Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Jays Keep Rolling

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

In hour one, guest hosts Josh Eliott-Wolfe and Randip Janda look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), plus they talks a dominant Blue Jays win over the Rockies with Fan 590's Jeff Blair (25:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Halford and Bruff You're listening to Halford and Brough You're listening to Haliford and Deep. The Viggy and Bocchio show goes on. And now Boba Chet rips one, center field and deep, going back to oil. at the wall, it is out of here! And that ball hit high and deep into left field. Dominguez goes back, watches with the rest of us as Josh Young has just walked off

the New York Yankees. Welcome to Alfred and Brough. Good morning. No Halford. No Brough. No Dan Riccio either. It's Josh Elliott-Wolf and Randi Blanda here with you. How are you doing, Randy?

Good morning. Not great after hearing that call. Thank you very much. I know Brough has a reputation for sometimes being a little maybe abrasive ornery, whatever word you want to use. After hearing that call, I'm feeling the exact same way. That's what we want.

Adog, good morning. Good morning. And welcome back, Laddie. Good morning. Hello, hello. Sorry, Randy. I had to do that to you on the first day, but... It's a great way to come back.

The Yankees are doing. You're decked out in your Blue Jays' ear anyway. He tried looking for the good Yankees highlights, and there just weren't any of them. They don't exist. Alfred Dubruff is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help. With over 3,000 5-star reviews, visit sands-dustee.com.

We're broadcasting live from the Kintech studio, Kintech, footwear, and orthotics working together with you in step. You can text in on the 650-650 Dumbar Lumber Tax Line, Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and renno warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you, online at Dumbar Lumber.com. A big show today. We've got a few guests going to join us at 6.30.

It's going to be Jeff Blair from the Blair and Barker show on the Sportsnet Radio Network. I say the radio network because you hear it here and also in Calgary and also in Toronto across the Sportsnet Radio Network talking about the Toronto Blue Jays who maybe had a bit of a hiccup over the weekend against the Kansas City. Royals, but then they very, very much showed last night that they are still a very good baseball team against the Colorado Rockies, who are very much not a good baseball team. Was that game more about how good the Blue Jays are or how terrible the Colorado Rockies are? Why not both? Yes, fine. All right, we'll give you that.

Fine. Maybe more of the Rockies. I think more on the Rocky side, though. At 7 o'clock, we're going to talk to Lucas Wees from the Athletic as you heard in the intro there. Vicki Mboko has been on a magical run at the National Bank Open moves on to the semis. We'll get into that with Lucas and shortly in what happened as well. But yeah, we'll talk to Lucas Wees from the athletic about that.

And then at 8 o'clock, Ryan Rig Maiden, BC Lions GM will join us and we'll get into everything going on with the BC Lions as they come off a bye week this past weekend and get set for another game. against the Hamilton Tiger Cats looking for some revenge on Thursday night against the Tycats. So working in reverse at 8 o'clock, Ryan Rigmaidon, BC Lions GM at 7 o'clock, Lucas Weiss from the Athletic

and at 630, Jeff Blair from the Blair and Barker show. That's what's happening on the show today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No, what happened? I missed all the action because I was

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit BCCSA.com.

So we will start with the story over the weekend that just keeps going on. It's Vicki and Boko, 18-year-old Canadian, moving on to the semi-finery. of the National Bank Open. It started on Saturday in the round of 16. She beat the top-seeded. Cocoa Goff in straight sets, 6-1-6-4. And it was like, wow, she's moving on to the quarterfinals. This is awesome.

This is a big upset. And she kept it going last night. She beats Jessica Boazas-Mennaro in straight sets as well, 6-4-6-2. And she moves on to the semifinals. It just keeps on going. It's like the DJ call it another one. And she's gone to the semifinals, right? Listen, 18 years old, taking the Canadian tennis rolled by storm.

And she plays a very poised game. Even though that Bozaz-Munero match was maybe not the tidiest, they both kind of looked a little jittery. The Cocoa Golf match is the one that everybody's going to get their eyes on and probably rewatched because she did take out the number one. She's the first wild card to reach the National Bank Open semi since 2015. So maybe not the biggest of conversations around her in terms of, Is she a prodigy or how good is she?

But she's taking the tennis roll by storm. She's going to rise big time in the rankings as well, Josh. Yeah. And so, yeah, it's a big jumper because at the start of the year, she was ranked in the 300s. And just with her current results so far, she's guaranteed to break into the top 50 of the rankings after this run. If she wins the tournament, that's getting a little bit ahead of ourselves.

