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Blue Jays Discussion: The trade deadline has passed. Time to see what this can do (most acquisitions expected to be present Thursday in Minnesota)

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Steve Phillips: Blue Jays face Kikuchi conundrum | TSN

A move to the bullpen can help starters who aren’t throwing enough strikes, but the Toronto lefty is running out of time to make that adjustment in his new role, Steve Phillips writes.
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Yusei Kikuchi has a great arm. He’s a left-hander who can throw his fastball 95 mph. But he walks too many batters.

There are 166 pitchers in Major League Baseball who have thrown more than 1,000 pitches this season. Kikuchi has the sixth highest pitches per innings (18.58) among that group. He is a nibbler, trying to miss bats instead of attacking hitters. This leads to too many deep counts and, ultimately, too many hitter’s counts and base on balls.

Kikuchi’s career numbers are like those of Robbie Ray before Ray’s great season with the Jays earned him the 2021 AL Cy Young Award. Ray was always a guy with a great arm who didn’t throw enough strikes. Every team wanted him and believed they could fix him.

Clubs felt the same way about Kikuchi. It was the success that Toronto pitching coach Pete Walker had with Ray that led to the Jays signing Kikuchi. The Jays saw similar stuff and solvable issues, believing it was worth giving the lefty a three-year deal. But the changes and improvements have come slowly for Kikuchi this season. He is not Ray – yet.

The Jays recently moved Kikuchi to the bullpen. I’ve seen a move like that help starting pitchers who don’t throw enough strikes. They move to the bullpen, and it triggers aggressiveness. Starters who become relievers feel their fastballs play up in velocity, so they attack the strike zone with their new-found confidence.

That hasn’t happened yet with Kikuchi. In his first two outings as a reliever, he has thrown a total of 45 pitches but only 20 strikes. At this stage, he can only be used when the team is up or down by more than five runs. He needs that margin for error.

The Jays will have to consider sending Kikuchi to the minors to get fixed if he doesn’t make an adjustment within his next couple of outings. It’s a last resort, but that moment is approaching soon. The Jays don’t want to humiliate him, but he may need a wake-up call. It isn’t working his way, so it’s time to change. Time will tell.
 
Eyedea said:
I'd love to see the Rays take the division and us grab a top 2 WC to face the Yanks.
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Rationally, I would love this. even if the Yanks' demise has been a bit exaggerated (they ripped off 5 straight wins after our series with them). That said, Shane's injury is really gonna f*** that pursuit up for Tampa.

Irrationally, for purely selfish reasons, I want Seattle to grab WC1 and the Jays to grab WC2. I'm moving to Seattle for a new job in a couple weeks and I'd like to see Jays playoff games in person!
 
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Swervin81 said:
Rationally, I would love this. even if the Yanks' demise has been a bit exaggerated (they ripped off 5 straight wins after our series with them). That said, Shane's injury is really gonna f*** that pursuit up for Tampa.

Irrationally, for purely selfish reasons, I want Seattle to grab WC1 and the Jays to grab WC2. I'm moving to Seattle for a new job in a couple weeks and I'd like to see Jays playoff games in person!
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Good stuff man, grats on the move
 
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Swervin81 said:
Rationally, I would love this. even if the Yanks' demise has been a bit exaggerated (they ripped off 5 straight wins after our series with them). That said, Shane's injury is really gonna f*** that pursuit up for Tampa.
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Yeah, but they also followed that up by losing 4 of 5 to the A's and Angels... they've had stretches where it looked like they were turning it around, but it hasn't stuck.

Since peaking at 61-23 in July, they've gone 18-29. As much as the Jays have been frustratingly inconsistent this year, they haven't had a stretch where they've been anywhere close to that bad for that long.
 
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Eyedea said:
Good stuff man, grats on the move
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Thanks! Stressful, but excited.

But even if I don't get to see them in the playoffs, I'll be able to see them this weekend since we're doing one last family road trip to Pittsburgh (if anyone else is also doing the roadie this weekend, lemme know!).

Also - not sure how to feel about 4pm start times. On one hand, if I'm fully remote, I can just have it on in the background. Hell, I could even watch it while commuting home on the bus and continue when I get home. And still have an evening to myself! But on the other hand, if my job goes to hell, I might have to just do the old "start late and skip ads/breaks" strategy. We'll see!
 
