Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Toronto Blue Jays | Profile & Projection | 632

Episode Date: March 18, 2023

Last year was supposed to be the movie for the Toronto Blue Jays. With a newly-balanced lineup and a bolstered pitching staff, how far can the No. 8-ranked team go in 2023?Use code JOMBOYPRESEASON for 15% off your next purchase at SeatGeek* https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/JOMBOYPRESEASON*max discount $50, expires 3/31/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey. Kind of like what Jake does it, actually. It feels like you're dying a little bit every time you do it. Mm. Why don't get it happened? Right now. Oh, baby. Another team profile and projection.

We're in person. We're at the owner's suite in the warehouse. We're prepping our gear trip. Whatever. You guys don't care. You're here for the Blue Jays. Jake. What do the Blue Jays do?

Oh, don't you know they added. Chris Bassett. What my favorite signings of the offseason? Siki. You should go there. Preseason, what is it? John boy preseason. Yep.

John boy preseason. Oh, yeah. Dude, after. Because I was going to talk about who they added because they had Chris Bassett. One of my favorite for Aiden signings this offseason, three years, $63 million. Kevin Kiermeyer. Oh, yeah. His first team after Yampa, he's with the Js.

Brandon Belt. How are your veteran lefties? Chad Green, the goose, our guy. He's rehabbing, but he could be an impact piece down the stretch. The big, sculpt and Varsho trade, my short king. How about it? Done catching, put him in the outfield, let him work. Eric Swanson, that's fun in the back end of the bullpen.

And there's other some minor league guys there, Rob Brantley, talking Yanks, celebrity. They lost guys, though. I mentioned those trades. Teosker, Hernandez, and Lourdes, Gereal Jr. Those guys have kind of been mainstays in their lineup for a little while now. And Super Prospect Gabriel Moreno to my snakes. Camo. A couple other bodies, Ross Stripling, who had a really nice year for them.

Jim's close friend. Chicken strips. Ramel Tapia is out of there. J.B.J. Julian Merler. Oh, yeah. So parts in, parts out. Sergio Romo still unsigned as we record this. So don't hold that against us.

Is it on your notes? Trev, end of the day. What's that Lizzie lineup look like? I don't even have to tell you guys that I'm looking and I'm liking because I think everyone here knows this lineup can do it and they've added to it.

How about that right there? We're going to have George Springer. Probably at the top there. He'll be in right field most of the time. Connecticut boy, hard-hitting New Britain, all that stuff. Bo Bichette, we all know about him. You know what, man.

That guy, I think he's one of the more talented players in all the big leagues and I don't think he gets credit for it. So there's me giving you credit for it, Bo. Vladdy Jr., right now. We think he's okay. James, did he get married? Yeah, married, yeah. Okay. All the, Honzo Kirk, never seen him in Jake or Dalton. Varsho in the same room. Matt Chapman, walk here for him, expect big things. Brandon Belt comes over. He'll be D.H., maybe first base.

We'll see what's going on with that. What Maryfield is going to be fighting for playing time, outfield, infield, Kevin Keirmeier, who came over, probably in centerfield on the bench. It's deep. Maybe one of the deeper benches in all the baseball. We got Kevin Bigio, Santiago Espino, but I think he'll be at second base a lot this year. And then Danny Nukes, Danny Jansen. Another one behind the plate. And then Nathan Luchs, who is not in my book, he's an outfielder.

But the point is they have a great line up. Luke's as a last name is awful. Okay, I knew you were going to say something about the two names. L-U-K-E-S as a last name is awful. I've never even seen that before. Yeah, but I think he hits Nukes. That's great. You call Danny Janssen, Danny Nukes.

That's because I saw Luke's and then I was like that. I was going to go to the rhyme again because I've been doing it. But I like the lineup. It's deep. They have depth. They have prospects on the way. We'll talk about it. James.

Bring me through that rotation, bro. Rotation's pretty good. You got Alec Manoa. He's feisty. He's kind of a troll. And I like his presence and what he does in the mound, except when he picks fights just too much. Kevin Gossman really like the Gossman when he's rolling.

