[MUSIC] Fan Morning Show Sports at 590. The fan band has been gunning out. Phillies do it a lot better than everybody else right now. Best team of baseball looked like it. Bryce Harper has been on base in a million consecutive games at a grand slam yesterday. That was, God, I meant to check this. But, and that seems like a great ballpark. I'm thinking that's not a grand slam at Roger Center where he hit it. >> Yeah, I don't know. But anyways, it doesn't matter. That's where they played the game. Blue Jays were well within their rights to hit a cheap home run. >> They hit one there too, yeah. >> They allowed. Permit it. >> True. >> They don't have a fence. Well, they do have a fence, let's go and say there's no like netting stop in the ball going on when it's just the Jays. It's not even like that local park here in the City of Toronto, I don't know if you saw this story with the sign that said no home runs allowed. >> I feel like, can we, can I just make a, can I make a request that we not get angry about this again next spring? I feel like this is the second or third spring that we've done this where people are right. >> Up in our school, no home runs, what is this virgin park? Like it's just like, yeah, yeah, guys, you're not allowed to hit home runs. Like I get it every year we go over this, it's just a thing every single year drives me nuts. Can't stand it. >> Yeah, a lot about the city that's, yeah, makes you scratch your head a little bit. >> Anyways, yeah, we're not going to do that next year. Take all the signs that say, don't hit home runs at this baseball diamond in the city. Like take all those down. >> Yeah, like let me agree also. >> They are taking that one down. >> Okay, it's dumb. >> Okay. >> The sign should say home runs only with the flexing emulsion. >> Mashes only. >> Mashes only. >> All right, they have a fence right in front of home play. >> Yeah. >> It's like you have to hit it over the fence. So you're not allowed. >> Yeah, maybe that should be the sign outside of the Blue Jays dugout at Roger Center. I mean, maybe it'd help. Couldn't hurt. Anyways, Blue Jays four games under 500 right now. The numbers are gory because the bullpen's horrific. The starting pitching is still like league average-ish. But yeah, Jose burrios goes from having the best ERA in the major leagues to having his worst start since that failed opening day assignment where he only got one out. But that's fine. I don't think anybody questions that he's still a very good starting pitcher, probably not as good as he was pitching before that. But they started the show with reasons for optimism with this group and they are limited. Again, I'll rehash it for you. It's boba shit. Can't be this bad. >> Yeah. >> And the rotations like pretty good, but I don't know if it's elite elite. It's quite good. Blue rotation is a very good end of list. The reasons for pessimism are too many to number. So it's hard not to think about what could be coming here at the end of July, right? It's May. It's baseball. Things happened. Like this could be such a stupid conversation, like how quaint it was those guys talked about the sell off that's about to occur at the end of July when the Blue Jays are the best team in baseball, hard to imagine that being the reality, but can't discount the possibility. But if this thing does progress the way it's trending, the Blue Jays are dead last in their division, which boy, especially if the Red Sox have figured out the starting pitching thing, seems very much a possibility. And at some point they have to make a call on the guys that have one more year of team control, Boboschett and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and maybe one, if not both of them are offed, not killed. That sounds like they're going to be killed. God, I was like, what's happening here? They're going to be traded. And maybe one, if not both of them are traded either with the deadline or this off season and thus ending the era of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Boboschett, where did it all go wrong? This one's tough. There is not an immediate flashpoint that you can point to with other teams that have had to make these pivot moments. You know, it wasn't that everybody got paid and everybody was fat and happy and taking their foot off the gas. I don't like that didn't happen, but she got his arbitration taken care of and they had a big fight with Laddie about a million and a half bucks or whatever it was in ARB this year. So to the way the team has treated the players, at least in terms of financials, I think where it went wrong. And it's about those two for sure, but it's just about what they've been surrounded with. I think there was maybe a misread of, well, not maybe, I think there was a misread of what those two are. I think we're all on the same page of what Boboschett is. Would you like to say it or should I that he will have the exact same offensive season? He always is going to have these been worse than this and finish with seasons that you would all be very happy to see. With Laddie, I just think there's been a miscalculation on what he was when you have the famous dad and you hit your homer in Montreal and you are what you are coming up through the minors and then you have the MVP season. You think that those are the pillars you should be building your org around. And one of those guys has more or less lived up to the billing and the other guy has it. And when you have two pillars that you're building around and 50% of the foundation is in holding the weight that it needs to. This isn't to say, Vlad, he's been putrid or dreadful. We all know what he is as a player and it's not cornerstone pillar foundation of your franchise right now. It's been for one year in the major leagues. And I think maybe that's just where it went wrong is