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www.mlb.com

September means expanded rosters: Here's what you should know

Expanded rosters are coming. Expanded rosters are coming. OK, sure, this isn’t the tidal wave of player additions that came in past years, but Sept. 1 remains a large date on the baseball calendar as Major League rosters swell just in time for final playoff pushes. Here’s what you need
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Roster limits
From Opening Day to May 1 this year, Major League clubs were allowed to carry 28 players before slimming back to normal 26-man levels from May 2 onwards. Until now. From Sept. 1 through the rest of the season, active rosters will expand again to cover 28 players, no more no less. Teams can carry 14 pitchers at most too to cut down on the endless parade of bullpen arms that often made September games a slog.
The hard cap at 28 is an important distinction from Septembers of old. Previously, clubs could call up any member of the 40-man roster for the month. That is no longer the case, though even a boost of two extra players should be helpful for the stretch run.
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Effect of new CBA
The collective bargaining agreement signed by MLB and the MLBPA in the spring instituted a new policy for 2022 aimed at curbing service-time manipulation. A club that starts a top prospect on its Opening Day roster while he retains rookie status is eligible to receive an extra Draft pick if the player gets sufficient award consideration before he becomes arbitration-eligible. It’s likely part of why we saw big names like Julio Rodríguez, Bobby Witt Jr. and Spencer Torkelson make Major League rosters out of the gate back in the spring.
That’s all well and good for Opening Day 2023, but how does it affect September 2022?
Well if clubs are considering starting their top prospects out of the gate next year, they might be more likely to give them their debuts now, in order to experience the Majors for the first time and make whatever adjustments necessary in the offseason to hit the ground running in late March.

Buckle up. Carroll and Cavalli may have just been the start. We could see an onrush of more prospects over the next month.
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Top 50 prospects who could get the call
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Gabriel Moreno, C, Blue Jays (No. 7): Moreno played 18 uninspiring games for the Jays earlier in the season but has hit .320/.383/.416 in 57 contests with Triple-A Buffalo, a sign he’s conquered what he can at the level. His strong arm and fielding would make him a quality third catcher for Toronto too, allowing Alejandro Kirk to get more DH opportunities.
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I assume Jays will add Moreno and Pop when they make their "real" moves. Lawrence and Zimmer are probably short term. They can put Zimmer on waivers again to try to sneak him through. Or keep Zimmer, option Kikuchi and add Moreno and Pop. I cant see that as im sure the Jays want the extra pitcher. Or the best option is waive Zimmer, option Kikuchi and call Pop, Merryweather and Moreno up.
 
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Langdon Alger said:
I doubt it. The Rays are six games back of the Yankees. Even if it does happen, and it’s unlikely, there’s no way it will be easy.
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I don’t think the Yankees are winning this division. About a month ago, both Rays and Jays were 12-14 games back. Now they are 6 and 8. The Rays are playing really good baseball, way better than the Yankees. BUT I hope it doesn’t happen because that would mean they would have beaten us up quite a bit down the stretch.
 
Suntouchable13 said:
I don’t think the Yankees are winning this division. About a month ago, both Rays and Jays were 12-14 games back. Now they are 6 and 8. The Rays are playing really good baseball, way better than the Yankees. BUT I hope it doesn’t happen because that would mean they would have beaten us up quite a bit down the stretch.
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It‘s not impossible, but making up that kind of ground this late in the season is tough. I still expect the Yankees to win the division when all is said and done.
 
Zimmee and his 130 average and lawrence and his 8 plus era was too good to pass up shatkins. Dont know what more Matt Gage has to do. He should have been the pitcher called up
 
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Zimmer makes sense to me, he was always a better playoff pinch runner/defensive replacement option than Bradley. He just can't ever start, which he shouldn't be now that we have so many outfield options.

I don't really get the Lawrence move. I know that Pop has a limit to how many days he needs to be down before he can be recalled after the option. Maybe it's because they have a double header with Baltimore coming up soon so they have some length back there and they plan to use Kikuchi for that extra start?

I still don't like these September rules. I wish they would do a hybrid of the old and new rules. The rosters expand to 40 like they used to but you could only put 28 names on the lineup card(including the last 4 starters so they couldn't be used as extra spots). That way you only get 2 extra guys per game but you could swap them out at will
 
Shitty scoreboard tonight. Seattle swept an easy opponent while Baltimore won the series over Cleveland ( 5 series wins in a row). Jays need to sweep this weekend, please.

Also, with that BAL win, 4th place in the AL East (69-61) has a better record than 1st place in the AL Central (68-61). Amazing lmao
 
Seath The Scaleless said:
Shitty scoreboard tonight. Seattle swept an easy opponent while Baltimore won the series over Cleveland ( 5 series wins in a row). Jays need to sweep this weekend, please.

Also, with that BAL win, 4th place in the AL East (69-61) has a better record than 1st place in the AL Central (68-61). Amazing lmao
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Baltimore also has oakland this weekend so they likely sweep that.
 
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