[MUSIC] >> Good morning, Joe sports at 5-9, Ben Addison, Frank Gunning, Blue Jays, Yankees. In the first of five series of the remaining 17 that the Blue Jays will play this season against teams currently in a playoff spot. >> Okay. >> Only five of 17, so that's 12 series against, now some of those are against teams that are just barely out and they're still battling to get in a fight. I mean, that's the facts. Five of the remaining 17 series, that's all that remains against teams that are in playoff spots, one of them is the New York Yankees who are battling to get to the tippy top of the American League East. They're in a dogfight, same record now as the Orioles tie atop the American League East at 65 and 45, Marcus Strowman against Kevin Gossman. Tonight, obviously wins the losses, not too important for the Blue Jays right now. Unless you're interested in the reverse standings, which I don't know, I asked Sam yesterday if he was, it's baseball, there's a lottery now. >> Sure. >> And also the draft of prospects, like, yeah, you want the best prospect. But that guy is probably not gonna factor into your team for multiple, multiple years. >> But Paul Skeens exists. >> Yep, and the Blue Jays is drafted a college pitcher that could factor in to and signed him for the deadline. He could factor in next season, I suppose. Like, are you interested in rooting for losses? >> I am not, although, and I know this isn't what you asked me, but I don't know when else I'm gonna get a chance to opine it before the thought leaves my skull. I think we hear this all the time about the idea, now maybe this is the reverse standings and I'm just misunderstanding it, but the idea of you pick up point like we hear this in like the NHL, you pick up points once you're officially eliminated. So you're actually incentivized to win despite that. I would think that world actually makes the most sense for baseball because it is kind of not such a crapshoot, but there's so much season left just in that you play every single day. I would like to see a world where maybe that happens and I understand then maybe you're just incentivizing the team that barely misses it, I don't know. But that is actually the thing I would like to see the most. But to answer your initial question, no, not paying a lack of attention. >> No, because it's more important to see the young players either that are already on this team or that could be arriving at any second now acquired before the trade deadline to succeed and if that means more wins, so much the better. Anyways, let's come up with some Jay's questions that need answering before the end of the season, by which I mean we've already come up with some. >> Nice. >> And let's talk about them. >> [LAUGH] >> All right, you want to go or you want me to go? >> You started us off. >> Okay, well, how about this one being relevant to tonight's game? This is not the number one thing on my list of priorities, but it's definitely an important one, especially when you're talking about competing in 2025. Can Kevin Gossman look like an ace again? Because we've seen him listen, he's been good, he's just coming off another complete game a second of the season. Kevin Gossman in the year 2024 has two complete games this season, including his first career shut out earlier this year. But this is a guy that you were happy, ecstatic to have starting game one of a post season series for you. >> Mm-hm. >> I know it was game two against the Mariners, but that was because he was dealing with blister issue. But this is a guy that legitimately looked like one of the aces in Major League Baseball, picked up Sayung award votes. And he started the season off on the wrong foot when he kind of pushed himself to be ready to enter the rotation despite the slow build up in spring training. And at some point, he kind of admitted to that being the wrong decision he made. And it was a reason why we could explain the season that he was having. But if this continues throughout the rest of this season, and he's just a guy as opposed to like a top of the rotation ace type guy, well, one, he's got another year of control. I mean, another year under his contract beyond 2025, his contract runs through 2026, that that's you got to deal with that guy. But also like the possibility of maybe even trading him, you're looking at lesser return, but the way you can squint and see this team returning to relevancy in 2025 is on the strength of, yeah, they got to get more bats, no question. But being back to that elite starting pitching team and it starts and ends with no offense to Jose burrios, the pitcher of the month in April, it starts and ends with Kevin Gosseman. Yeah, I think Gosseman is the biggest swing among the arms they're going to have heading into 2025. Like burrios, I think there is a ceiling a floor, but there's a level of comfort ability. I have a knowing what you're going to get there. Gosseman just given like all the facts you laid out, the weird start to the season, the super highs we've seen, the low of lows that we've seen as well. I think he's the guy who kind of changed his expectations most one way or another. Very similar question I'm asking the, the stratosphere is just a little different. Jariel Rodriguez, he is a, he is a massive, what do they have here for me? I think he's going to be just from the fact that they're going to have some holes to fill going to be in this rotation or at least have every opportunity. But how certain about that are you or how or I guess the best way to phrase it is in an ideal world where does Jariel Rodriguez factor into your rotation? I think the highest of high end and this isn't something I've seen enough of. Yep. But if you squinted the best moment, you could say, yeah, that could be a three on a good team. I think the more likelihood is that he kind of falls into the four or five camp. I mean, if he's your five, you're probably laughing quite frankly. But that is another one where I think that if Gosseman is the biggest guy who defines the swing one way or another, I think having some certainty about Rodriguez helps you kind of understand what the floor of your rotation could be. Yeah. I think at worst though, unless he shows more starts like his last one against the Orioles, which was abominable. But we've seen we've seen plenty of good ones as long as he keeps throwing more often than not. Yep. Good to passable starts. I think you're penciling him