#the universe said. your team will kinda suck but you will be centring a great player.
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Sometimes I just think about how insanely different the lives of all the 2015 draft class players are now and it makes me feel ridiculous. Like, Mitch is a hometown kid on the leafs and they either love him or hate him at all times, he’s doing good personally, is getting married, but professionally he’s in so much limbo. Connor is the most talented player in the world according to most people but he cannot win and the weight of the world is on his shoulders and he’s in a big black and white house in Edmonton. Jack was pretty much held hostage by the team that never wanted him, his bodily autonomy completely denied, and then he finally gets traded to the nhl villain team and he beats the guy who was always better than him. And Dylan isn’t exceptional as a player, he’s decent on an aging team full of dads and he has a wife and a daughter and another on the way and he just seems happy. I wonder if they ever think about each other.
I KNOW RIGHT like each of their stories has just gotten so much More interesting over the course of the past ... coming up on eight years now. Hockey is a fantastic soap opera, you know? The story just keeps on going.
And the crazy part is we're not even halfway through. A hockey player with a shelf life -- Mitch and Connor both seem pretty durable, and Jack seems a lot healthier now after his neck trouble has been resolved -- can last fifteen, twenty years if they're lucky. Who knows where the story will go from here? Dylan's contract extends further into the future than any other Capital -- he'll be a UFA in the summer of 2028, which ironically gives him more job security than any of the other three in the class. Good, for a boy who just wanted to be wanted somewhere. I wonder what the Capitals will look like after Ovi's done. (Assuming Ovi ever retires, although I have a sneaking suspicion he and Sid will go out in the same summer. They have always been entwined, after all.)
I desperately want to know if we'll see any of them on any other teams, too! Hockey is unlike a lot of other sports in that its biggest and brightest superstars tend to stay as put as possible: of what I consider to be the six "generational talents," (Howe, Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby, Ovechkin, McDavid)(IF U HAVE OPINIONS ON THIS SEND THEM TO MEEEEE), only one of them so far has played for more than one NHL team (Howe era Whalers don't count!!!). Mitch isn't generational by any means, but he's far and away enough of a superstar to go just about anywhere he wants, which for my own feeble sanity I beg means #leafsforever. I just hope if they go anywhere else then they keep to the colour scheme! Dylan's three teams have all been red and Jack's have both been yellow/gold. If Connor McDavid becomes a Dallas Star it'll mess with the damn symbolism (plus his TA of mathematics ass could never match the vibe that silly little group of rapscallions has).
And... the eternal question: the Cup. Eichs is obviously still in the hunt right now, but i do dearly want to know who of the four of them wins it and when. Fun fact: both Dylan's and Jack's only playoff appearances to date have involved eliminating Connor. Mitch actually made the playoffs first out of all four of them, but by one measly game Connor has more wins.
In summary: Urgrghghuhuhsgdhkgjhfdghhfgkdjfhjkd the lore... the drama... etc etc
#saw someone ask a blog i follow 'whats the deal with the class of 2015'. COME OVER HERE I WILL GIVE YOU THE *NOVEL*#asks#i do find it achingly sweet how dylan seems to be the Okayest out of all of them. like he has settled into an agreement with the Universe.#the universe said. your team will kinda suck but you will be centring a great player.#and he said. okay that's cool im a nerd#and the universe said. and you will have two daughters#and he said. slay!#dylan strome#connor mcdavid#jack eichel#mitch marner#narrativeposting
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(gp999 friend) hello friend!! I’m super sorry I’m late - I’ve actually been catching up with some friends from high school (some of which are watching gp999 as well lol) 😁 anyway I completely agree w this episode being lowkey pointless. They could’ve easily made the trips half the episode, shown the ranking for like 5-10 minutes, and then shown at least 1-2 performances instead of dragging out the rankings (the sports festival honestly should’ve been released before the other girls were eliminated). 😐 I enjoyed seeing the girls have fun, but w the finale coming so soon they should’ve definitely already aired the creation mission performances. I’ve also seen some people coming after dayeon bc they think mnet is now trying to push her, and I can’t lie that it felt a little weird that a group that didn’t have dayeon in it go to her house 😅 at the same time dayeon clearly didn’t know and after how ignored she’s been by mnet up until she got a lot of attention for ice cream, I’m glad she is being pushed, even if I’m not necessarily thrilled w the situation. I do think mnet is trying to take advantage of her current rising popularity to make her the #1 spot for the final lineup so that they’ll have a Korean center (since apparently there’s been some buzz about that) but I guess we can only wait to see what happens 😅 the current top 9 is actually one of my fave lineups so far - xiaoting, dayeon - rap; yujin, hikaru, and su ruqi - dance; shana, mashiro, Yurina and chaehyun - vocals. Plus I think mashiro and hikaru could rap, xiaoting and dayeon are obv excellent dancers as well, and su ruqi and yujin can sing (upcoming main vocal yujin for the first time!!!! ☺️)! So lots of versatility and I think they could do a lot of concepts very well! 