a miscalculation of what one of those guys is. Yeah, that's 50% of it, I really do think that it's one guy. It's banking too hard on a 2021 season where it's all happening for Vladimir Guru Jr. And you finish one game out of a playoff spot and who didn't think especially the way that team was playing down the stretch in September and the comeback against the A's and finishing just one game short and one game against the Yankees and you're in the playoffs. Who wasn't who wasn't of the belief that that Blue Jays team was the scariest team in the American League headed into the postseason had they made it with Marcus Samian who it's hard to really to get that and say, oh, well, they missed on Marcus Samian. He got all the monies, like all of it. The Rangers blew their brains out and they want a World Series with them, but it's hard to imagine even in your most optimistic scenario that Blue Jays would have done what the Rangers did to get Marcus Samian who by the way started that next season in 2022 without a home run for the first month, two months of the season. It's not that. It is what you said, partly not wrongly banking on Bulbashette because despite the slow start and I guess this could be the year where it's like, oh, no, this guy is actually a very inconsistent player throughout his career has been very consistent. I think they rightly banked on that player, but I think they thought Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was something different than he was that he was and one player does not an offense make. But if he, if you got some, some reasonable facsimile of the 2021 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in '22 and '23, those seasons play out entirely differently. You don't think the Blue Jays instead of 89 wins last year or instead of like the offensive black hole that existed for them in August and September, if Lattie's hitting like two homers a week over that span, that that's not a huge difference. Yeah. Yeah, it's hugely different for that baseball team. That's part of it. It's and maybe they're related because maybe you thought the best way to get the best out of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was either to make him uncomfortable or to change the culture surrounding him. It's that the two moves, the two notable trades of a couple of guys were as good buddies and were the foundation of a lot of camera shots in the dugout when things were going well for this team in '21. It was the Varshow trade, obviously sending Gabriel Moreno out of town and Lourdes Coriel Jr. out of town, which only would have impacted last season because he was a free agent and re-signed in Arizona. But yeah, clearly when you give up 6.1 Vangrafts War between Lourdes and Moreno, that's untenable. And then the Teoska Hernandez trade where you acquired Eric Swanson and at the time we all thought, well, that's, you don't want to spend all that money on Teoska Hernandez, clearly another move is coming. It never came. Yep. And those are baseball trades and certainly you thought you would get this version of the Dalton Varshow last year. And again, that's affecting last year, not necessarily this year, but there's probably a carryover effect. If you win a round or two or a World Series, which is not inconceivable last season, if your offense is a little bit better, considering the starting pitching that you got and the bullpen at its absolute best and the pieces that you acquired at the deadline. And so it's all related. It's hard not to view this era of Blue Jays teams as the failure of one guy. And it's the failure of the executive and management group to not recognize that this was about to happen for this one guy. And it's Vladimir Guerrero Jr., he wears all of it. He, he has to. And I can understand the frustration where you say, but he's not the only black, well, that doesn't matter. You can't compare him to the seventh hitter on this team. He's the face of the franchise. He gets all the commercials. He gets paid all the money. And guess what? He deserves it because of that one season, like the money. That's how it works in this sport. Once you're there, pretty hard to, to not be there. But you, you know, you mentioned surrounding him with the right amount of talent. They obviously, there was an impetus a push to get Otani. There was also the talk of, hey, there's going to be something else. And in hindsight, I wonder how much of that was just noise. So Otani's camp knew they were serious about winning, whether it was with or without him because I can see a world where he goes, oh, if you don't get me, you're just going to kind of pull back a little, but how does that change his opinion? But if Vlad would have had, and again, maybe it's foolish to put all this on one player, but if he would have had seasons like 2021, there would have been more of an impetus to push. The better the team is, yes, I suppose you could say, well, it creates a need a little less for a bat, but it also creates the impetus for there to be something of value. Like you're closer, the closer you are, the more likely you are to push in. If you would have got another 2021 season out of him at some point, does that change? How often seasons go? Does that change how aggressive you are in terms of the trades you make? And honestly, you know, if he has the season he has, are we having all of the culture conversations to where you wave by, by to a tale in a Lord is probably not, at least not both. And I don't think it's the end of the world losing either of those guys, but you certainly would rather have them than not given the way this team is put together. So yes, it's super unfair, no, because this is sports. And when you're supposed to be, I suppose it's unfair because he didn't put his hand up and say I would like to be the face of the franchise of