Three up: Jays @ Phillies (3/19/22)
The first televised (fake) Blue Jays game of 2022 is in the books!
Televised Blue Jays baseball is back on the air! And so what better time that to start a season full of what I hope will be much more frequent — albeit shorter — recaps of Jays games.
Now, now, don’t get me wrong here about frequency. I can assure you right now that I won’t end up recapping every single one this spring — or, if we’re being honest, all 162 of the regular season. But I definitely want to do things differently than I did last year, when I feel like too often I ended up looking back at whole series, which meant spending a lot of time writing about games and details after they had already become stale and memory-holed by just everybody else.
I’m not sure what exactly the format will end up looking like — I’m certainly welcome to suggestions — but my hope is to work out a system where I can bang these out in such way as to quickly cover the key details of a game but not overextend myself so that I can still write and do other things (mail bags, podcasts, one-offs, perhaps the return of the “Afternoon Snack”) on weekdays a little more often. I’m sure that will work itself out over time. I guess it’s spring training for me a little bit, too.
More importantly, though, it’s spring training for the Blue Jays! They played a game against the Phillies! We could all watch it on our TV’s!
So let’s talk about it!
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The Blue Jays and the Philles played a game on Saturday afternoon. The score didn’t matter. The winner didn’t matter. The most interesting stuff early on, when big leaguers were on the field. It was glorious.
Up: Vladdy starts his year with a dong!
Well this was certainly a treat. In the bottom of the first inning, in his first bat of the spring, facing Phillies ace Aaron Nola, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. blasted an 0-2 change to to left field for a no-doubt home run.
Mid-season form for Vladdy already! And his teammates certainly seem to believe that he was right the other day when he said “last year was a trailer, now you guys will see the movie.”
Fans, too.
Thank you, Alex!
Up: Orelvis Martinez
Possibly even more impressive than Vlad’s was the home run that the Jays hit an inning later, which came off the bat of prospect Orelvis Martinez. Not only did the 20-year-old take Nola deep, he did so after laying off a tough 1-2 changeup before getting a mistake to absolutely crush.
Martinez struck out 26.1% of the time in Low-A last season, which is hardly catastrophic — especially as a guy who was one of the youngest in the league — but pitch selection is something he needs to work on. Especially, according to scouting reports, when it comes to offspeed and breaking stuff. Mission accomplished in this one!
Plus, as you can see in the clip above, with two strikes he’s moved away from his rather pronounced leg kick, much like Bo Bichette does. I honestly couldn’t tell you if he was doing that last year, but what I can tell you is that he still has plenty of power without it.
We’ll probably want to pump the brakes on the hype train here a little bit, but after ending last year in High-A Vancouver, there’s a real chance that Martinez finishes up this season in Double-A. That could give him a chance to make his big league debut in 2023 at the age 21. (Provided he’s still in the organization by then! *COUGH* Though apparently that’s unlikely.)
Orelvis hasn’t been immune from some high praise from teammates either, it turns out.
Up: Baseball is back!
I mentioned this in my earlier call for mail bag questions, but it really bears repeating: after years and years of complaining about this from yours truly, and plenty of others, Sportsnet is actually going to air the vast majority of spring training games this year. Sixteen out of 18! A whopping 88%!
It’s about damn time, so I can’t give Rogers too much credit here. But oh boy, let’s go!!!
They also will have a radio broadcast this year, with the great Ben Wagner back in the booth after his ridiculous exile in favour of a simulcast of the TV booth last season.
I don’t know if Ben will have a partner once the season starts, but it doesn’t appear as though he will in the spring — which is fine, because he can certainly carry a broadcast on his own. He’ll also get some help with pre-and post-game coverage, including a couple games where the great Blake Murphy will also be joined by your boy the Zubes!
It has never made sense that the company that owns the team and owns the TV network did such a bad job of getting spring training games on TV. Hopefully we never go back to the bad old days. And with how exciting this Jays team should be for years to come, I suspect we may not!
Other notes
• Some sloppy defence in this one from the Jays. Pitcher Nick Allgeyer rushed a throw on a dribbler in the first and was charged an error. Mallex Smith butchered a ball in that same inning, which led to a Phillies run (and some commentary from Omar Minaya about his difficulties reading balls off the bat, despite having tremendous speed). Then in the second, Teoscar Hernández incorrectly broke back on a ball in the second, which also cost the Jays a run. Sort of to be expected at this time of the season, but not great for someone like Smith who might (theoretically) be able to force his way into the conversation for a roster spot with a strong spring and some breaks. (Teoscar… well, we’re just kind of used to the odd brain cramp from time to time, aren’t we?)
• Jordan Romano averaged 97.6 mph on his fastball in 2021, which put him in the 97th percentile among pitchers. It’s still too early to worry about anything like this just yet, but here’s something potentially worth monitoring:
• Phillies crew trying to talk themselves into Brad Hand? Lol. Lmao. That’s going to be a fun bullpen again, unless you’re a Phillies fan!
• Ryan Borucki wasn’t helped by a Chavez Young misplay (on a tough play) in centre in the bottom of the seventh, but he allowed a run, is coming off a tough year, is out of options, and just recently saw the Jays add another lefty reliever to the 40-man in the form of Andrew Vasquez. Could be an important camp for him with Tim Mayza, Antony Kay, and Tayler Saucedo also in that mix (and a bunch of right-handers as well).
Up tomorrow: Jays vs. Pirates in Dunedin (Dillon Peters vs. Anthony Kay), 1:07 PM ET, Sportsnet/Sportsnet NOW/Sportsnet Radio Network
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I have exciting news to share: You can now read THE BATFLIP in the new Substack app for iPhone.
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Wow. Perhaps I am just emerging from a coma and hadn’t noticed the app yet, but this is great! Anyhow, looking forward to your coverage this season, Andrew. As far as how to shape it, just make sure it misses enough games for us to trot out the old “daily?!“ jokes...
I didn't believe in love at first sight until I watched that Orelvis AB. I'm ready to let the hype train run me over.