Blue Jays Discussion: Alright, no more discontent. Just baseball | ST in Mtl: StL @ Tor | Mar 26/27 7pm ET/4pm PT

[zeke]

Six of them will be in the Opening Day lineup and the other three are the first in line to replace the oft-injured guys. For March 6, it's not far off.

eh, I see 5 opening day locks. Gibbons has already fielded much more opening-day looking lineups than that this spring.

p.s. I'll go out of my way to piss on anything Wilner says.

 

[BlueForever75]

Any combination of Travis, Donaldson, Smoak, Morales, Pearce, Tulo, Grichuk, Granderson, Pillar, Martin, Diaz, Maile, Solarte will be the starting 9 any given day come this season.

I think any combination of those players with some being more regular, will be a force game in and game out. Looking forward to see how this all plays out. Very excited for opening day.

 

[phillipmike]

whenever I see splits like this I want to look futher at fastball/breaking ball splits.

I still think Gibbons was genius with his Smoak/Cola platoon - Smoak played against fastball pitchers, and Cola against breaking ball pitchers. Do Morales/Pearce have similar complementary splits?

Very interesting point that deserves some attention.

Could be completely wrong but i remember Morales hitting the fastball very well last season and being terrible against the breaking ball.

Kendrys Morales » PitchFx » Overview | FanGraphs Baseball
Steve Pearce » PitchFx » Overview | FanGraphs Baseball

Looks like they have identical profiles at least from last year. Can hit the fastball, sinker and slider but cant hit a change up or curve ball. Though Pearce's career numbers are slightly better when hitting a curve/change and Morales is much better but it looks like it is skewed as the better numbers came earlier in his career. Their hitting profile look very similar so it might be hard for Gibby to exploit that idea.

Edit: Will say with a better lineup (potentially more guys on base maybe with speed: Pillar, Grandy, Travis, Grichuk etc.) Morales and Pearce could get to see more fastballs. In the last 5 years Pearce saw the least amount of fastballs in 2017 and Morales saw the 2nd least in his last 5 years.

Major League Leaderboards » 2017 » Batters » 16 | FanGraphs Baseball

 

[ShaneFalco]

Morales needs hats for bats, keep bats warm

 

[Discoverer]

Very interesting point that deserves some attention.

Could be completely wrong but i remember Morales hitting the fastball very well last season and being terrible against the breaking ball.

Kendrys Morales » PitchFx » Overview | FanGraphs Baseball
Steve Pearce » PitchFx » Overview | FanGraphs Baseball

Looks like they have identical profiles at least from last year. Can hit the fastball, sinker and slider but cant hit a change up or curve ball. Though Pearce's career numbers are slightly better when hitting a curve/change and Morales is much better but it looks like it is skewed as the better numbers came earlier in his career. Their hitting profile look very similar so it might be hard for Gibby to exploit that idea.

Using Brooks Baseball, they actually have pretty distinct profiles over the last three years:

Player Card: Steve Pearce
Player Card: Kendrys Morales

Morales mashes fastballs and sliders, Pearce is quite a bit better against curveballs and off-speed stuff.

 

[Discoverer]

eh, I see 5 opening day locks. Gibbons has already fielded much more opening-day looking lineups than that this spring.

p.s. I'll go out of my way to piss on anything Wilner says.

Fair enough. There's only one player there who may not be on the opening day roster (Hernandez) and even he should be the first call-up in case of an injury. It's a major league lineup, and that's good enough for me.

 

[zeke]

So yeah, when trying to figure out which guys will play when and why, keep this in mind:


Over the last 2yrs:

best fastball hitters:

1.Donaldson +2.14
2.Smoak +1.04
3.Pearce +0.87
4.Granderson +0.85
5.Morales +0.76
6.Martin +0.39
7.Grichuk +0.38
8.Solarte +0.21
9.Travis +0.17
10.Tulowitzki -0.05
11.Diaz -0.35
12.Pillar -0.46
13.Maile -2.75


best slider hitters

1.Diaz +1.89
2.Maile +1.60
3.Donaldson 0.78
4.Morales +0.71
5.Travis +0.02
6.Martin -0.26
7.Solarte -0.27
8.Granderson -0.70
9.Tulowitzki -0.81
10.Pearce -0.87
11.Smoak -0.99
12.Pillar -1.13
13.Grichuk -2.06


best curveball hitters:

1.Diaz +1.71
2.Maile +1.38
3.Grichuk +0.77
4.Donaldson +0.56
5.Pearce -0.52
6.Pillar -0.54
7.Smoak -0.62
8.Granderson -0.71
9.Tulowitzki -0.98
10.Travis -1.13
11.Solarte -1.14
12.Morales -1.50
13.Martin -1.55


best changeup hitters

1.Smoak +1.33
2.Donaldson +1.32
3.Tulowitzki +1.25
4.Pearce +1.21
5.Diaz +1.11
6.Grichuk +0.46
7.Granderson +0.28
8.Martin +0.19
9.Solarte -0.12
10.Pillar -0.30
11.Morales -0.53
12.Travis -0.61
13.Maile -4.25

 

[TF97]

I got 26/65. I remembered most of them, but there were quite a few where I had completely forgotten they were once in the Blue Jays organization.

