but the first two letters 'Ma'!

Fitting, since this is Mother's Day month after all.

A little surprising not to see Martin in the lineup tonight. He's been hitting very well, lately.

I heard ESPN injury analyst Stefania Bell on a baseball podcast at the weekend. She wasn't talking about Tulo but she said that on average hamstring injuries take 24 days on the DL.

Tulo went on the DL on April 22nd so if he has an average stay on the DL he would be back May 15th. Tulo has said he doubts he will be back this week leaving May 8th as the first possible date back.

Bell did add that one hamstring injury often leads to other hamstring injuries. The Jays will have to be careful with Tulo when he returns.

Maybe I should have used Ryan Goins for the image on this thread. He turns around a 96 MPH heater from Severino to move ahead of Joey Bats in the team home run race 2-1. I hate it when non-power hitters swing on 3-1 pitches but this one worked out nicely!

Man, what got into Goins? He has a pretty swing for as bad as he is. Pretty impressive swing on 3-0 for that 2 RBI sac fly. I've always thought he should be better. Decent eye, decent swing.

This is getting weird. 4 RBI's from Goins today. Somehow just doesn't seem right. Next thing you know our pitchers will be getting clutch hits...oops, already happened. Up is down, left is right, dogs and cats living together - total chaos!

In retrospect, it's unfortunate that the Jays didn't take Estrada up on his suggestion of a three-year contract (at a lower AAV). He's really good.

Jose answers the Goins challenge.

Really don't know what to say if they bring Biagini into a 7-1 game.

In a million years, I would never have given the green light to Ryan Goins on a 3-0 count.

Shows again why I could never be a major-league manager.

Estrada is someone I would not mind bringing back regardless of team direction. If the Jays want to win in 2018, then he obviously helps the rotation significantly. If they decide to take a step back, assuming they can't make up significant ground by July, then they could trade him for assets at the deadline and try to bring him back in the off-season (ala the Yankees with Chapman). Even a retooling/rebuilding team needs SP's. He'll be expensive, but his age makes him more of a shorter term signing (3 years). You could live with that even factoring some regression towards the end of that deal. The Jays don't have any SP's close to big league ready, and having more vets in the rotation is necessary over the next two years to bridge to them.

omg buck just said he NO LONGER BELIEVES IN WINS AND LOSSES AS A PITCHING STAT.

The 7-1 win ends, naturally, with Biagini warming full bore in the 'pen for lockdown purposes.

Biagini, of course, wasn't been warmed up in the bullpen for "lockdown" purposes.  He was being warmed up because there was, almost literally, nobody else.  That tends to happen when your starting pitcher lasts exactly 1 inning in the previous game.

There was only one other reliever who hadn't pitched yesterday:  Jason Grilli.  And Grilli is clearly being hoarded and protected this season, presumably for health-related reasons.  (He has pitched only 8.2 innings this season.)  If the Jays are going to have someone loosening up in the bullpen in the 9th inning, I think the 26-year-old arm of Joe Biagini, a multiple-inning pitcher, can handle it a lot better than the 40-yeadr-old arm of Jason Grilli, carefully protected set-up guy.

I suppose Howell might have been another option, since he pitched only a third of an inning yesterday.  But he has already been on the DL once this season.  There may be an unofficial guideline that he shouldn't throw on consecutive days if possible.

As the 8th and 9th innings progressed, it was actually quite interesting to see how Gibbons and Walker were desperately trying to avoid a situation where Biagini would have to throw serious pitches in the bullpen.  Barnes got through the 8th inning on 14 pitches, and Biagini was doing only a bit of idle stretching in the bullpen.  Then, as the 9th wore on, Barnes was visibly tiring and struggling, and the infielders kept botching their chances to end the inning, but Biagini was still limited to nothing more than casual warm-up tosses.  Aaron Judge kept fouling off endless pitches, and Biagini was still limited to casual tosses.  Next batter was Greg Bird, who fouled off endless pitches, and Barnes seemed to be struggling, but finally Barnes induced a little pop-fly to shallow left -- and Barney inexplicably dropped it.  Yet still Biagini was being limited to casual tossing.  One more batter, and Barnes induced an easy DP ball -- and the Jays couldn't turn the DP.  Only then, after all of that, was Biagini finally told to crank it up and get ready.  He might have thrown 4 or 5 full-bore pitches, at most, before the game finally ended.

Once again, ChinaFan kills it with the bullpen analysis.

Barnes was pitching effectively. If the concern was his pitch count, fine, but otherwise I don't see that he was in need of bailing out from Biagini with a 7-1 lead. Gibbons might have been feeling desperate, but that doesn't mean it was a desperate situation.

Actually, I think Grilli's problem comes from lack of use. So having no feel for his off-speed stuff, he's forced to overthrow his heater. Do we really care if Grilli hurt himself? He'd be off for while and then get a nice rehab to round up to form.

