General Blue Jays Thread

[Lateral Quicks]

So the active roster figures to be:

Rotation:

Ryu
Berrios
Ray
Manoah
Stripling or Matz

Bullpen:

Romano
Hand
Soria
Richards
Cimber
Borucki
Dolis
Mayza
Stripling or Matz

Outfield:

Springer
Hernandez
Gurriel Jr.
Grichuk

Infield:

Guerrero Jr.
Semien
Bichette
Biggio
Espinal

Catcher:
Kirk
McGuire

That's 14 pitchers and 11 position players with one spot open. Possible candidates for the 26th spot are Dickerson, Pearson, or maybe Merryweather if he gets unbroken for more than a couple days.

It's a good to very good team. The bullpen is much improved, but still lacking elite arms. Still, it ought to be good enough to get the job done most nights. The top 3 in the rotation looks great, and if Manoah and Stripling can hold it together like they've been doing then this team does have a chance to go on a run.

[polo007]

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[Aimless Outlook]

I'm curious if Stripling and Matz would benefit from a "Double Long man" for their turn in the rotation. Have them each pitch 3-4 innings in the 5th rotation spot. Maybe they would also both be available for 2-3 innings in one of the other 4 games if needed.

[bluerap23]

I'm curious if Stripling and Matz would benefit from a "Double Long man" for their turn in the rotation. Have them each pitch 3-4 innings in the 5th rotation spot. Maybe they would also both be available for 2-3 innings in one of the other 4 games if needed.

I like the idea of going 6 man for a few weeks. Especially for Ryu. But this could be a good solution down the road. They could alternate starting.

[polo007]

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[polo007]

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[Brinbe]

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Didn't know where else to put this. But I figured the heads on here would appreciate this lol

[polo007]

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[Schad]

Poor guy, getting excited about the potential return for a 29 year old minor league catcher who has never reached the bigs, only to find out that it's likely just an Arby's gift card.

[GoRapstheoriginal]

https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/blue-jays-place-reliever-joakim-soria-10-day-il-finger-inflammation/

[rapstarter]

Funny to see Anthony Gose pitching for the US in the Olympics.

[bluerap23]

Can they call up Smith now?

[JTT]

I would love to see Smith as well but there are some problems, starting with the fact that he’s not on the 40 man roster. Being a righty, also makes he and Espinal redundant. I suspect that’s why you see Valera (a switch hitter) here instead.

[polo007]

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[linery88]

On the Vlad paradox. Right now he is:

89th percentile in exit velocity.
85th percentile in hard-hit balls.
Above-average K rate.
High-average whiff rate.
Below-average walk rate.
Above-average chase rate.
14th percentile in launch angle.


Unless changing his swing dramatically ups his whiff/K rate, there's no way that isn't a top-tier hitter in the future, right? It's the only thing he does poorly.

I think he's been the victim of his own natural talent. Young players hitting the ball on the ground too often is pretty common; you could see it with both Vlad/Bo in the minors, and Bo is also still below league-average in LA. It's just that most players will have that affect their overall performance enough that they won't reach the bigs until they cease chopping the ball, whereas Vlad's combination of plate discipline and exit velocity meant that he hit a lot of screaming groundball singles/doubles and produced eye-popping numbers despite the flaw.

The answer is simple.
Move vlad back to where he was raking,and the Jays scored 10 runs near a dozen times or so while in Dunedin or Buffalo.
I dont know about anybody else but i hate the thought of seeing vlad having to run hard more often now at the number 2 slot to get base hits,when he should be jogging around the bases while opposing pitchers have to figure out how they are gonna pitch him with 2 or 3 of our guys on base.vlad is an rbi machine who also hits for power,and avg,and was leading the triple crown race for a while,because he was batting 3rd.Springer is a great leadoff guy with speed.The next guy should also have speed,and make contact,like Bichette or Semian.Bichette has 17 steals ,none caught,and Springer we know has speed.If vlad has been moved there because of analytics then thats just wrong-imo.
I bet Blake Snell just loves analytics for taking him out last season during a 1 hit shoutout of the Dodgers,then losing.
I feel like they would kick ass moving vlad up to 3 or 4 ,and putting the pressure on the opposing team,who would have to worry about dealing with at least 2 good ,speedy contact hitters before facing vlad.Thats how we scored 10 runs so many times not long ago.Too bad,it would be so cool to see that proper lineup with vlad#3 now in the dome.

[polo007]

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[The_Hater]

On the Vlad paradox. Right now he is:

89th percentile in exit velocity.
85th percentile in hard-hit balls.
Above-average K rate.
High-average whiff rate.
Below-average walk rate.
Above-average chase rate.
14th percentile in launch angle.


Unless changing his swing dramatically ups his whiff/K rate, there's no way that isn't a top-tier hitter in the future, right? It's the only thing he does poorly.

