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

Vlad's playing third today, first time since 2019--inneresting!

"IKF," as has been much commented on, has been one of the team's bright spots this year.

This seems to be more cleaning up a mess from last week than anything else:

https://www.mlb.com/news/ross-atkins-vladimir-guerrero-jr-bo-bichette-trade-talks

My first thought earlier was that Vlad was at third to showcase some defensive flexibility for interested parties.

so the reason pirates manager derek shelton brought in a righty to face vogelbach -- a man with a career .128/.246/.214 line against lefties -- with two on in the fifth today was that available left-hander jose hernandez 'hadn't pitched in nine days'

well, now it's ten days. might as well cut him; he obviously can't be used now

Actual quote from Ball Four, pg. 167:

We'll know better after this next series. The Baltimore Orioles are in town. Which reminds me of a cartoon I once saw. It showed a little boy forlornly carrying a glove and a bat over his shoulder. "How'd you do, son?" his father asks. "I had a no-hitter going until the big kids got out of school," the kid says.

Trevor Richards starting tonight. What a schizophrenic pitching line:

28.1 IP, 12 hits, 26 K, but...13 BB, 4 HR. ERA = 3.18; FIP = 4.51.

In other words: H/9, 3.8; FIP, 4.5. That's gotta be extremely rare...

That’s a very high walk rate

I am very proud of myself.
I was at the game, and bottom of the 9th, winning run on second, I point out to my friend “they’re playing him kind of shallow” and sure enough he hits it just hard enough over the OF’s head to win the game

I also got a sweet backpack out of the deal. Not crazy about these jerseys but I like the backpacks. They’re honestly pretty good quality.

I was also there with an old friend instead of my gf because I think our relationship is over and im super bummed. Anyways I’ll stop making this thread my personal blog

Ok one more thing. I bought a custom (vintage style) Barfield jersey and regret nothing. I deserve it!

i was sort of half paying attention, but was everyone kind of wearing high socks or is that just the cut of the pants?

The socks are bright red and hard to miss, but only Bo and Springer were rocking them iirc

I really hope Biggio finds his way somewhere else. I think he's gotten the shaft a bit the past few years, put into a situation where it was extremely difficult to establish any consistency.

(He was DFA'ed today.)

oh!!

Manoah's out for the season. Who knows how far back this goes--would explain a lot, for sure.

Last year really sounded like a conditioning issue

Bummer about Biggio. Dude delivered some of my all time fav jays moments

I hope his next team feeds him better.

0-1 in the post Biggio era.

Agree that he'd be worth a chance:

https://jaysjournal.com/posts/division-rival-cuts-bait-with-intriguing-hitter-blue-jays-should-look-into

I think they jays had him in their system a few years ago and he got rule 5’d or something.

I was pretty negative on them a couple of weeks ago; I haven't changed a bit on what I'd like them to do (change course a.s.a.p. with an eye two or three years down the road), but I'll give them credit for finally playing better. They won most of the games they were supposed to against Chicago and Oakland, they've played Baltimore and Milwaukee tough, and they're almost back to .500. Which is Lucy and the football...but they are playing better.

Biggio to Dodgers
reunites with Teo

I don't know how much playing time he'll get, but very happy for him. That's got to feel like winning the lottery, and not really because of Teoscar.

They sure didn't get much for him, did they?

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=fisher003bra#

xp
he could outplay Kiké and/or Taylor.
Teo would be my prize. A Championship will be nice, but he's gotta do it with the Dodgers

He will get substantial playing time. The bottom of the dodgers order has been a big question mark the whole season. Their 6-7-8-9 spots have an average of 77 wrc+. Biggio has a wrc+ of 88 this season.

Never got Daniel Vogelbach at all--glad he's gone.

0-1 in the post Vogelbach era

Obviously, Mookie Betts getting injured is terrible; for him, for the game. (And for someone like me, whose fandom these days often gravitates towards HOF players doing great things.) And this is just meaningless internet chatter:

https://fansided.com/posts/mlb-rumors-dodgers-blue-jays-bo-bichette-trade-mookie-betts-emergency

If that opportunity does arise, though, I'd take it. I don't know if the theoretical trade in the piece is fair value, but it would be an opportunity for the Jays.

Based on the Biggio trade, though, I dread what our two yahoos would accept for Bichette.

jesus. dude wasted no time

Pls no

This would be very silly

It's not all that crazy -- I'm talking about a trade in general, not that one specifically. This year's team doesn't have the talent for a deep playoff run (on paper). Bichette isn't signed to an extension and there's been no serious attempt to sign him long term. The problem is that they'd be selling low if he was traded now. But is next year's team going to make some kind of leap with the players we have now? Unless they add 2-3 impact players via trade or free agency, I don't see it. Then it's better to stock the farm system and build for the future.

there's been no serious attempt to sign him long term

i've heard they've been trying (of course maybe that's just sportsnet telling me that).

i stay well away from speculation on what the FO is doing

can’t trade Bo when his struggling this much. he was huge last 2 seasons.

is there no value in watching an almost-competitive team this year and hope for the best? bc i’d be super bummed to close the window already for prospects where one will halfway work out

they’re 4.5 back of wildcard 3, with KC, Minny, and BOS ahead of us with about 60?% of the season to go and youse have lost all hope? Dr. Frankl has taught me that meaning lies in the redemption arc

The optimum time to trade someone is tricky, obviously--it's exactly when they're playing well enough that you don't want to. I tentatively threw out the idea of trading Kirk at the 2022 AS break, when he was tearing things up:

Sounds crazy, I know, but: a friend and I were talking about the logic of trading Kirk. Three catchers are a nice luxury, but they need a starter. You don't trade Moreno, Jansen's trade value is probably minimal, and Kirk's is at a peak...I'd hate to give up Kirk, believe me, but I think he could be part of a deal that lands a solid third or fourth starter.

― clemenza, Tuesday, June 21, 2022 9:56 AM

But the outcry if you'd traded him then would have been deafening.

Moreno: will halfway work out for AZ. slap hitter but no one was happy to let home go. now we have Varsh. he may never hit for average but i love that guy. defence is important but the average joe can’t really appreciate it.

but really i just wanna watch what we have. i’ve said here recently: pitching (check), defense (best in the biz - check), offense gets hot at the right time, and that’s a very competitive playoff team. the road there is tough but the texas teams are laying an egg and i’m not overly concerned about the teams ahead of us (re: my last post).

You're a real fan, Francis; more power to you. I'm not anymore. I'm a complainer, a bandwagon-hopper, a (as Ringo would say) a well-known drag.

Oops--George, not Ringo.

i've always been dyed-in-the-wool blue, but sure I'll complain. I mean, the Leafs. I hopped on the Raptorwagon real fast in 2018! However you want to handle this team right now is legitimate, including being a denialist like me! ┬┴┬┴┤ʕ•ᴥ├┬┴┬┴

If Toronto had swept this series and moved ahead of Boston, I probably would have--in the face of all the pragmatism I've been advocating lately--felt that old "Well, maybe..." twinge. But surely this closes the door on 2024.

Springer for 2.5 more years (~$60MM) is feeling worse than I really imagined it would be. it's good for Canada (and surely Bad For Baseball) to sign such a big contract, but it's not like i had high hopes for the backend of this to begin with.

This has been a rough decline already.

First of many headline permutations:

https://www.tsn.ca/mlb/mitchell-orelvis-is-in-the-building-but-for-how-long-1.2137925

Or maybe not!

https://www.mlb.com/news/orelvis-martinez-suspended-for-80-games