Chapter 1: What are the Toronto Blue Jays' current standings and performance?
All right, season starts now. Gave the Toronto Blue Jays 40 games to get their feet under them. And Jays Top Plus is back. The Jays are 18-22.
They're a game out of a playoff spot, which is fascinating to say that they're four games under .500, a quarter of the way into the season, and they're only a game out of the playoffs because there might only be one or two good teams in the entire American League. This is Jay's Talk Plus. We are back 11 to 12 this week, 10 to 12 every week moving forward from that. I'm Blake Murphy.
Julia Kreutz will not be on the show this year. She announced on social media earlier in the offseason that she's moving on to a different... Path outside of the industry, wishing her all the best, and already miss her. For today, though, she has been filled in for by a much taller, hairier person in John Axford, former major leaguer, 11-year vet, former Toronto Blue Jay.
Chapter 2: How did the Blue Jays perform against the Los Angeles Angels?
John, how you doing, buddy? Excellent. Good to be here. I haven't been in this studio before, so it's a good spot to be.
You have done the Blue Jay Central studio before, right? Yeah, always just walked by this one. That was about it. Just got a peek in.
And you've done them at the game, too?
Chapter 3: What injury updates are important for the Blue Jays?
Yes. Okay. We're going back a few years here. Not in the stadium at the game. Okay. In the studio at the game.
Yeah. Nice. Okay. So John's going to be with us, you know, once every week or two throughout the course of the season. Otherwise, it'll be Jay's Top Plus. As you know it, it'll be just me and a rotating course of guests. It's a bit of an awkward show always when I haven't got to talk about the team that much for the last 40 games. So I have 40 games worth of opinions rattling around in my head.
Chapter 4: What are the challenges Eric Lauer is facing this season?
But obviously, baseball is a very daily sport. So let's take a look at the weekend that was. The Blue Jays took two of three against the Angels after getting swept by the Rays, who are back. Here today, the Jays will start a three-game set at 7.07 at Rogers Center. Kevin Gosman against Drew Rasmussen. We'll get you set for that one a little later in the show.
We've got a bajillion injury updates, and we're waiting on two roster moves today from the Blue Jays. Addison Barger was scratched yesterday with right elbow soreness, limited range of motion. Imaging was upcoming, so we'll hear from John Schneider pregame. Keep an eye out for updates on that.
Chapter 5: How is Spencer Miles adapting to his role on the team?
There are also reports from Ben Nicholson, Smith, and Shai Davidi that Yariel Rodriguez will be back. What the corresponding move is, whether it's an Eric Lauer, Phantom IL to figure it out, Joe Mantiply getting optioned, Lauer to the pen in some form, we'll see. But anyone who has listened to the show for years knows I'm a Yariel believer.
And in the same way, it didn't quite work out with Eloy Jimenez. I'm sure it'll not work out this time. But the Blue Jays did take two of three on the weekend, John. 6-1 loss yesterday. I know you were locked in on that one after coaching your kids. What did you... Let's start at a high level. How are you feeling about this Jays team 18-22 to start? Obviously, you've been at a bunch of the games.
You follow up with the team. Quarter of the way into the season, it kind of feels like they haven't gotten out of first gear, but nothing in the American League other than the Yankees and the Rays has.
No, I think that's the benefit here, right?
Chapter 6: What factors are affecting Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s performance?
Nobody has really taken off out of the American League. Obviously, the American League East is always going to be a difficult spot for the Blue Jays to be in. And similar to you, 40 games in, what are we talking about? What are we looking at? There's been so many things to discuss, so many things that have gone well, things that have not gone well.
That's kind of the microcosm of the Jays right now.
Yeah, and we kind of got a perfect snapshot game of it to talk about some of what's gone well and some of what hasn't gone well yesterday. So the Jays lose 6-1 to the Angels, don't manage the sweep. And in that game, you get to see some of the good stuff like...
Kazuma Okamoto coming through with an RBI and basically being your, your best hitter at this point in the season, you see some of the bad, like Vladimir Guerrero jr. Mirrored in a slump, the OPS now down below 800. And you see some of the pitching questions, Eric Lauer, not starting, then not even getting an opener, getting kind of just a bulk relief role. Um,
So a lot going on in there, and there are questions now about what do you do with Eric Lauer's rotation spot, but Max Scherzer's on the aisle. Jose Barrios is headed for an additional MRI with the Keith Meister tomorrow because there is new inflammation and the status of his non-injured injury has changed.
