Mail bag: On infield defence, pitching extensions, Montoyo's choices, Alek Manoah, terrible umpires, and more!

April ended on a high note, and the Jays’ 2021 season seems just about ready to finally take off, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still a whole lot of questions still surrounding the club. Which is good, because it is time for us to once again open up the ol’ mail bag!

As usual, I could barely get all of your questions in before running into Substack’s post length limit, so thank you so much everybody. And thank you especially to those who subscribe, and those have been able to pay to do so.

Speaking of which, before we get going, please indulge me while I attempt to make a living. Because if you’ve been sent here by a friend, or are an existing subscriber who would like to move to a paid membership so you can comment, ask questions the next time I open up the ol’ mail bag, or just plain old support what I do, click below to upgrade or become a subscriber. I will be eternally grateful if you do!

Oh, and one more thing. I put out the call for these questions a while ago, so none of the ones I received were about Friday’s Roberto Alomar news. Fortunately for all of us, Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi said pretty much exactly what needed to be said about the matter. Go read his piece.

Now on to the questions! As always, I have not read any of Griff's answers.

Early days, but how much would an extension for Matz or Ray cost? Are they worth overpaying to get them to live in the failed state that is Doug Ford’s Ontario?

Also, a request, if Substack allows for it, can you email the newsletter in dark mode? Thx — will

You’re certainly right that it’s early days, but you’re also right that Matz and Ray have been good enough so far to at least start thinking about what their futures may look like. Thing is, it would be a tricky question at this stage under normal circumstances, and with the December 1st expiration date of the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players union it’s maybe even harder.

Does the qualifying offer system stay the same? If so, the Jays can potentially use that to their advantage, because both pitchers right now seem on course to be worth one. A starting point for both might be something like the two-year, $26 million deal that Marco Estrada signed following his breakout 2015 season with the Jays, adjusted for inflation and the fact that both Matz and Ray will both be younger at the end of this year (30) than Estrada was then (32).

But then you have to think, whether it’s with qualifying offers or modest extensions, will the team want to allocate upwards of $40 million worth of their 2022 payroll on these two? That depends on how good they continue to be, of course. But all indications so far suggest the Jays are gearing up to be big spenders on next winter’s free agent market, and maybe they will prefer not to impede that strategy. Maybe they simply make qualifying offers to both, expecting that they’ll get rejected, and let them test the market for a while before circling back. If either signs elsewhere in the meantime, the Jays would at least get some form of draft pick compensation back.

With guys like Alek Manoah and Simeon Woods Richardson — who we learned this week will be assigned to Triple-A Buffalo/Trenton and Double-A New Hampshire to start the 2021 minor league season respectively — on the cusp, several young big leaguers who will presumably still be in the mix for rotation spots, and money to play the market, that would be my guess as to how it goes. The Jays aren’t above surprising us by acting early, but they seem equally comfortable waiting the market out, too. We saw this winter how a number of mid-tier free agents ended up waiting to sign until after Trevor Bauer’s deal with the Dodgers was complete, which should give the Jays confidence that talent will still be available should they still need to find it after some of the bigger names are off the board.

Matz and Ray may be exactly the kind of guys still available at that point. And though there is obviously a good working relationship between both those guys and the Jays, which might impel them to lock them up early on, we saw this winter in the case of Taijuan Walker that the Jays don’t always think like that. A lot of factors need to be balanced, so no outcome here would surprise me here, but the way they refused to tie up 2022 payroll this winter tells me that they are very much leaning in the direction of being extremely aggressive and “flexible” next off-season. That could mean decisions Ray and Matz will have to wait.

As for your second question, about dark mode, Substack has some options to customize the look of pages on the web, but the latest info I’ve seen from them says that colour changes won’t carry over into emails “for now.” Ideally dark mode would be something controlled at the user level, as I imagine it would be polarizing if I made a big change like that for everybody. So don’t expect any big changes anytime soon, but I’m definitely happy to hear requests like this and will do my best to accommodate. And I’ll make sure to mention it if Substack does announce some additional options.

