BlueJaysFever

That was awesome.

Lord when s*** goes sideways in baseball, it really goes sideways

Bo is heating up again. Hopefully that lines up with Guerrero and Gurriel staying hot, Kirk getting his Mojo back,and Chappy climbing out of the funk. Seems like a lot to ask, but is it?

Use him as a specialist at the Skydome against 4 seam-heavy pitchers. His home and road splits are crooked and he seems to be hitting the 4 seamer well this year

Boy Rocco, that's a lot of salt for a correct call.

We must stop the Mountcastle

Feels like it’s been quite some time now that it’s been only his defense that’s effective. Whit Merrifield may have been a more important acquisition than I initially thought.

I’m not really ignoring any aspect. I’ve look at the numbers quite in depth. Ground ball rates have the lowest of all offensive numbers in baseball outside of Ks and Pop ups by almost 50%. GB and pop outs (nearly as effective as Ks) are both repeatable skills with a significance of r = 0.85. So of course they aren’t as effective as a pop out or K pitcher which I’ve already conceded. A ground ball pitcher with a K% of around 20% is just as effective as a pitcher with a k% of 28% when you factor in efficiencies. This typically bears itself out in xFIP because it excludes ground balls while adding in fly balls and in general GB pitchers allow less fly balls. It’s not a perfect science as logical arguments can be made against anything, but ignoring a repeatable skill, while useful in analyzing part of the whole, should never be taken as the whole. It’s not how they were intended to be used and sometimes I think people would be better off if they armed themselves with the limitations of the statistics before using the statistics( not aimed at you, just in general)

I understand the theory and I don't disagree with K% being slightly more important. But two things that we don't tend to factor in, in the discussion - the efficiency of ground ball outs and the ability to get multiple outs on one pitch. Some people will say Gausman has been better than Manoah this year and based on fangraph stats he has. Based on bref stats it's the opposite. Who has actually been the more effective pitcher this season? I'd say Manoah based on what I value more.

The new guys should improve our pitcher group’s GB rate. Just as important as K%. Inducing ground balls is an underrated pitcher skill likely because of the emphasis on K% these days. I blame FIP. FIP is a fine stat but is used far too often with fWar as the holy grail while ignoring almost 50% of part of the game.

Vin Scully calling Clayton Kershaw's no-hitter

Trey Mancini playing his first home game as an Astro homered in his first AB that would have been a fly out in Baltimore. Also, was hoping to watch the Padres first game with their almost entirely new line-up but it's in LA and starts after 10 ET.

Atkins when pressed about Merrifield only being a road player went on to say (paraphrased) that he doesn't expect that to be the case and that he wouldn't have made the move otherwise. Essentially it points to him allowing Merrifield himself to tell the media/fans that he will be getting vaccinated. Makes sense since it's a personal choice.

Have to think the Jays are still working on getting SP.

Haha This feels like a reasonable trade from both sides. I like the pitchers we got.

Bass is a rental having an absurdly good season especially in high leverage situations. He already has 1.6 bWar

Anthony Bass also?

Canadian Zach Pop. Hope other pieces include Pablo

Lol. The Cubs would be an interesting dance partner.

I see. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I guess whatever it took to make the deal work and the Nats really got a massive haul here. There aren’t many teams that could or would have competed with the value given by San Diego

Alright now that Soto distraction is complete let’s make some deals Ross.

Wait, how did they manage to dump Hosmer? Surely the Padres are eating salary there

That is basically all of San Diego’s highest rated prospects. Wow.

Good for San Diego honestly. They’re going to empty the farm but the opportunity to add a once in a lifetime bat strengthens their window significantly. Also of all the teams he could have landed, San Diego is the least offensive.

Dang, that’s a nice pitcher for the Twins. On the positive side we play Baltimore 15 more times so not having to see Lopez is a plus