Stray Thoughts... - .500 Up Next?
On Yesavage, Valenzuela, IKF, Chapman, Brendon Little, Yimi García, injury updates, John Schneider, change of scenery weirdos, MLB's dumbest proposal yet, Luis Arraez, Anthony Santander, and more!!!
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The Jays got the job done at Fenway Park on Thursday, now it’s off to baseball’s other cathedral, Wrigley Field, where they’ll face the 39-36 Cubs in three straight mid-afternoon battles of teams tied for the third Wild Card spot in their respective leagues.
The Jays, of course, are not 39-36. They sit at 37-38, thanks only to an incredible two-out, ninth-inning Brandon Valenzuela at-bat against the incredible Aroldis Chapman, who at 38 is as good as ever—better now, even, by ERA than 2016, which of course was the year he served a 30-game suspension for a domestic violence incident in which he allegedly choked and pushed his girlfriend during an argument and then fired off eight bullets while locked in his garage. *COUGH*
ANYWAY! Valenzuela was magnificent, fighting back from a blown strike one call to to fight off a barrage of sinkers and four-seamers touching 100 before smacking an RBI double high off the Green Monster in left field to push the Jays ahead.
Did the double need help from the wind to go as far as it did? Sure.
Did the contact Valenzuela made produce give his batted ball expected batting average of just .010? Yes.
Would it have been a fly out in any other ballpark in the majors? WHO CARES? JAYS WIN, BABY!
And it was a well-deserved win, too. Trey Yesavage pitched his ass off all afternoon, lasting until the eighth inning on a day when the Jays’ bullpen was running on fumes, avoiding walks—an issue that has hurt him repleatedly this season, and especially in two of his last three starts—while producing 16 whiffs. That includes nine whiffs on his slider, which made this his best big league start in terms of whiff rate on the pitch since his storybook playoff debut last October against the Yankees, in which he went 5 1/3 innings without allowing a hit.
Sure, Yesavage almost had his day undone by back-to-back homers from (ugh) Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Caleb Durbin, of all people, to begin his final frame, but they couldn’t undo just how important it was that he was able to give the entire bullpen—save for Tommy Nance, who finished out the eighth, and Mason Fluharty, who picked up the second save of his career—a much needed day off. Before that late hiccup he was absolutely cruising. Encouraging stuff, seeing as he’d allowed 17 runs over his previous four starts.
Hey, and Vladdy actually hit a home run! Springer continued looking good, and is now up to .333/.485/.625 (with three stolen bases!) over his last seven. And the win brought the Jays’ playoff odds to within about a win of its highest mark since April 2nd!
Let’s keep it going!
Now, here are some quick stray thoughts ahead of Friday’s afternoon tilt in Chicago…
Quickly…
• As noted by Sportsnet’s Chris Black, Valenzuela’s nine-pitch plate appearance was the longest anyone has hung in there against Chapman this season. Not bad for a guy who slashed .224/.309/.383 in Triple-A last year!
• Turns out it was a good idea to give Yimi García one more rehab appearance before brining him back into the fold, as he struggled for Buffalo on Thursday, getting just two outs and allowing two runs on three hits, with no strikeouts, while pitching for the first time with just one day off between outings. And now here on Friday we’ve learned, via John Schneider, that García was “a little bit sore” afterwards, and that they’re going to have him pitch for Buffalo again on Sunday.
• Not exactly the kinds of things you want to hear. Those I suppose the fact that Yimi at least seems to be on the cusp of a return is better than if I wasn’t.
• The Jays did make a move in their bullpen prior to today’s game, however, and that was… uh… bringing back Brendon Little.
• The much maligned left-hander pitched to a 2.31 ERA over 23 1/3 innings while down in the minors, striking out an impressive 32 batters over that span. But the walk rate remains crazy high. He issued 19 free passes for Buffalo, only one of which was intentional.
• Worth noting: Little has only issued seven walks since May 8th, a span of 12 2/3 innings in 13 appearances, and only two in his last 7 2/3 innings of work. So that’s progress!
• Also worth noting is the fact Fluharty is the Jays’ only other bullpen lefty at the moment, so having another couldn’t hurt, even if the Cubs aren’t exactly a lefty-heavy team. (Only six teams have sent fewer left-handed hitters to the plate than they have so far this year, though two of their toughest outs—Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch—do hit from the left side.)
• An update via Arden on Daulton Varsho, who I’m guessing is going to be coming for Charles McAdoo’s roster spot in the near future.
• I’m running out of time before the first pitch so I’ll just leave the latest on Shane Bieber to Arden here as well. Sounds like we’ll finally have him back soon!
• Stapling this tweet to the forehead of all the weirdos who’ve convinced themselves that John Schneider is some kind of a terrible manager. (Would still like to see fewer bunts though!)
• Like, could we at least try to be serious?
• I haven’t seen a ton of this, to be honest (though I have done a pretty good job over the years of blocking or muting people who are consistently, annoyingly wrong about everything, so maybe that’s why), but it’s funny to me that a few people really did jump in to say that actually it’s not wild and that the Jays need to concoct some kind of a CBA violation in order to get their most talented player off their roster for a while. Begging the “definition of insanity…” and “needs a change of scenery” people to find some perspective and emotional control!
• I’ve not gone too hard-in on any of the labour talk that’s been rather loudly taking place in the background this season, and that’s for a couple of reasons. One, we’re going to have way, way too much time for labour talk starting on December 1st. And, two, we’re so far out from that deadline that none of the various proposals really mean anything anyway. But MLB’s deeply unserious latest proposal deserves a little attention here. To wit:
• Really interesting and well-researched piece from Close Call Sports on that José Caballero business with the umpires back in the Yankees series last weekend.
• In his latest for the Athletic, Ken Rosenthal goes into some trade speculation regarding the Jays, who he says are believed to have the ability to take on payroll. That sounds good! But, on the other hand, he suggests that they might target a guy like Luis Arraez, which… makes me question basically everything else he’s saying here. “The ideal fit for the Jays is a high-contact average hitter and/or a right-handed hitting outfielder.” Man, what? Sure on the second part, but why do they need more of what they’ve already got? This lineup is desperate for power!
• One way the Jays could add some power, of course, would be with the return of a healthy Anthony Santander. And, back on Thursday, John Schneider suggested that the switch-hitter is making progress in his return from… whatever his ailment was (being shitty?), and targeting an August return. Would love to see it work out well! A healthy Anthony Santander playing like it’s 2024 would be huge for this lineup. But I am not yet holding my breath.
• Aaaand lastly, Jake Bloss averaging 96 on his fastball (it was at 93.6 in 2024) and getting up to four innings for Buffalo the other night? You have my attention.
NOW LET’S GO KICK SOME CUBBIE ASS! DO IT FOR ISMAËL KONÉ! I DON’T KNOW WHAT HE HAS TO DO WITH THIS BUT MAN THAT REALLY BLIGHTED WHAT WAS AN INCREDIBLE DAY FOR CANADIAN SOCCER AND, FRANKLY, I THINK THE CHICAGO CUBS SHOULD PAY FOR THAT! THE FUCKING RICKETTS FAMILY MUST HAVE SOME KIND OF BUSINESS DEALINGS WITH THE QATARIS IN THEIR PROFILE SOMEWHERE, RIGHT??? SURE, LET’S GO WITH THAT.
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I despise the Yankees as much as any other Jays fan but seeing the man that Yankees fans perpetually want fired at the top of that "manager success rate" list got a chuckle out of me for some reason
Yes the Quatari Cubs must pay!