I already know you are spouting off as per usual without looking anything up first) but Mitch White has actually pitched pretty well for the Blue Jays this season. I would surmise that a 3.38 ERA/3.17 FIP/11.25 K/9 with a 5.0 K/BB shows that White has actually been a solid contributor by every measure imaginable. It's like people only look at the small sample struggles White had as a Blue Jay last season to evaluate him as a pitcher and nothing he did prior to this or after this have any bearing whatsoever on their opinion.

Not sure how that's really relevant. Orelvis likely wasn't ready for AA on his first go round, that's on the front office for an overly aggressive promotion.

It appears at a glance that Alex De Jesus hit for the cycle tonight. His line shows 4 hits, including a double, triple, and home run. Frasso has struggled tremendously in recent outings so with De Jesus heating up in recent days the sting of the White trade is starting to dissipate a little bit.

If Manoah really struggles the front office isn't saving face by keeping him on the roster, they would be actively costing the team a chance to win the games he's starting in. They would take infinitely more heat rostering an ineffective starter that wasn't ready to come back then they would if they reverse course and send him back down.

I don't imagine Manoah will be given a lot of rope, so if he's really struggling early on he will most likely receive a quick hook. Francis and Richards will likely both be available to soak up innings if necessary. It isn't the end of the world if he struggles, he can simply be sent back down to the minors to continue working on his craft. If he succeeds then the team added a much needed rotation piece, if he struggles and gets sent down they either make a trade or continue with the occasional bullpen days until Ryu is ready to return. I think the potential upside of a successful Manoah return likely outweigh the drawbacks of him needing to make more starts in the minors.

I don't think it's nearly that dire of a situation unless you think Manoah is a sensitive wallflower who can't handle a bit of adversity. It's far from ideal if he has to bounce back and forth a bit but ending his career because he has to go back to the minors?

Ryu made his first rehab start today for the Florida Coast League team. His final line looks encouraging enough, I haven't seen any reports yet how his stuff looked yet. 3 IP, 4 H, O BB, 1 ER, 5 SO

This team is right smack dab in the middle of what appears to be a 5 year competitive window. Each of Bo and Vlad only have two years of remaining control, with Gausman and Springer are under control for similar timeframes. Throwing away this season gives a giant middle finger to the players on the roster as well as the fanbase. That's great if some prospects are attained, but unless they are of the nearly major league ready variety they are not going to do anything to help with this current window.

Given the cost and makeup of this roster I don't know if any major external upgrades are going to be in the cards for this season. There is always room for another leverage bullpen arm and a righty slugging outfielder/DH type would be nice to have, but I have a hard time seeing Vlad/Kirk/Varsho etc. being benched moving forward so they are eventually going to need to find their way out of their respective funks. This team still hasn't really gotten it's offense going at the midway point of the season so it's perfectly fair to wonder if this is all the offense is going to be capable of, but given the names on the roster there should be more in the tank. If/when they finally figure out the RISP issues runs scoring will be far less of an issue, and this team has hit a surprising lack of home runs given how much power there is up and down the lineup. They really need to be examining the practice routines, approach, coaching methods etc. to get to the bottom of how badly this offense has underperformed so far.

The players would revolt if the team was torn down while still in the thick of the playoff hunt. This team has been built with the playoffs in mind and if the players perform up to their capabilities they can make some noise in the post season. Knee jerk reactions like firing the GM mid-season would accomplish nothing, but if the team fails to make the post season I agree Atkins should be shown the door.

Yeah this guy wants the front office to say f*** it and throw away the competitive cycle they spent years building up to.

I think Bo tried to slow down/stop and realized he was well past halfway to home already. He almost certainly would have been a dead duck at third much like he was at home so it's a pick your poison scenario at that point.