Jays in September - What are you looking forward to watching with the Jays?

[Cyrus]

So with the Jays all but exceedingly slim playoff hopes - dead. And September is a few days away. What are you looking forward to seeing with the Jays? They don't have any hot/top shelf prospect that is ready this year atleast.

Are you looking at Joe Biagini to see what he can do as a starter?

Hoping to see Aaron Sanchez back and pitching as a starter without Blister issues?

Devon Travis back and Healthy again?

I guess I'm interested in seeing what we have in Toscar Hernandez, hopefully, he can be a solution at one of the outfield positions. If Dalton Pompey is healthy, it would be nice to see him. AFter rushing him up to the majors, his career has stalled out. Hoping we get more athletic and less plodding in multiple positions.

[dagger]

I'd like to see some of the young guys on the 40-man roster play every day. Hernandez is certainly one. Pompey hasn't swung bat in several weeks, and very little this season. I seriously doubt he'll play any time soon.

[Cyrus]

Dagger, so who would you sit out. IT seems Jays are showing Loyalty in the Jose retirement tour, so I doubt they'll sit him much. Pillar seems entrenched in center, and while defensively that makes sense, offensively....Leaving only LF as an open spot.

I wonder if they'll bring up Tellez if and so will he even play?

[Natural11]

1) Find a way to get some young guys PT in the outfield.

I'm most interested in Alford and Smith Jr this season, but they may want to take a look at Hernandez as well, even though he has been struggling. Smith is also in a slump, but I think he did well enough as a call-up to warrant another look.

Interestingly enough, Michael Saunders has been on a tear lately. I'd rather they go young and speedy, but they may take another look at him as well.

It's a real shame they didn't free up some room in the outfield, but I guess they had to keep the dream alive for casual fans. I don't really know how they'll accomplish this unless Jose gets regular 3B duty. I doubt they will bench him.

2) Give Lopez more games down the stretch.

Nothing to lose here. Montero has been terrible and is a short timer anyway. None of the other prospects are MLB ready. It's just as well to see if Lopez can get more comfortable and possibly become a serviceable second or third option for 2018. His AAA numbers were pretty good this year.

3) Seeing if they can fix Biagini.

His velocity and pitch movement is still there, he's just a bit off. Hopefully they can find a way to sort him out. He may yet be a valuable back end starter in 2018.

4) Play Goins every day, even against lefties.

Obviously the glove is there, but I still think he has potential to be a better hitter. The huge RISP numbers back that up. Let's see if he can get his head on straight and cut his swing down without runners on base.

[dagger]

Dagger, so who would you sit out. IT seems Jays are showing Loyalty in the Jose retirement tour, so I doubt they'll sit him much. Pillar seems entrenched in center, and while defensively that makes sense, offensively....Leaving only LF as an open spot.

I wonder if they'll bring up Tellez if and so will he even play?

Tellez? Doubt it. I'd sit out anyone who can be replaced for September by a rookie. Jose can split DH'ing with Morales most days. Pillar can have more time off than usual because of his aching body. And I am no fan of either current catcher. Oblique injuries take time so there is no reason to expect Martin back.

Since Gurriel is playing in the Arizona Fall League, I doubt he will be brought up in September.

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[Skin Blues]

4) Play Goins every day, even against lefties.

Obviously the glove is there, but I still think he has potential to be a better hitter. The huge RISP numbers back that up. Let's see if he can get his head on straight and cut his swing down without runners on base.

Why do the 78 at-bats with RISP back that up? He's a terrible hitter, and has been that way his entire career. For every hitter you can chop up the data into tiny chunks where some will be better than average and some will be worse than average.

[Natural11]

4) Play Goins every day, even against lefties.

Obviously the glove is there, but I still think he has potential to be a better hitter. The huge RISP numbers back that up. Let's see if he can get his head on straight and cut his swing down without runners on base.

Why do the 78 at-bats with RISP back that up? He's a terrible hitter, and has been that way his entire career. For every hitter you can chop up the data into tiny chunks where some will be better than average and some will be worse than average.

I don't think his RISP numbers this year are a statistical anomaly. His approach is visibly different with runners on base, including a shorter swing and a choke up.

I was not suggesting that I think he can or will be a great hitter, but I think there's a better hitter in him than 2015 Goins, who was a serviceable backup.

There's more to gain in playing Goins this year, given 2018 uncertainty at SS/2B.

1) Barney is a FA and more expensive. I think it unlikely that Goins' A1 will reach Barney's 3M salary.
2) Ref hasn't looked good at all.
3) No AA/AAA stand-outs that appear MLB ready.
4) Declining Tulo and possible Travis position change. We will need to be better up the middle next year.

They could go out and sign another SS/2B in the off-season, but with this season being a wash I believe it makes more sense to see if they can unlock something in Goins rather than waste further AB's on Barney and Ref.