But if she wins, she would move into the top 25. which would be huge it comes with a lot of earnings as well like there's a lot of financial reward for someone going on a run like this she's already making a decent amount more money just again making it to the semis but you

it's huge for someone who's 18 years old and as you mentioned kind of a wild card not some someone that we necessarily anticipated going on a run like this so for someone like that to be able to go on a run like this especially on home home soil it is

all the more special for her and also it's the more impactful for her as well. And you know what's cool about her game is that she seems pretty poised but also at the same time it feels like she's just going with the flow. You know when you're so young and you just don't know like what the world

has in store for you and you're just saying hey I'm going to go with it. Like you when you started a sports net 650. Now I'm all jaded and I'm working the morning show and it's really tough. Just imagine how we feel who are significantly older than you but yes like Mboko is the opposite of that where this is kind of her first look at success.

She just took out the number one seat at this tournament. And it's, oh, yeah, like, I don't know any different. I'm just playing tennis. Like, the stresses of tennis haven't hit her. She's at that point where she's just kind of, you know, benefiting from her hard work, right? And hopefully this continues to go on. But you can see she's playing freely, and that's what makes her really fun to watch. The next matchup as well against Rabakina of Kazakhstan.

Like, if you can take up the number one seat in the tournament, you can also take out this player. Like, I don't want to get ahead of it either, but there are some cracks in Rabakina's game. Like, she's not exactly the best when it comes to baseline movement. And the Mboko's power game, like, she could pick her apart

if she plays discipline. And yeah, so, Rabakana won at Wimbledon in 2022, but since then she hasn't really, she's been good. Like, she's good, but you, like you mentioned, Mboko beat Cocoa golf. Like, this is,

she should have the comment. confidence now to be like, hey, I can be anyone in this tournament. And one thing she said after the match yesterday as well is like she keeps surprising herself. Yeah. And I do wonder if the element of like, hey, she doesn't have any expectations for herself. There were no expectations for her going into this tournament. And the further you go, the more you're like, man, I just keep doing this. Maybe, maybe I can, you know, hang with the elite talents in this, in the sport, in this tournament, moving forward, whatever it is,

it's been really fun to watch. I hope it continues. The semifinal goes tomorrow, by the way. So you can take to debt, well, you can watch today. There's other people playing tennis today. Yeah, it's the National Bank Open. It's sponsored by Rogers, I want to say,

so you should watch it every day. You should watch the reruns right now as you're listening to the show. And then also watch the Blue Jays game right after, too. But what I did want to mention before we move on from this is it does feel similar to, and maybe not the same, but similar to Bianca on Drescue's run in 2019.

And on Drescue, she had a bit more of a lead up before what was the Canadian Open. She won the Indian Wells, then the Canadian Open. And then the big thing was the U.S. Open, a grand slam. And it kind of felt like she did come out of nowhere to an extent, like she was ranked pretty far out of the top 100 as well.

And all of a sudden, she's breaking into the top 100 I think she peaked at I think it was four in the world rankings and so again I'm getting way too far ahead of myself there's still a lot of work for Mboko to do especially even just to win like this tournament

and then you know the US Open is later this month we'll see what happens but it is a similar kind of out of nowhere ascension for a teenager Canadian woman in tennis And hopefully it has a similar result to what Andrescu had.

Yeah, it's been a great story thus far now. The question is you don't want to heap too much pressure on a young player too because I need to repeat. She's 18 years of age. Yeah. Like that is wild. But to have her do things that you mentioned Bianca Andrescu, but there's not many female players to make the semifinal.

I'm looking at a graphic right now. There's like three other women in Canadian history that have made the finals. And they're much older than 18 as well. Yeah. So, you know, there's a lot of stress, and you look at some of the players in the past. You don't want to heap too much stress on young tennis players. Emma Radikano is a classic example where when that success comes early, you know, it's tough to deal with it as a young player. But go with the flow, what I like about Vicki and Boko story is though every interview that she's doing after the match. Well, you can tell she's enjoying it.

She's going into these matches, playing freely. That's all that matters right now. And I would say she's got a pretty good shot in the semifinals as well. So we'll talk to Lucas Weiss at 7 o'clock about this and everything going on at the NBO. Another teenage Canadian woman athlete, Summer McIntosh making headlines as well. So we've been talking about the World Aquatics Championships because it's August and we're talking about the World Aquatics Championship. And special things are going on. Come on now.

And special things are going on because she's won four gold medals. The World Aquatics Championships have wrapped up. She won five total medals. was a hope that she would go for for the clean sweep of all five events she was in, but she takes four gold medals and gets a bronze in the one she did not get a gold medal in. So she won the 400 meter freestyle, the 400 meter medley, the 200 meter butterfly, the 200 meter medley, and then the bronze she got was in the 800 meter freestyle. So yeah, it's been a really, really good week for Canadian women in individual athletic events

and Summer Macintosh. She is, when we talk about prodigies, and, you know, we talk about Mbocco, we're not going to get too ahead of ourselves. It's a really good story, really good moment. Hope it continues. Summer Macintosh is a prodigy. No doubt.

