Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the Blue Jays' recent game against the Miami Marlins?
They don't get much uglier than that. Jays lose 8-2 against the Miami Marlins to start the series here. It was the one game where you look at the probable pitchers and think the Blue Jays have a pretty good advantage as Trey Savage takes on Jensen Junk. Today, they'll try to do a bullpen day against Sandy Alcantara.
Tomorrow, Kevin Gosman on the hill, which you feel good about, but it's Yuri Perez on the other side, and he's pretty nasty at times that if you can't get to Jensen Junk, For more than singles over the course of five, six innings. Don't know how you're going to handle Perez. Now, a lot to get into from that one yesterday. Including some pretty poor defense behind Trey Savage.
He gets hung with five earned runs in that one.
Chapter 2: What defensive issues did the Blue Jays face with Trey Savage's start?
Probably... Not probably. He was not deserving of five earned runs in that one. At least gave them some length, which is important because, again, it's a bullpen day today. There were also some injury updates yesterday. Dylan Cease hitting the IL with a mild to moderate left hamstring strain. Tanner Andrews was called up and made his Major League debut. Hey, congratulations, man.
You were in Indy Ball last year, and now you're pitching in the majors. There will be a corresponding move later this week because the Blue Jays aren't going to run two bullpen days yesterday. Each time through the rotation, you just can't do that to your bullpen when you already have four guys near the lead league in total appearances. and Spencer Miles is the only ball guy.
So we'll see how they handle that. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. didn't play yesterday, but he was available to pinch hit and was even in the on-deck circle at one point. The other move was that Nathan Lucas was activated from the IL, got on base four times. Scary moment where he got hit in the helmet with a pitch from Andrew Nardi.
Managed to stay in the game, though, on base four times, and that went David Schneider, option to AAA. So we will get to all of this stuff
Chapter 3: What insights does Sean Keys provide about his season and hitting discipline?
Throughout the show, we will get you set for Sandy Alcantara against the bullpen day a little later.
Chapter 4: How did Nathan Lucas contribute to the Blue Jays' offense upon his return?
David Lorla and Michael Bauman of Fangrass will both join us. Sean Keyes of the New Hampshire Fishercats, one of the hottest hitting prospects in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, will also join us a little later. Right now, though, my partner on the call for this series on the Sportsnet Radio Network, Ben Schulman, joins us, voice of the Blue Jays on radio. Ben, how we doing, buddy?
I'm doing well. If you thought that, that loss last night was ugly. Now you get to look at me. So things can get a little bit worse for you, but I appreciate you having me on.
I'm digging the beard, man. It's a, I know it's not, you know, I got a little more going on here. I definitely also have a lot more gray in mind than, than you do, but I'm digging the new look.
I might, I might like just for men mind, just to look like yours a little bit, like get a little fake gruff going for me. I feel like it's something that might work.
Yeah, there you go. Don't know where to pivot from there, but we're rolling already. Okay. Look, these segments are obviously a little different because you and I were on the call together last night. So we have talked about all of this stuff already in like 10 second bursts, but now we have as much time as we want. A headline item last night. Defense behind Trey Savage really lets him down.
And the defense wasn't particularly sharp when the bullpen came into the game and, you know, turned kind of a 5-2 lead and let that swell into an 8-2 deficit. But headline item behind you, Savage, didn't deserve the five earned runs.
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Chapter 5: What are the latest updates on key Blue Jays players like Vladimir Guerrero Jr.?
What do you make of where the Blue Jays are defensively right now? Feels like outside of the job Brendan Valenzuela and Andres Jimenez have done, still kind of waiting for that defensive identity to come back this year.
yeah you know i might loop in he's maybe not quite the defender that that jimenez is but i think at third base they've been pretty happy with what okamoto has provided them defensively but yeah it's overall team-wise it's just not been the defensive group that i think a lot of people would have projected going into the year some of that is due to guys who are not on the roster but like you said i mean valenzuela's filled in pretty well and you might have argued that kirk would have been the biggest defensive loss they could have had
It's been a couple other spots where they haven't been able either to replicate production last year or which I think is the bigger problem. The second problem is because certain guys are down and certain guys are maybe not producing offensively. The Blue Jays have to create lineups with this sole idea in my mind of putting as much offense out there as possible. And again,
Because of that, they're not necessarily putting out their top defensive lineups or even really their medium defensive lineups. They're just selling out for offense, which I totally understand.
But that leaves you in a situation where, very unlike the Blue Jays the last couple of years, they might have a couple guys on the field at once that are really a lot more known for their bat than they are for their glove.
And when they're not getting, you know, a ton of strikeouts, which they actually are striking out a lot of guys as an overall staff, but some of the pitchers that they have healthy and active right now are pitching to some weak contact pretty effectively. You still need your defense to bail you out. So you put all that together.
And then I thought yesterday, Kevin Barker mentioned this on Jay's talk as well. that the Blue Jays aren't hitting that much. So every time you make a defensive mistake, it costs you a whole game too.
All of that is compounding to this kind of negative attention on the defense that based on their play, where they are kind of middle of the pack defensively, so far this year has been somewhat warranted.
Yeah, and look, you only scored two runs yesterday. Obviously, there is an offensive issue going on here where you're not, like, when it was 5-2 and there's a bullpen game today, my thinking was that we were going to see Tanner Andrews even earlier because, you know, you kind of don't have a ton of faith, especially on a day where Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Dalton Varshow are both down.
