To What Extent Does Your Life Revolve Around Alejandro Kirk? (The 2023 Blue Jays Thread)

(After the Ohtani HR.)

"Why would you pitch to him? He's the only one who can hit!" lol

I believe "He’s the only fucking guy on the team that can hit” is the exact French translation.

They address this in the piece, but just to state obvious: what could you possibly get in return for Mitch White? A case of Gatorade?

https://jaysjournal.com/posts/5-blue-jays-most-likely-to-be-dealt-at-the-trade-deadline

Thermo: did you have a view of the Chapman dust-up?

Alejandro finally paying ILB back for the thread title.

Man, if they could have gotten him in from third in G6 of the 2015 ALCS--he was there with none out after stealing second and third--the Jays might have gone on to win the World Series.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/former-blue-jays-player-dalton-pompey-police-officer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ZzTShKLlY

How's this for a slump? Springer's 1-36 and counting.

Jordan Hicks for prospects. Reading lots about how hard he throws and his strikeouts, but his stats are very middling.

it's a solid rental

i mean, he's better than joe kelly

shit, feel like the cardinals got a steal here. it's a good time to rent hicks, though - he's been more consistent this year, and the last couple months, than he has in the last several.

"steal" is not the word! it's a trade to make the jays better this year and the cardinals' rotation better around 2025.

hicks could very well be very important down the stretch for the jays (hope he is!) and be totally worth it if they can make a run in the playoffs, and i have no idea about the jays' SP depth on the farm

Brilliant catch by Austin Hayes. And demoralizing for the Jays. Bautista got a couple of terrible strike calls, bad enough that you didn't even need the replay. Like he needs extra help.

I know that WAR is supposed to tell us all the things the stupid eye-test doesn't catch, but: for the Jays fans on this thread, do you feel like Matt Chapman is the second best position player in the A.L. (and only a half-game behind Ohtani the DH)? After his phenomenal April, his slash line going into tonight's game was .217/.316//386. Great fielder, yes, but he's been an offensive albatross for three months.

This is interesting. The Jays have given Hicks #12, same number he wore in St. Louis. Encarnacion was #12 for a while, but he switched over to #10 in 2011 in advance of the Jays retiring #12 for Alomar's HOF induction. I'm sure you know the rest. So Hicks gets #12.

Hays' catch:

https://www.mlb.com/video/felix-bautista-in-play-out-s-to-whit-merrifield-936th8?t=play-your-way

Would have tied the game if he misses (Kiermaier was on first); if it had somehow gotten past the center fielder, almost certainly an inside-the-park HR to win the game.

Incredible D from the Orioles yesterday, and so close to a statement-making comeback by the Jays.

I was surprised when I learned recently how high Chapman's WAR was. He might be the best defensively, but I wouldn't say he's even the best position player on the Jays. Speaking of, I'm very anxious to hear news on Bichette's knee.

I tuned in late last night, so learned about Bichette from your post. This is promising, I guess:

https://www.tsn.ca/mlb/toronto-blue-jays-bo-bichette-day-to-day-with-right-knee-injury-1.1991159

By the way, Chapman is 8th on Fangraph's list of A.L. position players. That's more reasonable, I'd say, but still overstated. I guess I just don't appreciate the extent of his defensive contribution.

Kevin Barker, of course, is apoplectic that the Jays didn't add a hitter.

I'm really glad every year when all this ends. I'm of course interested in whatever the Jays do, but mostly it's all hyped-up noise to me. mlb.com had a piece the other day about the five trades that should happen but probably won't. If you're going to engage in speculation, may as well do it twice over.

(The Jays would be fine if Vladdy and Springer and Chapman and Varsho performed to a level somewhere near what they're supposed to.)

With Chapman, obviously I mean "hit," not "perform."

Don't know what the record is, I'll look it up, but Springer is now 0-33.

Oh yeah, Chris Davis:

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/orioles-chris-davis-ends-mlb-record-54-at-bat-hitless-streak-with-two-run-single-vs-red-sox/

Go, George!

God, the Blue Jays feel like yesterday's news when the play the Orioles. Assuming Toronto's season ends earlier than Baltimore's, that's who I'll be rooting for the next day.

it's hard to accept loss after loss against the o's. But I'll be rooting for them if & when the jays are out of it. Man, George. It's hard to believe. I remember he was struggling with babip early on but he was mashing the ball. now he's just looking pretty... idk. it's bad.

Springer, 0-35, came up one AB short of the Blue Jay record--got a bloop single to knock in a run. His reaction was funny, especially he and Kiermaier dancing around over it. (Can't find video.)