Biagini throws almost every day and warms up on his off days. 

Grilli has thrown on 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 days of rest. He blew a save in the first game of the year. He was pitching on 1 or 2 days of rest and his ERA was sitting at 3.86, which is fine for him. Then he gave 3 runs to Boston on 0 days of rest but striked out the side in St-Louis on 0 days of rest. The only pattern I see is that he gets benched an extra day or two if he allows any runs to score. Gave up a run on April 14, didn't pitch until April 19. Gave 3 runs on April 20, didn't pitch until April 24. Gave 2 runs on April 28, so he's not pitching until May 2 or later.

Just throw him out there every other day and let him find his stuff.

Kudos to Gibbons for giving the green light to Goins on 3-0.  To complete the G's for today, it was a gutsy move.  I don't think Goins will be seeing too many 3-0 meatball fastballs (even at 96) from now on.  Goins has been hitting the ball very well despite the plebeian slash line.  He's been hitting in awfully bad luck, with a .206 BABIP despite lots of line drives, no pop-ups, plenty of hard-hit balls (37%) and few soft ones (10%).  Everything else is working.  He's got a decent W/K and good pop so far. 

The 7 innings from Estrada and the 2 innings from Barnes took the heat off the bullpen, and with Stroman going tomorrow and the day off on Thursday, they are in decent shape. 

The bottom-dwellers in MLB are a pretty good bunch of ballclubs.  It wouldn't shock me if 3 of the 7 (Seattle and Texas are tied for the bottom in the ALW) make it to the playoffs...so the last will be first and the first will be last.

yeah Mike....and combine that with the fact that the teams at the top of the standings, especially in our division, don't exactly look like worldbeaters to me, and I think 5he standings will look much different at the end of the year.

not to mention that the red sox really aren't nearly as good as their projections said they were.

Travis Sawchik on Thor's injury.

Nicely done.  The Christy Mathewson quote on saving your stuff for "the clinches" contains timeless wisdom. 

If Barnes gives up a couple of runs, you can put in Grilli for a batter. Grilli's entrance into the game would give Biagini plenty of time to get "hot". But it's a minor quibble. It's not like it was Osuna up and warming.

TBH, there's a decent chance that Grilli is pulling a Francisco Cordero.

Yeah too bad about Thor, but there was always an air of inevitabilty about something like this happening to a guy torquing his body so extremely so often.

Just as interesting to me is the Mets as a team....it wasn't too long ago that jays fans were jealous of their great rebuild, and as of now it's kind of in shambles.

A team full of young position players and vet starters seems like a much safer approach than the opposite. The Mets are just a casualty of the risk associated with pitching, especially pitchers who throw extremely hard. Sanchez always scared me for the same reason. Luckily his injuries so far have been related to his finger/nail/blisters, but he's not immune to that fate either. Unfortunately with young pitching you just have to hold your breath and enjoy whatever they give you for as long as they are under team control.

That's why I was a big fan of Mark Buehrle. You could almost set your watch to his performance year to year.

Luckily his injuries so far have been related to his finger/nail/blisters

This conjures memories of Al Leiter. Leiter eventually largely overcame his blister issues. Not sure how. Maybe some fellow oldsters recall.

Didn't Magpie write a dissertation on Al Leiter? 

I'd really like to see the club work on a long-term contract for Stroman, and an extension for Estrada.  It's funny to think of the organization as being heavy on position players and light on pitchers, but that is where they are.

Different lineup today: Pillar 8, Bautista 9, Martin 2, Morales 0, Smoak 3, Pearce 7, Goins 6, Travis 4, Coghlan 5.   I wondered how the Blue Jays hitters have fared against Tanaka.  In a word, terrible.  Bautista has fought him to a draw.  Travis has done well. Kevin Pillar hasn't struck out in 19 PAs.  Everybody else has struggled, with Smoak and Goins being the most overmatched.  I guess Gibbons is riding hot hands more than going with BvP matchups.

I'm embarrassed to say that I had 'checked out' during the late Aughts and early teens; what happened with Francisco Cordero? Was he just "done" in 2012?

I think Gibbons tries to have at least 4 lefties in there. Smoak and Morales are standard features.

The Jays acquired Cordero just as he turned into a pumpkin.

I still remember him blowing a game in Oakland by giving up a grand slam. I think that was the last straw. They removed him from the closer's role and then Casey Janssen ran with it for a while.

Anthopoulos needed a late-inning reliever for 2012 and gave Cordero a $4.5m contract because he was a "proven" closer (37 saves in 2011, 2.45 ERA) and because there wasn't much left on the free agent market by that point. But there were already red flags in 2011, including a decline in pitch velocity, FIP over 4, and progressively declining K rate. The velo decline continued in 2012 (Cordero's age-37 season) and his performance basically cratered.

