Three Up: Jays vs. Phillies (3/27/22)
On Yusei Kikuchi and Pete Walker, plus Schneider Speaks!, Teoscar Speaks!, and more!
The Jays played a fake game against the Phillies on a Sunday afternoon as a little appetizer for Canada’s World Cup qualifier against Jamaica. So let’s talk about it!
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The Blue Jays and the Phillies played a game on Sunday afternoon. The score didn’t matter. The winner didn’t matter. Here’s two up and one down.
Down: Yusei Kikuchi
There’s no shame in being taken deep by Bryce Harper, we all know spring training is for working on stuff, and clearly Yusei Kikuchi was always going to be a bit of a project, but there’s no other way to put it than to say that he was bad in this one.
Kikuchi gave up five earned runs on six hits and two walks, served up three home runs, for the second straight outing his velocity was down compared to last season, the average exit velocity on his four-seamer was 101.7 on two fouls and three balls in play, and his changeup (which produced swing-and-miss 39.6% of the time last year; the best of all his pitches) generated no whiffs and no called strikes.
Not great, Bob!
Now, obviously the usual spring caveats apply here. And, like I say, maybe even more so in his case. Plus, his new pitching coach is, uh, going through some stuff at the moment.
Ah, but seriously. The velocity was down 1.5 mph on his cutter and 1.4 on his four-seamer. Not a huge differences, and certainly something that could be attributable to “ramping up” and it being March. It’s also something to keep monitoring going forward.
The idea when Kikuchi signed was that the Jays could potentially wring the same kind of magic out of him as they did Robbie Ray (or Steven Matz). There are definitely similarities there with Ray, including the hard hit balls and the home runs, as Kikuchi (1.55) and Ray (1.54) posted nearly identical HR/9 rates in 2021. And with that in mind, I think it’s important to remember that Ray didn’t come out of the chute fully formed, either. He walked nine batters in his first 10 innings of 2021, and after his start on May 27th, sported a 3.81 ERA and a 5.17 FIP. It’s a process — and for Ray, one that had started six months earlier, when he first joined the Jays at the 2020 trade deadline.
On the day Kikuchi was introduced to the media, Pete Walker said, “We have some ideas and some rationale behind our thoughts. But, right now, I want to get him here, get him comfortable, get him throwing and then maybe give our two cents.”
Maybe a velocity dip changes some of those ideas, but, y’know, it’s March. Let’s not get too concerned about that, or anything else here, just yet.
But yes, it was bad!
Up: Schneider Speaks!
The Jays realigned some of their coaches’ duties over the winter, moving Dave Hudgens from bench coach into a new “hitting strategist” role while promoting John Schneider into the number two role next to Charlie Montoyo. Schneider joined Sportsnet’s TV broadcast in the bottom of the fourth inning on Sunday to talk with Buck Martinez and Joe Siddall about a number of things: his new job, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (who he managed back in 2017 with Double-A New Hampshire), catching prospect Gabriel Moreno (which is fitting because of Schneider’s experience as a catcher and the work he does with that group), and more. Here is, basically, the whole conversation as it happened, with some of my own thoughts thrown in for good maysure!
On Vlad
Asked whether he was surprised by anything about Vlad’s emergence last season, Schneider quickly offered a, “No, not really,” before noting that Vladdy — who was at the plate at the time, having homered once already on the day — “wanted me to tell you that I told him to hit another one right here, so if he does I’m going to look real smart. Just putting that out there real quick.”
He then continued:
“I think watching him the years in the minor leagues, and then 2019 transitioning (to the big leagues) was a little bit of an adjustment period for him, but really last year, the version of him, was almost better than what we saw in the minor leagues. He was just impressive day in and day out. Just really looking to continue that this year, and it’s obviously a real bright future for him.”
Boilerplate stuff, but not untrue!
The conversation then shifted to the joy that Vlad has while playing the game.
“It’s second to none, man. He’s an infectious smile, teammates love him, he brings the energy. He’s kind of the life of the party. But I guess when you’re as good as him baseball is fun every day. So he’s just in the middle of everything, and you’ve got to love coming to the park and seeing that every day.”
Asked about how Vlad has handled his newfound stardom, Schneider gushed:
“Great. He was dealing with it in the minor leagues, it felt like, with people chasing him everywhere that we went. But he’s, for a young kid, I’ve said it a million times, he really does a good job of handling the spotlight and handling all the pressure, and the wants and needs for people off the field, and the attention he has to give to everyone. He’s really unique in the fact that he can do that at such a young age.”