the Toronto Blue Jays, I suppose. And is Alec Manoa supposed to be a guy who's helping burn in some of this load? Yeah. Guess what? He fell off the face of the earth in a way that Vladi say what you will about him. It's not like that. So I think that it all does go back to Vladi, but I can also understand the frustration from him saying, hold on, this is all my fault. There's eight other guys in the lineup and this is all my fault. It doesn't seem all that frustrated. No, he doesn't. You're right. Which makes me guess what? Guess what? That makes me a little frustrated. Yeah. As with all things, the pandemic ruined everything. Because if they don't have that 2021 season and the strength of it built on his incredible play in minor league ball marks, and it's, hey, everybody else was allowed to hit there too. So like this isn't like a slide, but it seems pretty clear in retrospect. And even in the moment, some people were saying it feels like the way you said that it was you. Yeah, it was definitely me. It was definitely me. Kind of curious that like, yeah, Dunedin's playing like course field on steroids, what's up with that. And look at all these home home runs and the home OPS and the road OPS is good, but it's not went on to the highway. Yeah. Like if you don't have that season and you have another season that looks pretty similar to the rest of them, right? Which like, hey, man, in retrospect, 2022 was amazing if you could replicate 2022 for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. today, you'd be like, yes, please. And you know what? Maybe we do extend that guy, but the rest of the season is remarkably similar. If you don't get the outlier proof of concept season of 2021, where yeah, you base your entire future on because you, hey, we can afford to give up offensive pieces and lean more into defense because we know a couple of times a week this guy single handedly is going to win us a baseball game has not happened. Here's the good news, though. Here's the good news. If you do sell, you got it all, man. You are a one stop shop. That's very true. You got all the assets. And maybe it's because there is another year of team control. It's it's more an off season thing and you do a halfhearted effort to run it back next year. And then if it doesn't work well, it's the deadline next year. But I tend to think not that this is the pivot year. So you got Bo and Vlad, you got Danny Jansen, who's in his walkier, having what seems like a tremendous, maybe best year of his career, who will certainly be on the move, if this continues this way. You say Kakuchi in the last year of his deal, who's not interested in having him at the top end of your rotation guy that could start for you in a postseason game. I mean, if you want to take it a little bit further, and these are guys with more than one more year of team control, I mean, and if you're if you're stripping it down, you are probably looking at a harder rebuild. Kevin Gossman, Chris Bassett in there too, I mean, Jose burials, you've invested so much into it. It's hard to imagine you you turn that asset over. But yeah, you you've got it all. If you want to just recoup young players, that's and you know, that the last too much of the season will be watching. Arelvis Martinez lead off for this team. Oh, yeah, they won't care where he's booting the ball. They won't care where he's throwing it. It's not it's not what you want. No, it's not. If you are going to sell, you want to have assets to sell and the Blue Jays certainly have that. Yeah, I mean, Kakuchi or I feel like you mentioned him. Yeah. He's a guy who he's a guy who at this year and one more, it's kind of perfect per or sorry, this last year of his deal there, you can just say, okay, this is a guy who's kind of walked a tight rope in the time he's been here, he seems to have figured it out. And then we get to have, you know, four months or whatever of our metrics and our khaki's looking at him and seeing if this is something we want to continue with, it is a kind of perfect spot to be in. And again, it's because you're bad. That's why you're in that spot. I think the other interesting part about this is that this is where the rubber is going to meet the road in terms of wanting to win and wanting to push in and the overall philosophy of, I mean, we can say this front office, but front offices in baseball is if you want to make your vitamin or junior trade, you don't do it when he has one year left to team control. This year when you get the two runs out of them and because you get a better return, but that is also, if you were to trade that player, that is such a capitulation of the era quite, quite honestly, and I don't even know how upset people would be if it was, you know, a good trade and you had the right plan for the next era. But that's the thing is, do they have the, I want to say the guts, just the stomach to pull the trigger like that in season? Well, and the toughest part about it is the guy that would be making that decision as probably not the guy that you want around, certainly going forward. So I mean, do you just have an internal candidate like a James click like takeover in the moment that you've decided it's all done? It's time to sell and Ross Atkins waves goodbye. I don't know how you'd message that. Do you have somebody in mind outside of the organization? Certainly would be a tough sell to have Ross Atkins be the guy that is selling considering the track record of the last couple of years. Yeah, and then it all depends what they want to do, right? If it's, if it is like, you know, click of it all and he's going to take over, you can do that easily. You can just have the Shapiro brain trust continue there. But yeah, it's pretty tough if it's, you know, and this, this is a different conversation. If you say kukuchi, I have