into your rotation in 2025. The other guy that is in this manner aware though, yeah, I think Bowden Francis, you're in a bad spot. If you're penciling him into your rotation in 2025, but you need Bowden Francis to look like possible, like to look like a guy through five and two thirds innings in his last start against the Baltimore Orioles and gave up three or four runs in that game. Like can he just do that? Can he keep you in games? Can he be a guy that is the ace of the staff in Buffalo and somebody goes down with an injury or lack of performance or yada yada yada or it's a double ladder. You need a starter and he's up at the major league level that you feel like, oh, we don't need all of our relievers on standby in the second inning that even if he gives up a couple of early runs, he can get through that even against some of the best offenses in baseball. Can Bowden Francis be that guy? There's a huge end of the season for him. And by the way, I got, I think that's his upside. There's some people that believe it's higher than that. You know, Sarah Sun, his latest on the athletic talks about the new splitter that he's throwing and some of the metrics that surround the movement of some of his pitches. This is Francis. Just to clarify. But there, there's like a potentially higher upside with him than we've seen at the major league. And he only just started throwing the splitter. It's so funny how it works with guys of the Bowden Francis Hill because I just burned once. I was a believer in you, Bowden. I was ready to buy a little stock heading into the season. I was telling all my friends, like, I got this hot stock tip. Might want to go crazy. I'm going to throw a couple bucks on Bowden and and it just hasn't gone the way you would have expected to. I think that's super encouraging what you hear, but he is almost a classic like I've been bit once on this. I need to be proven the other way, but that's what the rest of the season is kind of about here. This is a bit of a catch all, but it's how many holes do you have to fill? That is that is far and away to me. The biggest question, you know, the answer is some, but can you get some certainty in any of those other places? Because I mean, even kind of falafel, like I'm not going to sit here and cry over the loss that was I K F, but that's a guy that you're going to put on your 26 ma'am rosters on the books for like you had some certainty of that. That's now gone. I just think there are so many jobs up for grabs and I don't think you look at it completely this way, but this is what you would always want in your spring training when you have jobs up for grabs is an extended time where other teams are trying and you're going to see major league talent, you're going to get that here down the stretch. Yeah, that's an interesting one because you're right, like, Hey, there's, there's a bunch of outfielders that are now a part of the mix and Joey Loperfito is literally already on the roster. Jonathan, class A is going to be called up at some point you would think. Yep. Do those guys factor into the discussion in left field because that's the obvious spot. Right. You got Dalton Vartio in center field and you got George Springer in right field, third base. Hey, there's no obvious third baseman Ernie Clement, your, your roster ball major league baseball player, but I don't think anybody wants Ernie Clement playing every day at third base. I even kind of blustered at the first thing you said, it's like he is roster ball and he is a major league player, but it's like, I don't know, can we like get to that later? I don't want to just consider that like a checked box of the 26 man roster. Yeah. I mean, he's got an OPS is 700 and he's played capable defense across multiple positions. But yeah, you definitely don't want Ernie Clement playing third base. Will Wagner, maybe we'll see it that at the major league level, he's played some third base all around the diamond is defensive ability is apparently limited and he is not a ton of pop, but he has good on base skills, good back to bill ball skills. Are two months enough to, to say definitively any of these guys are like, even penciled in to starting spots in either of those positions, because those are the obvious spots. You also need another catcher, but the catcher that they acquired is way, way away from major leagues is not going to be factoring into the discussion at all for next season. And guess what? Neither is Brian Servin. No offense. But Brian Servin knows this. Yes. Uh, Danny Johnson, maybe is a, is a character that could return to the, the fold here in free agency, but the two obvious and then you need, you need multiple bats and you don't need a definitive DH bat, but yeah, that's another position that you can throw one of the bats that you acquire this off season. But is the two month runway we have enough to say, Hey, Jonathan, class A got called up and he went on a two month heater and, and played great defense and stole a bunch of bases. There's your opening day left fielder next season because I don't think it is. I don't think it's enough, but I think in a perfect world, you, I think in a perfect world, you see that from two to three of those guys and then depending on what the outlook is, be it in trade market, be in free agency, you're able to fill at least one of those holes with something that you are more certain in and concrete and again, no shots to the guy who actually like panned out to be a fine free agent signing, especially since they trade him, but like not in the IKF neighborhood in a something that excites you neighborhood, be it a third, be it in that corner, outfield spot. And one of those positions, I think the last thing in the world, this team should do unless they are signing a like guy who's going to walk into Cooper's town and go sign a DH. The idea, if you are bringing in a bat, they better be able to play a position unless they are, you know, like you're on Alvarez or something of that, okay? You have to have the positional flexibility because with all those names we just mentioned, you know what's going to happen? Even if they have two great months, all of them, they're all going to have slumps of various different times of the year. They're young players. They go through it. You're going to need to have the maneuverability to kind of move whoever this bat you need to go get in at least one this off season. So I think in kind of a perfect world, one or two of those guys establish themselves to the point that it is not a emergency if you can't find someone for that spot, but also don't overperform to a way that you say, oh yeah, that's that's set in stone because let's be honest, this front office just went out and traded for all those guys. You don't have nothing more in the world than those guys to appear like locks to be on the roster next year. Yeah. And if they do, that's great. But don't make them locks. