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Blue Jays GDT: 2022 v5 | Next: Mon, Jun 20 | @ CWS | 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT | Berrios vs Lynn

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Discoverer said:
Because we're talking about what would be a better situation for Romano coming into today's game. Seven days rest wasn't an option... it was 8 days rest vs. back-to-back.
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If you are asking what will produce a better result, its an answer no one knows. But if you asking what i rather have; Romano pitching on 8 days rest or in back to back games? Then I'm picking 8 days rest.

The main question for me is can i win this game without using my closer and if the answer is yes, then im leaving him in the pen.

I just know i prefer to give my overworked closer with a history of elbow trouble as much rest as possible, especially in a 7-0 game vs having him potentially pitch back to back games when its avoidable.
 
On the Canucks a few years ago we had a player in Markus Granlund who a few of us referred to as a Swiss Army Knife ... that had every blade dull or broken. He could play in your top 6! (badly) He could play in your bottom 6! (and be a defensive liability) He could PK! (horribly) He could play on the PP! (ineffectively). He had the positional flexibility to play C! (and never win a faceoff)

Tapia is the MLB version of that.

He's an energy player! (who doesn't hustle)
He gives defensive flexibility in the outfield! (but sucks defensively)
He's fast! (but doesn't steal bases or use that speed)
Check out those exit velocities! (once in a blue moon, and he can't hit for shit overall)
 
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MS said:
On the Canucks a few years ago we had a player in Markus Granlund who a few of us referred to as a Swiss Army Knife ... that had every blade dull or broken. He could play in your top 6! (badly) He could play in your bottom 6! (and be a defensive liability) He could PK! (horribly) He could play on the PP! (ineffectively). He had the positional flexibility to play C! (and never win a faceoff)

Tapia is the MLB version of that.

He's an energy player! (who doesn't hustle)
He gives defensive flexibility in the outfield! (but sucks defensively)
He's fast! (but doesn't steal bases or use that speed)
Check out those exit velocities! (once in a blue moon, and he can't hit for shit overall)
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To be honest I think his hits are lucky. Slightly exaggerating but you know what I mean.
 
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MS said:
... and for some reason Trevor Richards is throwing a 2nd inning after throwing 22 pitches and giving up a couple runs in his first inning.

So backward.

It's kind of flown under the radar how ineffective Richards has been this season.

Is this a guy you want pitching in a playoff game?
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No
 
We will need some bullpen help before acquiring any big lefty bat. Jesus Christ, it seems like every year it's the same story. We need bullpen help. It's like it's almost impossible to have a good bullpen year to year.
 
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Suntouchable13 said:
We will need some bullpen help before acquiring any big lefty bat. Jesus Christ, it seems like every year it's the same story. We need bullpen help. It's like it's almost impossible to have a good bullpen year to year.
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It mostly is. Good, consistent pen arms usually end up as closers or setup men and most pens and team budgets can't afford to pay more than 2 or 3 of those types of guy at once. So the bulk of your pen is made up of fungible misfit toy style arms from your system, unassuming and unremarkable free agents, or kids that force their way up in a pen role because they're not ready to be starters (or there's no room).

It's difficult to beat the odds on getting 5-7 success stories like that every year, year in and year out.
 
www.thestar.com

Gregor Chisholm: The Jays need more than upside from Yusei Kikuchi. The downside is starting to hurt

With Hyun-Jin Ryu and his ailing elbow heading for a second opinion, the Jays need a more reliable version of Kikuchi than the one who turned in the shortest start of his career in K.C. on Wednesday.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

The Jays have lofty expectations for Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman and José Berríos as their top three starters. It’s the two guys below that group — Ross Stripling and Yusei Kikuchi — who bring a lot more uncertainty. They don’t need to be perfect. They just need to be reliable, and that certainly didn’t happen in an 8-4 loss to the Royals in Kansas City on Wednesday afternoon.

Two days after Stripling made a statement with five scoreless innings in the series opener, Kikuchi failed to make one of his own. The 30-year-old wasn’t just bad, he was downright awful, failing to make it out of the first inning against one of the worst lineups in baseball. To make matters worse, almost all the damage was self-inflicted.

From the moment Kikuchi stepped onto the mound at Kauffman Stadium, it appeared he had no idea where the ball was going. He wasn’t just missing catcher Zack Collins’s glove by an inch or two, he was missing by a couple of feet. Of the 45 pitches he threw to retire just two batters, only 24 were strikes.

