max silver

Addison Barger has really exploded onto the scene with a monster showing in high A and AA. I think he's easily the breakout offensive star in the clubs minor league system up to this point of the season. His numbers have rocketed upwards after he reached AA including a reduction in his k rate, so I was curious what kind of production he was putting up in Vancouver leading up to the promotion. Barger really hit his stride towards the end of May. Over his last 34 games in Vancouver Barger slashed .347/.438/.653, good for a 1.090 OPS/199 WRC+. His k rate was a very solid 18.8% during this period. He hasn't missed a beat in AA as he's continued mashing with another 4 doubles and 4 home runs in his first 15 games. Put these two stints together and you see that Barger has had an extremely impressive run of sustained success. Heading into today's game in his last 48 games between the two levels he has produced some very gaudy offensive numbers at .382/.458/.688, good for a 1.146 OPS/212 WRC+. He has been an extra base machine with 17 doubles and 12 home runs in his last 201 plate appearances. His strikeout rate during this period was a perfectly acceptable 19.9%. I haven't been able to track down any reports on his defensive abilities but he's certainly made himself into a very interesting prospect with the impressive offensive production. Coming into the season I thought Orelvis was the most likely candidate in the minor league system to take over from Chapman once his contract expires, but Barger has certainly placed himself into the conversation with what he's been able to accomplish.

I would hope that even the least knowledgeable posters on here would know enough to not be suggesting a Moreno for Bednar trade. Jansen for Bednar is likely similar value wise but it seems a little doubtful Jansen would be of great interest to the Pirates giving he only has a few remaining years of control. I don't think I'd go so far as to suggest that Hader has been garbage this year as a whole. He went through a very uncharacteristic rough patch of about 10 days in July leading up to the All Star break. He's allowed 16 earned runs total on the season, however 12 of these came during an 11 day stretch from July 4 to July 15. Crazier yet is that 9 of these were surrendered in back to back outings on July 13 and 15 where he only recorded a single out combined. Aside from his two disastrous outings he's allowed all of 7 earned runs in his other 33-2/3 innings for an ERA of 1.87. Time will tell if he's managed to right the ship coming out of the All Star break or not, but early returns are very solid.

It seems you missed where I compared Bo Bichette to an average MLB regular to portray that he hasn't been somehow dragging his club down and preventing them from winning games. I won't argue that he shouldn't be dropped in the lineup as his offensive contributions for the season don't justify him batting cleanup. There are a number of options far more suited for this spot than Bo, you can easily insert of any of Teoscar, Gurriel or Chapman into this spot. I can just as easily use WRC+ to portray how Bo's poor start to the season dug him a hole early on. I could even argue that he was largely snakebitten for the month of April as he was regularly producing very high quality of contact right in line with his career averages. Using the same start point of May 1st has seen him produce a 115 WRC+ over a 3 month stretch of play. I won't argue that he's been producing the expected level of offense given his talent level, but to suggest that he's suddenly a lousy player when experiencing a down season (Vlad has been taking much of the same kind of flak) simply isn't fair. I fully agree that for Bo to maximize his offensive output he is going to need to tone down on the excessive aggressiveness at the plate. For what it's worth Bo isn't really swinging at more pitches out of the strike zone this season compared to previous seasons, however it's possible that he's swinging at pitches so far out of the strike zone compared to prior seasons as his whiff and k percentages are up a bit compared to previous levels. He's walking at a similar rate to his career levels, but to me the thing that seems to be missing is his ability to do damage on the pitches in the strike zone he does make contact with.

The Jays have a few position players who are actual scrubs. Zack Collins and Bradley Zimmer come to mind. You have insanely high standards if 2022 Bo Bichette is a "scrub" in your view. He had a very slow start in April, however from May 1 onwards he has been playing at a 4 win pace over the last 3 months. He is on pace to accumulate 3 WAR this season in a down year. The average MLB player accumulates about 2 WAR in a season, which makes 2022 Bo Bichette an ABOVE AVERAGE regular. Maybe you can give the scrub nonsense a rest or spit your venom at players who actually deserve it.