💗 last remark I promise lol - cai bing dropping as low as she did shocked me. I think everyone expected a drop after the previous few episodes but to suddenly be in the red zone that quick was crazy 😬 even tho I wasn’t a fan of her I do think mnet should have given her more of a chance to talk and explain her thought processes while leading the salute team and working on the snake team (whether people agree w it or not can then be up to them). Anyways - what are your thoughts?? What were some highlights and also some critiques you had about the episode? This upcoming week will have some great performances - the snippets sounded amazing and I know the girls will kill it!! 😁✨
hi friend!! hope you enjoyed catching up with your friends :) yeah, while it was lovely to see them having fun and their relationship with their teammates (plus the eliminated girls again i was so HAPPY), voting closes a day after the performances will be aired for the first time? i wish they swapped the episodes around, so we still got to see it but not at the expense of seeing the girls actually perform
SAME it was really weird how they visited her house? i saw someone suggest they should of had a day 'working'/performing for customers in her dad's restaurant and then reveal it was dayeon's family who owned the restaurant at the end and i think that would of been a way better way to go around it if they wanted to do this. the worst part is dayeon never even needed the push, she was K1!! im also glad she's being pushed and the fault is 100% mnet's not hers :( i do think they def want her as centre as you said, which is weird bc the main problem theyve had with her is stage presence??
!! i also kinda love how balanced the top9 is right now and you're right, so many concepts would work with them and it's confirmed that this group will have subunits (i think this was said before the show started but its been a while so sorry if im wrong) and i think they would also split off very nicely for the concepts theyre the best at. cannot wait for yujin main vocal as she hasnt had a chance to fully show off her talent and she deserves it sm!!
cai bing's fall was really shocking because she was def out of the top9 but eliminated?? i thought for sure she'd scrape by to make finale but honestly i cant imagine any of the girls being eliminated, it hurts my heart to realise how close we are to the finale. i agree that they should of given her the 1 on 1 camera shot of explaining her problems with leadership and it sucks to see her taken out over something that she didnt even need to be good at.
im SO excited for the performances next week i cant wait to add them to my playlist!!! im most excited for snake bc i love the choreo from the small video we saw on universe, but im really surprised at u + me's styling? i thought it was a bright concept but...apparently not. i really hope that doesnt hurt that team and they all perform the best they can
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Blue Jays Mailbag: Who to Keep, Who to Sell, and Why There's Hope for 2018
This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.
Andrew Stoeten answers your questions in our Blue Jays Mailbag, which runs weekly at VICE Sports. You can send him questions at [email protected], and follow him on Twitter.
The big 10-game road trip out of the All-Star break is over, and the Toronto Blue Jays are... still playing baseball, it turns out. They actually won in their return home on Monday, but… woof.
We beat on, boats against the current, and all that. Which is a hell of a mood to be in as we get set open up this week's edition of the mailbag, isn't it? So let's have at it!
If you have a Blue Jays question you'd like me to tackle for next week, be sure to send it to [email protected]. As always, I have not read any of Griff's answers.
Hi Stoeten
Could the Blue Jays market Liriano as a potential high strikeout lefty coming out of the bullpen?
Obviously it would help his value if he was performing that role right now but he did perform that role last year down the stretch and in the playoffs
Thanks Josh
Uh, market him? I really don't think that's how this works. Other teams might see him as a reliever, sure, but they would be aware of his usage last year and how he would fit their team. The Jays won't be making sales pitches. They're not running a used car lot.
---
Who should stay and who should go on the Jays team? Marilyn
Well, I'd say that anybody the Jays can't get appropriate value for on the trade market should stay. Meaning: I don't want to see them give players away, or trade them just to trade them.
Or... I would have said that if their continuing limp play wasn't slowly sucking the life out of us all, making the notion of keeping any of their impending free agents feel more pointless by the day.