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You still need a left fielder. You still need a third baseman and you need another bat that is not currently on this roster or within this organization. Now maybe, you know, because of injury, one of those guys is on the roster are playing a starting position beginning of the season next season. The ideal scenario is that you back fill those positions with like more certainty at the major league level. And those guys are all in the minor leagues and then are forced into duty and then they force your hand where you're like, oh, we got a big problem. Yes, we got a big problem because this guy's got to play and we already paid this other guy in free agency or traded for this guy. And what do we do? It's a great problem to have. And you find a way to get both bats in the lineup. The other question, I so there is one position where I think you can get a better idea of certainty at a position. It's second base because the sample is growing with Spencer Horowitz and the sample is growing with David Schneider. Who can be part of the discussion to check in base? I don't know if it's a straight up platoon because Spencer Horowitz doesn't have like huge splits lefty right despite being a left handed hair. He's just capable hitting and getting on base against everybody and obviously the lack of power less impactful when he's not playing first base. But can you get by with those two guys? Some combination of Spencer Horowitz and David Schneider at second base. That's the one position that I think you could probably, if this level of production continues the end of the season and it's mostly going to be Spencer Horowitz, if that level like he's got a 280 to 90 batting average with like a 350 on base and the slug isn't super high, but whatever he gets on base and plays capably defensively at that position. You can see a world where he is your starting second baseman in 2025, but that's a question that needs answering in the last two months. This is just as much about wearing that on the J's than it is about on Horowitz. I just had already considered that a kind of settled, settled question and that's not a little bit recently, but but again, this isn't about that Horowitz has performed to such a place that I go, oh, there's nothing that can happen the rest of the way that changed my mind. Because when you have this many fires to put out, I shouldn't say organizationally, but roster wise, I just think you look at like, I don't know, there's like a little burning end burr over there at second base, you got, okay, I'll throw this fire blanket on it and Spencer Horowitz. It's like, yeah, let's just not look over there for a while. Let's let the blanket do its thing and let me fight these actual like blazing fires that are happening a third base and I feel that the other positions we've talked about there. So I think that just like it kind of hammers home for me, how differently I feel about it. But it's again, it's not that Horowitz has gone over above and beyond, it's just that the org has so many other holes that I say, you know what, I know, I know, maybe a leak is a better analogy than a fire. It's like, there's a little water coming in there, but there's a hole in the roof. So I'm going to go deal with that. Yeah, it's a good point. Um, let's do one more because I also want to power rank, who we're rooting for as ex Blue Jays quickly before we take a break here. Yeah, my my other last one is, is there anything John Schneider can do one way or another to make anybody change his mind? And I mean that from a fan base perspective, I'd be that from a front office perspective. I'd be that from an ownership perspective. When you're the manager, you're the face of it of having to wear it is, how does he go about this? Is it a straight kind of, all right, it's spring training. Everybody's going to get their looks regardless of how you're performing. Is it going to be more performance based? Does he start to have some favorites that worked their way in? I mean, I think back to the conversations we've had in the past about Kevin Bezio, like it's only natural that a manager is going to have a favorite. I think that's the other one I'm kind of looking for is just what, what do we get from John Schneider managing quite frankly, a completely different ball team? Yeah. And this is, I mean, it plays into this question. We're going to get in. Here's what I know we're going to get, an answer to these questions on August 7th. What does Mark Shapiro think of his GM's job security, his managers, the job he's done this season? For the first time since spring training, Mark Shapiro will speak on August 7th. What does he say about the situation his organization is in after a near decade on the job where they're spending all this money, they're no good on the field and they had a horrible farm system. How does he feel about that? How does he feel about the job the general manager did? How does he feel about the manager who in his first half of season, yeah, got them into the playoffs, but then made the move going to Tim Maza over Kevin Gossman that resulted in one of the biggest collapses in the postseason in franchise history and since then has won a postseason game and they only won 89 season, what does he think about those guys? That one's an easy one because I know we're going to get an answer to that next week. I can't wait and it's like high drama. Oh yeah. All right. Let's write the former Blue Jays and how you're rooting for them or not. Sure. I could just give him my number one with the bullet off the top. Yeah. Danny Janssen. Oh, interesting. He's always a different one. He is always my favorite. Like, I just love Jano. I love dumb baseball arguments like is clutch real and I watch Danny Janswell baseball so I know damn well it's real. I'm a sucker for the glasses. He mixes in like no batting gloves sometimes. He just looks old school about him. He hits