JTP: Chris Russo Joins, Scherzer Returns & Has Bieber Turned the Corner?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Ah, fun game for the Toronto Blue Jays in Washington. A return for Max Scherzer to a ballpark he has had a lot of success in. Not the best start of Max Scherzer's career, but a nice step forward. The stuff was there. Some of the location was there. It didn't get hit particularly hard. Not very pitch efficient, so he didn't get out of the third inning, but he did enough to lead what ended up being a pseudo bullpen day. The Blue Jays hold the highest scoring offense in baseball to just two runs.
How close are the Blue Jays to contending with five games back and 8% playoff odds?
They eke out a 3-2 lead. Victory. A lot to get into today. We are... less than a week from the trade deadline and while that win felt good and looked good uh the number in the games behind column is still five the number in the playoff odds column is still in single digits so uh not a lot from one game will change there a couple injury updates to get to later we will get you set for the rest of the series we're going to talk to chris mad dog russo and eno saris of the athletic uh in the second hour but for the first hour joined as i often am by john axford john how we doing buddy good play how are you i'm good man um Do you want to do the road trip stuff after? We should do the game first and then get to the road trip.
Okay. But the tease there is John just got back from what sounded like an amazing baseball road trip with his boys. So we'll get into that. The Blue Jays played yesterday. They won yesterday. They got one. At this point, given how much the conversation has been around selling, given what the standings look like, does one really good game where kind of that's what it's supposed to look like do anything for you? You need to see like a week of this, and they're running out of a week of this to kind of do it.
Yeah, they are running out of a week of this to kind of do it, right? I think when you're dead last in the AL East, what is it, their third or fourth last in the league? Yes, fourth last. Yeah, if, I mean, everyone above them is also not doing great unless you are, you know, I guess Boston right now or the Yankees or Tampa. Five games out, six teams ahead of you to get to that wild card spot. You need a week of this, but they don't have a week of this. And you need a week better than this as well. You can show a good bullpen. You can show some situational hitting and winning a one-run ball game. But I think if the offense isn't coming through, if they're not showing up as well – It's not looking great.
Yeah, and the offense was not, you know, anything special yesterday. They got seven hits off of what was kind of a bullpen day on the Nats side as well. Eddie Jean opens and was so efficient just mowing the Blue Jays down through two innings that the opener ends up getting into the third. Andrew Alvarez kind of taking it forward from their old friend Paxton Schultz. in that game as well. So, yeah, you're not seeing the kind of stuff that's, you know, it's not 2015 where you look under the hood and you see all these things saying, well, they're right there. And, you know, that year they were even around 500. They weren't nine games under 500. It's a little different than 2024 because, like you laid out there, the American League is much weaker.
The playoff odds at this point in 2024 with a similar record were below 1%, whereas right now they're around 8%. but 8% is a far cry from – you know, 8% even feels – that feels heavy to me, five games back with six teams to jump.
Yeah, definitely. I think when you still have that many spots in the playoffs, 8% seems gargantuan. It is definitely better than less than 1%, I suppose. But I still think – I always think back to 2011 Cardinals of having – like a single digit of a percent at the end of, I think, August and ended up winning the World Series sort of a thing. So there's always space. There's always time for a team to go on a run, even if it's at the end of August, like the Cardinals showed at one point in 2011. But when there's so many teams to jump, like there is right now, to just get that one wild card spot, that becomes a little bit more challenging.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:15–0:43
2
How close are the Blue Jays to contending with five games back and 8% playoff odds?
0:43–23:50
3
What are clubhouse dynamics and trade‑deadline anxieties for Blue Jays players?
23:50–48:02
4
Which Blue Jays veterans (Gausman, Springer, Scherzer) have no‑trade clauses or control over trades?
48:02–1:00:10
5
How should the Blue Jays balance selling expiring contracts versus keeping pieces for 2027?
1:00:10–1:23:46
6
What did Max Scherzer show in his return and how will his workload be managed?
1:23:46–1:39:52
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from Blue Jays Talk
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