Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
All right, welcome back to Blair and Barker, brought to you by Capital One. Capital One, giving credit to over 4 million Canadians and counting. We've got Jeff Passan later on in the show. We got Jays and Angels tickets to give away.
You'll see the Jays and Angels at the Rogers Centre, where the series will open the first of three games tomorrow night, and that gives us an opportunity to welcome our next guest back to Toronto. He needs no introduction, but, well, seeing as how Well, he doesn't need any introduction. There he is. John Gibbons. Los Angeles Angels bench coach, former Blue Jays manager, et cetera, et cetera.
You look good. How are you doing? You look younger.
I do? Yeah, you look younger. I usually don't get that compliment that I look good, so thank you, boys.
Hey, I wanted to ask you, how has the role of the bench coach changed since you were the bench coach in Kansas City and now you're the bench coach here? How has the role changed?
Well, Jeff, you know, I think it all depends on the manager. You know, when I was doing it in the first time doing it in Kansas City, you know, I had Trey Hillman and then Ned Jost came over. And, you know, Ned had been at it for a while. So there was, you know, we bounced things off each other. But, you know... Ned had a plan what he wanted to do and just executed it, you know.
And then, of course, I went to New York with the Mets, Mendoza, and he'd been around. He'd been a bench coach for a number of years with the Yankees, so he had a lot of experience doing that. But there's a little more give and take there. And then now out here in Anaheim with Kurt Suzuki, who hasn't done it before, there's been a little bit more of it.
But, you know, all three of them are, you know, were great baseball guys, you know, had played a long time and all that. And so they're natural. They're all good baseball guys, and I think they're going to be very successful. I think Kurt's going to have a great career doing it, and I just hope I can give them a little bit here and there, you know.
But, you know, you don't necessarily need a lot, that's for sure. If you need a lot, you're not very good, I don't think.
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Chapter 2: How has the role of the bench coach changed in modern baseball?
Now, you know, the whole game's changed. You know, that's a good question. The whole game's changed. You know, I'm kind of viewed as a grandfather sitting around Yoda or something like that down there. And I don't know. It's because I look like Yoda or it's because, you know, for being around the game a long time. But, yeah.
You know, they'll come to you and they'll ask you questions and things like that about what you think about this or that. But these guys nowadays are so programmed into, you know, coming up through the minor leagues with analytics, you know, a lot of heavy information there. So they know a lot of that stuff going in and they look at it themselves and, you know,
Maybe it's more like a security blanket. When times get tough, you know what to say to him or you hope you know what to say to him. Father figure, grandfather figure, whatever you want to say. What I hope to do is offer a little stability one way or the other.
Maybe not. You've been around a lot of great players. What's it like to have Mike Trout, a healthy Mike Trout in the clubhouse and in the lineup?
He's been tremendous. I've Naturally, I've seen him from afar, and he's been banged up the last couple of years. Like you said, though, he's healthy this year, and he's off to a great start. He's probably the most humblest superstar I've ever been around. He's just a great dude, and he'll do anything for you and anybody else. But he's moving around great, like he was younger.
Naturally, if he's getting to that stage of his career... where his body's a little bit more beat up. Maybe he doesn't move quite as quick. I mean, that's the way it's supposed to happen. But he's off to a tremendous start. We were in Yankee Stadium a couple weeks ago, and he and Judge were going at it back-to-back with the home run barrages. But to watch Mike every day, I'd seen him.
We'd play him every now and then. But to see him up close every day, you really appreciate him much, much more.
Okay, I'm going to ask you kind of an off-the-wall question here. How would Mike Trout, a healthy Mike Trout, fit in with the 2015-2016 Jays in terms of the personalities you had in that clubhouse? Great question.
Because that was like there were alpha males coming out of the manager's office and at third base and behind the plate and in right field and at DH, and I haven't even started talking about the pitching staff. So how would Mike Trout have fit in that type of a team?
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Chapter 3: What is it like to coach a healthy Mike Trout?
And then, you know, we're playing good baseball. And then we had a tough week, 10-day stretch. You know, really, it's tough to pinpoint what it is, you know, other than a lot of times we weren't combining the pitching with the offense. Because I tell you what, our strength is our starting rotation. We've got some pretty good arms we can throw at you.