And she showed it again, and she has been really, really good. Generally what I think about when, you know, we in Canada are going to focus on her. But I started looking at some of the international coverage of Summer Macintosh and what she's been able to do. And one of the things that an American website said was arguably the best ever world champions for a female swimmer in history. Like, you know, when Canadians feel a certain way about a Canadian, it's one thing.

But to have international press recognition to say, hey, this is one of the greatest performances we've ever seen from a female swimmer at this tournament. That tells you something. And she's a household name already at the age of 18. This is the thing. Like the next four or five years are probably like prime swimming age. You know, usually probably the 23, 24, 25 age is when you really do most of your damage. She's going to be an Olympian at the LA Olympics at the age of 20. Like she's got she's got a couple Olympics at the very least.

And if she goes like Katie Ladecki and she's well into her 20s and still swimming, like we're just at the beginning of her greatness. And we have already known her for what, two to three years. already? Yeah, because I think her first Olympics, she was 14, right? Yeah, 14. And she's just been, yeah, she's been unreal. And yeah, it does get you excited for what she might be able to do at the 2028 Olympics in L.A. And you mentioned the, the attention she's getting not only here, but south of the border as well. And that's just going to continue. If she continues on this trajectory, she is going to be a very, very big story. Come L.A. 28.

You hope that continues into 2032 as well and further Olympics because, again, she is, she is a prodigy in the swimming world and now there's a, I know there's a 12-year-old from China who's, you know, all their age. So we'll see. Maybe there's a rivalry budding by, uh, by 2028, but, um, you know when hockey we talk about like, you know, you're hitting 30 years old and the progressions tell you you're going down. Imagine being an 18-year-old and like, hey, the 12-year-old just want to meddle.

You're on the way down, the 12-year-old is on the way up. That's not allowed at 12-year-old. Yeah, that story is crazy. But what Summer McIntosh is doing is very, very not crazy. It's just, it's really, really good. Moving on, you heard in the intro, the Toronto Blue Jays. They lost a series to the Kansas City Royals over the weekend. That's bad.

But then they went into Colorado last night, and they won 15-15-15. to one over the Rockies. Huge win. Not bad. For the Toronto Blue Jays, it was a seven run third inning. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The Rockies are the cure to what ails you. Yes. If you're a struggling baseball team. I tuned out when it was 9-0. I was like, I think I've seen enough here. And then they scored more runs. They kept scoring runs after that. They did.

It was awesome. Eric Lauer, he had a really good start last night. He went six innings, and he has, looked like a legitimate number two or three starter for the Blue Jays, but it has the vibe of like every time I watch an Eric Lauer start, I'm like, okay, it's going to come down to Earth. And then it doesn't. Like, he's just been steady and he's been good. I don't know if I would trust him in a playoff game, but also it's like, well, I mean, if he keeps doing it. He's been so good

though. And his starts are almost calming to me because he's not a high velocity guy. He's not a guy who's, you know, bowling batters over. He's a precision guy. And he seems to always be on. And those kind of pitchers are kind of calming to watch, right? Because he's not, like I see, he doesn't have like an overactive delivery. It's kind of compact. I find him very, very fun to watch as a Blue Jays fan. So the fact that he's kind of the name to be bumped out of that rotation when Bieber gets there is kind of confusing and almost worrying to me because I like watching Eric Lauer pitch. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting kind of dilemma once Bieber gets up to the main club.

But in the playoffs, that's an ideal situation. If you've got an extra arm that's ready to go, you don't have to worry about working your aces or your top two guys as much, which is, it's a luxury for a manager, but, okay, the Rockies game, let's be honest. I'm happy for Eric Lauer and what he did, but it's the ones before that, the Orioles, the Tigers,

like his numbers are solid across the board. Seven and two this year, he's giving them some stability and he gives them options. Like there will be injuries, I hate to say this, but any team there will be, to have that extra arm ready to go, is going to be important. And for your Blue Jays, guys,

in one game, they doubled their run differential. Great. They're still fourth in the ALE East when it comes to run in differential. Doesn't matter. But it's plus 30 now after a plus 14 game.

Yeah. They've been all over the place in the run differential. Feels like when they lose, they seem to lose big for some reason. Then when they win, most of the time, it's not by 14 runs.

Plus 30 is a lot better than what the Rockies have. Minus 291, which is by far the worst Major League Baseball. So many runs to give up. There's still two months left of this. I must be so frustrating to be part of that organization.

The next worst is the Washington Nationals at minus 134. Yeah. That's how bad the Rockies are. It's more than double. And the Rockies, by the way, with yesterday's loss, the miracle run, the hope of a miracle run to 500 is over for them. They're 30 and 82. So they are, it's, they're not going to go 81 and 81.

Baseball's got to be the worst sport for having just a god-awful team, right? Because you're out of it, like 10% of the way into the season. And then you have so many months of just, you know, you're out of it, and you still have to play every single day. Yeah, the death is that much longer in baseball. But here's the issue, guys. It always feels like there's always two or three teams that are the exact same teams from the previous year. So, like, the Pirates are usually there.

