Mehar wrote:Michael Bradley wrote:The Jays seem to think Espinal is a better defender at 2B than Merrifield. I haven’t looked up the numbers but I’d be shocked if that’s true. The eye test certainly doesn’t support that.
This has to be one of the most frustrating, and quite frankly boring “good” Jays teams I can remember. I mean I’ll take a boring team that gets a playoff spot but even that’s not a certainty at this point.
Merrifield was a former Gold Glove finalist at Second Base with Kansas City. Regardless, if Espinal had any situational awareness he should have thrown to home right away, and gotten Smith out. Just crazy mental lapse by him. With Boston's schedule in the coming weeks where they can beat up on the Royals, Nationals, and Tigers and also playing the Jays at Fenway (where they have not lost a game to Toronto all year) they should surpass the Jays as Boston is only 1.5 Games back. The Jays are facing all .500 or better teams for the next 4 weeks (Angels, Red Sox, Phillies, Reds, etc.), and they have struggled against .500 or better teams all year. A healthy Yankees team in about a couple of weeks with Judge, and pitchers Loaisiga and Cortes will be a different team also; and the Yankees are only 2.5 Games back. So, some of these homers and optimists like Mike Shillner, saying how everyone needs to settle down as the Jays are in a playoff spot are fooling themselves. Boston, New York and Toronto will be likely fighting for one spot, and playoffs is definitely not a certainty with what I have seen all year.
The Jays will have to start actually winning games against Boston, but ultimately I think it will come down to 1) if/when Judge comes back, and 2) what each team does at the deadline. The Yankees with Judge are drastically better, and you could argue them even being this good with the lineups they’ve thrown out there makes them scary down the stretch if Judge comes back at a reasonable time. I’m still not sure what to make of the Red Sox but they are right there as well.
I don’t think this is the Jays team to scorch the farm for, so I hope Atkins is reasonable and holds on to whatever it left of their top prospects at the deadline. With that said, they do need to improve as well. A lot of that improvement can come internally if Vlad, Varsho, and Kirk bounce back, but at this rate you can’t count on that. Hard to see where they go at the deadline.