to be honest there, right? Like obviously selling off a piece like that is one thing. The Vladimir or junior trade is just such a sea change moment. Should it ever happen here? Yep. We'll see. Go around, could kill the Phillies today, could sweep away the Orioles and the twins and we're laughing at this conversation. I told you there are very few reasons for optimism and many reasons for pessimism. I'm just talking about it cold and logically. I will also talk about this next topic, cold and logically. If you're a player that scores the most goals in your generation of hockey, and then you are just like factually regarded by the people that are voting on these awards as one of the top three defensive forwards in the sport. So you did the thing, which is the most important thing in your position, which is put the puck in the back of the net at a rate that is unheard of by even the guy that has a chance to pass Wayne Gretzky is the greatest goal scorer in history. He never did that. You did that in a season and you also did the thing that Alex Ovechkin never did and separates you from everybody else. Again, top three. I don't think he's going to win the selfie, but you know how they're going to that thing to bark off, they can't wait. For acknowledge to be a top three defensive forward and for you not to fall within the top three heart trophy candidates, square that for me. So if people missed it, Nikita Kucharov, Nathan McKinnon, Conor McDavid, all worthy candidates, but no Austin Matthews as a heart trophy finals. Explain this to me. >> No, that's a tough one. It's pretty tough to do because last I checked Kucharov, McKinnon or McDavid. They're not getting silky votes there. >> They are not. >> And the other thing that I think has to be mentioned as part of this conversation is that I'm not going to say Austin Matthews, because I know people will hear what I'm saying as this. I'm not saying Austin Matthews gets less credit because he's a leaf. But if he was no good defensively, we would not be rushing to give him an award for the best defensive forward. That is as the number one center, who's a goal scoring guy for the Leafs, you almost have to overachieve to be viewed in that. >> I was shocked that he was a finalist for the Selky. >> Out of just like pure spite. >> Oh yeah. >> Yeah. >> Not that he's not deserving. >> Wholeheartedly agree. I have been someone, I mean, all throughout this MVP discussion, I was pretty quite honestly agnostic on the four of them. I thought you could make a really good argument for the four of them. Frank Saravelli came in here one day and mentioned the name Artemi Panerin, and I just yelled at him. I did that. So I have a line that is a mark of demarcation, a point of demarcation there. But I have kind of headed into this, but yeah, okay, there's four great candidates, somebody's going to get left off. I'm not worried. But now that it actually has happened, now that he actually is a nominee for the Selky, it is going to be the thing is, is that what I always look for in these awards conversations, is there anything, you know, and you maybe we'll do this with that day and day 30. We do this all the time with Oscars and stuff where you look back and five years later you go, what? In what world does this make a lick of sense? 69 goals, Rocket Richard winner, Selky nominee, because I with you, I don't think he'll win it. Centerman, the idea that that guy is not a finalist is nuts. And what's even crazier about it to me is that if he would have got the 70th goal, I bet you he would have been. I really do. I think I think there's enough people because to be a finalist, I don't know that he would have won it, but to be a finalist, like this thing is going to be decided on second, third place votes. Like there's going to be, this isn't a year where it's run away, David getting a hundred first place votes. And then it's, Oh, who do you like for second or third? There's going to be a big group of vote getters. It's going to be, I cannot wait to see the vote breakdown for this. And that's where I think it'll be interesting is who had Kucharov third? You know there'll be these ones where they have the top three or the top three. Matthews is nowhere to be seen. Someone's going to have left Kucharov off their ballot completely. So yeah, I can, I'm so happy that the Hockey Raiders Association came to their right decision. I don't know when it was a couple of years ago to finally just put out the list of who voted for who what those are. So I don't agree with it, but I can understand it from a logical perspective. If Austin Matthews, like I said, is not recognized for being the guy that he clearly was, this incredible two way forward and an incredible defensive forward and not killing penalties all season long, but spending some time on the penalty kill, which is like, it's a qualifying factor to be a Selke finalist. I can understand it. If he's not a Selke finalist, it's like, okay, well, the voters didn't see what were basically like evident. He is a Selke finalist. These are the same people voting of the same two awards now that you've acknowledged that he is one of the best defensive forwards in the entire sport. And without question, the best goal scorer in the sport, like, what are we doing here? >> Yeah, it's very hard to square. >> That's the, it's just, it's not even a feels thing. It's just like, I need it explained to me, voters, like explain how that can be possible, how you can square the best, one of the top three best defensive forwards with clear and clearly the best goal scoring forward, not the art Ross trophy winner, sorry, like a offense to awesome Matthews that he doesn't have 100 assists, like Kucharov and McDavid, which is like, that sounds disparaging, but what's more important, let's be real. And not that those guys