Chapter 1: What happened in the Blue Jays' recent game against the Rays?
All right, welcome to Blair and Barker, brought to you by Capital One. Capital One giving credit to over 4 million Canadians and counties. Good Lord. It is freaking cold. Boy, it is. Somebody come down here with some logs and build a freaking fire. Seriously. It is freezing in here. It is freezing. Oh, boy, it's something else. I mean. What are you looking at? I mean, I've got headlights on.
It's so damn cold here right now. Oh, my God. How you doing, buddy? Oh, living the dream. Oh, yeah, you're right. You know. I mean, seriously. It is freezing in here. But let me ask you something. Let's hear it. There is a guy, probably one of the 10 or 15 best hitters in baseball. Yeah. Right now. Uh-huh. And he stinks. Okay. I mean, he's awful.
Chapter 2: Should Vladimir Guerrero Jr. be moved in the batting lineup?
All right. He's not, I mean, he's not doing anything. Not coming through for his team at all. Sure.
Sure.
His manager, I'm talking about Cal Rowley. Okay. Okay. There it is. 0 for 36 or something like that. Yeah. 0 for a lot. 0 for a lot. Yeah. And he was runner-up there in Judge last year. Sure. In the MVP race. His manager has taken him out of the second spot and dropped him down to the cleanup spot. Yeah. Just give him a different look. Just change things up.
Maybe he's going to be pitched different. Whatever. Just break up the routine. There it is. Yeah. If you can do that to Cal Rowley, would you think that maybe it should be on the table for Vladdy?
I think if Vladdy or the Blue Jays had their entire roster here, maybe. Maybe you mix it up. Maybe you give him a different look.
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Chapter 3: What challenges is Kevin Gausman facing this season?
Maybe you... you know, put a little something different in his mind. Maybe, you know, rush him through kind of his first at-bat, right? Something he doesn't like doing. Maybe run him out there, get him to play a little quicker. I don't know. Maybe that would help a little.
I'm just throwing it. You know, I didn't think about it until, you know, last night or yesterday. I was just after Blue Jays talk. Yeah. I was just reading online before I packed up and left. And there was just talking about the struggles Rowley's going through. And look, he's not hitting 300. I think Vlad, he's still hitting 300. He's not hitting 300.
But I mean, Cal Rowley's never going to hit 300. I just found it interesting. And the reasoning was, hey, we're just going to change up. And there's no panic in anybody's part. Cal Rowley certainly doesn't seem to panic. I think they're giving him maybe a few more DH days. But I don't know. I just, I mean... Again, he's not hitting 300. He's been really bad. Yeah.
But, you know, I'm looking at Vladdy. Vladdy is what? He's hitting 300, I think, and even 300 right now.
Chapter 4: Is the 'Rays Way' of playing baseball sustainable?
He hasn't had an extra base hit since April 28th. That's going on two weeks. That's about two weeks. Sure. We talked about his last home run, I think, was April 20th. It's been a while, yeah. It's been a while. Yeah. And look, last night, you know, the Jays lost to the Rays 8-5, and I mean, there were a bunch of things going on last night. It wasn't necessarily just because of Vladdy.
I mean, you made the point. You texted me during the game, and you said... This is what happens sometimes when the team with the best record in baseball or the best record in the American League and is on a heater sees the same pitcher back-to-back outings. And I think Kevin Gossman kind of talked about that after the game. He said, hey, they had a good plan in Tampa. They had a good plan today.
Yeah. So I'm not laying it all on Vladdy, but we are at the point now where I think that ā You know, watching Vladdy's body language has turned into kind of a cottage industry here. You know, people watch us at bats not to see what's going to happen. They watch us at bats to see what's going to happen.
See, I thought it looked better.
This is why I led to this because, sorry, I know I'm rambling on and on here, but if I don't, I'm going to freeze into an icicle. So this is my way of keeping myself warm. Yeah. But you made this point on Blue Jays talk. Yeah. And that's why I'm trying to lead this into a positive direction here. You made this point in Blue Jays talk. You actually thought he looked a little better last night.
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Chapter 5: What insights does Jensen Lewis provide about the Jays' season?
Yeah, I did. I think that's the first time, at least for me anyway, that you could see whenever he had good takes, like he seemed to see the ball a little sooner out of Drew's hand and saw it a little bit longer, got the foot down a little sooner. You could tell he got it started a little quicker. The separation between his hands and his front foot were a little bit better.
It looked to me like if he wanted to swing at some of those pitches, he could. Now, you know, is it as a swing? Probably not. You just mentally he's grinding through whatever he's grinding through. But, you know, he's missed the balls that he was swinging at. He just missed them.
Like he had good passes on some pitches that it looked to me like he was looking for in the window that he was looking for it. And. Every once in a while, you just run into a team. If you're watching TV, it's right down the middle. He's had some good passes at some good pitches the last couple of days. He has got three different haters.
To try and follow that around the strike zone is not the easiest thing to do. He can pitch up. He's a tough take. He's always close to the strike zone. He'll get you to chase. He'll get you in swing mode. He'll occasionally spin one on you, but he's mainly 96, 97 with some late movement on some haters. For me, anyway...
It's the first time in a while that I, you know, I'm sure I'm in the minority because he went over, but, you know, and he hasn't been driving the baseball. But for me, I think when you're going through it, it's baby steps.
You got to build off of it some way, and you got to think of a positive way when you walk away from the field, thinking to yourself, man, did I do anything that I can build off of to make me better the next day? And I really do think we didn't show him there on that little highlight, but I do think the pitches that he took, just looked better.
