00:00don't know if anyone's noticed, but the Toronto Blue Jays are kind of good again. All of a sudden,
00:05half a game out, game and a half out, right there tied for a wild card spot.
00:10How? This team sold at the deadline and immediately got better. So let's try to figure
00:16out what's going on with the Blue Jays after a series win over the Yankees.
00:27So I think the pessimist amongst us would say for the Blue Jays that they're just,
00:34there's no pressure. They're getting lucky. It's fool's gold. It's false hope. It's whatever you
00:39want to say. I do think, first of all, I think there's something to that. Secondly, I do think
00:44that this team kind of recognized with the deadline that they had that, oh, this really like that was
00:52kind of the final moment for a lot of people. Gossman leaving, Varsha leaving, all of that.
00:55That was the final like, oh my gosh, this really isn't going to turn around. This really has been
01:00this bad. This has been a disaster. And I feel like it was kind of a wake-up call for
01:04the team.
01:04But I also think like the Soriano trade to actually bring in a real guy into that rotation, I think
01:10gave this team a bit of a boost. And it's what I was talking about leading up to the deadline
01:14is that
01:15you look back on 15 and they just did the Blue Jays way on 15 and 16. They were 40
01:20and 41. Then they
01:21trade for Troy freaking Tulewitzki and they go on a run. And then they bring in David Price and you
01:27talk to guys around the team at that time, they knew they were that good and they just didn't lose
01:31again. And I feel like this team just needed a bit of that extra belief and a bit of that
01:36spark of
01:37like, hey, we got you guys. We know this hasn't been the year that you've wanted, but we think you
01:42guys can actually still compete. So here's a trade to top it all off, to make you guys a little
01:47bit
01:47better. And so I do think there's a little bit of a boost with that, even with a Varsho leaving,
01:51even with a Gossman leaving, that has given this team a bit of an edge. Just a quick aside,
01:57I don't want to harp too much on it. I also don't know how much Varsho was contributing to winning
02:02this year. And like, Gossman was kind of falling apart a little bit in the last little bit.
02:07Cannot, especially with Gossman, cannot thank him enough for everything that he meant to the Toronto
02:11Blue Jays and cannot speak enough to how impactful he was. And Varsho, I think we can agree,
02:16they probably lost that trade, but Varsho was incredible last season. And they're not in the
02:20World Series last year, if Dalton Varsho isn't Dalton Varsho for as much as he got to Varsho.
02:25So I can, again, thank them for their service for last year, while also recognizing that they were
02:34not blameless in the situation that the Jays were in. And now I don't think that Miles Straw getting 60
02:39games down the stretch or whatever is left and Bateman coming in is like, oh, well, don't worry,
02:44now we have two All-Stars. Like, that's obviously not the case. But there's a little bit more that
02:49these guys are able to do in that spot. And Soriano, I think, is an upgrade over Gossman,
02:53just in what is happening this season. And in this moment right now, I think that is a bit of
02:57an
02:57upgrade. So I do think, in a very sneaky way, the Blue Jays actually got a little bit better and
03:03a
03:03little bit more, a little bit more, I guess, I was gonna say usable. That's a bit of a stretch.
03:08But
03:09I think now the sum of the parts add up a little bit better than they did at the beginning
03:13of the
03:14season. And one thing they're able to play around with now is that speed. Bateman can fly out there.
03:19Don't love that they're bunting as much as they are. I begrudgingly accepted it last year because
03:24it worked. But in general, I'm not a fan of bunting. You look at run expectancy charts and
03:29everything like that, and they will tell you, I would much rather take three swings with no one out
03:33than two swings with one out, if that makes sense. Even though one guy got to go to second base,
03:37or even third. I would much rather, I'd much rather just try to swing away three times and
03:41hope for the best than the other way. But Bateman bunts the other day. Straw gets forced out at second
03:47on a really nice play from Ryan McMahon. But Bateman's on base now. And there's a single to
03:52center field. Bateman can fly. He gets to third. It's stuff like that that this team wasn't able to
03:56do this season. A, because they couldn't string two hits together at a time. But now you have that
04:02speed. Now you have a little bit more contact in your lineup with Varsho not in there. Again,
04:06we'll see if Bateman can continue this. Or if, like, if Smith's ball just gets handled well at
04:11first base the other day, then they're not going to 10 innings or anything like that. But they're
04:14putting the ball in play more. They're putting pressure on teams more. And one big area to be
04:19able to do that with is some speed. And I think they have that now with Bateman there at the
04:24top
04:24of the lineup to be able to just cause a little bit of havoc. But you can really see, like,
04:28when the
04:29ball gets rolling with this Jays team, it really, really gets rolling. Like, one, where they're at
04:35right now, one mistake by the other team turns into three straight hits. It really is contagious
04:39with the Blue Jays, where it wasn't necessarily at the beginning of the year. The one thing that
04:44they are missing, uh, Brayton, morning, hi, hello. The one thing they're missing is that power in the
04:49middle. As the entire Blue Jay watching community screams Vladdy at the same time. That's, that really is
04:55what they're missing. And it is, like, it's, it sucks because, like, Vladdy falling off the way he
05:00has this season, no one could have predicted. Like, we are now at the year where, the one-year point
05:05where he hit, uh, last home run at the Rogers Center. No one could have predicted that, right?