I like his style of pitching. Chris Bass. It man of many pitches. Jake likes him. Jose Brillos. Trev's ace slots in at the number four spot. And you say Kikuchi. It might be their fifth.

I think they got a lot of different options. You got Ryu who's rehabbing and coming back. I think Ryu lost like 25 pounds and is a new man. And Kukuchi, I believe, has a beard right now. Oh. I can't really picture that. And a new wind up. So I'm interested to see what that's all about.

but that's their rotation. In the bullpen, they got Jordan Romano, Eric Swanson, Yimmy, Garcia. That's what my co-workers at Domino's used to call me. Yimmy, y'em-me. Oh, I like that. Shout out, Okamon, from Cairo. Thanks, Oakman. Mitch White, who I always call Mika White, even though that's not his name.

Nice. But I always say it, and people are like, why you call him that? He's there. Anthony Bass, Tim Meisa, Adam Simber. And gray-haired Trevor Richards. Yeah. Kind of an icon in your community. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, he's good. I didn't know you were tight with the Egyptians. Yep. Me and you both. I had a masseuse from Egypt recently. I love that. I asked him where he was from, and I was like, God damn it,

he's going to spin this on me and say, guess, and I'm going to be, my ignorance is going to shine through. I don't know, an Egyptian accent. It's like a Syrabic. It's a big year for the blue james. It is. I actually, I'll start off, Jake.

I love what they did this off season. Well, I kind of started off. All the problems that they had, they have identified, and they needed to change up their core of personality, in the clubhouse and Boba Chet had a whole article like talking all about this saying like we were a little immature like we were young we had two have two full seasons of our young demo our young group playing together and we have definitely matured and learned he he spun it really well but he was like you got to

lose together before you win together and we'd definitely learn the difference of like coming to the ballpark to play and be focused every day and that's our goal this year as a young group is to overcome that because that's also like to the public yeah they were definitely a little like you guys are think you're way this is you guys think this is going to be way easier than it actually is is what from the outside it felt like they're the king of the quotes number one trash talkers but their quotes this spring have been like yeah we got to reel it in and then they brought in a whole new kind of personality flow to they get k k who stole all their secrets that one time remember that oh he did remember they's tucked in the back that's why he's going to be rapping after post game

We don't know that for sure. We don't know if he's bringing that over. Bar show, all of that. I think the jacket's out. I think they definitely had a plan actually on the field, not dynamic, with getting good defense because they were awful in the outfield last year, so much so they had the most four-man outfield shifts

out of any team in baseball, jarringly, one of the only teams that really did it as much as they did to go say, hey, our outfielders are so bad, let's go for four-backed out. back there. They're not going to have to do that now. So I do like the moves they made this option. They addressed some of the stuff that was public and also maybe a little sneaky under the radar. It's interesting you talk about like that young team and that mentality because as a young

player you get to the big leagues and now what they tell you is, hey, like let's just play loose. Like just go play the game. And that is all fun in games for a while. Then you start to understand the business side of it and really having to show up and it's work first and then have fun play the game after that. you really have to have that mentality. So bringing these veterans in, like you said, Chris Bassett, I know personally as well, played with him. He's going to be a guy that kind of locks up that clubhouse.

There's a really nice, that rotation there, I think is going to be a big voice in that clubhouse. Obviously, we have some of the younger guys on the position side. But some of those guys, I think, are going to take the leadership role. KK definitely will be one of those guys. And if we see, like, a determined, hardworking Blue Jay's team day in and day out this year, they have the potential to be very, very scary in the ALE East. Yeah, I think it's funny. They made moves, the changes you guys just talked about.

And I think there is definitely some defensive issues addressed, like Jimmy mentioned. The bullpen, man, this is the best Toronto bullpen. I remember seeing, I remember on talking baseball. At one point, their bullpen kind of started getting legs, but they kind of weren't scary dude dudes out there. If Eric Swanson does what he did last year, he's a guy for them out there.

