Let's Bitch About Our Stupid, Annoying Baseball Team: the 2024 Toronto Blue Jays Thread

Watched the first six innings at the (Canadian) HOF, left because their feed was kind of choppy. I had a cardboard stand-up of Fergie Jenkins looking over my right shoulder the whole time. About 30 people were there.

They flashed a graphic of Berrios's GS the last five years (excepting the COVID season):

2018 - 32
2019 - 32
2021 - 32
2022 - 32
2023 - 32

Not as amazing as Khris ".247" Davis's streak--GS is a lot more predictable than BA, plus the COVID year intrudes--but still eye-opening. Apparently Berrios has never missed a start in his career.

Not watching--down on them already!--but Turner has a single/double/HR is his first three AB...ah, just walked. Should get one more AB, but hasn't had a triple since 2020.

Jays are getting n__-h__ by Benny Blanco from the Bronx, a 30-year-old making his eighth major league start and with a career ERA near 5.00.

(My sourness and sarcasm is 100% directed at the Jays. His name is Ronel Blanco, and obviously a great story.)

He's thrown 81 pitches through 7, has a 10-0 lead; who knows, but hope they give him one baserunner.

Whoah--10 pitches, 1-2-3. Kiner-Falefa, Biggio, and Springer left to go. (He walked one earlier in the game, so back to Springer.)

One.

Two! Jesus, this is fast.

Did it! CG no-hitter. Almost got in under 100 pitches but walked Springer on a full count. Even exciting on a laptop.

Just seeing the highlights now. Great play by Abreu in the 9th.

Third game in five where the Jays have been hapless at bat. Even with their big first game, now hitting .184 as a team.

Well todays (technically yesterdays) went much better. Glad I stuck around until the end

Looks like their haplessosity was in effect for most of the game, till Groucho took charge, but a win is a win is a win. Hope Berrios keeps it up; a Cy contender would be something to root for if the team meanders.

Pathetic. Now hitting .176 as a team.

It turns out that the big off-season strategy to overhaul the offense by signing every utility infielder on the market wasn't such a bright idea.

Now I get it: we've built our offense around wild pitches and passed balls.

Green made it interesting in the 9th, but the pitching at least came through today.

manoah in dunedin today: 1.2 IP, 5 H, 7 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 58 pitches, 26 strikes

"Manoah walked the first four batters he faced, throwing just two strikes in his first 18 pitches."

José Berríos: 18.2 IP, 2-0, 1.45 ERA

rest of team: 75.0 IP, 3-6, 5.98 ERA

From the Canadian HOF FB feed: Davis Schneider's parents at the Hall today.

https://i.postimg.cc/zf6Vy7Mj/davis.jpg

Is he Canadian?!

Just looked him up--no, New Jersey. You don't even need to be Canadian to be inducted, much less displayed.

Ya. He hasn’t reallly done much. Pretty low bar imho !

C'mon, he's probably the game's greatest hitter right now. Career slugging pct.:

1. Schneider - .607
2. Alvarez - .589
3. Judge - .584
4. Trout - .583
5. Ohtani - .559
6. Acuna - .533
7. Stanton - .529
8. Betts - .529
9. Arenado - .526
10. Soto - .525

*minimum 161 career plate appearances

Lol. I guess that’s something

I think playing the Mariners has cured your team.

Painful playoff memories will not fade so easily.

as evidenced by John Schneider being booed as he went to take Berrios out, lol

oh why did i remember that as the M's. all the playoff losses are a sad blur

i think that one was the twins. the bullpen implosion was against the Ms

About 15 minutes before the game today, I messaged my brother-in-law about putting down $100 for me on Berrios to win the Cy, like I did two seasons ago with Manoah. I found an odds tracker that listed him at 58 to 1 on April 10:

https://www.sportsbettingdime.com/mlb/cy-young-odds/

My brother-in-law messaged back that the bet would be placed at 28 to 1; considered it, but figured it wasn't worth it.

Obviously still a very long shot (and it's not like the Jays are suddenly a good team), but less of one with Cole out of the picture. I may regret this.

(I can still place the bet, of course, but the odds will go down still more after today.)

