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

Judge (before tonight's HR): 98 G, 28 HR, .285/.385/.558
Brett: 163 G, 22 HR, .321/.402/.551

Judge and possible sign-stealing last night seems to be a story. Going by his career record against the Jays, I'm not putting much stock in it.

Yeah, there's no way he'd hit that AAAA-pitcher's hanging slider that drifted into his hot zone like a gigantic meatball without some covert tech.

You may as well be talking about Manoah these days.

(Just realized you are! I thought his second one was off someone different.)

Um, good company at the bottom at least!

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/blue-jays-alek-manoah-is-experiencing-a-near-unpredented-fall-from-grace-185226741.html

Couldn't watch tonight, but wow, Bassitt almost has his ERA under 3.00. When you start the year by giving up 9 runs in 3 innings, that's a pretty remarkable thing to manage by mid-May.

Don't mean to fixate on Manoah, but thought this was something: last year, batters hit under .200 off his slider; this year, almost .370.

Had some fantasy they were going to win 100 games this year; scratching out another wild-card seems to again be the best possible outcome.

Par for the course these days:

https://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/blue-jays-forced-to-pull-alek-manoah-from-game-due-to-incredible-mistake/615378

Not that they weren't going to find a way to lose anyway.

Schneider may be a bit of a bozo

He seemed to be toying with sending Kikuchi out to run in extras today, until Baltimore blew it wide open. Not sure how long a leash he has, but this is turning into a disaster in the making.

We're currently in last place, but are tops in the league in another very important stat:

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2023/5/18/23728526/blue-jays-hot-dogs-loonie-stat-mlb-toronto

I'll be down for the Aug. 15 game against the Phillies, but (diabetes II) will avoid the hot dogs. So maybe this guy need to make an adjustment (xHD+) for medical factors.

If there's a silver lining to this nightmare (there isn't--I'm just pretending), it's that Manoah probably needed a dose of humility. He's getting enough to last him till he's 30.

Curious as to how they handle this: write the year off and wait, do something dramatic (top of the list would be bailing on either Vladdy or Bo), fire Schneider (seems doubtful, but who knows). They fired Jimy Williams 36 games into the season in '89, but there was no WC then.

Bo is so streaky, that I expect he'll go into funk at some point in the near future, so I'll enjoy this while it lasts: one of the best players in the game right now (tied with Acuna for second in bWAR behind Franco), has pushed his career average over .300 and career slugging pct. to almost .500, is following through on Dave Fleming's MVP prediction, and has three HOF'ers on his Similarity-Score list through 24 (Lazzeri, Berra, and Banks). Also on there: Tulowitzki, Cano, Nomar, and Hanley Ramirez, which sounds about right: I still wonder if he's Juan Samuel, and could see him flaming out before he's 30.

Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass is under fire after he shared a social media post promoting the anti-LGBTQ campaigns to boycott Target and Bud Light over their Pride-themed partnerships and campaigns. https://t.co/u87oebUwBl

— Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) May 30, 2023

I read about this and it didn’t surprise me that he is a right wing piece of shit, but it did that he did this in spite of the Jays having some Budweiser sponsored home run thing?

Oh ok, just saw he was doing a press conference in an hour. Expect him to eat shit as well as innings in lost games. Feel sorry for Toronto fans.

'the Pride community'

I KNOW

Pretty common observation about your hometown team, but a third of the way through, they are puzzling. Except for Manoah's total implosion (getting worse), a number of things have gone well or even better than that: Bo, Chapman, Kiermaier, Gausman, Bassitt, Berrios, Merrifield. Another half-dozen guys have been just okay--not gaping holes or anything. So other than Manoah, it's hard to point one place and say "That's the problem." A bunch of the okays just have to play better, Vladdy and Springer especially, of course. (I haven't watched enough to vouch for this, but a couple of the FAN guys were saying they do a lot of boneheaded stuff on the basepaths.)

Doofus here was advocating that they go out and get Kevin Pillar on the cheap before the season started.

https://www.mlb.com/video/kevin-kiermaier-s-incredible-grab-x3777?q=kiermaier&cp=CMS_FIRST&qt=FREETEXT&p=0

Verlander/Bassitt has the potential to be a great pitcher's duel tonight, but who knows--Bassitt bounces between one extreme or the other.

Figured my post would guarantee a 9-7 game, but instead got exactly what I was hoping for: 1-0 till a Varsho HR in the 9th put it away. It was untouchable Bassitt tonight: 7.2 IP, 3 hits, no walks, 8 Ks. Verlander was great too--Showalter let him finish the 6th with the bases loaded and around 115 pitches. Struck Varsho out to end the inning.

God--haven't even turned the game on yet, and a friend posts on FB about Manoah giving up six runs in the first innings and getting pulled after 38 pitches. We're at one of Yogi's crossroads here, I think.

"first innings"--probably what it felt like watching.

One of Yogi's forks-in-the-road, that should be. One prong say minors, one says bullpen, one says IL.

Watched the first inning on replay:

Mauricio Dubon singles on a line drive to right fielder Cavan Biggio.

Jeremy Pena singles on a bunt ground ball to third baseman Matt Chapman. Mauricio Dubon to 2nd.

Yordan Alvarez singles on a ground ball to right fielder Cavan Biggio, deflected by first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Mauricio Dubon scores. Jeremy Pena to 2nd.

