Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Chapter 2: What led to the Blue Jays' recent struggles against the Rays?
I don't know if it's a good thing the Jays have today off, Kevin, after getting swept away by the Rays yesterday. I mean, I guess it's no off days, a bad day, although you always used to tell me that for guys in the bubble, off days are days where you kind of stick your phone in the microwave or something like that.
Well, if somebody's going, yeah, I'm sure they've already went. We just don't know about it yet. But somebody's got to go because of who's, you know, Absolutely.
I mean, they may not, you know what, they may not, this organization in the past has not sent, has not sent, hmm, has waited until the last minute to send somebody down just so they get an extra date. They have done that in the past. I'm sure the player knows already.
They're really good. John's really good. John understands that that's going to disrupt what that player's trying to do, where he's going. I'm sure whoever that is, that player's got a pretty good understanding of where he might end up in the next day or two.
Jays are 16-21 right now. And we were talking about this a little bit in the office. I mean, look, it's not the record any of us expected they'd have. I don't know what I'm more surprised by, the fact the Rays are 24-12 or the Jays are 16-21.
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Chapter 3: How can Addison Barger impact the Blue Jays' lineup?
But I know one thing I didn't see coming. Kevin, there are two teams over 500 in the American League. Not the American League East. They both happen to be in the American League East. But the American League. We're going to talk to John Marossi, Jeff Passan about that. John Gibbons will join us as well. Maybe Gibby has some thoughts on this. Your boy. I mean, is that a big deal?
What, Gibby's your boy? He's like... Well, you set me up for it.
But...
Should I be happy that only two teams in the American league are over 500? Yeah. Well, look, I would, it would be, we'd all be happier if one of those two was the blue Jays. Let's admit that. But does that mean anything?
Well, I think it makes it a little easier for you if you're the manager of the Blue Jays, if you're one of the coaches, if you're the front office for the Blue Jays to try and figure out a way to get this all headed in the right direction. And you've got to think, too, that you've got the same record as the Red Sox do.
And on the flip side, or a good part of that, is you're only game and a half back of the third wild card spot. Texas is in that spot at 17 and 19, which is just mind-boggling just how bad The American League, yes. I mean, I could go through these things. The Jays have the third worst run differential in the American League.
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Chapter 4: What challenges does the Blue Jays' offense currently face?
Only the Orioles and the Astros are worse. Only the Texas Rangers have scored less runs than your Toronto Blue Jays in the American League. Look, they've got 125 games to clean this up. That's basically where we're at. Now, the schedule, if you look at it, the next six at home are the Angels and the Rays. We all know what the Rays are bringing, no matter where you're playing them.
You got to be better at not following them around the strike zone. The middle of the order has got to be better against the Rays. It just does. Enough. Like, if you're John, that's the message. You chase them, you're out. It's real simple. There's no in-between with the Rays because of how good all of a sudden now that they are at changing speeds with the changeup.
You know what you're getting, hard in, soft away. Pick one. Most of the time, not too many people look for soft away because most people can't drive that. So you're going to force them on the plates, beat them to the spot. Get party out front, frisky out front, whatever you want to call it, and then the seven on the road against the Tigers and the Yankees.
The Yankees series four on the road, that's the one for me that kind of is the tone setter for the rest of sort of at least the first half of the season is, you know, we all, the Yankees lose. Like, we all know kind of what's around that. So, yeah, you got 125 games. And you've heard John the last couple days mention words like prepared, intent, relentless, determined. pivot.
I like the word pivot.
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Chapter 5: How is Patrick Corbin performing in the rotation?
He's used that a couple of times, meaning if I got one plan and one at bat, that didn't work. I got to pivot to another plan. I can't go up and think that that guy's not good enough to understand what I'm trying to do against him and not do something different. I got to combat what I'm doing. I got to be able to, you know, pivot on the fly and
Go up and try and execute what my plan is to its fullest. So, yeah, there's some urgency here. But to answer your question with what the American League is not doing, I mean, you got what? Two teams that are at 500 in the, who is that? The Guardians and the A's, and then you got the Yankees and the Rays that are above 500.
500 is good enough to lead a division. Think about that.
Yeah, right now, if you're the Jays, and if I'm John Schneider, I'm thinking about that wild card thing. I'm just thinking about winning baseball games. Does this matter to you? I wanted to look this stat up because home runs are such a big deal, Jeff. They are. Is this going to be a pound on Vladdy thing? No, I don't care about Vladdy. The last year ā how dare you, by the way, too.
Chapter 6: What are the early season struggles of other teams in the league?
How dare you. Well, I just wanted to ā How dare you get after me with Vladdy. Well, no, we just ā I got an emergency alert in my phone. It has nothing to do with ā The Ontario emergency alert says why not Vladdy hit a home run or something.