Thanks for the great content brother. Just saw Ryu leave the game (last Sunday). Can we call up SWR and Manoah already? Free the kids. Why not? Also paid sick days, we could use some of those too. — Michael Spratt

Thanks for the kind words, man. And you’re absolutely right about the paid sick days. It’s mind blowing, especially in a pandemic, that industry lobbyists have fought — and our worthless leaders have acquiesced — to make sure sick people will continue to come to work and potentially infect their coworkers. I can’t even imagine there’s much of a business case for it, given how productivity is affected by workers being ill. But I suppose it’s not about that as much as it’s about crushing workers from every possible angle. Well, unless they’re rich guys like our premier, who apparently gets to take all the time he needs.

Anyway!

Obviously the Jays didn’t call up Manoah or Woods Richardson in the wake of the injury to Ryu, but I think it’s quite interesting to see where the two of them have landed now that the Jays’ various minor league assignments are being announced. As mentioned above, Woods Richardson will start the season with Double-A New Hampshire, despite the fact that he’s only pitched six times at High-A.

Manoah's jump is even more impressive, going from Low-A Vancouver in 2019 to Triple-A Buffalo/Trenton to start this season.

While Woods Richardson is a strong prospect, and listed above Manoah on several lists, obviously Manoah has impressed the Jays a ton behind closed doors over the last year. Fans got a glimpse of what he's become this spring and couldn't help but come away incredibly impressed, too.

Clearly he is farther along than a lot of people have been willing to believe to this point, and can help sooner that expected. Though clearly the Jays don’t feel it’s time for that just yet.

Still, it’s worth remembering that, despite his scant pro track record, Manoah was drafted out of college and so at age 23 is quite a bit older than the 20-year-old Woods Richardson. Amazingly, that also means he’s older than Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

I wrote about “The Manoah Question” in a piece early last week, noting that back in 2019 he threw 125 1/3 innings, provided you count what he did at West Virginia along with his brief appearance in Vancouver that year. That’s more of a workload than Nate Pearson has managed in any season to this point. My sense is that the people insisting that the Jays were going to be ultra careful with him have generally missed that point, and his placement at Triple-A seems to reinforce that.

I also shared this March quote from Ross Atkins in my piece last week, which I think is still deliciously relevant.

“His stuff would play, obviously, he just punched out seven in three innings against a pretty good team. It's more how do we put him in a position to go out there for six to eight innings, for 20 to 30 starts, year in and year out, and make sure that we're not having to take a sideways step or, worse case scenario, a backwards step. But he can, based on his effectiveness, and based on how his minor league development goes, a lot of that progress and workload development can be in the major leagues — as we've started that process with Nate Pearson — so yes, he can speed up that timeline. He can absolutely do that.”

As much as I like to joke that they should do so, I don’t think the Jays are going to force Manoah into the mix. But it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he just naturally put himself into that position very soon anyway.

Hey, and while we’re here, let’s take a look at some of those minor league assignments I’ve been talking about:

Shi Davidi @ShiDavidi

Blue Jays minor-league teams broke camp yesterday ahead of season next week. Double-A New Hampshire is stacked. Some notable assignments: Triple-A Buffalo: Alek Manoah, Riley Adams Double-A: Austin Martin, Jordan Groshans, Simeon Woods Richardson, Gabriel Moreno, Otto Lopez

Shi Davidi @ShiDavidi

Advanced-A Vancouver: Adam Kloffenstein, C.J. Van Eyk Low-A Dunedin: Orelvis Martinez, Miguel Hiraldo, Leo Jimenez, Yosver Zulueta, Zach Britton Eric Pardinho has had a few setbacks building back up from TJ and is a few weeks behind. Could land in Vancouver once ready.