can't do it. >> Of course. >> But like, if that's your argument, the 100 assists, okay, I give me 69 goals, eight days a week, over 100 assists, that you're not a top three heart trophy finalist, I just, I don't understand. >> Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree. I was not someone who felt that way. The silky thing does kind of stamp at home in a different way. And the last kind of thing for me on this is that I do wonder if we're past the, like, oh, he doesn't have his yet, McKinnon, if he wins it this year. >> That's exactly what it feels like though. >> Right. But then why is Kucharov there? >> I mean, he's in there. It feels like McKinnon's gonna win it, which I don't have a problem with. >> No, I've agreed. I don't have a problem with, but it does. >> I actually said, Nathan McKinnon is my heart winner to end the season, because he has the second best argument in all the arguments. >> What, I mean, here's what I feel 100% confident in saying, if Austin Matthews does not have a heart trophy? >> Oh, not even close. He's a finalist, 1,000% almost winning it, guaranteed. >> That's stupid. >> Yes, it is. >> That's stupid. >> I do think though, again, I think it's a good thing for the league. I think we've now checked, like, McKar will be, like, the next one, because you haven't had a D in a while, I guess. But honestly, like, now everybody, if McKinnon gets it this year, everyone will kind of have got theirs. >> Yeah. >> And then we won't have to, well, Mitch Marner hasn't got his. I'm sure there'll be somebody squawking in this market about it. But other than that, everyone will have got theirs. >> That's funny. >> He got his silky finalist thing, so that's cool. >> All right, anyways, yeah. Not the most important offseason storyline for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but worth mentioning. >> God, no, it is the most important one. God. >> All right, amen, if ever there was going to be, I think, somebody covering this Blue Jays team that would be able to find- >> This is true. >> An optimistic slant, or a reason for optimism, it might be our next game. >> Find a new slant. >> Hopefully he can. >> Shai Devidi, next. The fan morning show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, SportsNet 590, the fan. Unrivaled insight, analysis, and opinions on all things Blue Jays, Blair and Barker. Be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. >> Fan morning shows, SportsNet 590, and fan Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, I have another piece of good news when it comes to the Blue Jays for you. >> Oh, okay. I'll take it. I'm searching, so I'll gladly take it. This is only a two-game series in Philadelphia. That's very good news. [LAUGH] Wraps up this afternoon, 105, SportsNet 590, the fan, and a sports net. And by the way, our trepid producer, Jeff Azeparti, getting an answer for me on that Bryce Harper, Grant Slammy, yesterday, as I suspected, only a home run in two ballparks, Philadelphia, and a Yankee Stadium. So obviously, not a home run at Roger Center. Again, that's not to disparage it. Blue Jays played in the same ballpark well within their rights to do the same thing, but yeah. As much. Anywho. All right. Let's talk to Shida Vidi, SportsNet, SportsNet.ca on Blue Jays Central, for I assume today's game as well. All right, try. How's it going? >> Yesterday's game as well, and it's going all right. >> So I need help from you, 'cause I'm trying to come up with reasons why this will turn around for the Blue Jays. And the best I can come up with is that Boba Chet is gonna be better than this, pretty clearly. I'm not gonna be the eighth worst hitter in baseball, which is what he is in OPS among qualified hitters right now. We saw proof of concept in 2022 when he was worse than this and finished with an OPS over 800 in the American League leader and hits. And you can talk about some of the other guys being slightly better. I don't think you can talk about George Springer being anything close to his best self. I think those days seemingly are over considering the large sample we have last season. Vladimir Greerjiner, okay, there's room for improvement here, but he's actually gotten on base pretty at a pretty high rate, taking his walks. I think Boba Chet is the clear reason to think that the offense will be better. That's one guy. And the rotation's pretty good. But the fifth spot, big question mark. I mean, what are the other reasons that I'm missing as to why this will turn around for the Blue Jays? >> Well, the bullpen is a good issue in a way that it has all season either, right? And I think you can look at the Blue Jays right now and they are fully out of sync, right? Not one element of their game is really clicking. And the rotation had been a strong point. And they've hit a bit of a bump in the last turn, turn in the half or so. And that you would think is not going to last. So Jimmy Garcia is fully ready to go again after the back issues that he's had that kept him out the last little while. Gary L. Rodriguez seems to be on the horizon, Chad Green's down the road. Eric Swanson should correct at some point. He's skis a better pitcher than the way that he's thrown. Tim Maysa needs to come around. There are pieces there that, okay, you look at this pitchy stuff, say, okay, that's going to be a strength for this team. And I think offensively, it was really interesting. I was looking up stats yesterday and George Springer threw his first 33 games last year, which is going into last night was the number of games that he's played this year, had almost the exactly identical stat line. I think there was nine OPS points of difference between the two. So slow starts like this are not out of the realm for George Springer, and there is some recovery there. Oh my God. But yeah, he was like a league average hitter though, like, okay, there was some recovery. It was not like Boba Shedd in the final month and a half of 2022 is like, okay, he's not the worst, but he's like clearly a diminished version of the player and shouldn't be leading off. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that there is upside there, even in players, like just gets a league average and then have Boba Shedd and George Springer be what they are and Dalton Varshow have stretches like the one that he had earlier and Danny Janssen come around. There is in theory a bit more offense than what is on the roster. I mean, I think that's you're asking me for reasons to think of why this can turn around. This is what I've got for you. Is this money in the bag? I think right now you look at this team and it's confirming all the fears you would have had about it and that is and that's why this is so troubling because you went into the season thinking, well, this has the potential to look a lot like last year and not only does it look a lot like last year over the past couple of weeks, it's looked even worse, but you know this as someone who's been around the game for a long time, you can judge a team when it's at its worst or when it's at its best. It's sort of where it's at when it's in the middle. Right now it is definitely at its worst. We'll see that there's no what's a runway for them to recover, but it is hard. Right now you have to grasp a little bit and you have to squint to try and see a better outcome to this team. So I think he wears the glasses so he doesn't have to squint. One of the guys who has been hitting is Danny Janssen here. We know he's in his walk here. He's one of the guys that's providing you offense. I don't think this is happening anytime soon, but at what point do they have to make their decision of where they're at with Janssen in terms of extending, letting them walk. I mean, depending on how the year goes, they're being a trade at play here. How do you think the team kind of looks at Janssen if at all beyond this season? I mean, because he has been one of the better bats from this era of J's baseball, but we know about the injury history and how hard it can potentially be to, you know, to throw money at a guy in a position where you get banged up as is and he seems to get banged up more than most. Yeah. Well, they've talked extension in the past and obviously didn't come into an agreement. And when I had a conversation with Danny about this in spring training, I got the distinct impression that he wanted to see to get to free agency and see what happens there. It doesn't mean that he won't necessarily return to a Blue Jays, but somebody that has earned the right to reach the market wants to explore that. And I think from a Blue Jays perspective, how do you handle that? Well, they've got a number of players who are going to be eligible for free agency this fall, him, you say kakuchi, yime Garcia, obviously Justin Turner and Kevin Kermiro, who signed one of your deals, there is going to be a point where you have to make a decision. And this is something that bigger picture of the Blue Jays are facing a choice later this season where they're going to have to decide and really be honest with themselves and to say, where are we, like, is this team a legitimate postseason contender this year? Or if that's not the case, do you have to start reassessing what you do with some of your expiring assets to make sure that you keep the asset alive in some way, shape, or form? And you could do really, really well at the trade deadline or you should be able to do really, really well for Yusek Akuchi and Jimmy Garcia and Danny Janssen and Justin Turner. And you can restock yourself. And this is something that the Yankees did in 2017 when even though they were hovering around 500, only with an only a few games of the final wildcard spot, they decided to sell off a bunch of assets and they sold off for all this Chapman and Andrew Miller and Carlos Beltran and Ivanova. And they reset themselves for contention down the road. So this was in 2016 and 2017. And they reset themselves and got a bunch of assets. One of them became labor Torres. Some of them became assets that they used in future winnow trades. At some point, the Blue Jays going to have to make the decision. What are we this year? And so there's still a lot of runway before they get to that point. But you know, Danny Janssen is absolutely part of that discussion in terms of where is this team going in the future? Yeah. And I'll save that conversation. I'll table it because I think it gets bigger as far as, you know, what happens to bow and Vlad and whether you extend them or whether this deadline might be the moment to move them or whether that's an off season thing, but like it is early May. So and it is. Yeah. We've all seen teams that you're like, oh yeah, that team is done, cooked, buried, finished forever. And they've turned it around and and yeah, salvaged the season, changed the narrative entirely. And that is certainly possible with this Blue Jays team again, but like the, you put the case forward, it's hard to make, but let's talk about this team. Well, go ahead. Yeah. Before you before you go on with that, just just as an example, what you just said, think of the Arizona Diamondbacks when they came here after the all star break last season and the J swept up and they looked cooked at that point, you know, everyone was like, this team isn't going to last. This isn't a real one all the way to when 84 games, right, but the, you know, they got it and they got it. I know I'm kidding. Yeah. But no, but you're right. Like that. That's what it took. But you know, at that point, they did not look like a team. They look like a team that was totally finished. So it is a good point that you raised there. Yeah. And