Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What were the highlights from the Blue Jays' loss to the Phillies?
Well, it turns out the Jays can't hit every stud. I guess technically that was the worst start Christopher Sanchez has had since April, so maybe the Jays can get to these studs a little bit more, but that was not quite what we saw against Sale or Schlittler or Skeens. The Blue Jays managing to put two on the board and then threatening...
For more, but not enough to come back after Patrick Corbin has to shine, come off a little bit against the lineup that has historically, back when he was in the NL East for years and years, a lineup that's historically hit him very well. They get five early, chase him out of the game early. Jays lose five to two. So, you know, for the people who...
Like to talk about momentum and carry over from one series to the next. It's momentum. What's the old saying? Momentum is as real as the next day's starting pitcher. Christopher Sanchez had thrown 50 and two-thirds shutout innings not that long ago. I think that that rules a little bit more than any momentum from taking two off the Orioles. They will do it again tonight.
It'll be Zach Wheeler against Dylan Cease.
Chapter 2: How are George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. performing this season?
Dylan Cease will come off the IL a little later. We don't know the corresponding move, but the Jays have some things to figure out with respect to roster balancing with Dylan Cease and Max Scherzer both due off the IL Tuesday and Wednesday. We'll get into that in a little bit with David Singh. We'll also have Matt Gelb of the Athletic and Phillies Therapy join us.
Jeff Ponce of Baseball America will go around the farm system with us and Paul Hambachitis of ESPN will go around some of the top stories in Major League Baseball and some of the kind of high-level macro stat trends that are going on right now in the league, including no righty can hit anymore.
So that is not unique to the Blue Jays lineup, but it was particularly notable yesterday at the top of the Blue Jays order. Let's get into it with David Singh of Sportsnet.ca. DS, how we doing, buddy? I'm doing well. Blake, how about you? Yeah, I'm good. I was at the game last night as a fan instead of as media.
And I am not the type of person who will get there early enough for a Roy Halladay giveaway jersey.
Chapter 3: What insights did Matt Gelb share about Cristopher Sánchez's dominant season?
So no Halladay jersey and no win, but otherwise a good game. Well, the weather was nice.
Yeah. Yeah. The beer was cold. Beer was cold. The dome is open. Monday night. What more can you ask for?
Yeah. Could have asked for the top of the order to come through a little bit more. No, you wrote about it last night for sports at that CA. So let's start there. Jay's managed to off of Christopher Sanchez in the earlier innings, which again, nobody had done in like weeks and weeks and weeks. He had allowed one earned run over his last season. Six starts.
The Blue Jays put a runner on third with nobody out. Yohindrik Pignango doubles. And then Adelise Garcia does him the same favor. He did the Phillies early in the game and just hands them an extra base there.
Chapter 4: How are the Blue Jays' prospects developing this year?
I think it was Bryce Harper in the first inning that Pignango handed it to. And then... So Pignango ends up on third. The Blue Jays have nobody out at the top of the order up.
Man, what happened? Yeah, so to me, that is the moment of the game. That inning had a feel of something different, right? They had already scored two runs off Sanchez, and it looked like, okay, the fans were getting into it when Pignango hits that ball, goes off the wall. He's at third base. And error helps that, as you mentioned. And so the fans are really getting into it.
And it kind of smelled like, you know, the comebacks we saw earlier this week. Or, sorry, last week. And then last season as well. And that's why I wrote about it. I thought that, you know... The top of the order coming up, Springer, Lucas, and Vlad. Like, this is the key point in the game. And Sanchez just fought back and struck them out on 12 pitches total.
Now, I mean, yes, he's a dominant pitcher. Obviously, the main conversation point was going to be Sanchez going into the day regardless of what happened. I mean, given the insane run he's on. I mean, one run in his last 46 innings entering yesterday. But the situation also, to me, put the spotlight on the Blue Jays players who are struggling, Springer and Vlad specifically.
So for context, this is a stat from Chris Black, but when teams this year put a runner on third and have less than two out, that runner scores 51% of the time. You got about a 50-50 shot, maybe a little better than that of scoring a runner for third, which actually feels a little low.
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Chapter 5: What are the main concerns regarding Vladdy's prolonged slump?
I would have thought it was a little higher than that. And obviously, you are playing for a bigger inning at that point in the game. You are down three, but you got to put a ball in play. You can't swing for, you know, you're not going to hit a three-run home run with only one man on base. You're playing for score that run and hopefully build a bigger inning.