With the Jays moving to Buffalo at some point, do you think the players at the alternate site will move north too? If they’re going north, any thoughts on where they might play? — Byngski

I wrote a little about MLB’s dilemma regarding alternate sites last week, after Ben Wagner talked about it on Sportsnet’s Writers Bloc. At the time it sounded as though there was a movement among teams to continue operating their alternate sites, and to potentially even delay the start of certain minor league seasons, or to hold back priority prospects in order to continue to have them working out at team facilities rather than riding buses in far flung minor league cities. At the time you wrote this question, things were definitely still up in the air. However, with the recent announcement of all those minor league assignments I mentioned above, it would appear as though the alt-sites are more or less about to be finished for the year.

That doesn’t mean we’ve heard the last of the “development camp” approach. Far from it. Teams see a lot of value in these setups. As Wagner explained, “You're basically in a data camp where everything is looked at from nutrition, from sports science, from the number of throws that are made.”

My sense has been that, though folks like Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro are careful not to say it, a big part of MLB’s massive minor league restructuring effort has been about moving toward more use of this model for top prospect development. The way it’s paid dividends already for players like Manoah or Alejandro Kirk tells you why. But with top prospects now being moved to clubs’ various minor league levels for the start of the 2021 MiLB season, clearly we’re not there yet.

Do you have the sense that team management (unlike many fans) still see this season less as “win now” and more as “see what we’ve got” in Bichette, Biggio, Tellez, etc. to guide acquisition decisions at trade deadline and off-season for the middle-to-long term? Notably, Bo as SS is an elite batter; as 2B still very good but not top-of-class. Recipe for more patience than fans will be comfortable with? — Charles Campbell

Well, first of all I would dispute the idea that Bichette wouldn’t still be an elite bat as a second baseman. But otherwise I mostly agree with what you’re saying here. However, I think it’s important to add that I don’t think that’s necessarily because of anything about the 2021 Blue Jays themselves. Rather, I think Shapiro and Atkins’ bar for being full-on in “win now” mode is very high, and that they’re always going to be looking to strike a balance between the now and the future. Some years it may tilt more one way than others, and at certain times of the year it may tilt differently as well.

Isn’t the old idea that you have two months of the season to see what you’ve got, two months to fix it, and then two months to make your push? Is that from Moneyball? I can’t remember. But I know I didn’t make it up, and I think it’s just about right. I wouldn’t expect the Jays to be running the team like it’s late September here in early May any more than I’d expect them to be running the team like it’s early May in late September. Though, as we’ve seen in the days since you posed this question, Rowdy Tellez didn’t even have that long.

The way I see it is that you don’t go and pay Hyun Jin Ryu $80 million if you’re not at least a little bit win-now, and you certainly don’t pay George Springer $150 million if you’re not thinking win-now, but never — or at least rarely — will it be win now over everything. I think they’ll be aggressive at the trade deadline if it makes sense, and that there absolutely could come a time where Bichette gets asked to move, but that they could pull back and hold their best trade chips and keep evaluating a little bit too.

What happens on the field will dictate all that. So will the fact that they have a lot of good years still ahead of them. If there are fans — and I’m certainly not accusing you of this, Charles — who think not making rash decisions in April means they’re not win-now, I’m not sure what to tell them except that it doesn’t really work that way.

For a lot of the young players — even though the Jays are transitioning to a more “win now” mentality as they continue to build — I don't have much problem with continued growing pains, as painful as they are in-game, like defensive miscues. For example, leaving Bichette at shortstop and Gurriel in left field makes sense to me for at least another year or more, as there is a history of great young hitters being bad defensively their first few years in the majors, but end up being quite good (Semien himself for example). But I also like that when they know someone probably can't last somewhere, they move them, like Guerrero, despite impacting a potential bat and lineup spot for Tellez and leaving a hole at third. Leave the guys with potential at a stretch position until there is a clear cut better long term solution.

This is my long-winded way of asking, since I like Biggio as a player but am realistic about his best uses, how much better could the team be right now by putting Semien at third and Biggio back at second, without impacting any long term plans? Would there not be a near automatic boost? — Mister MEH

I’m going to pair this question with the next one because, as you’ll see, they’re connected.

