Toronto Blue Jays vs. Kansas City Royals, Aug 1-3

[johanliebert]

Great to see strike out machine Varsho back.

[Randle McMurphy]

40 hits over 4 games but 4 for 33 RISP over the losing streak. Just bad luck, the hits were there.

Varsho’s fault

I tell you what, this organization has Myles Straw next year for about half of Varsho will be expected to make in arbitration which is 10 million or so. Straw is still an elite defender and can provide what Varsho does defensively. Given how injury prone Varsho has been this year, and terrible at the plate overall- I can see this front office wisely walking away from that guy at the 10 million price tag in the off-season. You are free to still cheer for Varsho wherever he lands next year.

Every Strikeout, every Pop Up and the occasional home run while hitting .200 can still be admired by you from afar. Varsho can actually excel playing for a stacked team like the Dodgers. Just worry about playing defense and that is it. You can still be a Varsho fan as long as he is not with the Jays. I frankly had enough of his Strikeouts and Horrible at Bats for three years. Enough is enough. Watching this malaise being inserted back into this lineup was my biggest fear. I said so last week that they should trade him before he comes back.

Every inning he comes to bat, the opposing pitcher is licking his chops, and waiting to throw high fastballs so this fool Varsho can chase them. The most joy I had watching this team the past 10 years was when Varsho was on the sidelines, and this team going on an insane run. The joy is over inserting this malaise back into the lineup. He brings everyone else in the lineup down to his pathetic level. Three years of Varsho striking out like a fool chasing bad pitches is more than enough for me. You are still expected to come to the plate 4 times as a hitter. His great catches he provides does not erase his pathetic at bats in every game he plays. Go cheer for whatever team he hopefully lands in next year.

Varsho is the 2nd most valuable player on the team behind your hated Kirk (whose absence causes the Jays to completely fall apart) and will be going nowhere any time soon. Best case scenario going forward will be them giving him an extension this offseason which I fully expect them to do.

[Mehar]

That is true, I trashed Kirk in 2023 and 2024 because he was horrible offensively both seasons. Kirk 2025 has reverted to 2022 All-star Kirk. Of course I praise him for being outstanding this year.

The same cannot be said about your hero Varsho- whose numbers have regressed compared to how he was in 2022. Hopefully the front office has the wisdom to wash their hands with the "Strikeout Machine" , the best .200 hitter in baseball, or Mr. Mendoza. Whichever nickname works.

[COY0607]

Varsho’s fault

I tell you what, this organization has Myles Straw next year for about half of Varsho will be expected to make in arbitration which is 10 million or so. Straw is still an elite defender and can provide what Varsho does defensively. Given how injury prone Varsho has been this year, and terrible at the plate overall- I can see this front office wisely walking away from that guy at the 10 million price tag in the off-season. You are free to still cheer for Varsho wherever he lands next year.

Every Strikeout, every Pop Up and the occasional home run while hitting .200 can still be admired by you from afar. Varsho can actually excel playing for a stacked team like the Dodgers. Just worry about playing defense and that is it. You can still be a Varsho fan as long as he is not with the Jays. I frankly had enough of his Strikeouts and Horrible at Bats for three years. Enough is enough. Watching this malaise being inserted back into this lineup was my biggest fear. I said so last week that they should trade him before he comes back.

Every inning he comes to bat, the opposing pitcher is licking his chops, and waiting to throw high fastballs so this fool Varsho can chase them. The most joy I had watching this team the past 10 years was when Varsho was on the sidelines, and this team going on an insane run. The joy is over inserting this malaise back into the lineup. He brings everyone else in the lineup down to his pathetic level. Three years of Varsho striking out like a fool chasing bad pitches is more than enough for me. You are still expected to come to the plate 4 times as a hitter. His great catches he provides does not erase his pathetic at bats in every game he plays. Go cheer for whatever team he hopefully lands in next year.