So let's start with George Springer because George Springer comes up there and... Takes a first pitch changeup right down the middle. That's fine. Christopher Sanchez, if you're not up there looking for off speed, even if it's over, like if you swing at that, there's a real good chance you're just beating that into the ground, given his ground ball rate.
But as the at-back goes, has to expand the zone with two strikes to foul one off, and then swings at a very bad slider in the dirt to end that one, strike you out swinging. And this is a... I think that's been going on a little bit here with George Springer. He had the toe issue and he is 36 going on 37, but he managed to figure it out last year in a pretty important way.
What have you been able to gather? And I know you tried to talk to Springer after the game last night, but he's getting in the extra work and things like that.
Chapter 6: How does Dylan Cease's return impact the Blue Jays' pitching staff?
What do you make of where Springer is here and how he's trying to get himself out of it?
Yeah, I mean, the first thing that stands out is just the swings. The swings just don't look good. They look off balance. They look like he's a little bit lost at the plate. Like you mentioned, the slider he swung at for strike three. It's just not competitive. And I think you can throw Vladi in there too.
Like some of the swings he's taken, the strikeout against Keller later on, just waving at a sweeper. Off balance, just not what you want to see out of these guys. Last year, they combined, and I included this in the story last night, they combined for 55 home runs between the two of them. This year, they've combined for eight. Now, shockingly, we're actually 40% through the season. That's wild.
So that means they're on pace for about roughly 22 home runs. Yeah. And, you know, obviously that's not what you want to see, right? I mean, they're frustrated. So John Schneider talked about this post-game, specifically with Springer. He said, you mentioned the age.
Chapter 7: What are the latest trends in MLB and how do they affect the Blue Jays?
You know, that's like always been a conversation point with George Springer the last several years. And Schneider, jokingly in years past, has called him the old man. Yeah. Right? I mean, he does turn 37 in September. But Schneider went out of his way to kind of say yesterday, nobody had prompted this. He said, we don't think Springer's going to fall off a cliff.
Like, by no means do we think that's going to happen. I think part of this is he broke his toe earlier in the year. And I think he's feeling that. I mean, Springer is as tough as nails. That's been his reputation even before he got to Toronto was how tough this guy is and he's willing to play through anything.
I mean, you'd have to think that is a factor here because he does not look right at the plate. And, you know, as you mentioned, I tried to wait him out post-game, tried to speak with him. He was getting in work in the cages. And John Schneider kind of alluded to that and said, you know, George is putting in the work behind the scenes that none of us are seeing. And, you know...
As far as Vlad goes, it's kind of the same as well. Schneider said, I want to keep him going. I want him to understand he's the face of the team.
Chapter 8: What are the key storylines to watch in the upcoming games?
Basically, trying to impart the idea that Vlad is going to turn this around.
I mean, we can get into this conversation if you want, but... I do want... I at least want to highlight the quality of that bat for Vlad last night because... So, after Springer strikes out, Nathan Lucas strikes out. It's a bad chase on a slider, but... Show me the lefty who's having good at-bats against Christopher Sanchez right now, and Nathan Lucas has been one of their more productive guys.
It's not a good at-bat, but it's not segment-worthy. But Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has one of the more perplexing at-bats you can see, where he has two really bad chases outside of the zone, both on change-ups that are very low and very away, and fouls off one of them to stay alive, so whatever. If you want to call one of them a defensive swing, whatever. And then he takes...
Two much better pitches over the plate. And the sinker he strikes out on is one of those ones that like it's on the inner edge enough that you're probably not doing a lot with it unless you're right on top of it and like looking fastball in because that's 96 with really good bite. But you watch it down the middle after chasing a lot.
So last night, actually, Vlad swung at pitches outside of the zone twice as often as he swung at pitches inside of the zone.
That speaks to a guy who's just searching for things at the plate right now.
In the first, he missed the hung slider, one of the only bad pitches Christopher Sanchez threw, and he didn't miss it by much, but it ends up being a 99-mile-an-hour off the bat fly out to center field, not really a threatening one for a hung slider.
He grounds out later on a changeup that's in the dirt in the fourth inning, has this strikeout looking after two bad chases, and then in the eighth, he'd strike out on a really bad chase of a sweeper way off the plate as well. To me, the Springer thing, I'm willing to have a little patience of it's the toe. There's an age element here. He has figured this out in the past.
With Vlad, he's absolutely figured it out in the past. We do bring the Vlad alarm every single year, but I can't remember there ever being a time when during Vlad's slumps, the approach is this bad. I know you talked to Jose Batista about this the other week as well, and Vlad is not... a guy who's going to talk about his process and where he's at and stuff like that a ton.
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