On Vlad’s love of the game:
“He respects it. He’s a young guy, but he’s pretty old school. I’m pretty sure he got that from his father, watching him play throughout the years. He does everything the right way. He posts1 every day, I think he played every game but one last year. And he understands what it means to be a good teammate, he understands how to respect the game and let his play do his talking for him.”
It would be OK if Vlad wasn’t “old school,” but this works too. Give me all the Vlad praise you got! He looks, uh, pretty good already — including when crushing an opposite field bomb in the bottom of the first (to match Harper’s).
José Bautista’s Blue Jays record for home runs in a season is 54. Just putting this here for no reason.
On his new role as bench coach
“It’s offering support and suggestions to Charlie in game. It’s working closely with Pete and him before series and before games on how to construct the lineup and try to take advantage of matchups that we can exploit — whether it’s a pinch hit, pinch run, who to bring in out of the bullpen. Things like that. But mainly it’s just trying to get the guys in the right spot day in and day out, and kind of just working closely with Charlie and understanding the vibe of the team, and kind of seeing where we’re at, and what we need to do a little bit differently (if anything). But the main part is just the day in, day out strategy of how we’re going to beat that opponent.”
A lot of main parts! But seriously, that, to me, sounds a whole lot like what I would have figured Schneider was doing last year as well. Hudgens was, I had always guessed, given the title of bench coach because teams generally don’t let staff leave for lateral moves, so he needed to be given a promotion in order to be pried away from the Houston Astros, though he was really just a hitting coach in disguise the whole time.
Even if I’m not right on that, it was good to hear Schneider formalize some of these things about his role. I know I’ll find that all particularly useful once we start to hear the usual griping about “Charlie’s” lineups and “Charlie’s” bad bullpen decisions. It really is collaborative!2
Schneider went on to discuss his role during the spring.
“Keeping track of who’s playing, how much they’re playing, putting lineups together. But just making sure that everyone’s getting everything they need before the season starts. Working with Gil Kim in kind of designing the practice and the workout for the day, and getting everyone straight for the games. Making sure that everyone’s where they need to be, and getting whatever they need to get, to be ready for the year.”
Asked at the end of the segment whether he got a raise with the new role, he laughed. “I’m not going to say it on air… It’s been a fun spring so far.” He then added, referring to Vlad being upset about having been called out on strikes after a tough battle with Nick Nelson, and the called strikeout of Santiago Espinal that had just happened as he was speaking, “I’ll tell Vladdy that pitch was outside. That one was too. Man, Vic’s ringing everybody up!”
He’ll be a big league manager some day. I have no doubt.
On expectations for 2022
“I think that last year was great, in terms of what we did on the field, especially late in the season. And it was great for the guys to understand how to post every day towards the end, and every game matters. And I think going in, you lose Robbie and you lose Marcus, then you add Gausman and Chapman. Really, I think on paper we look better this year than we did last year, and that’s saying a lot, with the guys that we did lose. So I think the expectation is definitely to be better than we were last year, and the first goal is to get into the postseason. And then hopefully everyone is healthy and performing well, and maybe a deep run.
“That’s definitely the vibe that we’re talking about. We obviously hear the outside chatter from the networks, and stuff like that. There’s a lot of hype around the team, but we’re ready for it. And I think that’s the message Charlie’s been sending to everyone from day one of camp. So hopefully it’s going to be a really exciting year. We’re pumped to get back to Toronto with a full capacity crowd, and having all these guys experience it for the first time. I think it should be really cool. But that’s the goal going in, for sure.”
Yeah. That tracks.
On Gabriel Moreno
OK, so maybe the most interesting stuff we heard in the segment came right at the end, as Schneider couldn’t help but lavish praise on top prospect Gabriel Moreno.
“He’s a special one, man. He can do everything behind the plate and at the plate at the major league level. Right now it’s just getting reps, really. He arrived late with the visa issue. But we’re looking forward to really just seeing him play and continue to develop. Obviously the numbers speak for themselves, last year with what he did offensively, and then carried it over to the Fall League. Really making strides defensively. But he’s as exciting as they come. Really athletic and can do a lot of things on both sides of the ball. So right now it’s just kind of finishing off game planning, and getting to know the staff. That’s going to be a big focus for him when he starts the year — is just getting ready to handle a pitching staff, understanding game plans. A lot like we did with Kirky back in 2020, but it won’t be as much of a crash course.”
