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Check out his spin rates this year compared to previous and you'll find your answer.

Striplings turnaround has been very encouraging, it was nice to see him keep a very hot Astros lineup mostly in check today. Thornton has looked very sharp out of the bullpen lately, if he keeps throwing darts like he was today I wouldn't be upset to see him start receiving higher leverage innings in the future.

I can't see the team going with two rookie catchers, there's simply too much a learning curve for that be a realistic option. I think that one of Jansen/McGuire is safe for the duration of the season.

Yikes that's scary s***. Hopefully he turns out ok after this.

Messing with the seam height isn't something that you would want to trifle with before fully considering the potential consequences. But baseball has had zero qualms about f***ing with the baseball in the past so this actually sounds right up Manfred's alley. It's totally shoot first ask questions later with MLB.

Martin is poised to go on a real tear with the bat.

That's just too true. I wouldn't have guessed that Manoah would end up getting lit up against the light hitting Marlins team after his dazzling debut against the Yankees.

Interestingly enough over the last two seasons up to this point Rowdy is actually striking out a lower clip than Panik, it's a 17.5% k rate for Rowdy vs. 17.6% for Panik.

It was nice to see the bullpen and bats pick up Manoah after his rough outing. I was impressed with the parade of flamethrowers the Marlins were able to throw at the Jays so full marks to the team for battling it out on the way to a hard earned victory.

Resigning Semien is certainly a luxury rather than an absolute necessity, but I just love the way to position player core looks going forward if his services are to be retained. Being able to potentially add a Martin or Groshans to the lineup within the next few seasons is just icing on the cake.

Moving Bo off of short stop is something I can agree that you wouldn't do for a one year contracted player, once he's moved off the position it might be the end of his playing there long term. However there is no reason that lineup spots need to be handled in this type of fashion, there are no potential long term career effects by tinkering with the lineup. This should be strictly based on performance and team benefit, you perform you stay at the top of the lineup, you don't perform you get moved down, pretty simple stuff. Grichuk showed himself to be a reliable performer and thusly moved up to the 5th spot in the order, conversely struggling players need to justify their spots as well.

I just can't see how you can justify moving Semien down in the order after the month he just put up. This is one of baseball's hottest hitters, there's no way you move him down to 5th and replace him with a guy who is going to be coming back from injury. If anybody should be moved down it's Bichette, his propensity to hack at everything thrown his way is trashing his offensive game right now.

His instincts were way off even without factoring in the extra weight, he was thrown out by a good 30-40 feet at times on the bases. The weightloss and fitness certainly is making a noticeable difference in all facets of his game. I recall an interview with his offseason trainer stating that they intend to really get after it again next offseason, so Vlad may have another gear that he can reach in terms of overall fitness and conditioning.

Yeah it seems really unlikely to happen except in case of emergency. Selfishly I'd like to see Vlad given a shot at third base though, that was his preference coming into the season and he really busted his ass in the offseason getting into shape. It seems that his tools should translate into an effective third base given some time to adapt, but that would be a task for spring training if it were to ever occur. I'm astounded at how quickly he's turned around his entire game, last year he was making terrible decisions on the bases and defensively in the field and he's seemingly cleaned all of that up overnight. I was finding myself questioning his relative baseball IQ with the barrage of boneheaded decisions that kept cropping up, but now he's suddenly an MVP candidate. It's crazy stuff with how he's completely transformed his overall game.

I just don't see a need in the outfield, the club is well positioned out there with 4 MLB quality outfielders (well maybe only 3 defensively seeing as Gurriel plays outfield like a player who belongs at DH). Third base is such a strong area of need comparatively speaking.

Vladdy's defensive turnaround has me pondering whether he could actually play a decent quality third base at this point of his career. He looks very athletic at first base, the hands have looked good, movement is fluid and the arm is obviously plus, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that having him man third and letting Rowdy play first would be a rather sizeable upgrade for the club. Rowdy is a capable first baseman and his bat is really showing signs of turning around from the early season struggles, he's produced a 180 WRC+ in his last 11 games so it would be nice to see his bat in the lineup more often. It has to be a big improvement over playing the likes of Panik and Espinal at third base every day. At this point the club isn't going to upset the apple cart and move Vladdy from a position that he's excelling at after the initial defensive struggles, but it's certainly food for thought.

deGrom is unbelievably good, in his 8 starts he's given up 1 or fewer runs in 7 of them. It's crazy how the best pitcher of the era just keeps on getting better.

Lately Charlie is managing like he's trying to get fired. We can only hope that Atkins sees the recent problems the same way we do, it is totally baffling that a man with so much baseball experience can continue to make such incomprehensible decisions.