The Cordero debacle is mentioned in this Richard Griffin article a few years later:

Anthopoulos recalled the hard lessons learned in the off-season of 2012 when he missed out on a trade for a closer that he thought had been agreed upon, then went out and spent that leftover money before opening day, just because he had it in his pocket. Never again.

“We did it with Francisco Cordero (in ’12),” Anthopoulos said. “We had a trade for Koji Uehara and we were not planning on pursuing Cordero. I think he had turned down two-times ($8 million) from the Mets and Frank Francisco got two-times ($6 million). So (Cordero) is sitting out there at one-year ($4.5M) and we talked ourselves into it, because we knew that we had the money.”

http://tinyurl.com/k63s82s

Didn't Magpie write a dissertation on Al Leiter?

Several, and they're here somewhere in the archives. I was always defending him - he was made into the organization's whipping boy, mainly because Gord Ash needed to blame someone after the 1995 off-season went so badly, and much of the fan base picked up on it. Leiter's blisters were really only an issue for part of the 1990 season. It was the multiple surgeries that were a much bigger problem.

I assume this is the Latos whom Eephus has been warning us about?

That was a nice piece of hitting by Hicks.  If you can do the Yogi Berra thing (homers on the pitches in the eyes and from the shoetops) as a LH hitter, you are money in Yankee.

yeah this guy really didn't earn a look. we've got guys in AAA more deserving.

Yes. Three dingers and 3 doubles in three innings. Time to watch Orioles and Sox.

Latos is not a big league starter anymore. Better he get his bad outings out of the way now so they can hopefully move on to someone else. Not many options in AAA, but I think TJ House is worth a look. At least he comes with a bit of upside.

Have we ever had a minor league free agent signing that came up and actually contributed?

Jays might lose Latos when they send him to Buffalo.

Wonder if one of the relievers with options could be stretched out. Maybe Leone, Barnes or Tepera. Prevent the risk of losing starters through wavers.

Clippard deserves to be hit hard just for taking so damn long. Come on, man, pitch the damn ball.

It has been suggested that Tepera may get the May 9 start.

Grilli not foolin' nobody this year.

Latos and Grilli looking super toasty.

"Have we ever had a minor league free agent signing that came up and actually contributed?"

Colabello, Smoak, Barney, Carrera, Juan Francisco, Redmond......

some GMs have an eye for it.

Bolsinger is killing it in buffalo and projects best of all our extra sp. Not really sure why he wasn't the first choice for #6sp.

Barney was traded for, but fair point otherwise.

With the amount of long relief innings Tepera works anyway, they might as well start him. House and Bolsinger would have been my choices ahead of Latos and Lawrence. Not sure what the Jays were expecting with the latter two starting big league games in 2017.

Pearce 4-4 with 2 HR's. If he's climbing out of his funk, then put him in the lineup everyday, Gibby.

Thanks for the answers. After I asked, Scott Downs popped into my head.

I'm not sure that Bolsinger and House would do materially better than Lawrence. However, I think it was obvious watching Latos in spring training that he's toast. He didn't pass the eye test. He got a try because they spent $1m on him. Not the end of the world if they admit their mistake and move on.

I think Grilli has something left, though he should probably be treated as a ROOGY at this point. Latos however looks finished, we were lucky to get a good start of him last week.

I never expected to win that game, so I'm not too bummed about it. I'm pretty impressed with what the offense did vs Tanaka, particularly given the absence of Donaldson and Tulo. Hopefully we can take the series tomorrow.

yeah funny enough i wasn't upset at all. kind of happy they showed comeback in them all game. and despite the scoreline there seemed to be a handful of key borderline/bad strike calls that screwed us in potentially key situations.

I don't know why anyone likes Lawrence, TBH.   Can someone more statistically enlightened help me out?  Great story, but there are a lot of better pitchers in Buffalo IMO

Not really sure why he wasn't the first choice for #6sp.

Starters were needed for the Angels series, and the Angels are heavily right-handed. So 2 RHSP were called up.

Also, don't forget that Latos would have had an opt-out, so if they thought he was throwing well enough to warrant a look, that makes sense. The opt-out also makes him more discardable if you figure you only need him for a start or two, since he could have been gone anyway.

fwiw bolsinger is RH.

Latos and Grilli looking super toasty.

John Lott, now at The Athletic, had a piece on Grilli's troubles the other day. At the moment, Grilli's slider is a piece of crap. He's either hanging it or missing the strike zone. It sure ain't fooling anyone. And this kind of news doesn't stay secret - all the hitting coaches and most of the players can call up his recent outings and look at the video. Everyone knows they can either sit on Grilli's fastball or just wait for the hanging breaking ball.

So Castro doubled on the first pitch he saw - a hanging slider. Judge took one for a ball and homered on the other.