Varsho is the 2nd most valuable player on the team behind your hated Kirk (whose absence causes the Jays to completely fall apart) and will be going nowhere any time soon. Best case scenario going forward will be them giving him an extension this offseason which I fully expect them to do.

Given who Varsho’s agent is - I highly doubt he’ll sign an extension after a year where he missed 50%+ of the season.

Boras / Varsho will want to test the market and get every penny they can, even if it means signing shorter term deals. Like so many of Boras’ clients recently

[pingpongrac]

Bieber is at least a month away from coming back. By then the Jays may have fallen out of a wild card spot

The team just won 70% of their games over a two-month stretch (~113-win pace, which would be the best season since the 2001 Mariners) and gave themselves a bit of a cushion to withstand an inevitable slump. Even after losing 5 of the last 6, they are still 3 games ahead of the Yankees for 1st in the AL East and 7 games ahead of the Rangers who are on the outside looking in.

Every top team in the league goes through a slump or two like this. Yankees had a 6-16 stretch in June/July before a 5-game win streak then immediately followed that up with losing 7 of 10 games, Tigers lost 12 of 13 games in July (including a 3-game sweep at home to the Mariners and a 3-game sweep in Pittsburgh), Astros had a 5-12 stretch in July (including a 4-game sweep at home to the Athletics who outscored them 32-7), Phillies had a 2-10 stretch in May/June (including a 3-game sweep at home to the Brewers who outscored them 28-11), Mets had a 3-14 stretch in June (including a a 3-game sweep in Pittsburgh who outscored them 30-4), Dodgers had a 2-10 stretch in July (including a a 3-game sweep at home to the Astros who outscored them 29-6), etc. The doom and gloom needs to be given a rest. If they keep up this level of play for another 10 or so games, maybe we can start to worry then.

[Potential]

Stankees choke. What a funny ending lol

[Asianiac_24]

Varsho is an elite defender in the CF, but he should never be anywhere near the top 5 in a lineup. He should be batting 8 or 9, he is prime KK with better pop and lower OBP

[And1Skip]

Stankees choke. What a funny ending lol

You can't make this @$#2 up LOL. After their scapegoat all season Volpe has a helluva offensive game, their 3 reliever acquisitions (2 of them closers for other teams) blow it, and then another Utility guy they acquired at the deadline for defensive purposes commits a terrible error in the bottom of the 9th for Miami to tie it.

[Mehar]

Varsho’s fault

I tell you what, this organization has Myles Straw next year for about half of Varsho will be expected to make in arbitration which is 10 million or so. Straw is still an elite defender and can provide what Varsho does defensively. Given how injury prone Varsho has been this year, and terrible at the plate overall- I can see this front office wisely walking away from that guy at the 10 million price tag in the off-season. You are free to still cheer for Varsho wherever he lands next year.

Every Strikeout, every Pop Up and the occasional home run while hitting .200 can still be admired by you from afar. Varsho can actually excel playing for a stacked team like the Dodgers. Just worry about playing defense and that is it. You can still be a Varsho fan as long as he is not with the Jays. I frankly had enough of his Strikeouts and Horrible at Bats for three years. Enough is enough. Watching this malaise being inserted back into this lineup was my biggest fear. I said so last week that they should trade him before he comes back.

Every inning he comes to bat, the opposing pitcher is licking his chops, and waiting to throw high fastballs so this fool Varsho can chase them. The most joy I had watching this team the past 10 years was when Varsho was on the sidelines, and this team going on an insane run. The joy is over inserting this malaise back into the lineup. He brings everyone else in the lineup down to his pathetic level. Three years of Varsho striking out like a fool chasing bad pitches is more than enough for me. You are still expected to come to the plate 4 times as a hitter. His great catches he provides does not erase his pathetic at bats in every game he plays. Go cheer for whatever team he hopefully lands in next year.

