Thanks Gerry. We win the series 3-1. If I jinx it I don't care.

Will the Jays face Shohei Otani in this series?

It's my understanding that the Angels plan to use Ohtani as their Sunday starter, as if it's 1950 or something. So we should see him. Pitching once a week is apparently how he was used in Japan, and they will be asking other things of him.

The quad injury might not be the worst thing for Springer and the Jays. The extra time on the sidelines might give his oblique a better chance to heal completely. And a slightly shortened season might result in less overall wear and tear on the player.

Vlad Jr. has risen.

Ron Kulpa blows a call in the bottom of the ninth, hands the Mets a victory. The Mets' broadcast crew was unanimous that the batter should be called out, but no.

It had shades of Joey Cora. Yes, I'm still bitter about his elbow thrust in the 93 ALCS.

The Angels' RH batters are 5-7, with 4 doubles. Their LH batters are 0-4. Go figure. (Although that Ohtani lineout was pretty scary...)

I said it after his last start, but I'll say it again: nothing about Stripling inspires even the least bit of confidence.

I've really liked his changeup so far. I can't say the same for any other pitch, of course...

He actually looked pretty good in that inning. Hitting his spots mixing up his pitches. Now if you could do it for more than one inning we might have something.

Good job by Stripling to retire Trout and Rendon in the third and ultimately get out of the inning unscathed. Let’s see if he can go five innings with no further damage.

Stripling has the makings of a "smart pitcher who knows how to pitch", but his stuff is several levels below his smarts. He doesn't look as cooked as other members of this current rotation though...

Actually I’m not arguing Stripling looks cooked at all. He knows what he’s doing out there and the results won’t ever be sexy, but as a reliable fifth starter/swing man he’s good.

I was worried the park would give up too many cheap home runs. So far that doesn't appear to be the case.

Changes his name to Mea Kulpa.

Apparently it depends on the wind. Tonight the wind is blowing in.

Important inning for Stripling here.

Mike Trout is unfair.

Upper echelon Hall of Famer.

The innermost circle of inner-circles.

I think Dante wrote about all that.

Dante Bichette?

I have no faith in Roark or Stripling, I would rather bet on younger guys like Thorton, Kay, or Hatch when healthy. Heck I even like Zeuch better and I think he’s a reliever.

The innermost circle of inner-circles.

Your regular Hall of Famer gets a plaque. Guys like Trout get statues. Or they ought to...

Vladdy does not belong in the 5th spot.

I'm all for giving Kay, Thornton and Hatch more run, but no I can't get behind starting Zeuch over anyone but Roark. Pitchers who don't strike anyone out does not work with this infield defense. If we had great defense maybe, but this group does not qualify.

Springer CF
Biggio 3B
Bichette SS
Guerrero Jr. 1B
Hernandez LF/RF
Gurriel Jr. LF/RF
Semien 2B
Tellez DH
Kirk C

Fixed the lineup (for next week).

Teams know they can run on Romano.

Thornton should definitely be starting. Not sure why he's being used as a 1+ inning reliever. Maybe that ends up being his best role long-term, but the team is starting Roark, Stripling, and Zeuch right now. Thornton is likely better than at least 2 of them, if not all of them depending on how you view Stripling. It doesn't appear they are even trying to stretch him out either since they went for what looks like an extended Romano appearance rather than letting Thornton finish 2 innings. Kay would be another more logical SP option right now.

At least Ray figures to bump someone next week, though since he has options left it will probably be Zeuch instead of Roark.

In days of yore, you would probably bring in a LH to face Ohtani. You can't do that now - it means leaving the poor sucker in to face Trout and Rendon as well. You needed the LH reliever to start this inning.

Strategy! It's evolving!

Hey, maybe Jansen should have bunted the runner over (ducks...)

Well, next time maybe just pinch-hit for the guy.

Grichuk's contract is a steal!

You sure, Charlie? I think he should have left Davis in to play CF. Kirk would replace Grichuk in the 7 hole. Davis then opens the bottom of the 10th on second base. Montoyo's playing this as if it's going to go two or three more innings. Which it might, but...

Kirk pinch running is amazing.

The Jays starters are going to have to start pitching better and/or going deeper into games, or Phelps/Romano/Merryweather are going to break down or burn out (as Giles did last season). The team is going to have to pace their best relievers so that they’re effective throughout the season and postseason.

That's why Charlie should have done that double switch between innings. Kirk had to come in to play defense in the top of the inning, but you don't want him as your baserunner in the bottom half. And it's the top of the order coming up anyway.

You can’t reasonably expect the non Ryu starters to pitch any better than they have. The reality is that they aren’t very good and they’ve pitched reasonably well (ion the whole). What they need is some multiple inning relievers or tandem starters.

