Two straight wins!; The Bichette question; the Biggio question; Saturday scuttlebutt; Manoah and minor league intrigue; Atkins Speaks!; More!
Two straight wins!; The Bichette question; the Biggio question; Saturday scuttlebutt; Manoah and minor league intrigue; Atkins Speaks!; More!
The Jays have won two games in a row and are starting to get some bodies back off the injured list. Good times! Let’s talk about it!
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Let’s start off with a quick game of three up, three down for both Wednesday’s win in Boston, and Friday’s win at the Trop
Wednesday: Jays 6 - 3 Red Sox
▲ The bullpen
It wasn’t always easy, and their defenders didn’t make it any easier at times, but allow the Red Sox to only score three times is impressive for anyone, but especially impressive if you’re Trent Thornton, Tommy Milone, David Phelps, Ryan Borucki, Rafael Dolis, Tim Mayza, and Anthony Castro.
OK, maybe at this point Borucki’s excellent work over crucial two innings isn’t a huge surprise. Or Phelps’s. And I do like plenty of those other names (we’ll revisit Castro later on in the Atkins Speaks! section below). But it was clearly a patchwork effort that a banged up pitching staff badly needed. Full credit where it’s due. Especially since the bullpen has been excellent pretty much since day one.
Also, uh, the player in question in this tweet is Tommy Milone. Uh… just as we all expected.
▲ Hits! (And walks!)
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. basically owns an up arrow every time I do one of these now, and in this one he was joined by Bo Bichette, Randal Grichuk, and Marcus Semien in the two-hit club. Credit to Cavan Biggio, too, at least on the offensive side of the ball, for drawing a pair of walks. Even ones off of Garrett Richards count! Though we’ll return to Biggio later.
▲ Stopping the slide
The Jays came into this one having lost three straight and four of five, and were reeling a bit after their ace, Hyun Jin Ryu, had struggled in Tuesday’s loss to the Red Sox. Losing a fourth straight then facing an off day and a trip to the Trop would not have been a good feeling. A much needed win.
▼ A potentially costly throw
The 6-3 final score in this one belies how close and tense it was for much of the night — especially in the eighth inning, when a 4-2 Jays lead was shaved to 4-3, and could have been worse.
With two outs, after already having allowed a home run to Rafael Devers, Rafael Dolis walked Christian Vázquez. He induced a chopper to third from Marwin González that should have ended the inning. It did not.
Biggio’s hand has been banged up, which is surely contributing to his struggles on both sides of the ball. But doesn’t mean the Jays have to keep running him out there when there are multiple better options on the roster.
▼ Rafael Slow-lis
In order to make sure I had everything right about Biggio’s throw before I started writing everything above, I wanted to watch the plays in question again. For some reason I did this by going to MLB.tv’s video archive, clicking on the bottom of the eighth, then using the MLB video player’s 10 second fast forward button to get from the start of the inning until the Biggio play. Conservatively, I had to click that damn button approximately a jillion times. Even when fast-forwarding, Dolis innings are agonizing!
▼ Danny Jansen
Jansen at least managed a walk and a run scored in this one, so maybe this is the wrong game to pick on him. But for his effort his OPS still ended up at .246 following this one — not his on-base percentage, his OPS — and, if we’re being honest, the walk was an absolute gift from Garrett Richards.
I was pretty kind to Jansen in this week’s piece about what the Jays’ early Statcast numbers can tell us, but man, it’s ugly right now.
Friday: Jays 5 - 3 Rays
▲ That first inning
Maybe it’s just because throwing upper-90s fastballs to Cavan Biggio will make anyone look dominant, it immediately looked like it was going to be a long night for Jays hitters in this one. Tyler Glasnow had been on an incredible run to start the season and it didn’t show any signs of stopping… for about two batters.
