DCJaysF

Hard to say the ask for Ketel Marte or Bryan Reynolds. They are both switch hitters. Ketel was possibly the best chance as he is also on Arizona. Not sure if we actually chose Varsho cause he’s younger and cheaper or if Ketel wasn’t on the table by Arizona. I’d have paid a little more for both. Prior to Pittsburgh playing better to start the season Reynolds made it clear he wanted to be traded. But a lot of teams were interested in him. The Yankees kept checking in. However, when Pittsburgh started so strong they were able to convince him to re-sign. Not sure the asking price for either of those guys but I’d have given them what we gave for Varsho and a little more for either of them if they were on the table.

Oh yeah I was just joking about turning doubles into HR’s. The second one would have been an amazing play to save a HR. The first one would have been a double if it didn’t go off his glove, but just bad luck. He’s a good defender still. But he’s just not having a fortunate season so far. He is really struggling at the plate though and I’m glad they moved him down the lineup for now

We need some long offensive innings to at least get Bo as many at bats as possible to pick up the cycle here. Never a better chance for him then a triple and HR to start the game

Got to give it up to Varsho, helping opposing teams win any way he can lol. Not only can he not find a hit but he turns doubles into home runs. At least the Jays finally took my lineup suggestions and put Belt 4th Chappy 5th. Merrifeild and then Varsho. So with this lineup construction we can come back.

Agreed, pitching is usually the most important ingredient. There are teams winning a lot more games than us with worse overall hitting. But we have the pitching we have, there are more elite rotations than us so we need to make up for that with hitting. I’ve hammered on this in the daily game thread, but I’ll say it here once again. I think we could be scoring a few more runs a game with better line up construction. Bo and Vlad are consistently on base. We’re not cashing them in and have one of the worst runners left in scoring position stats. Yes it’s easy to Monday morning QB, but let’s change it now. Need hitters that cash in runners behind Vlad. How many times have we seen Bo get on base with two outs ( like yesterday) get into scoring position on second and then they don’t even give Vlad a chance. Almost an intentional walk, but just pitch around him instead. Then get Varsho or Chappy out to end the inning. I want Springer ( when he’s healthy) behind Vlad and Belt behind him. My right handed pitcher lineup is Merrifeild, Bo, Vlad, Springer, Belt, Chapman, Kirk, Varsho, KK If Varsho turns things around he can work his way back up the lineup. Chappy can possibly switch with Belt if he gets hot again But Lifetime Springer has greater OPS BA and OBP than Chappy. Also a healthy Brandon Belt lifetime is a better proven lefty hitter than Varsho so far. Don’t strand Bo and Vlad as often and we score more runs, case closed. Stop with the fear of putting two lefty bats back to back. It doesn’t matter much until you get into the opposing teams BP anyways, at which point we can counter with our bench if need be too. We need to lower that runners left in scoring position and you do that with having your second best hitters follow your best hitters.

I mean with that logic maybe Springer should be a utility player lol. In seriousness though you might be right. But let’s remember that he was healthy in the minors as a prospect and a starter so to say that his body just is incapable of handling that pitch count ever is unfair. Injuries are a weird thing, not always predictive, sometimes just bad luck. However, that said of course if we think we’ll greatly jeopardize his entire career and health by stretching him out now then it’s a none issue. But only the BJ’s trainers know if that’s the case. I don’t have that information. All recommendations are always based on less than complete team knowledge. But if they think his health is ok now and it’s just a matter of stretching him out like any other pitcher. We know he’s fine for two innings already. Give him three to open and go from there.

Lol Biggio is hardly our big problem. He’s been relegated to a utility player that is only getting more plying time now due to injures anyways. In fact the more Biggio gets to play the better I think he’ll do. Platooning hasn’t helped the kid much. He has value in the field given how many positions he plays. If he gets more at bats I’m fine if he can hit .240 again and walk like he use to. He’s a number 8 hitting utility sub, hardly our biggest concern. I still maintain my above belief that we’re not constructing this lineup to cash in our most consistent hitters. Whoever hits behind Vlad on the regular has to have a much higher OPS than Varsho does atm. Lifetime Springer has been higher than Chapman as well and I think a healthy Belt ( he wasn’t healthy last year) is a solid hitter as well. Bo and Vlad will continue to get hits, who’s gonna cash them in? Put Springer behind Vlad and Belt behind him and then Chappy next. You’d score a few more runs a game like that imo