I think he's been the victim of his own natural talent. Young players hitting the ball on the ground too often is pretty common; you could see it with both Vlad/Bo in the minors, and Bo is also still below league-average in LA. It's just that most players will have that affect their overall performance enough that they won't reach the bigs until they cease chopping the ball, whereas Vlad's combination of plate discipline and exit velocity meant that he hit a lot of screaming groundball singles/doubles and produced eye-popping numbers despite the flaw.

The answer is simple.
Move vlad back to where he was raking,and the Jays scored 10 runs near a dozen times or so while in Dunedin or Buffalo.
I dont know about anybody else but i hate the thought of seeing vlad having to run hard more often now at the number 2 slot to get base hits,when he should be jogging around the bases while opposing pitchers have to figure out how they are gonna pitch him with 2 or 3 of our guys on base.vlad is an rbi machine who also hits for power,and avg,and was leading the triple crown race for a while,because he was batting 3rd.Springer is a great leadoff guy with speed.The next guy should also have speed,and make contact,like Bichette or Semian.Bichette has 17 steals ,none caught,and Springer we know has speed.If vlad has been moved there because of analytics then thats just wrong-imo.
I bet Blake Snell just loves analytics for taking him out last season during a 1 hit shoutout of the Dodgers,then losing.
I feel like they would kick ass moving vlad up to 3 or 4 ,and putting the pressure on the opposing team,who would have to worry about dealing with at least 2 good ,speedy contact hitters before facing vlad.Thats how we scored 10 runs so many times not long ago.Too bad,it would be so cool to see that proper lineup with vlad#3 now in the dome.

Schad’s post had absolutely nothing to do with his spot in the batting order, because it’s irrelevant to what he wrote. So no, that’s not the simple answer.

BTW, you previously suggested moving him to 4th, not 3rd, so you have already changed your mind on that over the past 2 days.

[polo007]

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[s e n s i]

The answer is simple.
Move vlad back to where he was raking,and the Jays scored 10 runs near a dozen times or so while in Dunedin or Buffalo.
I dont know about anybody else but i hate the thought of seeing vlad having to run hard more often now at the number 2 slot to get base hits,when he should be jogging around the bases while opposing pitchers have to figure out how they are gonna pitch him with 2 or 3 of our guys on base.vlad is an rbi machine who also hits for power,and avg,and was leading the triple crown race for a while,because he was batting 3rd.Springer is a great leadoff guy with speed.The next guy should also have speed,and make contact,like Bichette or Semian.Bichette has 17 steals ,none caught,and Springer we know has speed.If vlad has been moved there because of analytics then thats just wrong-imo.
I bet Blake Snell just loves analytics for taking him out last season during a 1 hit shoutout of the Dodgers,then losing.
I feel like they would kick ass moving vlad up to 3 or 4 ,and putting the pressure on the opposing team,who would have to worry about dealing with at least 2 good ,speedy contact hitters before facing vlad.Thats how we scored 10 runs so many times not long ago.Too bad,it would be so cool to see that proper lineup with vlad#3 now in the dome.

no

[Schad]

Schad’s post had absolutely nothing to do with his spot in the batting order, because it’s irrelevant to what he wrote. So no, that’s not the simple answer.

BTW, you previously suggested moving him to 4th, not 3rd, so you have already changed your mind on that over the past 2 days.

Also, that comment of mine was made exactly one year ago, when people were worried that Vlad was a bust, and I was pointing out that busts generally don't wallop the ball that Vlad does. And boy howdy is he not a bust now.

But I also want to highlight one part:

The next guy should also have speed,and make contact,like Bichette or Semian.Bichette has 17 steals ,none caught,and Springer we know has speed.If vlad has been moved there because of analytics then thats just wrong-imo.

I disagree entirely that speed in the 2 spot is a primary need. Analytics suggests that you should have your best hitter in the #2 spot, sure, but basic logic also suggests that you shouldn't be trying to steal bases with Vlad or Semien at the plate. Bo's been exceedingly successful this year (after being exceedingly unsuccessful in previous years), but risking outs with two of the best power hitters in the AL hitting is just not sound.

In fact, there's far more logic to trying to steal bases with the 5 spot and lower guys up in this lineup up, because the marginal benefit of an extra base increases with less-good hitters at the plate. So with Bichette hitting fourth, you actually create more situations where you want him trying to steal bases, even if it doesn't look like the lineup you'd field in 1990 (and it shouldn't, teams fielded really stupid lineups in 1990, as evidenced by the Jays fielding a desperately past his prime Mookie Wilson in the 1 and 2 spots for a whole damned year because "he can handle the bat" and steal bases, even though he was arguably the worst hitter on the team).

This probably isn't why Charlie is doing it, because he generally only makes good decisions by complete happenstance, but the top four is as I'd set it.