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That hardly seems very damning on it's own giving up a minimum of 1 earned run in each appearance for a starter. If Berrios had given up something like 3 or 4 earned runs in every appearance this stat on it's own would be cause for concern.

That's completely untrue, this season's MLB baseballs are dramatically deadened compared to the previous 5 seasons. We don't have available data for the baseballs during the steroid era, but there's simply no way to conclude that this year's baseball is providing some kind of advantage for Judge. Furthermore this season has seen the implementation of humidors league wide for the first time, and this had a direct effect on further suppressing offence during the colder months earlier in the season.

No f***ing way man. Think back to the ridicule Buck Showalter faced for not using his best reliever in the wild card game, it would be that times a million if the Jays didn't use Manoah in the wild card series and ended up losing the series.

It reminds me a lot of Ohtani's swing.

Hudgens certainly has the track record of success given that he was hitting coach for a world series winning team. It's a little odd that Hudgens accepted what is likely a demotion from bench coach to hitting strategist, but has Martinez really done anything that would necessitate him being removed from the job so that Hudgens could take over? At any rate having multiple coaches available to work with players allows different players to mesh with different coaches, coaches can really collaborate, etc.

That's exactly the guy you would expect to see a hitter talking with in the middle of a game, particularly if the opposition were to bring in a new pitcher.

Only other alternative is a bullpen game followed by a Mitch White start. I'll gladly take your option instead.

Digging deeper into the numbers Jays are 110-103 vs the Rays in Toronto. Thank f*** this series isn't being played at the Trop.

Are the Rays even really that healthy yet? I see them still missing key contributors such as Baz, Glasnow, Zunino and others, and it's still up in the air whether McClananhan will be ready to return in time for this series. This isn't exactly a full strength Rays squad that the Jays are about to face despite your doomposting.

Yay, another person who is the type to tear a strip out of the Jays when they lose a few games, but then will also automatically do their best to discount when the team plays very well and wins the vast majority of their games. If the Jays win then it's because they are playing s***** opponents and they deserve no credit because in MLB the better team on paper should always win. If the Jays lose then it's time to panic for the exact same reason, the better team is always supposed to win. There is a reason they actually still play the games, as anybody can win on any given day in the sport. The Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays have nearly the exact same record heading into this series, have nearly the exactly same run differential, and each team is playing well heading into this series. The Jays are 8-2 in their last 10, and the Rays are 7-3 in their last 10. These are two extremely well matched teams, as accordingly each team has a good shot at winning this series if they play well and limit mistakes. Since Schneider took over the Jays have been winning a ton of games, and are 32-19 over this 51 game stretch. Right now the Jays are basically a very tough matchup for everyone they are playing, and it's just as easy to argue that it very well may be the Rays who are in trouble heading into this series.

Chapman was specifically mentioned during Jays broadcasts as having gone to the coaching staff for a little more assistance in getting him on track after the early struggles. Guillermo and the rest of the coaching staff can likely get at least a little credit in helping Chapman to turn his fortunes around at the plate, although he was still producing a lot of solid contact early on and simply not seeing the expected results.

Ok thanks for the realism. Jays are playing their best baseball of the season lately. The Jays are very healthy themselves right now, and the only player of note missing presently is Gurriel. After the shaky start to August they have turned things around and gone 16-7 in their last 23 games. Despite struggling against the Orioles earlier in the year they largely dominated them on their home turf. The Rays bullpen was just taxed to the extreme in back to back games over the weekend, and there is a double header coming up tomorrow. But the Jays automatically have no shot against the Rays just because.

Bo's defense seems to go in cycles. He gets into ruts where he makes a ton of errors on easy plays for several weeks at a time, and then gets into a groove where he's very solid for several months at a time. Once he cleans up the errors on routine plays (bad/rushed throws, bobbles on transfer, etc.) the talk of him needing to move off of the position will halt.

Can't do that due to roster limits on total number of pitchers.

Schneider has had to deal with the same type of rotation issues that Charlie dealt with. White really hasn't been any more effective than Kikuchi, and Berrios has continued to be incredibly inconsistent from start to start as well. I won't argue that the bullpen is far more reliable now, as we are no longer subject to a parade of sub replacement relievers being utilized in close games because nobody more effective is available. We aren't privy to what was going on behind the scenes. From the comments we have heard from Atkins and the players themselves there was something going on which necessitated the managerial change. Whether Charlie simply couldn't handle the pressure of a close pennant race, couldn't help rally his team around the Budzinski tragedy, or had some other sort of issues in the clubhouse we didn't hear about it was rather clear that he had lost the team. I don't think it's a coincidence that they have performed better after the managerial change. This could certainly have been a result of the players simply stepping up and performing more up to their abilities, but the fact remains that there is often a very fine line between winning and losing in baseball. We have seen more than enough differences tactically in game which has directly contributed to the team winning more games. During a game the manager is responsible for placing his team in the best possible position to win games, and I think that Schneider has been far more effective with his in game decision making than what we saw under Montoyo.

It's definitely up to the players to perform on the field, but you can't deny the team has performed far better under Schneider than under Montoyo. Under Montoyo the team was 46-42 with a .523 winning percentage. Under Schneider the team is 30-18 with a .625 winning percentage. This is good for over 100 wins over a full season, and is far more indicative of the level of talent on this team. I see far more accountability under Schneider, both on and off the field of play than we ever saw with Charlie.

This isn't true at all. Under Schneider the team has been far more aggressive on the bases, particularly in terms of attempting to steal second. It remains to be seen if this is a net positive or not as they have run into plenty of outs. The team is sacrificing far less than under Montoyo. The bullpen has been deployed differently, as Romano has been utilized for multiple inning saves on several occasions under Schneider. Starters are being allowed to pitch further into games, although this may have been allowed in Charlie were still manager as well. We have seen different bullpen deployment, as the team's leverage relievers have been employed in more games when the team is behind in order to keep the game close.

I think Bass is being underutilized a little so far, he's been a little buried in the 6th/7th inning, and even seems placed behind Cimber in the pecking order.

I think Bo has improved by leaps and bounds defensively this season. He still makes a few mistakes but he's far more reliable and makes some very nice plays.

At least they are improving through baby steps.

It's like he's been mainlining rails of coke and popped a bunch of Viagra.

The Jays seem to be locked into the overuse your closer mindset right now. Last night they use him up by 5, tonight it's using him up by 4. Now it's all but guaranteed he won't be available tomorrow which is a big loss if the game is within a run or 2 late.

Well hit ball by Gurriel. He just needs to tap back into some of his previous power to become a beast at the plate. He's really leveraged his well above average hit tool into a much more sustainable approach at the plate.

Nice job Jano.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Yanks bullpen went from what was likely MLB's almost dominant bullpen into something more resembling the Jays bullpen in some respects.