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Blue Jays Talk

JTP: Cease Battles, Vladdy's Swing & Ricky Romero

17 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the Blue Jays' recent win against the Red Sox?

10.19 - 28.682 Blake Murphy

What's going on? It's Jay's Talk Plus, and we get to do one after a win today. Jay's win 6-1 yesterday. We talked about how Fenway could maybe get a couple of guys on the roster going. David Schneider obviously had his big debut there in 2023. He's going to be a big part of that. That went well. George Springer's swing kind of designed to hit over the monster. That went well.

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28.962 - 44.446 Blake Murphy

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., less so. We'll get into that. Despite him having terrific career numbers at Fenway, he did not get it going yesterday. But the Jays get enough in a short outing from Dylan Cease and with the bats to win 6-1, shake off a couple losses. on the weekend.

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Chapter 2: How did Dylan Cease perform in his recent game?

44.466 - 55.28 Blake Murphy

We will talk to Disha Thosar a little later in the show. We'll also talk to Ricky Romero. But for the first hour, for the first time in a little bit, we have Madison Shipman of Sportsnet and Blue Jay Central in studio with us. Madison, how are we doing?

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55.42 - 57.142 Ricky Romero

I am doing great. Thank you for having me back.

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57.403 - 76.769 Blake Murphy

Yeah, very glad to have you back. I think most of the audience knows this by now, but in case anyone doesn't, the reason there's a gap in your schedule on Jaystock Plus, but more importantly with Blue Jay Central, is that as your laptop sticker for anyone who can see it, The ESPN coverage of the Women's College World Series. How did it go this year?

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76.789 - 94.095 Ricky Romero

It was great. It was great. So postseason softball for me starts at the beginning of May, which is why there's quite a bit of a gap in time when I'm coming back up to Toronto. So I'm not quite on the IL, but I'm on like the softball IL, if you want to call it that. But it's so much fun. It ended up being...

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Chapter 3: What changes have been observed in Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s swing?

94.075 - 112.488 Ricky Romero

Such a great season, tons of home runs, record-breaking home runs. There were so many things to keep an eye on, too. Megan Grant, who was a senior for UCLA, she ended up winning a national championship with the women's basketball team. And then her senior year with the softball team, she was on the single-season home run record chase.

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112.508 - 131.264 Ricky Romero

And she ended up breaking the single-season home run record, hit 42 home runs this season. Now, I was selfishly hoping she would get one more because her jersey number was 43, and I thought that'd be really cool if she hit 43 in one year. But still, Texas ended up winning the national championship this year. So many unbelievable performances.

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131.344 - 151.525 Ricky Romero

Katie Stewart, if you have not watched her hit, you need to go watch her hit because she's And then Tegan Kavon, who pitched for Texas, just something about her being on that stage. And we talk about it, too, all the time. You want to be that athlete that steps up when the lights are the brightest, that is able to put the team on your back and win a championship.

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151.545 - 156.415 Ricky Romero

And she's done that now two years in a row. So congratulations to the Texas Longhorns back to back.

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156.395 - 170.632 Blake Murphy

Yeah, congratulations to them. The Megan Grant thing is wild. So cool, right? And, like, the Toronto Tempo drafted her UCLA basketball teammate, Kiki Rice, in the first round. They had a bunch of players go in the first round. And then she went, I think, fourth overall in the AUSL draft.

Chapter 4: How are the Atlanta Braves performing this season?

170.873 - 177.821 Blake Murphy

So fun. She's so great. I was going to ask, like, how do you decide between basketball and baseball, if you're her? But if you hit 42 home runs, I guess.

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Chapter 5: What insights does Madison Shipman share about the Women's College World Series?

177.941 - 198.079 Ricky Romero

Yeah, her swing and... When she was a freshman at UCLA, I had UCLA games that year. And I was doing some research. And with the incoming freshmen, it's always hard to find, you know, film. You know, I love my film. And so I'm on YouTube, like, trying to find videos of her swings from high school. And I found some. And I'm looking at her swing going, oh.

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198.059 - 220.557 Ricky Romero

She is the real deal, like lefty swing, just powerful, everything about it. And this year, her numbers just took off like crazy. And when you watch her hit, she has a very methodical pre-pitch routine. So if you're watching us right now, she steps into the box and she almost puts her hand on her helmet, takes a big, deep breath before she gets into the batter's box. She does it every single time.

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220.537 - 229.921 Ricky Romero

And I'm all about routines. And that to me just kind of shows that she's taking control of the at bat. And when you're able to do that, then I guess you can hit 42 home runs in a season.

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Chapter 6: What challenges are the New York Mets facing this year?

230.082 - 233.55 Ricky Romero

I should have done that. Maybe I should have tried that. But yeah, no, she was a lot of fun to watch.

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233.691 - 237.28 Blake Murphy

I know you weren't back with us yet, but did you see the Jose Caballero stuff?

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237.26 - 240.887 Ricky Romero

Oh, yes, going all the way down to, what, eight seconds?

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241.007 - 251.145 Blake Murphy

Yes, and the, like, in the box but look down. So, obviously, hers seems a little bit more centering herself and just getting her not quite as troll-y as the other one.

