MLB 2019

[Meacon Keaton]

22 minutes ago, damsher hatfield said:

Also I'm gonna sahyder this because they don't deserve it. Cleveland is 3 outs away from a combined no-hitter but they have walked 8 Blue Jays and hit 2 others with pitches. That's right, TEN BASERUNNERS. They even had the bases loaded in the top of the 8th.

 

You did it! A modern sahyder this one!

[Gabriel]

Man, the Jays can't seem to score runs right now. Starting pitching has been much better than expected though, and if they can maintain close to that level of performance and the hitting comes alive, they'll be a dangerous team to play. It's not like we have to worry about hitting, because the guys are there to do it. It's just a matter of the bats being cold right now.

[gunnar hendershow]

9 hours ago, Meacon said:

You did it! A modern sahyder this one!

Or did Cleveland do it to themselves by pitching so bad the Blue Jays didn't have the chance to hit balls because they were all so far out of the zone?

Makes you think.

[The Buscher]

 

[Maxx]

12 hours ago, Gabriel said:

Man, the Jays can't seem to score runs right now. Starting pitching has been much better than expected though, and if they can maintain close to that level of performance and the hitting comes alive, they'll be a dangerous team to play. It's not like we have to worry about hitting, because the guys are there to do it. It's just a matter of the bats being cold right now.

If only they had a complete, productive player in Triple A they could have brought up to help with this.  

[Meacon Keaton]

28 minutes ago, Eric Buschenhagen said:

 

He’s 0-for-36 dating back to last year even. The Baltimore fans cheered when they pinch hit for him in the 9th yesterday.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

49 minutes ago, Maxx said:

If only they had a complete, productive player in Triple A they could have brought up to help with this.  

Hey, he's injured!

To be fair, while I hope Vlad is as good as advertised when he comes up, this is going to be a long season hitting wise. We have Grichuk and Smoak but after that, there's quite the drop off. Smoak could likely be traded mid-season. Rowdy is hitting well but the league is going to adjust and he'll have to adjust back. This is going to be what it's like for a year or two, I imagine. Our best hitter right now is Freddy Galvis, a guy who is known for his glove. I wouldn't expect much in the hitting department this year. 

[Meacon Keaton]

It’s not just Toronto. Like 25 of the 30 teams are scoring 0,1, or 2 runs a game daily at the moment.

[Gabriel]

When Vlad comes up, he will be the best Blue Jay. There's a huge case for to be made for bringing up Bo Bichette as well. Atkins can cite Guerrero's fielding as a slight drawback to the third basemen, but the offense he will provide will off-set that. Bichette though? Dude raked during spring training and is probably the best defensive prospect that we have in the pipeline at the moment. When you've got Gurriel struggling to make routine plays or contribute offensively, it's hard not to look at Bichette and wonder why he wasn't on the opening day roster.

I think the Jays are going to be looking at the recent trend in locking up young players early, and playing around with the idea of doing that. I'm positive that if they could get favorable deals in the vein of Acuna for both Vlad and Bo, that they would be on the Jays roster the very next day.

Part of the problem for this season, for the fans anyways, is going to be that while it sucks to be losing, it sucks even more when you aren't able to go to the park or watch on tv and see the guys that are supposed to building blocks to saving the franchise. It's especially hard to swallow when if you look at sheer ability, three to five of those guys should probably be playing on the MLB roster over people who are there. So if the Jays can jump on the bandwagon and start locking these guys up so that they can call them up, losing won't seem so bad when we're regularly seeing Guerrero blast bombs, Bichette get on base in front of him and make superhuman plays in the infield, etc.

Grichuk and Smoak are a great start to a potentially fantastic offensive lineup, Freddy Galvis has been better than we could have expected out of the gate, and Brandon Drury is starting to piece things together. Hernandez has a lot of potential if he can harness it. McKinney should, in theory, be a great leadoff man... but it's Guerrero and Bichette that move the needle the most for the team this year.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

4 minutes ago, Gabriel said:

When Vlad comes up, he will be the best Blue Jay. There's a huge case for to be made for bringing up Bo Bichette as well. Atkins can cite Guerrero's fielding as a slight drawback to the third basemen, but the offense he will provide will off-set that. Bichette though? Dude raked during spring training and is probably the best defensive prospect that we have in the pipeline at the moment. When you've got Gurriel struggling to make routine plays or contribute offensively, it's hard not to look at Bichette and wonder why he wasn't on the opening day roster.

I think the Jays are going to be looking at the recent trend in locking up young players early, and playing around with the idea of doing that. I'm positive that if they could get favorable deals in the vein of Acuna for both Vlad and Bo, that they would be on the Jays roster the very next day.