With the visa delay and, especially, with three catchers expected to come north with the team already, I can’t imagine that we’ll see Moreno win a job out of camp. But this, uh, doesn’t sound like a guy who will be in the minors much longer, does it?
Schneider went on:
“You never want to say ‘This guy’s a dude,’ or ‘This guy’s not going to make it’ when you see him in the minor leagues, but there’s some pretty telling examples of guys that really have some tools that stand out. You look at Bo and Vladdy in the minors — you don’t just want to count on them being stars in the big leagues, but you can see that they have some elite skills, whether it be offensively or defensively, or both, and that’s kind of what the same thing is for Gabby.”
That’s incredibly high praise. But it’s worth noting that Bichette’s highest prospect rankings (among those displayed on his Baseball-Reference minor league numbers page) were number eight for Baseball America and number 11 for MLB Pipeline heading into 2019. Moreno is number seven for both those publications this year.
Bichette played 56 games in Triple-A that season, in his first taste of the level. Moreno has three games there already, and though this team will be a little easier to make than the awful 2019 Jays (and it will be a little tougher to plug him in as a catcher, given the guys already here and the challenges of the position), he should be coming fairly quickly. This is a monster prospect.
Up: A moment of levity re: Pete Walker
There’s obviously nothing funny about this Pete Walker situation — a reminder for Canadians under the age of 50, doing 82 mph in a 45 mph zone translates in km/h to 130 in a 70 zone, which even on its own is pretty nutty! — and yet… this is actually pretty funny. You can’t make a thing like this up…
If you don’t know why that’s funny, this should fill you in nicely. (You can also watch the video if you want, but it’s not really as funny as the idea.)
But, of course, everything else about this is pretty serious. Walker was back on the bench today with the Jays, and for now that’s not going to change. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet added some details in a piece Sunday afternoon, most notably — at least for my money — the fact that “in Canada, DUI convictions have been punished more severely since 2018,” and that we really don’t know yet whether Walker will have difficulty returning to Toronto early on in the season.
Woof.
Other notes
• Ramel Tapia made his spring debut for the Jays in this one, and though he went 0-for-2 on the day, he made an impression in his first at-bat.
• Tapia is an interesting guy who has some real potential if he could just stop hitting the ball on the ground so much. Could a very advanced Jays organization get more out of him than the weirdo Rockies could? Impossible to say, but it’s an interesting idea at least. And this video — a must watch if you haven’t already — will really hammer the idea home for you.
• Another home run from Josh Palacios? Interesting.
• Nice work from Tayler Saucedo in this one, as he relieved Kikuchi in the fourth with the assignment of facing Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos, and J.T. Realmuto. Those are three excellent hitters, obviously, yet Saucedo struck out Harper (getting three swinging strikes in the process), got Castellanos to put a bad swing on a ball (which he flared to left for a hit), and stuck out Realmuto as well. Those are Saucedo’s footsteps Ryan Borucki is hearing! (Though with Borucki being out of options, he probably still has an edge to emerge as the bullpen’s second lefty.)
• Such a pleasure hearing Joe Siddall as the analyst next to Buck. Going to miss this once the regular season starts.
• Speaking of Siddall, he mentioned that he saw Yimi Garcia throw at the Player Development Complex earlier on Sunday and came away very impressed. He wasn’t the only one, as Charlie Montoyo told reporters, including Ben Nicholson-Smith, that Garcia could get save opportunities this year when Jordan Romano isn’t available. Like Gabriel Moreno, Garcia is just arriving in camp because of visa issues. He’s expected to get into game action soon.
• As I mentioned yesterday, I haven’t forgotten about your mail bag questions! Feel free to submit some more if you’ve got them. I’ll be getting to this early next week!
• Lastly, WORLD CUP LET’S GOOOOOOO!
Next up: Monday: Jays @ Braves in North Port (Shaun Anderson vs. Spencer Strider), TV: Sportsnet, Radio: MLB.com
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I can only assume this means post-game workout.
I’m not going to transcribe the whole interview that Teoscar had during the bottom of the seventh, but since we’re on the topic of Charlie, I thought I should add something he said that was relevant to my point here — and the overall point that a whole lot of what Charlie does well and that makes him valuable isn’t seen by the public that’s so keen to dislike him because of strategy. Asked about what Montoyo means to him and his teammates as their manager, particularly with expectations now so high, he responded:
“I don’t really see Charlie as my manager, I just look at him as one of my mentors. And the team, his part of the thing, I don’t see that many managers having the relationship that he has with us as a player.”