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Chapter 1: What were Dylan Cease's performance highlights against the Phillies?
All right, well. It is Blair and Barker. Sportsnet Radio Network and Sportsnet. I'm Blair Kevin Barker. If you're listening and viewing, pleasure. A little better today. Yeah. 3-2 win over the Fightin's last night. I like it when they win. Boy, it's a lot of fun. A walk-off action from Brandon Valenzuela, Dylan Cease. You know what? I could throw this out.
Because we spent the last couple of weeks or so thinking about who should be going to the All-Star game. Dylan Cease is going to the All-Star game.
Chapter 2: Why does Brandon Valenzuela deserve to stay on the roster?
I'll just make it flat out right now. I mean, the way they choose pitchers and all that, you know, there's always four or five pitchers that don't want to go because it doesn't fall on their day. John and Pete will ensure that... Dylan Cease. Now, see, I'm thinking as soon as I said that, Dylan Cease or Kevin Gossman, I think Dylan Cease keeps this up, man. You're hard-pressed not to take him.
I mean, he's up there with Jacob Mizorowski in terms of strikeouts and things like that. I mean, you're almost obligated to take him if you're John Schneider.
Yeah, maybe. I mean, that's... Look, he's been really good. You know, all the adjustments he's made, the keeping it in the zone a little longer, using all of his pitches. You know, last night his changeup was really good. Gloveside was out of his mind. Throwing strike one was tremendous.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of George Springer's return to lead-off?
Like, I mean, that went about as good as you could write it up. You know, if John and Petey were sitting around in their room going, boy, if we could only dream about this happening, that's exactly what happened.
11 strikeouts. It was 29 whiffs. Pretty good, ain't it? And some of those whiffs were rare conditioning. Like they were whiffs.
Yeah, I think five different pitches he threw for strike one at least two times. It's pretty good too, right? That's unpredictability. That's... you know, kind of established than what you need to establish to get guys to swing and miss on the slider, the changeup, the elevated four-seamer. He's really good. He's used in all quadrants. You know, that's the best in a while.
Chapter 4: What should Vladimir Guerrero Jr. focus on during his at-bats?
We've seen him use the top of the zone. You know, a lot of the times that's non-competitive. Sometimes he'll overthrow it. Sometimes he won't finish it. Sometimes he falls off to the first base side. All those things add up to some non-competitive pitches. Last night we didn't see that. If we did see it a couple of times, he self-corrected. He didn't do it again.
He's really good. Yeah, the Jays will go for the series win tonight. It'll be Max Scherzer making his return to the active roster against Jesus Lizardo. Max Scherzer is added to the roster coming off the aisle. Connor Seabold has been DFA'd. Max Scherzer, one and three this year with a 964 ERA.
Chapter 5: What are the expectations for Max Scherzer's first start post-injury?
You've almost got to, you're just kind of punting that now. Hope that this is something closer to the Max Scherzer we saw at times last year than the Max Scherzer we've seen at times this year.
Well, I think he's got to get through the first inning. He's had a rough time in the first inning. You've got to be ready to come out. The Phillies are top heavy.
They're going to be jumping on you.
Well, they're top heavy. And if you don't have your good spin, if you don't have your velocity on your fastball right out the gate, he's going to make you pay for it. You know, hopefully he's got that. Hopefully they'll game plan good enough to, you know, know what to throw when they throw a certain pitch after a certain pitch. Like, you know, that's kind of what Max does.
Spin it, change speeds with the changeup. But for me, the good velocity, pitching ahead is key. Getting through the first inning.
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Chapter 6: Why haven't we seen the best of the Blue Jays yet in June?
Fingers crossed he gets through the first inning. Mm-hmm. Maybe you'll give the lineup a chance. Who knows?
We'll be joined by Pete Walker later on in the show. We'll figure out. We'll hear what the Jays expect from Max Scherzer tonight. Jeff Passan joins us. Josh Donaldson as well. He was in town for the Joe Carter Classic Golf Tournament and took some time out to play some beer league baseball.
Why not? I think he back-legged one, too. I think so.
And we'll talk to, it's always good to talk to Josh. We'll touch base with him.
Chapter 7: Where does Louis Varland rank among closers this season?
And we've got tickets to give away to see the Jays and Astros at Rogers Center. We mentioned it was a walk-off win last night. Brandon Valenzuela, the hero with the winning run. And, well, Brandon Valenzuela just keeps coming through. Got some numbers here for you. What's here, Jeff? Let's see, Brandon Valenzuela. All right. Over his last 32 contests, he's slashing 292, 390, 551.
He's got a 941 OPS during that span. That's the sixth best in the AL. We're not just talking rookies. We're talking sixth best in the AL. Behind Nick Kurtz, Jordan Alvarez, Wilson Contreras, Byron Buxton, and Yandy Diaz. He leads all Blue Jays batters in F war at 1.6, ranking fourth among AL rookies.
Chapter 8: How could MLB's salary cap structure mirror other leagues?
He's third in isolated power, fourth in slug, and sixth in OPS among AL rookies. You know, isolated power, I mean, it's actually something you want to think about because it's something the Jays aren't really good at this year. I mean, he's literally been among their best power hitters this year. There's no other way to put it. And it's, you know, again,
I just, I mean, I don't think there's a debate anymore about what happens when Kirky comes back, and that's supposed to be Friday. I think the only question is, if you're going to be using one of those two to DH, does that mean you carry that third catcher? In other words, let's say you have a game where you're starting Kirky at DH, Valenzuela behind the plate,
I mean, it'll be an interesting decision. I mean, there shouldn't be any... If it's between Heinemann and Valenzuela, it shouldn't be a decision. Well, you know it will be. People will have their say. Absolutely. And it can be unanimous. You know that there'll be somebody that...
There'll be some khakis raise their hand and say, you know, whatever they need to say, what they don't have in the minor leagues, what Tyler does throwing out runners, how he gets certain guys through games.
I did find it really interesting that Kevin Gossman came out after a start and said, you know, Brandon Valdez, well, man, his framing's pretty good. I mean, his pitch framing's pretty good. Not much second guessing there.
Yeah, look, they got enough catcher first guys, you know, to see what he's doing offensively. You didn't read off his catching stats. You read off his offensive stats. Yeah. That's the point. Yeah. The point is nobody else is really hitting other than a couple of other guys. I mean, right now he's their second best hitter.
Yeah. I mean, they won yesterday. There was a whole lot of Pinyango and Sanchez and Valenzuela going on in that game last night. Andres Jimenez as well. It was a good
Yeah, Sanchez had some good at-bats against the guys. Sanchez really, Sanchez. Well, I mean, it's like that one at-bat leading to the other. It's the conversation that Valenzuela had with Hazel after the game saying, you know, when he faced Duran the day before and he gets a split finger down, all he wants to do in that at-bat is get something up.
I looked at, you know, it's very simple that I was looking up. Well, I mean, it sounds baseball 101, but when a guy throws a thousand and never gives up any runs, executing, it's not the easiest thing to do. And it just seems like he's been there before. Like, okay, I know how you got me out before, but I'm going to try and not let you do that again. That's kind of the separator right now.
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