Romano's locked down the closer role the past few years, and he's a per-like, he's everything you want in your closer. He's a little weird. He grew up an actual Blue Jays fan. You know, they have a lot of guys that can pitch you in eighth inning, Bass, Garcia, Mesa, Simber, if Chad Green joins that. So I think their pitching depth is at a really good spot. Nate Pearson, who was lights out for Lise this winter and is embracing the relief role. All of that being said, I think it comes. comes back to the dudes, right?

I think it comes back to Vlad. And are you MVP, Vlad? Are you what you did last year? Bichette, you know, it's nice to say all that. Some of his defensive misplays that short were some of the like, come on, man. Like, you know, he was year three at that point. So I love the quotes, and I love that they're acknowledging it. Because kind of the past couple years, they didn't.

They're like, we're the new big bad wolf. They got a little bit of humble pie in the playoffs. And I'm interested to see what it is with Bichet, because when we do our, You know, I think you've said before, like, is Bichette underrated? Kind of. Look at his offensive numbers, dude. For a young shortstop, it's silly. So I think it comes back to those guys.

And, yeah, I mean, those guys have a chance to, you know, be top five MVP-type guys. Well, I look at the lineup. I'm like, where are all these guys going to play? Like, they almost have too many guys for these spots. You know, you have Kirk, you have Jansen. What's the split going to be like there? Obviously, they're going to split time because that's what catchers do anyway. But are you going to have them a DH?

Then when you have him at DH, what are you going to do with Brandon Belt at first base? And like the second base battle they're going to have. There's a lot of spots here. Are they going to mix and match throughout the year and just kind of do that, like platoon or ride the hot hand? I'm very curious because when you do have a lineup like they have and the debt pieces on the bench, like you got to feed all the dudes. You got to give them a bet.

I think he is. I don't know what the numbers say, but in my head is not. In my head, I see him very good. He put a lot of work in. but I hate the gold glove that doesn't match the eye test at all he's got the worst footwork I've ever seen Have you seen I mean I don't know the numbers

We gotta look him up I'd imagine Belt's gonna get his fair share days at first And Vladdy DH We'll see I mean The other thing that He won the gold glove last year Belt is turning 35 soon

And by the way he's flexing one of the best He's flexing one of the best veteran flexes This spring training Belt's not playing Until the last two weeks He came to Kemp He came to camp and he was just like, oh, no, I'm good. Like, I'll be here, but I'm not playing until the two weeks late up to the season.

That's pretty show. That's a pretty good veteran flex. That's a pretty good veteran flex. Is he going to bring that hat? Remember that hat, like the Sailor's hat he would wear? Man, him and Keirmeier. Guys that put in a lot of, a lot of innings for Tampa and San Francisco are now starting it off for the Blue Jays. And hey, Brandon Belt, instead of that big wall out in right field, they're moving

in the fences in Toronto a little bit. We might see some big homer numbers from the boys. Yeah, they got affected big time by the Humidor, the ball there. A lot of places, we talked about that before on the show. The Humidor is putting a hurt in on the slug. But that's not really where this team struggled last year, except if you were the relief hitchers. They gave a lot of homers last year.

I believe they're 26th in baseball in that category. Believe that? That's something you got to change. You said. You mentioned the bullpen there. If they if all like when you're looking at Rossers like this I know I'm going to say this a lot as we get towards the top team But like everything looks pretty damn good I know my guy Jose Berrios has got to go Decent 2021 with them bad 2022

He's got blonde hair now so I'm kind of like believing in it He's feeling himself old Jose Berrios never would have had blonde hair But he's feeling himself a little bit How many times am I going to say this is his year. I'm going to say it again this time. Let's go, Jose. And you might say. Yeah, but the, but the roster is, is very nice. So you've got to just stay healthy and you got to go do it during the season, but you have all the pieces. Have all the pieces. Stay focused and, like, go attack every single game and they should be a pretty dominant team.