Who should go is the more interesting question, I think. Goins and Barney I'd just kind of like to stop watching at this point, so I'm OK if they exit in some way or another. Tulo is likeable as hell and I'll probably keep believing massive production at the plate is just around the corner for the rest of his time here, but if they could get rid of that contract—which they can't—I'd be all for it. Steve Pearce is more DH than outfielder, so they really probably only need to keep one of him or Kendrys Morales—and as much as moving the Morales contract would be better, it's probably Pearce who has the value. And if they could get something worthwhile for Kevin Pillar, at this point, why the hell not? I could handle planning for Pompey, Alford, or whoever in centre next season if it meant turning Pillar into a piece a little less redundant.
---
Are they trading Marco? I know you have a crystal ball, so tell us all! LOL. Will we see Lourdes Gurriel this season in Sept? Liz
Haha. I don't know! If there's a team out there that has looked at his last couple months and thinks they know how to fix him, though, he probably will be. I just have a hard time believing that team exists right now. A couple strong starts before the deadline might change that.
And as for Gurriel, maybe? I'm hearing good things out of New Hampshire about how he's looked against Double-A pitching. Perhaps they give him a September call-up just to get a taste of the big leagues, and to get a few extra at-bats between the end of the minor league season and the start of the Arizona Fall League. But I honestly have no clue what the thinking is there.
Hey Andrew,
What the hell ever happened to Chad Jenkins? Cole
Interesting question, apart from the fact that I could not possibly care less! But what's happened to Jenkins is—at least as far as a cursory Google search tells us—is something close to a mystery. He was released last year and hasn't pitched in affiliated ball since—nor in any of the leagues that you'd expect to see on his Baseball Reference page, either: no sign of Mexico, Japan, Korea, or Indy ball.
VICE Sports Explains Blisters in Baseball
Best I can tell is that he's gone back to school. He has a LinkedIn page that says "attending Kennesaw State University." That was the school he was playing at when the Jays selected him five picks before Mike Trout (*COUGHHHHHHH*) in the 2010 draft, but his LinkedIn makes it clear that he's doing so in 2017.
So... mystery solved?
---
I would fire Gibbons. Only solution, if no Gibbons firing, is to trade your 'untouchables' Osuna, JD, Stroman, Smoak. Am I right? Darrell
LOL. Holy shit, no. You're not right. You're not close to right. You're not on the same continent as right.
Gibbons is a treasure and hardly at fault for how the Jays' season has gone. There's no reason to fire him, or to start selling off everything.
When the #FireGibbons crowd starts getting loud. Photo by Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
But, OK. I guess we might as well do this here, and skip all the other "buy or sell???" questions. Thing is, some people almost seem to have this weird thing where they think that just because a bunch of players are on an underperforming team (or, if you prefer to read it the other way, a bad team), there's no way we can expect them to be part of a good team next year. Donaldson, Stroman, Sanchez, Osuna, Smoak, Martin, most of the bullpen—these guys can be part of a team that could still be really good with the right pieces around it (one of which will be Tulo, because he ain't going anywhere). Just because 2017 seems to get more grim by the day, doesn't mean that what we thought a week ago isn't still true: The Blue Jays can be competitive enough in 2018 to justify not splaying open a giant, self-inflicted wound just yet.
In a vacuum where the club doesn't care about whether or not fans stick around the next two or three years, and what that does to what they'll be able to do in the future financially, maybe an immediate sell-off is the best course of action. But it's hardly a simple question.
---
Few dumb questions. Any news on Rogers Centre renos/improving fan experience? How is the 2018 draft class looking?Jays will prob have a top pick Anthony
Oh relax with the top pick stuff. It isn't hockey.
---
Would you rather have Munenori Kawasaki on the team, or Ryan Goins? Kawasaki has a higher OBP (.320 vs. .270) Jonah
The correct answer is "neither," but if you're forcing me to choose, I'm not judging my backup middle infielders based on how well they can hit first, then worrying about if they can play defence later. Goins hasn't had a great year with the glove, but Kawasaki should really never play shortstop, and so I have to give it to Goins on that alone.
Bring him back! Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Plus, Kawasaki is 36 and slashing .248/.318/.323 for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. You think those numbers are going to translate to the big leagues any better than what Goins has been doing?
---
What's your take on why Donaldson has been...well...kinda bad lately? Jordan
He's gotta be hurt, right?
---
Question: How will fans who can't put up with 3 months of bad baseball without yelling "blow it up" put up with 3-5 yrs of bad baseball? Derek
Derek's got a follow-up question, but let's just admire this one for a second. Because it's fucking perfect.