I'm not saying we should put Semien at third, but it's clearly an option. The consensus seems to be that when given a choice of where to play, he took second, end of story. But he's GETTING PAID 18 MILLION DOLLARS! Surely he could not say no if they put him over there and Biggio back to second? — OzRob

I think there’s no question that the Jays would be better with Marcus Semien at third base and Cavan Biggio, or whoever else, at second base instead. But I think we need to be careful not to overstate how dramatically things would improve. You’d be losing Semien’s range and quickness at second base in order to get his arm at third, which would be a net positive, but maybe not a massive one. Assuming, that is, that Biggio isn’t quite as awful at third as he’s happened to look for most of this season so far.

I’m aware that the numbers the metrics have been spitting out are ugly, but I’m not even going to quote any numbers here because we’re talking about a sample of less than 200 innings for his whole career. That’s basically nothing. The eye test hasn’t been good either, and I’ve never been enamored of him at third, but his hand troubles have clearly affected some of his throws, and I don’t think the misplays are necessarily going to become chronic. It’s easy to forget the Jonathan Villar era, but we are really not so far removed from watching a Jays team down the stretch last year where Biggio appeared to be the only one out there with a lick of baseball sense. I’ve been hard on him lately regarding his bat, but he’s a good player who has shown an ability to overcome low expectations.

If Biggio going forward is going to be the same Biggio as we’ve seen this first month of the 2021 season, yeah that’s a problem. For now I’m OK believing that’s not going to be the case.

That doesn’t change the fact that the Jays would still be better off with Semien at third, but asking him to move isn’t simple, no matter how many capital letters we use to type out his salary. Clearly Semien’s decision to sign with the Jays was conditional on playing second base, which is presumably because he didn’t want to get pigeonholed as a corner guy when he returns to the free agent market after the pillow contract the Jays gave him. To agree to that, and to have him put in all the work that he did over the winter to get ready to be a second baseman, only to then try and move him to third after a month would not just be a bad move for the Jays’ relationship with Semien but how they’re viewed by other agents and free agent players.

If the request was to move to shortstop, I imagine that would be different. If the request comes a month, or two or three months from now, maybe that would be different too. If it’s initiated by Semien himself, giddy up. But that shouldn’t be on him, and as a guy on a one-year deal, he’s got every right to look out for what’s best for his career. Which isn’t at all to say he’s being selfish, it’s to explain why the Jays ought to be reluctant to put him in that position.

Of course, there is actually a rather elegant solution to all this. Rather than flipping Biggio and Semien permanently, why not flip them throughout each game depending on whether the batter hits from the left or right side? With right-handers at the plate you play Semien at third, when it’s a lefty or a double-play situation, you move him to second.

Wait, did I say elegant? I meant galaxy brained. Still though!

Better still, with the Jays position players all suddenly healthy, maybe they can sacrifice a little offence (and Biggio’s lefty bat) and have Santiago Espinal at third more regularly. It sure feels better with him out there, doesn’t it?

If we assume that the defensive numbers for Bo and Cavan remain steady (I know they won’t) how long is the leash on either of them before a more permanent change occurs? Do we see Espinal at third by Mid-May or see Bo and Semien swap positions sometime in June? Curious your take on how long they remain accepting of the learning curve. — Scott

I don’t know if the Jays themselves could even answer that, to be honest. It really depends on how bad it gets and for how long. Hopefully we don’t have to find out!

We’ve at least seen that Biggio playing at third isn’t a given. He’s been in right field in five of the seven games he’s started since taking a ball off the hand in Kansas City a couple weeks back. But with both George Springer and Teoscar Hernández now healthy, the outfield is likely not an option for him anymore. We’ll see him at third, I’m sure, but at least it seems as though his ability to play the position adequately will dictate whether or not he’s out there.

