Chapter 1: What happened in the Blue Jays' loss to the Rays?
All right, folks, you're going to have to help me out at 416-870-0590, star 591-888-666-0590. If you want to help me out in the text line, please feel free to do that. 590-590 is the text line. Name and location, please. I'll let Kevin Barker... Help me out a bit here after that 4-3 loss to the Rays. Listen, I understand that we have a bullpen by committee in Toronto now.
I also know that, well, you know, I've heard that Louis Varland is probably the most important part of that committee, but I have yet to hear anybody say he's the closer. Kevin Barker, I'm wondering why tonight the one-run lead on the road. You go to Tyler Rodgers in the eighth inning with two, three, four, five, with the meat of the order coming up and a very good meat of the order coming up.
Now, nothing against Tyler Rodgers, but Tyler Rodgers is going to get balls put in play. He's not striking anybody out. And I guess my question is, I also have a question about what the hell Brandon Valenzuela is doing bunting in the second inning. We talk about that in a minute. Were you surprised to see Tyler Rogers come in there in that situation?
Absolutely. Absolutely. That part of the order, how much trouble you have of beating the Rays in Tropicana. You fought and clawed your starting pitcher, grinded through it, only punched out three dudes, gave you a quality start. Hoffman looks great, throwing harder on the edges. You had it set up right. You have better stuff than Tyler Rogers available.
I want my best stuff thrown to the meat of the order. For me, as soon as I saw Tyler Rodgers running out of the pen, it makes no sense. Again, I understand the seven outings without allowing a run. That's Tyler Rodgers. I don't understand that part of the order when you have better stuff standing basically right beside Tyler waiting to throw to lesser hitters, Lower down in the order.
For me, it makes no sense. They're in win mode now. You use your best when you got your best available, and for me, John didn't tonight, and the Rays made him pay for it. The Rays know how to hit guys that throw a little weird. They got a bunch of them dudes, Jeff, coming out of their pen. And for them, you can see it was up the middle of the other way.
Let it travel, stay inside the baseball, inside out something. That's why you saw the hits that you saw, right? Every single one of them hits that they gave up, that they got against Tyler Rogers, went up the middle of the other way. That's called an approach from the middle of the order. Could you do that against a dude throwing 99 with a 91-mile-an-hour changeup? Probably not. That's the point.
And when you do that, you get beat against a better team, and right now the Rays are a better team than the Jays.
Yeah, that – boy, again, on the road with one run. You needed a win tonight. You know, we're not going to call it a must win, but you needed a win. The idea is to win this series. I mean, that's how you're eventually going to get back to 500. And, yeah, again, nothing against Tyler Rodgers, but –
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Chapter 2: Why was Tyler Rogers chosen to pitch in the eighth inning?
I just don't. I mean, you're basically, you know, you want to set up the situation where you got the sack fly eventually.
bring you in and i and i sure as hell don't know about the bunt in the second inning the jays had a run in one out um ernie bunts to get on jimenez singles up the middle and you've got you're just gonna have to explain that to me i i listen i you know i get small ball has its place you know But not in the second inning of a game. I don't care how much you're scuffling to score runs. I'm not.
We'll have to wait and see what John says about that. But that to me was just unforgivable.
Yeah, I think the kid's trying to do too much, right? You know, I'm hoping that John didn't put that safety squeeze on with one out in first and third. With the kid who's been swinging it pretty well, playing back-to-back days, you could tell he was in the flow of the game. He's been sort of in the flow of mechanics, getting a good pitch to hit. I don't get it either. I mean, he had a rough day.
The ABS challenges that he lost in third inning. You mentioned the bad base running. You know, you're only going to get a couple of those when you're losing. Like it's sort of those parts of your game against good teams on the road, when you screw up, you get beat. It ain't kind of you live to fight another inning or another at bat. You get beat.