Also, what is number one fan experience change you would make asap? (Besides craft beer..) Derek
I'm not much of a craft beer drinker these days, but I know that doing right by the damn beer situation is something that would get a lot of people excited. I'm all for more local, more reasonable prices, and all that. Personally, I'd just like to be able to get a cider at its own stand instead of having to find the nearest giant wall of beverages and wait in an enormous line there. But the beer thing... honestly... whatever.
For me the big stuff is 4 PM games on Saturday (which is an idea they're apparently toying with), and fixing the in-game "entertainment." Shi Davidi was tweeting last week from Boston about some of the decent and deliciously ironic music choices the Red Sox were playing between innings, and I couldn't help but think, "I want that!" Nothing major, just a little less howling at me and a little more wit.
Uh... a better product on the field wouldn't hurt, either.
---
If you ranked all MLB players on projected WAR and then ranked them all on likeability, which Jays would be more likeable than valuable? John
All of them?
Seriously, though. All of them. Especially Estrada, Donaldson, Tulo, and (as far as I'm concerned) Bautista. Those guys are great! At least they are when they're on your team. And they've all been pretty goddamned bad this season. To varying degrees, of course.
Ugh.
---
Hey Stoeten . How many bevvies at The Only do you think it takes to feel better about this year ? Spartacus
A few hundred so far, and it's still not working!
---
Can you shed some light on the defensive miscues in the OF? Why do the Jays still struggle with the ability to call off each other?
Would also appreciate any exploration in Goins hitting track record w. bases empty vs RISP (also how he leads majors w. bases loaded hits?) Kate
These are outstanding questions, and I wish I had more satisfying answers to them than what I'm about to provide...
In the outfield, what I'd say is that Zeke is Zeke, and to get whatever good you're going to get out of him—and, rather startlingly, he has a 115 wRC+ this season, which is well beyond solid—you're just going to have to live with the bad. And Pearce simply isn't really an outfielder. He's already played more innings in the outfield at the big league level this season than any other year in his career.
Neither of those are very satisfying excuses. And if there have been misplays between Pillar and Bautista, they're even harder to justify. But... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
I'll say this, though: I think that part of the reason we notice these things so much is that the lineup simply hasn't been scoring runs, and so the margin for error in terms of pitching and defence this season has been desperately thin.
As for Goins, you're right that it's quite interesting that this year he has eight hits in 11 plate appearances with the bases loaded. Those hits include a double and a home run, which adds up to an astounding .727/.727/1.091 slash line. Unfortunately, I don't think those numbers are terribly meaningful. I don't think any sample of just 11 plate appearances is going to be very meaningful.
We're talking 11 plate appearances here, people. Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
For me, there's certainly got to be a bunch of coincidence in there. There's probably a little bit of lineup protection as a factor—Goins has mostly been hitting ninth, and the Jays' lead-off man lately has been Bautista, and before that was Pillar when he was going really well (if you can fucking believe that!). Then again, bad hitters probably always get a bump in that situation, regardless of who is coming up behind him, just because it seems more appropriate to challenge a guy like Goins than to get too cute and end up walking him. (I'm sure someone has studied this).
Can Goins maybe apply some of what has been so successful about his bases loaded approach to help him be a better hitter in other situations? It certainly can't hurt to try—he sure as hell can't get much worse no matter what he does!—but I'm doubtful there's anything there. It's just 11 plate appearances.
Blue Jays Mailbag: Who to Keep, Who to Sell, and Why There's Hope for 2018 published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv
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Blue Jays Mailbag: Who to Keep, Who to Sell, and Why There's Hope for 2018
This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.
Andrew Stoeten answers your questions in our Blue Jays Mailbag, which runs weekly at VICE Sports. You can send him questions at [email protected], and follow him on Twitter.
The big 10-game road trip out of the All-Star break is over, and the Toronto Blue Jays are... still playing baseball, it turns out. They actually won in their return home on Monday, but… woof.
We beat on, boats against the current, and all that. Which is a hell of a mood to be in as we get set open up this week's edition of the mailbag, isn't it? So let's have at it!
If you have a Blue Jays question you'd like me to tackle for next week, be sure to send it to [email protected]. As always, I have not read any of Griff's answers.
Hi Stoeten
Could the Blue Jays market Liriano as a potential high strikeout lefty coming out of the bullpen?
Obviously it would help his value if he was performing that role right now but he did perform that role last year down the stretch and in the playoffs
Thanks Josh
Uh, market him? I really don't think that's how this works. Other teams might see him as a reliever, sure, but they would be aware of his usage last year and how he would fit their team. The Jays won't be making sales pitches. They're not running a used car lot.
