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Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the Blue Jays' recent game against the Astros?
All right, welcome to Blair and Barker for Thursday, June 25th. This is the Can't Get Any Worse edition of Blair and Barker after last night.
Aren't they in a playoff spot?
Oh, God, you and I are in a playoff spot, for God's sake. The Blue Jays losing 3-1 to the Astros last night. And shout out to the Jays for coming up with a new way to blow a game. With Joey Loperfito. Before I even go down this. Again, they didn't hit. The top two dudes didn't hit. They were what? I figured this out. They were like two for 18 in the last two games or whatever it was.
Not two for 18. Combined two for 18 with two singles. I mean, even in a game where the team scores seven runs, George and Vlade had singles. So we've got to throw that out there first of all. The offense stinks. and that's pretty much been the case for most of the year, right? So you know that.
But the talking point out of last night's game, Luis Arias head down on that line drive off the bat of George Springer. We'll talk about that in a bit. The big talking point, Kevin, the play at third base, Joey Loperfito at third, Yainer Diaz at the plate, Jeff Hoffman, who... Hasn't had a lot of real standout moments for the Blue Jays. Let me rephrase that.
That's not true because he's got a lot of swing and miss, yada, yada, et cetera, et cetera. But he has had a ā let's put it this way. He doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence in the fan base or the media when he comes into the game. So, anyhow, last night he's in the game, runner and 3rd. And, I mean, the Jays decide to put on a pickoff play. Now, does Kirk ā we all saw the play.
Okamoto doesn't move. By the time Hoffman stepped off the mound, it's a block anyhow. You know, my issue was that, you know, first and foremost, the throw wasn't ā didn't anywhere near the bag, and it wasn't anywhere near where Okamoto was standing either. So, I mean, it was just ā That's part of it.
But the story is that Okamoto didn't get in his ear, didn't hear the call from Kirky with the button that they were going to try the pickoff. You know, my first question, who puts that on? Does that come from the dugout? Right. Listen, I understand that Jeff Hoffman holding base runners is a huge issue with Jeff Hoffman. But, Kevin, I got to ask you,
I mean, that's kind of overthinking it, isn't it? Yeah, I think you started with, what was your words? They stink offensively, is that what you said?
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Chapter 2: Why did the Blue Jays choose a pick-off play in a critical moment?
Yeah, they do, they stink. Well, I think that's why you're seeing plays put on like that. You know, they practice that. Jeff picking runners off or trying to at third base, they do that behind the scenes just for certain situations like that. And it sounds to me like they were thinking that Lopafito's eyes weren't kind of where they should be.
Maybe that element of surprise, you can roll your eyes all you want.
Oh, no, Mike.
Just trying to give you the answer of the question that you asked me. Okay? And you're rolling your eyes at me.
I wasn't the one that threw it. No, I'm not rolling my eyes because I disagree with the way you're saying. I'm rolling my eyes because I don't really give a rat's ass. Now, I understand it was the Joey Loper Fido redemption tour that we all saw that with the homer. I get that. But you got a guy in the mound who can do one thing generally, and that's strike guys out.
And, by the way, he ended up striking Diaz out after that. I just, I don't understand why you, why even flirt with the possibility of something bad happening. This is what I don't understand. Again, I get Jeff Hoffman is lousy holding base runners. We know that. We've talked about it all the time. But, man, oh, man, it's like, it's just, don't tempt fate.
I guess that's, and maybe I'm looking at it, you know, maybe John can't look at it that way. John can't manage a game that way. John can't sit there and say, wow, God, if I put this on and it doesn't work out, they're going to boo his ass off the mound, so I better not do it. I mean, he can't think that way, but I can. And the fans can. You know, that's what was going through everybody's mind.
Was it really? Oh, hell yeah. It's kind of one of those plays where if it works, everybody's standing up clapping, saying it's the smartest thing they've ever seen. And if it looked the way it looked, everybody thinks it's the dumbest thing they've ever seen.
Yeah. There's no medium. No, there's no medium. There's no medium. But you have to ask yourself, you have to ask yourself again,
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Chapter 3: How have poor offensive performances impacted the Blue Jays' season?
You know, the roster, I said this on the Calgary show this morning when I went on. For me, the 26-man roster is not good enough. I don't think that's just reality of where we're at with this. It's just there's some guys having some good years, and we all know the names of those people, and then there's everybody else.
And there's more everybody else than there are a couple of guys having good seasons, and that's the problem, right? And we talked about this, right? The lack of the predictable run producer in the middle of the order is just not there. Kirk, he's come back. Where's he at?