And that's kind of what's happening here, right, is when the Jays do things like that, They don't win the game. They lose the game. And I think this is what John's trying to, you know, kind of been preaching the last whatever week is you've got to clean these things up.
You've got to play better, especially when you start getting into the meat of the American League East and you start facing these better teams. But this is learning experience for the kid. Right. I mean, it's when you try too hard at the big league level because them guys are just as good or better than you are. You're going to be out and it's going to hurt your team.
You could see when's the last time you saw George Springer show visible frustration at a team over mistakes? Yeah, absolutely. It's rare if ever. I don't remember. Jeff, do you know every time? that you saw him do that?
Not in the field.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Brandon Valenzuela's base running mistake?
I understand it looks like Varland is the closer, but best players coming up and you were saving him for the bottom of the order analytically. That makes no sense. And, you know, Steve, we can't really argue with you in that. As for Dalton Varsha, you know, I think... I think Dalton Varshow is what he is, and that has some utility. He's a really good player on a really good team.
I'm just not certain you necessarily view him as a foundational piece. That's my point of view.
Continuity is a big deal in this organization. Continuity is a big deal.
I will say that. Exactly. And as I said, he's a good defender in center field.
If they dropped $100 million on Dalton Varshow, you'd be shocked, I wouldn't.
No, I wouldn't be shocked. I wouldn't be shocked. But, you know, here's the thing. I mean, I will say this, and I know this is going to be an easy way out. But if money is no real issue, then I have no problem with them dropping that in Dalton. If money is no issue, if money ever becomes an issue, then I would have a problem with it.
Well, it depends on how the season ends and who else is out there.
Yeah, that's fair. But I don't know if they have any options internally in center field. Miles Strach could be your center fielder. You could probably make it work. But, yeah, I'm with Kevin. Continuity is a big deal to these people, and it wouldn't surprise me. And I will say this. Again, I will say this. If payroll is no issue, or at least if it's –
not enough of an issue that is going to prevent you from doing big things, then fine. But you got to be able to do big things this offseason. And this is the thing, regardless of how this year turns out, they were going to have to either find a replacement for Gossman or sign an extension for him. You've obviously got to do something with Jose Barrios now. Jose Barrios had an MRI tonight.
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Chapter 4: How did Kevin Gausman's performance impact the game?
I can't imagine they'd bring him up for tomorrow's game. I mean, they could, theoretically. There's no reason they can't. He's with the team.
Well, McClanahan's throwing tomorrow, so it probably wouldn't be advisable.
Yeah, it wouldn't make sense.
To do that, so you wait until Friday, you let him go home, you let him make the trip with him on the train. Train, I said train. That's funny. I've got train on my mind because I didn't catch one today. You're still mad about that. It's like, you know, it's like, hey, I do want to mention Andres Jimenez. Yes, mention Andres Jimenez. Because he had a really good night with two strikes today.
What he looked like last year offensively to what he looks like now, even now that he can come out there with two strikes and actually have – A visible difference with his lower half just tells you mentally where he's at offensively. Give him kudos. He's got a good chance of putting the ball in play with some authority. He can go line to line. He can hit lefties. He's a run producer now.
Like, you kind of don't mind when he's up with traffic on the bases, which is kind of cool. I just like how he fights and claws with two strikes because he widens out. He's got a little heel raise, which – It's just kind of cool to watch a guy kind of go through it, figure it out, go home, figure out what he wants to do with his lower half that actually gives him a chance. It's working.
He's an everyday shortstop that can do something offensively. I kind of like it.
We had a caller call about Vladdy pinch hitting and not having a career pinch hit. I can't imagine how many – I can't think off the top of my head how many times he's pinch hit. I'm a little old school this way, Kevin, in that when you give a guy a regular a day off, you know, unless it's game – unless it's postseason, in which case you're not giving him a day off anyhow.
But when I give a guy a day off, it's a day off. I'm just not – I don't know. Again, that's – I'm reaching here maybe. You are. But, well, I'm sorry. A day off is a day off to me.
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