bombs. He's he's tough and I know that because he's always hurt and it's not like a pain tolerance just like guys just just in there eating it all the time. I just have such a soft spot for for Janssen. So yeah, he was my number one with the bullet. So he's number three for me. And here's the reason why. I mean, part of it is he plays in the division for the Red Sox. Yeah, totally fair. Incidentally, if you want to bring him back and I believe the Blue Jays, when they say they do and one of the guys that that they were talking extension to, by the way, Mark Shapiro in his tenure has handed out precisely two extensions. Can you name that the two players he's extended? I can't. No, it's Jose Barrios. Okay. Long one. That should have been very obvious. Randall Grichik is the other one who famously well only famous to me who once lost control of a bat while I was sitting in like the Hazel May alley there and he almost decapitated me. Yeah. It's a great bit. Yeah, I've seen it. So that he's not a guy that hands out extensions is going to be a big conversation around his first baseman this offseason. Okay. Is he as good as Randall Grichik? Good question. But those are the only two guys they apparently were talking extension with Danny Janssen like thanks, but no thanks. If he performed super well for a high profile Boston Red Sox team and leads them into the postseason. Guess what that does to his price tag? Yeah, probably not factoring into the Blue Jays plans in 2025 also feels like and like it definitely drives price tag up regardless. It does feel like that'd be like a fun thing to sign up to do again. Like if you had a summer of playing in Boston, yeah, again, like it's just like I can easily see a world. Yeah. So yeah, for all the reasons that you said, yeah, sure, love the player and he was the longest tenured. No, no, that's all fair. But yeah, just if I can be cold and logical about it, he's not rooted for Danny Janssen. No, that's fair. That's fair. The guy that's number one on my list is and there's some feels involved in this. I'm not surprised by this at all. Yeah. As you say, of course. Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course. He was too for me. It's tough because it's the Astros and screw them, but like screw everybody. Like who is there a team where you're like, oh, he went to such and such. Maybe it's IKF with the pirates because, but that's just because they're irrelevant. I have him his second last actually because it's like, I don't. The last three guys, I'm rooting for at least is the one that I care passionately about at the bottom of my list. IKF to the pirates immediately becomes the the dawn for mad men of like, oh, like I don't think about you at all. It's like, hey, man, I'm so I'm really happy for him because he gets to watch Paul skiing. It's like good for him. Yeah. That's the most happy I am for him involved in all this. The third guy for my list, I give you my top two. Okay. It's Keir Meyer. I really enjoy it. I have him as two for me. So we have the top three, but in different orders slightly different order. Yeah. I, I, well, you, you, oh, you have Janssen three. I could, I could remember Keir Meyer Janssen. Yeah. Okay. So I have, I have a Janssen Kakuchi and Keir Meyer, this guy who just like, hey, let it never be forgotten. He drove in the run against the twins will always remember it. And by that, no one will be forgotten to the sands of time and in the Jose burrios game. But yeah, he was just good J. He got to have a guy that tormented you forever. Good citizen seems like like all the stories you hear about him are just awesome. He's handsome. Good luck. Look good in blue. That's why you want to root for him. He's got every, he's got every advantage in life. Yeah. Some people just deserve it. Good for you. I mean, all that is true and part of the reason he's number two on my list. But secondarily, I got one Kevin Keir Meyer in my life more. And I think he could reconsider like if he refines it a little bit and he understands that his role going forward is like defensive replacement, fourth out fielder guy. And he can capably do that without his body breaking down and turning to dust. I don't discount the possibility he reconsiders as he goes into a year in which he's going to turn 35 in April. Now I will say the Dodgers of it all does affect me like they're right behind the Yankees in terms of my just like loads of baseball franchises. I want to succeed like there's just none. But you're right. Seems you're like, okay. And there are teams you hate if they win, but you're the idea of like, oh, that's my other team. Come on. One of my 12. Yeah. The other guys are like, I don't know. Mix and match. Justin Turner, Jimmy Garcia, Trevor Richards, Isaiah, Connor Foleffa for me. Garcia at the top of the list is like he did the most. So I appreciate him the most and good luck to him the most. I have Justin Turner the most because he'd like shadow to the old's like just prove him wrong. Let's go. Well, actually, I'm going to say I'm going to move Turner up on my list. Just in case like he or his family are listening, it's like we obviously really appreciate the Turner's in Canada. Yes, that's right. Just let that be known mostly for a world baseball classic 22-ish years from now. And the guy that's dead last on my list, which I don't know. And this is nothing towards the person individual. And Nate Pearson picked up his first win as a cub yesterday went to scoreless. Yes. Nice bounce back after giving up a moonshot and plonking somebody in the head in his Cubs debut, but we all know that, yeah, Nate Pearson's capable of that. Can he do it again? And as a blue jade, no, it would just be the most painful thing to see him turn into the guy that you thought at the very least he was going to be as a blue jade, a dominant reliever. That's why he's dead last my list. Again, no, it seems like a lovely fella, but I'm just saying just baseball wise, that's the one that would hurt the most if he was good. That would actually be the very Jay-Z for them to absolutely nail this deadline and get two or three every day guys for the next half decade coming out of it. And Nate Pearson goes on to become a stud of all studs, and that's the price you had to pay. Like you still do it, of course, because we're just trying to move on. But yeah, that's a good, that's the right way to look at it with Nate Pearson. And the right day I'm her home, like nothing personal. You're just too good. And if you're really good, I'll never stop thinking about it. But now, especially now that he's gone, I can actually will myself do agree into this. It's like, yeah, 100 straight, who cares? Anybody can hit that. You can be tying that up. Yeah. Not yesterday. No. For the day before. Yeah. Well, and I think that's actually going to be very informative of the Nate Pearson experience. 