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Chapter 1: What insights does Dexter Fowler share about Jesús Sánchez's injury?
All right, welcome back to Blair and Barker on the Sportsnet Radio Network and Sportsnet. The Jays are off today, tonight. They will open a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves tomorrow. Coming off a split of their four-game series with the Baltimore Orioles. The head shaker. Head scratcher or head shaker. Won the first two games. Should have won the third game.
Should have won the third game and the fourth game kind of hard.
Just the third game didn't go the way. He could feel that. Yeah. He can feel kind of the way the next game's going to go, especially who's throwing for you, when you have to throw him, how young he is, first start on the road. Yeah. It would have been nice to win game three.
Winning game three would have been awfully nice. As a result, the Jays still haven't been over 500 since, when did I look? April 3rd, something like that. I don't even want to look right now. It doesn't really matter because they're in the American League. You don't have to be over 500 to make the playoffs in the American League.
I'm sure at the end of the season, you'll have to be. Maybe. Right now, you don't. Just get a spot, stay in the spot until you can get everybody back healthy.
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Chapter 2: Why is hitting in today's MLB so challenging?
Maybe the front office will go out and make a couple of moves that will matter. Help your team go where you're trying to go. Get some guys hot. Stay hot for a while. Make a little run. It's about the time of the year last year they did it, right? June 1st.
Yeah. Yeah. And it's about the time last year where Vladdy took off too. I guess. I think. Yeah. Still kind of waiting for that. Four-hit game on Saturday, though. Yeah. No, it's frustrating because you see little signs. You do? Yeah, you just kind of do. And then, you know, like that double the other... the other night you see that and you think, okay, that there's that extra base.
Like what, what the Jays had seven, it was a Friday. They had seven extra base hits. Somebody got seven to 10 hits for extra bases. You kind of got the sense that something was going on there.
Chapter 3: How can Pete Crow-Armstrong improve his defensive performance?
Yeah. The, the Orioles pitching staff as a whole is not very good. I think you got to start there. Their rotation, I think is a little bit better than their bullpen. You know, we talk about the Jays bullpen. Sometimes, occasionally, it's not very good. You get in the Orioles bullpen, you got a decent chance of somebody hanging one and you can do some damage that way.
You know, it's, you just gotta, you know, I've said this about Vladdy for a while. It's kind of, can he control everything before he makes his positive move towards the baseball? And, you know, he gets four hits because he can't. It's just, can he slug whenever he wants to? That's the thing. And, You know, occasionally we don't see that all the time, and hopefully we start to see that.
It's June 1st. Last year, June 1st is when I think he started to take off. Yep. Started to hit a bunch of balls over the fence, which would be nice.
Well, it would certainly help. Our next guest is a former MLB outfielder, World Series champion, currently analyst for NBC and Peacock. He worked yesterday's Blue Jays-Orioles game. He is Dexter Fowler. Dexter, thanks so much for joining us today. Great to see you. Really appreciate your time.
Chapter 4: What role does Jeff Hoffman play in the Jays' future?
Absolutely. No, I've got a bit of a delay here. I'm going to apologize. I did want to ask you, we'll talk about the game, obviously, but look, you've played outfield just about everywhere. You've played in Wrigley Field where you're close to the fans. Have you seen anything like what we saw with Jesus Sanchez yesterday?
No, that was crazy. Honestly, the way he was reacting, you didn't know what happened, like where it hit him, because he ran all the way to center field. And we were in the booth, and I was like, this is the craziest thing I've ever seen. I said, now we've seen it all in baseball.
Dexter, what do you make of the Jays? You've seen them up close and personal now. You've seen what their lineup looks like, their rotation. Well, not really their rotation as a whole, but their bullpen, their defense, the way they run the bases. Does it look like it looked last year in your mind?
There's definitely potential there. I think everybody just needs to get healthy. I mean, once they get all their horses back and they get the full strength, I think they're just trying to right the storm right now. Like you said, another injury. I feel like every game I've done, somebody's gotten hurt. And, you know, they get Kirk back. They get, you know, some of those other guys back.
I think they'll be just fine.
Dexter, what do you make of Vladdy on an everyday basis? You watch him.
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Chapter 5: How is Ernie Clement adapting to being an everyday second baseman?
He's got, what, 12 extra base hits this year. That's like 166th in baseball. I don't want to bring that up because, you know, there are two games under .500. And, you know, he's been working through some things. But you've seen him now really close. What do you make of his season?
And how do you think he could get a little bit better to start to look like the Vladdy we saw in the World Series last year?