Part of the problem for this season, for the fans anyways, is going to be that while it sucks to be losing, it sucks even more when you aren't able to go to the park or watch on tv and see the guys that are supposed to building blocks to saving the franchise. It's especially hard to swallow when if you look at sheer ability, three to five of those guys should probably be playing on the MLB roster over people who are there. So if the Jays can jump on the bandwagon and start locking these guys up so that they can call them up, losing won't seem so bad when we're regularly seeing Guerrero blast bombs, Bichette get on base in front of him and make superhuman plays in the infield, etc.

Grichuk and Smoak are a great start to a potentially fantastic offensive lineup, Freddy Galvis has been better than we could have expected out of the gate, and Brandon Drury is starting to piece things together. Hernandez has a lot of potential if he can harness it. McKinney should, in theory, be a great leadoff man... but it's Guerrero and Bichette that move the needle the most for the team this year.

They have give Gurriel time though. He has like the most money committed to him (minus Tulo and Russ). I would be shocked to see Bo called up before someone gets injured. Dude hasn't played in Triple-A yet.

I am excited to watch this team because they are young and are a million times more athletic than they have been the last few years, but I think you're far more optimistic about their hitting potential than I am. Which is fine, I'll be happy to be proven wrong. 

[Gabriel]

They have enough decent to good bats that hot streaks should help immensely with run support... but this team is going to live and die by their pitching/defense this year, at least until summer time when we get more call-ups. Our prospects are better hitters than almost the entire starting roster, Grichuk and Smoak excluded.

Gurriel absolutely is going to get every opportunity to develop on the major league roster, but unless he can put it together before the call-ups, I'd be shocked if he's not a platoon player, getting spot starts at different infield positions, by the end of the season. He's also someone that could potentially be moved at the deadline. I know he's young and controllable, and you don't want to lose that, but if another team sees him as an every day player, and the infield spots get locked up around him in Toronto, it wouldn't be a bad idea to see what kind of return we could get for him... whether it's re-stocking the prospect pool or filling a gap on the main roster. I imagine that some of our bullpen is probably going to be moved at the deadline, so if Gurriel struggles, other people take his spots and we move some arms out of the pen, or move Sanchez or Stroman, maybe Gurriel can return a pitcher that is MLB ready and fits into our estimated window of contention.

[gunnar hendershow]

On 05/04/2019 at 10:49, Meacon said:

He’s 0-for-36 dating back to last year even. The Baltimore fans cheered when they pinch hit for him in the 9th yesterday.

I can't even get emotionally invested in having a reaction it's so sad at this point. Like you knew it was a bad deal and figured he'd age horribly and hit something like .220/25/70 for the last 4 years of the deal. That was a given. But he's turned into perhaps the single worst hitter in history. It's indescribable. I think the best thing for him is a tour of AAA to hit some lesser pitching and see if that can get him back in a groove. I'll be personally happy for him if he can become a subpar .220 hitter over the next few years instead of this admittedly sad spectacle to watch.

[Meacon Keaton]

32 minutes ago, damsher hatfield said:

I can't even get emotionally invested in having a reaction it's so sad at this point. Like you knew it was a bad deal and figured he'd age horribly and hit something like .220/25/70 for the last 4 years of the deal. That was a given. But he's turned into perhaps the single worst hitter in history. It's indescribable. I think the best thing for him is a tour of AAA to hit some lesser pitching and see if that can get him back in a groove. I'll be personally happy for him if he can become a subpar .220 hitter over the next few years instead of this admittedly sad spectacle to watch.

Buster Olney suggested on his podcast a trip to Single-A just to get him to feel better about himself for a couple weeks.

[Meacon Keaton]

Gary Sanchez just hit his third home run of the game in what looks like will end up being the third game of a sweep in Baltimore. Glad our bats finally woke up.

[Lowerdeck]

Boston won 1-0 today

Looks like the pitching may be finally waking up

[Gabriel]

13 minutes ago, Lowerdeck said:

Boston won 1-0 today

Looks like the pitching may be finally waking up

Well, put it the fuck back to sleep. They've got a series against the Jays coming up.

[DMN in the House]

On 04/04/2019 at 17:42, Meacon said:

Pay no attention to GhostMachine. He's been dead certain the Mets would suck all offseason despite them having some of the best pitching, including perhaps the best pitcher, in the league. 

Kershaw is just hurt, not dead.

On 05/04/2019 at 08:31, Meacon said:

It’s not just Toronto. Like 25 of the 30 teams are scoring 0,1, or 2 runs a game daily at the moment.

How hard can it be? The Dodgers lost like 5 20+ home run hitters and have scored the third most runs though 10 games since 1920.

[Meacon Keaton]

Yes, yes, you guys have been very good beating up on National league teams the last few years.

[DMN in the House]

2 hours ago, Meacon said:

Yes, yes, you guys have been very good beating up on National league teams the last few years.

As is tradition, we aren't 6 for 23 in World Series for nothin'.

[Meacon Keaton]

Jon Lester left the game after just two innings because he was running the bases because the National League is archaic and forces their pitchers to hit the ball like savages.