100%. All right, when we come back, talk to Kevin Barker. Of Blair and Barker next, as the fan morning show continues, Ben Annis, Brian Gunning, Sportsnet 590, the fan. Covering the blue jades from an analytical perspective, Jay's talk plus with Blake Murphy, be sure to subscribe and download Jay's talk on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. No, you don't give the first basement a blank check. I will be very curious to see what Peter Lonzo gets to create to be this off-season. And I wonder, is that going to inform the blue jades when it comes to what they've paid bloody, or what they try to pay bloody, or are they going to go to him and say, you are the guy we want to build around, and we want to pay you like a franchise player? Fan morning shows, Sportsnet 590, the fan, Ben Annis, Brian Gunning, that was Jeff Bassen on Blair and Barker yesterday, talking about Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., who's talking to our next guest. Our insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit Don Valley, Northlexus.com, former first baseman himself, Kevin Barker, to defend your boys. Whose boys? The first baseman. Yeah. Look, I think there's exceptions to every role. Well, you know what? You know, it's funny. It's like, that is generally true. Do you know what? The average major league first baseman is O.P.S.ing this season. It's 717, and they're hitting 240 with an on-base of 315. Like nobody hits in baseball. If you find somebody that hits at any position, I almost throw that old adage that, you know, the first base isn't as valuable as other positions. If you can find offense somewhere, you got to pay it. Yeah. I don't know. I think it comes down to his age. I think it comes down to the relationship between the front office and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. Look, I have no idea what the number is going to be, but if passing is right, I would think that would be easier to sell ownership and also be able to go out and get at least one more aircraft carrier. Like they can't go out and get a Kevin Barker. They got to go out and get somebody who can help Laddie. That's the one thing I think the last couple of years that we know now. That bow and Laddie can't do it by themselves. Like you can't have front office come out and say, "We believe in the court and the coaches." Well, you know, like that's a lie. Like you, no more can we hear that. Now you know, and I think Ross coming out the last couple of days and sort of saying, you know, basically we screwed up. They needed help. We apologize. We're going to try and fix this. We have assets now to go out and maybe trade for a catcher, you know, maybe a legit number three starter. You know, I think they're going to have to buy the aircraft carrier, you know, the Anthony Santanderas of the world, the Christian Walkers of the world, you know, I mean, if you want to throw Tyler O'Neill in there, if you throw Tyler O'Neill in there, you'll have to add another say brand and allow kind of thing, right? So yeah, look, I think maybe now they know, like there is no questions going into the off season exactly what you need. You've went down this road. You tried to, you know, sort of pay for what you thought you had to pay for to help a team consistently go to the playoffs. It didn't work. Now you have to go out and, you know, good players cost money. And if I'm flatty, I'm not sure what I do. I've had conversations with people around him and, you know, he's not very happy with the way they've, the front office has treated him and, and, you know, one side's wanted to be here. The other side seems like they want nothing to do with the other side. So I just don't know if I'm flatty, what I do. And here in passing, passing, it's not going to say that just be, just to be saying it and get, you know, the morning show to play it the next day when I come on the show, he's saying it because he knows it. He's talked to people that have the right answer. And again, if I'm hearing that and I'm a fan of flattys and I'm a fan of the Blue Jays and I want flatty to come back, I would think that'd be easier to get him back. I think it'd be easier to pay a number that starts with a two instead of a number that starts with a three. So, you know, for me, I think this is probably the first step, right is you either come to a resolution with the shortstop, you know, we're happy we hug it out or we will never figure this out. We've broken up. I'm trading you. I'll get what I can get for you. And now I got to sign the big boy and I'll add pieces around him because flattys don't grow on trees. Well, I think that's kind of interesting and, you know, a lot of what you just said, but I think the thing that jumps out to most people is the potential kind of relationship from more. What more could the player quite honestly have asked for? I mean, maybe he got moved off third at the time. He didn't feel like that was right. But I think that has worked out well for him, including winning winning a gold glove. Like, I just can't think of what more and, you know, there's always contritions that could be made between someone and their employer, but it seems to me like the Blue Jays have been treating Vlad kind of an excellent faith, at least from the outside looking in. Yeah. Look, look, he if I'm flatty, he saw his buddy get bald out of arbitration, right? You know, the three or whatever 32 and a half absolutely it is like, you know, it's how much do you believe in me? You know how much you can show me is pay me like, you know, make my wallet fatter. You know, don't don't take me to arbitration and fight over a million bucks. Like, don't do that. If you're if you're believing in the core and you expect the core to go out and thump and carry the team for six and a half months, pay me. Don't don't make me feel like I'm not wanted. And you guys know this is life. It's just not baseball. This is life. If people think you're the best at something and you work for that company, pay