After the loss today, the Jays are 8-23 vs the AL East?? I knew their record was bad, but I didn't know it was *that* bad.

God--Jays were on the verge of blowing yet another seemingly certain win, but they were saved by a baserunning error for the ages by Reese McGuire.

It was actually a terrible call by the third base coach Febles, he waved Maguire home cos he thought that ball was gone. Cora confirmed it after. But yeah, clownshow stuff from the Red Sox. At least Springer is out of that slump now.

The Jays' announcers said the same after seeing the reply, that the coach was sending him home. Here's the play if anyone hasn't seen it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPPL7NLr4dA

The guy narrating that clip says the coach was signaling to the runner on first, not waving McGuire.

McGuire, who represented the tying run, rounded the third base bag instead of holding up between second and third base to see if Kiermaier would catch it or not. Red Sox third base coach Carlos Febles, meanwhile, had his eyes on Luis Urías, the runner at first base, who represented the winning run.

“I think we all missed that one,” Cora said. “I think Reese took off and then Carlos was looking at Urías. Everybody thought it was going to be off the wall and it was a bad play — a bad baseball play.”

…
Cora said he thought Wong homered when the ball left the bat. Wong connected on a slider from Erik Swanson who had given up three straight singles with one out.

“We all thought it was gone,” Cora said. “Reese from the get-go. I was just talking to him. He thought it was gone. And then Carlos, he was looking at Urías. He just missed that one.”

pic.twitter.com/23vEp3YZlp

— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) August 5, 2023

I don't think the pitcher thought it was gone, his job is to back up third or home depending on how the play develops. He walked in the direction of third until he knew where he needed to be.

The third base coach's actions were inexcusable though, if he was signaling to the runner on first, then he had plenty of time to correct it before McGuire passed him, and he didn't.

Yeah that might be a misread on my part re the pitcher cos to me it looked as though his head was down but yeah, the coach absolutely fucked up there. Plenty of blame to go round.

Davis “Vuk” “Babe” “Moustache” Schneider, drafted 849th, became the only player with 9 hits and 2 hrs in his first 3 games.

Guy’s injected this team with some much-needed energy after Bichette’s injury and a thoroughly deflating Baltimore series.

I get that you guys are very happy about him and that’s great but Belt personally remains my favourite 🥰 I will always love him!

"Oh my god, can I take my base now, I'm scared"

- Brandon Belt pic.twitter.com/WQs0TGDYol

— Brennan Delaney (@Brennan_L_D) August 6, 2023

(Seriously, great debut for Schneider).

Schneider's something else. Don't know long it will last (the just-being-good part; I expect the hitting-.800-part will end in a few minutes), but I hope he's got some of these guys looking over their shoulders.

Meaningless, I know, but this is kind of funny:

Vladdy - 109 games, 1.0 bWAR
Schneider - 3 games, 0.6 bWAR

I figured out why that made me laugh. Less to do with Vladdy and more do to with the fact that Schneider is pretty much exactly the kind of guy they had in mind when the idea of "replacement player" was developed. You're essentially saying he's worth an extra 0.6 wins above what you'd get if you replaced him with...Davis Schneider.

hadn't realized how quiet a season vlad is having. fangraphs likes him even less (0.3 fWAR, jeez)

still gonna finish his age-24 season with 700+ hits and 130+ homers tho

He's an enigma. I don't think anyone has figured out whether he's 2021 Vlad or 2019/20/22/23 Vlad. The concerning part is that those four seasons, two on each side, are all quite similar, clearly pointing you in one direction for the answer.

His slash line ranges for the other four seasons:

BA: .262-.274
OBP: .329-.339 (three of the seasons are exactly .339)
SLG: .433-.480

Not a lot of variance there. It's like four seasons of Nick Castellanos, one season of Manny Ramirez.

he still doesn't strike out much (relatively speaking)

i'm in awe of his line-drive homers but it kinda seems like, in general, he needs more launch?

i want him to rule

Its gotta be that tiny park in Buffalo they played at "home" during COVID.

That definitely helped, looking at his splits in 2020/21.

Kikuchi's got the lowest second-half ERA in both leagues at 1.24 (five starts). It has to be too good to last.

I'm sure I'm not the only person thinking this: they'd have a better lineup offensively if they play him on Saturday.

https://ca.yahoo.com/sports/news/jose-bautista-signing-one-day-contract-to-retire-with-blue-jays-121027733.html

Manoah optioned again.