Bo Bichette battled Glasnow for eight pitches, though he ultimately struck out. But then, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. smacked a 1-0 fastball that squeaked through the defence for a hit up the middle to keep the inning going. Rowdy Tellez, despite getting down 0-2 by taking a pair of called strikes to start his at-bat, turned around a 1-2 offering at 99.9 mph for an RBI double. Randal Grichuk then walked on four pitches, setting up Marcus Semien, who then blasted a three-run home run that would be all the offence the Jays needed.
Those last three guys, in particular, are important. We're talking small samples here, but we might be starting to see signs that they're coming around. Tellez has struck out in just three of his last 24 plate appearances, Semien has posted back-to-back multi-hit games for the first time this season, and Grichuk had faded a bit after his hot start, but now has been on base six times in his last three games, with a pair of home runs to boot.
▲ Steven Matz
Though he came unglued a bit at the start of the fifth inning, allowing a single, walk, and a three-run home run to Randy Arozarena, on the whole he pitched very well once again, and likely would have lasted longer if the fourth and fifth innings hadn't hadn't involved a comedy of errors behind him. (There was also a Joe Panik misplay in the first that could easily have been called an error.)
▲ Gurriel’s arm
I’ve been critical of Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s defence lately, so credit where it’s due: watching him throw lasers from left field to nab foolish runners at the plate is pretty fun.
▼ Rays Trop bullshit
You’re laughing. The Rays play in a garbage dump with magical powers and you’re laughing.
▼ A half inning for Santiago Espinal
Oh, so Santiago Espinal such a good defender on the left side of the infield that he comes on as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning? Hmm. Interesting. Perhaps something to try before the game is nearly thrown away.
Speaking of which…
▼ The left side defence
Of 129 infielders, per Statcast's Outs Above Average, Cavan Biggio ranks 126th at four outs below average, and Bo Bichette ranks 129th at seven outs below average. We know they've been bad. We know Joe Panik is not the answer. But what is?
I definitely don’t think it’s giving up on Biggio and Bichette just yet, especially Bichette.
With Biggio the precedent has already been set that he’s going to move around a lot. They’ve already brought in a better player, Marcus Semien, to replace him at second, and if they’re still in it come the trade deadline, I think there’s a good chance they’ll look to do so again at third. Biggio is a useful player who brings value in a lot of ways, but also a deeply flawed player in other ways. I just don’t think he’s nearly as important to the future of this team as Bichette, and he will probably keep on getting treated as such.
Bichette is a different and more complicated story. He won’t continue to be this bad, but he may not be a shortstop long-term. Frankly, he’s probably not a shortstop long-term. And I think the long-term question is going to have a lot to do with whether the= Jays decide to flip him and Marcus Semien at some point. Because if the Jays decide that, at least for this year, Bo isn’t good enough, I don’t think there will be any going back.
Next winter they’ll need to either re-sign or replace Semien, and if they choose not to bring him back, it seems highly likely that we’ll spend a good chunk of that off-season dreaming on some of the free agent shortstops who are slated to hit the open market: Corey Seager, Carlos Correa, Trevor Story, Javier Báez (provided he figures his own issues out). It will be mighty awkward if Bo ends up back as the shortstop by default next spring after losing his job to Semien this year and enduring a winter of chatter about replacing him there.
Not only would it be awkward, it would put immense pressure on him to instantly show improvement, in a year where expectations will be ratcheted up even higher. I don’t think the Jays would do that to him, which means that at some point this season they’re going to have to make the decision on whether to keep on down this road with him at short or not. That doesn’t mean they have to do so this minute. They made a commitment to Bichette, they’ve had him do a ton of work at short, and they shouldn’t go into making a change lightly. It’s a potentially franchise-altering decision.
Right now, Bichette is making it for them.
And don’t doubt that the Jays are paying attention. During his Zoom session with reporters on Thursday, Jays GM Ross Atkins was asked whether the team is assessing guys like Biggio and Bichette on a week-to-week basis, or if they’re going to get something more like the whole year to show what they can do.