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251.706 - 268.752 Ricky Romero

Yeah, it looked like he's... I'm assuming not a fan of the pitch clock, and so waiting until the last possible second when we're all just looking there to see, is he going to get in the box? Is he going to get called for it? But, yeah, a little bit different. But so many fun things this softball season to talk about. Did you have any pre-at-bat routines like that or anything?

268.732 - 283.519 Ricky Romero

It kind of changed a little bit. I'm a bit superstitious. I like to joke with Jamie about that, that I am very superstitious. So if something was working, whether if it was I was chewing gum or if there was a certain song that was going through my head, like that song stayed with me until I started to not do so well.

283.939 - 305.573 Ricky Romero

The one thing that I really never did when I was on deck or even up to the plate is take a full like game like hack. I didn't want the other team to see either what I was working on or what my tendencies were because I always felt like the other team was scouting me on deck, scouting me. Now, the film, we didn't have as much film when I was playing, so I didn't want to give anybody the advantage.

305.613 - 322.658 Ricky Romero

Now, hindsight, nobody was probably watching me on deck, but in my mind, that was kind of a way for me to almost take control of the at-bat before I even got in the batter's box was just by simply not taking full swings. So if you see, like, pictures, I've got, like, maybe hanging on to my bat halfway up the barrel, just barely swinging.

322.698 - 329.569 Ricky Romero

It looks like I'm not ready, but to me, that was strategy of making sure that they didn't know, the opponent didn't know what I was trying to work on.

Chapter 7: What is Ricky Romero's analysis of Vladdy's current struggles?

391.309 - 415.277 Ricky Romero

Senior year, stuck with Wobble again. Now, for senior day, I kind of wanted to do an ode to my parents. And just and so I changed my walk up songs to some of my dad's favorite songs growing up and songs that we used to listen to on our way to the fields and just things that kind of reminded me of growing up playing softball. And so I had a different song for each at bat and he was there.

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415.257 - 430.713 Ricky Romero

And I remember, like, talking to him after the game. I was like, did you like all my walk-up songs? He's like, you changed your walk-up songs. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. And then you got a hit. I think I got a hit in my third at-bat. And he's like, and then it was okay. But I was worried that because you changed it, and now you're seeing where I get my superstition from.

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430.753 - 435.258 Ricky Romero

So, yes, it's only crazy if it doesn't work is what I was always told.

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Chapter 8: What are the expectations for Max Scherzer in his upcoming start?

435.278 - 455.863 Blake Murphy

Nice. That's great. Well, maybe we'll get into some of the Vlad's, but maybe he just needs to change up all the walk-up songs. Yeah. That'll work out. I don't remember what Vlad Sr. came out to. I would imagine some, given the time he played, like some early reggaeton Dominican stuff, maybe some early Daddy Yankee or something like that, but maybe he needs to mix it up.

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455.883 - 472.587 Blake Murphy

Okay, let's talk about this Jays game last night. They get a 6-1 victory, and there were a couple negatives within that that we'll maybe do in the second segment, but a couple of big positives as well. Dylan sees in his second start back off the I.L., Goes five innings, doesn't allow runs, strikes out seven.

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472.988 - 493.422 Blake Murphy

It's not quite the swing and miss bonanza he had in his last start, and he only managed to go five. But what did you make of where Cease is? And I guess that gap that still remains sometimes between you're so nasty, but the pitch count can change. kind of snowball on him at times.

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493.442 - 506.183 Blake Murphy

So he's not getting, you know, even when he's come up short for Cy Young's a couple times with really good numbers, I think the ding on him has been like, well, you don't pitch Cy Young innings necessarily, even though you have a Cy Young ERA.

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506.163 - 521.176 Ricky Romero

The amount of pitches, though. I mean, he was throwing a ton. And Dan and Joe were even talking about it during the game, too, about some of the long at-bats and some of the pitches that maybe are missing well out of the zone. Like, those are the ones where all of a sudden your pitch count starts to climb up.

521.256 - 539.772 Ricky Romero

Now, what really impressed me was no matter the traffic, no matter the situation, still being able to get out of those spots, especially playing a team in their home ballpark, I feel like is a big deal. And there are going to be games where maybe you don't have your best stuff. or maybe things just aren't feeling all that great, especially when you get through the grind of the season.

539.832 - 554.266 Ricky Romero

But how can you still manage to navigate at bats and figure out a way to get out of these jams? And two, a highlight to the defense, Myles Straw was making a couple of really nice catches out there. Nathan Lucas ended up getting almost crossed up out in right field on one, but he still made the catch.

554.286 - 571.127 Ricky Romero

But to me, those were things, and I know we don't want to compare to last year, but I'm going to do it briefly. But when you think about last year and when you think about the team going on that run, it was – making big pitches in big moments, but also relying on the defense and knowing, hey, you don't need to strike 10, 11 batters out a game.

571.147 - 588.955 Ricky Romero

Yes, of course, everybody would love that, but with that swing and miss, he can still get people out without having to get those strikeouts. So that's what impressed me, too, is because you're not going to go out there and have your best game every single time, but what can you do to get out of those spots? And it was interesting, in the studio we've got

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