Unfortunately it appears as though Chafin isn't vaccinated. Perhaps he could be convinced to get jabbed if traded to a contender though. It appears as though Barlow has seen his stuff drop off quite a bit this season as his fastball is down several ticks, and his slider is producing a lot less whiffs. He is generating a lot less strikeouts as a result. Trivino has been a replacement level reliever this season and feels like a bit of gamble for a team that isn't in much of a position to be gambling on bullpen acquisitions given how the bullpen has been a relative weak spot the last few seasons.

As a whole I generally like this group just fine. This core group of relievers has been pretty solid for the most part aside from the times when the entire pitching staff has been blown up due to starters leaving the game early, whether due to lack of performance or injury. The guys at the front end of the bullpen have been the biggest issue, as for the most part the players ran through this part of the pen have been sub replacement level disappointments. I have no issues with either of Romano or Garcia in their current roles, each has largely been tremendous lately and are trending upwards as the season goes on. Romano has had a few blips along the way and his slider has been very hittable at times, but for the most part he's gotten the job done throughout the year. Garcia was a little shaky early in the season, however if I recall correctly he received even less spring training time compared to everyone else due to Visa issues. As the season has gone on he's been getting better and better, and has also seen his velocity and k rate subsequently increase as well. If another high leverage reliever were attained it could potentially unleash Garcia as a general purpose fireman to be used any time when needed. His stuff is downright nasty and he's been effective against both righties and lefties. If at all possible new acquisitions should at least be able to pitch ahead of Cimber and Mayza who are more suited to lower leverage situations due to largely pitching to contact. Nate Pearson is the only in house option I think has what it takes to pitch leverage situations this season, and if he can return to full health in time his high octane relief game should play perfectly here. Merryweather is theoretically another option that could pitch in this type of role, but he was largely ineffective out of the pen this season even when healthy. I have even less confidence in his ability to stay healthy than I do with Pearson. Cimber is a guy who should probably be used most frequently to start innings rather than brought in with runners on base. He typically doesn't generate many strikeouts and struggles a bit with runners on base so isn't really a great leverage option. It feels like he's been struggling a bit lately with his command which has led to more walks and hits than usual. Mayza has been a little hard to get a good read on this season due to inconsistent performance. His strikeouts have largely dried up this season, most likely due to having no feel for his slider which has been a garbage pitch this season. He should likely be limited to facing primarily left handed batters when at all possible as he's struggled quite a bit vs right handed batters. I think Phelps is perfectly suitable for mid relief. He's ran into issues with walks from time to time, but has generally managed to keep runs off of the board when he pitches. He's seen his k rate improve as the season has gone on which is a plus.

That's fair but a really tough price to pay. I think I'd be a lot less reluctant if there were indications that the team had a legitimate shot to sign Soto long term.

He should spend his offseason in Florida as the Jays already have a hitting lab in their new player development complex.

It's time to make BJMB great again. Somebody should make up some hats for this. Seeing as how a new board would be a special occasion the likes of Canada Day, it only makes sense that they should be red.

I hope Bloom is serious about not trading Bogaerts as this would be a great opportunity for the Red Sox to receive some value back for a player who's very likely to opt out at the end of the season. Seeing the Red Sox send out prospect value in a midguided attempt to compete would be perfect.

I was hopeful that Kikuchi would at least be able to throw a few more strikes, but he looked great tonight. He painted a lot of nice fastballs on the edges of the plate, and garnered quite a few swings and misses with his slider and splitter as well. Hopefully he can keep it up.

There are a few guys at the MLB level who would do well to work on improving their swing decisions.