“It's somewhere probably in between those,” Atkins explained. “I don't think we would ever make something black and white and just go day to day on evaluating something that broad. But those guys are exceptionally motivated to win, and they know that defence is a part of it. And that's what we're focused on. We're focused on their process, we're focused on their work. And like I said, we've seen some exceptional plays from both of those guys, and that gives us a lot of confidence. We see the confidence that they have, we see the work that they put in, and that gives us much more than hope, it gives us confidence that we should stick with these positions with those individuals by all means.”
Expressing confidence in Bichette and Biggio was, understandably, Atkins’ stock answer any time issues with the left side defence came up. Still, there seems to be an acknowledgement there that things can’t last like this forever.
I had similar thoughts about what Atkins said when asked about Semien potentially seeing some time at third base.
“He's been incredible at second base, and that's been a positive for us,” Atkins explained. “And again, I'm exceptionally confident that Cavan's going to get better and better at third base. But one of the most attractive things about Marcus was his open-mindedness, his desire to win, and his ability to play all of those positions. It's really been impressive to see how well he's handled second base.”
One interpretation here could be that Atkins is simply acknowledging the fact that the team found appeal Semien’s ability to take over at short in case of an injury to Bichette. The fact that over the winter the Jays almost ended up spending the money they gave to Semien on Michael Brantley suggests that having a replacement for Bichette or Biggio wasn’t necessarily a priority. But it’s not like Atkins is blind. The front office may not be about to make the kind of rash decision about all of this that a lot of fans want them to right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s not also on their minds.
The other Biggio thing!
I really don't want to continually dump on Cavan Biggio, because I definitely do hope he can continue to be a productive offensive player for the Jays. But in having a conversation on Twitter about him prior to Wednesday's game, I realized something that I hadn't articulated well enough in that day's piece on the Jays' hitters and their Statcast data so far this season.
To refresh your memory, here's what Biggio's percentile ranks looked like earlier in the week.
Biggio has an elite eye for balls and strikes. There's no disputing that. But that doesn't necessarily mean he has an elite ability to generate walks. What I mean by that is that walks are a function of where the pitcher throws the ball as much as they are the batter's eye. Now, pitchers aren’t going to simply pump fastballs down the middle at a big league hitter. They’re going to avoid putting the ball where the hitter can hit it well as much as they can, and that’s going to lead to opportunities for a guy with an elite eye like Biggio to get on base. But that doesn’t mean pitchers are always going to throw him just as many strikes as they have been — and the data from Pitch Info (the company run by Harry Pavlidis, who is also the director of R&D at Baseball Prospectus, and Dan Brooks of Brooks Baseball) is starting to indicate that that’s what’s starting to happen. (It must be noted here that other datasets, like from Baseball Info Solutions and the raw Statcast data found at Baseball Savant, don’t show the same thing.)
According to Pitch Info, 49.6% of the pitches Biggio saw in 2019 were in the strike zone. Last year it was 52.1%. So far this season it is 55.8%.
I honestly don’t know the reason for the discrepancy with other tracking systems, but the numbers out of this one certainly pass the smell test. It's harder to take walks when pitchers start finding holes in your swing — the term Joe Siddall used during Tuesday night’s game to describe Biggio’s predicament — or otherwise aren't worried about the kind of damage you’re capable of doing.
Do Biggio’s percentile rankings look like they belong to a guy pitchers are going to keep on being so careful with as to walk him 15% of the time?
I suspect not. Biggio is a real outlier among guys who walk as often as he does. His 15.2% walk rate since the start of 2020 ranks 14th in baseball among qualified hitters. Among the top 50 guys in terms of walk rate he ranks 47th in average exit velocity, 50th in maximum exit velocity, 49th in barrel percentage, and 50th in hard hit percentage. If I'm a pitcher, I'm not afraid of what happens if Biggio gets the bat on the ball in nearly the same way I am for the other guys at the top of that list (the first 13 in order: Bryce Harper, Juan Soto, Christian Yelich, Freddie Freeman, Carlos Santana, Aaron Hicks, Ronald Acuña Jr., Max Muncy, Joey Gallo, Yasmani Grandal, Anthony Rendon, Mike Trout, and Mark Canha).