You know, it's ā obviously, we've had the conversation with Vladdy until we're just ā we're running out of ways to have a conversation with Vladdy or about Vladdy. George, for me, looks old. It's the first time in a while that ā and I hate to say it that way.
But don't you think ā okay, let me just jump in for a minute there because I ā I was under the impression. Weren't we saying two weeks ago that we were starting to see signs of the old George? And when I say old George, I'm talking about the George from last year.
Yeah, I think this is kind of the way that looks when you're kind of at the end of it. You're going to have a couple of days in a row there where, you know, you look like the old version of yourself. And then you have more of the version that's now old. That kind of, you know, you expand because you're guessing, because you're cheating. You know what? You know, you guess the wrong pitch.
Like, there's, you know, there's a lot of things that are in between with just the sort of the frustration of when some of the dudes go up and have those at-bats to where you expect better. You just expect... I think John said it in a way that I don't remember exactly how he said it, but basically...
It's basically that you're getting a bunch of pitches to hit off a guy that, quite frankly, you should be destroying.
One of the worst starting pitchers in baseball.
Not last night. No, but he is. Not last night. You know, he pounded the zone against a lineup right now that's not very good consistently, and then he got him to chase the slider away. That's the little bugaboo with a bunch of these righties that are in this lineup. We talked about the Astros against Tyler Rodgers.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Vlad Jr.'s current batting struggles?
Again, I hate to be the old guy yelling at the sky. But when I played, you wouldn't play for a couple of days. That's just reality. Now, the offense that they have right now, you probably can't do that, especially when there's a lefty throwing today. And I know Ernie's plan, it was said, I think, yesterday. And who knows?
But when you make sort of base running mistakes like that, that cost kind of games. Kind of a tough look. So, yeah, I think this sort of just comes back all circled around to offensively just not doing enough. And when they're not doing enough, all the other parts of your game kind of look the way they look now.
Well, Ross Atkins, the general manager of the Blue Jays, told us yesterday that when I asked him about the American League in general and how bad it is, he said, you know, the thing we're kind of ā hanging our hat on is that we think our best baseball is still ahead of us. So I'm asking the question today on the back leg line, 416-413-3959, name and location, please.
Just asking the question, what has to happen? What do you think has to happen for the Blue Jays to win? to get to the point where they're playing their best baseball. It can be a trade. It can be a lineup move, whatever, whatever you think. You've seen the games. You follow these. What do you think needs to happen? And quite frankly, what is your level of confidence in this team?
You know, maybe this is what it is. They are what they are. This is a large sample size. Nothing that's happened here has been recent. They're two games under .500, and they've been two games under .500 for a lot of the year.
Yeah, the saving grace is they're as good as Houston, Athletics, Texas, Baltimore, Minnesota, and Detroit. They're as good as all those teams. So they've got a fighting chance. The answer to that question is they're probably never going to be out of it. And for me, it's going to take two trades.
It's either you're going out and getting a high leverage arm that can pitch in the eighth or ninth inning. You know, Louie 2.0. It's a joke, ha-ha, but hey, you want to win a bunch of games, you're going to, for me, have to do that. Or you go out and get somebody like Scooble. I'm not saying it has to be Scooble, but somebody like that.
And somebody that can hit behind Vladdy, who can drive in runs, who whenever he does swing at something he shouldn't, we're talking more about the guy behind him that drove in the two runs instead of Vladdy grounding out the third because he's chasing something he shouldn't. And that, I don't know if you asked me that question or not, but I thought I'd answer it for you.
Yeah, you did.
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Chapter 5: Can the Blue Jays realistically compete for a Wild Card spot?
That's right. There you go. Let's take a look at tonight's lineup. For the Jays against the Texas Rangers, 7-0-7 first pitch. Kevin Gossman on the mound against Mackenzie Gore for the Rangers. There you go. Springer, Clement back in the lineup at shortstop. Guerrero, Okamoto, Kirk, Lucas, Schneider, Straw, Urias, and as we mentioned, Kevin Gossman.
I believe the final round, the final all-star totals are being announced tonight. So we may be holding a little bit of a party at the Rogers Center for Ernie. You're looking at me. Now, don't you roll your eyes. No, not Ernie.
You tell me.
You roll your eyes all you want.
No, not Ernie. Ernie's earned it. Ernie's a good player. He's had a good year. Okamoto, good player, had a good year. And then there's everybody else. Well, Louie, come on. Yeah, but fans are not voting for that. That's a shoe-in.
