Blue Jays Discussion: Off-Season VI: It's no longer the off-season, but the thread isn't done yet

[ShaneFalco]

So why was Collins DHing again?

 

[Clark4Ever]

Love the defensive effort last night, and Manoah was awesome.

 

[phillipmike]

Szymborski’s 2022 Breakout Candidates: Pitchers

Dan reveals his breakout pitcher picks for the 2022 season.

blogs.fangraphs.com

Yusei Kikuchi, Toronto Blue Jays​

It’s undeniable that Kikuchi had a rough second half of the 2021 season, especially in September, which featured some lapses in command. But to play devil’s advocate, who has ever looked good while giving up a .452 BABIP? Still, I’d argue he’s closer to the potential he showed in the early months of the season than his late swoon.

Kikuchi has quietly become one of the hardest throwing lefty starters in baseball, and he still has an impressive array of secondary pitches he can whiff batters with. To my eyes, the biggest culprit behind his rough second half was some late-season trouble with his slider. He’s changed how he throws the pitch in recent years, shifting into more of a slurvy — I don’t mean this in a negative way — accompaniment to his cutter, and both it and the cutter saw their whiffs-per-swing plummet starting in August. Unlike a lot of pitchers, Kikuchi uses his slider as much as his off-speed stuff (splitter) when facing the platoon disadvantage, and with the slider failing, right-handed hitters absolutely torched him the last two months.

Given his impressive velocity — and he threw harder the second and third times through the order in 2021 — and four solid pitches, I think Kikuchi will be able to adjust in the long run. I’m not sure Carlos Rodón is an obviously superior signing and I really liked that one, too. Indeed, I think three years and $36 million for Kikuchi may end up being one of the best bargains of this past winter.

 

[Bjindaho]

Szymborski’s 2022 Breakout Candidates: Pitchers

Dan reveals his breakout pitcher picks for the 2022 season.

blogs.fangraphs.com

His name makes me think of Dr. Yueh from Dune.

 

[MS]

Camden Yards is 30 years old?! Would not have guessed it was that old already.

I was lucky enough to be able to catch a game there on a work trip in 2017 and it was one of the most well-done sporting venues I've ever been to.

They're apparently putting a pile of money into huge upgrades and I honestly don't know where the money would go. I wouldn't change a thing.

 

[phillipmike]

10 things we learned during MLB opening weekend: The Blue Jays can mash and the Dodgers have questions

Don't feel guilty; you're not the only one overreacting to the start of the new season. Here's what caught our eye.

www.espn.com.au

The first lesson of MLB's opening weekend: Don't overreact.

The second lesson of opening weekend: If you don't overreact, you have no soul.

And the third lesson: We're all going to be watching a lot of Blue Jays baseball in 2022.

In their home opener, the Jays were down seven runs to the Rangers but rallied to win 10-8. It was an early statement showing why this is the team everyone is so excited about, the consensus American League favorite. No lead is big enough when you roll out a top four of George Springer, Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Teoscar Hernandez, all of whom are easily capable of 30-plus home runs. On Saturday, the Jays rallied from another deficit to win 4-3. On Sunday, they hit four home runs, including the longest so far in Guerrero's young career.

Now the Rangers weren't exactly rolling out Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz, but for all the preseason hype given to the Dodgers' lineup, Toronto is certainly capable of leading the majors in runs scored. Of course, another thing that will make Blue Jays baseball so exciting is that no lead might be safe -- on either side. The Jays had a 6-1 advantage on Sunday and lost 12-6, as Hyun Jin Ryu struggled in the fourth inning, and the bullpen coughed up a bunch of runs. Closer Jordan Romano looks solid, but the middle relief for Toronto remains a big question mark.

The Blue Jays will want to get that sorted out in a hurry, because they face a brutal April schedule: They head to New York for a four-game series against the Yankees, host the A's, travel to Boston and Houston for six games and then come back home for 10 games against the Red Sox, Astros and Yankees. So that's 20 of their next 23 games against the Yankees, Red Sox and Astros. Guerrero & Co. better bring the lumber.

 

[phillipmike]

8 facts you need to know from the season's first weekend

Two percent of the way through a Major League season, as we are right now, is a dangerous place to do any real analysis. Half the teams haven’t had home openers yet; Shohei Ohtani has a .118 batting average; Eloy Jiménez has not yet swung and missed. It’s safe to

www.mlb.com

1. Santiago Espinal might have thump now.
Espinal, 27, and listed at just 5-foot-10, 181 pounds, fit all the stereotypes of being a light-hitting, defensively versatile infielder on his way up through the pro ranks. In parts of five Minor League seasons with the Red Sox and Blue Jays, who traded for him in 2018, he slugged just .392. In parts of 2020-21 in the bigs for Toronto, he slugged .390 -- with a hard-hit rate that was legitimately one of the weakest in the sport.
But Espinal talked this spring about bulking up, reporting to camp with more muscle. In Spring Training, he hit three balls harder than he’d ever hit in the Majors before. In the first two days of the season, he hit two balls harder than that. So, in the past three weeks, Espinal has hit the five hardest balls we have on record for him, all between 104-107 mph. When told he’d hit one 107 mph, he said "They told 107. ... It didn’t even feel like I hit it 107. Crazy."