That’s not to say that I don’t think he can find a way to adjust. He’s done a great job making adjustments so far in his career. But I don’t think we’re seeing that adjustment yet. And with his aching hand and the de-juiced ball already working against him in the power department, I don’t think it makes sense to expect him to continue to produce the same results as he did when he was being challenged less.
Scuttlebutt
As I write this we’re starting to approach game time here on Saturday, which means that — because we’re talking about the Blue Jays and because it’s 2021 — there are a whole lot of injury updates and transaction things to go through. So here they are!
• It does not appear as though George Springer will make his Blue Jays debut this weekend after all. The $150 million centre fielder played in a sim game on Friday and feels fine, according to manager Charlie Montoyo. But when asked if he’d play tomorrow he said that “I don’t think so, to tell you the truth.” He added that they’re “not going to rush him.” The Jays host the Washington Nationals on Tuesday and Wednesday, and you have to think that we’ll finally see him then.
• Springer will play in another sim game tonight. But that he won’t be the only key member of the Blue Jays playing fake baseball:
• In response to Ben’s tweet about Pearson’s alt-site game against the Marlins, I tweeted that the Jays need to start an account like @MsPlayerDev. On it, the Mariners are tweeting out video clips and lineups and box scores of games that their alt-site players are having against other clubs, and all sorts of good stuff like that. More teams should do this! *COUGH*
• Some pre-game transactions here on Friday, in addition to a series of moves made prior to Thursday’s game. We’ll start with the first ones first: On Thursday the Jays optioned Anthony Kay down to their alternate site, and moved Tanner Roark to the Family Medical Emergency List. Tyler Chatwood was activated from the 10-day injured list in order to take one of those spots, and Travis Bergen was recalled from the alt-site to take the other. Bergen's time in the majors was short-lived, however, as the Jays sent him packing back to the alternate site here on Saturday, along with outfielder Josh Palacios. Up in their places are reliever and dunker-of-basketballs Ty Tice, and right-hander Jordan Romano. The Jays bullpen has held it together in Romano's absence (and Chatwood's), but his return is very significant. Let's gooo!
• An actual trade! Earlier this week the Jays acquired right-hander Jeremy Beasley from the Diamondbacks in exchange for cash. The most notable thing about the move was the fact that, in order to make room for Beasley on the 40-man, the Jays moved Thomas Hatch from the 10-day IL to the 60-day. The move was retroactive to the start of the season, meaning that Hatch won't be available until early June at the soonest. That's not too different than our expectations for his return would have been anyway, but you still hate to see it.
As for Beasley, he made one appearance for the Diamondbacks last year. Facing three batters, he allowed two hits and picked up one strikeout. His fastball averaged 91.5, and he also threw a slider (83.4) and a changeup (84.6). He started 25 games in 2019 in the Angels org. at AA and AAA. It's more likely, however, that the Jays were looking at different numbers of his. His spin rates.
The six fastballs Beasley threw last year averaged 2,357 rpm, which is not elite, but definitely above average. He was mentioned in this piece from AZ Snake Pit back in November, regarding the Diamondbacks with the best spin rates (or, more specifically “Bauer Units,” which is spin rate divided by velocity). Interestingly, Joel Payamps is another then-Diamondback who gets a mention.
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Atkins speaks!
As mentioned above, Jays GM Ross Atkins had a Zoom session with the media earlier in the week. Here are some highlights!
• On George Springer
It’s a bit of an interesting contrast to see what Atkins was saying back on Thursday as compared to Charlie Montoyo’s less-than-reassuring words about Springer here on Saturday.
