Ray

I also enjoy watching Yusei Kikuchi outings, mostly to see how far he's come from when we first signed him. He was pretty much one of the worst starters in the league in his first year here and has progressed to looking like a top-of-the-rotation arm. The team has had really good success in recent years turning around pitchers at the major league level. Ray into Cy Young, Matz and Stripling into serviceable SPs, Berrios with his best stretch of starts in his career. Unfortunte we don't have that same magic in drafting/developing.

Orelvis homered again:

Every projection system has him pegged for being an average to slightly above average hitter and 2-3 WAR for the rest of the season. It’s fine if you don’t think he can keep up his current pace because he is outplaying his expected stats a bit, but a young cost controlled CF who has literally been the best defensive player in baseball the last two seasons with 2.5 years of control remaining is highly valuable. The immediate aftermath of the Moreno trade has made Varsho so underrated around here. People talk about him as if he’s Josh Fields and Moreno is Yordan Alvarez

The thing is, would firing Ross Atkins even translate to tangible changes? Or is it simply something to appease the masses for optics' sake? Not saying you don't do it, but I'm struggling to think about how much of an impact that will actually have. Like okay, let's assume Ross Atkins is fired and replaced by James Click. There are 46 people listed in the official Blue Jays Front Office directory who work in baseball operations. These research analysts, data scientists, software engineers, scouts, and systems developers are ultimately the ones who are suggesting processes, draft decisions, roster acquisitions, gameplans, and even day-to-day roster moves. I think the GM has ownership over broad baseball strategy, but I also think they have less influence on day-to-day than we actually think. I really don't think firing Atkins would make the analysts think about optimizing their models more or 'work better'. There are no 'unilateral' decision-makers in modern baseball anymore (unless you're absolute trash orgs like the Rockies or White Sox). Replacing Click with Atkins actually might not do anything unless you re-evaluate your entire baseball ops strategy and decision-making. I think in terms of major league trades and player acquisitions, the baseball ops department has objectively been pretty good. Someone identified Tesocar and Lourdes and they became good contributors. The process of identifying pitching at the major league level has led to some great success stories that most orgs could hope for (turning Ray into a Cy Young Winner, Steven Matz, Ross Stripling, Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios, not to speak of the bullpen success last year). The biggest negative about this organization is the inability to draft/develop well to feed a sustainable winner. It feels like they haven't cracked the code the same way that high-functioning orgs like the Rays, Dodgers, Padres, and Braves have done where the cupboard is always full enough to have "waves of talent", or to make high-impact trades. And maybe that changes soon with the PDP complex showing results, but that's the biggest slight against Shapiro/Atkins IMO. That the scouts, talent evaluators, and analysts they hired haven't been good enough to yield a good farm system. It's the thing that would keep me up at night most knowing that we haven't drafted well at all in recent years, and unless either the processes, or talent evaluation, or synergy between player development/scouting department improves, I don't know how you fix it, because it truly seems deep rooted.

This is the dumbest f***ing take. Yeah, they should've given up on trying to sign the most talented player of all time.

Ohtani’s hit 4 home runs in his last 9 ABs. Absolute monster And then Freddie Freeman goes back to back.

We have a worse bullpen than the Rockies?

Okay, officially on board the Fire Schneider train. That was an absolutely horrendous in-game decision.

Oh yeah. That beautiful slider shape is back.

Tucker Toman has been such a disappointment so far in pro-ball. He's still younger for the level, but he's sporting a 37% k-rate in his 2nd go-around in A-ball and making less contact than before. I was quite hyped for that pick at the time. Toolsy switch-hitting prep shortstop whose dad was coaching college baseball. He can still turn it around, but was hoping he'd be further along in his development by this point.

Shapiro needs to stay on. His track record in swaying ownership to make necessary investments both in team payroll and infrastructure like the stadium renos and player development complex speaks for itself. I can see a strong case made for having a new voice leading baseball ops though. Someone like James Click who knows what it looks like to lead cutting-edge orgs like Ray and Astros. I'm not sure I see Atkins being fired since Shapiro and him seem joined at the hip. Maybe he'll step down or get shuffled to another position (his contract doesn't expire until end of the 2026 season).

Bassitt had a visceral reaction to that 2nd run coming in. Dude knows this offense has no shot of scoring with 3 innings left.

Orelvis today: 3-for-5 with a home run

Mason Miller struck out the side today and is now rocking a -0.14 FIP

Kid is so good. He's playing out of his mind right now. Best we can hope for is rooting for Boras to make sure he's not an Oriole long term.

It's a legit good lineup if everyone plays up to expectations. Even with Springer at this point being a slap-hitting 100 wRC+ corner OF. There should be enough juice between Vlad, Bo, Jansen, Kirk, Varsho, and Turner to score consistently. Hell, even Schneider has heated up the last couple weeks.

Is it just me or is Davis Schneiders batting stance and load exactly like Mike Trouts lmao

A’s back of the bullpen is absolutely gross. Mason Miller casually averages 100, but Lucas Erceg also throws heat.

I legitimately forgot what homering on an 0-2 pitch looked like. I don’t think any of our hitters have done that this year.

He’s on an 11 WAR pace lol

s***** luck with the hard hits tonight. Barger and Vogelbach both deserve better based off quality of contact.

Bargers bat speed is something else.

If that’s it for Rodriguez, pretty solid outing. He’s like Chris Bassitt but with better stuff and velo. Fun watching him pitch.

Kevin Pillar esque pitch selection by Vladdy there

It’s actually hilarious the lack of respect pitchers have for Vladdy at this point. Two center cut fastballs he did absolutely nothing with followed by two sliders way off the plate.