Vladdy's his own man. He'll figure it out. If he don't, they won't make the playoffs. It's real simple. Last year in April, they were 29th in homers. They had 15th. Their record was 11-14. This is April. Of last year. That's what I said, April. Well, yeah, because you yelled at me. In May of last year, they were fifth in homers with 38. Their record was 16-12. Does that matter?
Like, it's basically, if you're... Basically, you took one year... and flipped it on to another year, and that's basically the way it's looking. They don't hit them this year is my point. So if you want to lean on anything and think about how you would turn this around, you think of it that way.
The more homers, the better pitches you get, the better pitches that you get to drive big part of the field. Maybe pull in the air. You know, it's the mild straw effect, right? I practice pulling in the air in batting practice. It carries over to the game. It's that kind of thing. I don't know. It's just a stat that sort of you look.
Chapter 7: What does Jon Morosi say about Framber Valdez's suspension?
We talk about the records last year, early in the year. It's kind of the same thing. Well, if you look, there's a correlation between how many homers they weren't hitting in April to carry it over to May, and all of a sudden you start winning more baseball games. Maybe that's the way they turn it around.
Vladdy had eight home runs. and 26 RBIs in April and May combined last year. Just throwing that out there.
Okay, since you brought it up. Since you brought it up. In May, Vladdy, Varshow, and Sanchez have played six games. George Springer's played four. I hate to throw George into this mix, but if you ask how you turn this thing around, this is how. Those four guys have combined in May two RBIs. Yo Hendrick Pinyongo has three RBIs.
Andres Jimenez has more homers and RBI RBIs than any four of those guys. Only reason I brought that up that little is because John, after the game yesterday said, it's not just one guy. And he mentioned names, not Vladdy. It's not Sanchez. It's not Okamoto. It's gotta be all of us. I think that's what he's talking about.
And here, here's something else I'm going to throw out there too. Um, The difference, the real difference in the Blue Jays last year in May, Bo Bichette, seven home runs, eight doubles, 20, how many RBI? 19 RBI. Had no home runs in April and March. Nine doubles. But basically, so we're saying by the end of May, Bo had 17 doubles and seven home runs.
I mean, that's pretty good. I'm sure he's hitting cleanup. I'm sorry. Sorry, I threw you.
But he's hitting top of the order. Obviously. No, the only reason I'm mentioning that is because, you know, Vladdy's start last year wasn't the greatest either, but there were other people picking him up. And this year it's for a variety of reasons, not the least of which, and I'm going to say this, I don't think it's an excuse, but injury is at least part of it. That isn't happening.
Like, you know... I mean, I watched George's at-bats after he came back. God bless him for coming back and playing with a fractured toe.
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Chapter 8: How does the American League's competitiveness affect trade decisions?
But, I mean, I watched some of those swings. Now, I know he's always in the past. He's had a tendency to go down to one knee and all that when he takes big daddy hacks. I get that. But I just don't know how the hell he's going to ā I don't know how the hell he's going to be able to keep doing that.
It's almost like you'd rather have him going standing at the plate in the leadoff spot than somebody else. I think that's kind of where they're at. If you can walk to the plate, that's it.
No, I'm not criticizing him either. I'm telling you, I am not criticizing him at all. I'm saying that I... If anything, I've developed a whole new respect for him just watching him try to do that because the pain has got to be excruciating.
No, Kirk, no Santander. You're going to need guys to step up. You're going to need guys to just, you know, I don't want to say man up, but it's kind of that way when ā you're going through it and you're trying to figure out how to win games. It's about homers, right?
The only reason I wanted to mention the record and how many homers they hit in May is because they started doing them in certain spots, right? They hit solo homers. They hit homers with runners on base. They hit homers with runners in scoring position. They hit homers with two outs, which is the backbreaker to a pitcher, right? You've gotten two outs. You think you're off the hook.
Somebody runs into one. They hit homers in the eighth inning or later, which is a big deal. That at bat per home run, right? It's like Like somewhere in that 27, every 27 at bats, they hit a homer. That was like top 15. Like they were doing things in all those categories. 27th. They're like every 37th at bat or something, which is not very good.
I mean, again, you mentioned who's not in the lineup and. You know, just what the middle of the order is. And I mentioned those four guys, right? Those are the four guys that are going to hit the bunch of homers, right? You know, Dalton's not hitting any. Obviously, Vladdy's not hitting any. Sanchez has hit a couple, but not enough. You know, you mentioned Springer. Springer's injured.
Will he hit another one? Who knows? Like, that's your anchor, right? That's the thing that, you know, he is putting everything on that front toe. That toe is just his anchor to get everything rotating, to create enough bat speed to get the ball in the air. Can he do that enough? I... I don't know. It's just some heavy lifting there.
But getting out of some Berger back, I would think, listening to David Popkins talk when he was on our show a couple days ago. Berger homered, by the way, yesterday. Boy, that's all you want to hear is that. And can he do it with a bunch of traffic? And how's John going to maximize Okamoto and that dude?
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