The Rockies are usually there. Like, for that fan base, they're always there. yeah it is it is unique to baseball where it's like if you're bad you're probably going to be bad for a while unless you just hit on a bunch of prospects and even for the pirates like you can hit on someone like paul skeins but he's only pitching every five days like a day it's not he's going to win you some games but the the team as a whole just isn't going to be good enough to to make up for that okay so i did want to ask you as a as you are a yankees fan oh i knew it was coming I'm just watching the highlights right now as Jock Peterson hit that home run.

So I guess I have two questions. One, how are you intimidated by the Blue Jays? Because my concern is as a Blue Jays fan, how sustainable is this? And is it something like, you know when teams are doing good and they're projected to make the playoffs and all that? There is an element of other teams look at them and they're like, well, I would like to go up against them in the playoffs. How do you feel about the Blue Jays in a postseason series? Well, the Yankees need to make the postseason first and it's not looking great right now.

Step one. But if they do, I think what would make the Blue Jays really dangerous is if Shane Bieber is able to be a legit difference maker because if you've got him in the rotation, you know, one of the strengths of the Mariners right now is that their starting rotation is so solid, right? And they've got bats. Now, if you're able to add that for the Blue Jays

where they've got the potential with bats with Vladi, maybe not playing his best baseball, but, you know, all the Blue Jays fans I talked to in the analyst saying, if this guy figured it out, this team is going to be, you know, real dangerous. But if you can get that starting rotation locked in, and if you can have some depth there, as we were talking about Eric Lauer, potentially even coming out of the bullpen, that's going to be a problem in the playoffs,

because you don't have easy outs. You've got a rotation that you can be confident in. So I don't think it's quite there. Like, to me, they don't make you shudder with, you know, fear. Yeah. But if you get a potential X-factor pitching, you know, pitcher coming at the deadline like they might have in Bieber, that to me could be a pretty big difference. So they're not quite there yet, though. The thing about the American League, too,

is I don't know if there are any teams that I look at. I'm like, ah, I'm really worried about that. That's fair. Yeah. And the Yankees are included in that. You mentioned last night we were watching the highlights. It was not good for the Yankees. A walk-off win for the Texas Rangers. The Yankees have lost four in a row. How are you feeling about your New York Yankees right now? Not great. The Boston Red Sox have jumped over the Yankees and it's a two-and-a-half game lead now for that top spot in the wild card,

which is not good. But any time a team is doing fielding practice before a game... It's a really good, right? Not good. Oh, not good. That's like Little League stuff. You're not supposed to be doing that in the middle of the season

or well past the middle of the season. You're supposed to maybe do that in spring training. That would be nice. So Aaron Boone's leg, yeah. He's been on watch for a while, but right now this team looks like they are very undisciplined. And whose responsibility is that? As the managers.

You might be following the binders. Yeah. You might be following the percentages. But in the end, like, if there's a history of the team failing, it's on the players, but it's also on the manager. I just, I, it's so, it feels like such correctable issues for the Yankees too. It's little league stuff, man. It's so defense related.

And you just don't see like major league teams doing this. And I will say the one thing that it's almost a concern for me as someone who doesn't want the Yankees to do well because I'm like, well, this should be a fixable issue. Like they should be able to fix this by the time the playoffs come around. But also if they're already in their head about defensive stuff right now, you push up the pressure and the moment and everything that comes with the playoffs. And that's when defensive mistakes happen. And that's when they're highlighted as well is in the postseason when you're making mistakes like that. Yeah, the stress is that much more. Aaron Judge expected to be back today, but the real question is, does he DH or does he feel?

Because if he is DH, what do you do is Jean-Carlo Stanton? Do you throw him in the outfield? Because that, my friends, is a horror show. You'll make things better. Yeah. He's the, you'll fix it. No, that is not, that's not good. But it could provide some comedy if he does play in the outfield.

You said one thing, Randy, when you were talking about the Js and how you didn't feel like Guerrero, you know, you didn't feel like either dangerous. Like he's like he's ready to go off. But I think it kind of speaks to the whole Jay's offense as a whole Because they're not the juggernauts that you expect But they're relentless and they're never out of games And they just chip away and they chip away And a big part of that I think is the fact that there's one hitter in the American League Who has a higher on base percentage than Vladdy Guerrero