me. Like show me. That's the only way. It's not hugging people out and, you know, it's not hand shaking and it's not, we'll get you later. You know, I said that I said this. I think John Snyder come out a couple of days ago and said that we may see Vlad at third. And the first answer I had was if I'm flatty, no, you won't. You pay me. I'll go to third. You don't pay me. I'm a first baseman. Like I'm, you know, one of my second OPS and first and average and fifth and homers and fourth and RBI. I'm second and slugging nine of my 21 homers and went the other way like I figured some things out as a first baseman. We are bazillion out of first place. We're not making the playoffs. Why are you sticking Horwitz over there to find out if he could play first? No. Yeah. Pay me. I'll go wherever you want me to go. You don't pay me. I'm a first base. Yeah. That's what they've done with me because I'm like, hey, keep me on the morning show. And they're like, we'll pay you to sit with Barker for a couple of days. No, that hasn't happened. That has been no financial renumeration for the actual told me it is as good as money as being given the gift of no Ben when he does leave to go with you. So that's what I've been getting. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. That's coming up next week, Wednesday through Friday. Sounds like you both are winners. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay, you mentioned the opposite field power that Vlad shown. This is as close. That might be as good as the 2021 version, what we've seen here the last month here, Kevin. Is there something you can put your finger on? Like, is there something you're seeing technically, mechanically that that has changed for hammers at all? Just just clicking because, you know, the exit velocity stuff is finally manifesting itself in actual results. Now. Yeah, Jeff rolls his eyes. When I say there's no pressure, I'm glad to go up and just be glad. That's true. Right. The first couple of months, we saw what it looked like. There's pressure, carry a tank, carry an organization, carry a country. We saw what it looked like. Right. Again, this gets back to that now. They don't need khakis. They don't need, you know, a computer to tell them that the two core guys, one of them still here and there's still two core guys needs help surround them. I think that has something to do with lack of pressure. I do think there's something to I've been saying this a bazillion times, right? It's not always mechanical. It's where you stand in the box. He's moved a little bit away. Made it easier for him to, you know, freed him up on the ball and also made it a little easier for him to lay off of pitches, you know, the sinker for a variety in off the plate. That was his sort of Kryptonite, you know, it was to lean back. It was the late. It was the timing issue is to roll over to third, the ground ball to shorter by throwing their hands in the air, you know, throwing their chocolate milk with the refrigerator. So it was, again, I think it was a combination of a bunch of things and, you know, give him credit, right? He's mechanically figured out that, you know, the wasted move. I get back to the, to the George Springer thing and, you know, it's the captain obvious here. I get a little older. I'm on the back nine. My bat's not as fast as it used to be velocities never been better. How do I beat the guy to the spot? You know, if I have movement that's useless, I eliminate it, right? It was the coil of the barrel. It was where the barrel started with Springer, you know, now gravity's taken over a little bit and I just dropped barrel to ball. I can beat the dude, no matter how hard he's throwing to the spot, Blatty's a little that way, right? If you can imagine, close your eyes, the hand movement that Blatty had last year just didn't match the flourishing of the gather, right? That little lower half thing that he does, you know, the hands were sort of gravity taking over. Hands were moving too much and a, you know, sort of a gravity falling lower. What do you do when you take your positive move? You have to get them back up. That was the little wasted movement. He's eliminated. That's a little shorter. I get back. I think the sort of now it's the free and easy approach. There's no pressure on me. We are bazillion out, everybody thinks we stink. We do probably stink. Now I just go up and I'm Blatty, right? And when Blatty's getting a good pitch to head and he's not overthinking it, this is what I said. Go get somebody like you want to run this thing back. You want to show fans that the organization, you know, I have no idea what they're going to do. Ross. I don't know if Mark's coming back. I don't know if I even care. Show us, like show us that you give a crap about Blatty and the fans and the new stadium and all those things, bring in somebody that knows how to thump and can help the big boy at first and, you know, see if we were cooking with gravy. See if that's going to work out because they've already tried this other stuff. So hopefully fingers crossed they do that go out and get an everyday catcher. If you had a, you know, a ninth and eighth inning guy, you can do what you want with your germano. I don't think this is a hard fix. I don't know about you guys. I don't think this is like I think they can use the ass. Yeah. I think they they have assets now they can trade for a really good catcher. So you don't have to see Kirk every single day. Like who's who's done with that? I am. You know, maybe it can get you a ninth inning guy. That'll probably cost you, but you go out trade for your eighth inning guy. You know, you got a bunch of six and seventh inning guys here. You know, the, the pops of the world figure out his sinker, not two semer. The Ryan Burr looks like his sliders legit. Maybe those two dudes are fighting for a job. Little Cabrera, you found your two lefties. You know, you can go out and get, I don't know, Jimmy Garcia, bring him back. If you keep Jordan or mono, maybe there's your seventh, eighth inning guy, like it's not a hard fix. Like you got to get creative, but now you have assets. If ownership's still going to pony up and it doesn't seem like they've, you know, there's any inkling that they won't, that'll get you a high, you know, an aircraft carrier guy that hits cleanup. So yeah, it's not figure out how to keep it in the yard as a rotation. And I think they'll do that. So yeah, it's