What they need is for the offense to figure out which end of the bat to use.

Bichette, Hernandez, Gurriel and Tellez have all managed to avoid drawing a walk so far. That's not the approach I enjoy watching.

Basically, what Nigel and Waveburner said. The team has allowed fewer than 4 runs per game, which is some kind of wonderful. Alas, they're also scoring less than 4 runs per game, which is some kind of horrible. Odds are, neither of these outcomes will go on too much longer.

I agree with Magpie. I thought Montoyo managed that ninth/tenth inning situation quite poorly.

He inserted Davis for limited benefit (albeit for Tellez, a particularly slow runner), but Grichuk was 7 spots away from coming to bat and instead of doing the double-switch, Montoyo removed Davis and inserted Kirk, which led to Kirk on second base in the bottom of the next inning. I thought that was, essentially, a tailor-made situation for a double-switch. I wasn't impressed with Montoyo (and the coaching staff) there.

Ultimately, none of it mattered, but it easily could have.

Hard to win behind Stripling. 4 runs in 5 innings is good for a 7.4 ERA.
For some reason, they haven't announced Zeuch as the starter and they've burnt Thornton.
Milone isn't a great fit against this team.
Also, Othani has a blister and won't pitch on Sunday.

The Angels won because Suzuki layed out a bunt.
Hopefully, that's a learning lesson.
You can play for one run in late innings.

Also, don't walk a hitter because you think he might bunt.
Soon, everybody will start showing bunt if you do that.
Joe Mad wasn't going to bunt for one run in extra-innings, but bunting for 2 runs with the 9th hitter is a no brainer.

Does the pinch runner matter in extra-innings?
The guy is already in scoring position and stealing 3rd is way more risky than bunting.
I perfectly understand why they wanted to give Tellez an AB after benching him 2 days in a row.

Last nights loss was a bad one for the Jays, for these reasons:

- they used all their best bullpen arms in a loss, including Merryweather for two innings

- They had a runner on second base with no outs in the 7th, 10th and 11th. The runner never moved off second

- Jonathan Davis coming in and getting picked off


That was a winnable game and they never came close to winning it.

Down 4 key pitchers and a star CF, I’m not surprised their record is iffy. I’d be happy if they got through month 1 with a 500 record. But it won’t happen without some plate discipline. Most of the lineup is looking downright poor right now, flailing away at pitchers’ pitches. Time to turn their strength...into a strength.

Ohtani has a blister and won't start this weekend. Jose Quintana and Alex Cobb will start Saturday and Sunday.

I agree with Magpie. I thought Montoyo managed that ninth/tenth inning situation quite poorly.

Yep, that was a pretty obvious double-switch. Visions of Cito there.

I think we might see a spot starter, likely Anthony Kay, called up for tonight with Zeuch moving to the long man role. Neither Milone or Thornton would be available for multiple innings tonight, so I think an extra arm is coming up regardless.

Bichette, Hernandez, Gurriel and Tellez have all managed to avoid drawing a walk so far. That's not the approach I enjoy watching.

In fairness, the four of them combined will probably not draw 125 walks this season.

"I agree with Magpie. I thought Montoyo managed that ninth/tenth inning situation quite poorly."

Yes. They could have double switched but I prefer not pinch running at all for Tellez there. Runner on 1st and 2 outs is not a situation I think calls for pinch running in general when you have a short bench. I do think it's time to move Vlad to top-3 in the order somewhere. He is the hitter I most want to come up and I don't believe this is some little streak which means he should not be hitting 5th. When Springer is back, I'd like something like Springer, Bo, Vlad, Teoscar, Biggio, Gurriel, Grichuk, Tellez, Jansen.

Springer, Bo, Vlad, Teoscar, Biggio, Gurriel, Grichuk, Tellez, Jansen

A lot of ground balls will be going through the right side though the four outfielders should cut down on doubles.

I think there's a good argument that Montoyo should have double switched. But unlike some, I really like the choice to bring in Davis to pinch run. To me it seems like an ideal place to attempt a steal. If he steals the complexion of the game changes completely. If he's caught -- oh well -- with two outs and a guy on first it's not a high percentage chance he scores anyway. IMO getting picked off was the problem -- not the choice to pinch run.

Something I liked was seeing Bo on the sidelines after failing to hit a pitch he knew he should've drove out of the park. He was furious and was about to destroy the water bottles but pulled back and didn't do it. You could see he wanted to break stuff but knew not to. Seeing the passion but also the control to not hurt himself by doing something stupid was nice. Back in the old days I remember many stars destroyed everything in the dugout when raging away. I'm sure many still do. But seeing a young star having the presence of mind to not do that stupidity was nice, as was that he was mad at himself over not coming through too.

