Marcus Stroman won't stop tweeting; 2019 Vlad Guerrero Jr/Blue Jays thread

You know Bradley Zimmer's back, right?

I sometimes defend Pat Tabler for his on-field intuition, but he actually just said this (talking about Cavan Biggio): "What's a good slugging percentage, .400? He's just under .400, coming into this day, at .392."

Nice job by Bichette jumping in there just as Gausman was about to lose it (over a balk call).

The Orioles' organist needs to learn a second song.

Lol. My gf was just saying that same.
Glad we got the first game. Feeling much more relaxed now that they can’t be swept!

For I think the first time all year, Bichette is really in a groove.

Gausman has been leading Fangraphs' WAR for pitchers for almost the whole year (he just slipped into second). If he weren't a Jay, and I never saw him, I'd probably be posting about how silly that is. But seeing him regularly, he really does give up an inordinate number of cheap hits--bouncers between infielders, flares, etc. The BABIP against him this year is .372! So while I think ranking him as the best pitcher in baseball is a slight overstatement, he's definitely much better than his WHIP or ERA (which is pretty good anyway).

orioles don't have an organist! it's just a sound clip

I checked that online, but I guess I read the capsule links too quickly--they were proposing an organist at one point.

For I think the first time all year, Bichette is really in a groove.
― clemenza, Monday, September 5, 2022 4:47 PM

Please note the time of this post.

Lol. Too bad he won’t get a shot at 4. Also shame he couldn’t get a proper hat trick treatment

Ok. I guess he will get a shot. No idea why they’re still playing in this shit weather on the back end of a double header, but here we are.

I was all set to send hate mail to Zimmerman if he had walked him.

That was a quality day of baseball!

(Aside from the sketchy umpiring).

One thing I don't get is Bichette's base stealing. Last year, he stole 24 in 25 attempts; this year, 9 out of 16. Has he gotten stupider or slower? I would have thought at his age, that would be relatively steady year to year.

Noticed that too and can offer no explanation

Trevor Richards kind of looks like Eminem. HE KIND OF PITCHES LIKE EMINEM, TOO.

I'm no Kevin Barker fan, but I agree with something he said a couple of weeks ago: why does Vlad need all these DH games? Tonight is his 28th! These games should go to Springer, with Jackie Bradley Jr. in CF. If Springer gets hurt out there, the Jays won't get anywhere.

Game would be tied if Richards hadn’t been pitching.

so... wtf is Baker's problem? any idea why he spent half his appearance glaring into the jays dugout? kind of felt like an over reaction – but the hell is dude's issue?!

baker gets a little begrudged sometimes

The past five minutes have really shown Pat Tabler's limitations. Dan Schulman brings up the fact that the Jays are one of the worst high-leverage teams in baseball, then asks Tabler if he has any possible explanations. First Tabler needs high-leverage explained. Fine--at least he's honest. Then he says certain guys can "slow the game down," something he says constantly; he says it three times here. Then he starts talking about Tony Perez, and basically says Perez was a proven clutch hitter (who knew how to slow the game down). I want to make fun of this--even I, a guy who's generally sympathetic to old-school stats, knows that Perez had all those 100-RBI seasons because he had a million guys on base--but I won't; Perez's career high-leverage numbers are, as it turns out, noticeably better than his medium- and low-leverage numbers. In any event, I imagine it's hard for Schulman during exchanges like these.

tbf schulman was once in a booth with john kruk *and* curt schilling and sort of made it work. and he's also worked with dick vitale in college basketball. obviously it's not ideal but he's the absolute best

yous should hang on until marcus stroman is available to do colour imo

Clem: I was thinking the exact same thing! Although, when I think of a guy who’s a great clutch hitter, I actually think of tabler. Tho I wouldn’t expect him to bring himself up!

Also: what a solid 8 there from Manoah

Baltimore's getting crushed, Seattle's got Atlanta (eight-game winning streak) tonight, Gausman pitching--great opportunity.

This is what the Jays have gotten from the catcher position this year:

.282/.356/.451, 21 HR, 65 R, 72 RBI

Jansen now has 12 HR in 156 AB.

I’m glad with Moreno up they are DH’ing Kirk more; Jansen is just such a better catcher.

bo is hitting .500 in Sept

The clip where Bichette almost gets it in the face is in here--scary.

https://www.mlb.com/news/bo-bichette-hits-go-ahead-homer-as-blue-jays-beat-rays

Toronto's in that weird spot where winning the wild card likely gets them Tampa Bay or Seattle, but finishing third gets them Cleveland. I think--I might have that wrong. On the longshot that they can catch New York, that'd be a bye, right?

if they catch new york and take 1st, they get a bye. the next best option, indeed, looks like finishing in the last Wc slot so they can face the guardians

Yeah, but if they finish 6th and win the WC series, they get the #1 seed (prob. Houston) in the next series and if they finish 3rd they get the Yankees. With the extra playoff round I think you'd always want the best possible WC seeding.

Man, that Bradley Zimmer can fly--love him!

Man, that Alejandro Kirk can fly--love him!

I will never stop saying this: watching Kirk round 3rd is my favourite thing in baseball.

I realize this is one of those meaningless mix-and-match contraptions, but it's our guy we're talking about, so it's okay.

Bo Bichette in 11 games this September for the @BlueJays:

24 hits
21 RBI
15 runs
7 home runs
6 doubles

Since RBI became an official stat in 1920, the only other MLB player to reach all of those numbers over an 11-game span was Lou Gehrig in June 1930.

— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) September 13, 2022

I was looking at Bichette's splits, and one odd thing is that he's hit right-handers as well as ever this year, but he's way down vs. left-handers. He'd be having a stellar season otherwise, instead of just a pretty good one, which is where he's at thanks to this insane hot streak.

Not sure whether I should feel happy the Jays won 3 of 5 from Tampa, or frustrated that they couldn't finish them off today.

Didn't even realize this when I posted that:

https://www.mlb.com/news/rays-lineup-all-latino-players-on-roberto-clemente-day

So, a great thing--as long as the Jays don't miss the playoffs by a game, I'm happy.

come on man

It’s mcclanahan dude. Cant really be upset about losing to him.

I just feel like--intuition, could be totally wrong (and easily checkable)--the Jays have had a poor record in closing games of series the last couple of years, that they miss opportunities to sweep or win three out of four, or today to win four out of five. Against mediocre teams, same thing. And my sense is it cost them last year.

But I will check this and see if there's anything there.

Did this quickly: I have them at 21-24 closing out series this year, which would make them 60-39 in other games. I don't know if that's random or not.

Doesn't apply last year, when they were better in closeout games.

I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.

Daily Bo update: 15 games this month, 11 of them multi-hit. He's now seven points above last year's OPS+ (in part because of league decline in offense).

OPS+ is indexed so that 100 is league average. It adjusts with the year/hitting environment.

Right--he's having a slightly less productive season than last year, but offense is down league-wide, so his OPS+ is up seven points.

Yeah, the mlb-wide decline in hitting makes what Judge is doing even more bonkers

Good Jay Jaffe piece on Gausman:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fip-or-flop-why-kevin-gausman-isnt-part-of-the-al-cy-young-conversation/

1) He's been historically unlucky this year--his BABIP of .365 is the highest ever (or at least since 1901);

2) It may not just be bad luck, though--teams tend to hit him hard. (I notice the seeing-eye singles more, but I guess there's more to it.)