00:00The Toronto Blue Jays have had a lot of things go well this season, but the one thing that they
00:05probably couldn't afford to go poorly did last night in Pittsburgh. We don't know the extent
00:10of Vlad Guerrero Jr.'s injury, but that doesn't mean we can't panic about it. So, let's panic.
00:16I don't know how you could panic with the music that we have for Blue Jays segments, but we're
00:32pretty darn close. As the Blue Jays fall to the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday, that's going to
00:37happen. You're facing one of the best pitchers in baseball. He's going to do that to teams.
00:41The panic part comes with what happened during the game. As has made the rounds, once again,
00:49Beau Bichette makes a really nice play behind second base, throws it across, and to make sure
00:54they get the out, Vlad Guerrero Jr. goes down and does the splits, and makes the play, and
01:00stays in the game defensively, dives for a ball, didn't quite get to it, and then he comes up to
01:05bat, and all of a sudden, it's Ty France who is coming up to bat, and that is a little different.
01:12So, they are saying that he's going off for an MRI. It is left hamstring tightness. Hopefully,
01:20it just, it's a pulled muscle, and it's just, just a couple days, it's just like, ooh, ooh,
01:24ow, ooh, didn't love that. Because, like, we can talk about all we want with this guy stepping up,
01:30that guy stepping up, this guy needs to be whatever, that guy needs to be whatever. If
01:35Vlad Guerrero Jr. is not in the middle of the lineup, this team is entirely different, and
01:39not in a good way. It is a major, major problem if that dude can't go out and play for this ball
01:46club. So, obviously, like, that is the big concern, and we will wait to see. Hopefully,
01:51if you are watching this not live, hopefully by the time that this comes out, that Vlad is fine.
02:00But, for now, we don't know that. So, it is just mass panic on my end. Because, like, again, yeah,
02:06Springer, excellent. Addison Barger, we'll talk about him in a second. He's been very good. Bo
02:11Bichette has worked his way back into being a really good player. Alejandro Kirk, having an
02:15amazing season. But, to not have that big bat in the middle of the lineup, there's just, like,
02:20all those guys are, this sounds more dismissive than I want it to be, all those guys are great
02:24complementary pieces. They aren't the big star that kind of puts it all together. And the Blue
02:32Jays don't really have that in their system, where there's this first baseman in waiting that
02:37they can just go out and just, like, oh, yeah, no, it's fine. Don't worry about it. We have this guy
02:42on the come up, and he was just waiting for a spot to break through. So, there isn't that, like,
02:48it's almost ironic they were playing Spencer Horowitz yesterday. Not that it would be,
02:53like, hey, guys, don't worry. We got Spencer Horowitz coming in. But that it would at least be
03:00something. So, again, I am just, I am concerned about where they are at right now. Looking at the
03:09stats for AAA Buffalo right now, like, maybe, but Arelvis Martinez, he still isn't even hitting his
03:20weight right now at 185 with 13 home runs, 32 runs batted in. But he's second on the team in home
03:26runs. Will Robertson actually leads the team in home runs, and he's not there anymore. So, that would
03:32be a bit of an issue to call him up. The first baseman who they have had down there,
03:37Rainer Nunez, is hitting 260 with seven home runs and a 714 OPS. But you haven't heard a whole lot
03:46of buzz around him. In AA last year, he hit 275 with 12 home runs. So, we're not talking about a
03:53big power bat. So, there isn't really that guy who is coming up in the system that it's like, okay,
03:58this dude is going to be the one who can help with all of this. And this is one of the reasons why
04:05I was a little bit frustrated with the approach to the offense at the trade deadline. Where you
04:11were saying, you know what, when Varshal comes back, it's like a trade deadline acquisition.
04:15And then if you get Santander, well, look at that. Like, everything, it's just, oh, it's excess.
