5ToolPhenom

True, I was thinking about that this morning. But on the other hand, it's early May and we're already 7.5 games back from both the O's and Yankees. Pretty brutal.

What I remember most of that season was how needlessly Montoyo threw away games by his handling of the bullpen. I remember one game Brad Hand walked like 4 straight batters and gave up a couple of hits and the lead in the last inning before finally pulling him... Perfect example of why you shouldn't throw away games needlessly when every game matters.

It was obvious at the beginning of the season that the Jays wouldn't be able to keep pace with the O's and Yanks. It seems like this front office is always constructing rosters that are designed to sneak into a WC spot instead of being series World Series contenders. I get that anything can happen in the playoffs, but looking at this roster at the start of the season, it was clear that all of the best case scenarios would have to align for them to even have a chance. That's not a very sensible way to start a season when the window of opportunity for the roster is closing. Frankly, I've always thought that Shapiro and Atkins have been wayyy overrated around these parts. I get that there's an inherent enthusiasm and rose colored glasses effect in any fan-base but I've never thought the hype was justified. I assumed Shatkins would have gotten the boot after the team failed to win a single game in the playoffs yet again, but I assumed maybe they were given one more chance to go all in. And then they failed to make any notable improvements going into 2024. I think it's time to move on from these guys.

Hey guys, does anyone know a good free service that one can use to watch streamed games? The 2 I used for years suddenly no longer work?!? Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.

It's going to be a long season boys. Why don't they pull this gas-can? Down 4 to the Rockies isn't insurmountable. Why let this guy keep throwing meatball after meatball without pulling him? John Schneider's a buffoon.

Are the people in right field drinking area even watching the ball game as they're all crammed in like that? Looks like just a party zone... Odd.

Damn, nice drive by Kirky, just missed it.

The roster is built on pitching with the hope being that the offense can be proficient enough. These guys are never going to out-slug anyone and everyone knows that.

I haven't had much problems in the past on FG's with Firefox and Adblock, but this year it's just been a nightmare to use. I'll try using Brave, thanks for the tips.

Damn... A lot of top notch players are dropping like flies right now:(

Yeah, I considered it, but I just can't justify that right now.

Thanks, man! I've tried Baseball Reference but I don't much care for the layout. Baseball Savant seems awesome tho, I'll try rolling with that.

Hey guys, does anyone know of a good alternative stats website compared to Fangraphs? Fangraphs has become almost entirely unusable for me, the amount of adds they're pumping on there is beyond satire at this point. The site will hardly work with Adblock anymore. Any help would be much appreciated. Cheers.

That's well said. I couldn't agree more. There seems to be a real lack of desire to build upon the past success of the previous few seasons. It's almost like they're saying "Well, we snuck into the playoffs where anything could have happened and that's good enough for us". Whereas Yankees got much better, O's went out and added one of the best aces in the game, even Boston did a lot of great things - I think Canadian kid Tyler O'neil is going to rake in the AL east. But it's like come on Atkins, what are we even doing here?

Perhaps true, but there seems to be a lot of players playing below career norms. The mental part of the game is a big factor and you'd like to see a team playing with purpose. It's not an easy thing to quantify, but you know it when you see it. You want to see a culture where every player knows their role while understanding the fact that the best on the field play gets rewarded with playing time. Teams THRIVE on that competitive culture. It's almost unthinkable to me how Davis Schneider could come off the bench, hit a game winning home run against one of the best closers in the game and then be BENCHED again the following day. Imagine how Davis felt the next day when he comes in and sees his name out of the lineup yet again. It's these kinds of examples that are just cancer for team morale. If Bochy was managing this team, you can bet the bank that Schneider would be in the lineup the next day.

That's the only logical conclusion that I come to as well and I think it's disgraceful. We've all seen how well this cold and calculated way of managing the game worked last post-season when Jose Berrios was pitching the game of his lifetime and was pulled after 3 INNINGS. There's gotta be a balance struck and Shapiro and Atkins strike me as control freaks to the extent where it's becoming detrimental to their and the teams success.