the offensive side of thing that I, I, I just, yeah, you're right. They need to go out and get that aircraft carrier, but they need more than one. Like this, this offense has been being hard to watch for two straight years now, Kevin. You think that's an easy enough fix. Yeah. I think money will fix a lot of things. And I think ownership has shown you that they'll, they'll do that. If you have to release guys, if you have to trade the shortstop to, to get rid of some money off your books, you do that, right? I mean, again, you get, you get creative here. The three wild card spots here have opened it up and it's amazing. They're out of it with three wild card spots. Yeah. And they were out of it in July. It's insane. They, again, this is, you know, expectations and, and dudes trying too hard and, and going outside the box. But I haven't mentioned the area of Rodriguez, right? You figure out what that is. The next 10 starts that he's going to have the end of the season, you know, he's old enough not to fall off the cliff, right? You know, you, you add, you put a little pressure on him. You push him in the right direction. I'm sure Pete Walker will try and do that, right? It's, you know, it looked like you've been there before. It's that kind of thing. Don't look like, you know, because it's hot outside, you know, you've never pitched in the heat. Like, yeah, it's little things like this that fans and me and Jeff yelled about this yesterday. Well, you know, what is a fan other than Vladie trying to hit 30 want to tune in and watch? And I said, there's a bunch of things, right? There's the Addison barges of the world. There's, is Davis Schneider, can he figure out how they to have a consistent mechanical approach and destroy left handed pitching? You want to be in the big leagues? Destroy lefties. Like you want to be a part of the team going forward, destroy left handed pitching. So there is little things, you know, to look forward to if you're a fan. It's a very individual game. It's not about the standings, not about the outcome of the game. It's going and watching a Addison Barger, who's widened out the approach. Maybe the bat speed's there. Maybe he'll show you something and that nice left handed bat with power would be nice, something nice going into the offseason that you can gain momentum on, not only as a fan, but as an organization. So there is things to look forward to here, but I do, I do think it's not a hard fix. I think now they know exactly what to go get. They ain't, they don't have to rocket science this thing. They don't have to get 55 khakis in a room and try and figure out the solution to make the playoffs. Yeah. You have it now. You've watched this for two years. There ain't no overthinking it. There is now, you know, this is the amount of money that it's going to take to go get exactly what we need. Now it's just up to the right people going and getting it. Yeah, the cops, they'll do that. The khakis probably be like, eh, 55. That's a round number. We don't work with those. We actually need like 52.47 khakis in the, in this room to fix the problem. Sounds like last place boy boy does it. You mentioned, you mentioned the names that we're going to see throughout the rest of the season, be it natas and barge or be it some of the names they, they traded for. How much can you find out about these guys in, in two months? I mean, we're going to find out something, but I also think no matter how definitive it is, it's a two month sample size in a game that's built out of long, long, long sample sizes, how much would you buy anything you, you kind of saw from again, whether, whether it be somebody we knew ahead of time, like a barger or a low perfito or somebody they traded for. Okay. Let me ask you a question. You know, do you know what Ernie Clement is? Probably. Probably. Yeah. Do you know what Davis Schneider is? Probably. Yeah. Do you know what horror, what's is? I mean, he looks like he's the everyday second baseman. Probably might hit somewhere around the top of the order in front of the big boys, right? Joey, Joey, low perfito, John Schneider's coming on our show today. I will ask him that question, like, what can you learn in the next two months about a guy? I've always come to the realization that do can hit, do can hit like it. It don't take too much to figure that out, right? Low perfito has some mechanical things that need to be tweaked to make him a little bit better. That is the red flag. I said this to Jeff as soon as now, who, you know, until they traded for him, who really knew who low perfito was? So I got on video just like everybody else did. I made some phone calls to some people I knew with the Astros, and they were saying some changes with the lower half needed to be needed to be sort of refined. And the first thing I thought of, well, have we really seen a coach or coaching staff when it comes to the offensive side for the Blue Jays, be able to fix people? I've been saying this to Jeff forever. The head scratching thing is how long the slumps last to the players that play every day with the Blue Jays. Go down the list, even Turner when he left, said I went through the longest month slump I ever been in in my entire career. Well, why the hell is that going on? Right? That's the thing I think you need to figure out is the coaching staff not good enough. Is the players not good enough? So you know, that's a fair question that you asked. I will ask John that today. But I think you sort of know right now, it's just tweaking to get the fullest out of that dude. And that I think is sort of the fine line here that the Blue Jays are trying to walk, right? Is it just you're a messenger or do you really know what the heck you're talking about that I think? And there's some urgency here of this or do we need to clean it up and, you know, eliminate the voices in the room? Is there too many? Is there, you know, the ones that have the biggest voices, just the voice is not good enough. And I would say I would be in the camp of the latter because the sample size of the slumps are here. I think they need to refine that, figure that out. And, you know, again, this is sort of the window of guys having some urgency of you want to be on the team. There's a window here of you showing people, of showing us that you can hit, showing us that, you know, you can lay off a breaking ball. I think low professional knows how to hit a hater. It's all the