NYY and Cleveland are very stingy at giving up runs. SSS so lets wait 2 months.

The lineup leans hard to the right and has a number of streaky hitters with contact issues (when they’re going badly). The entire current OF is exhibit A in this regard. I think this team is going to have stretches where it looks like this (and the reverse). It also may struggle against bullpens filled with RH high leverage relievers. Time will tell, but this may be an inefficient offensive team from a run distribution perspective.

"You can't reasonably expect the non Ryu starters to pitch any better than they have"

Here are the non-Ryu starting pitching performances of 2021:

April 3: Stripling 3.1 7 3 3 2 5
April 4: Zeuch 4.0 3 0 0 1 1
April 5: Matz 6.1 2 1 1 1 9
April 6: Roark 3 6 5 5 0 2
April 8: Stripling 5 6 4 4 1 5

In these starts, the SPs have averaged 4.1 IP per start with a 5.39 ERA against one good team and two mediocre ones. Notwithstanding Matz's very good start on April 4 and Zeuch's 4 innings, I think the Jays would hope for a bit more from their #2-5 starters, both in terms of pitching deeper into games and in terms of performance. I recognize, though, that the team is having to go down the depth chart because two of their best five arms (probably Ryu, Pearson, Ray, Matz, Stripling) are unavailable.

As an addition to John Northey's comment on Bo Bichette, I saw an interview today with Hazel Mae and Vlad. In it Hazel referred to Shapiro telling Vlad he had to improve his conditioning and professionalism after last season.

I wondered what that meant, whether work habits or maturity. Vlad likes to have fun but I don't think I ever saw him act too loose on the field. To his credit he didn't duck the question and acknowledged that he realized he'd have to put in more work off the field.

Tellez did get a walk.

Dolis threw 2 pitches. 4 the day before. Could still be available today.
Thornton for only 19 pitches didn't make much sense unless they were already preparing a move.

Ray could be activated, which would could free Zeuch for bullpen use.
However, nobody wants a guy who puts the ball in play to pitch late in game.
Mayza is available.
Milone threw 49 pitches and could probably use another day.
Phelps threw 11 pitches and could probably go back to back.

Possible guys to rotate through: Kay, Bergen.
Tice didn't look good in the spring. Payamps has to stay down 10 days unless they put someone on the IL.

Mind you, the Angels have the same problem. They use a 6 man rotation and Ohtani is skipping a turn.
They used everybody except Claudio, a lefty specialist, and Rodriguez, their long man.

The Bisons are moving to Trenton to free Buffalo for the Jays.
Buffalo can sit 16600, Dunedin, 8500.

The line-up will come around, the depth and talent is there. The pitching remains the biggest problem with this team.

In these starts, the SPs have averaged 4.1 IP per start with a 5.39 ERA against one good team and two mediocre ones.

Well, I picked the Angels as a team bound for the post-season so I'd want to bump them up to pretty good!

Still, it's gone about as well as you could have asked. After all, I think Roark is your fifth starter, Stripling the sixth, and Zeuch the seventh in an ideal Jays-verse. Run prevention hasn't really been the problem, even if it's meant more strain on the bullpen. But it's a modern - read enormous - bullpen.

They need to get a few more guys hitting.

I'm not arguing that team run prevention has been the problem. The relief corps has been excellent (7 ER allowed in 7 games), offsetting the mediocre starting pitching performance (low innings and relatively high RA).

"In these starts, the SPs have averaged 4.1 IP per start with a 5.39 ERA "

The kind of line you'd be OK with from your #5 starting slot. Only.

It looks like Phelps will be the opener tonight.

It's not just that the poor SP performance impacts the team's W-L record. As a result, the high-leverage relievers have been used a lot in the first week:

Merryweather: 3 games
Romano: 3 games
Dolis: 5 games
Phelps: 4 games

At least they're aren't being overused in cold weather conditions, as is often the case in April.

The high-leverage relievers will  be used a lot no matter what.
It would take a huge blow out for them to send Milone to close the game.
The problem is that there are no rest days.

Dolis threw 6 pitches in the last 2 games.
It's not much different than having Dolis warming up and not using him.

Circular argument. If the starting pitching had performed better, the lack of rest days wouldn't be a problem.

It's a universal problem.

Check the Yankees at Rays right now:

Hill, still in the game 3 innings, 46 pitches 4 earned runs.
Kluber, gone after 2.1 innings, 1 ER, 3 Runs, 62 pitches.