I don't put too much into it. I mean, Vladdy, he's a superstar. And him going out, he's hitting 300. Everybody's mad. The dude's hitting 300. He doesn't have the pop right now, but you can go ahead and book him in for 20 and 120 at all times.
Nice. Yeah, I kind of wonder, Dexter, when you're watching a guy – like vladi and um you know kevin made the point about the extra base power or the extra base hits and things like that like what what tells you when a guy is i'm not going to say about to go off but what tells you when a guy might be kind of finding his stride a little bit
When he's taking his walks, when he's taking his walks, he's hitting the ball hard. I mean, I'm glad he lined out to center yesterday. It was 105 miles an hour. And I was like, the ball was hit on the nose. It's crazy. He's hitting the ball hard. I feel like he's right around the corner. I think maybe this week, next week. That's my call.
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Chapter 6: What potential does Charles McAdoo bring to the Blue Jays?
Okay, what do you make of the American League East? You've seen the Orioles playing the Jays. You know, there's only a couple teams that are above 500. What do you make of the American League East? Not the American League, just the American League East.
The American League East, Tampa's kind of running away with it. Tampa's, I mean, they've been playing good baseball. And those guys, you know, if you look down at their team, it's like no superstars. They just get it done. And, you know, bat the ball. They're always putting the ball in play. They run the base as well. They're playing good defense.
I think that you just got to keep pace with them at this point and try to get a wild card.
Do you have any idea in general why the American League is so just so down this year in terms of terms of the standings? I think there's five teams over 500 and there's like 11 National League teams over 500.
I don't know. I don't know. I think everybody's like the NL Central is going crazy. So I think everybody's looking at that. I mean, they got all their five teams over over 500. So at this rate. I don't, I don't have a clue. Like if you look at it, it's like they have talent. I just don't know why it's not, you know, translating.
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Chapter 7: What factors are affecting the American League landscape this season?
Dexter, why do you think it's so hard to hit now in your mind?
I mean, every, we talked about it today. Everybody throws a hundred and it's not, it's like, it's weird because you look at it and there's bullpen guys coming in throwing a hundred and it's They're not – I'm not saying they don't know how to pitch, but, you know, the old school guys, those guys were spotting up. These guys are just throwing as hard as they can. It's moving everywhere.
So it's tough to really, like, sit on pitches in a certain location. Like, before it was almost like a chess game. Now it's just power, power, power.
Okay, you played a long time.
You do have those guys that are finesse, but other than that, it's like – You see the veteran guys, they can pitch. The young dudes coming in are just throwing. I mean, they know how to pitch, but they got good stuff.
It's crazy. Okay, I'm glad you mentioned that. What's the key to hitting velocity in your mind?
Being ready to hit. I mean, a lot of people try to come off the fastball. I don't think you can ever come off the fastball, especially how hard these guys are throwing.
Do you find that stuff that you were taught when you were coming up or things you were told when you were coming up, Dexter, do you think a lot of those principles still apply to this day and age? You know, there's lots of analytics. I mean, there's pitching labs galore. You know, guys can... Guys have got their own off-season hitting coaches, things of that nature.
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Chapter 8: How do Jeff and Kevin evaluate John Schneider's performance in 2026?
Are there still fundamentals that you were taught that you think can apply to the game now?
Absolutely. My mentor is Barry Bonds, and Barry Bonds talks about hitting. And everybody's talking about launch angle, this and that, and the third. I mean, get hits. I mean, it doesn't matter exit velocity. If you're getting hits, you're going to be playing, and you're going to score runs and doing all that.
But I think a lot of guys, I think that's a lot of it as well, is everybody's, you know, trying to launch the ball, and I think that's why everything's down right now.
How about Tatis Jr.? I don't think he still has it. He doesn't have a homer.
He did hit a homer. Oh, he did hit a homer. So he's got one. Yeah, he just homered.
Oh, he's got one. So what do you think's going on with that?
I have no clue. I don't know. That dude hits the ball hard. I don't know how he doesn't have any homers. That was crazy. It is nuts. I think at that point, you're just putting so much pressure on yourself. You've got to hit a homer. You've got to hit a homer. You've got to hit a homer. That never happens.
Yeah, and I think, too, you know, he's playing for a team that's winning, too, and it's got to be wearing on him a little bit. You know, we talk about, obviously, about the pitching in the National League, but there's a guy in St. Louis I wanted to ask you about, J.J. Weatherholt. It's like, you know, look, we focus on the American League on this show.
I caught a little bit of the cards over the weekend. I'm looking at this dude's numbers. He's... I mean, he's on pace to be like a seven-war player as a rookie second baseman, which is just silly.
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