That's a given.
I mean, no coach can go, let's forget about Louie. That's a shoe-in. Just talking about all the other people. Again, I don't buy the ticket. You want to come, you buy the ticket. You want to vote for who you want to vote for? Go for it. But for me, it's a two-horse race.
I'd like to see Vladdy voted in.
I bet you would.
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Chapter 6: What changes do the hosts suggest for improving the team's lineup?
I think Miles Straw was getting some votes. You can laugh. Did I get some votes on there? No, you definitely did not get any votes.
How dare I? You got your favorite player. Vote for whoever you want to.
Of course. That's what it's for. It's a beauty contest. Vote for your favorite player. I mean, it's who you want to see. You're going to be watching the game, so vote for who you want to watch. That's the way I look at it.
Is it?
That's the way I look at it.
There you go.
That's what I'm going for.
Ground out the third in an All-Star game. That was rude, and I apologize. Very rude. That was rude. I really apologize for that. Yeah. Anything happen... That was good yesterday. Oh, Nathan Lucas hit a homer. That's pretty good. He's going through it a little bit. He's a little in between. You can tell. Just kind of point of contact wasn't kind of lately what we normally see from Nathan.
And for him to catch a 3-1 heater out front and sort of finish it, finish it. Like, get it up there, finish it the way he did yesterday. Kind of nice to see. So, yeah, that was a positive going for it. Trey was good enough. I would still love to see him use his fastball more. I don't know why Kirky keeps pushing the slider. I mean, he won't shake off Kirky.
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Chapter 7: How do the hosts evaluate the Blue Jays' roster and potential trades?
All right.
How was that? I'm sorry. Did you see anything you liked? Not really. No. No. No. Talked about the base running. We talked about Vladdy. I mean, the Savage was... Trey was good enough.
Trey was good enough to win a baseball game. Yeah, he was...
Especially when you were matched up against a guy that's had a pretty tough go of it.
Yeah. No, I was ā yeah, that would be it. I saw signs. I saw a step forward for Trey. I was really glad John left him in.
I like down. He establishes down. I like that. You know, when he leaves it up, it just doesn't seem to play the way he'd like it to play. See, the idea ā Down was good. I understand the walks are ā Well, a couple of those was to the first baseman.
Yeah.
The pain you had bad in the first inning, that's a good at bat. You know, you got to remember he's facing big leaguers. Yeah, and this is going to sound really dumb, but it's where we are.
I kind of like watching him work out of jams. Yeah, it's dumb. It is dumb. I like watching them work out. I mean, what the hell else was going on last night? I mean, that was the most interesting thing going on last night. It was the most entertaining thing. You know how I can tell how bad a game is? And I've made this point often.
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Chapter 8: What are the callers' thoughts on the Blue Jays' performance and future?
That's basically what he said.
No, he was making the point that those guys generally aren't available. I mean, he's not lying. Just go back and look how many trades involving impactful position players are made. It's just not that in season. There's not always that many. And, again, the guys that are out there that are going to wow you, you know, a guy like C.J.
Abrams, you know, and if I'm the Nationals, I might be thinking twice about you. But guys like that, I don't know if the Jays have enough to get them.
Yeah, I don't think doing nothing is an answer.
Oh, it's not a question. Here's the thing, Kevin. It's not a question of doing nothing. Doing nothing or doing something. It's the timing of it. Now, you know, maybe things happen now. The Cubs made a deal for David Peterson. So, okay, maybe that's a sign that things are starting. We'll be joined by John Marossi later on. Maybe he can, you know, tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah, I just ā you have ā I guess I'm just ā I'm being realistic about it. You can't address all the issues facing this team right now. And I'm serious about this. The issues facing this team right now are issues they're going to have in 2027 as well. They need ā they're going to need ā they need ā they need ā They need another bow.
They need a guy that can be that impactful hitter in the middle of the lineup. And they're going to need at least one more starting pitcher.
Maybe that doesn't grow on trees. And 2027, who knows how that's going to look with the strike. Still going to need it. All those kind of things. And this ain't 2027. This is 2026. And the American League's never been worse. It has really never been worse. So for you to just think that, okay, and I'll say this to you. I'll say this to you.
If they just made an offensive move that mattered, you would be okay with it, I'd be okay with it, and most Jays fans would be okay with it. If that's all they did. I'm not saying that's what they should do, but I'm saying if that's all they did, like a solid name that has driven in runs before that knows how to do it. Mike Proutt. God, Kevin.
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