 

[phillipmike]

Zwelling thinks Axford and Albuquerque have looked good so far and might have won themselves a job (still a lot of time). Could mean potentially 8 pen arms to start the season with Tulo on the DL. Solarte/Diaz at SS, Solarte/Diaz, Pearce and Maile on the bench. Osuna, Oh, Tepera, Barnes, Loup, Axford, Albuquerque and a lefty (Breslow?) in the pen. Diaz could go down when Tulo gets back or they can keep Diaz and option Barnes/Tepera if they want more time to see what Axford, Albuquerque and Breslow can do. Barnes or Tepera dont deserve to go down but we know the song and dance with the pen when opening day rolls around.... guys with options get sent down to give you more time to take a look at guys without options. Breslow doesnt deserve a job so far but has an advantage being a lefty. Sucks but reality.

 

[phillipmike]

Braden Halladay named to Canadian Junior National Team spring roster - Sportsnet.ca

 

[Discoverer]

Zwelling thinks Axford and Albuquerque have looked good so far and might have won themselves a job (still a lot of time). Could mean potentially 8 pen arms to start the season with Tulo on the DL. Solarte/Diaz at SS, Solarte/Diaz, Pearce and Maile on the bench. Osuna, Oh, Tepera, Barnes, Loup, Axford, Albuquerque and a lefty (Breslow?) in the pen. Diaz could go down when Tulo gets back or they can keep Diaz and option Barnes/Tepera if they want more time to see what Axford, Albuquerque and Breslow can do. Barnes or Tepera dont deserve to go down but we know the song and dance with the pen when opening day rolls around.... guys with options get sent down to give you more time to take a look at guys without options. Breslow doesnt deserve a job so far but has an advantage being a lefty. Sucks but reality.

I doubt they go with eight relievers to open the season.

 

[habamillions]

I got 26/65. I remembered most of them, but there were quite a few where I had completely forgotten they were once in the Blue Jays organization.

Yeah there were some guys where i never heard of at all. There were some guys i was happy they claimed. Like moscoso,lars anderson,venditte for example but none panned out. Beck to thought could be decent. I swear in 2012 aa claimed a guy a week

 

[Jozay]

 

[phillipmike]

Jon Jay gets 1 year at 3M with 1.5M in incentives from the Royals. Wonder if Saunders wants out again.

Lance Lynn turned down 2 years worth 20M from the Twins.

Julio Pablo Martinez signs with the Rangers worth 2.8M.

 

[leafs rule 11]

Hey guys was wondering if their has been any really impressive youngster(s) who could be knocking on the big league door..havnt been paying attention to camp so far lol

 

[Vito_81]

• Has there been any official word on what the new Jays radio broadcast team will be ?

I hope it’s not Wilner as the lead play by play guy now

 

[canucksfan]

Hey guys was wondering if their has been any really impressive youngster(s) who could be knocking on the big league door..havnt been paying attention to camp so far lol

Alford's name seems to be mentioned the most.

 

[Nineteen67]

• Has there been any official word on what the new Jays radio broadcast team will be ?

I hope it’s not Wilner as the lead play by play guy now

I don’t know if he’s interested or a candidate, but I really liked Rob Fai.

 

[Nineteen67]

Jon Jay gets 1 year at 3M with 1.5M in incentives from the Royals. Wonder if Saunders wants out again.

Lance Lynn turned down 2 years worth 20M from the Twins.

Julio Pablo Martinez signs with the Rangers worth 2.8M.

What is Lynn doing? He must know there is a better offer out there

If he wants to wait it out, he would be a good mid-season addition for a contending team that needs a mid tier starter.

 

[sparxx87]

My question would be: What are the chances you do like John Farrell and take your dream job somewhere else?
... And how do we help you make that happen?

 

[Nineteen67]

My question would be: What are the chances you do like John Farrell and take your dream job somewhere else?
... And how do we help you make that happen?

Do it!

 

[ShaneFalco]

• Has there been any official word on what the new Jays radio broadcast team will be ?

I hope it’s not Wilner as the lead play by play guy now

If it's Wilner I'll be pissed

 

[Diamond Joe Quimby]

Shapiro is on the fan590 right now....currently talking about the building of the mighty Bisons.

In all seriousness, he also just mentioned that the Blue Jays did not sign one minor league free agent this off-season...so everyone in camp is technically a system guy. Which is interesting.

The calls have begun...and I have a feeling they're going to be hilarious.

 

[BlueForever75]

Middle of the diamond impact players!!!!!! Or a legit number 1 starter!!!!!!

If that is Shapiro's dream acquisitions, that doesn't say much of Martin, Tulo, Travis, Pillar, Stroman or anyone else in our rotation.

Very interesting.

 

[Diamond Joe Quimby]

Middle of the diamond impact players!!!!!! Or a legit number 1 starter!!!!!!

If that is Shapiro's dream acquisitions, that doesn't say much of Martin, Tulo, Travis, Pillar, Stroman or anyone else in our rotation.

Very interesting.

He did say "we have two young starters capable of being elite rotation pieces". He meant having a guy like Kershaw.

The rest makes complete sense. The mystical player he described sound just like prime-Tulo and prime-Martin, just those dudes are old as dirt now.