Max Scherzer got a cortisone shot last week, so a lot of questions for the Jays on that front. I want to start with the... Choice John Schneider made, though, to not have Eric Lauer start, but come in later in the game. And that gave Spencer Miles an opportunity to get the nod. It was originally said that Spencer Miles would open the game. And he ends up giving you three innings.
of two hit ball. Spencer miles is such an, in such a interesting spot, John, because there's rule five picks. So, you know, the second that things don't look good, you're out of here. It's not, you're getting optioned. You're you're out of here. What have you made of his ability to kind of navigate what I imagine?
I know you weren't a rule five pick, but a pretty uncertain role where your margin for error is basically zero. And you kind of have to just put your hand up and bulk relief opener, whatever you need. I'm here.
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Chapter 7: How does lineup protection impact player performance?
All of it. All of it, yeah. Yeah, it wasn't a Rule 5, but I did go from A ball to the big league. So, like, understanding that side of, you know, he hasn't pitched above that, right, before this. So, having the opportunities that he's had right now, taking advantage of that, he's kind of in a good spot. He knows that he has to perform. Otherwise, like you said, he's gone.
But as a Rule 5 guy, you kind of have a little bit of, I think... almost some confidence in the fact knowing that the Blue Jays have to keep you on the roster. They have to keep you there. So if they're not, they can't send you down. They can't do anything that way. They have to just send you back. That's it. You clearly have to do the job.
But I think there's a little bit of comfort for him knowing that he has to stay in the big leagues. And maybe that helps out mentally for him when he's out there on the mound. But from what I've seen, I mean, for a guy that hasn't pitched above a ball, this is, this has been pretty great.
He has now pitched almost twice as many innings at the major league level as he pitched in the minor leagues, his entire minor league career, 14 and a two thirds innings across 2022 through 2025. And now he's throwing 21 with an era of three for the blue Jays. So I know you, you were never used as an opener other than that one game in 2018 that, that Gibby started you. It was Gibby, right?
Yeah, my last game pitched with the Blue Jays, actually.
Wow. And then Dodgers, you got dealt to? Yeah, then it was Dodgers. Yeah, what an audition. Yeah, that's what it was, it seemed like. So, again, understanding you only did it once, but you can put yourself in those shoes. How different is it...
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of the upcoming games against the Tampa Bay Rays?
you know, opening a game.
If you're used to being a reliever, do you think, um, for him, it might be, I think a, a, a mental break as well. Um, especially coming up as rule five, you know, he has to be in the big leagues. He knows he has to perform. So the issue or not, the non issue here is he, he knows when he's pitching, he knows what he needs to do. Um,
He can prepare all he wants physically, mentally for that without the anxiety of being down in the bullpen waiting for his turn. What is this going to look like? When am I pitching? Am I coming in when we have the lead? Am I coming in with runners on? He just got to kind of sit through his day and prepare for opening.
Whether he was told one inning, two innings, three innings, or the pitch count had to be under 45, whatever it may be, that's probably a helpful piece. At least it was for me. I did it one time. And I know I just enjoyed it. I had fun with it. So you kind of just go out there a little bit different mindset, attack the hitters. You know what you have to offer.
You know what the team has told you you're going to do. But I think that's the big takeaway for me is I would have felt a lot more mentally stable and just... The anxiety that you can have down in the bullpen is subsided when you know this is your role, this is what you're doing. You have this for two, maybe three innings.
So there's also the element of, now the Jays didn't end up using him as a traditional opener where you maybe only go the old Sergio Romo on the raise of like, get the first three batters, maybe a fourth batter, and then you're out of here. And for anyone who doesn't really know why teams use this,
Part of the thinking is because there's a third time through the order penalty when you see the same part of the order a third time, if you have a guy come in and face the top of the order, so figure Spencer Miles comes in and he faces the first four guys in the order and then Eric Lauer had come in.
Well, Lauer can go twice through the order and then face the bottom of the order a third time if things are going well. Voice crack there. This is how we're going to take it. couple days off and I don't know how to talk anymore.
You face the bottom of the order a third time and you're not as worried about no disrespect to these guys facing Sebastian Rivero as you are Mike Trout because Mike Trout is Mike Trout and you don't want anyone facing Mike Trout a third time really. So within that, there are a couple different things where
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