other stuff. It's laying off the strike to ball, breaking ball. It's being more competitive with two strikes. It's, can you level out your swing because of your, your lower half deficiencies on the fastball up? Like, there's some things there that we need to see here in the next two months that hopefully we'll see. And if you don't, I think you can use him to trade. Like you, again, it gets back to that. If you ain't a part of it, trade him. Like just don't force it on Jay's fans to have to watch dudes that are not big leaguers. But I think it's worth their attitude and organization, I don't know about you guys, but I think again, they say rocket science. Sometimes they try to turn it into rocket science. Sometimes you got to watch your two eyeballs. You watch your two eyeballs. And most of the time, if you got the right people watching it, they'll tell you that if a dude could play or not. So hopefully they're here and hopefully they'll fix it and gain some momentum going in the off season and be a better team. Again, I bring this back there are three wild card spots. The Jay should be contending for one of them next year. I think, yeah, save some of this heat for next week when I'm with you, Kevin, on Wednesday. I got one gear, I got one gear, brother, that is four. Okay. So good. I just want to sit in the chair and say, Kevin, what do you think? And then you just fill the next two hours with your, your screeds. Okay. Well, we got a pretty good show for a reason. So yeah. Obviously. Yeah. He helps. He helps. Yeah. He's there. He's in the right direction, Kevin. This was a lot of fun. And I'm looking forward to working with you next week. See you. Hey, do your part now. Okay. I always do it. Sit back. I just lay out for Kevin Barker. We'll have, we'll have a good time. I'm sure they'll give us a lot to talk about. I am sure. See you buddy. See you boys. Have a good weekend, everybody. You too. Kevin Barker of Blair and Barker, our insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit Don Valley, northlexus.com. All I could think about and like, you know, I'm going to go out on a limb and say like, maybe don't agree politically, but all I could think about at the end of every single one of those was like a big old Howard Dean, like, yeah, at the end of every, I was like, great point again. I just wanted to like give it to him, but yeah, he was cooking. I cook him with gravy, which I didn't know was a thing, but I mean, I guess you can also cook with gas while gravy is being heated up. Just for the record. People are like, soo-veeing stuff in gravy or like boiling stuff in gravy. Can I get in on that? I might soon die after, but I'd like to get in on that before I meet my maker. It's good to hear somebody with that take because I haven't heard, I mean, other than Ross Atkins and Marc Shapiro, who are like, we can fix this, we're coming back in 2025. They're a little biased. That Kevin does see a pathway. I mean, and I guess the most obvious one is the one he mentioned at the end and repeated. There's three wild cards in each league, so the bar for entry, again, you have to be so bad to be out of it in July. Blue Jays? Well done. Accomplish that goal. I don't know that they set out to get there. So yeah, that, I guess if you're going down the list of reasons why contending for a playoff spot in 2025 is not an outrageous outlandish thing to think about, yeah, that's number one. But yeah, that he thinks that there's, you know, not that far away. What's in the bullpen is the second worst, second worst bullpen in all of baseball. Sure. Like maybe Zach Pop is part of the solution. Ryan Burr, a guy that's banged around. I mean, it's a believer. So you never know. I guess they, to me, they got one guy you can count on that's Chad Green. Yep. Jordan Romano's out of sight. I don't know. There's been some talk about him being non-tendered because of the injury concerns that he has. They've had those guys in the bullpen all season long. They're one of the worst in all of baseball. The rotation. Yeah. And need a couple more starters. The offense don't need a complete overhaul. Yep. There are no elections in Blue Jays land, but I believe and go out and sign someone who mashes God if there was ever a winning message to just like gain votes in this again thing we don't vote for, but good job Kevin Barker. All right. Time now for the wake and break presented by sports interaction, your homegrown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly, Blue Jays, Yankee seven o'clock on sports net and sports net five, nine of the van. Kevin Gossman against Marcus Strowman Yankees minus one 67 Blue Jays plus one 35 the total is nine. Do you have a lean here? Kevin Gossman may be good. Let's go under on the nine. I know it's the Yanks minus one 15. That's what I'm liking though. You do have to pay a little more. It's minus one oh five if you like the over there, but yeah, that's the thing I'm feeling most confident about. I think Gossman back Strowman has had had some solid appearances against the Jays as well. So there's one thing that I love a lot and it's they've got some player props, Aaron Judge versus Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. on sports interaction, most strikeouts. So Aaron judges is having an MVP level season again, but he strikes out a bunch and Vlad doesn't. But for some reason, Aaron judge is not the favorite to have more strikeouts. He's plus 200 Vlad minus 286 in this game. I love the guy that yeah, he's got an OPS of 1136, but has 119 strikeouts to strike out more than Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., has always put bad on ball. Yeah, I will gladly follow you there. If you this is more of a feel one, but it's like, hey, Vlad, he's been red hot. He's been hitting him out of the yard lately. You get him at plus 300 and he's entirely possible. He has one and judge has none in this game for just most homers total. So if we're looking at the player props, that's what I like there. All right. That was the waking right presented by sports interaction, your home grown sports book. 19 plus bet responsibly. When we come back, Canada, Spain, wrapping up the group stage of the Olympic men's basketball tournament. We'll talk to Nabil Kareem, reporter for NBA TV in the NBA Unseen Tea. Curly in Paris for CBC. He's next as the fan morning show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, sports net 590, the fan. [MUSIC]