Well, it happens and I expect Grilli will find his feel for the pitch again, probably sooner than later. The problem is, he needs to pitch to find it. But without it, he's pretty much unplayable.

Fangraphs also doesn't show a dip this year in Grilli's FB velocity so maybe there is hope. This actually started near the end of last season though (not to this extent obviously) so I think there is reason to worry beyond the normal "he needs to pitch his way out of it". I agree that if the situation is to be salvaged that he needs to pitch. He should be relegated to mop up duty for a while though. No complaints on when Gibbons used him tonight.

It's the same thing I've been saying on Grilli, plus he went through the same troubles last year.

Latos is very hittable but his delivery didn't look the same to me last night.
Except for a few pitches, he didn't look like he was hiding the ball.
And he wasn't locating at all.

If they want to try someone else, besides Lawrence, they'll likely have to DFA him.

It looks like Gibbons has settled on Joe Smith as his 8th inning reliever for the time being. Over his career, Smith has been fine against lefties and against righties and actually performed well in high-leverage situations. He had a rough year last year with hard-hit balls and consequent home runs as the main culprit.  He seems to be back this year, and it's reasonable to make him an 8th inning man (with Biagini doing higher leverage 6th and 7th inning work). 

Grilli is not really a great 8th inning man at this point in his career, even if he has his slider.  He still is very vulnerable to decent LHHs.  The fly ball to deep right field from a LH hitter that might or might not leave the yard was a regular feature last year. If Smith cannot sustain it, I'd much rather see Biagini than Grilli in the 8th inning high leverage role. 

Yeah like Scottt said - grilli was kinda bad last year, too. Even in his time with the Jays, he had a bit of a lucky hot streak to start after the trade but then started giving up gopher balls all over the place. His last month or two last year were just as bad as this year has been. The guy is 40yrs old after all.

There's a chance he can get it back but imo he should be fighting for a spot on the roster. Maybe we lose him if we send him down but really he should be in AAA trying to earn a callup.

The fact that we started the year with him as our #2 high leverage guy was just a bit of insanity, as far as I'm concerned.

You know what you don't hear any more (or maybe it's just me)? Talk of eventually making Osuna a starter. Even with only 3 starters guaranteed to return next year.

That's only because i'm biting my tongue. Osuna should be starting.

I feel like Osuna needs to move his fastball a little bit more to start - run, sink, cut, whatever - just seems a bit flat to survive 2-3 turns through the batting order.

Still, if we're selling in July, we should consider stretching him out for the second half of the year.

it's got enough movement that pitch f/x classifies it as 3 different pitches - 4seamer, sinker, cutter.

Osuna does not want to start.

Grilli was kinda bad last year, too. Even in his time with the Jays, he had a bit of a lucky hot streak to start after the trade but then started giving up gopher balls all over the place.

I dunno. After joining the Jays, Grilli was really good for three months and really bad for one. In his first 33 games as a Jay, he went 4-1, 1.42 - he allowed 3 HRs in that time. But over the final month (actually August 30 forward), he allowed 12 ER in 10.1 IP, and 5 HRs. He gave up 6 ER and 3 HR in the final week of the season.

I think he just ran out of gas. It can't be all that common to post a career high in appearances at age 39, and Grilli hadn't pitched as many innings as he did last year since 2008.

Grilli threw 59 innings last year.  He may indeed be tiring as he gets older (can't say I blame him!) and be good for 45 innings a year. That's kind of spare for an 8th inning guy, particularly one who has been terrible for the first 9 innings of 2017.  If you have him in an optional role, you can get him steady work every 3 or 4 games and end up maybe at 45-48 innings.  You hopefully will need the 8th inning guy a little more often.  You don't need him to be Dellin Betances throwing 80-90 innings, but 60 innings is pretty much a minimum.

There's at least a good argument that he should be used in a strict ROOGY role going forward even if he gets his slider back. LHH destroy him.

2yrs vRHH: 42.2ip, 3.80era, 3.43fip, 3.48xfip
2yrs vLHH: 25.0ip, 6.85era, 7.54fip, 5.51xfip

3yrs vRHH: 61.2ip, 3.94era, 3.29fip, 3.48xfip
3yrs vLHH: 39.2ip, 4.76era, 5.13fip, 4.45xfip

In other news, Gibbons is going with the same top 6 of the lineup against Sabathia today- Pillar, Bautista, Martin, Morales, Smoak, Pearce...I'd like to see Travis back up near the top of the order, Carrera in LF and Pearce at first base against left-handed pitching.  As it stands, it's a very slow, right-handed line-up and not great defensively. 

If Bautista, Travis, and Pearce keep warming up, Morales might start getting a bit more heat.

I don't think Morales and Smoak have to play every day.  A day off here and there for Morales is a good thing.  The argument that Smoak at first base and Pearce in left-field is better than Pearce at first base and Carrera in left-field against a LHP is very weak from a number of perspectives.