That was a pretty fun double header despite the boys coming up a little bit short in game 2. Ray needs to spend time in the Dunedin pitching lab on his offspeed stuff, for a guy with such an overpowering fastball his other pitches are pretty terrible.

It's always just felt to me like the projection systems are of limited usefulness for players who unlock new levels of performance later in their career. Some of Teoscar's projections heading into 2021 were downright laughable, I recall seeing projections showing a 100 WRC+ player for 2021. He was only ever that bad exactly one time in his career as a rookie. He had a really bad first half in 2019 leading to his demotion to AAA, but since returning he's done nothing but mash. The projections always seem to assume a player is going to lose any newfound abilities and regress to prior career norms, and Teoscar is a guy I would bet that the opposite is happening right before our eyes. Before getting hurt last season he was really locking into a previously unseen advanced approach at the plate, which after returning from the covid list he has resumed this approach which has seem him really cutting back on his strikeouts. K rates tend to stabilize pretty quickly, I've seen it suggested that it stabilizes in as little as 60 plate appearances or 15 games. In his last 24 games Teoscar has a k rate of only 15%, so when projection systems (and all of them are assuming this to be the case for the rest of the season) that his strikeout rate is somehow going to balloon back up to 30% I'm going to take that with a grain of salt.

There's definitely some risk in extending any player as you can't see the future, but Teoscar isn't the same player he was early in his career, and it seems that projection systems are still placing a certain weight on his pre-breakout numbers. He's been performing now at this level for almost two full calendar years over 3 different seasons, it's time to acknowledge this is the player he is going forward. Teoscar's numbers since the July 2019 breakout are pretty crazy, he's produced a 142 WRC+ and 4.5 WAR in 148 games. He's been a contributor on the bases during this time with 1.2 base runs as well. Maybe he's "only" a 4.5 win player at this point, but this season he looks to have taken a step forward defensively, and has honed in on a new and improved approach at the plate which has seem him cut his k rate dramatically. I don't think we really know what his true ceiling is yet, second half of 2019 and during the shortened 2020 season he mashed despite the extreme strikeout rate, and if that's no longer an issue then the sky is the limit offensively. Despite a slow start prior to his covid infection he's on a 6.3 win pace when prorated over an entire season. He won't be winning any gold gloves in the field due to the occasional boneheaded moment that creeps up, but he's not he same liability out there that he was earlier on during his Blue Jays tenure. Depending on what version of Springer eventually returns from injury it's entirely possible Teoscar is the team's most valuable outfielder going forward, that sounds like a player you should try to lock up at a discount.

Semien and his agent made a great move accepting the Jays offer to move off shortstop and play second base. There are far fewer really good quality second basemen compared to short stop, so Semien isn't tied to the shortstop position only. If he doesn't find a short stop offer to his liking he can simply slide back to second base again.

I'd give a contract extension to Vlad in a heartbeat, but outside of a Tatis like contract I can't really see him being interested in signing one. Bo could be an extension candidate in the future, but first I'd like to see if he can get his plate discipline issues under control a bit, his ceiling is likely to be determined by whether or not he stops hacking at everything in Kevin Pillar fashion and starts hunting pitches. Teoscar is a guy I'd like to see extended, no idea what's reasonable. Perhaps a Grichuk like extension would be possible, but if I were Teoscar's agent I'd be shooting for much more than that as he has raked continuously since his midseason of 2020 breakout. Semien is a guy I'd lock up for sure if an agreement can be reached that's amenable for both sides, I wouldn't worry about taking away Biggio's best position when you can hang onto a 6 win player. I was initially thinking a contract similar to DJ Lemahieu would make a good starting point, but Semien is several years younger. Semien certainly won't resign for cheap, he's well on his way to a second 6+ win season in the last 3 years, I could see it taking something 5 years in the $125 million range to keep him. Before this season I thought Gurriel might be an extension candidate, but he's taken a big step back defensively and appears semi lost in the outfield a good chunk of the time. He's far too streaky a player to consider a core member, he's either looking like one of the world's best hitters or hacking at everything that's thrown his way, there is seemingly no in between. On the pitching side I wouldn't mind extensions for both Ray and Matz being explored, each has resurrected their career as Blue Jays and really helped to keep the rotation afloat. They have both historically displayed good health and ability to stay on the mound. 3 years for each would be great at $12-15 million per year, if it started taking more like 4 or more years I'd be hesitant.

Goddamnit Charlie, he brings in Romano with a 5 run lead and now he's likely not available for tomorrow. But against Tampa with the bases loaded and 2 outs he brings in....Travis Bergen. What the actual f*** Charlie?

Damnit that blows big time. I'm starting to think it may be necessary to move Hatch into the bullpen again with the relievers continuously dropping like flies. If Manoah can keep his head above water the club may be better served to wait for Pearson to put things together at AAA to fill the remaining rotation spot.