I hear he'll bring a fantastic playlist on the AV front. I hear he's good as a DJ. But no, he's excited. We're exceptionally excited. Tomorrow (Friday) is a great day for George. He'll play in a sim game, he'll be playing centre field, and we'll see how he feels throughout that game, over the course of it. He's doing all baseball activity. He's extremely confident and strong, and now it's just a matter of recovery and putting him in a position to play nine innings and feel like he can face elite major league pitching. But very encouraged by where he is. He's super excited about tomorrow, and tomorrow will be a very important day to determine what that next step is and what's best for him and what's best for the team, factoring in recovery and playing in nine innings on a regular basis.
Atkins added that the Jays “wouldn't bring him to the major leagues if we didn't feel good about him playing nine innings in centre field,” and that they “just want to see how he responds, how he feels, how he's feeling later into the game with multiple at-bats, and then see how he recovers the next day before we make that decision.”
Hmm.
• More about the defence
Before we get to what Atkins said, let me share with you the note I left for myself when transcribing this late on Thursday night: “Every Simmons question seems to be a different version of ‘aren't you a dumb asshole who sucks at his job?’ Credit to him for being the only person on the beat like this, I guess?”
LOL.
Anyway, Atkins was asked a couple times to address his team’s defence, and both times tried his best not to take the bait.
Well I think one is having George Springer not in centre field, and Randal Grichuk not in right field. Randal Grichuk has done an exceptional job. He's really played well in centre field, and that has been very encouraging for us. And then I think the other factor is just Bo and Cavan are learning their positions at the major league level. Not that they haven't prepared and worked their tails off, but having exposure to them we knew there was still growth and development there. And with young players you're going to see extreme highs, and then you're going to see some lows. But as long as we're seeing those extreme highs and some of the exceptional plays that Bo and Cavan have made. We know Lourdes Gurriel will be better in left field. Excited about some of the depth options in Jonathan Davis and Palacios. So I think it's just a matter of those guys getting settled in and getting more comfortable at those positions, and they well. There's no doubt in my mind they're going to get more comfortable there.
• On Nate Pearson
He's definitely coming back as a starter. He's throwing in a game tomorrow and will be two or three innings — excited to see that — and then he'll have another start that, obviously, is in the three to five range. After that I think he could become an option, depending on how those go. We want to be very thoughtful that we're putting him in a good position as well, because he's a very young player.
Yeah, OK. Fair.
• On the team returning to health
We could be adding Tyler Chatwood as early as tomorrow. Jordan Romano as early as Saturday. Confident that that will happen, barring anything unforeseen. Then George Springer is in that mix. Then Teoscar Hernández is in that mix in the coming days. Teoscar has a test tomorrow to be cleared to reenter our environment and ramp up his baseball activity, and it will just be a matter of determining where he is from an overall recovery/fatigue standpoint and how much he can handle. So that does feel — that is exciting. To be thinking about those pieces, with Nate Pearson only a few starts away from potentially being an option — depending upon his effectiveness and the fundamental aspect of it.
OK, so the Springer timeline doesn’t necessarily seem to be too different today than it was Thursday. And Ross sure isn’t wrong about one thing: getting Springer, Teoscar, Pearson, Romano, and Chatwood back in short order is quite exciting indeed.
• On Steven Matz
The fastball effectiveness, the ability to command two other pitches, his athleticism, his preparation, his routine, were all the things we were excited about. And our group saw opportunities with sequencing, small things with his delivery, small things with deception, and with his open-mindedness we were hopeful to get an effective major league starter. And thus far he's been that. I can't say enough about the teammate as well, he's been an incredible complement to the group.
Atkins will say more later on about some of the work that goes on behind the scenes to find diamonds in the rough like this. Sure, Matz was much more of a known quantity than Anthony Castro or Jeremy Beasley (whose name I’m only 85% sure is actually Jeremy), but the Jays seem to be doing impressive things on this front.
