Blue Jays GDT: 2023 v6 | Thu, Jul 6 | *DOUBLEHEADER* | @ CWS | 5:00pm ET/2:00pm PT & TBA after| Berrios vs Lynn & Kikuchi vs TBA

[Seath The Scaleless]

Moonshot!!

 

[as Pure as Evil]

Vlad heating up mid season is gonna be a treat. Im all for hot starts but 99% of the time they taper off or struggle near the end.

 

[canucksfan]

Jays have had some good hits but they’ve just been at players

 

[Discoverer]

They've been hitting the ball well all night... frustrating that it's only a 2 run lead, but hopefully the pen can lock it down.

 

[canucksfan]

They've been hitting the ball well all night... frustrating that it's only a 2 run lead, but hopefully the pen can lock it down.

Great minds think alike!

 

[Discoverer]

Great minds think alike!

Ha! I was thinking they've been making lots of good contact and not striking out, so I checked Statcast. They have 7 balls over 100 mph (Giants have 1). They also have three outs on balls with an expected average of .670 or higher.

Sometimes you play well and the result sucks. Luckily tonight they've had the pitching (so far) and one hit that luck couldn't do anything about.

 

[canucksfan]

Ha! I was thinking they've been making lots of good contact and not striking out, so I checked Statcast. They have 7 balls over 100 mph (Giants have 1). They also have three outs on balls with an expected average of .670 or higher.

Sometimes you play well and the result sucks. Luckily tonight they've had the pitching (so far) and one hit that luck couldn't do anything about.

Lol. I was doing the exact same thing. Took a quick glance at stat cast and noticed they’ve had the four highest exit velos. Looked further and realized how unlucky they’ve been.

 

[trellaine201]

Ok this is just great.

 

[Forgotusername]

Great play by Espy there.

 

[Seath The Scaleless]

Huge play by Espinal

 

[MS]

Man, Romano never makes it easy.

Big series win.

 

[canucksfan]

Big series win

 

[Seath The Scaleless]

Never in doubt

 

[MK78]

Squeaked it out, but Romano looked iffy.

 

[phillipmike]

Take the series win but the hitting is still a concern, only scored in 3 of the 25 innings of this series.

 

[MK78]

Say a word in English to the fans Vladdy. How long you been here now?

 

[canucksfan]

 

[dredeye]

that curve was fun to watch tonight

 

[MS]

Say a word in English to the fans Vladdy. How long you been here now?

People get testy when this is brought up but I agree - it's a bit weird.

He spent summers in the US as a kid and has been playing pro baseball in NA for 8 years now and we know he can speak English reasonably well, and it creates a bit of a barrier between the team's superstar and the fans that he chooses not to.

Maybe it's more strange as a hockey follower where you have a guy like Simashev who started learning English 2 years ago and is now conducting pretty well-spoken interviews in English at age 18, which is the norm for Eastern European players.

 

[MK78]

People get testy when this is brought up but I agree - it's a bit weird.

He spent summers in the US as a kid and has been playing pro baseball in NA for 8 years now and we know he can speak English reasonably well, and it creates a bit of a barrier between the team's superstar and the fans that he chooses not to.

Maybe it's more strange as a hockey follower where you have a guy like Simashev who started learning English 2 years ago and is now conducting pretty well-spoken interviews in English at age 18, which is the norm for Eastern European players.

Remember Munenori Kawasaki and the interview after his walkoff double? He tried his best and even read off a note. And he became a huge fan favourite despite being a mediocre player.

I think Latino players are lazy in this respect, partly because teams are forced to carry spanish interpreters for many years now.

 

[CabanaBoy5]

Say a word in English to the fans Vladdy. How long you been here now?

I’ve wondered the same thing. How can this guy not speak at the very least broken English. My parents immigrated here from Italy in the ‘50s and picked up the language in a month.

 

[fancy lad]

I’ve wondered the same thing. How can this guy not speak at the very least broken English. My parents immigrated here from Italy in the ‘50s and picked up the language in a month.

he can. there is the odd clip of him doing it.

but yeah how he doesn't use any english in the post game stuff is starting to look weird. I get it for a rookie and second year, but by this point it's a head scratcher. The guy is essentially a team leader at this point.

Someone from the team should probably talk to him about it.

 

[Discoverer]

“We have to connect to our fans through the media, and when you talk about that, it's got to come from your heart. And when it comes from your heart, it has to be absolutely consistent. There’s a big risk you take without an interpreter, because as professional baseball players, we are here to perform baseball, not to learn a language.”

That's a 37-year-old Ichiro explaining why he continued to use an interpreter throughout his career. I don't think he had any trouble connecting with the fans.

 

[MK78]

Someone from the team should probably talk to him about it.

Someone from the team? they encourage this stuff. Why do you think they hired a Spanish speaking manager a few years ago in Charlie Montoyo? Cuz they had so many players that did not exhibit the desire to speak english, and the idea was that he would communicate with them easier.

These aren't old people. I agree its hard to learn a language when you're 40+.

These players have been in the North American baseball system for years. The problem is that there are so many latin american players (nothing wrong with that, let me just say that up front), they just yuck it up with each other and dont bother get fluent in English.

Vladdy, Gurriel, Hernandez would literally talk to nobody else in the dugout whenever the camera zoomed in on them.

Encarnacion didn't speak a lick of English to the fans. and he had some memorable hits and performances. and he was playing baseball in North America for 15 years.

 

[Discoverer]

Vladdy, Gurriel, Hernandez would literally talk to nobody else in the dugout whenever the camera zoomed in on them.

Well that's 100% untrue.

Encarnacion didn't speak a lick of English to the fans. and he had some memorable hits and performances. and he was playing baseball in North America for 15 years.

That's actually a great example of why I don't understand people getting so upset over a player being uncomfortable speaking a foreign language in front of a lot of people. Edwin had no problem establishing a deep and lasting connection with the fans and vice versa.

Some make the effort to learn English and some don't. Why does it matter? Some make a huge effort to learn and still don't feel comfortable with it. Again, why does it matter? The vast majority of the way players connect with fans is through their play and actions on the field, and when they really need to speak to the fans for 30 seconds they can use an interpreter. Meh.