But our bullpen has been kind of, you know, we're trying to figure out really who's doing what. You know, we've got some ā they're not necessarily young guys, but they're unproven guys. They have great arms, but we're trying to figure what the roles are because we have struggled with that. We've got Joyce who's coming back pretty soon who will step into the closing roles, so that will help.
It's really his team trying to find his confidence, but there's a lot of talent out there on the offensive side and in that starting rotation, even in our bullpen. We've just got to figure out what it is. The bullpens, you look around baseball, as a whole, pretty much.
I mean, there's, they all run through that, you know, and, and so the key is you outslug some teams enough where you get, get a little breathing room down there. But like I said, you know, they, they played below 500 by a pretty good amount last year. So hopefully we shoot for that. And then you never know what happens because, you know, the whole,
If you look at it, the whole American League is struggling now, you know. And so anything could happen at any time, you know. And if you get hot, even you guys, the Blue Jays, you know, I mean, early in the year struggled last year and then caught fire and it all came together. And, heck, you end up in the World Series. So you never know in this business. You know, you really don't.
Yeah, I think you mentioned it right. The American League's not very good. That just sort of leaves the window open for teams like yourself, teams like the Blue Jays, to kind of go through it and figure it out and make a little decent.
Well, no, I don't know if it's not very good. It's a lot of parody. But I look at it this way. Maybe this is ā I've always thought, you know, with all the analytics out there and everybody's got it, right? Yeah. I mean, is there any untapped ā information out there? Probably not, right? In baseball? So if everybody's got the same information, everybody ought to be 500, right?
Everybody ought to be equal.
That's a great point. Last one, and I do want to ask you this because you've been around forever. Okay, when does an established player, no matter if they pitch or they're on the offensive side, start worrying about their season not going the way they want it to go? Everybody gets off to slow starts, right? It's cold. You know, you just don't feel right. You run into good pitching.
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Chapter 4: How would Mike Trout have fit into the 2015-2016 Jays lineup?
Or it goes back to when you asked a question like about Donaldson Batista a while ago. Those guys knew who they were. They knew in the end where they'd be. They knew how to fix things when things went a little haywire.
Yeah. Cool stuff. John, really good of you to join us, man. Thanks so much. Great to see you again. We'll see you at the park. You do look taller and younger, for sure.
Well, that's funny, man. I'm shorter and fatter and a great candidate for Ozempic. Oh, we love you. Stop it. Are they a sponsor of your show or anybody?
No. Although we were worrying about Barker for a minute. We thought that maybe we could land an Ozempic. That hurts. That hurts.
All right, boys, I'll see you out there.
All right, John, be well. Bye. John Gibbons, bench coach with the Los Angeles Angels. One of a kind. I do find myself wondering, because I spent so much time around that 2015-2016 team, I do find myself wondering how they would handle ABS, you know, some of the personalities there.
Like, they were all pros and everything, but, I mean, that was ā I haven't seen a collection of alpha males on a team that I've covered in any sport like that.
Yeah, I think they were pretty stubborn with what they thought would be a strike. And if they were tapping the top of the helmet and those were balls or they weren't getting overturned or going the way they wanted them to go, I would think that would be when they'd start throwing things and yelling at people.
And Gibby would have to walk them off the plank and force them not to use it again and make them carry people's luggage. You know, it's just stupid that you can't use your boom box. Remember? Oh, that's good stuff. So, yeah, I mean, it's ā But the Jays are, you know, scarily, is that a word? Even though it ain't. Scarily. Yeah, are really bad at it. You would think a team would just learn from.
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Chapter 5: What distinguishes elite players from average big leaguers?
I think it's very simple. I think Gibby's right. I think you make sure you save one challenge for late in the game and let one of your hitters use it.
It's very hard. That's easier said than done when you have a guy on the mound who's not throwing as hard as he normally does. You're facing a part of the lineup. You can do that all you want. There's a reason why catchers are using him.
Not in the third inning. I mean, again. I get back to that third inning, Kevin Gosselin on the mound. I'm letting him figure it out. I mean, it's easy for me to say because I'm sitting there, and there's also you're a human being, and there's that instant reaction. I know that's a strike. He's trying to help his pitcher. I know it looked bad.
I do think it's easier if you give people a guideline, if you give people so that you remove that element. You remove that element of doubt. We got one challenge left. You're not using it, period. We're not using it until the eighth inning or the ninth inning. That's all there is to it.