That's why, like, Beau Bichette's quotes are saying the same thing that I would have said if he hadn't said that is like you guys just you have to like prove that you can be good consistently through here and i agree with boba shet he's i had his quotes up i got off them are you now on vladdy's defensive stats yeah i mean hey i'm sorry i don't care about gold gloves so i don't like track him but kind of why i mean unless he was just bad versus the yankees he doesn't he stretches as the ball comes and the receiving that's definitely we you notice that instantly i i guess fielding and throwing i don't know and throwing he talks he does a different style of stretch for a ball than I've ever seen, like,

remember he stretches before they throw it, so if it's out of his way, he can get to it, where most first baseman, their foot comes out, whatever, sorry. I wasn't going into this, trying to hate on his first base skills. So, I think as we get into these better teams,

you have to do a little bit of what are the concerns? Because we could roster bait about this team all day. I think for me, there's three big things. It's the lefties that came over. My guy, Dalton Varsho, he kind of has his, breakout year last year.

You know, I think he had like a 109 OPS plus, which again, that's good. That's 9% better than league average. He doesn't have to worry about catching anymore. He is coming over to a new team, a new league, a new division, so there could be some growing pains there. And he's supposed to be kind of the lefty bat that was to break up their righty syndrome. You know, Brandon Bell will be in the mix and let's see what he's got. But say if Varsho takes a little bit to figure out the ALE East and maybe, you know,

belt, same, I guess. then you're still a very righty-laden team that gives you potentially a matchup problem. So I think that's one thing for me. Jim, you mentioned it. A couple of their pitchers were some of the bigger shift guys. And, I mean, like Trev said with Burrios in general, I mean, where are we at, man? This guy got paid by them and he has the talent. But he got rocked last year.

And Kikuchi, what's he going to be for them? So I guess for me it's are the lefties going to contribute? to make it a balanced team. Because right now they still have the top four hitters as Rides. And then it's my guy Varsho jumping over. And it's the back end of that rotation. You know, if Burrios and Kekuchi go. Holy shit.

If they don't, that becomes kind of the clear weak point of this team. The shift stuff is interesting. Like, Alec Menoa was one of the top five pitchers who benefited from the lefty shift. of line drives and hard ground balls being hit into that shift. He's really talented and really good, so he can make the correction there as well. Also, the Blue Jays also shifted more than other teams

because their defense wasn't the best last year. So it's a mixture, but you also have Barrios on that list. Gossman's a ground ball pitcher, right? I believe so with the splitter. With the splitter, you would assume the numbers in that way. So, yeah, you do have, like, when there was a pitcher list, put out a list of, like, top 10 pitchers that might be affected by the shift, they benefited from it.

And two Blue Jays were on there. So something to watch for. I don't think it's going to like it. Nobody knows. I think it's going to take down Mano. I think he's still going to be pretty fucking good. But, yeah, something of note. They got some guys, you know, if we're talking about depth,

we have it on the bench, we have it in the prospect system as well. The prospect system? The prospect system. What is that, bro? Idiots. Welcome to talking baseball. We don't follow the game, but we're interested. They have some prospects that are nearing the big leagues.

We're already talking about a full lineup, a full bench, but the depth is nice to have at the upper minor leagues. We have a third base shortstop in Addison Barger. We have Hayden Junker, Younger. He's the right-handed pitcher, Spencer Horowitz. And that's not even talking about the two lefties that we were talking about, Teabman and Barreria. Tough one for me.

Not in my book yet. He just got drafted. Lefty. There's guys coming. I think I like the way the Blue Jays organization is set up right now. They have money to spend. They have a decent prospect list.

They have guys that have control. I think they're going to be a team that we're talking about for years to come, like just in contention. And at least they have it set up that way now. We've got to find a way to pay some of these guys long term and keep them there. But I think we will. Hey, they always say they can pay them. And they have in recent years.

They deserve credit for the reuse and George Springer. Yeah. And, you know, Bassett this year. You know, Bassman, Bassman. Bassman. Bassman. Bassman. I like that combination.

Mattingley's with him, and he has never won a World Series. So he's excited. He's also working with Vladie at first a lot this spring. So that's a good guy to learn from. There you go. You like that a lot. Yeah. Yeah, the two kids that jump out for me, Tiedemann, he was throwing, I think there was like

24 pitches by lefties last year that were 99 and a half miles per hour plus. He was hitting that in spring training. So when you have a live lefty arm like that, just interested to track, you know, in this Blue Jays campaign. And Barger, dude, I watched him in one spring training game, but he's got that, the Brandon Drury effect. He kind of looks like it. He looks like a ball player. Really good in his uniform.

