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

Got to see his first AB in a bar; I had already bought tickets weeks ago to a documentary on a band whose contribution to history was such thought-provoking songs as "My Erection Is Over."

That sounds worthwhile tbh

with a 'capsule'

just woke up to look at the box. you gotta be kiddin me

The mega hype for Vlad's debut is one thing in "favour", maybe, of service time manipulation. There's no way it gets this much attention if they had brought him up for a few weeks last season. One then might even argue that delaying his debut raises his profile and therefore his marketability and future income, but I don't think I'd go that far.

Hey, look at us, scoring runs.

/s ?!

Thought this revive would be about Vladisaur Jr getting benched tbqh

He's sat for at least two games, maybe three. Which probably would've been the case even if he were hitting. Which he's not. Cliché, but he's almost certainly pressing.

stroman doesn't seem like the kind of guy who can go 1-6 with a 3.12 ERA without publicly ripping his offense/bullpen for long

he has arrived. two home runs tonight.

Great (though I wish they'd given him the traditional silent treatment on #1--I always love that). Maybe he needed a little space: late game on the coast, virtually the entire city focused on the Raptors.

jays fans seem v. perturbed that vladdy did not start this holiday home game

I don't blame them.

(I say "them" because I'm a Raptors guy now.)

Cavan Biggio up

just in time for the raptors game tomorrow night

btw mississauga's own josh naylor will also be making his debut tonight in toronto (for the padres)

Friend and teammate of Darren Shred, I think--has evidently made out much better.

I've been paying zero attention to the Jays this year during the Raptors run (to baseball in general, really), so I wasn't aware of just how bad the team's offense was in terms of BA. They were talking about it on McCown's show today. They were hitting .218 going into tonight's game...Lowest team average in AL history were the White Sox in 1910, .212. The Yankees hit .214 in 1968.

I like Rowdy Tellez--great name, and he's certainly more fun than Justin Smoak. He may be one of the six thousand guys who hit 30 HR this year. Unless he conjures up some plate discipline, though (17 walks in his first ~300 AB)--which doesn't usually materialize at age 24--he's really just a younger Kendrys Morales, but worse.

ya, Rowdy's power is fun, but man his avg/obp is horrid.

2/3 in Boston - not bad!

I've made it pretty clear I'm not the world's biggest Marcus Stroman fan, but hilarious that Eckersley was complaining the other day about his theatrics...Eckersley! The guy who used to do all that gunslinger schtick in the late '80s. I haven't seen it, but Stroman supposedly tweeted the image of Alomar after his ALCS home run in response--nice!

I am fucking loving this Biggio kid.

How long do they keep throwing Sanchez out there? He's either hurt or he's terrible.

They don’t really have many options. Maybe when Borucki (sp?) comes back they can move someone to the pen... but we have SRF starting and Law being used as an opener. Bad options all around.

Was down at the game last night.

2-0 Boston after two pitches.
4-0 after one inning.
We left in the 8th, down 10-3.
Missed Vlad's two-run double in the 9th.

Money well spent!

hahaha oh man

fwiw i went to the bos-nyy game Sunday. bos hit three home runs in the first. ended up losing by four. "daddy this is boring." well, fuck everything.

On the bright side: Devers was awesome, I'm always happy to see Price win (23-3 lifetime against the Jays now), and it was $1 hot dog day.

And I've got to say: Joe Biagini did something that really makes you wonder about the guy. He's pitching in the 8th, they're down 8-3, he gets two quick outs, then walks Betts on four pitches, a couple of which looked borderline. Why in the world is he nibbling in that situation? Jesus, throw the ball underhand, but throw strikes. So of course Devers comes up and hits a HR.

Home run was off underhand pitch.

dalton pompey dfa'd ;_;

If the call-in show is to be trusted, Sanchez's 10-consecutive-losses (meaning a decision every game, not spread out) is the longest streak since 1949. Whatever you think of W-L record, he's kind of earned it:

IP - 45
H - 68
HR - 9
BB - 28
K - 28
ERA - 9.40

There was one decent start in there.

En route for another L so far through 4. Not looking terrible tho. So far.

He’s off the hook!

Tough call with Stroman--I don't know where Shapiro and Atkins need to draw the line on return before making a trade, other than they can't fuck up another one.

aside from everyone talking about how they're going to trade him - they don't have to trade him. he's controlled for one more year and they could still extend him through the years they are hoping to be competitive.

Things that complicate that: 1) you risk his value plummeting because of some injury (as with Sanchez); 2) he's obvious really unhappy with management, saying last night they're not talking to him and no offer has been made--he wants out, and when a guy like Stroman is unhappy, he's a problem; 3) I think he's pitching a little over his head this year--his trade value might be at a maximum right now.

I'm not saying you're wrong, just that it's a tough call.

1/3 yes. he's having a career year and his value will never he higher. but he's being a drama queen about the team not talking to him about an extension. if they were to hang onto him and talk to him in the offseason, he's going to forget about his little snit right away. despite his recent unhappiness with the FO, it does sound like he likes it a lot here.

Well this has been a fun game!

The Jays' win probability was as low as 0.3% -- down by six with four outs left. Was this the greatest Jays comeback ever?

According to B-R it's at best the third greatest comeback, behind a 10-0 comeback vs Boston in 1989 (a game I remember fairly well!) and a similar six run comeback vs TB last year that I'd completely forgotten about!

Yes--Ernie Whitt's HR in the 10-0 comeback an all-time Jays moment.

First time ever: team comes back from seven down one day, same two teams the next day and the other comes back from seven down.

The other day, in advance of Stroman leaving, one of the call-in shows was canvassing callers for their top 5 Blue Jay starters ever. The hosts talked for 10 or 15 minutes first. Halladay and Steib, obviously, they agreed. They both included Clemens--I wouldn't, because you're talking about a two-year stint, but if you want to, fine. After that, they batted around Hentgen, Stroman, Guzman, Estrada...not even once did Jimmy Key's name come up! Checking Blue Jay leaders, Key still sits 3rd in WAR, 3rd in ERA (tied with Stieb; 2nd among starters), 4th in wins, and 4th in IP. He's such an obvious pick for me, either third or fourth depending upon Clemens.

i hear bo’s been called up?

Ya.

The one thing that seems clear is that Shapiro and Atkins were fixated on getting rid of all remnants of the '15/16 teams--just Smoak is left, who I guess is cheap enough and drama-free enough that he gets to stay. So they have their clean slate, and they have their core of young position players right on or ahead of schedule. Now all they have to do is conjure up a pitching staff out of thin air.

i think that's why the deals we saw were light on the returns. they had their plan and were going to stick with them. extending Stroman might have made sense - most their future hitting core are up, so why not lock in a solid arm, or at least see how things look next year. but i think they were just determined to move everyone they could for what they could.

they went into the deadline around 21 on the fangraphs farm system rankings and have moved themselves into the #16 slot (most of that movement was from from Kay and SWR). but i feel like they could have done a lot better.