Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What were the Blue Jays' key mistakes against the Astros?
That was some pretty ugly baseball yesterday down at the Rogers Center. The Blue Jays lose 3-1 to the Houston Astros to lose a series that they probably feel like they could have swept. Now, coulda, shoulda, woulda. You can nitpick probably most games and say, coulda won this one here, coulda won this one there.
But coming off of a Tuesday game where they lost at 11 innings and had a million chances to put an extra run across... and take care of that game, including in the bottom of the 10th with a runner on third and only one out. You're probably kicking yourself for that one. And then last night, no, the bats didn't get going. And that is a consistent story still.
It was actually not a runners in scoring position issue last night because you just didn't get any runners in scoring position. 0 for 2 with four men left on base. I had... Half joked that Mike Burrows, who entered play with the worst ERA among all qualified pitchers, would throw five shutout. He went six with one earned run instead. So that's the, you know, bigger picture issue.
Chapter 2: How did Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s batting practice look?
But what you are probably looking at from last night's game is a number of little mistakes. Luis Urias gets doubled off on a play that there's no business getting doubled off on when George Springer lines one into deep right field. There is Jeff Hoffman throwing the ball away, trying to pick off Joey Loprafito at third base on a set play that he and Cosimo Okamoto miscommunicated on.
Okamoto thought it was a back pick coming from the catcher. It's a play where you're trying to keep the runner in check and maybe catch him because of the contact play could be on. There was a double play that was not turned because of a shift against Jordan Alvarez where Ernie Clement and Arias kind of miscommunicated on who had the bag.
And then there were a couple, there was another regular error as well on Andres Jimenez, a player Ernie Clement didn't make a shortstop after he came into the game. There was a lot. There were a lot of little things. And when you lose a game 3-1 and you lose a series 2-1 to a team that came in also not playing their best baseball, you're going to be kicking yourself for some of those things.
Let's... Over the course of the show, we will also get you set for Texas Rangers series that starts tonight. Four at the Rogers Center. Levi Weaver will join us a little bit later to tee up the Rangers side of that.
Chapter 3: What insights does Davy Andrews provide about the Kirk-Valenzuela platoon?
Davey Andrews of Fangraphs will join us. And Adam Macko will join us a little later in the show as well. Right now, though, we have the voice of your Toronto Blue Jays on Sportsnet. Dan Schulman. Dan, how are we doing this morning? Doing well. How you doing, Blake? I'm all right, man. I mean, it wasn't my favorite baseball game of all time last night. But otherwise, you know, life is all right.
A lot of mistakes in that one, Dan. And you and Caleb, you know, hit a lot of it on the broadcast last night. Barker ripped him pretty good after the game. Obviously, there are... Bigger pitch, bigger picture, consistent issues on the offensive side. But what do you make of a game like that where it was just little mistake after little mistake?
And yeah, a three run home run would have made it all look a little bit different. But that is not the type of baseball we have become accustomed to the Blue Jays playing.
No, and it's not the type of baseball that's going to keep you in any kind of a wildcard race much longer, to be honest with you. You know, it's funny, when you're going bad, you lose 9-7 and 3-1. Well, like, when you're going okay, you lose 9-1, but you win 7-3 in the other game.
Chapter 4: What is Levi Weaver's assessment of the Texas Rangers' current status?
But, you know, the first day they hit pretty well, but they couldn't get the run in in the bottom of the ninth or tenth, I guess it was. And then they give up the home run, the low profito, so they lose that game. And last night, you just documented it all very well, very accurately. You just can't make these kinds of mistakes. It's an unusual play over a third to try to pick off the runner.
I don't... hate it, I guess, because they're quite good at this stuff, like the play at first between Kirk and Vlade.
We see that a lot when they get guys, but this play that we're seeing here, very unusual, and we're just going on, and I heard you talk about, we're just going on what John Schneider said after the game, which is that Okamoto was under the impression it was coming from Alejandro Kirk, and then once Jeff Hoffman steps off and realizes Okamoto's not on the bag, Okamoto's not looking at me, then the whole thing just...
you know, go south in a hurry. And unfortunately, the throw was too far away from Okamoto. But, you know, in the moment, as soon as Hoffman looks, he's probably going, what's going on here? So, I mean, it's a play that you don't see very much. And it's a play that was not executed well at all. Obviously, the Urias play can't happen.
So I'm guessing that he says that he said he's not going to catch it and I need to get going in order to score. And then he did catch it and he got doubled off. So it's a play where if you hang around a little bit longer and you see him catch the ball, you can get back. But in his mind, probably he's saying, if I don't get out where I was and he drops it, I can't score.
But, you know, the lesser of two evils is you only get to third and there's still one out, right? Because if he doesn't catch the ball, there's one out. So the lesser of two evils is second and third and one out. The worst possible scenario is exactly what happened. You were right about the, you know, the Clement Urias play that they don't turn the double play.
And I think in hindsight, if we asked Ernie, he'd probably say, maybe my only shot was just taking myself to the bag and see if I can throw him out at first because Urias was way over in the hole against Alvarez.
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Chapter 5: What does Adam Macko share about his nerves before his MLB debut?
There was no chance to turn to there.
it they're just not playing clean baseball and as caleb and i talked about on the air and joe and i've talked about it too when you're hitting a ton you can you can band-aid these things up and it's okay but it's not okay this year you know it's incredible they're still in the third wild card spot they are incredibly fortunate to be in the third wild card spot but at some point
Whether it's the White Sox or the Orioles or the Rangers or the Mariners, like somebody's going to get going or multiple somebodies are going to get going. And they've got to start playing better and they've got to do better on this homestand over the next seven days.