And that is the guy you were just talking about in Aaron Judge Well, that's the thing though, right? So he's still getting it done but not in the ways He's not powering it over the wall like you'd expect him to but he's getting it done in other and I think you can say that about basically everyone on that offensive side of the roster for the Blue Jay. Well, Greg, you're a fan of this team

a couple of years ago. They had very little played discipline and now, I remember actually our next guest, Jeff Blair was talking about this with Barker a few years ago. I remember listening to their show and how they were just swinging in everything and sometimes just very undisciplined. They wanted balls in play, right? That was their MO. Put

balls in play. That's changed to a certain degree. They're a lot more patient of a team. They're a lot more discipline and what Vlad is up to 21 straight games of being on base, which speaks to, yes, he might not be hitting the same way, but he's still getting the job done and that requires discipline. Yeah, the Blue Jays, that series continues tonight against the Rockies at 540 first pitch, and we will speak to Jeff Blair on the other side from the Blair and Barker show about everything going on with the Toronto Blue Jays. We'll talk about Vladdy. We'll talk about their offensive approach as well as they try to get things dialed in before the postseason

and as these final couple months of the regular season roll on. It is Halford and Brough. No Halford, no Brough. It's Josh Elliott-Wulf, Randy Janda here on Sportsnet 650. Welcome back to Halford and Brough. No, Halper, No Brough, Josh L.A. Wolf, Randy Janda, here with you. Coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. And Halpert & Brough is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn out a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit sands dash trustee.com. We go to the hotline now powered by Power West Industries. It is Jeff Blair from the Blair and Barker Show on the sports.

Net Radio Network joining us. Appreciate you taking the time, Jeff. How are you? Doing well, guys. Thanks for this. Yeah, no worries. I appreciate you taking the time. First off, just wanted to talk about last night's big offensive showing for the Blue Jays, 15 runs, win 15 to 1. Is that

more of a reflection of what the Jays were doing or how bad the Colorado Rockies are? Yeah, I mean, you know, I think the balanced answer would be a little bit of both. but I think that it's really a reflection of the Blue Jays at their best. Now, of course, you know, 15 runs is this reflection of anybody at their best, I guess.

But what I mean by that is, you know, the Blue Jays strength when they are playing well is making contact, putting the ball in play, putting pressure and opposing defenses. And yes, it, you know, it helps when you're facing, you know, Tanner Gordon. It certainly makes a difference, you know, compared to some of the pitching they've seen lately. I mean, Kansas City's pitching is really good, and Kansas City's kind of an underrated team. So I was a little less surprised than a lot of people that they were able to contain the Blue J's offense. But, I mean, that's the way you have to play in Colorado. You have to be relentless.

You have to put the ball in play. It can't just settle for singles. You know, you've got to get the extra base hit. and I mean, that's pretty much, that's pretty much what the Jays did. And they took care of the ball themselves. And they got, and again, they got another start from Eric Lauer. And I mean, this is a guy whose lifetime numbers at Curris Field were atrocious. And it's like watching a different pitcher than the guy, you know, than his first go-around in the majors.

It's really quite remarkable. I did want to ask about Lauer, and we got some texts about Lauer as well, is people being very impressed with what they've seen from him unexpectedly. Do you know what's changed for him this season? Like, why is he pitching at the level he is this season compared to, I guess, what the expectation for him might have been? I mean, he's, you know, he'll tell you who's changed his pitch mix a little bit. I just, I think really what's, what has happened is, I mean, he's, he's, he's more,

it's hard to say he's more mature because it's not like he's a, you know, a guy who was 24 years old and went through this spurt of maturity. But I think he's more in control. I think he, the biggest thing I've heard him say is he understands that his stuff is good enough to play in the majors. He doesn't throw hard. We know that. And I think it's taken him a while to figure out that, okay, I don't have high 90s heat, but I can hit my spots, I can change speeds.

and what I really like about him is the pace at which he works. You know, you watch him, he's, he always seems to be in the moment. He always seems to be really focused. Nothing seems to phase him. You know, I know they made a comment on the telecast last night. I think Ben Shulman did, and it was absolutely right. Eric Lauer's like that, whether he's up 7-0 or down 4-0. That's just the way he is.

So I think a lot of that comes from the confidence that Pete Walker, the Jay's pitching coach has given him a little bit of a change in pitch mix. But mostly I think just the realization that, hey, if I hit my location, my stuff is good enough. I can compete. I'm not going to get lit up. Looking at the pitching rotation now, Jeff, like you have, you know, mentioned Lauer, he's doing well. Shane Bieber made his rehab start, which looked well. Also, looking ahead at this, though, how is the rotation going to shape out when Bieber returns?

and even beyond that, if everybody stays healthy, come playoff time as well. Yeah, I've got to tell you the truth. I have no idea. Shane Bieber, when he's healthy, is going to be in the rotation. If Shane Bieber is at all the pitcher that he was in the past, he'll definitely be in the playoff rotation should they make the playoffs. Beyond that, I don't know. I mean, I think it's a odd situation for guys like Chris Bassett and Jose Brrios

and Kevin Gossman, because we've gone from talking about, you know, how great these guys have been in terms of basically doing whatever the team wants them to do, you know, the whole issues with Alec Manoa and everything. They had to pitch in short rest and they had to pitch an extra rest. I mean, they've just, they've had to deal with a lot over the course of two or three years here. And we've all marveled at how professional they've been and how good they've been and how, you know, there hasn't been any complaining or moaning. Well, now all of a sudden they're in a competition

because Max Scherzer looks a lot more like the Max Scherzer we've seen in the past. Eric Lauer is certainly not pitching himself out of the picture, out of the picture. And when Shane Bieber gets here, he's going to be in the rotation. So, you know, right now I think you'd be hard pressed not to look at, at one of Chris Bassett, Kevin Gossmann, and Jose Brrios, and say, man, there may not, there may not be a spot on the playoff roster for one of you. So I think there's a little bit of a competition here. At the end of the day, this stuff generally tends to sort itself out. I mean, I don't think we're out of the woods with Max Scherzer yet in terms of his health.