Murderer's Row:

Springer: .215/.329/.338
Guerrero: .188/.316/.359
Bichette: .217/.277/.333

I like that they all have eight letters...Miracle that they're 9-8--Berrios, Kikuchi, and Turner.

Stroman's second return start in Toronto today, up against Gausman, who's having a miserable year thus far.

I really love Gausman. Iirc he missed some of spring training? Hopefully it’s just that.

He got a late start, yeah--didn't start until their fourth game, and he was fine (one run in 4.1 innings. 11 runs in his last 5 innings since. Lots of stories about lost velocity. (I mean "velo.")

Another great start by Berrios: 6 shutout innings, 5 hits, 6 K, 2 walks. The bullpen's already lost the shutout, but if they can hold on for three innings, Berrios will be 4-0, 0.95. I may revisit those Cy Young odds tomorrow.

You should have gotten in at 28 to 1!

The offense is still a disaster, but with expected (?) improvement we may have something here? It feels as though the pitching hasn't peaked, even though Berrios won't finish with a sub-1.00 ERA.

I think it’s weird with Guerrero - there’s always talk about his crazy exit velocity; but he’s been hitting it right at defenders or into the ground for outs, and his hits seem to be coming off these light contact bloops lately.

Got the bet down.

https://i.postimg.cc/V6QHdx19/bet.jpg

I know that, realistically, his odds are longer than that, that he's hardly on the ideal team to win a Cy Young (don't expect many games where he can pitch five or six innings and leave with a big lead), and that chances are he won't even finish with a sub-3.00 ERA. But one thing that doesn't make sense to me is that Cole is still among the favourites (fifth right now; Burnes is #1 at ~5 to 1). One of my rationales in placing the bet is that Cole's out of the picture...I don't know, when is he due back? Losing a month even really hurts his chances, I would think.

Wins haven’t been a big deal since king Felix won it. But strikeouts still stand for something and WAR is obv a big factor for many voters and I don’t see Cole making up ground enough there even if he’s only out a month

Got the bet down.

#freeippei

How did I miss the chance for a translator joke?

I know every Jays fan will define a certain part of their life in relation to the Mitch White era.

https://jaysjournal.com/posts/the-mitch-white-era-with-the-blue-jays-finally-ends-with-trade-to-nl-west-hopefuls

(I know, they're kidding around too.)

I've come to unreasonably complain about my annoying baseball team...Yesterday was the third time in two weeks the Jays had a chance to sweep a series. They just cannot seem to do that--drives me up the wall. I want some bloodlust.

You wouldn't know this unless you follow the Jays, but Daulton Varsho has been going crazy the past week-plus. Last 10 games, after starting the season .158/.238/.184:

3 doubles, 6 HR, 13 RBI, .355/.412/1.032 (plus GG defense, which was also true last year).

Jays are 13-10, having been outscored by 11 runs. No idea which is more likely: they start to win some laughers or lose some close ones.

I think Vlad bottomed out tonight (I was bowling and half-following.): 0-5, two strikeouts, hit into a double-play, made out in the top of the 9th with the tying run on first and one out, made an error in the bottom the fifth that would have been the third out and the Jays went from up 2-0 to down a run. Would love to hear the call-in shows tomorrow.

No idea which is more likely: they start to win some laughers or lose some close ones.

Immediately followed by consecutive 3-2 losses--everything's finally starting to fall into place.

Clemenza, I appreciate (and sympathise with) your peak doomerdom

I don't know if Thermo and NoTime and Francis will agree, but for me--as I wrote in the opening post--they're just not a particularly fun team to root for. Their young prodigies from five years ago are a mess, Springer and Kiermaier are showing their age, and they just never do anything dramatic. They plod along. They tease you, and then they immediately revert to form.

As I experience this team right now, I enjoy the defence (Varsho & KK get to everything/IKF is an innately great fielder/even Vlad -1 catch).

The pitching has been incredible and very fun to watch.

I watch the offence and think how drastically a few extra homers would change things. Varsho is going right now, but no one else feels like a game-changer.
Vlad hits the ball SO HARD but he's mostly just vaporizing worms, and it ain't good enough. And it's tiring to watch at this point. Even Bo stinks 🤷🏻‍♂️