---
Who should stay and who should go on the Jays team? Marilyn
Well, I'd say that anybody the Jays can't get appropriate value for on the trade market should stay. Meaning: I don't want to see them give players away, or trade them just to trade them.
Or... I would have said that if their continuing limp play wasn't slowly sucking the life out of us all, making the notion of keeping any of their impending free agents feel more pointless by the day.
Who should go is the more interesting question, I think. Goins and Barney I'd just kind of like to stop watching at this point, so I'm OK if they exit in some way or another. Tulo is likeable as hell and I'll probably keep believing massive production at the plate is just around the corner for the rest of his time here, but if they could get rid of that contract—which they can't—I'd be all for it. Steve Pearce is more DH than outfielder, so they really probably only need to keep one of him or Kendrys Morales—and as much as moving the Morales contract would be better, it's probably Pearce who has the value. And if they could get something worthwhile for Kevin Pillar, at this point, why the hell not? I could handle planning for Pompey, Alford, or whoever in centre next season if it meant turning Pillar into a piece a little less redundant.
---
Are they trading Marco? I know you have a crystal ball, so tell us all! LOL. Will we see Lourdes Gurriel this season in Sept? Liz
Haha. I don't know! If there's a team out there that has looked at his last couple months and thinks they know how to fix him, though, he probably will be. I just have a hard time believing that team exists right now. A couple strong starts before the deadline might change that.
And as for Gurriel, maybe? I'm hearing good things out of New Hampshire about how he's looked against Double-A pitching. Perhaps they give him a September call-up just to get a taste of the big leagues, and to get a few extra at-bats between the end of the minor league season and the start of the Arizona Fall League. But I honestly have no clue what the thinking is there.
Hey Andrew,
What the hell ever happened to Chad Jenkins? Cole
Interesting question, apart from the fact that I could not possibly care less! But what's happened to Jenkins is—at least as far as a cursory Google search tells us—is something close to a mystery. He was released last year and hasn't pitched in affiliated ball since—nor in any of the leagues that you'd expect to see on his Baseball Reference page, either: no sign of Mexico, Japan, Korea, or Indy ball.
VICE Sports Explains Blisters in Baseball
Best I can tell is that he's gone back to school. He has a LinkedIn page that says "attending Kennesaw State University." That was the school he was playing at when the Jays selected him five picks before Mike Trout (*COUGHHHHHHH*) in the 2010 draft, but his LinkedIn makes it clear that he's doing so in 2017.
So... mystery solved?
---
I would fire Gibbons. Only solution, if no Gibbons firing, is to trade your 'untouchables' Osuna, JD, Stroman, Smoak. Am I right? Darrell
LOL. Holy shit, no. You're not right. You're not close to right. You're not on the same continent as right.
Gibbons is a treasure and hardly at fault for how the Jays' season has gone. There's no reason to fire him, or to start selling off everything.
When the #FireGibbons crowd starts getting loud. Photo by Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
But, OK. I guess we might as well do this here, and skip all the other "buy or sell???" questions. Thing is, some people almost seem to have this weird thing where they think that just because a bunch of players are on an underperforming team (or, if you prefer to read it the other way, a bad team), there's no way we can expect them to be part of a good team next year. Donaldson, Stroman, Sanchez, Osuna, Smoak, Martin, most of the bullpen—these guys can be part of a team that could still be really good with the right pieces around it (one of which will be Tulo, because he ain't going anywhere). Just because 2017 seems to get more grim by the day, doesn't mean that what we thought a week ago isn't still true: The Blue Jays can be competitive enough in 2018 to justify not splaying open a giant, self-inflicted wound just yet.
In a vacuum where the club doesn't care about whether or not fans stick around the next two or three years, and what that does to what they'll be able to do in the future financially, maybe an immediate sell-off is the best course of action. But it's hardly a simple question.
---
Few dumb questions. Any news on Rogers Centre renos/improving fan experience? How is the 2018 draft class looking?Jays will prob have a top pick Anthony
Oh relax with the top pick stuff. It isn't hockey.
---
Would you rather have Munenori Kawasaki on the team, or Ryan Goins? Kawasaki has a higher OBP (.320 vs. .270) Jonah
The correct answer is "neither," but if you're forcing me to choose, I'm not judging my backup middle infielders based on how well they can hit first, then worrying about if they can play defence later. Goins hasn't had a great year with the glove, but Kawasaki should really never play shortstop, and so I have to give it to Goins on that alone.