You're not going to get more than 5 innings from Stripling. So you need at least 4 1-inning relievers, even if you're winning 3 to nothing. The Rays and Yankees had a day off yesterday and will have another one next week. That's a huge handicap.
Even Ryu isn't going to throw 200 innings.

Thornton could have gone more than one inning.
It's not the starting performance, it's how they choose to use the bullpen.
They must have guys ready to come up. Ray and Kay, most likely.

The Angels have 6 starters. The Texacos have 2 tandems.
The Yankees are using 6 starters. They were even short 1 reliever because Chapman was suspended.

It's a universal problem.

No one knew what to expect from pitchers, as a species, after the weirdness of 2020. It seems most managers would prefer to err on the side of caution in these circumstances.

Bruce has not hit and Judge is still on the bench after 2 days off.

Luetge go hammered by Baltimore and the Rays had just had their way with Nelson.

It's April for everybody.

Developments: Tyler Chatwood (right triceps inflammation) to the 10 day IL, Teoscar Hernandez (close non-team positive COVID contact) and Ryan Borucki (vaccine side effects) to the COVID list. Say hello to Josh Palacios, Joel Payamps, Ty Tice.

Teo down due to Covid

Get your gloves out boys. We might get a call.

I'm actually more comfortable watching Zeuch pitch than Stripling or Roarke. ( now watch him get lit up tonight)

Yesterday, I suggested that Palacios could be a good addition to the bench instead of Tellez. This was not what I had in mind, but yet there he is, starting tonight and batting 9th. He was raking in Spring Training, I'm glad that he's finally getting his first shot in the big leagues.

Cool Fact for tonight: If Ty Tice makes his debut tonight, he will be only the third player ever from The Univesity of Central Arkansas to make it to the MLB. The second one will be in Centerfield (Jonathan Davis).

Trout went 2-3 against Stripling last night, and now has 7 hits in careers ABs against him. Stripling was lamenting to Kaitlyn McGrath that, he Stripling, has two things he can do effectively as a pitcher. Unfortunately for him, both of these things happen to be exactly where Trout eats. He mentioned that you can sometimes have success against him up in the zone with high 90s heat, which Stripling noted doesn't help him any. "I throw 91!"

So I was wondering who - if anyone - has any success against the guy. I found seven pitchers that Trout has 20 ABs against and sits below the Mendoza Line (and man, there were some hilarious batting lines in there. Mike Trout is why Tajuan Walker went to the other league.)

The pitcher who has done the best against Trout is pretty much the poster buy for a RH who throws high 90s heat up in the zone. That's Justin Verlander, and Trout's gone 5-40 (.125) against him.

The other guys who have held Trout below the Mendoza line in at least 20 ABs are Miguel Gonzalez, Hisashi Iwakuma, Lance McCullers, James Paxton, Brad Peacock, and David Price.

Left out the ABs. Trout is 7-10 against Stripling, with 3 HRs. Yikes.

There was a lot of talk in the spring about increased velocity for Zeuch, but I’m not seeing in since the start of the season.

Going to 2B on that play after bobbling the ball... not a smart play by Bo. The worm in my mind is definitely thinking Semien should be the everyday shortstop by June.

Really really hope that Fowler injury isn’t as bad as it looks either.

Thats a couple of times this season that Bo has bobbled the ball.

I’d like to double down on my Bo as a shortstop comment. Ohtani though.. can’t believe that ball carried like it did

I think he should have tried to got the runner at 1st after the bobble for sure.

Zeuch continues to struggle with command against left handed batters, and that walk to Fowler to load the bases was also an important part of that inning.

Our gm got a 5 year extension for never (really) making the playoffs, btw.

So if Tanner Roark pitches decently on Sunday, he could stay in the rotation.

This is a less an ideal start to the season. Not hitting the Panic! Button but man, this team needs to get healthy fast.

*less than* ideal start to the season. Clearly my proofreading is as rusty as the Blue Jays’ bats.

Taijuan Walker was hitting 96-97 mph in his first start with the Mets. I wonder if the Jays end up regretting not pursuing him harder since it seemed like there was real interest on his side. Roark and Zeuch in the rotation is a problem, and while Stripling's numbers in LA were very solid, he hasn't passed the eye test in what I've seen from him so far (stuff looks very ordinary). Matz turning into something is a necessity at this point.

With that said, this team was always going to live or die with the offense. Not having Springer healthy hurts a lot, but they've been very bad as a whole aside from Vlad and Grichuk.

Tough first start for Palacios to face a lefty.

Gurriel was also having a reaction to the vaccine.

Seeing as how they just got out of Texas, that's good news.

I see too many home run swings. The hitters need to dial it back a bit and aim for contact first.

After the Musgroves no hitter last night I still think the biggest pitching mistake the Jays made was not finishing the deal for him at the deadline and settling for Stripling.