But, yeah, it's, you know, it's an issue. The obvious answer would probably be to take Eric Lauer and put him in the bullpen and have them be a long guy. But, I mean, my goodness, how do you argue with what he's done? And if he continues to do this over the next two weeks, you know, it's a pleasant problem to have. But yeah, it is a bit of a problem. Yeah, you said it. It's a really good problem to have.

I do kind of wonder, would it make sense to especially, I know there's some numbers about Kevin Gosman on an extra day's rest, that. tend to lend itself to him pitching better. You mentioned Max Scherzer and his health still kind of being up in the air. Would there be a benefit to going to a six-man rotation for the remainder of the season, whenever Shane Bieber does come up and, you know, prolonging that decision further into the season to, hey, you know what, maybe you get an injury or you just get a clearer picture of who's ready to go come playoff time? I mean, that would be the obvious thing, and I certainly don't think it would hurt someone like Kevin Gossman.

and the problem is that Jose Burrios, Kevin Gossaman, and Chris Bassett have said publicly, and they have told John Schneider they don't like the six-man rotation. They prefer to stay on their regular turn, you know, get an extra day whenever they can because of off days or rainouts or whatever comes along. And I guess the question is, you know, can John Schneider and Pete Walker sell these guys on going to a six-man rotation. I will say this. It's a lot easier when you're sitting down

and saying to these guys, we want to go to a six-man rotation because we've got a Hall of Famer who looks really good, and we've got a guy who, when he's healthy, is an annual SIE young candidate coming in. So, you know, we're doing this for the benefit of the team. We're not doing this to penalize anybody.

We're not doing it to punish anybody. it's a lot easier to sell these guys on that when those are the names you're talking about compared to let's say well we're bringing Alec Manoa back off the IL and we want to go to a six man rotation or if they've gone out and traded for I don't know some other

Michael Sorokos have now hurt but I mean if they've gone to get Michael Sorok and said okay we want to go to six and that rotation well that may not have worked out but I think you can sell these guys on it because of the pitchers we're talking about. And also, you know, I think you can sell them on it because there's a chance to win.

I mean, this team's in first place in the American League East. It hasn't been here at this stage of the year since these guys have been with the organization. The guy that might be most affected by it is Chris Bassett because he is a free agent. And, you know, now you're getting into impacting a guy's future earnings. Kevin Gossman's here for another year. Jose Brioz is here for at least another year. So they're kind of covered off in that way. But Chris Bassett might be the one who has the most to lose in this equation.

And, of course, he's pitched very well in his last outing as well. So, yeah, it's going to be interesting. It's a decision or it's a situation. I don't think this organization's faced in some time. Yeah, it's been interesting to watch also from the batters box as well. I remember listening to your show with Barker a couple of years ago, and you guys used to talk about, late discipline or the lack thereof, maybe a couple of seasons ago.

Fast forward to this year, and it's, you know, they're getting on base. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., even though at certain points of the season when he's maybe not hitting the best, but he's still getting on base. What's been the key to their plate discipline this season? I mean, the main thing is just their ability to hit for contact. They just, I think a lot of the credit goes to the new hitting coach, David Popkins. It's something he's stressed with Minnesota. and they seem to have brought into the idea that, look, just, and John Schneider talks about,

this is kind of silly, but he talks about push the ball forward, move the ball forward. And I think they've bought into that. However you do it, you know, just make contact. And if you make contact, good things are going to happen. And if you make contact, you're going to put pressure on opposing defenses. And I think really the thing is kind of emerged, I think, at least for me this year. I mean, I'm just, I'm stunned at how many, I wouldn't say subpar defenses there are in Major League Baseball, but I'm really shocked at a lot of the mistakes you see in Major League Baseball.