Bring him back! Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Plus, Kawasaki is 36 and slashing .248/.318/.323 for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. You think those numbers are going to translate to the big leagues any better than what Goins has been doing?
---
What's your take on why Donaldson has been...well...kinda bad lately? Jordan
He's gotta be hurt, right?
---
Question: How will fans who can't put up with 3 months of bad baseball without yelling "blow it up" put up with 3-5 yrs of bad baseball? Derek
Derek's got a follow-up question, but let's just admire this one for a second. Because it's fucking perfect.
Also, what is number one fan experience change you would make asap? (Besides craft beer..) Derek
I'm not much of a craft beer drinker these days, but I know that doing right by the damn beer situation is something that would get a lot of people excited. I'm all for more local, more reasonable prices, and all that. Personally, I'd just like to be able to get a cider at its own stand instead of having to find the nearest giant wall of beverages and wait in an enormous line there. But the beer thing... honestly... whatever.
For me the big stuff is 4 PM games on Saturday (which is an idea they're apparently toying with), and fixing the in-game "entertainment." Shi Davidi was tweeting last week from Boston about some of the decent and deliciously ironic music choices the Red Sox were playing between innings, and I couldn't help but think, "I want that!" Nothing major, just a little less howling at me and a little more wit.
Uh... a better product on the field wouldn't hurt, either.
---
If you ranked all MLB players on projected WAR and then ranked them all on likeability, which Jays would be more likeable than valuable? John
All of them?
Seriously, though. All of them. Especially Estrada, Donaldson, Tulo, and (as far as I'm concerned) Bautista. Those guys are great! At least they are when they're on your team. And they've all been pretty goddamned bad this season. To varying degrees, of course.
Ugh.
---
Hey Stoeten . How many bevvies at The Only do you think it takes to feel better about this year ? Spartacus
A few hundred so far, and it's still not working!
---
Can you shed some light on the defensive miscues in the OF? Why do the Jays still struggle with the ability to call off each other?
Would also appreciate any exploration in Goins hitting track record w. bases empty vs RISP (also how he leads majors w. bases loaded hits?) Kate
These are outstanding questions, and I wish I had more satisfying answers to them than what I'm about to provide...
In the outfield, what I'd say is that Zeke is Zeke, and to get whatever good you're going to get out of him—and, rather startlingly, he has a 115 wRC+ this season, which is well beyond solid—you're just going to have to live with the bad. And Pearce simply isn't really an outfielder. He's already played more innings in the outfield at the big league level this season than any other year in his career.
Neither of those are very satisfying excuses. And if there have been misplays between Pillar and Bautista, they're even harder to justify. But... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
I'll say this, though: I think that part of the reason we notice these things so much is that the lineup simply hasn't been scoring runs, and so the margin for error in terms of pitching and defence this season has been desperately thin.
As for Goins, you're right that it's quite interesting that this year he has eight hits in 11 plate appearances with the bases loaded. Those hits include a double and a home run, which adds up to an astounding .727/.727/1.091 slash line. Unfortunately, I don't think those numbers are terribly meaningful. I don't think any sample of just 11 plate appearances is going to be very meaningful.
We're talking 11 plate appearances here, people. Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
For me, there's certainly got to be a bunch of coincidence in there. There's probably a little bit of lineup protection as a factor—Goins has mostly been hitting ninth, and the Jays' lead-off man lately has been Bautista, and before that was Pillar when he was going really well (if you can fucking believe that!). Then again, bad hitters probably always get a bump in that situation, regardless of who is coming up behind him, just because it seems more appropriate to challenge a guy like Goins than to get too cute and end up walking him. (I'm sure someone has studied this).
Can Goins maybe apply some of what has been so successful about his bases loaded approach to help him be a better hitter in other situations? It certainly can't hurt to try—he sure as hell can't get much worse no matter what he does!—but I'm doubtful there's anything there. It's just 11 plate appearances.
Blue Jays Mailbag: Who to Keep, Who to Sell, and Why There's Hope for 2018 published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv
0 notes
Text
Blue Jays Mailbag: Who to Keep, Who to Sell, and Why There's Hope for 2018
This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.
Andrew Stoeten answers your questions in our Blue Jays Mailbag, which runs weekly at VICE Sports. You can send him questions at [email protected], and follow him on Twitter.
The big 10-game road trip out of the All-Star break is over, and the Toronto Blue Jays are... still playing baseball, it turns out. They actually won in their return home on Monday, but… woof.
We beat on, boats against the current, and all that. Which is a hell of a mood to be in as we get set open up this week's edition of the mailbag, isn't it? So let's have at it!