They have a chance tonight, but it's too bad they couldn't get into the Angels bullpen.
Roark used to have a plus 2-seamer but right now he's got 3 below average pitches and a decent curve which he uses sparingly.
Grichuk got to DH after making a few good catches, but that's probably all the rest he gets.

There will be growing pains. No way around that.
Zeuch's ERA is up to 3.85.

They chose to get 2 RHP to replace Borucki and Chatwood.
They could still swap Tice for Bergen if needed, but Mayza hasn't seen much use lately.

The ump behind the plate seems particularly bad yesterday.
Inside, outside, high, down. No consistency.

I'd be curious to look it up, if one remembers a site.

I think I would like to see a rotation of Ryu, Pearson, Ray, Matz and a piggyback of Merryweather and one of Kay/Hatch. Once Ray and Pearson are good to go. I know Merryweather isn’t built up, but if they alternate 3-4 innings every 5 days between those guys it could work well.

To check an umpire on Twitter look at umpire scorecards, @umpscorecards

Last nights game is not posted as at the time of this post.

Found a fun site after my old go-to I found has no new data (Brooks Baseball). Baseball Savant: the link shows pitchers strike zones which is interesting, pitches and if you mouse over you can see if it was a ball/strike call or foul or hit or out. Fun stuff. Lots of pitches inside and outside called strikes for both teams. The 4 hardest hit balls were Vlad (#1 and #4) and Shohei Ohtani (#2 and #3). Dang. I hope both of them are at the HR contests in Colorado. That'd be fun to watch.

Last nights now posted @umpscorecards

Checking a few I see yesterday's Arizona/Cincinnati was really bad - the ump shifted the score by 1.21 runs to Cincinnati by bad calls.

Looking at the Umpire Scorecards, while Wolcott didn't have an impact toward one side or the other, it definitely seems he had some, erm, consistency issues with the low-and-away strike. Looking at the others, it felt like there was some coherence, if not correctness. You could say "Oh, he had a high strike zone today," or, "That pitch hasn't been a strike all night". That doesn't seem to be the case with Wolcott.

Ok, there goes my day. My lawn thanks you, Gerry.

Number 3 doesn't look that bad actually.
At least it's consistent with all the other strikes around it.
The ball that's clearly a strike middle of the plate towards the top of the zone seems much worse.

That's how a so-so pitcher gets a great outing.
Like the first strike to Davis was a slider clearly outside.
That got him chasing the rest of the AB.

I particularly hate bad umping when it advantages the visiting team like that.

Last year, the umpiring crews were stuck each each division.
I don't know about this year.
I wouldn't mind never seeing this guy again.

One thing the umpire scorecards don't do is tighten the zone when pitchers are ahead and loosen them when they're behind.

I like that dynamic of giving the pitch on the edge to the pitcher when they've fallen behind, and vice versa. Calls on the margin that are "wrong" in such circumstances I wouldn't really count as wrong.

The hitter is supposed to expend the zone according to the count, not the ump.
The robo-umps can't come soon enough.
There's no reason to tolerate something that is 90% accurate when technology can make it 99.99%.

The ump stand inside, so they can't see if the ball is on the outside corner or not.
That shouldn't affect the height.

Today, German is out after 4 innings, 79 pitches, 4 earned runs.
Archer was pulled after 2.1 innings, 42 pitches, 0 earned runs.

I see that archer was pulled because of "lateral forearm tightness".

The hitter is supposed to expend the zone according to the count, not the ump.

It's demonstrably the case that the zone varies relative to the count. I like that dynamic - among other things, the alternative is even more walks and strikeouts - even if the rulebook (obviously) doesn't call for it.

Robo-umps should never darken a ball field. We are watching a game, not a physics experiment. The eagerness to dispense with all the dynamics that add zest, subtleties and interest to the sport bewilders me.

You can call it zest and subtleties, I think it's more like bias and unfairness.
To me there is no framing, just bad umpiring.
Even without considering that there is a lot of gambling going now, it's quite apparent that some of the bias is voluntary.
If I want to see the subtleties and interest of wrong calls, I can always watch professional wrestling.

Btw, for a hitter the approach is the same if the count is 0-2, 1-2, 2-2, or 3-2.
Yesterday, I only saw Rendon and Joe Maddon arguing strike calls and the umps was favoring them.

Pitcher arms are falling left and right. The last thing that's needed is a strike zone that changes after each pitch.
The one thing that I see is, with a count of 3 balls, the ump will often wait for the hitter to start his walk towards first base before calling a strike. That's what I call clownery. 

And the Rays achieve a 6 pitcher shutout of the Yankees.

