Blue Jays Discussion: We're back, baby. Blue Jays clinch 2020 playoff spot

[dredeye]

And I remember never being more excited for a cluster of DSL arms than I was back then.

The attrition rates are crazy, eh?

It really is crazy how many miss. That’s the scarier thing trading them. You could move a cluster of good/great mlb players in one deal and nothing in ten others.

 

[Amadeus]

Can't have a low scoring game when these two teams are playing.

 

[phillipmike]

 

[The Nemesis]

That 2015 prospect list had some pitching to be truly excited about. Hoffman was a big steal for us

And yet of the 8 pitchers on that list of 10 prospects, there's really only 1 unmitigated success (Osuna). Sanchez and Norris are probably technically successes, but are very disappointing ones. Castro is a dime-a-dozen replaceable pen arm, Hoffman made it, strictly speaking, but is largely a failure at the MLB level, Labourt and Tirado never made it at all, and the jury is still out on Reid-Foley (though the signs are promising now that he's in the pen)

while I don't want this to become a "don't dream on prospects" claim, it is a valuable lesson on just how much the deck is stacked against any prospect from becoming something worthwhile.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Looking at old prospects lists is a lesson in sadness.

But all of Pearson, Martin, Groshans, Martinez, SWR, Kirk, Manoah, and Kloffenstein will be studs, trust me on this one

In reality it's probably just Kendall Williams that will be

 

[Discoverer]

16 balls hit 98+ mph tonight... two by the Yankees (both outs) and 14 by the Jays.

 

[The Nemesis]

Looking at old prospects lists is a lesson in sadness.

But all of Pearson, Martin, Groshans, Martinez, SWR, Kirk, Manoah, and Kloffenstein will be studs, trust me on this one

In reality it's probably just Kendall Williams that will be

And Conine. He's going to become a 45 HR perennial mvp

 

[Morgs]

Danny Jansen decided he wanted to stay the starter tonight.

 

[TheMadHatTrick]

Danny Jansen decided he wanted to stay the starter tonight.

It's good to have a backup like Kirk challenging him to keep him hungry. Also, eating all the food to do the same.

 

[phillipmike]

Man, Shapiro must be the director from the Truman Show if he can get the wind to blow only when Tanaka pitches and get it to stop for studs like Ray, Cole and Stripling.

 

[canucksfan]

Yankees whine so frequently

 

[phillipmike]

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Seeing that 2015 prospect list, five years later, and it was still well worth AA going for broke moving the dozen plus prospects at the deadline giving the team (and us fans) two great playoff runs that fell just short of World Series appearances.

Also, it goes to show that most prospects are nothing more than trading currency, many of whom develop with their second or third team, if at all.

 

[phillipmike]

Tweet of the year?

 

[Cloned]

Man, Shapiro must the director from the Truman Show if he can get the wind to blow only when Tanaka pitches and get it to stop for studs like Ray, Cole and Stripling.

Underrated Truman Show reference.

 

[Cloned]

And yet of the 8 pitchers on that list of 10 prospects, there's really only 1 unmitigated success (Osuna). Sanchez and Norris are probably technically successes, but are very disappointing ones. Castro is a dime-a-dozen replaceable pen arm, Hoffman made it, strictly speaking, but is largely a failure at the MLB level, Labourt and Tirado never made it at all, and the jury is still out on Reid-Foley (though the signs are promising now that he's in the pen)

while I don't want this to become a "don't dream on prospects" claim, it is a valuable lesson on just how much the deck is stacked against any prospect from becoming something worthwhile.

To be fair, Sanchez should have covered the bet if he didn't run into nagging health issues.

 

[phillipmike]

Reinforcements could boost Blue Jays' 'pen

Pearson, Romano and Merryweather. Would be nice to get them to join Bass, Dolis and Cole.