If you have a Blue Jays question you'd like me to tackle for next week, be sure to send it to [email protected]. As always, I have not read any of Griff's answers.
Hi Stoeten
Could the Blue Jays market Liriano as a potential high strikeout lefty coming out of the bullpen?
Obviously it would help his value if he was performing that role right now but he did perform that role last year down the stretch and in the playoffs
Thanks Josh
Uh, market him? I really don't think that's how this works. Other teams might see him as a reliever, sure, but they would be aware of his usage last year and how he would fit their team. The Jays won't be making sales pitches. They're not running a used car lot.
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Who should stay and who should go on the Jays team? Marilyn
Well, I'd say that anybody the Jays can't get appropriate value for on the trade market should stay. Meaning: I don't want to see them give players away, or trade them just to trade them.
Or... I would have said that if their continuing limp play wasn't slowly sucking the life out of us all, making the notion of keeping any of their impending free agents feel more pointless by the day.
Who should go is the more interesting question, I think. Goins and Barney I'd just kind of like to stop watching at this point, so I'm OK if they exit in some way or another. Tulo is likeable as hell and I'll probably keep believing massive production at the plate is just around the corner for the rest of his time here, but if they could get rid of that contract—which they can't—I'd be all for it. Steve Pearce is more DH than outfielder, so they really probably only need to keep one of him or Kendrys Morales—and as much as moving the Morales contract would be better, it's probably Pearce who has the value. And if they could get something worthwhile for Kevin Pillar, at this point, why the hell not? I could handle planning for Pompey, Alford, or whoever in centre next season if it meant turning Pillar into a piece a little less redundant.
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Are they trading Marco? I know you have a crystal ball, so tell us all! LOL. Will we see Lourdes Gurriel this season in Sept? Liz
Haha. I don't know! If there's a team out there that has looked at his last couple months and thinks they know how to fix him, though, he probably will be. I just have a hard time believing that team exists right now. A couple strong starts before the deadline might change that.
And as for Gurriel, maybe? I'm hearing good things out of New Hampshire about how he's looked against Double-A pitching. Perhaps they give him a September call-up just to get a taste of the big leagues, and to get a few extra at-bats between the end of the minor league season and the start of the Arizona Fall League. But I honestly have no clue what the thinking is there.
Hey Andrew,
What the hell ever happened to Chad Jenkins? Cole
Interesting question, apart from the fact that I could not possibly care less! But what's happened to Jenkins is—at least as far as a cursory Google search tells us—is something close to a mystery. He was released last year and hasn't pitched in affiliated ball since—nor in any of the leagues that you'd expect to see on his Baseball Reference page, either: no sign of Mexico, Japan, Korea, or Indy ball.
VICE Sports Explains Blisters in Baseball
Best I can tell is that he's gone back to school. He has a LinkedIn page that says "attending Kennesaw State University." That was the school he was playing at when the Jays selected him five picks before Mike Trout (*COUGHHHHHHH*) in the 2010 draft, but his LinkedIn makes it clear that he's doing so in 2017.
So... mystery solved?
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I would fire Gibbons. Only solution, if no Gibbons firing, is to trade your 'untouchables' Osuna, JD, Stroman, Smoak. Am I right? Darrell
LOL. Holy shit, no. You're not right. You're not close to right. You're not on the same continent as right.
Gibbons is a treasure and hardly at fault for how the Jays' season has gone. There's no reason to fire him, or to start selling off everything.
When the #FireGibbons crowd starts getting loud. Photo by Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
But, OK. I guess we might as well do this here, and skip all the other "buy or sell???" questions. Thing is, some people almost seem to have this weird thing where they think that just because a bunch of players are on an underperforming team (or, if you prefer to read it the other way, a bad team), there's no way we can expect them to be part of a good team next year. Donaldson, Stroman, Sanchez, Osuna, Smoak, Martin, most of the bullpen—these guys can be part of a team that could still be really good with the right pieces around it (one of which will be Tulo, because he ain't going anywhere). Just because 2017 seems to get more grim by the day, doesn't mean that what we thought a week ago isn't still true: The Blue Jays can be competitive enough in 2018 to justify not splaying open a giant, self-inflicted wound just yet.
In a vacuum where the club doesn't care about whether or not fans stick around the next two or three years, and what that does to what they'll be able to do in the future financially, maybe an immediate sell-off is the best course of action. But it's hardly a simple question.