yeah, and again, like to that point of the 84 wins, it does not take, I mean, didn't take 90 wins for the Blue Jays to make the playoffs last year. Well, even, even last night, they're mentioned on the broadcast, like the J's of, what was the timeframe that was mentioned? It was the last two seasons, more regular season wins than the Phillies and you just got to win them at the right time. So yeah, that was the thing that, that was the team that was jumping out to me and the Phillies feel like these undeniable world beaters, maybe the Diamondbacks. Yeah. Yeah. And the Phillies are doing it this year during the regular season and they just, yeah, it's just hard to look at that lineup, which is not the full version of itself even yesterday and say, "Ooh, that's different than what Blue Jays have going on." But that being said, okay, like we said, there's still time to turn around early May, the season last forever. Is it time for something more significant than moving Boba shut down to the fifth spot and then up to the fourth spot and, you know, is it time for, I mentioned the George Springer sample growing and growing and growing and he was a league average hitter a season ago. That's okay. You get to still play here. It's not like there's some undeniable option that's better than league average on this team, but should you be eating the most played appearances if you're just a league average hitter and there's no real indication that you're going to be anything more than that? It's, you know, I think while he figures it out, you certainly want to look at that. I think two things there, right? The Blue Jays went into the season and they're like, "We trust our guys. We believe in our guys." And if you make that move, what is the message there? The message there is that we don't necessarily trust you or we think that this is not working. So we've got to shake it up and what does that say about sort of the approach that you took going into the season? At the same time, yeah, you've got to do something. You can't just think about throwing the same look out there over and over and over. And then the second piece to that is who would you rather lead off right now? David Schneider. And okay, so that's certainly one option. There's some swing and miss there and part of what worked with David Schneider is that you sort of put him into the best situations possible. And then you're also taking his damage and you're moving that into a spot in the lineup where it's more table setting that maybe changes approach. So I'm not saying that I'm a game fed or do you maybe go Dalton Varshall there to leverage his speed and some of his versatility and he's hit me off the Florida's career. Is this something that you just do for a little short stretch of time? Just to create a different look at the top of the line, I'm trying to get some guys going. And then once George starts rolling, you throw him back up in the lead off spot, there's certainly different ways that you can do that. And I think the balance for the Blue Jays right now is they want to or they need to really project like, yeah, we still believe in our guys. We trust in you versus also there's urgency in this moment. Because it's not just, you know, it doesn't get better after the Phillies because you got the Minnesota Twins with one 13 to 14, I think, who are coming in afterwards. And then you've got the Baltimore Orioles after that. It's on it like you've got any real soft spots like you've got to figure this out quick because you've got to start playing day at better baseball given the quality of opponents. That's the balance for the Blue Jays right now. How do you stay the course and say like, hey, we trust in what we're doing. It's going to come around versus, hey, we got to, we got to correct. And I think that's the conversation and that's part of the conflict right now that the team's having. I don't see the downside to like going against, hey, we got to stay the course and we said we'd believe in you guys. But you guys stink right now. We got to move you around. Like what can't be any worse? Like what? I don't know. I guess there are like some potential mutiny that's about to take place here. Like, I just don't understand what the downside would be. Like George Springer's going to be sad. I don't, I don't, I don't get it. I think it's, as opposed to mutiny, right? Like it's what your message is to your players, right? Cause when it's saying that like, okay, we don't believe in what's going on here or we don't trust it or we're trying to shake things up or we're, we're feeling desperate. That translates to your players. Your players understand they are in tune with what's leading to the decision making and what the urgency of the moment is and that can be taken in a few different ways, right? It can be, hey, we're just trying to shake things up. No big deal or it can be taken as like, oh, everybody here is, is starting to be really concerned and we've got to carry this, this extra pressure, this extra burden into games and I think as a coaching staff, what you want to do is you want to just set, allow your players to play with as little, a little burden, as little extra baggage as possible. Like you want them to be as free and as easy as they can be on the field, right? These aren't free and easy times, obviously. And again, that's, that's the challenge. This is where coaching staffs have to figure some things out and really know their players and understand their players, what's making them tick, what's, what's going to give them the best chance of having success on a given day. Obviously, it hasn't worked very well over the last little while because the bludges haven't had very much success over the past couple of weeks. It's been a very bleak couple of weeks. But again, as a coaching staff, as a