I woke around 2 am & quickly watched the scoring highlights to see what I had missed.

I was initially excited to see that Vlad had tied the game on a RBI single according to the highlight description.

Only to be immediately disappointed again to watch the clip, discovering the RBI single was a poor contact, chopped swinging bunt to 3B.

It's all the groundballs that are so hard to watch when Vlad's bad. He's always been an extreme GB hitter. But at least they used to be interspersed with high EV line drives & good PAs if the pitcher didn't give him anything to hit.

Siddall went on to mention that he'd like Vlad to simply things for awhile and only try to hit flyballs in-game. Not necessarily trying to get hits.

It was a interesting suggestion on having Vlad simply focus on creating loft, particularly as Vlad has always had a very flat swing.

Hard to manage around Trey only giving you 5 outs, 7 walks, 4 runs on 59 pitches (2/3 of which were balls). But it's also too bad that the bullpen wasn't sharp against the worst offense in the league.

Both Macko & Fisher were very inefficient in their brief roles coming into the game earlier than usual.

One also has to wonder why Patrick Corbin wasn't brought in instead of Macko. Other than the fact that the game was tied 4-4 and Schneider wasn't ready to wave the white flag Bottom 2.

If Corbin isn't going to be used as the long man when rested when your starter implodes in the second inning, there's really no point in keeping him at the back of the pen.

Chad Dallas would've been the other long man option, but inconveniently already threw an inning yesterday.

I can't imagine Schneider was holding back Corbin for Gausman's final start before the AllStar break, even though Gausman himself has been unpredictable lately.

I believe the luxury tax calculations are pro-rated. The Jays have already played 90+ games and will be closer to 110 by the deadline.

They also simply don't have the expensive horses to make it work. Gausman is probably the most expensive realistic asset, but he hasn't been pitching well for awhile.

Springer is similarly expensive on an expiring deal. But 2026 George isn't tradeable without taking on most of his salary, which defeats the point.

Varsho is another asset, but is diminished and not that expensive.

Trading Hoffman would save a few million. But his 2027 salary likely makes him less of an asset to acquiring teams looking for bullpen rentals.

Bieber hasn't pitched well and is also making only mid-range starter money. Scherzer has been awful, isn't healthy and is only making a couple mil base salary.

Jesus Sanchez has been hurt for awhile and isn't making much in Arb 2.

Interesting lament about trading away the potential of Joey Loperfido.

I don't recall thinking Joey was very toolsy in his 1.5 seasons in Toronto.

He's currently 27 and in the minors for Houston. He's only started 5 games in CF for them this season. His only HR of the season was against the Jays IIRC in that disastrous homestand a few weeks back.

The Jays so far have done pretty well choosing which of their fringe roster guys to trade away for new parts in Alan Roden, Will Wagner & Joey Loperfido. Still early, but no regrets yet. The problem with 25-something MLB-ready hitting prospects is that they have to start producing like MLB regulars right away. Or they quickly get labeled as AAAA-guys/former prospects.

Otto Lopez is the one that most people lament got away. But I personally don't recall being too concerned at the time when he was lost in a 40-man roster crunch.