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Few dumb questions. Any news on Rogers Centre renos/improving fan experience? How is the 2018 draft class looking?Jays will prob have a top pick Anthony
Oh relax with the top pick stuff. It isn't hockey.
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Would you rather have Munenori Kawasaki on the team, or Ryan Goins? Kawasaki has a higher OBP (.320 vs. .270) Jonah
The correct answer is "neither," but if you're forcing me to choose, I'm not judging my backup middle infielders based on how well they can hit first, then worrying about if they can play defence later. Goins hasn't had a great year with the glove, but Kawasaki should really never play shortstop, and so I have to give it to Goins on that alone.
Bring him back! Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Plus, Kawasaki is 36 and slashing .248/.318/.323 for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. You think those numbers are going to translate to the big leagues any better than what Goins has been doing?
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What's your take on why Donaldson has been...well...kinda bad lately? Jordan
He's gotta be hurt, right?
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Question: How will fans who can't put up with 3 months of bad baseball without yelling "blow it up" put up with 3-5 yrs of bad baseball? Derek
Derek's got a follow-up question, but let's just admire this one for a second. Because it's fucking perfect.
Also, what is number one fan experience change you would make asap? (Besides craft beer..) Derek
I'm not much of a craft beer drinker these days, but I know that doing right by the damn beer situation is something that would get a lot of people excited. I'm all for more local, more reasonable prices, and all that. Personally, I'd just like to be able to get a cider at its own stand instead of having to find the nearest giant wall of beverages and wait in an enormous line there. But the beer thing... honestly... whatever.
For me the big stuff is 4 PM games on Saturday (which is an idea they're apparently toying with), and fixing the in-game "entertainment." Shi Davidi was tweeting last week from Boston about some of the decent and deliciously ironic music choices the Red Sox were playing between innings, and I couldn't help but think, "I want that!" Nothing major, just a little less howling at me and a little more wit.
Uh... a better product on the field wouldn't hurt, either.
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If you ranked all MLB players on projected WAR and then ranked them all on likeability, which Jays would be more likeable than valuable? John
All of them?
Seriously, though. All of them. Especially Estrada, Donaldson, Tulo, and (as far as I'm concerned) Bautista. Those guys are great! At least they are when they're on your team. And they've all been pretty goddamned bad this season. To varying degrees, of course.
Ugh.
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Hey Stoeten . How many bevvies at The Only do you think it takes to feel better about this year ? Spartacus
A few hundred so far, and it's still not working!
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Can you shed some light on the defensive miscues in the OF? Why do the Jays still struggle with the ability to call off each other?
Would also appreciate any exploration in Goins hitting track record w. bases empty vs RISP (also how he leads majors w. bases loaded hits?) Kate
These are outstanding questions, and I wish I had more satisfying answers to them than what I'm about to provide...
In the outfield, what I'd say is that Zeke is Zeke, and to get whatever good you're going to get out of him—and, rather startlingly, he has a 115 wRC+ this season, which is well beyond solid—you're just going to have to live with the bad. And Pearce simply isn't really an outfielder. He's already played more innings in the outfield at the big league level this season than any other year in his career.
Neither of those are very satisfying excuses. And if there have been misplays between Pillar and Bautista, they're even harder to justify. But... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
I'll say this, though: I think that part of the reason we notice these things so much is that the lineup simply hasn't been scoring runs, and so the margin for error in terms of pitching and defence this season has been desperately thin.
As for Goins, you're right that it's quite interesting that this year he has eight hits in 11 plate appearances with the bases loaded. Those hits include a double and a home run, which adds up to an astounding .727/.727/1.091 slash line. Unfortunately, I don't think those numbers are terribly meaningful. I don't think any sample of just 11 plate appearances is going to be very meaningful.
We're talking 11 plate appearances here, people. Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
For me, there's certainly got to be a bunch of coincidence in there. There's probably a little bit of lineup protection as a factor—Goins has mostly been hitting ninth, and the Jays' lead-off man lately has been Bautista, and before that was Pillar when he was going really well (if you can fucking believe that!). Then again, bad hitters probably always get a bump in that situation, regardless of who is coming up behind him, just because it seems more appropriate to challenge a guy like Goins than to get too cute and end up walking him. (I'm sure someone has studied this).
Can Goins maybe apply some of what has been so successful about his bases loaded approach to help him be a better hitter in other situations? It certainly can't hurt to try—he sure as hell can't get much worse no matter what he does!—but I'm doubtful there's anything there. It's just 11 plate appearances.
Blue Jays Mailbag: Who to Keep, Who to Sell, and Why There's Hope for 2018 published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv
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