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Chapter 6: How does Sandy Alcantara's performance impact the upcoming game against the Blue Jays?
So you understand why they are looking for little extra offensive juice, and it's a great point by Barker on the postgame. It is interesting, though, to look at the defense that they had yesterday, where the outfield was Pignango, Lucas, and Jesus Sanchez. And each of those guys, you know, can do something. Like, Nathan Lucas is better in a corner than in center field. I think he'd tell you that.
Jesus Sanchez can make some plays, but isn't a super sharp defender. And Pignango... came into the offseason last year trying to establish himself as even a passable corner outfielder. It's been a long time since the Blue Jays have had an outfield like that because the front office has prioritized outfield defense to such a high degree.
So I think also the effect that's going on here is this is such a whiplash. from the last couple of years. And late season 2024, there were some when the Jays weren't competitive anymore. But really, for the last couple years, they've prioritized it to such a high degree. When it comes to Pinyongo specifically, there were two bad reads in that fifth inning, both around 95% catch probability.
The one coming in was... The expected results on that are really poor.
Chapter 7: What are the expectations for the Blue Jays' bullpen day strategy?
He should have had that one. The line drive that's hit just over his head, a lot of outfielders will tell you that's the toughest play to make, the one that looks like it's right at you. But again, it had a pretty good catch probability, and he got way less of a jump compared to an average outfielder on it.
Maybe the second one doesn't feel as bad if the first one hadn't happened in the first inning. But for Pignango, a guy who is... Trying to show that this organization or other organizations, if you look back to the Rule 5 draft, that he can play a corner outfield.
I guess, where have you evaluated his defense overall and how much is it in your head if he's in a corner spot today that maybe some of the confidence gets shaken there from the work he'd done to this point?
Yeah, I think going into, for the first part of the question, going into last night's game, I thought that with the exception of really one play, there was one play prior to last night where he and Okamoto kind of pulled up looking at each other and a ball dropped in down the left field line, actually in Trey Savage's last start.
So I'm sure that's not, you know, a super fond memory overall for Savage, what's gone on in left field the last two. I thought that other than that, he had made all the plays. There hadn't been any spectacular plays. There hadn't been any plays where I was like, whoa, I'm not sure if the average outfielder makes that play.
But he had made all the plays, and given what he has meant for them offensively, I thought that it was pretty solid. But you do hear, you know, what people have said that we're evaluating him coming up. And I remember talking to Mark Budzinski when he first came up. And Pignango, for the record, according to Budzinski, very clear that he needs to improve some things out there.
This isn't a situation where there is like a lack of recognition. It's been for a while that the bat was probably outpacing the glove when he was a prospect. And so you keep advancing him because he's too advanced for the pitching. But he's still been trying to work on that defense.
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Chapter 8: What are the prospects for the Marlins and their young players this season?
I think that, you know, there's been a couple times he looked turned around, but he seemed athletic enough to get going. But there were a couple plays before yesterday that may be foreshadowed. A couple of times when they've set them up a little deeper, Andres Jimenez has gone out into left field and caught balls that I don't think the shortstop usually catches.
And he's Andres Jimenez, and it's a rookie in their first 20 games. And I kind of understood it. But I almost wonder if that's created not the best precedent because the one against the Yankees, he came in on a ball that he's coming in and infielders going straight out. It's his ball. And it's just that's just the way it is. And he didn't make a forceful call for it. It dropped in.
And then last night, like you said, the hard line drive, you can I think you can stomach a little bit more. That stuff kind of happens at times. At least, you know, that ball was tagged like it really, really hard right at him. So a little bit harder to judge. But the play that Stowers gets the double on, he could have caught that ball. That comes more down.
It wasn't that he wasn't fast enough or that his jump wasn't good enough. It came more down to him not taking control. And it looked, to me at least, my opinion, it looked like he was coming in, saw Andres Jimenez initially going out, and kind of thought Jimenez might take it. That's not an instinct you want your outfielder to have. Again, he's so young in his major league career.
Something like that is easy to change, I think, to change what a guy's thinking. You can make those kinds of gains working with him and speaking with him and continuing to drill it down. But it's unfortunate. It really felt like it cost a lot. I mean, even when the game went from 2-1 to 3-1 yesterday, given the lack of Blue Jay offense, it felt like a big blow.
The tough thing for Pinango is they need him being in a focal point spot in the lineup every day. So he's learning on the fly of it. He's not getting all these opportunities to sit back and watch Nathan Lucas play left field maybe a couple times a week while he's sitting on the bench. They need him out there all the time. And so he's going to have to learn in the heat of battle, essentially.
He is. And you wonder if that collision with Andres Jimenez in the Tigers series is in his head as well when the ball is kind of in between them there like that. So we'll see if he's back in there today. The Jays do have four lefty outfielders now. So even against a righty with platoon splits, someone's got to hit the bench.
The other trickle down from this one is, you know, Trey Savage had been very, very efficient and he probably would have been able to get you through the seventh inning. had that inning not gone that way. Instead, you end up using four relievers the day before a bullpen day. It is a bullpen day today. Braden Fisher is going to open. Spencer Miles, presumed to be the bulk guy.
And Ben, we found out yesterday that Dylan Ceases hit the aisle as well. Now, they'll figure that out Friday when that spot in the rotation comes up again. But safe to say, when we're going through the pitching – decisions last night and workload is such a thing that comes up with so many guys right now.
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