max silver

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. 😁

I'm very encouraged that the team has gone on a sustained run of success despite only having 3 effective starters, Varsho going back on the IL, receiving very little from Santander and Gimenez up to this point, Scherzer only pitching a handful of innings, Sandlin and Yimi each hitting the IL, Vlad not finding his power stroke yet etc. If/when this team gets to full strength I believe they will have a very good chance to challenge the Yankees for the division.

That's wild that the lowest whiff percentage of any of his pitches in that snapshot was the 4 seamer at 31%.

Exactly this. YRod hadn't given up a run in over a month and had fully earned more leverage opportunities.

I think he needs to chill on the splitters a bit until he irons out the command. He hung one in the middle of the plate in the last AB and was lucky it wasn't hit a few feet to the left or right or we'd be talking about a blown save.

I hope he hits enough to be a regular as he has a chance to be the best outfield defender in the history of the sport. It's like he combines the elite jumps and instincts of Daulton Varsho except with elite physical tools on top of that.

Lukes took a shot to the head in the last game so perhaps the team is playing it carefully. I'm cool with Schneider getting a few more starts to see what he can do as he looks to be dramatically improved compared to earlier in the season. Clase has produced better numbers than Straw vs right handed pitching this season so it's not the end of the world for him to get a start as Straw can always come off the bench later in the game if the situation warrants it. The outfield defense isn't going to be the best with Schneider in left and Clase in center, hopefully that doesn't lead to any extra runs against Berrios.

Those mirror my thoughts as well. I suspect teams will eventually be pretty cautious with who they even allow to make in game challenges, and that only the most egregious of calls will largely be challenged in order not to waste the limited challenges. With Kirk also being very astute at challenging strike calls when at the dish I don't think his overall value would take much of a dip with a challenge system in place.

I believe that Kloffenstein could be another guy that's given a spot start or two if/when Turnbull flames out in spectacular fashion. He's been up to 70 pitches and 5 innings thrown in his most recent AAA starts. I don't expect his 90 MPH sinkers to light the world on fire but he's been throwing a sweeper more that's generated a lot of swing and miss in his last few starts.

I think he should likely have what it takes to be a suitable depth option at the very least. It's an awfully low bar of entry to be a serviceable depth option out of the rotation.

Adam Macko is getting closer to being ready as a rotation option for the Blue Jays. He's made his way up to Buffalo and pitched a pretty solid game with 4 IP, 4 K's albeit with 3 walks mixed in as well. The Statcast scoreboard makes it appear as though the stuff was solid as he touched 96 MPH with the heater and he racked up a combined 7 whiffs.

Sooner or later they'll be forced to bring him up to the majors or lose him completely due to the contract terms. You would hope that Turnbull would be a little accommodating to the club to build himself up to the point where he isn't destroyed in the majors instead of forcing the issue.

Flintstones references are super dated but the guys using them are of that era when the show was a mega hit so it's just harmless fun for them. I don't know if the team has a ton of better options than Francis at this point. Macko is working his way back on a rehab assignment, but aside from him the other options are the corpses of Turnbull and Kloffenstein.

You saw this in person?

The team finally seems to have perfected the formula towards the internal offensive improvement they've been chasing since so many of the hitters underperformed in the 2023 season. I think the Popkins hire was a key factor in the internal successes, including Kirk and Springer rediscovering their form, Bo largely returning to the good version of himself (this probably would have happened regardless of the hitting coach), Barger's sudden emergence as a massive threat, Lukes proving that 2024 wasn't a fluke, Clement going on a heater at the plate etc. Even Davis Schneider appears as though he may have rediscovered his form at the plate as well.

I think Fisher is a stud and easily deserving of leverage innings.

This offense has another gear available once Vlad gets into a power groove and Santander hits his stride.

This is largely what the team has been doing with the bat over the last 5 weeks.