It's magical thinking to make assumptions that simply because the score was kept closer a team is guaranteed to score the necessary runs to come back and win a game in which they are trailing. Life simply doesn't work that way. I'm not arguing that it would have been far more likely for the Jays to tie or potentially win the game if Richards didn't throw gas on the fire, but the offence was kept in check all game by a great performance by Wainright. This doesn't necessarily change if the score is 3-1 vs 6-1. I don't subscribe to the theory that a particular subset of bullpen pitcher is required to get outs in the middle of a baseball game. If a bullpen has a full assortment of arms that can reliably retire batters late in games in leverage situations, then it also stands to reason that these same pitchers are going to be able to come into a game in the middle innings and retire batters as well. The team already has plenty of players who have been succesful in putting out fires in the middle innings. We've seen Phelps used in this fashion, Cimber has had success here as well. The team is only going to need to use 4 starters in the playoffs. Assuming Kikuchi can turn his season around (obviously no guarantee here) one of Kikuchi or Stripling likely finds themselves in a long relief role for the playoffs. Acquiring a playoff starter in my view is a bit of a luxury rather than a necessity, and the team can concentrate more on a back of the rotation/depth starter instead.

Once the shift is banned Tellez will likely see his numbers soar as a result. That being said he simply had no spot on this team as there was very little playing time available for him due to an MVP calibre player manning his primary position.

The Jays lost because they only scored 1 run. You can't assume that the Jays would have scored more runs if Richards was able to prevent the Cardinals from scoring in the 5th inning, that's completely devoid of logic. Acquiring leverage relievers also serves to push the existing bullpen members down the ladder as well. If you have a few more reliable late innings options that opens the door for guys like Phelps, Cimber, Mayza etc. to pitch earlier in the game in situations like last night's 5th inning. The team doesn't need to acquire more middle relief options as they already have plenty of pitchers that are perfectly capable of pitching at that point of the game.

I don't think we are going to see that version of Merryweather again. Merryweather, along with most of the Jays top bullpen members, experienced a very pronounced increase in spin rates at the start of the 2021 season. I don't think it's a coincidence that this is the same time when Tyler Chatwood was a member of the Jays pen. Merryweather hasn't been able to recreate that type of dominance at any point since the sticky stuff crackdown occurred.

Replacing Gallo with Benintendi isn't exciting but it still improves an already extremely good Yankees team. I suspect they are going to be extremely active at the trade deadline.

Bringing in Richards with multiple runners on is the first legitimate gripe I've had with Schneider since he took over. That's pretty decent all things considered.

Whether Kikuchi pitches or not he's still getting paid. The team's coaching staff expended a ton of time and effort attempting to straighten him out. If he isn't given a chance to start the money, time and effort are all a complete waste. The team doesn't have a proper depth starter to take his place either at the moment, and the last few games started by the depth options were pretty terrible and the pen was burned out anyway. There's not much to lose by giving Kikuchi a start against a weak Tigers team.

If Kikuchi can throw strikes the team could certainly piggyback him with Stripling in the playoffs when a 4th starter is required.

Barger mashed in high A as well. 155 WRC+, .248 ISO, 14 home runs, 21 doubles, etc. I'm not suggesting the AA numbers are in any way sustainable, but he certainly doesn't appear to be strictly the creation of his current home ballpark.

Blue Jays insiders such as Ben Nicholson Smith and Scott Mitchell are both quoted in the article I linked stating that Gurriel is a free agent after next season. It appears as though the contract tracking sites haven't been updated to reflect this reality.

If I recall correctly Gurriel's contract only runs through next season as there was misinformation floating around that he was eligible for salary arbitration after 2023. https://jaysjournal.com/2021/11/12/blue-jays-lourdes-gurriel-jrs-contract-changes-things/

He has the raw stuff to pitch mid rotation but even when he's on he's so inefficient that he typically hits his pitch limit after 5 innings.

Sounds an awful lot like this year's version of the Jays before they exploded towards the end of May. This year's fatal flaw was a historically low RISP, perhaps something similar was to blame with the 2006 team as well.