Question: if the Jays bring up House for a couple of starts, does he need to clear waivers to be sent back down if he remains on 40 man. He has no remaining options but is on a minor league deal. Is there any provision for emergency call up and return due to injury. If he needs to be waived to be returned to Buffalo, I can't see him being brought up now as that move would have to be saved for later in the season when he would be staying up. Despite the difficulty in knowing what to do for upcoming major league starts, losing another depth piece this early could have more far reaching and negative affects. Anyone care to clarify or comment?

Latos does not deserve more starts, but may get them simply because of the depth bind in which the Jays find themselves.

So far this year, Smoak has an OPS of 0.685 against righties and 1.057 against lefties.
Carrera has only 5 plate appearances against lefties so far. There's really no rush to give him more if Pearce is heating up.

Haven't been following TOO closely, just some observations/surprises:
-Pillar is on fire. 500 SLG - more than Travis' OPS! If you had told me that the 3/4 top batters by OPS after one month would be Pillar, Smoak and Carrera.. Well, yeah, I would have expected a 9-18 record.. (Pythagoras says 11-16). But I would have expected Bautista/Tulo/Morales/Pearce/Travis to all have been injured. Tulo, sure.. But, they all seem to have fallen off a cliff together. Maybe they can work they way back together.

-Would have NEVER believed that Bautista's SLG after a non-injury month (100+ PA) would be 2nd lowest among regulars only to Devon Travis - and under 300!! And fighting game-to-game with Ryan Goins for who is the better hitter.

-SP doing great/ok, other than Happ (injured), and Latos, who, in my mind, is just waiting for a ticket to arrive for the DFA-train.. Estrada is a stud this year! Lawrence's FIP isn't much better than Latos, so maybe they'll try 'em again a few more times to see what sticks. RA Dickey's ERA+ of 110 would look amazing in the 5th slot right now.. (and Thole can't have been any worse than Salty).

-RP hopefully Osuna keeps rounding into form (FIP seems to think he'll be fine). Biagini has been amazing (Shapiro/Atkins rule 5, yes?). Without him, probably in an even bigger world of hurt.
-Super small SS, but the resurgence of Loup so far - 10 IP, 497 ERA+ has surprised. I figured he was done. Maybe he can offset the decline of Grilli? Because cheese is all the Griller seems to have left..

Just an aside - Jonathan Holder seems like a perfect name for a setup man :-)

Pearce with another bomb. Good to see.

Pearce has had long stretchers of elite offensive production in the past. In my view, he's the second best hitter on the team after Donaldson.

If Pearce is healthy and plays everyday, I agree he's going to be one of the best hitters on the team. Unfortunately he started the season on a horrible slump so he may share playing time for a little while with Zeke and Smoak, but hopefully he's playing everyday again soon enough. His April was horrendous either way. Not even bad luck, just bad. Good to see him coming around.

That was a good take by Pillar on strike 3- 5" inches from the edge (outside) according to the strike zone monitor.  A hitter has to have faith that the umpire is going to call that pitch a ball, or he's lost.

That was a good take by Pillar on strike 3- 5" inches from the edge

Hey umpie, I spent the off-season learning that that pitch isn't a strike. What did you do?

Stroman out to bring him back on short rest on Sunday?

I can't believe Sabathia is still out there.

That is an interesting thought Scott. Could be.

On the Yankee broadcast, they are saying that Stroman was removed because of discomfort under the arm. As if we needed a reason to worry.

Casey Lawrence may get another opportunity as he pitched well against Rochester tonight,

Biagini for 2.1, Smith for 1, Osuna for 1? 

To pick on every stupid thing Buck Martinez says would be pointless. Who has that kind of time? But this was a doozy. After Brett Gardner complained to the umpire about a called strike three that was clearly outside, Buck's response to Shulman's remark that the pitch was off the plate: "I like it. That would be the purest way to speed up the game. Have the umpires call more strikes".

Yes, purity means entirely ignoring the published strike zone and just making shit up.

this was a doozy...."I like it. That would be the purest way to speed up the game. Have the umpires call more strikes."

And Dan Shulman reacted the same way, (approximately): "It would be tough for hitters to start swinging at pitches they've been taught to ignore their whole careers."

The Yankee broadcast had repeated close-ups of the recycling bin that Gardner sledge-hammered to death afterwards.  Bill DiBiasio, were you watching it?  NYC has got to have some kind of law against this.  Selling a large soda pop is nothing compared with destruction of a recycling bin. 

How many jam-shots for the Yankees tonight?

Two separate four run leads with Stroman on the mound. That's one they should get.

At least there were positives. Pearce and Bautista both look good. Osuna was dominant in both appearances. Travis hit the ball hard all series. Pillar continues to show he might have turned a corner at the plate. But there's no way to spin 9-19, it ain't good.

now that was an excruciating loss.