If no one in the Minors is ready to come up for a few weeks then use BP days where Nate gets the opener and keep stretching him each start ( as long as he performs all right). Start Nate off with 3 inning’s and see if he can get to 5 or 6 eventually and use BP for the rest. He was originally a starter. Just one possibility. Also, Nate ( a top ten mlb prospect as a starter at one point) might never get another chance to be a starter again if it doesn’t happen now. Imagine if we discover Nate is a solid mid rotation starter vs a solid 2 inning mid reliever. What a boost to value that could be. Would it be better if he had more time, of course. But let’s be honest if he doesn’t start now he’s gonna get locked into relief pitching his whole career. Stretching Nate now might be less of a stretch then using a minor leaguer who has never pitched in the majors yet

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/alek-manoah-is-falling-apart-at-the-seams/ The link from above that didn’t work

Here is my long ass post, apologies in advance. TLTR version is Manoah was never suppose to be as good as last year so let’s not lose our s*** over it. We need better lineup construction to score more runs. I feel for Manoah, I like the kid and want him to succeed. But let’s be honest, he was never projected to be like last year. Steamer projected him as 4.06 ERA. Zips was a little kinder with a 3.43 ERA( solid, not elite but solid). https://blogs.fangraphs.com/alek-man...-at-the-seams/ We’re gonna win or lose with the BP, we need to pick up some more high leverage arms before the end of the trade deadline( easier said then done I know). Belt is finally hitting better. Varsho can’t be in the top four of the line up until he improves. He needs to slide down to 6 or 7. Jansen might be better at managing pitchers but at least Kirk will get more at bats with Danny out for a bit. Too many players on the Jays suffer from plantooning too much. It’s hard to hit in the big leagues, even more so when you don’t get to play every day. Kirk has always hit, every year at every level. So if Kirk gets regular at bats he’ll hit. I love Springers attitude and the gusto he plays with but guy has trouble staying on the field. Chappy is great but I doubt he’s a .900 OPS .300 BA hitter even with the adjustments he’s made. More likely he’s closer to his lifetime .245 BA .800 OPS. Still quality and an amazing defender etc, but we need guys behind Bo and Vlad that can cash them in since they both get on base a lot and Chappy hits into a lot of double plays in between hits. If Springer is hitting well when he gets healthy I might move him to fourth. I know he likes to be leadoff but his lifetime stats indicate that he’s a better bet to cash in Bo and Vlad who keep getting stranded on base a lot. Maybe move Merrifeild up to lead off. Keep KK where he is for now as he’s excelled at turning the lineup over so far. Merrifield, Bo,Vlad,Springer, Belt, Chapman,Kirk, Varsho,KK my new experimental lineup vs righties A little easier for teams to match up as it does put two lefties back to back twice in the lineup.but for the first 5-7 innings your likely facing starters so they won’t be switching pitchers on you unless you’ve already knocked the starter out which is a good thing. Later in the game we can bring in players off the bench to play chess with match ups. Point is Bo and Vlad are both hitting .300 plus with good OBP, but they are the only ones on the team that consistent atm. So we need to bring them in to score and Chappy is regressing some and Varsho isn’t there yet. Get to two outs with a guy on second ( maybe Bo) and opposing teams don’t have to give Vlad anything to hit now. They can pitch around him and pitch to Varsho or a slumping Chappy and get out of the inning with no damage. Put Springer or Belt behind Vald and now if they pitch around Vlad we have runners on 1st and 2nd with a guy that can bring them in more often at the plate. They are getting overly concerned with switching between lefty righty all through the lineup where we just need to cash in our good hitters. That awful runners left in scoring position stat isn’t completely bad luck. It’s partially due to lineup construction.

For a little perspective, mlb teams use an average of 10 different starters in a season. So yeah until Manoah can be reworked we might need to find a bridge until Ryu is ready post AS break, but thatÂ’s mlb for ya. As someone that felt we maybe overpaid a little( not a ton but a tad) on the Varsho trade, Varsho has actually looked at little better at the plate this series. Walking a few times and getting a few hits. His upside if he even comes close to his output during the second half of last year is still very high. I miss LGJÂ’s line up lengthening bat though, ESP now that his power is back. Moreno is starting the session solidly ( for the amount heÂ’s played in the majors) for Arizona for sure, but itÂ’s pretty early to determine his long time value . I was actually hoping we traded for Ketel Marte instead of Varsho , but I guess that wouldnÂ’t work with the budget nor would Arizona likely have let him go. If we couldnÂ’t get Marte I wanted Bryan Reynolds from Pittsburgh. At the time it seemed like he wanted out of Pittsburgh and that the Pirates were gonna have to move him. Sadly neither of those deals could be had though and probably LGJ and Moreno wouldnÂ’t have even been the best offers they received anyways. Given that we have trouble sometimes attracting talent for fair pay during free agency weÂ’ve had to rely on the trade deadline a lot. WeÂ’ve actually done very well during most trade deadlines but I fear we donÂ’t have the prospects to win this years trade deadline again. WeÂ’ve had to use a lot of good ones recently for trades and weÂ’ve never done a complete rebuild, always favoring putting out teams that could win enough to just stay close but not go all the way through out most of the 2010Â’s. That was a Rogers business decision. Keep us watching games without spending with the big boys to go all the way. Anyways, i still think we will at least make a WC spot this year so IÂ’m not giving up yet. Gonna have to stretch a few guys out some before the AS break and maybe have BP days. Big Nate might get his best chance to stretch out some and work his way back towards being a starter again lol. Funny how opportunity works