Espinal up, Tice Optioned. Gurriel to COVID-IL, Borucki off the IL. Tonight's lineup has an early March feel to it: Tellez, Espinal, Davis, Jansen, and Palacios are the 5-9 hitters (with Biggio and Panik sitting against the LHP).

The hitter is supposed to expend the zone according to the count, not the ump.

True, but sometimes I don't mind quite as much. The guy's worst call of the night came when he expanded the zone in the bottom off the ninth of a 7-1 game. Did everyone a favour.

Jays, Leafs, and Raptors... all on Sportsnet... all at the same time?

This will be a challenge.

Turning on the sprinklers was one part of an elegant solution .  Got a blackout ready for one of the other games, Magpie?

Nah, I've got three screens at my disposal. This is easy. On one screen, I just watched Ottawa dig down deep and outplay the Leafs for the first ten minutes, only to have Auston Mathews casually score twice in about 30 seconds. That's got to be discouraging. And on the other screen, Yuta Watanabe - Yuta? - went coast to coast for a layup and drained a buzzer-beating 3, also in about 30 seconds. And on the other screen, I reply to you!

I am so prepared to deal with the modern world.

It didn't really happen unless you share screens!

Geez Tellez is looking awful. I thought he was ready to breakout this year. Hopefully just an early in the season rut, but....

Game on. Matz looks in for the sign.

"Hey, he looks like that guy on Letterkenny."
"Matz? Which guy?"
"You know. The one who talks like an auctioneer all the time."
"Jim Dickens!?"

I can't unsee it now.

I'm inching ever closer to being the sort of fan who will rail forever against replay review. On the upside, I have more empathy for those NL fans who want to keep pitchers hitting. Change isn't really that difficult but it is sort of annoying.

Grichuk's contract is a steal!

Meanwhile the least respected Jay is carrying the offence.

Palacios has been one of my favourite dark horse prospects since I first saw him in Vancouver. Two years ago at this time I would have said his time had passed. The joy he expressed at his first hit was pretty cool.

Needed an inning like that. Also super weird to see your starting pitcher emerge from the bullpen in the 3rd inning... but that bottom 2nd did take about a year to conclude.

Quantana/Barria threw 133 pitches and still couldn't get out of the 4th.

My wife didn't let me watch the end. Sigh.

I totally understand what Joe was Mad about.
I know you can get thrown out for running off the path if someone tries to tag you, but if you're playing the force out?
The slide does not look good, but he did go directly to the base. That's the essence of the new rule, right?
A double play there and it's a different game. Giving credit to Davis for breaking a double play.
Also, when he got picked at first late in the first game, it could have been called a balk.

Tellez, 0 for 4 looking terrible.
Jansen, 0 for 4, not look great.
Everybody else, including the depth players, feasting on bad pitching.

And bad pitching is what Roark will likely bring to the last game.
They're probably going to burn a lot of pitchers today before getting ready for the Yankees.
I'm just hoping they don't fall behind too far before they do it.

Just noticed that Grichuk's WAR at this point in the season (.6) is double what he had in 2019 for the whole season. (That contract is a steal!)

It's time to give Tellez some time in the minors to get his rhythm back. (Although I will note that it seems like the umps are giving all the calls whoever is pitching to Tellez).

Lost in the offensive explosion was the work of Matz and Milone taking care of the entire 9 innings. Milone with the Save in a 15-1 game.

Milone with 6 strike outs in 3 innings.
At this point, the Angels just wanted to go get some sleep.

I think if Springer was coming back and the lineup was at full strength, Tellez would be sent down. But with 3 of the top 9 down, he’s largely stuck trying to work it out in the majors at least for a while. I like the guy, but yikes right now he’s an anchor, as well as both catchers.

On a positive note, the youngsters looked great, Bichette seems to be turning it around, and yes some first rate pitching. And From only two pitchers.. which will help with today’s likely slugfest.

Tellez' first PA was particularly nasty. The lefty threw him 5 curveballs substantially outside the zone to begin. Tellez took all 5 and 2 were called strikes. The sixth pitch was a 91 mph fastball which Tellez would normally have swung at but instead took strike 3. He was understandably looking for a curve.

Tellez/Kirk/Davis are a combined 0 for 43. Throw in Jansen and you've got 2 for 62. They need to go 18 for 38 to collectively reach a .200 average.

Meawhile, Bichette has now been eliminated from DiSar contention, the contest once held by Baseball Prospectus to identify the player who would log the most plate appearances before their first walk. Gurriel and Hernandez remain in contention though are temporarily sidelined. Gurriel is my choice as the team's likely winner.