Bichette is trickier. As I wrote last week, I think that for a lot of reasons it will be hard for them to move him off of short and then try to move him back next spring, so if they’re going to do it at some point this year, it’s probably going to have to be permanent. That’s a much tougher conversation to have, fortunately, even though it’s been a rough few weeks, I think Bichette is capable enough to ensure we avoid it. He’s certainly looked better in the few games since your question was written.

I have no doubts that the Jays will do something drastic if they feel they have to though. In that piece last week I noted a quote from Ross Atkins where he praised Marcus Semien’s ability to play multiple positions and called it part of the appeal of signing him. Atkins isn’t blind, he’s just more patient than most of us.

Thanks as always for the great coverage on the season so far. I definitely agree that the Jays committed to Bo at shortstop, and thus they have to be patient with him there, despite his poor defence at the position to start his career. I actually wish they had the same approach with Vlad at third, though I understand moving him to 1st and he’s looked so great at the plate that I doubt they start experimenting with him now outside of a couple innings here and there. All that leads to my question - what’s your best guess as to what happens at third base this season? I feel for Biggio because it’s a new position for him too, but it’s hard to live with poor defence and poor hitting at that spot. I believe there were red flags on his hitting coming into the year too. Unless there’s a trade, the only internal options seem to be leave Biggio, try Vlad, or try Semien? Cheers! — Julian

I hear where you’re coming from about Vlad, and there’s a part of me that would love to see them let him try it. But this goes back to what I was saying above about balancing the future and the win-now. If this was a year with lower overall expectations he might be getting a good run at third just to see if he could make it stick for a few years longer. Right now I think he’s way too far into “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” territory. Plus, I also love Vlad as the chatty first baseman and am very ready to watch that for the next 20 years.

So what do they do at third? If I was betting, I’d say that Biggio remains the guy until the trade deadline. As I said above, I’d personally like to see Espinal eat into a lot of his playing time, but the lineup is already so right-handed, and there’s really nowhere else for Biggio to go, so realistically that’s tough to see.

Yeah, it’s easy to pick on his start to the year, and to worry about some of the underlying numbers, but in no way should the Jays be giving up on a guy who has made his skillset work quite well thus far in his career. Still, I think a trade for a rental is, eventually, a definite possibility.

Of course, if Austin Martin or Jordan Groshans want to mash their way up from Double-A, that would work too. But that’s asking a lot just yet.

Hi Andrew, I know it’s early, but are Montoyo’s managerial decisions looking as suspect as Bichette’s fielding at shortstop? The bunt calls, “pinch hitting for the wrong catcher,” etc. There’s a lot of banter about Bo’s future at short, is it fair to question Montoyo’s future at his position as well? — Andrew.p

The Jays love Charlie and clearly think that the good we don’t see outweighs the bad that we do. I just don’t see anything that would indicate there’s appetite for a change there at all.

I do get where fans are coming from on this though. If it’s going to take him being outmanaged in high stakes situations over multiple September and October series before they start thinking of doing something about it they could just… not wait for that to happen. But his experience and open-mindedness are hugely valuable. Plus, the players seem to love playing for him and everybody seems to genuinely like being around him, and that counts for a lot. It should count for a lot.

Loving your writing this year Stoeten. Only suggestion for an improvement is to replace "But first, please briefly indulge me while I attempt to make a living" with a jazzier "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs" type campaign. "I'm bat-shit and doing flips for The Batflip!" or something. I dunno, you work it out.