They can yes. You can even make the playoffs with a .500 record at the All Star break and we’re still above .500 with lots of time left before that. A lot of it will also depend on what we can manage to do at the trade deadline. If we can make some key pick ups and address some issues we could be a different team. Also Ryu has a chance to be pretty helpful if he comes back strong after TJ surgery. He’s a lefty who’s never relied on power to be effective. I think a lot of his issues were injury related and he was awesome before that so I’m hopeful he might actually be quite decent with a fixed arm even at his age. Teams do go on late runs in the season as well but it’s gonna be a little harder to make up ground against our own division with the balanced schedule.

Ok question, is there a way to stop the error where apostrophes turn into A’s on messages composed on IPhones?

LGJ is 3/3 tonight with a hr so far and Varsho is 0/3 lol. But why is Varsho hitting 5th right now, sheesh. He should be 7th at best until he can turn things around. Come on Varsho now make me look bad here please with a key knock with runners in scoring position late in this game

LGJ has 9.3 BWAR in 1882 ABÂ’s. He had an 127 OPS+ and a 138 OPS+ season. HeÂ’s also had two season with a slugging percentage over .500 with .541 and .534. He hadnÂ’t figured out defending in the OF yet and took a lot of horrible lines to balls. His arm was decent though. I liked LGJ for his potential, itÂ’s not like he had put up amazing numbers with the Jays but he was a decent contributor. He only had two seasons where he got full playing time and those were seasons he was battling some injuries etc. I always thought that one year heÂ’d put together a .300 plus avg with 30 hrs if he put it all together. He might never do that still idk. IÂ’m willing to admit he was a decent player at best but an ok number 6-7 spot in the line up. I was ok with trading him though. Him and Moreno were definitely a steep price though. But as others have said, more on the Moreno side who is controllable until 2029. Jury is still out on Varsho. We all know itÂ’s hard to transition to a new team and often players will press to impress and not be their best right away. Defense is strong but defensive measurements are less accurate then offensive so weÂ’ll have to see how strong year in year out. But he has the speed and chops to play CF if needed. Offense IÂ’m nervous about. At least we moved him down in the lineup until he improves, canÂ’t have him batting 4th or 5th hitting with a .638 OPS. We know he has power potential though, he hit 27 HRÂ’s last year. HeÂ’s looks like a mini Mike Trout in terms of physical stature. In fact heÂ’s thicker than Trout if baseball reference is accurate, Trout is 6Â’2 237, Varsho is 5Â’10 217 ( so really a little tank). But I think the component that might have over sold the Jays management is that he can catch and use to be a catcher which weÂ’re all forgetting. So that lets us carry one less catcher on the playoff roster. Could help with the BP in terms of arms we can carry etc. All said though itÂ’s very clear that at the moment Arizona is getting much more out of LGJ and Moreno then we are yet of Varsho.

I think LGJ was battling some physical issues last year from what I recall, although he still hit for avg. He’s always been a decent hitter with a lot of upside potential. His brother who has had a great career has maintained that LGJ is the best hitter of the two of them. I never wanted to trade LGJ tbh, but I get his fielding was subpar and sometimes his goofing around too much might have been a distraction for Vladdy. As far as Varsho goes I still have high hopes but like most on here I have concerns as well. There is no question he is a great defender. As far as his bat goes, we got him after he surged offensively at the end of last year. But that was over a small sample size. The scary thing is that his dreadful offensive stats right now are not that far below his lifetime stats. Lifetime heÂ’s hitting .229 with .722 OPS. So there is the scary possibility that this is just who he is. I’ve seen us do this with bullpen pitchers too. A relief pitcher who wasn’t great has one good season of 60 Innings and suddenly he’s a new man and we believe he’s turned the corner only for them to regress to who they were over a larger sample size. Not that there aren’t some examples of people actually making some changes and becoming whole new players or progressing, but a lot of the time I trust the larger sample size once you get past the first year or two of a guys career. The good news is Daulton only has around 1100 AB’s in the Majors which equates to around 2 full seasons. So he’s still in the zone where I think he could make a leap forward offensively. If he puts up another full year of the same stats though then I’ll have to be inclined to believe that this is just who he is. For better or worse we have control of him until 2027 so let’s hope for better lol.