HOU 1,TOR 0

Alex Bregman flies out to center fielder Kevin Kiermaier. Jeremy Pena to 3rd. 1 out

Kyle Tucker singles on a line drive to left fielder Daulton Varsho. Jeremy Pena scores. Yordan Alvarez to 2nd.

HOU 2,TOR 0

Jose Abreu walks. Yordan Alvarez to 3rd. Kyle Tucker to 2nd.

Corey Julks hits a grand slam (5) to left field. Yordan Alvarez scores. Kyle Tucker scores. Jose Abreu scores.

HOU 6,TOR 0

Yainer Diaz singles on a sharp line drive to center fielder Kevin Kiermaier.

Jake Meyers singles on a sharp line drive to center fielder Kevin Kiermaier. Yainer Diaz to 2nd.

Pitching Change: Jay Jackson replaces Alek Manoah.

Painful. Manoah, as you might guess, looked shell-shocked.

manoah demoted all the way to rookie league, wow

Apparently that’s where the Blue Jays have their pitching lab? Probably a better chance of doing a Halladay on him there.

Wow x 2...One thing I heard somebody here say--it might have been Dan Schulman--was that this isn't like Halladay in that they had to (literally, whoever it was stressed) start at ground zero with Halladay, things like "This is how you hold the baseball." And that that's not going to be the case with Manoah. (Though if you'd seen him last night, you might wonder.)

How far has he fallen? Something I didn't know till today, looking over all the coverage: his WHIP for his first two seasons was the lowest two-season mark for a pitcher since Walter Johnson.

Also, that complex is in Florida, so he’ll be near his family. I don’t care for the persona but I never like to see fount players struggle like the way he was doing. He had clearly gone into his head.

Young not “fount”, lol

Not crazy about his tweeting and all that myself (see comment a few above); I remember thinking at one point, "Jesus, just pitch." But I think most anybody would have felt some sympathy seeing him walk off the mound last night.

What exactly is so complex about the Florida Complex League anyway? Are the ballpark dimensions expressed as logarithms?

Gausman was lights-out again tonight: 7 IP, 13 K, 4 hits, no walks. He's leading the league in innings and strikeouts. McClanahan would almost certainly win the Cy Young today, but it may end up as another of those bWAR/fWAR contests; each one leads one and isn't Top 10 in the other. (I think the bWAR--more traditional--guy still has the advantage, which is McClanahan.)

Things that make you feel old: Homer Bush Jr. (they were talking about him on the radio yesterday) is on his way.

https://gculopes.com/sports/baseball/roster/homer-bush-jr-/10795

Hit .370 in the Western Athletic Conference of the NCAA this year...for which I don't really have any context whatsoever.

At work, haven't had a chance to read this yet. Manoah/Halladay: similarities, differences.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/mlb-blue-jays-alek-manoah-roy-halladay-comparisons-hold-any-merit-173412788.html

what on earth

As part of their upcoming Pride Weekend, the #BlueJays plan to have Anthony Bass catch the ceremonial first pitch on Friday.

— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) June 8, 2023

I really hesitate to weigh in on this, but wouldn't that be one way to demonstrate some penance? Meaningless if there's a gun to his head (like when a principal forces a kid to write a letter of apology to you), but if sincere, it's something.

It’s not remotely sincere and they should be embarrassed.

Asked Anthony Bass if he’s changed his views on the video:

“The video itself, I took it down. I felt like it was too much of a distraction. I stand by my personal beliefs and everyone is entitled to their personal beliefs, right? But I also mean no harm to any groups of people.”

— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) June 8, 2023

Thanks for clearing that up. I can go back to hesitating to weigh in on this.

Yeah, wouldn’t want to make any judgment calls on a current staff member.

On-field-related post--sorry...It'll be huge if they can take this tonight. Between Gausman and Bassitt, and Berrios continuing to pitch pretty well, I'm starting to think they can withstand Manoah's banishment to Siberia. Enough to take a wild-card, anyway.

Not crazy about his tweeting and all that myself (see comment a few above); I remember thinking at one point, "Jesus, just pitch." But I think most anybody would have felt some sympathy seeing him walk off the mound last night.

― clemenza, Tuesday, June 6, 2023 4:16 PM (two days ago)

glad we've discovered the line where you will or will not hesitate to weigh in on social media posting

I find it amusing that I was told, very clearly, not to post about Hall of Fame or statistical-related matters in gyac's Magical Kingdom of Baseball thread, but turning the Jays thread into whatever it is you're turning it into is perfectly okay.

xp ceremonial pitch tweet: I thought this was a joke. It would be about him. a PR event for Bass that would obviously backfire because of the boos that would cloud the whole proceeding and trivialize the message. I really don't think it will actually happen.

Putting aside your childish dig at my thread - which I said already you are welcome in, I just do not care about the HoF at all, which is why I leave those discussions too interested parties - Bass’s conduct is extremely relevant itt. And btw, not a single member of my family follows or knows anything about baseball besides that I like it but they have sent me links about this guy’s behaviour on Twitter because it was that bad that it crossed over from baseball coverage!

The question about what the franchise will tolerate from a reliever especially when the franchise is based in a relatively liberal community like Toronto is an entirely valid one. If this guy was a Mariner I’d be posting in my thread about that.