Then, on Tuesday, when he had three hits in Toronto's 3-0 win over the Yankees, two of them were struck at over 100 MPH. He's done that five times in 2022, already putting him nearly a third of the way to his 2021 total of 17 across an entire season.

He is not the new Giancarlo Stanton, needless to say. He’s not even necessarily a starting player in a stacked Toronto lineup, since he’s splitting time with Cavan Biggio at second and backing up stars at short and third. But even just competent power to go along with plus defense could turn him from a backup into a regular. He's a lot more interesting than he was a week ago, is the point.

 

[phillipmike]

Also;



This is incredible for 2 rookies.

 

[Discoverer]

I was lucky enough to be able to catch a game there on a work trip in 2017 and it was one of the most well-done sporting venues I've ever been to.

They're apparently putting a pile of money into huge upgrades and I honestly don't know where the money would go. I wouldn't change a thing.

I can't figure out what they're planning on doing, either. But I'm sure they'll find something since they don't have to spend a penny to do it... $1.2 billion in public funds from the state. Yay!

 

[theaub]

My understanding is its to develop the area around the stadium, which is even better for Angelos since he owns a bunch of the real estate around the area and the increased property values obviously don't count as baseball related revenue.

Truly elite grifting.

 

[Discoverer]

My understanding is its to develop the area around the stadium, which is even better for Angelos since he owns a bunch of the real estate around the area and the increased property values obviously don't count as baseball related revenue.

Truly elite grifting.

 

[Bjindaho]

Judge in CF with Hicks playing LF :S

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

His name makes me think of Dr. Yueh from Dune.

He's a traitor!

 

[Bjindaho]

 

[Hoverhand]

Seems odd that they went out of their way to give Collins a shot yesterday but won't give Zimmer a look today?

Kirk didn't catch yesterday so it would only be two days in a row, put Zimmer in CF, and DH Springer. Then you avoid having to put an AAA catcher in your lineup.

Unlike Collins, Zimmer actually adds value through his defence regardless of what he does at the plate. Idk, this kinda smells like Charlie not liking the toy management gave him.

 

[Discoverer]

Judge in CF with Hicks playing LF :S

Hicks has horrible defensive numbers the last few years. Judge has great numbers in right, but I'm curious how that will translate from a Little League right field where he can basically cover the whole field without moving to a CF where he actually has to run around.

 

[Discoverer]

Seems odd that they went out of their way to give Collins a shot yesterday but won't give Zimmer a look today?

Kirk didn't catch yesterday so it would only be two days in a row, put Zimmer in CF, and DH Springer. Then you avoid having to put an AAA catcher in your lineup.

Unlike Collins, Zimmer actually adds value through his defence regardless of what he does at the plate. Idk, this kinda smells like Charlie not liking the toy management gave him.

Lefty tonight.

Zimmer the last three years:
vs righties - 95 wRC+
vs. lefties - 45 wRC+

The defense is great, but they should definitely be picking their spots with Zimmer based on the matchup.

I was really hoping Biggio would be in the lineup tonight. He doesn't really have L/R split stats, so getting him in against a guy who throws 89-91 instead of the upper 90s seems like it would be smart.

 

[Morgs]

 

[weems]

Against former BlueJay Aaron Sanchez

 

[weems]

2 for 2 now

You wonder if he rips up AAA, how long will it be before he gets called up?

 

[hoc123]

 

[dredeye]

I was lucky enough to be able to catch a game there on a work trip in 2017 and it was one of the most well-done sporting venues I've ever been to.

They're apparently putting a pile of money into huge upgrades and I honestly don't know where the money would go. I wouldn't change a thing.

It looks beautiful from the street to. Great location. The season had just ended when I was there a couple of years ago for work

 

[Eyedea]

2 for 2 now

You wonder if he rips up AAA, how long will it be before he gets called up?

Honestly he’s ready now so I’d assume it could depend on Jansen’s timeline. But would they send him down when Jansen comes back? Do they really want to relegate Kirk to full time DH? Hard to find all three enough playing time unless Moreno moves off C which no front office would want to do.

 

[Kurtz]

Two lefty starters who allow hard fly balls...we're gonna see some fireworks early tonight.

 

[dredeye]

Honestly he’s ready now so I’d assume it could depend on Jansen’s timeline. But would they send him down when Jansen comes back? Do they really want to relegate Kirk to full time DH? Hard to find all three enough playing time unless Moreno moves off C which no front office would want to do.

I don’t think we see Moreno until Kirk is traded which I think will be this season at some point. I think for now it’s all about assessment and trade to fill whatever holes are showing after a couple months. I’m assuming he goes for a starter to replace whichever one is terrible