Six runs ought to be enough to win (especially with Stroman on the hill) but tough to win many games when you go scoreless over the last 7 frames. I am sure this is just confirmation bias in action, but seems the Jays have had a number of these outings over the last few years, putting up all their runs in the first or second innings and then slowly bleeding out as the opposition chips away over the course of the game.

They left a lot of runners on base after the first 3 innings.

Pillar had a 3-0 count and Buck said he didn't have the green light. Then Pillar swung and missed on a high ball.
He ended up walking anyway but that was interesting.

The strike zone was both liberal and conservative. It was all over the place. The Yankees were very upset about it. The Jays have seen so much bad umpiring behind the plate this year, they just shrugged it off.

If it is an injury, then Gibbons new about it before hand. Stroman was getting ready for the 4th. Stroman had problems from the first pitch.

Let's not forget that Buck wrote a book on changing the game and it was mostly a collection of anecdotes.

Jays have played a lot of looooong games this year. Extra inning games, and even non-extra innng games that go 3 1/2 hours or more. And they've lost almost all of those. It would be much easier to watch if at least they were quicker.

The Yankees seem young and exciting & could be in for a long run - Donaldson & Estrada would look good on this team come July. Hope the Jays don't let intra-division nonsense prevent them from the best value.

The Yankees definitely look good long-term, and even short-term look solid. The Red Sox have a good core but Dombrowski (as per usual with him) sold a lot of the future for the present. Cashman built the Yankees the way I hope Shapiro and Atkins build the Jays. Develop talent, don't trade prospects on a whim, try to remain competitive short-term, and don't get fooled by mediocrity (ex. they traded Chapman when they were 4.5 games out of the 2nd WC).

If the Jays can't make a huge run between now and July, then they need to start following that model. I would actually hate to see Estrada pitch somewhere else (he might be my favorite Jay to watch right now), but trading him in July and then trying to re-sign him in the winter when the team could try to retool for 2018 seems like a logical idea. Liriano, Bautista (10/5 rights aside), and Smith should have suitors as well.

I think the offense right now looks like it might be correcting itself a bit, but if Sanchez, Happ, and now possibly Stroman are hurt, then it's not looking good.

Biagini on pace to throw 105 innings.

I daresay the yanks' youth via a quick selloff looks more impressive than the red sox great rebuild.

That being said, Judge may just be Josh Phelps.

Judge may be Josh Phelps, but he can play right field competently so he's a very good bet to be a fine player for a few years anyway.  And Greg Bird and Gary Sanchez have not yet been heard from...

Donaldson & Estrada would look good on this team come July.

A flyball pitcher like Estrada might not be the greatest fit for Yankee Stadium. Don't know for sure if that's an overblown concern or if the mixture of Estrada's pronounced flyballness and the ridiculous right field fence in NY give that sentiment some teeth.

true, bird and sanchez haven't been heard from, but these guys won't be sounding like this for very long:

Hicks 189wrc+
Castro 167
Holliday 156
Headley 153
Gardner 124
Romine 122
Ellsbury 114
Torreyes 99

I know it's easy to get wowed by kids, but that's far from the only story going on in the Yanks' start. Their vets have been unsustainably good as well.

The Jays have just claimed Neil Ramirez off waivers from the Giants.

He'a a reliever with no option years so he will be on the 25 man for now. Looks like one of the present relievers is going to start, temporarily at least.

When Tulo and JD return, jays will have to make some moves..
in order to avoid designating Coghlan, Goins or both , I can see Travis being optioned to Buffalo for a spell.

Incidentally armpit pain is a symptom of a lat injury.  When Syndegaard injured his lat, he reached for his armpit.  Blech.

Too many bad things happening for the Jays. Injuries and losing a lot of games by 1 or 2 runs.

Anyone think Shane Dawson might find his way to TO before the end of the season? His stats are skewed by a horrific first start, but the last 3 have been excellent. Sometimes, a soft tossing but crafty lefty can more easily succeed at this kind of jump than a fire baller. I am not predicting such a move, but if injuries continue to mount and others fail, it is not out of the question imo.

"....Looks like one of the present relievers is going to start, temporarily at least...."

With 41 pitches last night, Biagini is the most stretched-out of the relievers.  He could potentially go to 50 or 60 pitches in his next appearance if he is given a spot start.  Could be more than a spot start if Stroman is injured and Latos has another bad start.  The Jays might give preference to Lawrence and T.J. House for the upcoming starts if they decide to dump Latos, but they're probably considering Biagini at this point too, especially if three-fifths of their regular starters are injured. 

And you're right, the Jays knew that Neil Ramirez was out of options when they acquired him, so they must have had some plan to make room for him on the roster.  Could be Biagini getting a promotion to the rotation.

