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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
All right, welcome back to Blair and Barker brought to you by Capital One. Capital One giving Canadians credit for 30 years. 8-10 is the first pitch tonight from Minnesota. It's going to be warm. As Patrick Corbin takes on Simeon Woods-Richardson, the Jays looking to even up the four-game series after their 7-1 loss last night that dropped them to 14-17 in the year. And has Mr. Barker ready to...
I like the way you waited to say that until we had in our ear, John's on the other line ready. Let's bring him on.
He is the manager of the Toronto Blues. Look at that. See what John did. John, you know what? You got to help me. I'm trying to walk Barker off the ledge here, you know? Yeah. It's like it's... I, it's just, I'm running out of things. I'm running out of things to say to, to, to calm him down.
Not really. You got to send Kev on the road or something.
Oh yes, we do. Yeah. That'd be great.
You know, get you out of Jeff's ear and just start yelling at me.
Yeah, they won't let me. I'd have to ask for money, and they won't let me do that.
Thanks for joining us. Thanks for joining us, by the way. Yeah, you bet. I'll get sort of the housekeeping out of the way. I know that yesterday you were asked, you gave four injury updates. I'm just wondering what the plan is for Jose Barrios and where some other guys are on their rehab.
Yeah, he's going to throw in AAA today, just a bullpen, and then kind of stay on his routine. I think what we're going to do... is have him pitch one more time down there. That's kind of where we're leaning. Get his pitch count up. Get him just a little bit more game action and go Trey on Sunday here in Minnesota and then kind of reassess it after that.
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Chapter 2: What updates does John Schneider provide on José Berríos and Addison Barger?
And I think that any any successful organization is going to be not afraid to kind of dive into the how and not be afraid to make some adjustments along the way.
I'm wondering, are the players more, because this group has been together for a while now, are the players more likely to be open when they talk in this setting? Because I think with the exception of maybe Kaz, most of these guys have been there. They've gone through these. Are they comfortable with the idea?
Yeah, and the actual meetings are just kind of staff and front office, baseball ops.
Okay, so the players aren't in.
No, and then we kind of deliver those. It's just a way for us to check our work.
All right.
And then do we need to adjust any messaging or work to the players? The players obviously are aware of the stuff we talk about on a daily basis. Right. And it's more so a way, collectively, how can we make sure that you know, Kaz or Sanch or Sosa or Valenzuela, you know, Hey, are we, are we kind of speaking the same language here?
And it goes for a couple of new coaches too, that we kind of, you know, we ran through it in spring training and kind of gave them the gist of how we do it. So it's, it's more so staff. And then kind of how can we deliver anything differently to the players?
John does, does when your team or your lineup not hitting homers, put more pressure on you to sort of maneuver around the way the lineup's set up on an everyday basis.
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Chapter 3: What insights does John Schneider share about the Blue Jays' offensive meeting?
And some of it is unfair because when you look at his stuff and you look at, you know, his strikeout rate, I mean, it's pretty damn good. And it's almost elite at times, you know, and the results haven't been there. But for him to just say, man, what's best for the team and what's best for me, you know, I I've said it a million times.
I think the world of Jeff as a pitcher and as a person, and I think he's handled it about as good as you can. I mean, we're talking about April and we're saying, Hey man, we're not going to put you in the ninth inning for now. And he didn't bat an eye.
And it's easy for guys who kind of thrive on adrenaline and, and that kind of feeling late in the game to go into lower leverage and kind of be, and you know what I mean? He hasn't done that. He's kept his edge and he's just focusing on having quality outings, you know, and there's, there's going to be a time where,
you know louis or raj isn't available and i we're you know i know guys are joking that i said closer by committee and everyone's calling louis the committee you know what i mean it's not going to be him every night it's not going to be him every night you know what i mean and there could be a time where you know if hoff keeps throwing the ball well it could it could be him you know what i mean the guy's done it it's
It's kind of baseball, but I just can't speak highly enough of how he's handled it and how really everyone's handled it in the bullpen. It's not an easy thing to do, and I applaud him for the way he's gone about it.
Okay, this is kind of a hard question to ask because Jeff was poking fun at me when you first came on about the 14 and 17 and the record against some lesser teams. You know, it's a long season for me and Jeff. We've got to have topics to talk about. Yeah. You know, it is. You know, it's like the three and ten against some teams. You should, quite frankly, be ten and three against.
But all jokes aside, where do you think your team is right now? And how do you kind of control what went on in the eighth inning yesterday? How can you use that to fire going forward against? I'm trying to figure out a nice way to say this. Against teams that you should be beating a lot. That's kind of where it's at. Yeah.
I get it. Yeah. Here's the way I think of it. I've got a couple answers for this. For one, when you're playing... quote unquote teams that you should be right. Like I don't buy into that at the major league level. Okay. Um, I don't, I don't buy into that at all. And I especially don't buy into it early in the season. Um, so that's one thing.
And I think that there, you can look back at certain plays or certain pitches or certain at bats against some of those teams and some of those games, um, that, that we should have been better at. Right. Um,
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Chapter 4: How is Daulton Varsho performing differently this season?
They have Sanchez. Those two... alone make you have one of the better starting rotations in the game. John Duran will get healthy. As a result, their back end of their bullpen is going to improve. I would expect that you're going to see the Philadelphia Phillies return to their level.
Now the question remains, as the Atlanta Braves did last year when they dug themselves such a hole, have the Phillies dug themselves such a hole that they won't be able to bounce back? I don't know the answer to that, but I do expect that they'll improve significantly. And on the Red Sox side of the ledger, I think
it is a different dynamic you know with with bregman signing with the cubs and i think they made a very sincere pursuit of trying to retain him it is a very young roster and so you're putting a lot of leadership in players who are if they're not rookies they're in their first year or two in the in the major leagues i think there's going to be a lot more volatility in the performance of those types of players
We saw some of those guys come in last year and spike and perform very well. But as we all know, the sophomore year is a very important year because that's when the league really counterpunches. We have a lot of data on these guys now. We're not surprised by what their performance is. So the question is, can they make the adjustment necessary to stay one step ahead of the pitching?
Time will tell whether that is the case, but that's why I think you see a little bit more volatility in the performance of a younger roster like the Boston Red Sox than you would a veteran roster like the Philadelphia Phillies.
Thad, I'm wondering, you know, we are... I mean, we've still got a lot of baseball left to play, thankfully, but already, you know, the possibility of a labor stoppage is something that, you know, we've been talking about for a while, and I believe the sides at some point this month are going to have some sort of discussions. How does a front office...
manage the year leading up to a potential stoppage? Do you have to have it in the back of your mind, or do you almost have to just put blinders on and go, look, it's about winning in 2026, and whatever happens in 2027, we'll cross that bridge and we come to it?
You know, Jeff, I think throughout my career, you aspire to do the former of what you just said. You aspire to understand that we have no influence and control over that. And so we just need to do our jobs to the best of our ability. I think we've been blessed despite what seems to be contention and a lot of rancor on both sides and some mudslinging.
we really haven't had a work stoppage in a couple of decades now. And as a sport, we're very fortunate for that. So we've been rewarded for keeping that head down mentality and the expectation that the next season, despite seeming in jeopardy, will be played as scheduled. It feels a little bit different this time.
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