9 underperformers set to step up in playoffs

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays
Guerrero is still hitting far too many ground balls, mitigating the impact of his powerful bat, but it’s hard to ignore the 21-year-old’s 93rd-percentile hard-hit rate, especially when he’s pairing it with an 81st-percentile strikeout rate. The biggest question for Guerrero remains the same as it was after his rookie year: Can he get the ball in the air more? He started doing that during his best stretch of the season -- an 11-game hitting streak from Aug. 19-30 that saw the young slugger record a .375/.457/.675 slash line with seven extra-base hits (two homers) in 46 plate appearances. In that stretch, 51.3% of his batted balls were fly balls or line drives, compared to 38.4% the rest of the season. Does he have another streak like that in store for October?

 

[lebdafor norris]

Which former Blue Jay would you add to this roster right now if you could? From any year. For me, it would be one of the aces Doc/Rocket/Stieb. I was only around to watch Doc pitch for the Jays so I am partial to him. Doc and Ryu at the top of the rotation would be sick.

He definitely wouldn't be my first choice but I wished the Jays kept Liam Hendricks. He always had great stuff and his underlying numbers had always looked very good to elite but I do remember how he would often give up runs during the worst possible situations and then absolutely dominate in meaningless innings, so I wasn't really upset when the trade happened at the time, too bad Chavez didn't pan out.

 

[Discoverer]

Jansen has a 98 wRC+ despite a sub-.200 BABIP. He might be kinda good.

 

[kb]

Tweet of the year?

Now that is funny! Self-deprecation and a wicked burn all rolled into one.

 

[hockeywiz542]

Blue Jays sit one win shy on unexpected, tumultuous road to playoffs - Sportsnet.ca

The campaign began with a two-week road trip and when a pair of losses Aug. 16 to the Rays left the Blue Jays at 7-11 as Bo Bichette suffered a knee injury, their ambitions could easily have been cooked. Instead, they reeled off a six-game win streak to begin a 19-9 run that propelled them to the cusp, and what looks like a first-round matchup with their nemesis Rays.

“You can make (a situation) as bad as it is, or as good as you want,” said Cavan Biggio, who scored three times, including the game’s first run, and drove in a pair during an eight-run sixth that pushed this one out of reach. “Going into our situation, not being able to play in Toronto and coming to Buffalo, playing on the road for the first couple of weeks, we could have easily looked at it as if, ‘our backs are against the wall, it’s OK if we don’t win this year, it’s kind of a crazy year.’ The way we took it is, ‘we’re here for each of us in the locker room’ and it’s shown over the longevity of this long year with injuries and guys going down, guys stepping in and picking it right up. There’s just a lot of tight-knit guys here on this team and it’s made it a lot of fun.”

And all the more so if they complete the next steps to come.

At 29-27, the Blue Jays can do no worse than finishing in a tie for the eighth and final post-season spot, but that does them nothing as they would lose a tiebreaker to both the Angels, who are 3½ games back, and Mariners, who are four off the pace.

The first tiebreaker is intra-division record and for the Blue Jays to end up in a tie with Seattle, they’d have to lose out, leaving them 19-21 versus the AL East, while the Mariners would need to win out, ending up at 22-18 against the AL West.

The Angels, meanwhile, are already finished in the division at 19-21, so if they finished level, they’d go to the second tiebreaker, which is record in the last 20 divisional games. In that scenario, the Blue Jays would be 8-12 to 12-8.

So, there’s no bottle popping just yet, although Ryu can make all that academic with a good outing in the type of game the Blue Jays envisioned him in when they anted up $80 million over four years to lure over the Korean lefty.

“Everybody’s excited here,” said manager Charlie Montoyo, “and of course we have our ace going.”

 

[justashadowof]

Um... Ronald Acuna. He hit 100 career MLB RBIs on June 7th 2019 at the age of 21 years, 171 days.

Also Robin Yount who wasn't even 21 yet.

Also Al Kaline (under 21), ARod, Ken Griffey Jr.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Um... Ronald Acuna. He hit 100 career MLB RBIs on June 7th 2019 at the age of 21 years, 171 days.

Youngest Blue Jays player.

 

[Discoverer]

Um... Ronald Acuna. He hit 100 career MLB RBIs on June 7th 2019 at the age of 21 years, 171 days.

Yeah, I think we would all be thrilled if he qualified for that stat.

 

[justashadowof]

Youngest Blue Jays player.

Why did I miss "Blue Jays"? Head shake.