My question sort of pulls together all the gripes so far this year (pitcher usage, lineup construction, two-strike bunting, the recent pinch hitting for the wrong catcher, whatever else people want to complain about) and the role of the "modern manager"/Charlie Montoyo. I find myself annoyed when decisions seem off, yet early last year when the Jays seemed to love blowing games in a short year and doing things like giving pitchers their first taste of real MLB ball in the 10th inning with a runner plopped on 2nd, the name used in vain was Charlie's. Partly because of your writing on this topic, and probably also because of last year ending up being a success in my eyes, I don't direct annoyance or blame his way as much. But I can't help but consider there is more to it. Do you think there is an actual strategy at play within the Jays front office and coaching setup to deflect or lessen outrage towards the manager and others (including players)? Is all the double-talk and corporate verbiage actually for a good cause? Is there a positive mental health approach at play? In a market like Toronto this seems like something that may actually benefit a team and allow players to grow and a positive culture to manifest. I also may be reading too much into it though and it is just a case of general optimism around a young team that seems headed in the right direction as opposed to a written-down action plan of some kind. — Paddy Watson

Thanks for the kind words man. I may not go with your exact suggestion for jazzing up the preamble, but I’m definitely thinking I need to change it up every so often just to make sure people don’t gloss over it. Your boy’s gotta eat! (And he’d really rather not have to start putting things behind the paywall to encourage more paid sign-ups.)

As for your question, it’s a really good one, though I can only just guess at the answer.

For starters, it’s definitely noticeable that shift from the manager as “field general” to him being viewed as more of a middle management type, and to the management-by-committee approach, has had the effect of making the source of decisions more nebulous. Was Charlie giving Vladimir Guerrero Jr. too many days off in his rookie season, or was it the dreaded algorithm? Did the manager really choose to lift Matt Shoemaker after three excellent innings in game one of last year’s wild card series, or was he following a tightly scripted game plan imposed from on high?

Ross Atkins is always clear that decisions are ultimately the manager’s, but the fact that no one really believes him helps that uncertainty function like a lightning rod. That’s more a side benefit to those changes in the game than it is by design though.

But I think you’re on to something when it comes to Atkins’ jargon-y flourishes, which I imagine are a consequence of the care he takes when on the record to avoid sending any unapproved messages — a category that, for the Blue Jays, all forms of negativity generally fall into. (Though I haven’t quite yet ruled out that he’s just basically the guy from this Kids in the Hall sketch.)

Obviously there are other practical reasons for a GM or a manager to watch what they say so as not to accidentally lob any rhetorical grenades into the clubhouse, but these Jays do seem to be especially sunny, and especially aware of all this. They don’t just try their utmost to avoid speaking in negative terms about their players, they seem to never want to admit anything about anything until they absolutely have to — occasionally to the point of absurdity. (Like, who is being protected by making the fact that Hyun Jin Ryu was going to get the start on opening day some kind of state secret?)

Clearly they’re believers in keeping things positive, and Montoyo’s relentlessly upbeat personality folds into that extremely well. I don’t think that is at all the only reason he’s here, just like I don’t think the way that they communicate about their players is singularly about any one thing. Or, if it is, it’s about showing them respect as professionals and as people, not blowing smoke up their asses. But by their own admission this is an organization that thinks a lot about culture, and I don’t imagine anything they do on that front is by accident.

Hi Andrew. Love everything you write. Keep it up!! Also, is having a balanced lineup a little overrated? For instance, wouldn’t a manager prefer to have a lineup of 9 good right handed hitters than 6 or 7 good right handed hitters and 2-3 not so good left handed hitters? — Steve D.

Thanks so much for the kind words man! I think you’re right about this, though obviously we’re talking in pretty general terms here. Lineup construction is always going to require compromises, and although an ideal lineup would probably be well balanced between righty and lefty hitters, there’s no reason all right-handed bats can’t be a team’s best option.

Hey Andrew, do you think Dolis pitches at such a slow pace because he thinks it puts himself at a competitive advantage? Like he’s trying to lull the opposition to sleep? — Ron

I heard Kevin Barker suggest exactly that on a recent edition of the Fan 590’s Blue Jays Talk, and I’m not even sure he was joking. Though Dolis definitely does put me to sleep, I don’t imagine that’s the strategy. Maybe! But I’d guess that his agonizingly slow pace is more likely about something else.

Rob Arthur of FiveThirtyEight looked at the impact of pace on a pitcher’s velocity back in 2017, and found that there is a correlation.

