The Blue Jays are playing four night games this week, with the aim of helping players’ eyes adjust to playing under the lights and, presumably, to make sure everything is good to go at TD Ballpark for when the games begin to count.
Hey Andrew, I was just wondering what the service time implications would be if Kirk makes the team out of camp? I hope he breaks camp with the team, the best players should, but if the team keeps him in the minors for the first few weeks, would they get postpone his free agency another year?
How long of a leash will the “Diesel engine” Roark get? Charlie can’t go get him in the 1st and then put him back in the 2nd once bullets start to fly. Sadly he feels like a $12 million dollar Sam Gaviglio. Only good for mop up.
Hey Stoeten, I’ve noticed your support for banning “the shift” on Twitter. I’ve always appreciated your insight and would love to know your full thoughts on why “the shift” is a bad thing. If a player’s swing is so one-dimensional that the defence is better off leaving an entire side of the infield unguarded, shouldn’t the onus be on the hitter to find a way to get on base? Won’t rules about where infielders stand (as I believe they’re trying in AA this season) lead to frustrating challenges? For example, challenges leading to a batter being awarded first base because on video review an infielder had one foot outside the dirt when the pitch was thrown
Hey Stoeten, I've *really* enjoyed your "Shapiro Speaks" and "3 up, 3 down" features this spring. It's been great to get all your analysis and summaries in my inbox, and I'm happy to be a subscriber.
The recent news of Yates’ injury got me thinking about guaranteed contracts in baseball. I assume the Jays are on the hook for paying his entire $5.5 million salary even though he won’t pitch an inning for them. In what scenario will baseball teams rely on insurance companies to pick up the tab? As always, love the work you’re doing.
Still loving what you are doing and look forward seeing new articles dropping in my inbox!
There has been a lot of “Bo can’t play SS” and the usual “Vladdy isn’t a 3B” lately, but I was wondering aren’t these premium positions anyhow? Isn’t the strategy of getting great offensive players to be passable at positions like this the right one? At some point it is diminishing returns and your infield is a sieve, but has to be worth a shot. There are about five guys at each position in the league that are offensive and defensive superstars, because it is really freaking hard to be good at both. At least you can try to teach defence. Because it is easy enough to find Freddy Galvis types with defensive wizardry but a wRC+ around 75. Then the complaint is you have a rally killer/black hole in your lineup instead? Plus - when you need to plug holes, it is a heck of a lot easier to find 1B, 2B and DH’s...
Hi - I am asking you to revisit the SportsNet TV/Radio simulcasting situation - have you seen any plausible explanations for this corporate decision? I am still struggling to understand the thinking behind this. I find it very hard to accept that the cost savings (and/or safety issures) are enough to justify this decision. Knowing that the road TV broadcasts will managed from people's homes and that Ben Wagner is in Florida I am astounded that they will not simply add a dedicated radio feed. My mother has a very jaded opinion that Rogers is hoping to have evidence of a diminished Canadian baseball market in 2020 so that they can justify selling the team to a USA city. I would imagine that given all the pandemic border issues, MLB might be open to having all of its teams located within the USA. Plus think of how attractive this team is right now for the future of MLB and increasing the MLB USA revenues!! Corporations rarely make a decision without a plan, I don't like this potential plan but sadly it makes more sense to me than other things I have read, I am hoping that I may have missed something.
Your post on the Yates injury says that Roster Resource's projects Trent Thornton to make the bullpen. Do you think the Blue Jays' brass are ready to pull the pin on him as a starter? His stuff might play up in the pen. But I was kinda' hoping they'd keep him stretched out as a starter. With Pearson delayed and Hatch injured, might it be more prudent to keep Thornton starting for now, and roll with an AJ Cole type for that last bullpen spot ? [I guess this is a long winded way of asking for your longer-term projection on Thornton.]
Long time, first time. Love your content, keep up the good work.