Ramirez is just 27, and was a compensation pick at the end of the 1st round 10 years ago. Was outstanding in his first big league season, 2014, with an ERA of 1.44, WHIP of 1.053, 10.9 K/9 and only 6 H/9. He threw very hard and had good off speed pitches as well, and looked like a future closer. 2015 saw his numbers start to deteriorate, as he had some injury problems, lost his velocity, and only threw 14 innings, then 2016 saw him claimed on waivers twice, pitching for 3 teams, and putting up some generally bad numbers. He seemed to right the ship somewhat in AAA, and the Giants picked him up in the offseason, but he has been terrible, with an ERA of 13.06, a WHIP just under 2.00 and 16 hits allowed in 10 1/3 IP. Interestingly, he has managed to strike out 18 batters over that span, so perhaps the stuff is there. Odd to see a pitcher with that high a strikeout rate surrender so many hits, so maybe there was an element of bad luck in his performance. If you're an proponent of FIP, he was at 3.53 this year on that metric.

Further thoughts on Biagini:  I've always thought he was too valuable to remove from the bullpen, and maybe he still is.  But if the Jays lose three starters, of course they have to consider him for the rotation, especially since none of the official "6th starters" (Latos, Lawrence) has made a strong impression so far.  Biagini himself would like the opportunity, for what that's worth.

As for the bullpen: with Osuna looking stronger, with reasonably good performances so far from Joe Smith, Loup, Tepera and Leone, and with a host of other potential bullpen options (including Ramirez and several of the Buffalo relievers), maybe they can survive without Biagini.  When you have a good pitcher available and your rotation is in trouble, you have to put him where the need is greatest.

I have no hope for Latos but have not given up on Lawrence. It is hard to move back and forth from Buffalo to TO and from starting to relieving. I think what he needs is 5-7 solid starts in Buffalo and then maybe another look.

yeah I have no problem giving Biagini a shot in the rotation if we're down this many arms. Maybe he can make it work, and he can be stretched out quickly.

Giving Biagini a shot in the rotation right now would be a good idea. Yes he has been good in the pen, but at the end of the day the rotation is in greater danger with 2-3 injuries already. If they think he has even the faintest chance of being a solid SP, then now is the time to go for it. Of course they would then run the risk of having to move him back to the pen later once everyone presumably comes back, but deal with that when the time comes. The Jays have nothing in the minors as far as 2017-2018 rotation options. Biagini may not be the answer, but only one way to find out. Plus, Gibbons seems to treat SP's very well (low pitch counts) but runs his relievers to the ground. Biagini's arm might be safer in Gibby's rotation.

As far as Ramirez, I think this FO's stance on relievers is pretty solid. They have taken chances on relievers with bad numbers overall but good K rates (Benoit, Grilli, etc), and it has worked. If he's striking out guys at a high rate, which he is, then he might be fixable.

Giving Biagini a start or two can't hurt at this point. 9-19 is close to the 12-24 that 1989 started with but I doubt we'll see Gibby fired and Cito brought in (again). Nor do I expect the rest of the division to be crap.

Can the Jays make it back? Of course it is possible. However, at this stage realistically the Jays need to start planning for 2018 and beyond. A key piece is the rotation as Estrada and Liriano are free agents after this year, Happ after 2018. Those are 3 very big holes to fill. If Biagini can fill one that'd be great.

The Red Sox have just written off Wright for the year. Nobody has a claim on the division just yet.

John Lott has a wonderful piece in today's Athletic (behind paywall) on Josh Donaldson and "the face of the game".  I highly recommend The Athletic- there is something well worth reading there almost every day. 

Just a reminder.  Fangraphs has the Jays' odds of making the playoffs at 10-11% depending on whether one uses "season-to-date stats" or "projection mode".  The team's Pythagorean record even with all the injuries is 12-16. 

Davidi wrote a piece about the Yankees retooling/rebuilding, including some great quotes from Cashman. If he is planting the seeds for the Jays following that same formula, then that's good news. Get the fan base warmed up to the idea since this city seems to put a lot of importance on optics.

""The Red Sox have just written off Wright for the year. Nobody has a claim on the division just yet."

while both these sentences are true, i'm not sure how they're related. ;)

Wright's great ~10 starts or so to start last year seem like the outlier for a career minor leaguer.

Don't worry, SK, Shapiro Inc is salivating at the thought of beginning their epic exciting rebuild. It's coming.

Davidi wrote a piece about the Yankees retooling/rebuilding, including some great quotes from Cashman. If he is planting the seeds for the Jays following that same formula, then that's good news. Get the fan base warmed up to the idea since this city seems to put a lot of importance on optics.

I wonder if this is Shi acting on his own or if he got the *wink wink nudge nudge* from someone.

I still think the team has a decent chance. Perhaps our competition is better than in 89, but the addition of the two wildcards pretty much cancels that out.