Well, and you mentioned that wildcard spot. Texas is one game behind them. So if you play, if you have that same series this weekend, you're out of that wildcard spot because Texas jumps you. Houston's only one game back. They could have been much further back. from if you had taken care of business in this series.
So yeah, I think you guys said on the broadcast last night, five teams within two games of them now, including three in the AL West. As weird as that is, they're all tied. So... They obviously have to clean a lot of that stuff up. We'll hear more from them pregame today when we're down there asking about it. And like you said, if you are hitting, some of that stuff doesn't matter as much.
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Chapter 6: How does pitching at Yankee Stadium feel for a rookie?
I know that you and especially Buck had some fun with the Yankees' mistakes last year, but they were also the best offense in the American League, and that's how they ended up tied for the division lead and still making the playoffs. The Blue Jays haven't hit like that. This was a... starting pitcher who came in with the worst qualified ERA.
He had actually gotten taken out of the Astros rotation before being put back in in Mike Burroughs. Some of the offensive issues have been, like you said, executing with runners in scoring position for some games. Yesterday, they just couldn't get to them at all. This has not been a lineup that's particularly effective top to bottom, even though a couple guys are having all right seasons.
Is there like a through line that you're seeing in any of the offensive struggles and the inability to get to kind of these like more kitchen sink pitch ability guys more than anything else?
yeah and i thought to be honest watching him i thought he was a little more than kitchen sinky last night i mean he was 95 touch 96 i know the numbers weren't good but he there are other guys who the blue jays have faced and struggled uh against this year who i thought looked uh like they had lesser stuff than he did i don't know if his stuff played up we haven't seen him you know before this year um but i i thought he did okay but i i think the the
the through line, as you said, is they're still chasing too much. It's getting a little bit better. If you look at the numbers, it's slowly coming down, but they're still chasing too much, and they're swinging at pitchers' pitches. And it's really hard to make really good contact on pitchers' pitches. Not to single it out, but one that I remember right away is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
's first at bat. He got a slider three, four inches off the outside part of the plate, swung and missed, and then he got a four-seamer three, four inches in off the inside part of the plate, got jammed and grounded out. The ones you want to hit are the ones in the middle of the zone. And I know they're preaching to them, chase less, chase less.
But I think these guys just have so much in their heads right now. Why are they struggling so much? What can I do to help this guy's out? That guy's not hitting. I've got to do more. It is getting better. I know people don't think it's getting better. It is getting better. They are scoring more runs per game recently than they have before.
They are hitting more home runs per game recently than they have before. They're doing a little bit better in scoring position than they have before, but they need more gains.
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Chapter 7: What challenges do catchers face with framing and challenging calls?
Like, it's incremental improvement right now. So... You know, a couple of guys like Okamoto's red hot and Varshow's hitting for power. But then last night, John Schneider, and I'm not faulting him for this, goes, you know, Sanchez is not in there again, right? Second time in four games against a righty where Sanchez is not in there. They are working a lot with him to improve his defense.
And in the meantime, he does not appear to be an everyday player right now, but he is a pretty good hitter. So, you know, when you take that bat out of the lineup, you're losing something. So it's kind of pick your poison right now. Do you want your best offensive lineup or your best defensive lineup?
Chapter 8: What are the implications of the upcoming Texas Rangers series for the Blue Jays?
It's dependent on who the opposing starting pitcher is and a lot of other factors. But it's just not – it's one of many, many areas where – You can squint and see it and say, OK, this should happen and that will happen. But it's it's a bumpy road. You know, at the same time, there's still whatever they are, 18 and 14 in their last 32. And that's fine.
But they should be 20 and 12 in their last 32. They should have won those games. So they've got to clean it up. They got to hit better. They got to get more innings out of their starting pitchers. They got to do a lot of things better. In some ways, it's kind of amazing to think there are only two games under 500 with everything that's going on.
Yeah, on the one hand, you can be kind of optimistic about that, but on the other hand, you could be very pessimistic that you don't feel that they've deserved to be two games under .500.
With respect to Vlad, and I apologize, people might be Vlad conversation out, but Caleb made some interesting points with you on the broadcast last night about what he saw in the batting practice that Vlad was working on, that theory that maybe...
He had a good start to the season without the power and seeking that power, you know, maybe took him out of some of the other things that he does so well normally. Do you have, you know, there are a lot of theories out there about Vlad right now. Are any of them satisfying or, you know, logical enough to you to kind of crystallize into one theory of Vlad right now?
I don't think anything can be crystallized in this situation, and I'm certainly not qualified to be a guy who's trying to do it. I mean, I can tell you what I see. I watched his whole batting practice last night. I was up in the booth, and there's a camera that's just kind of on from center field, so I can see his face in the swings, and then I can look and see where the ball goes.
And as you know, many, many guys in their first round of batting practice will hit everything the other way. maybe with like a 50% swing intensity. And then gradually, round by round, like they'll do five or six different trips in and out of the cage, alternating with a couple of other guys.
Round by round, now they start swinging harder, they start pulling more, they start getting the ball in the air. And Vladdy puts on a show. He never did that yesterday. And clearly it was by design, 100%. It was by design that he was just going to work on, it looked like, just work on hitting the ball over the second baseman's head.
he looked frustrated to me at times again there's a camera on he's on the field right so this is none of this is super private back in the cage or anything like that and i mean i don't know what's wrong but something or some things are wrong and at this point i think we've all you We've all got to believe it's both mechanical and mental right now. How could it not be mental? He's a human being.
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