“In terms of baseball’s most valuable currency — fastball velocity — pitchers do benefit from a slower pace of delivery. I found this using a model that compared every pitch to the pitcher’s own average velocity, while normalizing for the count and number of pitches he had thrown in the game,” Arthur wrote.

“Because I adjusted for every pitcher’s own typical velocity, this pattern isn’t just caused by a bunch of slow-pitching, hard-throwing relievers,” he added. “Instead, pitchers truly seem to gain velocity by waiting longer to deliver the ball. For every additional second they spend (up to 20 seconds), pitchers throw about .02 miles per hour harder.”

If Dolis’s slow pace is deliberate, I’d think this would be closer to the reason why.

Andrew, I so look forward to receiving your (almost) daily blog. Your research on topics Blue Jays is very impressive. I do have a question about Charlie's/Pete's strategy. The pen has been, on the whole, very strong. However, I do worry that they are wearing out the relievers by too frequent use of players. There are times when they can't use certain relievers because they pitched the day before. As one example of many, the other day Payamps pitched to three batters and only allowed an infield hit. Yet, he was replaced by Castro, another righty. Seems to me that Charlie/Pete could stay longer with certain relievers which would be better in the short term and long term. — Paul

Thanks so much for the kind words, Paul! I think you’re right, that there are definitely times when the Jays appear as though they could get more out of their relievers, or when they seem to get them up just to sit them down. But there are a lot of factors that go into those calls, many of which we aren’t privy to.

That’s a bit of a cop out, and definitely fits with what I was saying above about certain changes to the game making it easier for legitimate criticism to be deflected, but I don’t think that can be avoided here. The Jays are very cognizant of matchups (except when they bizarrely aren’t), and of fatigue units, and they’re definitely using their whole 40-man roster to help lessen the load across the bullpen. Payamps, Travis Bergen, and Ty Tice are here to soak up lower leverage innings right now, but Anthony Kay, T.J. Zeuch, and the newly acquired Jeremy Beasley could end up rotated into those spots at some point.

Taking a very superficial look at some numbers, the Jays bullpen is in the middle of the pack so far this year in terms of number of pitches thrown, and the 15 relievers they’ve used is slightly higher number than average. So they’re spreading the workload out better than most, I guess? It’s hard to really draw strong conclusions. But I wouldn’t be too concerned, to be honest.

As we deal with all manner of fuckery in the name of... something (seven-inning games, runner on second in extras, etcetera), the notion that we are still watching human interpretations of The Strike Zone is beyond absurd; it’s insulting. Technology improves exponentially, regularly, yet we are still watching these assholes blow calls and then sometimes sorta maybe try to “make up” for them. It’s not what we paid for. Who, exactly, is standing in the way of the robots? And how did they get so much juice? — HighJaysFan

It really feels like umpires have somehow been worse than usual so far this season, and in recent years, doesn’t it? Still, I must admit that there’s part of me that finds it a bit romantic that pitchers aren’t actually throwing the ball toward a real-world space as much as they’re aiming for an idea. But that usually goes away after like two egregious calls — which, these days, means it only takes about an inning.

We’re hardly the only ones who have noticed.

Coach Trev / Gary Sanchez’s Ex Hitting Coach @trevorplouffe

I like most umpires. I really do. But they aren’t held accountable at all and have as much job protection as a Supreme Court justice.

Josh Donaldson @BringerOfRain20

@trevorplouffe It’s embarrassing. It’s tough to watch any game. I don’t know why this is so hard to understand. This isn’t high school where you can say that’s too close to take. As a MLB hitter our job is to take close pitches that are out of zone.

It must be said at this point that most MLB umps really are quite good and get the vast majority of calls right. Umpiring is an incredibly hard job, and only getting more difficult as pitchers throw harder and with more movement. It’s also a job that’s more open to scrutiny than ever because we’re all seeing precise locations on our TV screens with every pitch. Which, I guess, is exactly your point. The technology is obviously ready. And the league is moving toward a day where we’ll actually see it, just maybe not as quickly as we’d like.

