Kaitlyn McGrath

Yeah, I think Cease is the guy right now.

Yeah, it's as you say, like the way that the Blue Jays deployed Miles and then Nance, it feels like they mapped it out exactly to put Lauer in the most advantageous spot that they could.

And even doing that doesn't work out for him, obviously gets into immediate trouble with the walk and then the home run.

You know, Chris was talking about it on the broadcast.

That's what happens when you're not throwing strikes and when you're not attacking and when you're not hitting your spots.

And when you're throwing a fastball that's 88, you really got to hit your spots.

I mean, I was trying to think during the game, like, who was the last pitcher I saw that was throwing 88?

It's not something you see anymore.

I mean, every year in the major leagues, guys are throwing harder and harder and harder.

But I was thinking,

Hyunjin Ryu came to mind.

That's a guy that didn't throw hard, but he was like an artist when it came to hitting his spots.

Obviously, towards the end of his career with the Blue Jays, obviously, he was not as effective as when he first signed with them, but that was a guy that was like, okay, he could get away with throwing softer because he was really effective at hitting his spots, and he had a number of pitches and was kind of

that kind of command artist, but we weren't seeing that with Lauer, so he's not throwing as hard as he was last year.

It's been a trouble spot for him.

You talk about the flu.

There's obviously been sort of immediate impacts with that flu that he had earlier in the season, but it seems like there's been some long-term effects of that as well, so it's not necessarily that he's still ill, but

uh you know losing some some body weight or losing some muscle things like that can happen um and we we do know that he was quite sick i mean i think he was probably the blue jay that got hit the hardest with that flu that um that made its way around their clubhouse so you don't want to necessarily make excuses for him because at the end of the day like you have to get it done this is obviously the highest level and you have to be able to execute and if you especially want to maintain your spot in the starting rotation that's something that the blue jays

are going to require of him.

But as you say, like, what do you do from here?