Like, he looked athletic, like he was ready to hit them if he wanted to, and that's something he can build off of. And the more he does that because he has talent, the better off he's going to be. The shorter kind of this little slump thing that he's going through will be, and the better chance he's got of driving the baseball in the air, which is what we always want to see.
So, yeah, I mean, again, it's not the easiest gets because of who he faced yesterday and him getting McClanahan today, which is... I mean, it's just a handful, right? Well, yeah, this is why the Rays are the Rays right now. It's because, you know, they got one of the best staffs in baseball. Top five in the sport. Like, their bullpen's good enough. Their rotation is really good.
Like, they're throwing some major arms at you. And this is probably the wrong time for some dudes to be going through it, but... This is one you just got to simplify it. You try not to overthink it, and you try and just think, how do I get really super athletic really quick? If I can do that, maybe I can beat a guy to the spot. I can get some confidence doing that.
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Chapter 6: How does Chandler Simpson's speed impact the game?
They're trying. You know what I mean? And they know. Yeah. They know what's going on.
They know that the team is like a third not healthy.
As the margin came back, now he's been on the I.O. again, puts a little bit more pressure on other guys to ā You know, George probably shouldn't even be playing. Let's be fair about it. He's got a broken big toe. It's... You know, for him to go out there and do things, you could see it last night.
He was visibly frustrated with some pitches that I think he thought that he should be, you know, making a better pass at. And guys tend to squeeze the bat a little tighter. They tend to overswing a little too much. They tend to miss pitches that normally they wouldn't be missing. And when George is going to that knee, that's kind of what's happening.
He's overswing and trying to do too much, trying to get the ball in the air, trying to do damage.
You don't think that going to the knee is reflective of ā something mechanical caused by the toe.
Nah, he did that last year. He didn't have a broken toe. I mean, it's, you know, you're a little older. You try and get it started a little sooner. You try and generate a little bit more hip rotation. When you do that, it just got nowhere else to go. Like, you know, you're trying to release the tension. And that's his way, for me anyway, of releasing it.
And you add on top of it that everybody else around him, kind of other than Okamoto, is kind of going through it all at the same time. And this is what I'll say. You know, I don't think most of the time you notice who's not in your lineup until you face teams like the Rays.
And pitching like the Rays.
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Chapter 7: Which AL teams could emerge as contenders after the Yankees and Rays?
He gets you looking around, and everybody's looking.
That first play that Gossman didn't make, it was originally scored an error, and then they flipped it to an infield hit. I have no problem with it being flipped to an infield hit. He catches that cleanly. I'm sure if you ask Kevin, it's an error.
He didn't make a glove. basically a big hop right to his glove but what happens is when a dude's busting it and it's super fast it puts pressure on things right and i mean he's not gonna get him even if he even if he i mean it's it's close like you guys see it's just like again it's that it's that little mountain and you know you're trying to to fall to your target and
And, boy, when you peak, you take your eye off the baseball of the guy running that pass. Yeah, it's just like ā it's just very hard to make up for. Ray's got a really good team. You know, the first couple innings, they were hammering two strike pitches. You know, Kevin's split finger just wasn't split. And the fastball was just missing.
And when a team's gone a heater, like, what do they want, 15 out of their last 17? Like, yeah, all the things that you should be doing right, you're doing them. And ā You know, that Jonathan Aranda guy, boy, he's got a pretty good plan, right? Stay in the big part of the field, crush mistakes.
Drew, I don't know if we ā actually, I will admit I haven't seen any of the ā I usually check whenever they play the Rays. I usually check Topkin's story the next day. I don't know if anybody brought up a random being hit by the pitch or not. I don't know if it came up at all. I know it came up on the telecast. Yeah, well ā Let me just see.
Yeah, I haven't asked around about that because I know the, you know, the sort of the team's going through it and I don't want to bother anybody. But, you know, the totality of everything that we saw with Kevin making the adjustments and, you know, that, you know, our local CAC, you had mentioned to me on text a little earlier that every split finger that was in the zone, the race swung at. Hmm.
That'd make you wonder a little bit, right? Just... Now, again, it's fair game. If, you know, if you're giving things away with however you're gripping it, however you're, you know, wherever you're releasing it from, you know, there's a reason why Kevin's been around too long to not know how to make a mechanical change on the mound, right?
I mean, he's very consistent with where he's starting his hands from.
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of the standings for the Blue Jays' playoff hopes?
My Rays in first place. The Yankees are two back. The Orioles are nine. Barker's Jays are nine and a half.
Nobody's Red Sox.
Nobody's Red Sox. And they're 10 back.
Does it sound different if you're nine and a half or ten back? I mean, the Jays... Does it sound different?
You know, I'm just looking at the board there. The Jays aren't even in the wild card picture, right? According to the board we have. Well, I mean, I know. Come on.
Well, they are a game and a half back. There's a couple of teams that are a game and a half back, but...
Okay, this was, I believe, this was written yesterday. Because I want to talk about the Rays a little bit. And we're going to be joined later by Chad Mottola, their hitting coach. Nice. Jensen Lewis will join us as well. Ben Nicholson-Smith. What was I just reading? I found this interesting in the Athletics. So interesting, I can't freaking find it. Hang on. Which is never a good thing here.
What's about the Rays offense? And what's going on with the Rays offensively? Here we go. Okay. They've hit for very little power. They have the lowest position player, War, F-War, in the American League. And they're just slightly above average in runs per game. All right? Their defense is okay. I mean, it doesn't grade out spectacularly, but it's okay. And you know they can run.
It's just kind of... You know their top three starters. They've got an ERA under three. But I think the big thing with this team is... We talk about there's not a lot of power, but Junior Caminero is hitting for power. Yandy Diaz is hitting for average, and Jonathan Aranda is driving and runs.
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