“Teams in the low-A Southeast league -- previously the Florida State League -- will use ABS (automated ball-strike system) in ‘select games’ with hopes of determining ‘the optimal strike zone for the system,’” explained Jeff Passan of ESPN back in March, when MLB announced various rule experiments in its partner leagues. “The electronic system, which was used in the Arizona Fall League and independent Atlantic League in 2019, will undergo a change: Instead of using a three-dimensional zone that covers the entire plate, it will call balls and strikes based on a two-dimensional plane at the front of the plate.”

This is all able to happen, it would seem, because the five-year contract between MLB and the umpires union that was signed in December 2019 gave the green light to cooperation “in the development and testing of an automated ball-strike system,” according to an AP report.

So it’s likely coming, but we’re still sort of in the early days.

SSS obviously, but what do you think about Ryan Borucki as a starter? He was great in 2018 then injuries derailed him. Asides from the time it would take to stretch him out, is there something I'm missing here? — Jeffrey K

I’m honestly not sure if the substantial velocity gain Borucki has had since moving to the bullpen is entirely because he’s able to go all-out when working in short bursts, but I’m sure it has a lot to do with it. (Borucki's fastball averaged 91.5 mph during his rookie season as a starter back in 2018; this year he's up to 95.7). Then there's the durability factor. Borucki had Tommy John surgery back in 2012, and as you note he lost just about all of 2019 due to elbow issues as well. Add in the fact that he seems to have really taken to the bullpen, and I think we should be very happy that he’s turned into a genuine weapon back there. If it ain’t broke…

Every year there appears to be lots of movement in the Jays’ minor league coaching ranks — not indicative of an ability to “attract and retain” the best management personnel. What are the secrets of success in Oakland and TB, as they generally succeed with low budgets/lower draft picks/few big signings? — Rico

First of all, thanks so much for the question, Rico. I edited what you wrote a bit because I’m running short on space, but it’s a great question and I really appreciate it. I wish I had a better answer for you, but there are 28 teams out there trying to figure out what makes organizations like the Rays and A’s so successful, and if I knew I wouldn’t be here writing blogs on the internet. I tend to think that the Rays, in particular, benefit from their total lack of interest in pleasing their fans, but that’s far from the whole story.

As for the Jays’ coaching turnover, I don’t think they’re unusual in that regard, and I just think it’s tough to retain talent if you don’t have a path for someone to advance to the majors. The Jays do have guys on their big league staff — Pete Walker, Luis Rivera, Guillermo Martinez, John Schneider — who started in their system as minor league coaches, which I think is a sign of the pipeline working well.

Firstly, let me tell you there's a buzz of excitement when your articles hit my inbox. At the very least, you provide a longer read than others as well as exceptional quality.

So here's what's been bugging me since the Jays acquired him...the pronunciation of Marcus Semien's name. Everyone, even the great Dan Shulman, pronounce it like the scientific word for ape, simian. But it's spelled like I think it should be said, SEMI-EN. I've heard it said that way by some broadcasters but figure if Shulman's saying it the way I think must be wrong, he's probably right. How do you say it? -- BobTV

Thanks so much for the kind words, Bob. Appreciate it!

This is a great question, though I regret to inform you that you’re right. Right about being wrong, that is. The Jays don’t appear to have an official pronunciation guide available online for 2021 like some other teams do, but this info is made available to the media and can always be found at Baseball-Reference.com, where Semien’s page gives us this pronunciation: SIH-mee-ehn.

So there you have it.

Now, if you ask me, I don’t think it’s too much to ask to have every team produce pronunciation and spelling guides for their big league players, as well as everyone throughout their minor league systems. But I’d settle just for someone slipping Pat Tabler a piece of paper emphasizing that Charlie Montoyo’s last name ends with an “O” and not an “A.” (Buck’s delightful mispronunciations, like “Teoscarnandez,” must never be corrected however.)