Guerrero has been a joy to watch. His few lapses in discipline have lasted a pitch or two, and he has been able, mid-AB, to right the ship. I just love that his walks exceed his strikeouts.

Kudos to Milone for his two 3-inning stints. People often talk about long relievers serving exactly his function, but those plans tend to rarely meet expectations. He is a ticking time bomb, of course, and this magic spell won't last forever. And he's certainly not going to wrest away higher leverage work from his bullpen mates. But good for him to keep drawing a major league paycheque before the pixie dust wears off and he moves on to his 9th team in 5 years.

Tim Locastro, the guy I remember as a Jay for his HBP's, has set the record for the most SB's without being caught to start a career with his 28th, 8 ahead of Cavan now.
Tim Raines was Locastro's baserunning coach when he first entered the Jays org. The record Locastro broke? Tim Raines' 27.

I am not so sure about Milone's future.  He wasn't as good as he looked for the first 5 years of his career nor as bad as he looked the last 5 years.  His HR/FB has gone through the roof with no change in exit velocity.  Last year, he was about as good as you can get with a 6.69 ERA.  His xwOBAs 2018-21: .333, .306, .333, .253.  He's probably a considerably better pitcher at this point than Tanner Roark, say. 

My Vladdy highliight last night. Grichuck doubles into the LF corner with Vlad at 1st. My initial thought - that's going to score 2. But Vlad scored without a throw. Now Upton seemed a bit slow retrieving the ball, but when the field-level replay was shown, it wasn't old Vladdy chugging around 2nd, he was motoring.

Thanks hypobole for the positive Vlad note. Either now or after 2 months I would like to see praise for Vlad's efforts to lose weight and improve his conditioning. SSS. I also want to give him time to increase his number of Hrs. I don't yet think he has lost Hr power.

Only annoying thing about Vladdy right now is him learning the intricacies of 1B on the fly like this, when really they should have switched him to full-time 1B 2-3yrs ago now.

He has every chance to become a great defensive 1B, and never had a chance at being ever more than an average 3B at best and little chance of even that.

Since I'm 100% certain that vladdy has finally arrived for real I'd be eager to cement him in a top 3 slot tout suite.


With combined numbers from this year and last year:

1. CF Springer .359obp, 146wrc+
2. 1B Vladdy .358obp, 127wrc+
3. SS Bichette .323obp, 122wrc+
4. DH Hernandez .323obp, 130wrc+
5. 3B Biggio .366obp, 119wrc+
6. LF Gurriel .332obp, 121wrc+
7. RF Grichuk .326obp, 116wrc+
8. 2B Semien .301obp, 93wrc+
9. C Jansen .297obp, 75wrc+

PH Tellez .307obp, 102wrc+
OF Davis .304obp, 76wrc+
IF Panik .335obp, 83wrc+
IF Espinal .329obp, 89wrc+
C Kirk .297obp, 89wrc+

Roark to become the long man in the bullpen and Ray into the starting rotation. This according to Kaitlyn McGrath at the Athletic.

It’s possible if Roark is out of bullpen he could throw a bit harder and get 1-2 more miles out of his fastball. That might help make him more effective.

Ray is starting tomorrow which is yay. Just need out OF crew to return, although that doesn’t look like all 3 will be back for ten days or so.

I agree that Vladdy gas broken though, after finally putting in the work. I still worry about his conditioning long term.

I’m still wondering about Semien. 18 mm for a guy who has one year with an OPS over 100. Right now I’d rather have Walker and a defensive specialist third baseman than Semien. Will see if that changes over the year.

Fowler has a torn ACL and will need surgery.

Rain whenever Roark is set to start is good news.
Somebody else will pitch the doubleheader on August 10 and the Jays can use the off day.
Roark could be OK in the pen, but it's not about velocity.
It's really about throwing more curves since it's his only above average pitch.

It's been a though start of the season for everybody except Boston.
Frazier has been  on the bench for 2 days and he's 0 for his last 13 ABs.
Odor is the big hero today.

Walker hasn’t posted above half a WAR since 2017. I remain unconvinced he’s better than most of the guys at AAA we have. Sure he’s better than Roark but I don’t think he’s anywhere close to Ray or Matz and I don’t think he’s better than people we have coming soon.

While Simien gives our infield a lot of depth so even if someone is down with injury we don’t have to play a Panik or such all the time. I kinda wish they’d just switch him and Bo since Simien is a much better SS. Likely not going to happen though.

Semien is the replacement for Shaw.
Walker's replacement is Matz.

They didn't replace Roark out of the gate, but they dumped Yamaguchi.

Last year's starting rotation was Ryu, Shoemaker, Pearson(held for one start), Thornton and Roark.
They replaced Shoemaker with Ray.
Pearson, Thornton, Kay, Zeuch and Hatch are going to pitch some games down the road.
They didn't get another starter because they didn't want to give 3 years contracts to the guys available.