[Skin Blues]

4) Play Goins every day, even against lefties.

Obviously the glove is there, but I still think he has potential to be a better hitter. The huge RISP numbers back that up. Let's see if he can get his head on straight and cut his swing down without runners on base.

Why do the 78 at-bats with RISP back that up? He's a terrible hitter, and has been that way his entire career. For every hitter you can chop up the data into tiny chunks where some will be better than average and some will be worse than average.

I don't think his RISP numbers this year are a statistical anomaly. His approach is visibly different with runners on base, including a shorter swing and a choke up.

I was not suggesting that I think he can or will be a great hitter, but I think there's a better hitter in him than 2015 Goins, who was a serviceable backup.

There's more to gain in playing Goins this year, given 2018 uncertainty at SS/2B.

1) Barney is a FA and more expensive. I think it unlikely that Goins' A1 will reach Barney's 3M salary.
2) Ref hasn't looked good at all.
3) No AA/AAA stand-outs that appear MLB ready.
4) Declining Tulo and possible Travis position change. We will need to be better up the middle next year.

They could go out and sign another SS/2B in the off-season, but with this season being a wash I believe it makes more sense to see if they can unlock something in Goins rather than waste further AB's on Barney and Ref.

Goins has had 5 years to prove he's more than a utility infielder. If it was as simple as using his RISP-approach all the time he should have (and might have, for all we know) tried that before he turned 30 years old. It's 78 AB's, after all. It might be a bad approach, but teams just haven't adjusted to it because he uses it so rarely. There's absolutely nothing he could do in the final month of the season to convince a competent manager that he is a starting SS.

As for Barney being a FA meaning he will be expensive, that is not at all the case. He is a FA, but teams are not going to line up to pay him big bucks. He's 31 and having a terrible year, and doesn't have a track record as anything more than a scrub utility infielder. We DFA'd Smoak and then signed him to a $1M deal when he was 28 years old; there's no reason we can't do that with Barney if we think he's a better option than Goins, who could actually cost more than that in arbitration. Refsnyder is a lost cause but there's no reason not to let Goins and Barney battle it out for the utility infielder job on the 2018 team.

[The_Hater]

I'm looking forward to seeing another 100 AB's of Jose Bautista in what could be his last MLB season ....

[Lateral Quicks]

- give Hernandez and Alford regular ABs, with an eye on giving at least one a full-time MLB job next year
- reward Jansen's exceptional year by letting him soak up the MLB environment and pick Martin's brain for a month, also with an eye to him potentially contributing at some point next year
- see if Ramirez can live up to the hype and possibly be an elite reliever going forward
- may as well let Biagini get a few more starts in, but the experiment has yielded awful results so far
- shut down Osuna, or at least no more back-to-backs

[ldnk]

I'm looking forward to the box scores. This is a bad team that isn't all that exciting to watch.

[Natural11]

I'm looking forward to seeing another 100 AB's of Jose Bautista in what could be his last MLB season ....

I'm interested to see if he'll dip below .200, or if they'll just bench him when he reaches it.

His -1.5 WAR ties him for 3rd worst in baseball. It could always be worse though. Albert Pujols is 2nd at -1.7 WAR and the Angels still owe him $114m through 2021.

[North_of_Border]

I'm looking forward to seeing another 100 AB's of Jose Bautista in what could be his last MLB season ....

I'm interested to see if he'll dip below .200, or if they'll just bench him when he reaches it.

His -1.5 WAR ties him for 3rd worst in baseball. It could always be worse though. Albert Pujols is 2nd at -1.7 WAR and the Angels still owe him $114m through 2021.

Lucky for the Jays that Jose didn't take that huge extension he was offered. That would have been UGLY.

[akakalakin]

Would like to see Urena and Alford alot, Jannsen too I guess. Really if they are up they should be playing. The only vet I care to see is Estrada finishing strong. Perhaps Sanchez could show some balls and get some solid work in.

[bluerap23]

I'm looking forward to seeing another 100 AB's of Jose Bautista in what could be his last MLB season ....

I doubt it is his last year. I could see an AL team paying him 10 million for 1 year as DH.

[The_Hater]

I'm looking forward to seeing another 100 AB's of Jose Bautista in what could be his last MLB season ....

I doubt it is his last year. I could see an AL team paying him 10 million for 1 year as DH.

No chance he gets a contract like that. Right now he's one of the 3-4 worst position players in MLB in terms of win shares and has a sub .700 OPS which has been in a free fall the past 2 years. Also remember that nobody would go near him last off season when he was still a useful hitter because he's considered such a cancer with his attitude.

He will get a spring training invite somewhere, which he might be too proud to accept, but nobody is guaranteeing him a contract. That would be nothing sort of shocking.