• On playing road games in Tampa when the team’s “home” is Dunedin
A great line of questioning from excellent Tampa Bay Times reporter Mark Topkin, who asked about the logistics of playing road games so close to home, and whether they team was treating them like an away series or a home one.
We planned ahead of time and had everyone decide before we left if they were going to stay with their families or stay here at the (team hotel). We're a split group, half and half. Given our unusual circumstances, trying to be as flexible and adaptable as possible. But they certainly will be receiving meal money.
…
Last night when we got off the bus we had people going in three different directions, luggage going in four different directions. Shannon Curley and Mike Shaw did a great job getting everybody where they needed to be.
• On making a decision about moving to Buffalo
I think sometime in the next week we'll sit down with our players. We've been doing that. We sat down with our players on this trip. We'll do that again on this homestand, and look to finalize that timeline on when those decisions will be made for the next move.
I think we all could have guessed where this was going weeks ago, but it makes all the sense that the Jays are still looking for input from their players.
And speaking of Buffalo, Atkins was also asked about the facilities there — which, according to Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News, who asked the question, are still quite visibly under construction.
We've talked a lot about that with our players. Again, I can't say enough about the work that has gone in, from Marnie Starkman and her staff, into that. That renovation that, again, has to be different than it was a year ago, if we end up being there, because now if we're there there will be fans, and we don't have the concourse to allow for more flexibility and more room to move. That's where the majority of the construction is occurring. Moving the bullpens into the outfield to get them off of the playing surface, and just continuing to make that environment — the outfield is being redone — to make that environment as good as it can possibly be in the event that we are playing there.
I think it’s safe to say that you’re going to be there at some point, Ross. They can’t all be state secrets.
• On vaccinations
So we need, obviously, some of our staff and some of our players didn't get the Johnson & Johnson, so there's still a second shot that needs to occur. And we're confident that, once that second shot occurs, and then we get past that two week threshold, then we will be 85% vaccinated. It's not certain, there's nothing etched in stone yet, but very confident that we will get there. And the Johnson & Johnson didn't have a significant impact on that roll-out with us. Our players have been great about it. Very open minded, wanting to learn, wanting to understand more. Their families have been exceptional about it, and (we've had) a very good team approach to it.
Well it’s a good thing Sogard isn’t here anymore, isn’t it?
• On the alternate site continuing for longer than planned/the start of the minor league season being delayed
This was an interesting question, related to Alek Manoah, which from Sportsnet’s Ben Wagner — who, earlier on Thursday, had relayed some interesting info about the status of teams’ alt-sites during an appearance on Writers Bloc with Jeff Blair and Stephen Brunt.
Atkins wasn’t taking the bait here, only saying that extending the length that teams will be able to operate alt-sites is “a call for major league baseball.”
“We remain hopeful that we're playing at every level with a traditional minor league schedule at each level,” he added.
But the fascinating stuff on this is what Wagner told Blair and Brunt:
BRUNT: When they lay out the rotations in Buffalo and New Hampshire, where do you think he lands? Like, it's a guy who has not pitched above Low-A. Of course, there's a whole season, there's a whole year in there, there's the alternate site stuff, there's spring training. But, do you think there's any chance he lands in Triple-A?
WAGNER: I think the next couple of days are going to determine where he actually pitches. I've heard some rumblings that major league baseball is evaluating whether or not to put Triple-A at a scheduled start where they have it laid out right now, or to expand the timeframe around the alternate training site. There seems to be a big collection of teams that want the alternate training site to kind of serve as the hub and the insurance policies for major league baseball, without exposing their Triple-A players — and ultimately the guys that are going to have to jump into the depth chart on the major league side of things. Because a lot of these teams haven't reached that 85% vaccination rate yet, so I think there are a lot of things swirling, to answer that question specifically, Stephen, about how minor league baseball will get its season underway, and whether or not the major league teams are going to pivot off of what now is more of a traditional sense, where minor league baseball begins and that's your resource to use. If the alternate training site continues for the Blue Jays or baseball period, I think Alek Manoah continues to throw at the alternate training site.