On the subject of rainouts:
Pitcher Marcus Stroman criticized New York for starting Sunday's game against the Miami Marlins in a steady rain. Stroman's outing lasted just nine pitches..

"This game should have never been started. Not smart at all," Stroman tweeted during the delay. "Those conditions put everyone at risk. Beyond happy no players on either side were injured. Hate that I have to wait another 5 days to pitch again. That's a miserable feeling."

I wouldn’t have minded them bringing Shormaker back as a spot starter/swingman. Paxton already looks gone for the year though.

Yeah, we all thought Paxton would be a good signing I think. Sucks for him. Shoemaker had a good start - 6 IP 3 H 1 R/ER 0 BB 5 SO for Minnesota vs Detroit (15-6 win, bad job by his pen but with 15 for his team it was safe).

It'll be interesting as the season progresses to see how the guys some hoped for do vs how the guys we've got do.
Trevor Bauer: 2 starts, 13 IP 6 H 6 R/ER 3 BB 20 SO
Taijuan Walker: 1 start, 6 IP 4 H 2 R/ER 2 BB 4 SO
Chase Anderson: 1 start, 5 IP 2 H 2 R/ER 2 BB 3 SO
Travis Shaw: 25 PA in 7 games, 292/320/458 115 OPS+ split between 3B/1B/PH
Paxton: 1 G 1 1/3 IP 0 H 1 R/ER 1 BB 2 SO and injured probably misses the rest of 2021.

Signed...
Matz: 2 G 12 1/3 IP 7 H 2 R/ER 4 BB 13 SO
Phelps: 5 G 5 IP 4 H 1 R/0 ER 2 BB 5 SO
Milone: 2 G 6 IP 4 H 1 R/ER 2 BB 8 SO
Payamps: 2 G 4 IP 2 H 0 R/ER 1 BB 4 SO
Chatwood: 3 G 2 2/3 IP 4 H 0 R/ER 1 BB 3 SO on IL
Kirby Yates: signed as free agent, IL for 2021. Bye bye $5.5 mil.

I'm sure I skipped a few, but that gives a good idea. 6 new pitchers, 1 IL for 2021, 14 G 30 IP 21 H 4 R/3 ER 10 BB 33 SO. Pretty good I'd say (0.90 ERA). Paxton would've cost $8.5+ mil for one year vs Yates $5.5 mil so in the battle of hurt for 2021 guys the Jays saved $3 mil. Anderson, Walker, and Shoemaker have all done well so far. Bauer has been solid but now might have some major headaches and at over $100 mil for 3 years (really $80+ for 2 if he does well) it might end up a poor choice by the Dodgers but they have the money to paper it over.

Shoe's start Sunday didn't go quite as well. Had a 6-0 lead starting the 6th. Next 4 batters homer, double, single, homer. End of the day for Shoe.

Cleveland has given up only 22 runs so far and Houston 33. Both numbers are vastly better than their division rivals. SSS.

For what it's worth, Semien is third in bWAR for position players behind Vladdy and Grichuk.
He's not high in the order because he's always on base.
He's up there because they want him to get the extra ABs.

As a guy who worked hard to improve his defense and offense, he's a great role model for Bichette and he can cover for him if Bichette can't stay healthy over 162 games.

Ray and Gurriel have been activated. Payamps and Espinal have been optioned.

Borucki had a bad outing Apr 8 and was sent down for covid related issues I believe. The the covid may have sapped his strength or stamina.

They said that Hernandez has a 7 day period to clear his tracing case.
For the time being, Palacios is the 4th outfielder. They can probably platoon him with Davis.

That leaves the pen with Milone as a lefty long reliever.
It's not clear how they'll use Roark. Probably low leverage, but multi-innings?
I expect Stripling will eventually replace Roark in the pen.

Was it a bad outing? He walked Iglesias because they were afraid to throw strikes and let him bunt. Then Suzuki bunted for an out and he struck out Fowler.

Then Fletcher scored the 2 runners on a bloop on the first pitch From Dolis.
If Dolis get out of it, you don't call it a bad outing.

For the time being, Palacios is the 4th outfielder. They can probably platoon him with Davis.

The Yankees are starting 3 right handlers and I’d be happy to see 3 straight starts for Palacios. He was a better prospect coming in to this year and Davis has looked bad in limited action.

Agree that Borucki was not actually bad on April 8, and ”sent down for covid related issues” is a confused way to state things. He was put on the COVID-19 IL because of side effects from the vaccine. There is no minimum or maximum stay on the COVID-19 IL.