2024 Toronto Blue Jays Season Thread

[Inferno]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1774975756008890666

[flamingred89]

Jays only had 9 hits that whole series. What a joke of a team.

[KelVarnsen]

Guillermo Martinez has more job security than a professor with tenure

[Samonadreau]

1 hit away from getting no hit twice in the first week.... and twice in the same series. oof.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by flamingred89

I'm not the biggest Varsho fan but his two catches have saved this game from being a blowout.

Although 2 runs is practically a blowout with this anemic offense.

Varsho had a good game. Strong defensive contribution and a double.

He was the only one who did though - quite a few other places in the line-up Schneider would have been an upgrade.

Obviously wouldn't have mattered given how the pitching went.

Hopefully Kikuchi brings his A game vs the Yankees on Friday.

[Whynotnow]

The record at 3-4 is not terrible, but the problem is the how the team is performing. Should probably be 2-5 though and in the 4 losses they have been bottom feeder bad. The season is very long, and this was a murderous schedule to start but this is pretty concerning and could easily be a harbinger of things to come.

[bluejays]

The thing about baseball is fans really do pay with their wallets as there are so many casual fans who will walk up and buy because of the buzz. It’s not like hockey and basketball where it’ll be sold out based on corporate purchases and season ticket holders. You can guarantee with this series and the performance, Rogers is feeling the pinch how how it’ll show at the box office next week. That’s the silver lining here. Atkins brutal off season of not dealing and retooling, combined with his previous mistakes of dealing Moreno are coming to haunt the team. I predicted three months in he’d be replaced, but now maybe that’s a two month forgiveness. Those renovations payback needs to happen and the entertainment value has been awful from this team this year.

[Jason14h]

At least we’re setting new records

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5U4disM...htaXJjZzZweXNr

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by bluejays

The thing about baseball is fans really do pay with their wallets as there are so many casual fans who will walk up and buy because of the buzz. It’s not like hockey and basketball where it’ll be sold out based on corporate purchases and season ticket holders. You can guarantee with this series and the performance, Rogers is feeling the pinch how how it’ll show at the box office next week. That’s the silver lining here. Atkins brutal off season of not dealing and retooling, combined with his previous mistakes of dealing Moreno are coming to haunt the team. I predicted three months in he’d be replaced, but now maybe that’s a two month forgiveness. Those renovations payback needs to happen and the entertainment value has been awful from this team this year.

I agree with you, except I think that because it's early in the season, any dip in attendance won't show up right now. I'm going to guess a really good turn out for the opening series due to excitement of a new season, and that'll last at least for the first 3 series at home. It's been a very meh start, but really, it's been 7 games. I don't see many but the most bitter fans writing the entire season off yet.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by activeStick

I agree with you, except I think that because it's early in the season, any dip in attendance won't show up right now. I'm going to guess a really good turn out for the opening series due to excitement of a new season, and that'll last at least for the first 3 series at home. It's been a very meh start, but really, it's been 7 games. I don't see many but the most bitter fans writing the entire season off yet.

Agree. Also we can’t write off the season just yet as it is early on but the signs are pretty bad, and also fairly predictable. Record wise they’re fine but from the headlines the organization is probably wondering what they can do to maintain fans coming in post the first three or so games. They’ve put in a ton of money and not having a great start where they’ve had no offence really kills the marketability for the average fan that wants to see some flash. They don’t even steal. Another huge management mistake to not keep opposing pitchers on their toes.

[Roof-Daddy]

Have to admit it's a little disappointing seeing some of the underperformers with the bat from last season hitting terrible to start this season as well.

Hopefully they can get this turned around but if it continues we might see a major shift happen with the core this year.

[MacFlame]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Have to admit it's a little disappointing seeing some of the underperformers with the bat from last season hitting terrible to start this season as well.

Hopefully they can get this turned around but if it continues we might see a major shift happen with the core this year.

They won't turn this around. They are not underperforming at all. This is who they are. There is one player on this team that can hit around .300. Hell, I'd argue that there is one player that can hit over .270. One. Thats just not good enough to be a top team in the league.

I'm so tired of seeing media talk about various hitting stats as if they somehow are more meanigful than a guys ability to actually hit the ball....yes...theyre important and interesting stats....but batting average seems to still be a pretty good indicator if a guy can actually hit. This team, in general, cant hit. The starting second basemen hit .235 last year. Our starting LF hit .220. The RF hit .258. The CF hit .265 (which was a blessing!). Our current 3B hit .242 last year, which was 2 percentage points higher than last years 3B who also sucked at hitting. The media is going on about missing Danny Jansen....he hit .228 last year!

Who is going to actually hit for average on this team?

[Roof-Daddy]

Batting average is an archaic stat, what matters most is having guys who can get on base, and slug (extra base hits). Unfortunately they aren't doing this successfully either, despite having done it very well in the past.

[Roof-Daddy]

Not going to get any easier to hit against the Yankees.

If we get swept the panic will be in full force for sure.

[KelVarnsen]

I for one am looking forward to Stroman throwing a no hitter

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Batting average is an archaic stat, what matters most is having guys who can get on base, and slug (extra base hits). Unfortunately they aren't doing this successfully either, despite having done it very well in the past.

I agree with this, with the caveat that at this exact point in the season I think there's a place for batting average. It reverts to a "real" value faster than OPS because it only considers hits generically, so it doesn't need quite as big a sample size.

Example: Davis Schneider has a batting average of 250. He's only started twice so he has a small sample, but that's probably pretty close to where he ends up. Hopefully a bit higher (278 last year) but it's in the neighbourhood.

However, since he has 2 HR his OPS is 1.333. Three players hit over 1.0 OPS last year (Ohtani, Seager and Acuña), and nobody was over 1.1. I don't think Schneider will be the best hitter in MLB this year, that's just an artifact of a small sample size and a couple of early HR.

(Although he did actually hit over 1.0 OPS last year, but only over 116 at-bats so it doesn't count for league stats)

[MacFlame]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Batting average is an archaic stat, what matters most is having guys who can get on base, and slug (extra base hits). Unfortunately they aren't doing this successfully either, despite having done it very well in the past.

When there's a guy sitting at second base, getting a walk does very little. Its not archaic at all. Hits bring in players and score runs. Its pretty rare that a pitcher will walk 4 in a row to bring home a run. When theres only one player that can hit, it doesnt matter what another players OBP is.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by MacFlame

When there's a guy sitting at second base, getting a walk does very little. Its not archaic at all. Hits bring in players and score runs. Its pretty rare that a pitcher will walk 4 in a row to bring home a run. When theres only one player that can hit, it doesnt matter what another players OBP is.

lol this is not new information dude, getting on base is important, getting extra base hits is important, hitting for average is much less important than the other two.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Batting average is an archaic stat, what matters most is having guys who can get on base, and slug (extra base hits). Unfortunately they aren't doing this successfully either, despite having done it very well in the past.

Agreed. Only two batting stats ever matter for me: OPS (on base + slugging %) above .700, and RBI totals (or per PA). The only other offensive stat I look at in addition these days is SB totals and SB%. Putting pressure on pitching and defense with a good running game is a very valuable offensive tool as well.

Don't look at these stats for the Blue Jays at the moment, you might cry.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

I also like to look at GIDP as a negative stat. Strikeouts don't bother me much because an out is an out. Making contact is great if you can get an RBI (see above), but if you make contact and regularly ground into double plays, those are rally killers. I hate players that have a lot of GIDPs.