The final pitching line said it all. Kikuchi was charged with three runs on a pair of hits and four walks. It was the shortest outing of his big-league career, and the only reason he didn’t get charged with more runs is because reliever Trent Thornton entered and bailed him out of a bases-loaded jam. The brief appearance elevated Kikuchi’s ERA from 3.91 to 4.44.

Much has been made of the adjustments that Kikuchi has been making with pitching coach Pete Walker. The biggest change was ditching his cut-fastball in favour of a modified slider, while other minor tweaks were made to his mechanics and where the native of Japan stands on the rubber.

Initially, the changes met with great success. Kikuchi held opponents to two earned runs or fewer across five May starts. He struck out more than a batter per inning and there were flashes of dominance, with a mid-90s fastball and devastating changeup/splitter. The upside was apparent. But even when things were going well, so too was the downside.
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In a recent start against the Cincinnati Reds, Kikuchi walked three batters and hit another while surrendering a pair of runs in the first inning. He escaped and made it into the fifth without any more damage, but he was a pitch or two away from an outing that would have been just as short as Thursday’s. Last week against the Los Angeles Angels, he gave up a pair of hits in each of the first two innings before settling in. Kikuchi’s 1.48 walks plus hits per inning pitched are the highest in the rotation.

The lack of consistency must be infuriating to the coaching staff, which has been preaching to Kikuchi to trust his fastball more by using it to challenge hitters, instead of nibbling around the corners. It’s something the Seattle Mariners can relate to because they experienced it for three years before he arrived in Toronto.
 
If there's one thing about Kikuchi that would make the case for some patience it's that you're not going to break guys of habits overnight. But outings like today can become teachable moments where you can say "see? This is what happens when you let things spiral." to him and coax him into being more cognizant of keeping up with the tweaks they made that led to his better outings.

Some guys need to hit rock bottom before they'll fix what's broken and some guys won't hit bottom but do need a few bumps in the road to remind them to keep focused.

Hell, Robby Ray wasn't lights out right away. He pitched 5 appearances with the Jays in 2020 and was a tire fire and then was a bit up and down for the first month and a bit of 2021 before he found his groove and dominated on a consistent basis.

I know that every L on the Jays record matters as much in September as it does now, but he's shown enough so far to earn a bit more rope to see if he can get it right.
 
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The Nemesis said:
If there's one thing about Kikuchi that would make the case for some patience it's that you're not going to break guys of habits overnight. But outings like today can become teachable moments where you can say "see? This is what happens when you let things spiral." to him and coax him into being more cognizant of keeping up with the tweaks they made that led to his better outings.

Some guys need to hit rock bottom before they'll fix what's broken and some guys won't hit bottom but do need a few bumps in the road to remind them to keep focused.

Hell, Robby Ray wasn't lights out right away. He pitched 5 appearances with the Jays in 2020 and was a tire fire and then was a bit up and down for the first month and a bit of 2021 before he found his groove and dominated on a consistent basis.

I know that every L on the Jays record matters as much in September as it does now, but he's shown enough so far to earn a bit more rope to see if he can get it right.
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Absolutely. And Kikuchi was quietly on a bit of a roll recently... he had a 3.16 ERA and 3.59 FIP in his previous 6 starts with really good K and BB rates.
 
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Discoverer said:
Absolutely. And Kikuchi was quietly on a bit of a roll recently... he had a 3.16 ERA and 3.59 FIP in his previous 6 starts with really good K and BB rates.
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One thing that drives me absolutely batty is the concept that you don't like Kikuchi face an opponent a 3rd time because his numbers are worse.

While that is true, it completely ignores that it is an incredibly small sample size (84 innings). He was actually decent the last two years (ie if a guy is throwing well and hasn't gone past his pitch count, let him go a 3rd time).

His FIP and xFIP are actually both higher the 1st time through the order than the 3rd. There's nothing like seeing Kikuchi pulled after 4.2 innings on a decent pitch count because the leadoff hitter is coming up (that's La Russa level stupid IMO).
 
I don't have a link but I think about half an hour ago Arash Madani tweeted that Moreno would start tomorrow and catch Gausman. He's apparently not in tonight's lineup
 
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