I'm really shocked at a lot of the mistakes you see defenders make. And I think the Js have just brought into that, the idea that, you know, make contact, force the other team to make plays. And when you do that, I think stressing making contact almost encourages plate disabilities. right because now you're you're saying that you don't have to be picky just make contact and you know be comfortable with what you're swinging at make the right decision for you and they seem to have really bought into that top to bottom and you know I think in particular guys like Alejandro Kirk who's always had that skill set they've really and Ernie Clement has always had that skill set they just it's really trickled down from the top the top to the bottom do you think this approach how well do you think this approach at the plate will translate into the postseason

well that's a good question I mean the postseason things change the postseason all of a sudden you're facing power pitching almost every at bat because teams no longer use their fifth starter some of them don't use their fourth starter right

they tend to go to the bullpen earlier so you're going to see high velocity earlier in the game the way the game is managed in the postseason, quite frankly, nobody cares if they shred their pitcher's arms, right? They're just, what do I have to do to win today? I'm going to put my best reliever out there in this situation to get it done. Fourth inning, fifth inning, ninth inning.

It doesn't matter. And typically power plays in the postseason. The idea that you can kind of single your way to victory or, you know, hit and run your way to victory in the postseason really doesn't hold up, but at least it hasn't recently. And I think if you're the Blue Jays, though, you just have to trust that what you were doing this year does carry in to the postseason. I mean, there's really no reason it shouldn't when you think about it. Making contact, it's harder to make contact against guys with great stuff and velocity.

That's true. But when you think about it, the notion of just putting the ball in play, that should travel both in the postseason and the regular season. And what I think you want to have is you want to have a balance and you want to have the type of balance that we've sometimes seen from the Jays this year where, yeah, you're making contact, you're putting the ball in play, but you're also hitting the ball over the wall, right? You're also hitting doubles. To me, doubles are the, I've always said this,

doubles are the offensive number that I think really tells you how good a hitter is. And Cito Gaskin used to say that all the time. Show me a guy who's hitting a lot of doubles, and I'll show you a guy who's a terrific hitter and having a good year. because quite often those doubles do end up turning into home runs. And I think in that regard, the Jays are probably well equipped for the postseason. But let's face it, if Vladie, if they go into the postseason with Vladie hitting home runs, it does make their job a lot easier.

Yeah, that's who I wanted to ask about next, Vladdy. There's been a lot of headlines around him, and you look at his numbers and he's having a good season, but maybe not the power numbers that you want from someone that's going to be getting paid. as much as Vladdy is going to get paid. How much of what this team can do in the playoffs comes down to what Vladdy is doing come the postseason? Neither Vladdy or Bo have had good post seasons. You know, and now, granted, we're talking a limited sample size here,

but they have made three trips to the postseason. Neither of them have really performed offensively during those post seasons. I think it's going to have a big safe. and where this team goes because he is and it's not so much what he's paid but I mean at his peak he should be far and away the best hitter in this team

I just don't think you know I don't think there's any question about that I don't think anybody in this team is as much power as him I don't think anybody in this team has the type of swing he has I don't think anybody in this team when they're on can you know can do as much damage as he can. I think what you're starting to hear more and more of

from people is Vlady needs to be a little less people use the word passive. I don't know if that's right. I kind of prefer John Schneider told us last week. What we're trying to tell Vlady is this, look, we'll take one or two strikeouts a game if you hit a home run.

You know, we'll take that. And I think Flattie has it's great to pass the baton and you know, have faith in your teammates, yada, et cetera, et cetera. And if you don't get pitched to, well, you take your walk and turn it over to the next guy. The problem of Vladia is he's getting pitched to.

You know, teams aren't, teams aren't, it's not like teams are avoiding him. I mean, you watch the game last night. He took at least that I saw, 391 mile an hour fastballs right down the middle. I mean, he just took them. He didn't even offer at them. So I think Vlady needs to kind of get back to the idea.

He almost needs to do what George Springer does. I got one good swing. every at that, I'm going to try to maximize the damage, right? That's where I'm going to try to do. I'm not going to try to be defensive. I'm going to make that one swing count. And because of Vladie's skill set,

you know, that one swing can come on pitches in more quadrants or pitches, you know, of different characteristics and just about anybody else on the team. And that's kind of the message I think the J's been trying to get across to

him is, you know, don't be afraid to swing at first pitch. You don't have to take four pitches every at that. And it's the message they've talked about all year. Vladdy doesn't seem to have bought into it. Even last night, you know, it wasn't like he was, you know, the major offensive contributor in the J-score 15 runs. And, you know, it's not like Vladie. I don't think necessarily, you know, was the leading offensive, offensive performer in that team. So that does have to change. I still have faith in the guy because I think he's a really good hitter. I don't know if he's a generational player.

I don't know if he's a Hall of Famer. But I think he is a guy that can really do a lot of damage. And my hope is that at some point, being on a team that's in first place, playing meaningful games, feeling the buzz of the ballpark, I'm hoping that that's a thing that maybe gets Vladie to elevate his game a little bit because if he, If he's a walking machine and an opposite field, singles machine in the playoffs, they're probably not going to win against elite pitching. Looking elsewhere in the AL East, we see the Red Sox are streaking right now.