04:19It's not, though. And this is why I was like, no, just make sure you go out and just overload. I feel
04:26like at this time of year, in any sport, when you're coming up on the postseason, if you have a chance to
04:31just get as much major league-ready depth as you can, I think you have to do it. And to only
04:38address the offense with, well, Ty France, like, he's good defensively, can go out and hit a couple
04:44balls. He's all right. Like, to have that be the only thing was really concerning. And now,
04:49there wasn't that big bat that did get moved. It's, again, one of the reasons why I was hoping
04:54for an A. Eugenio Suarez is because, like, these things can happen. And I don't know if there was a
04:59trade out there that could just replace Vladimir Guerrero Jr. But I feel like it was, I forget
05:07what movie I saw in the trailer for, but it was that thing where Overkill is underrated. I, when
05:12you have a chance to win a championship and you are going for a push to the postseason, I don't think
05:18that there are too many moves that you can make. And now, this team was unique because the chemistry
05:23in the room and everything like that, it was just a little bit different. But I still think that there
05:27should have been more of a push to bring in a couple of big bats that you could have
05:32off of the bench so that hopefully, if something bad happened, now you at least have some bigger
05:39bats that you can put in. Now it is basically going to be Ty France, I would assume, as the
05:44everyday first baseman for as long as Vlad is out of the lineup. And he might be back tonight.
05:48Like, again, I could just be overreacting. But that's just, that is such a downgrade.
05:54And I'm just, I'm concerned about what this all could mean for the Blue Jays. Overall,
06:01it was a sloppy game yesterday. And I wonder if the players' heads weren't necessarily in it
06:07after the whole Vlad situation went down. I wonder if there was a bit of a,
06:13whew, okay, we got Paul Skeens out. We got this game now. And they just, they lost that focus.
06:18They lost that competitiveness that this team has been known for. But that was not a Toronto Blue
06:22Jays baseball game. That, that was, that was very, very sloppy. And they, they talked on the
06:27broadcast about how maybe the defense has started to regress a little bit for Toronto. Um, but that,
06:32that was, that was horrendous with the, the throws into center field on a couple of occasions
06:36and everything like that. That was, that was truly bad. So this, that this hopefully is a one-off,
06:44hopefully a bit of a wake-up call that, yeah, things have been going great,
06:46but there's some adversity now and you have to be able to push through it. So, uh, we will see if
06:54this is a learning effort for the Blue Jays coming off of this one. But on the upside, I thought Addison
07:00Barger had a great game and talking about guys who are struggling defensively, he might not take the
07:04best routes to the balls out in right field, but a couple of great throws against the Rangers. Um,
07:09he has been kind of stepping it up. And then that battle he had with Skeens where he just wouldn't
07:14let a fastball get past him and ends up stinging 99 off the wall for one of the bigger hits the Blue
07:20Jays had in the ball game. I, I just love how this kid went through, like he came in and was one of
07:27the top hitters when it came to exit velocity and was stepping up in that way. And then he had that
07:33lull and okay, teams have kind of figured this guy out, but now he has started to bounce back and he
07:38has made the adjustment. And a lot of times with young players, that adjustment needs an off season.
07:43He didn't. And for him to be able to do that and now get that stride back, it makes you very confident
07:49that this is going to be something that you can rely on. And it's something that can be a little
07:53bit sticky for the season going forward. So that I thought that was a positive. And now you got one
07:59of the guys that you feel really comfortable with on the mound today against the pirates. And that is
08:03Max Scherzer, the ultimate competitor, all of those things. I just, I think that he is good
08:08to have back in this spot where maybe you weren't very sharp. Maybe you did get some bad news
08:12on the injury front yesterday, but he is not going to allow anyone on his team to be anything less
08:18than a hundred percent focused on this baseball game. So I think having him out there is going to
08:23be really good and kind of just what the doctor ordered for the blue Jays against the Pittsburgh
08:28pirates. So we will see what happens with Toronto against Pittsburgh. Again, if you have any thoughts
08:34on any of that, if I'm overreacting, if I'm underreacting, if I'm being too critical,
08:38let me know either in the chat, if you're watching live or in the comment section down
08:42below. We are streaming this on a few different platforms. The next time we are going to be
08:47streaming live after this, we're going to be back wherever you are watching this live
08:51at 10 a.m. tomorrow. That is Wednesday. It's going to be another 10 a.m. stream here on
08:58couch potato diary. So make sure you check all of that out. Also, if you want more blue Jays
09:04content, um, and sometimes it's, I'm putting out a lot. So if you don't want to filter through
09:10everything that is out there, um, I have the playlists up on YouTube and daily motion. If
09:15you just want blue Jays, there's the, the Catlin auto cast playlist that is on there. Uh,
09:20you can find that and help filter through all of the blue Jays content that you need.
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