Chapter 1: What are the main reasons behind the Blue Jays' struggles?
Well, hello there. Welcome to Blair and Barker, brought to you by Capital One. Capital One giving credit to over 4 million Canadians. Counting. How you doing, Mr. Barker?
You know, it's a little chilly in here today. It is, yeah.
It's a little cool.
You know, I had a nice shirt on.
Well.
Purple.
And I got to wear your jacket with it.
It's cold.
It is chilly in here. It is chilly in here.
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Chapter 2: How is John Schneider performing as the Blue Jays' manager?
Yeah. Well, our boss is standing outside the door. You'd think he'd... I told him. I said, man, it's cold in there. He ignored me. Could be because the hockey guys were just in here.
I think. I don't know. 7-0-7 will be the first pitch tonight. The Jays get back on the field against the Los Angeles Angels. And we've got a jam-packed show. Bobby Valentine, former MLB player and manager and Angels TV analyst, joins us. John Schneider, the skipper of the Blue Jays, joins us in a few minutes. And Dan Shulman will be along even sooner.
Chapter 3: What early MLB surprises are discussed in the episode?
What a show. Than John Schneider. Yeah. And we've got some time today, so we're going to go to the back leg line. 416-413-3959. Name and location, please. You've got some questions. Hopefully, we'll know at some point. We'll have a better idea what move the Jays have made to get Addison Barger on the roster. I presume he's going to be activated for today. Absolutely.
You know, and now they are facing a left-hander in Reed Detmers. I can't imagine that would make a difference. It'll be Reed Detmers against Dylan Cease tonight as the Jays look to kind of put that sweep in Tampa behind them and My friend, Mr. Barker, would say start the season anew, which is the third time this year we've told them to start the season.
Chapter 4: How has Jeff Hoffman returned to form this season?
Well, why not? You've got 125 games left. If you look last year, the third wild card spot was the Detroit Tigers. They won 87 games. To get to 87 wins, you've got to go 71 and 54 in the next 125. How do you do it? That's basically where they're at. They've dug themselves enough of a hole to where you've got to figure out how to get to 87 wins. How do you do that? You know, that's...
I don't want to say it's heavy lifting, but you got to do some lifting there. It's time to start turning the corner. The season's starting today. I don't know if you look at it that way, but it's small sample sizes here. How do you slug to the pull side?
Chapter 5: What is Kazuma Okamoto's impact on the Blue Jays?
How do you get a lineup to do that consistently in a game? Not for one or two guys. You're getting an entire lineup going up and hunting something that they can get it down, get it singing to the pull side in the air. Can you do that? That's kind of the thing. So, you know, play a little bit better defense. I mean, I... You know, they got the most throwing errors in baseball with 16.
Yeah, it's not been good. I didn't know that.
It's not been good.
Until I saw that stat today, that's a lot. So we're going to ask John about that. But they got to clean some things up. I think slugging to the pull side, Jeff, would help everybody just take a deep breath, exhale, and go out there and kind of – again, that silly thing I say all the time about starting the season –
Chapter 6: What is Dylan Cease's potential ceiling this season?
But you got to start somewhere, and I think tonight against the Angels, who are not a very good team, it would be a good start tonight.
Yeah, as much as we've talked about the American League and how it's not a good league this year, at least in terms of one loss record, the Angels are among the worst teams in the league. And, yeah, listen, it's... I mean, we say it's time. It's been time for a while, but... You're getting to the point. You've got 37 games played. You're almost at the quarter point.
You will be at the quarter point more or less during this homestand. You'll be at the quarter point 40 games after Sunday. A quarter of the way through is a quarter of the way through. At that point, I think people start taking a look at what they have, what they don't have. And maybe your planning mode, however you want to describe it, maybe it shifts into gear a little more.
I did find it interesting yesterday that we heard from both John Palmarosi and Jeff Passan that there has been much more trade talk at this point in the season than in the past.
Mm-hmm.
You know, and again, that's, I will say this, there have to be an awful lot of dissatisfied general managers and a lot of puzzled general managers out there right now.
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Chapter 7: How can the Blue Jays improve their defense?
Because, you know, I was looking, there are, there got to be at least nine teams where the GMs are kind of like, Just shaking their head. You know, I think I'll say for – and, you know, everybody's got injuries. I think the Jays, they can kind of look at that a bit.
But, I mean, almost every team that is underperforming, general managers have to be sitting there saying, like, where's the improvement come from? So, we'll see. It's – yeah, I did not think – that we would see the American League. You always have separation. I didn't think we'd see it to this degree where it's the Yankees, the Rays, and then everyone else. I did not see that.
Kevin, I didn't see that coming 40 games in, 20 games in, 60 games. I just didn't see that coming.
Yeah, I think the Mariners, the Rangers, the Orioles, the Blue Jays are all struggling at the same time, which is a little odd. Yes.
Chapter 8: What listener questions are addressed on the Back Leg Line?
Look at that. Yeah.
Jays are only a game and a half back in the third wild card spot. That's where you're at. Now, there's a bunch of teams in front of them.
Yeah.
But I think if you look at, you know, kind of small picture with how you're getting to the certain amount of wins that you want to get to at the end of the year.
All right. You know, let's just look at that. Mariners, 18-20. Tigers, 18-20. Rangers, 17-20. White Sox, 17-20. Better than we thought. Orioles, 17-21. Royals, 17-21. Jays, 16-21. Kansas City's one of those teams that I thought was going to be better. Absolutely. Let's bring in the voice of the Blue Jays, Dan Schulman, joining us on Blair and Barker. How you doing, Mr. Schulman? Hey, buddy.
Good afternoon, gentlemen. How are you?
We're fine. Welcome back from your little break. I trust the family and everything are doing well. You checked in on them?
I checked in on everybody. I've got a little grandson who lives down in Florida. My oldest son lives down there. So I spent two, three days down there being a papa and then came back home and hung out with the seven-year-old. I've got like descendants all over the place. I can't even keep track of them these days. But I had a great week. Thank you very much.
Awesome. Good, good. Well, while you were away, Dan, the American League really continued to stink. Do you have any insight as to why that may be?
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