My question - I have long been a proponent of robo-calls for balls and strikes. I find it so frustrating that a dozen plus potentially game-altering calls per game, which could be made consistently and accurately, are instead left to human judgement. It's impossible for any man to call ~300 pitches correctly each game, let alone when the likes of Angel Hernandez are involved. We have the technology (works well in tennis, for instance) so why not use it to create consistency and fairness? You mentioned last month that you worry about the development of catchers to frame pitches - but if we actually get the call right each time that odd skill would become moot. Please help me understand the other side of this!
The Jays PR team seems hellbent on calling Alejandro Kirk “Captain Kirk” I hate The Star War so how can we convince them to go with Locomotive Kirk, or my preferred name “The Tijuana Tuna Can”
I may be in the minority, but I actually like the depth they've built on the pitching staff; obviously they could fit another ace or two into the rotation if they came upon them, but I feel like this team is reasonably insulated (you can't keep great replacements in AAA for long or they'd be starters somewhere else, etc).
I think the consensus is that the rotation to start the year will be Ryu-Ray-Matz-Roark-Stripling plus Pearson replacing Stripling at some point. Aside from these guys, how would you rank the depth guys that will likely form the AAA rotation for this season? As in, if there are injuries, or someone like Roark gets clobbered a lot and ends up DFA'd, in what order would you bring guys up to replace them as they happen (of course being AAA performance will impact this once the season gets going)?
To begin the season, the likely basis of a AAA/injury 5-man pitching rotation for the Jays could be Nate Pearson, Thomas Hatch, Anthony Kay, Trent Thornton and T.J. Zeuch. I picked that order out of personal preference on how likely I think they are going to matter as starters long-term, but what's the over/under that all five make at least five major league starts each for the Jays this year? (I would take the over for sure if it wasn't for Zeuch.) I'm relatively confident in Ryu, Matz and Ray, I'm somewhat confident that they'll get all of Roark that they can given all the likely innings limits this year, and I think Stripling's a long man again before too long. But even if they're all healthy, there has to be a lot of starts out of 162 those 5 won't cover. Thoughts?
Hey Andrew, I was just wondering what the service time implications would be if Kirk makes the team out of camp? I hope he breaks camp with the team, the best players should, but if the team keeps him in the minors for the first few weeks, would they get postpone his free agency another year?
How long of a leash will the “Diesel engine” Roark get? Charlie can’t go get him in the 1st and then put him back in the 2nd once bullets start to fly. Sadly he feels like a $12 million dollar Sam Gaviglio. Only good for mop up.
Hey Stoeten, I’ve noticed your support for banning “the shift” on Twitter. I’ve always appreciated your insight and would love to know your full thoughts on why “the shift” is a bad thing. If a player’s swing is so one-dimensional that the defence is better off leaving an entire side of the infield unguarded, shouldn’t the onus be on the hitter to find a way to get on base? Won’t rules about where infielders stand (as I believe they’re trying in AA this season) lead to frustrating challenges? For example, challenges leading to a batter being awarded first base because on video review an infielder had one foot outside the dirt when the pitch was thrown
Hey Stoeten, I've *really* enjoyed your "Shapiro Speaks" and "3 up, 3 down" features this spring. It's been great to get all your analysis and summaries in my inbox, and I'm happy to be a subscriber.
No question, just praise. Thanks, and keep it up!
The recent news of Yates’ injury got me thinking about guaranteed contracts in baseball. I assume the Jays are on the hook for paying his entire $5.5 million salary even though he won’t pitch an inning for them. In what scenario will baseball teams rely on insurance companies to pick up the tab? As always, love the work you’re doing.
Still loving what you are doing and look forward seeing new articles dropping in my inbox!
