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I typically try to give the newer posters a chance to show they are capable of rational discussion of baseball before adding them to my ignore list.

I think that's far more due to the modern game of baseball prioritizing young pitchers chasing higher velocities and spin rates and the resulting stresses on the arm and shoulder.

I don't think there's any reason to expect that to be the case.

Santander hurt his shoulder crashing into the stands when attempting a catch in the outfield.

The key difference is that teams are far smarter about resting their players when they have minor issues in order to lessen the chances of these developing into more serious issues.

I don't agree that you knew what was coming with Halladay. He was a master at dotting the outside corners of the plate with cutters and sinkers, and he also mixed in plenty of curveballs and changeups.

That certainly didn't go according to plan. Turnbull is quickly showing that he doesn't belong in the rotation but the outfield defense didn't go him any favors tonight as several of the balls that fell in for extra bases were perfectly catchable.

Not on his own but as the headliner of a prospect package it's a possibility.

It's crazy how homer prone Green has become. His stuff is down a bit across the board but not so much that it can explain the home run rate essentially doubling from an already problematic amount from the 2024 season.

That could become a possibility once Yimi is ready to return.

I don't think Bo would have enough value on his own to bring back a controllable player that's an upgrade over what the team already possesses.

If you could transplant Roden's brain into Clase's body you would end up with a fantastic player. I like Clase's tools as much as anyone but he's just so raw at the plate and in the field and it's far from a given that things will eventually click for him to allow the natural talent to fully shine through.

Wasn't there a runner or two on base when Fisher came into the game? He only faced a single hitter, so that shouldn't have a massive effect on his availability for today's game at the very least. The team was making a lot of late inning noise so as mentioned I have zero issues with bringing in a more trusted reliever to quell the Dbacks rally before they added more runs and potentially put the game out of reach.

I have no issues with bringing in a quality reliever to keep the score close.

It feels Ike me that Ernie isn't going to suddenly turn into a pumpkin as Espinal did. Espinal seemingly lost all of his athleticism and became a supbar defender and hitter all at once. I believe that Ernie is going to continue to be streaky as a largely BABIP dependent hitter but I don't expect the elite glove work to disappear overnight as he is a far superior athlete compared to Espinal.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if a 2021 style addition in the vein of Jose Berrios occurs. He was never really an ace and was more of a number 2 starter at his best, but a similar addition would cover for the eventual loss of Bassitt to free agency.

Ernie got off to a horrendous start to the season against right handed pitching, and this has been trending upwards as the season has progressed. Time Filter Date Range to Reset Preset Range About Split Teams Applied Splits Reset vs RHP Standard Advanced Batted Balls Export Data Season Month Tm PA BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+ 2025 Mar/Apr TOR 48 0.0% 16.7% 0.0 .167 .167 .167 .333 .000 .200 -1 -6.3 .148 -14 2025 May TOR 80 5.0% 13.8% 0.4 .278 .321 .319 .640 .042 .323 7 -1.7 .287 84 2025 Jun TOR 38 2.6% 5.3% 0.5 .297 .316 .378 .694 .081 .314 4 -0.3 .305 96

The baserunning improvement is a result of taking more extra bases when available. He was -4 on extra bases last season due to holding too frequently. He's successfully attempting to advance a lot more this season and this is the primary reason the baserunning numbers are so much better.

These are all fair points. I went ahead and punched the Blue Jays run differential into an online Pythagorean run differential calculator for the 22-10 streak and it spit out a .643 winning percentage. The Blue Jays actual win percentage over the aforementioned 32 games works out to .688, so the difference in expected wins over the 32 game sample only amounts to 1.5. That's a pretty small difference all things considered, and to my eyes doesn't indicate some sort of massive overperformance. It's true the Blue Jays have won a lot of 1 run games, with some of these occurring due to the team's ability to plate a lot of late runs against the other team's leverage relievers mixed in with some of these largely happening due to the team coughing up a bunch of late runs of their own. I am very encouraged that they have been regularly showing the ability to produce late runs against some very good relievers that has allowed some of the late game heroics to occur. This is all happening with a team that is nowhere close to full strength, as it's running with basically 70% of a full rotation, is missing several important leverage arms, and is missing several power bats in Varso and Santander as well. I am looking forward to the team hopefully reaching full strength at some point in the weeks to come to see what it is capable of with everyone on the roster.

I have zero inclination to believe that the +4 run differential is in any way indicative of the quality of this team. It's entirely a function of the awful stretch of games where the entire team slumped simultaneously, and as the calendar turned to May the offense largely found it's footing. The team is in the midst of an excellent 32 game stretch where they've played to a +43 run differential and a 22-10 record. None of this feels like a fluke to me either. If the team doesn't eventually find a way to bolster the rotation this could easily lead to the pen being largely burnt out however. More power would be nice for sure, but if you simply lower the home run threshold to 20 you can easily include Bo and Varsho in the mix. I don't see a need for more pen additions as there are soon to be more good quality arms than available spots once Garcia and Sandlin remove. This can change in a hurry if any of the important pen arms hit the injured list however.

Yeah I hear you. Depending on acquisition cost this could be a very worthwhile addition. In the end I'd like the club to aim higher on a rotation addition, and I'd really like to see the team take a shot at reacquiring Kikuchi as the deadline nears as he would be a nice replacement for Bassitt if/when he leaves in free agency.

Good thing the Blue Jays didn't blow up the team like you wanted as this has the makings of a very solid team despite not being at full strength at any point of the season so far.

Gausman's performances in recent weeks suggest he may have rediscovered his ace form, but the team will absolutely need another top of the rotation arm to join him even if Gausman continues to shove.

I guess my only concern with a Civale acquisition is the fact that he isn't going to be happy if he's not in the rotation. If Scherzer manages to come back that leaves the club with 5 starters locked into the rotation at that point, and makes deadline acquistions a little trickier to navigate. At that point I imagine Civale could simply be flipped to a different team if necessary however..

Yeah that's totally obvious when you look at his physique. Particularly when you see how poorly he filled out Bowden Francis's pants. 😁