Honestly, I don't understand how the coaching staff doesn't get more scrutiny. I've always felt that the Bo/Vladdy era teams have lacked identity and leadership and each time they were lead by first-time MLB managers. I've never understood the reasoning for this. Is it just because Atkins and Shapiro are so insecure that they want to be ensured that the manager in place is merely a puppet who does exactly as they're told? We've seen with Texas and Bruce Bochy how a proven manager can turn things around and get everyone playing on the same page with identity and purpose. We saw it in 2022 with Houston and Dusty Baker too. I realize that this is perhaps THE MOST taboo opinion on the entire forum and that the consensus is that managers are almost meaningless, but I respectfully disagree. I think when teams are spending endless time together every day and touring across the country for 162 games a season that player and clubhouse management is CRUCIAL. It makes absolutely zero sense to me as to why a team would be amongst the top payrolls in the league and then consecutively hire managers who have NEVER lead a big league team before. Someone please explain to me the mindset in which going after someone like Charlie Montoyo makes more sense than hiring an established manager like Bruce Bochy. And please, save the nonsense about how "there was no good established managers on the market to hire", we all know that wasn't the case and the examples are endless.

I've had that hunch too, but the rotation this year is still very good. I think they should be able to hang around the 500 mark and at least be competitive whereas things got away from the 2017 club in a hurry. But my God, it's hard to get excited about this offense. The upside just isn't there.

Oh, it definitely will be lmao. Texas has gotta be the overwhelming favorite going into this series.

Pretty good new article from the Toronto Star "Blue Jays are clear early losers in the Gabriel Moreno-Lourdes Gurriel Jr. trade. Nobody of sound mind would do it again" https://www.thestar.com/sports/blue-jays/blue-jays-are-clear-early-losers-in-the-gabriel-moreno-lourdes-gurriel-jr-trade-nobody/article_ba0632a9-1a51-5b9b-90e9-0a9853929cc0.html Not often I find myself agreeing with this publication, but they hit the nail on the head with this one. "Catcher Gabriel Moreno and left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Two players who used to be a source of inspiration around these parts now represent a black eye of sorts for an organization that traded them away for light-hitting outfielder Daulton Varsho.". That truly does sum it up with a nice little bow.

Nah man, from what I can see, most people are entirely pleased with Mr. 674OPS and his .000 post season AVG lmao. Who needs Gabriel Moreno and Lourdes Gurriel Jr when we have that!

Absolutely. He's helped lead the Diamondbacks of all teams to the World Series. Catchers are the leader of a team, the way he's handled that pitching staff as a rookie has been super impressive. Can't believe what a horrible fleecing this trade has been.

Is this the worst trade in Blue Jays history? I don't think any trade has backfired so spectacularly and so quickly for the Jays before.

All I can do is laugh at this point. This front office is an absolute joke. The window of contention is rapidly closing, yet we're sticking with the same knuckle-head who's had no prior experience as a GM. He's had 8 seasons and he hasn't been able to produce a team that can win ONE single game in the post season. It's time to move on. One would think that giving away a franchise cornerstone like Gabriel Moreno and inexplicably tossing in Gurriel for Mr. 674 OPS Daulton Varsho of all players would have been the straw that broke the camels back, but alas, here we are... Unreal. I'll always love the Jays, but I'm really not down with how this organization is being ran anymore. There's so many better organizations who offer a much better and exciting product. I'm just tired of witnessing such incompetency and idiocy.

Ranger Suarez was only slated to go a few innings and to just let it fly, but his stuff was so filthy that Thomson let him finish 5 innings to pull him once the lineup came around for a 3rd time. If you're going to manage in the big leagues, you need to have a level of flexibility and to ultimately allow the players to play. This is the difference between a competent manager and a boob like John Schneider. The fact that John Schneider is going to be back after back to back awful managerial displays in the 2022 and 23 post seasons is beyond egregious. We need a baseball guy like Anthopolous back, not these number crunching nerds.