There has been a lot of “Bo can’t play SS” and the usual “Vladdy isn’t a 3B” lately, but I was wondering aren’t these premium positions anyhow? Isn’t the strategy of getting great offensive players to be passable at positions like this the right one? At some point it is diminishing returns and your infield is a sieve, but has to be worth a shot. There are about five guys at each position in the league that are offensive and defensive superstars, because it is really freaking hard to be good at both. At least you can try to teach defence. Because it is easy enough to find Freddy Galvis types with defensive wizardry but a wRC+ around 75. Then the complaint is you have a rally killer/black hole in your lineup instead? Plus - when you need to plug holes, it is a heck of a lot easier to find 1B, 2B and DH’s...
Hi - I am asking you to revisit the SportsNet TV/Radio simulcasting situation - have you seen any plausible explanations for this corporate decision? I am still struggling to understand the thinking behind this. I find it very hard to accept that the cost savings (and/or safety issures) are enough to justify this decision. Knowing that the road TV broadcasts will managed from people's homes and that Ben Wagner is in Florida I am astounded that they will not simply add a dedicated radio feed. My mother has a very jaded opinion that Rogers is hoping to have evidence of a diminished Canadian baseball market in 2020 so that they can justify selling the team to a USA city. I would imagine that given all the pandemic border issues, MLB might be open to having all of its teams located within the USA. Plus think of how attractive this team is right now for the future of MLB and increasing the MLB USA revenues!! Corporations rarely make a decision without a plan, I don't like this potential plan but sadly it makes more sense to me than other things I have read, I am hoping that I may have missed something.
Your post on the Yates injury says that Roster Resource's projects Trent Thornton to make the bullpen. Do you think the Blue Jays' brass are ready to pull the pin on him as a starter? His stuff might play up in the pen. But I was kinda' hoping they'd keep him stretched out as a starter. With Pearson delayed and Hatch injured, might it be more prudent to keep Thornton starting for now, and roll with an AJ Cole type for that last bullpen spot ? [I guess this is a long winded way of asking for your longer-term projection on Thornton.]
Hey Andrew,
Long time, first time. Love your content, keep up the good work.
My question - I have long been a proponent of robo-calls for balls and strikes. I find it so frustrating that a dozen plus potentially game-altering calls per game, which could be made consistently and accurately, are instead left to human judgement. It's impossible for any man to call ~300 pitches correctly each game, let alone when the likes of Angel Hernandez are involved. We have the technology (works well in tennis, for instance) so why not use it to create consistency and fairness? You mentioned last month that you worry about the development of catchers to frame pitches - but if we actually get the call right each time that odd skill would become moot. Please help me understand the other side of this!
Jeff
The Jays PR team seems hellbent on calling Alejandro Kirk “Captain Kirk” I hate The Star War so how can we convince them to go with Locomotive Kirk, or my preferred name “The Tijuana Tuna Can”
I may be in the minority, but I actually like the depth they've built on the pitching staff; obviously they could fit another ace or two into the rotation if they came upon them, but I feel like this team is reasonably insulated (you can't keep great replacements in AAA for long or they'd be starters somewhere else, etc).
I think the consensus is that the rotation to start the year will be Ryu-Ray-Matz-Roark-Stripling plus Pearson replacing Stripling at some point. Aside from these guys, how would you rank the depth guys that will likely form the AAA rotation for this season? As in, if there are injuries, or someone like Roark gets clobbered a lot and ends up DFA'd, in what order would you bring guys up to replace them as they happen (of course being AAA performance will impact this once the season gets going)?
To begin the season, the likely basis of a AAA/injury 5-man pitching rotation for the Jays could be Nate Pearson, Thomas Hatch, Anthony Kay, Trent Thornton and T.J. Zeuch. I picked that order out of personal preference on how likely I think they are going to matter as starters long-term, but what's the over/under that all five make at least five major league starts each for the Jays this year? (I would take the over for sure if it wasn't for Zeuch.) I'm relatively confident in Ryu, Matz and Ray, I'm somewhat confident that they'll get all of Roark that they can given all the likely innings limits this year, and I think Stripling's a long man again before too long. But even if they're all healthy, there has to be a lot of starts out of 162 those 5 won't cover. Thoughts?