I found the criticism of Mattingly particularly deranged. Firstly, I don’t believe anyone shouting on Twitter (myself occasionally included!) has much of an understanding of his role. And secondly, the guy is incredibly well respected across the game - not some shmuck Ross met in a bar. He’s called Donny Baseball for a reason.
I think the criticism in the playoffs regarding Berrios specifically was that the team WASN'T doing the same thing they were doing all year. Can you recall a regular season game in which a pitcher was going gangbusters and taken out after a mere 60 pitches? What drove many fans insane (myself included) was the sense that the staff was overthinking things, getting too clever by half, rather than using a common sensical eye approach (it's hard for me to believe that Bruce Bochy would have pulled Berrios in that situation).
More broadly, the team didn't score enough runs, so they lost. And that was a recurrent feature all year. Maybe there were some statistical quirks, but you rarely had a sense of a team with an offense firing on all cylinders.
I don't actually mind many of the changes the Jays made. They were all defensible at the time (including the Varsho trade, which might still work out well for Toronto). But the front office might have overcorrected from the previous year.
Perhaps in 2024, we can get a lineup that strikes a happier balance? As painful as this last season was, there's still a good foundation on which to build a great club. Much depends on what they do this offseason.
PS I was happy to see Ross Atkins finally take some responsibility for the team's failures this past season, after that absurdly "tin ear" presser he held in the immediate aftermath.
I found the criticism of Mattingly particularly deranged. Firstly, I don’t believe anyone shouting on Twitter (myself occasionally included!) has much of an understanding of his role. And secondly, the guy is incredibly well respected across the game - not some shmuck Ross met in a bar. He’s called Donny Baseball for a reason.
I think the criticism in the playoffs regarding Berrios specifically was that the team WASN'T doing the same thing they were doing all year. Can you recall a regular season game in which a pitcher was going gangbusters and taken out after a mere 60 pitches? What drove many fans insane (myself included) was the sense that the staff was overthinking things, getting too clever by half, rather than using a common sensical eye approach (it's hard for me to believe that Bruce Bochy would have pulled Berrios in that situation).
More broadly, the team didn't score enough runs, so they lost. And that was a recurrent feature all year. Maybe there were some statistical quirks, but you rarely had a sense of a team with an offense firing on all cylinders.
I don't actually mind many of the changes the Jays made. They were all defensible at the time (including the Varsho trade, which might still work out well for Toronto). But the front office might have overcorrected from the previous year.
Perhaps in 2024, we can get a lineup that strikes a happier balance? As painful as this last season was, there's still a good foundation on which to build a great club. Much depends on what they do this offseason.
PS I was happy to see Ross Atkins finally take some responsibility for the team's failures this past season, after that absurdly "tin ear" presser he held in the immediate aftermath.
Yes. We can and we will.