But the real story, Jeff, as you know, is the Yankees and the types of mistakes that they're making. You mentioned earlier putting pressure in a defense, but it feels like the Yankees are shooting themselves in their foot every game. Have you seen anything like this? and can they recover from this? Because it's gotten pretty ugly, as you know, in New York. Yeah, listen, you know, you think back to the World Series last year, and Aaron Judge dropping the ball.

This has been a concern with the Yankees now going on three years, is their inability to outhit their mistakes. I don't know the thought process behind how this team was built. and I think that's the thing that's maybe the most frustrating when you go on Yankee's social media or you talk to people who cover the team because everybody saw this coming

everybody saw this coming in spring training you know the idea that Jazz Chisholm was ever going to be your third basement is just not on it was not going to happen and I think Aaron Boone gets a lot of the blame here because generally

when a team is sloppy, you know, the thought processes that reflects on the manager. But I really don't think there's anything Aaron Boone can do here. I think this is completely the product of a team that was put together improperly. I think the Yankees thought, you know, the Yankees thought they were getting real cute when Juan Soto left and while we'll bring Paul Goldschmidt in, you know, we'll take that money and we'll spread it elsewhere and, you know, get Max Free. Now, Max Reed was a great signing. The fact of the matter is,

this just isn't the same team without Aaron Judge. And without Juan Soto there, there isn't that other guy. Now, I'm not saying they'd necessarily be better if Juan Soto was on the team and Aaron Judge was still hurt. But I think they probably would be better offensively. And I think being better offensively allows you to relax a bit defensively as well. And the other thing that would really, really scare me if I were the Yankees is the performance I've received from the three guys I added at the trade deadline, the three relievers. Because it is a different animal pitching in the New York Yankees bullpen, pitching in the Bronx in any place else.

And I mean, we've seen guys that just aren't up to it. We've seen pitchers who've come from other teams with great reputations. They got great stuff. You know, even Devin Williams earlier this year struggled. It's just, it's not the same thing. So I think people got, people saw what the Yankees did at the deadline and thought, oh my God, they're building this, you know, this, this nuclear bullpen, this high-powered bullpen.

Closing for the pirates and pitching in the eighth inning for the Rockies is a lot different than being asked to get the final three outs of a game when you're with the Yankees. So I really think the Yankees kind of sowed the seeds of this in spring training. And in some ways, I think they got carried away with their own brilliance. And it's really come back to Bight them. You know, Anthony Volpey should have been in AAA a month ago. Again, Jazz Chisholm, that that movie, they shouldn't have even pretended to have Jazz Chisholm the third base to start the year. But they thought they could get away with some things.

And at the end of the day, they found themselves in a situation where they just, I mean, they just had three or four guys that, you know, were poor defenders in key spots. And you really can't overcome that. Hey, Jeff, really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks for this. No worries, guys. Be well. You too. There is Jeff Blair from the Blair and Barker Show on the Sportsnet Radio Network.

You can hear it here often on Sportsnet 650. We got a text during the interview from a unsigned. So Gary, I'm looking forward to another great playoff series between the Mariners and the Jays where an infinitely cooler franchise, city and roster from the geographic area where we live. We'll send Toronto's team packing again. Mariners fan in the text inbox.

I would. Even throws a couple of hashtags in there as well. There's a few hashtags, good vibes only. Hashtag Josh Naylor, hashtag Tradence Up. hashtags don't work in our text box Gary I love the effort though hashtag when is the collapse coming yeah that's my hashtag I would love to see

that series I don't think Blue Jays fans want to honestly I do but also I just love the like when when a series matters to everyone who's a baseball fan in Vancouver when you got Mariners fans involved you got J's fans involved obviously

the majority here are Jays fans but there is a big vocal minority of Mariners fans too. And the Mariners do have, like, they do have a really good team. I look at their lineup and I'm like, man, especially at Swares, Nailer, I do think they are a legitimate team that you get into the postseason, you combine that with their pitching staff. And it's like, this is a team that could do damage. Yeah, they're a scary proposition because they've got a solid rotation. You mentioned some of the new bats they have. They got the big dumper ready there,

right? Like, this is also the best nickname in baseball right now. It's scary. It's scary to go up against the best nickname. And, but that rotation, that And I go back to the Shane Bieber, you know, Jeff mentioned the options. They could have Gosman, you can bass it, you know, you can maybe bump one of those guys out. But the fact of the matter is, the Mariners still have a heck of a rotation. Like you don't want to be going up against those guys. So I look at that and say that would be a scary matchup, but everybody would have skin in the game there. Like the majority of fans in this region, to your point, would have skin in the game.

That'd be an entertaining one. It'd be great to see you. Before we go, the BC Lions, Saturday, August 16th, your Lions face the alouettes for the show and shine game featuring over 200 classic and exotic cars get tickets at bc lyons.com. I'm going to talk to Lucas Weiss from the athletic about everything going on at the National Bank Open next on the Halpert of Brough show on sportsnet 650.