team, you want to sort of maintain some calm being like, hey, we go through struggles. Every team is going to have two weeks like this. We are not going to overreact to it. But that's the needle they're trying to thread right now. Yeah. And you can even see it with Schneider. And again, like I don't think the bludges win or lose games at all because of what John Schneider says before or after a game. But you know, the series starts on Friday with, all right, we got to, we got to get it going. We got to pick it up here. And then, you know, he's talking about the teams, you know, mental state afterwards. There's the comments on the weekend about, and again, like I don't think these things matter. But to me, that is kind of proof of a guy trying to kind of find the right message. Don't just put that on him. I think that's, as you said, on the entirety of the coaching staff, a lot. I don't think it's happening anytime soon, but there's certainly a lot of people clamoring for that coaching staff to get their hands on a Ralphus Martinez. He continues to mash the J's are having trouble mashing. I understand he's 22. I understand they don't want to rush him, but people are not necessarily in agreement with that. Is there a timetable for Martinez to get a look with the big club here? We've already seen it from from Barger is maybe a guy like Horowitz kind of blocking him with the bat. I don't know if Horowitz is blocking him, but yeah, I mean, those are two guys who are absolutely raking right now. And I think the problem or the challenge for both those guys is where do you line up, right? Spencer Horowitz is primarily a first baseman DH and he's, is he going to displace Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Justin Turner? Right now, no, and could you play Justin Turner in the field a bit more often and then try to slide Horowitz into DH and you could do that, but then you risk, you risk wearing down Justin Turner. And although I did find it interesting that Horowitz has played a couple of games about the old app Buffalo and the reports last year was that he wasn't a very strong defender and left. Same deal with, they were saying the same thing about David Schneider and okay, it hasn't been perfect out there, but by and large, I think he's been fine. Right. And that's the, can he, I don't know enough about how he's looked in my field this year at Buffalo. So I would assume that if the G's were comfortable enough with that, that was something that's one move that they could certainly make. And I think with Orellvis, like his progress at second base, sorry, it's progress at the plate is quite noticeable, but he switched over to second basis, he'd been on the left side of the diamond for his entirety of his career before this season. And there's an acclimation period of can he play, can he get comfortable enough there? And so he, at this point, I think defense is the piece that is more, is the primary development point for him as opposed to offense, and then if he, if you're not confident in his defense and get, get into the situation of how does he squat into the lineup? Yeah, it's a, it's a good question. I don't necessarily know, but I know I want to see his bat, it would be better if he hadn't committed nine errors and like fewer than 20 games in triple A. It's second base. Like I certainly like that better, but yeah, I don't know, you almost take it considering how want for offenses, Blue Jays team is shy. Thanks for this. And we'll be watching this afternoon. Have a great day. Have a great day guys. Yeah, you too, buddy. A shot of eating on Blue Jays central, getting ready for the Blue Jays and Phillies wrapping up their brief two game series, one of the positive notes. You sent him out to that poison orchard that is Blue Jays baseball and you're like, why are there worms in all these apples? And he's like, I pick the shiniest ones I could find. I don't know what to tell you there. He's like, you see that from shy and it's just even when shy is having trouble kind of scraping the positivity there, it is pretty, pretty tough to see everything happen in there. But yeah, like we, we love getting shy on and yeah, he, he did his best. He did yeoman's work. All right. Time now for the wake and write presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly Blue Jays Phillies this afternoon on sports net and sports net 590, the fan and naturally the Blue Jays are underdogs against the Phillies. The money line has them plus 125 favor underdogs, as I mentioned, Phillies minus one 54. They're the best team in baseball. They just hammered the Blue Jays 10 one yesterday, a total eight and a half in this one, Brent. Let's take the Phillies to cover Phillies minus run and a half plus one 35. You know, even if the Blue Jays score a bunch more and the Phillies score a bunch less, you could still, you could still have that happen today. So yeah, that's the thing I'm feeling the best about for that one. Yeah, Chris Bassett on the mound for the Blue Jays, who's had an uneven start. It hasn't been all bad for him, but the ERA at about five and a half against Aaron Nola. The problem with Chris Bassett has been lefty hitters. Here's the double edge problem for Chris Bassett. Where you're going with this, Phillies have some pretty good left handed hitters who just abused Jose Barrios. It's hard to imagine they won't do the same today. So yeah, I like, unfortunately, again, like I don't, I don't, this, I drive no pleasure in telling you this. The Phillies are much better than the Toronto Blue Jays. So I like them at minus a run and a half at plus one 35 as well. That was the Wakenrike presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly. When we come back, Damien Cox is the fan morning. I think she'll continue his bed on his sprint gunning sports net 590 the fan.