My answer to everything is hit more homers. That's my answer to everything. If more homers, that thing, we won't even be having a conversation about that.
We're giving you the chance to win Blue Jays tickets all season long here in Blair and Barker. All you have to do is text the correct answer to our daily baseball trivia question. The 590-590 standard message and data rates may apply. Our last question and answer was, he's a two-time World Series champion and has also been named World Series MVP.
He has played for several big-name managers in the majors, notably Mike Socha, Tony La Russa, and Cito Gaston. He only signed a one-year deal with the Blue Jays and played in 76 games with the organization. The answer is David Eckstein. Today's question is when tickets to see the Jays and Angels on May 10th at the Rogers Center. That's a good one.
Played for eight different teams in his MLB career, including the Blue Jays and Angels. Despite moving around, he has spent the most time of his career in Toronto, four seasons and 479 games. He is already suited up for two different American League teams so far in 2026. Name him. Again, this is to win tickets to see the Jays and Angels on May 10th at the Rogers Center.
He's played for eight different teams in his career, including the Blue Jays and Angels. Despite moving around, he spent the most time in Toronto, four seasons and 479 games of the Blue Jays. He has already suited up for two different American League teams so far in 2026. Name him. You can text the answer to 590-590 for your shot to win. See rules at sportsnet.ca slash 590.
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Chapter 6: What are John Gibbons' thoughts on the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system?
The calls have been good on Jays. Oh, no. I'm not saying. No. It's just that, yeah. I mean, there's a little, you know, little Groundhog Day-ish stuff happening.
Sooner or later, you need to start playing better.
Yeah. That's true. You know, maybe we'll get some run tomorrow out of who the Jays send down to make room for Addison Barger. For you. Which Parker says isn't a story.
It's not.
No one cares about it. We'll see. We'll see tomorrow.
How will they finish the season without whoever they're going to send down? It doesn't matter.
You know that if they send Schneider down, someone's going to call up and complain that they didn't send Heinemann down. No, they're not. If they send Pignango down, people are going to call up and complain, why didn't they send Schneider? I mean, that's just the way it is.
People are smart enough to know that they don't have another catcher.
Yep.
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Chapter 7: How do umpires receive feedback during games with the ABS system?
It's an, and Lindor being out too, I think just compounds it. Um, But even in the American League, there are those two teams that you mentioned with the Astros and the Angels. In the National League, every central team is three or more games over .500. I don't think the Nationals are going to stay in it, but they've been good.
pretty decent so far um i'd say the rockies are out uh i'd say the giants are out so i i think i think there are five teams right now because i'd probably throw the nats in the mix there too i think there are five teams right now where i'm gonna look at them with the mets being sort of borderline six and say this just isn't their year that's it you know what though
Pretty good when you have 80 to 85 percent of your that are still feeling like they're in it. I don't think the NBA has that. Well, I know the NBA doesn't have that. I don't think the NHL has that. I'm not a big enough hockey guy to know. And I certainly don't think the NFL has that.
Yeah, and I think one of the reasons that that really resonates is because unlike those other sports, there aren't a lot of off days. There's a game every day, and for the most part, as long as there's a game every day, you sell hope every day. And the easiest way to sell hope every day is to tell your fans, well, yeah, we're not real good right now, but there's a whole lot of that going on.
I that's why to me, the stand. See, I go back and forth in this. I don't like looking at the standings generally until June. But but because of the fact that it's a day to day sport, sometimes you do. Right. Just to sort of remind yourself that the team isn't as bad as you think it is or, you know, in some instances, the team isn't as isn't as good. as it thinks it is.
And that's why I think it's hugely important because you're talking about your team every day. You're talking about a game every day. Today's winning. You win today, then that eight-game losing streak ends. You lose today, and, you know, it becomes a nine-game losing streak.
Like, it's just there's so much that goes into the day-to-day, you know, the routine of baseball that I think that's why it's particularly important to have that, you know, to have that element of hope out there. Mm-hmm. And that's not a bad thing.
It goes a long way, but my fear is always that every team is going to be just good enough to not want to sell at the trade deadline and that we're going to have a dud of a deadline because of it. But there will be enough guys. There will be inventory out there.
I just think it's very hard to figure out who the third best team is in the American League. Who is it? Like if you're sitting around in one of these front offices, who is it?
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