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At a glance it looks like Grichuk is off to a decent start with the Rockies as he's presently rocking a .369 WOBA. This looks to be largely undeserved as his xWOBA is only .308. Upon further inspection though it appears as though the Rockies have basically turned him into a right handed version of Raimel Tapia. Each of Grichuk and Tapia have ground ball percentages of over 70% so far with negative launch angles. Grichuk has managed to lower his strikeout rate early on to an impressive 12%, but he's seen a corresponding decrease in his exit velocity and hard hit rates as each are by far the worst of his career.

You're too late as he only has eyes for Trevor Bauer.

I think putting Bengay on your balls would be a better suggestion.

I don't really buy the deadened ball theory as an explanation for his shrinking offensive output. Cavan needs to start squaring up baseballs at a greater rate if he's to return to his previous power output. In 2021 he largely went away from his strengths, namely his elite plate discipline, and started swinging at more pitches off of the plate. This resulted in an increased k rate and decreased walk rate. When you look at his batted ball numbers his best output by far was in his 2019 debut season, his hard hit rate was easily the best of his career. Since then he has stopped squaring up baseballs with as much regularity, as is evidenced by shrinking hard hit rates and barrel rates from 2019 onwards. I think this year is his make or break year to remain with the Blue Jays given the large amount of good infield prospects in the upper levels of the minors. His injury plagued 2021 season can largely be ignored, I don't see how you can reasonably expect any player to play up to their capabilities when dealing with injuries to both hands, the neck and back as well as an elbow injury issue. It's far too early to make any conclusions in 2022 as he has all of 6 batted ball events at this point. It might be time to pump the brakes a little on definitively concluding that the guy is washed up.

I don't think that applies to the electronic strike zone, as far as I can tell the 45 day notice for rule changes applies to bigger bases, pitch clocks and a ban against the shift.

Given the absolute garbage quality umpiring we've been subjected to this season I didn't think it would be possible for an umpire to make the rest of the dipshits calling balls and strikes in Jays game to seem competent by comparison. I honestly can't recall a single game impacted to the same degree as today's game was. Jays pitchers were consistently squeezed on pitches well within the strike zone and A's pitchers received calls several inches off the plate all game long. This was a total travesty. It was nice for Charlie to finally stick up for his team but what in the hell was he thinking not using Springer in the 6th when they had him ready to pinch hit? A run there could have made the difference for the victory.

I recall an interview with Atkins where he stated that Charlie had full control over lineup decisions. Even aside from that I have an incredibly hard time that an analytically inclined team such as the Jays would be dictating lineup decisions to the manager and we would end up seeing decisions like Tapia batting 5th and in the leadoff spot. I don't think Charlie likely has control over general availability as that likely falls to the high performance department. I don't have a big issue with that as they would have data that none of us would see with regards to player fatigue, and losing a player on a scheduled off day once every week or two is infinitely preferable than losing them for weeks or months at a time due to injury.

Can't take them lightly though as they gave the Rays all they could handle. I'm not overly confident in the Jays lineup as only 4 members of the starting lineup were off to good starts and 2 of those guys are out with injury. The team could really use Gurriel and Kirk to get going, although at least Kirk looked like he's starting to lock in tonight as he had a lot of great at bats. Thankfully the rotation is rounding into shape and the bullpen has been reasonably solid for the most part.

This whole game was a total lesson in frustration. Sure Severino was nasty as hell but Gausman was arguably even better, just having s*** luck as the bottom of the Yankees lineup f***ed him up the ass with small ball dickery. Gausman is rocking a 0.35 FIP after tonight's start, he's just been getting BABIP'ed to death so far. I can't say I'm surprised that the Jays were shut out based on the atrocious lineup that they fielded for the game, but they had plenty of chances to score as they loaded the bases twice with the top of the lineup coming up and came up with nothing to show for it. The bottom of the order did a great job getting on base but the big bats did f*** all to repay the favor.

I can't help but wonder what kind of money Bo is looking for to sign an extension, the club would have to think they have at least a decent chance to sign him long term or they wouldn't bother trying, kind of like what occurred when David Price hit free agency. Perhaps Bo wants to eventually climb out of Vlad's shadow and become the man for his new team as he's always played second fiddle right throughout their careers. Then again having two generational talents play their entire careers together would be awfully special as well, these guys have played their entire careers together up to this point and it's obvious that they are super close.

Hey come on let's be fair, he's only discussing Greg Bird to properly portray how much he hates discussing Greg Bird. (Ripped off from my favorite moment from the Hotel Transylvania series of movies)

That would feel like a minor miracle given how much pain he was in walking off the field. *fingers crossed*

This certainly isn't the kind of lineup I would have predicted a week into the season. What in the world is Tapia doing in the 5 spot in the lineup? That's legitimately insane.

I really have no reason to have beef with you, I was simply pointing out the irony of you telling somebody it must be that time of the month while you are acting like a drama queen in your post about blocking them. If this is enough reason for you to become so angry and defensive then that's obviously your prerogative.

Whatever man, rage on then.

Given the overall tone of that post it's pretty hard not to imagine you pounding on the keyboard while red faced with veins popping out of your forehead while writing it.

That was an especially violent swing that Teoscar took upon injuring himself, enough so that Mr. Vanilla Pat Tabler commented on how there was no need to swing so hard you hurt yourself. He must be a bit of a soothsayer or something. We see Bo swing like that on basically every swing though, hopefully he doesn't eventually end up seeing the same fate. I can't help but think that the shortened spring training is at least partially to blame here, I believe the covid shortened season saw a ton of soft tissue injuries after the shortened spring training of that year as well, so baseball as a whole may be in for a rough ride injury wise this year.

I'm maybe not the best guy to comment as I had a similar outburst against JimmyFelix1234 or whatever the hell he calls himself but it honestly looks like it's that time of the month for you given the meltdown we just witnessed. Terminator is obviously just having some fun with a bit of mild trolling, not sure it's worth this type of angry outburst unless I'm missing something.

It was a completely unnecessary risk as Grichuk had several years of control remaining at the time. There's really no reason to lock up 2 win players early like this anyway, these types aren't particularly hard to attain. I don't lose sleep over it as the contract wasn't so onerous that it really prevented the club from acquiring more assets, but hopefully this served as a lesson learned for the front office.

Absolutely amazing performance by Vlad last night. Couple of gripes though, just gotta think the bullpen could use another leverage arm, Richards really hasn't been getting the job done so far. He was lucky not to have given up a homerun to Stanton, I thought that looked gone off the bat. Charlie needs to wisen up when he sees his players obviously injured on the field. You could see the concern on his face after the Teoscar swing, that was the time to get him out of the game, no sense in potentially making things worse by letting him continue. It almost feels like a player needs to fall over dead before Charlie will remove him from a game with injury. On the flip side of this he allowed Vlad to remain in the game with a lacerated finger so I guess it's not all bad.

This is obviously with the benefit of hindsight but I can't say I'm feeling great about the Jays catching and outfield situations at the moment. The Grichuk and McGuire trades may have felt defensible at the time each was made but with the early injuries to each of Jansen and Teoscar it would sure be nice to have each of these guys back right about now.

I thought it looked like Judge swung at the previous pitch as well.

Probably because it was such a rare occurrence.

Taking one look at the way the guy is built can help you answer that question for yourself. He's already experienced hip issues so no sense in pushing him too hard and ending up injured. If you think the Jays catching situation looks grim now imagine what that would look like if Kirk were to go down with injury.

I would make this change today if it were possible.