Varsho is the 2nd most valuable player on the team behind your hated Kirk (whose absence causes the Jays to completely fall apart) and will be going nowhere any time soon. Best case scenario going forward will be them giving him an extension this offseason which I fully expect them to do.

If a .200 hitter who is a strikeout machine, with an atrocious On Base of .233, and presently with a 0.7 WAR is the second most valuable player on your team- you have more problems than you think. On how many other great or even average teams in the Wild Card Hunt in MLB- would your hero Varsho be the second most valuable player on those teams?

The answer is zero. You are operating in delusion hyping up this .200 hitter with his atrocious ON Base and Strikeouts, as somehow one of the best players in baseball. Hopefully this front office comes to its senses in the off-season and says goodbye to your Mike Trout 2.0 hero. Cheer for him loudly when he comes back in another uniform at the Rogers Centre next year.

[SharoneWright]

Stankees choke. What a funny ending lol

You can't make this @$#2 up LOL. After their scapegoat all season Volpe has a helluva offensive game, their 3 reliever acquisitions (2 of them closers for other teams) blow it, and then another Utility guy they acquired at the deadline for defensive purposes commits a terrible error in the bottom of the 9th for Miami to tie it.

Should have pitched Stroman tonight!

[JN]

The yanks acquisitions could well turn out super good. But I thought some of the hoopla for them was overrated.. so it was nice to see them implode tonight .. we will just ignore what happened with our game.

[Tripod]

Crazy the Jays are 5-5 in their last 10 yet lost no ground to Yankees, only 1 to Red Sox, and gained 1 over Tigers and Astros.

Ironically KC at 7-3 has the best record in AL last 10 games...as does Texas.

But for sure Jays gave to get back to getting good starting pitching...it's killing them.

[elmer_yuck]

We did great without Varsho and Santander.
The secret was having 9 productive guys in the order.
We’re better off without them.

[JaysRule15]

We did great without Varsho and Santander.
The secret was having 9 productive guys in the order.
We’re better off without them.

This team had lost four of their last five prior to this game, with a couple of those Ls by double digits. Varsho just came back today. Let's not rush to blame him.

[Randle McMurphy]

Read on Twitter

Varsho’s fault?

[WuTang_OG]

Lucky yankeees lost

[Hottie McShotty]

Read on Twitter

Varsho’s fault?

He's not helping, that's for sure.

[Jerry Lucas]

I’d be batting Varsho 2 next game, we won’t be winning too many games against quality pitching with a Lukes/Loperfido 1-2

.240 obp shouldn't be batting anywhere other than 8 or 9.

Varsho is an elite defender that has some pretty solid power, but it's extremely hard to overlook his high strikeout rate combined with his low average and OBP. No idea how anyone – even his biggest fan – could possibly think that putting him at the top of the order is a good idea. He belongs in the bottom third of the order (potentially even 9th) when this team is fully healthy.

Fully healthy I would have Varsho batting 7th in the lineup vs RHP. 9th is a bit too low considering he has a 132 wRC+ vs RHP so far this season. Popkins may have fixed Varsho vs RHP.

LF Lukes/Loperfido
DH/RF Springer
1B Vlad
SS Bo
3B Barger
C Kirk
CF Varsho
RF/DH Santander
2B Gimenez

[Duffman100]

Bieber is at least a month away from coming back. By then the Jays may have fallen out of a wild card spot

Bieber is closer to two weeks away. His next start could even be his last rehab start which means he's a week away.

I've been following him pretty closely since he's been an IL stash for me all season long.

[StopitLeo]

Read on Twitter

Varsho’s fault?

My first thought was Heineman. Not that it was his fault per se—because obviously the pitchers are making the pitches—but whether the pitch calling/sequencing wasn't as good as Kirk's (or maybe just out of sync).

As for Varsho, he's definitely been a disappointment with the bat since we acquired him but it was looking better before he got hurt. He definitely should be 7-9 in the batting order given his strikeouts.