max silver

Awesome first inning by Richards who was really efficient.

And then gets gunned down easily at the plate. 😒

Vlad clutches up!

Yeah White is likely the mop up guy today if he's used at all. I like the raw stuff that Francis his displayed so far but he's been hit awfully hard so far as well. Limiting him to the bottom of the order would be preferable if at all possible.

Ah gotcha, I misread your post to say that it would be good for White to be bombed by the Rangers lineup based on the assumption he was firmly in the plans to be used today.

Using White feels like it should be reserved for a break glass in case of emergency type of situation. Personally I'd like to see Richards followed up by Pearson depending on where the Rangers are in the order after Richards is finished for the day. This would be a perfect opportunity to try to push Pearson a little further than the maximum 2 inning stints he's been used for so far.

Why is it good if White gets lit up by the Rangers? I'm having a hard time seeing literally anything that would be good about that particular development.

If you squint hard enough there are small reasons to be hopeful White doesn't totally crater the team's chances at victory today. He's struck out a bunch of hitters with is sweeper and has solid FIP/xFIP numbers. Don't go checking out his quality of contact metrics however as that quickly shatters the illusion of effectiveness.

He's gone cold at the plate for a longer sample than this though as over the last 30 days he's produced a 78 WRC+.

It's an interesting discussion what it would take to get Jansen to sign an extension. I think the proposed numbers may be a little high given that he's only making $3.5 million for the season, and unless he manages to stay on the field and have a big season offensively he won't likely get a massive raise in the offseason either. Sean Murphy isn't a great comparable, as while Jansen *may* have somewhat similar upside (this year's breakout from Murphy notwithstanding), Murphy has shown the ability to provide this type of value over a full season as he hasn't suffered the litany of soft tissue injuries that keep popping up for Jansen.

That's a good question. The provided definition from MLB about xBA does little to clear that up.

Why? Who should he be starting in front of? Horwitz has been struggling in AAA lately to the tune of a 87 WRC+ over his last 5 weeks or so. I don't know if he should be starting ahead of any of the regulars, or even instead of Biggio who has been clobbering baseballs with surprising regularity lately.

Yeah I looked it up in the Statcast box score and it was only a .350 xBA for that particular play, so it would likely have been catchable for Robert given his speed.

Maybe some of the consternation is due to perceived lack of effort on behalf of Robert at times in the past, but there's literally nothing he could have done on this play to prevent the winning run from scoring. If he makes what appears to be one of the hardest catches in major league history the runner tags and scores easily anyway.

In what is likely the most surprising turn of events in the season Gurriel has gone cold at the plate. His season up to this point is entirely built on a hot streak in the middle of the season, with little to no value being provided around the hot streak. His season is as follows by month: Mar/Apr 87 WRC+ 0.1 FWAR May 200 WRC+ 1.5 FWAR (sure would have been nice to have him this month as Vlad/Chapman turned into pumpkins) June 10 WRC- -0.1 FWAR

That's a stretch calling a post dumb given the amount of brain fart level nonsense you post here on a daily basis. Feel free to put some thought into a post for the first time in your existence and I'd be happy to debate the merit or relative lack of merit in my previous post. The fact remains that outside of a small sample of games against the Red Sox, and a few series against the Orioles when the team was in a funk the Blue Jays have performed very well as a whole against the rest of baseball. They have played very well against other top teams, including sweeping the Braves and taking 3 out of 4 games against a very good Astros team based on the strength of their pitching. This team finds itself a half game out of a wildcard spot despite playing one of baseball's hardest schedules up to this point, would be leading 2 divisions in baseball, would be a half game out of second place in 3 divisions, and are a half game back of the 6th best record in MLB.

Yeah maybe not, I was remembering that Taylor hit a bunch of jacks in AA a few years ago but that looked to be more of a single year anomaly.

I'll be curious to see how he does. If he clicks at the big league level he's likely to be pretty similar to Merrifield with a worse hit tool but more power.

It dawned on me that the Jays are largely being judged as a disappointment based on their record against two teams, the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox. The Blue Jays have a very poor divisional record, however most of this is against two teams. They have played the Yankees and Rays closely with records of 3-4 against each of these teams. However against the Red Sox and Orioles they have floundered and only have a record of 1-9. Against non Red Sox/Orioles teams the Blue Jays have a 37-23 record, good for a .617 winning percentage. The team has a robust +49 run differential in these contests as well, vs a run differential of -29 vs the Red Sox and Orioles in 10 games. Against non Oriole teams above .500 the Blue Jays have a 23-18 record, which is a .561 winning percentage. They have beaten up on non Red Sox teams below .500 with a record of 14-5 and gone 16-10 against teams above .500 when playing outside of their division. This is a very good team that for whatever reason has struggled against two teams so far, and dominated as a whole over the rest of their schedule. There are plenty of games remaining against the Red Sox, and I suspect by the end of the season the Blue Jays record against them should work it's way above .500 as long as they play anywhere close to their capabilities. It appears as though the Orioles have played a much easier schedule compared to the Blue Jays this season. They have only played a total of 37 total games against teams with records above .500, vs a total of 46 games against teams above .500 for the Blue Jays. Against non Blue Jays teams above .500 the Orioles have a record of 16-17. When you compare this against the Blue Jays record 23-14 against non Oriole teams above .500 there is every reason to believe the Orioles good record is a bit of a mirage that has largely been built on beating up on weak teams and beating up on the Blue Jays head to head so far. The Orioles have a much harder remaining schedule as well so they have work ahead of them to prove that they are a legit contender. Fangraphs predicts them to experience a serious correction in their record for the rest of the season with a projected .478 winning percentage.

Jesus that's infuriating. MLB needs to incorporate technology for calling fair/foul for home runs rather than rely on terrible camera angles that aren't even pointed at the foul pole.

Ultimately I don't see the point of wasting so much time complaining about either of Biggio or Espinal. Each of these guys appears to have a bench player level of talent, and accordingly is going to see their playing time increased or reduced based on how they produce at the plate. Espinal is a better defender in the field vs Biggio who provides more value on the bases. Each of them has shown spurts of offensive production that gets you hoping for more, but ends up going into a deep slump where the results basically fizzle away to nothing. Biggio is in one such surge right now where he's barreled up 6 balls in the last 3 weeks, compared to 10 for the entire 2022 season. He very well may have been ripped off of another barrel in last night's game as well off of an elite reliever. I don't recall him ever having a stretch of games like this where he's hitting the ball with this type of authority, so I'm going to stubbornly hope this is at least somewhat sustainable and not just a short term hot streak.

Espinal has been legitimately bad for an extended stretch dating back to July of last season when he went into a tailspin at the plate. Since then he's been exactly replacement level over 84 games with a paltry 73 WRC+. He provides no value on the bases so literally the only thing he has been good for is his glove. Whether or not that's fine is obviously within the eye of the beholder but he hasn't really been doing much to help the team win.

I don't know if the replacement call-up would receive much more playing time than Lukes anyway as the team is largely covered across the diamond.

I think Vlad's issues are more a result of poor swing decisions. Chris Black posted an excellent twitter thread in the offseason that concluded that Vlad largely hits the ball on the ground when he starts chasing out of the zone, particularly on low pitches. When he is more selective and forces pitchers into the zone he hits the ball in the air far more frequently and his number take off accordingly.

I think these guys make enough dough that they can afford to buy the games.