Our play of late, sans MVP (Donaldson), solid SS (Tulo), and two upper tier starters (Happ & Sanchez) has been pretty solid considering. They look like a team that could go on a nice run when those players come back.

Of course, if the injury bug keeps biting then we won't have much of a shot.

Having seen the inner workings of a major media conglomerate (not Rogers), there will be no unvetted (from a marketing message perspective) content that is put to print by that conglomerates' employees.

Including twitter, Nigel?

They will absolutely 100% have someone reading the twitter accounts of each of their print/tv/radio employees - likely in near real time. However, twitter content usually gets produced in a manner that does not allow pre-vetting. Twitter content that is determined to be inconsistent with the media conglomerate's marketing messages will produce interesting internal discussions:)

Of course, the far more interesting question is what level of vetting actually occurs. I will use a simple, silly, example just to illustrate the point. Suppose that Morales continues to hit as poorly as he has to date for the full year. At the end of the year there are a myriad of ways in which that story could be reported upon:

- Morales hit poorly this year but will bounce back
- Morales hit poorly this year
- Morales hit poorly this year and his signing just didn't work out as planned
- Morales hit poorly this year and it was a bad idea on management's part from the beginning
- Morales hit poorly this year and it was a bad idea on management's part that stemmed from Rogers not providing the front office with the cash resources to have a better plan

It is easy to see that first two stories are fine. The third likely is. Now the rubber hits the road. The fourth may or may not fly and the fifth is obviously off the table. There are huge shades of grey here and the sensitivity of the issue will change where the vetting goes. The Jays reporters who work for Rogers are in a tough spot.

Mat Latos was just Designated off the 40-man to make room for Cesar Valdez, claimed from Oakland and going to AAA.

So... who is in the rotation now?

Mat Latos designated and Cesar Valdez claimed. The latter going to Buffalo so likely a pitcher coming up to pitch in the near future.

Biagini to start Sunday. Minor leaguer to start Tuesday. Stroman on track to start Monday.

Ramirez is coming up.

Cesar Valdez has an interesting career - called up at 25 in 2010 got 9 games including 2 starts 56 ERA+ and forgotten. Then this year at 32 gets called up again, 4 games 1 start 42 ERA+. 2 AAA starts for Oakland this year, 10 IP 8 H 0 BB 12 SO which looks really good. For Houston in AAA last year (PCL) he went 12-1 in 30 games 18 starts, 138 1/3 IP 143 H 13 BB 114 K's. You gotta give a guy who does that in the PCL a shot in AAA at the very least. Still, no more than a 6th starter at best.

Bolsinger scratched from his start tonight. House is starting instead.

Bolsinger was always the better bet to start instead of Latos...though of course Bolsinger might suck just as bad in the end.

Ramirez is probably just here to help cover in pen for next 3 days and will be DFA Tuesday if Bolsinger coming up. There are still roster problems approaching which could mean Happ to 60 day DL and/or Travis optioned to Bisons.

I don't see room on the 40 for Bolsinger.

The outfield is ... interesting. We got Ceciliani, 26, with an OPS of .391 in Buffalo, Pompey on the 60DL and Alford and Ramirez in AA not ready for prime time just yet. Plus Gurriel who could play there but not  quite ready either.

If I needed an outfielder, I'd give Smith a look before Ceciliani even though he's not on the 40 either.

I guess Coghlan gets DFA as soon as Tulo or Donaldson is ready.

 The Red Sox have just written off Wright for the year. Nobody has a claim on the division just yet.

while both these sentences are true, i'm not sure how they're related. ;)

Knuckleballers can go on those unhitable streaks at any time.
Wright as an ERA of 8.25, but Kyle Kendrick--his replacement--has an ERA of 13.50.

I would option Travis before designating Coghlan at this point. Thinking further ahead, Coghlan might be needed to play 3b if JD is moved in July. As Travis has been scuffling anyway, a little time in AAA won't hurt him. I believe he has all 3 option years remaining.

Goins has to be the one to go next time, imo. He's worse than ever.

Disagree. I don't think Goins should or will go.

Even with 2 HR and 9 RBI, Goins has been worth -0.2 WAR whereas Barney has been worth 0.5 WAR.

Gogo is like the team mascot.

I think Goins is a better use of a roster spot than Coughlan. Coughlan doesn't seem to be much of a fielder. Also, Goins has been hitting well enough in my books, at least for him. If his .209 BABIP regresses to his .273 career mark he'll look a lot like the just moderately below average hitter we thought he might be in 2015.

Jonah Kerri just showed analytics on the pre game show that portray Travis as the worst hitter so far this year in the AL. So why would we not want to preserve assets and sent him to Buffalo for awhile.

If JD gets traded, it doesn't matter whatsoever who plays 3B.  Coghlan is my guess to be cut before Goins ... the org obviously likes the guy, and there are a variety of reasons beyond WAR to understand the logic.