Looks like a ball player. Okay. Just treat Chad right, you know? Yeah, when Chad Green comes back, take care of it. Who's the guy that used to play third base for them? Wild card, dude. I think he was Canadian too. Brett Laurie?

Yeah, dude. Donaldson Trade. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he used to drink like six Red Bulls. Yeah. Like big time. I don't know why I just thought of him, but I did.

All right, we got 91. I like him dumping all six out into like a plastic, like, pizza picture. And just doing it. And then just drinking it from there as he walks around. I think it was just like one crack on the head, two crack on the head. He was one of those guys. Draft King's over under. What is it?

91.5. They've been right around that the last two seasons. This team looks good. Sure. over that's easy for you huh they won 92 last year yeah and you think they got better I like the completeness of the team better I also think it's a bit of a pivot year where hey two years been talking shit

thinking you're gonna win and you haven't won the division or advanced to the championship series so I think you bring maddingly in they changed the manager halfway through the season last year They shipped some of the, like, the crew out that was like the dugout morale. Got rid of the jacket. Got rid of the jacket. It's almost like, hey, wake up, guys. Oh, can I just say, like, potential.

So I think that it's going to work. Don't get something else either. Leave the jacket and then I just don't do something else. Like, I think every team needs that. Let it happen. Let it happen. Let it happen. Like if someone shits themselves.

If I see a mask day one, I'm out. Okay. I'm out. Yeah. Here's my thing Yanks will get to But man, they got a lot going on right now I want to do with you guys

We'd normally do this with teams What's their ceiling and floor? Can they win the east? Yes. Yes. What's the lowest they can be in the ALE East? Third. No fourth, I think four.

Yeah. There's not a good teams in this division, dude. You think Red Sox could have a better season? Red Sox or the Orioles can If they go? really good season, yeah. I mean, if we have some injuries here, like I'm looking through the roster,

I think that, like I said, it's very complete, and they do have backup and depth. Yeah, I think it's between first and third. Fourth would either, the Orioles would have to fully click or Red Sox Magic, and it's tough to picture that.

I'll go with the over. I'm big on Vlad this year. I'm buying a little MVP stock on Vlad. lad just in case Otani gets straight to the NL, I guess. First team to have a brawl? You know what? I think they're changing the tone there. Blue Jays don't like, the Blue Jays fans don't like us saying that because they said that they don't.

They're not as feisty as we think they are. They were on the front rail like all the time. Maybe not like brawes, but like a lot of young testosterone coming out. I'm okay with that. IT. IT levels. And you bring Kiermire over. What did Manoa say?

Told him to meet me at the Audi sign. Maybe you really did. Big boy. If you really did. Manoa put somebody in their place on Twitter not too long ago. He's a troll. But I'm not saying about it. He knows what he's doing.

Like if there's ever a chance to shit on Garrett Cole, he takes it, which is pretty funny because you know what Erks call. Like you know, he's like, come on, man. Like that. Same with Vladdy. If like a little kid asked him, who do you like playing? He's like, do you. Oh, he did say that.

But that's good. You should do that. He's like in the fun nature of like playing. nature of like playing to the crowd and yeah shit talking we all over over over and now it's my turn hit the under kid razor gonna be better right i in my head right now if i think about this team i think they can win 96 games that's a lot of games i i really really like the blue jays like these guys are getting at bats under their belts i know they're already putting up numbers but like there's just another gear i think they can hit if they can improve defensively too and you mentioned

the bullpen up they've upgraded there my guy barrio Breakout year. Roccochee. Breakout year. Rob Brantley. No, I'm going over. I don't want to be on that side, but I just can't see them. Oh, Canada.

It's Toronto, people. There's no T. Toronto. Toronto. Yeah, and there's no S in Arkansas. Oh, A. Spell your names right then. Good luck, blue, guys.

Bound, bough.