BRUNT: So even if the minor league season starts, they would hold guys back at the alternate training site? Is that what you're saying?
WAGNER: Yes, absolutely. The priority guys. The priority guys. Because you're basically in a data camp where everything is looked at from nutrition, from sports science, from the number of throws that are made. And once you get into regular season play that kind of is a give for the organizations, because you just can't stop an inning after 25 pitches once you get into a Double-A season. I think if things go as scheduled, Manoah is likely a guy that goes to Double-A for a handful of starts. You can challenge him the upper levels and see how he can pitch, and, you know, if you've got — which you do, you do have a collection of players lined up for Triple-A that can get you through a five- or six-man rotation. And the schedule is laid out for six-game series right now at the Triple-A level. Now, that's not saying that I wouldn't love to see him at Triple-A, because I think the stuff would play. And there's so much to love about Alek Manoah and what he was able to show you in a very small sample size this camp.
Atkins can be coy about all this, but I think it has been clear for a while now that teams love the alternate site model of development — to the point where it’s surely driving some of the decisions to move toward abandoning the traditional “minor league apprenticeship” model, especially where elite prospects are concerned.
Tells you something about where the industry is at regarding the minors, and also where the Jays think Manoah is at. One of those pieces of news is better than the other, I’d say.
• On Vlad’s early success
It's extremely fulfilling. He is such a good person, and such a good teammate that treats me, Charlie Montoyo, Bo Bichette, and all of you, and everyone in the game the exact same. To see someone with that type of personality, and that type of character, to have the level of success that he's having after going through a very difficult transition — not because of performance, but more because of the expectations, because he was still an effective major league player, even at 20 and 21 years old when he was not performing to the level of expectation. But to see how he's handled that, and then to now see him look like one of the better hitters in the game, and playing a very effective first base, with incredible plate discipline and very early takes, with a lot of power, and a lot of exit velo, is exceptionally exciting and very fulfilling. For Vladdy, for his family, for the Toronto Blue Jays, and for this city and country. It's really exciting.
Where’s the lie?
• On the status of Ross Stripling and Julian Merryweather
Nothing new. We're really encouraged by both in that the injuries don't seem too serious in nature. Ross Stripling is throwing today. I don't know how that went. I'm confident it probably went pretty well, based on how he's recovering, how he was feeling yesterday, and could be back in the mix in days. And Julian Merryweather is not going to be throwing for a couple of weeks, and then once he starts to get built back up, fortunately, we don't have to build him up for much more than an inning or two. So that could move pretty quickly, and not too discouraged by the injury there either.
Nothing unexpected here, though it doesn’t seem like we’ll be hearing about potentially making Merryweather a starter again anytime toon.
• On Anthony Castro and identifying diamonds in the rough
Man, he is awesome, too. He is an exceptional person, great personality, is extremely authentic, is the same guy every day. But it's really a matter of our professional scouting department. There's a group of them that are focused on these types of acquisitions that will bring players like that to the attention of Joe Sheehan, Ryan Middleman, Mike Marov, and myself. And then we will collaborate with our pitching department, led by Matt Buschmann and Pete Walker, and R&D will get involved and think about opportunities with each of them — where patterns could be different, where sequencing could be different. Then make decisions based on opportunity. Every individual, every opportunity is different. Anthony Castro, what we saw was slider usage and less changeup usage, based on (how) he's a little bit across his body — his fastball has a little bit of natural cut to it — and that natural cut with (...) life, that seemed to be at least average, and potentially above average weapons. Then spring training indicated as much. So he just really has taken a positive step forward in his career, and hopefully that continues.
Cistulli for the win! Fringe Five represent!
Top image: "Full Moon Over Tropicana Field" by Photomatt28 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
And after that failure to stop a 2 run producing ground ball from going between his legs, makes me wonder much longer Biggio can be trotted out at third base.