05:10Um, Barger has, like, one hit this season, which is more than Anthony Santander. Like, this was not a
05:16team that was constructed at the beginning of the year to not, to just be a bunch of slap-happy
05:21Otis Nixons all over the place. I don't know why that's been my reference the last, like, couple
05:26weeks I've been doing stuff like this, but not the point. Um, they, they were built to have
05:31Vladdy in the middle of the lineup, being a guy who's hitting, like, maybe not 320, but 285 to 300
05:36with 20 to 30 home runs. Barger, you're hoping that the guy who hit the, the pinch hit grand slam
05:41in the World Series is back and he's launching balls all over the place. You're hoping that Anthony
05:45Santander fucking played it all. You, you were hoping that you had that power in the middle of the
05:50lineup, and then you can supplement it with Ernie Clement just getting a bunch of base hits,
05:54with Okamoto getting a bunch of base hits, although that's falling off a little bit now,
05:57with Kirk doing his thing and all of that. They don't have that. Santander, I'm not holding my
06:02breath. Addison Barger, I'm definitely not holding my breath. Vladdy, I do think it's good that they're
06:06winning without him. I do think it's good that they won that game and were competitive without
06:10Vladdy over the weekend. To maybe let him take some pressure off a little bit, like, it, you hear that
06:16he's, like, getting hurt, taking too many swings in the batting cages, and stuff like that. Like, he knows
06:22this season has not been good for him at all, but if he can see that he doesn't have to
06:27go up there and
06:27hit a six-run home run every time, and he can just go try to drive the ball, hit it
06:31to all fields, just do
06:32all of that stuff, then I think he's gonna be, I think that's gonna be good for him. But they
06:36need someone
06:37in the middle of the lineup to be able to get that big hit. You saw, like, the Yankees, um,
06:43their offense has
06:44really struggled this season. With all the injuries they've had, how could it not, right? Like,
06:47Bellinger, Stanton, Judge, um, and even, like, some of the internal guys. Like, Volpe never turned it
06:52around the way that they thought they would. Chisholm's had a bit of a down year, too. But
06:55they've, um, they still, extra innings, okay, well, we can move this runner here, we can do this, or
07:02boom! Two-run home run. That, it's just easier when you can score a couple of runs on one swing.
07:08I don't think I'm being that hot-takey about this. The Jays don't have a ton of it. Okamoto was,
07:12but I think the season's getting to him a little bit now. He's chasing way more than he was at
07:17the
07:17beginning of the season. He's hitting the ball less than he was at the beginning of the season,
07:21and of those hits, fewer of them are being hit hard. So, I don't know if it's just the grind
07:26of
07:26the regular season catching up to him. Not that it's not a grind in Japan, but I wonder if it's
07:30that, if teams have figured him out. Whatever it is, um, it's kind of getting to him a little bit,
07:35and he's not being as productive as he had been throughout the year. So, they don't have that big
07:40bat in the middle to just get that hit. It has to be base hit. Goes first to third. Now,
07:46we got another base hit. Hey, there's one. Now, we got first and second. Now, we have to get another
07:49hit so we can get a crooked number up there. When you are facing the Schlittlers, and the Coles,
07:55and the Rasmussens, and the, if you can figure it out, Peraltas, and all these other guys, the,
08:01all these high-level pitchers across baseball, it's tough to do that in the postseason, to just,
08:07like, slap happy hit your way to a bunch of runs and get it rolling. This team is as well
08:13-equipped
08:13to do it as many others are, but it's still really hard to do it, so it would be nice
08:17if they could
08:17get that power in the middle. But this comeback has been awesome. It's just great to see them playing
08:21meaningful baseball. It sucks to kind of waste a good cease outing last night, or yesterday afternoon.
08:26200 strikeouts, fantastic milestone for him. Dude's gonna make a push for Cy Young, and it's
08:32very well-deserved, and it is, it's why I was so excited about the signing. You knew he had great
08:37stuff, and you knew that he could benefit from Pete Walker, and from the defense that hasn't been as
08:44good this year as we thought it would be, but it's still miles ahead of where San Diego's defense was.
08:48So, this is, it's all good things, and it's moving in the right direction. They were able to get a
08:53decent haul for some of their younger, or for some of their on-the-way-out players, but they're set
08:58up
08:58now where a good free agent signing or two, whenever the, or a good trade or two, whatever
09:04the next baseball season is, they're gonna be right back there in contention, I think, in the American
09:09League. And just one more baseball note, just a quick Canadian one. It's not the Blue Jays, but
09:14Matt Wilkinson, tugboat, is on his way to the San Francisco Giants. For people here in the Calgary
09:20area, Wilkinson pitched with the Okotoks Dogs, helping them to a couple of championships
09:24in collegiate summer baseball, the Western Canadian Baseball League. He's able to come
09:30through the Dogs Academy and build his way up into being just a dominant collegiate pitcher,
09:35fantastic throughout the minor league system, and now getting his call up with the San Francisco
09:41Giants. So, just wanted to mention, a huge developmental win for Canadian baseball, and for
09:46out here in Okotoks. We've had a couple now, right? Like Tristan Peters, all-star, came through
09:51the Dogs, and now Matt Wilkinson, who was dominant here with the Dogs, is now up playing at the
09:57Major League level. So, a huge shout-out to Wilkinson as Canadian baseball continues to
10:01grow. So, any more baseball thoughts, throw them my way in the chat, and we can keep that
10:05conversation going over there. But also, do want to remind you guys that you can hit me
10:10up on social media. I am at PrimetimeKline, Instagram X, TikTok threads, and Blue Sky. If you're listening
10:15to this after the fact in podcast form, have something you want to get off your chest, or
10:19just want to know where things are at with the show, and with me, you can on social media.
10:24Again, Instagram X, TikTok threads, and Blue Sky.
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