[MUSIC] Fan Morning Show SportsNet 5.9 of the fan, Ben and his Frank Gunning, saw his well in Blue Jays Land. They won a game against the team with an incredible big fly factor. They bought some more Orioles, one of the best in Major League Baseball. Cannot confirm whether it is the best, because they haven't gone through all 30 teams. But in the American League East, their big fly factor of seven is one better than the Yankees eight. What is the big fly factor? Well, you have to go back to the beginning of the show and listen. >> Well, no, everyone just knows what it is, obviously. >> Right. >> It's just a quick rant, it's just everyone else. >> Yeah, now it's just part of the way we talk about baseball. Blue Jays, okay, maybe they can turn it around again. Stranger things that have happened, then the Blue Jays making the playoffs being relevant. I tend to think because their big fly factor is atrocious, it's 53. It's not the Rays 58, but it's 53. I tend to think that this is something that is going to continue, by which I mean their poor record. And even in the win yesterday, they managed to do it by scoring three runs and limiting the Orioles to two. >> I was shocked they didn't hit Cano in that game. It's like the one pitcher in baseball that comes up where I am confident the Jays are going to hit them. Even even they or even Cano could not test or went up to them. >> Yeah, they were one for 40 against Craig Kimbrell, and they came up with a couple of big base knocks, including Isaiah Connor Fleff as a walk-off. >> I don't think he was trying to do it, but great reverse jinx by Schulman on that. >> So I've broken up, all right, so we got the offensive players and we got the pitchers. And I've separated the two, I don't know why I was just like on a numbers kick yesterday. You say like I love my numbers, which is like I don't necessarily think of myself as some big numbers guy. Like I like I like having evidence and quantifying things because that's so bad. >> No, it's not. I just on it honestly what it comes down to is like I feel it. I have it in my head. We're going to do blame pi. It's like real quick Ben Ennis thought pie, it's like your family golf and baseball are the only three things I could possibly think of existing in there. And like I love golf as well, but like there's a lot of numbers in golf of like, oh, what do I need? What club? What percentage of that? And it's like baseball. It's like the whole point of the sport existing is so we can quantify things with numbers. And it's like, I don't know how numbers work into your family, but it's like the two big things that take up a lot of your brain or a lot of numbers. That's all I'm saying. >> I don't think about a ton of numbers when I'm watching a baseball game. To me, that's the best part of baseball is just like, hey, can you come up with a base hit? Can you hit Paul Skeen's 100 mile an hour fastball? Oh, first time you can't, second time you can hit it over the wall. >> That was pretty awesome. I'm also like dumb with Skeen's. I'm on Jared Jones now. I know he was here first, but anyways, back to the delicious Blue Jays blame pie. All right, so let's, the hitters are the obvious place to start here. There is some blame blame to go around when it comes to the Blue Jays and part of their, you know, their big fly factor being 53 is that the pitchers have given up their fair share of home runs as well. We'll get to the pitchers in just a second. So when I first did this, I like put it, I just put together some numbers, percentages that I was like, that sounds right. Afterwards I was like, should I get this to add up to 100%, I was like, it's pretty close. Let's do it. >> So I did actually, this adds up to 100%, both on the hitter side and the pitcher side. So let me know what you think of this. Okay. Having the biggest chunk of Blue Jays blame pie. >> I have two names in mind for this, so I'm curious where you're going. >> Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Boboshette, he's got 27% of the blame pie. >> That sounds right. He was one of the two names that I was, I was sitting there thinking of for me. >> Okay, so who's number two, because I've got, I've got two players, second, they have an equal amount of blame pie. >> Don't want to give you the name. >> Okay. >> George Springer. >> Yeah, George Springer, he's got, because the reason why I got 15% of the blame pie. >> I think you're right to say Beshette is one. The reason why I was quibbling is the, and this is the unquantifiable, although I think we know, his unwillingness to move out of the lead off spot affected the lack of blame pie for Davis Schneider. So that I was including that as a big part of my metric is a potential unwillingness to move out of the lead off spot. It's not just the performance and what you haven't got from Springer. It is the what him needing to occupy that space did to the lineup. So I don't know, maybe I'm thinking about this with like too much three dimensional chess going on. >> Yeah. >> But that was a big part of why I had him one or two. >> Yeah, I've got Alejandro Kirk sharing the same amount of pie as him with 15% of the blame pie. And he's kind of like out of sight out of mind. >> Yeah, well, that's just what he is. Now he's a backup catcher. He gives you good defensive results and like he can get on base and come up with a base hit. But this is a guy that was de-aging for like a good Blue Jays offense. >> Yeah. >> In recent vintage, a huge bat yesterday in the ninth inning hitting the fly ball in the right field, advancing cabin Bijo third base, but like, yeah, we're all grading on a scale with him. This was supposed to be one of the reasons why you felt comfortable giving up a top, giving up a top 10 prospect in all the baseball and Gabriel Moreno, who by the way, doesn't look like the MVP that he looked like in the postseason. >> Right now. >> When it's torturous. >> Yeah. >> Dalt Varsho actually has a war like one higher, like one higher than Gabriel Moreno right now. Gabriel Moreno, 0.9. Dalt and Varsho 1.9 batteries. Yeah. Alejandro Kirk being his best self or some reasonable facsimile of like makes this lineup look a whole lot different. He's not under the same scrutiny as George Springer because of the contract, because of the expectations. >> Yes. >> And they've been diminished considering what he was last year, but come on, 15%. >> No, no. >> 15% of the lame pie. >> I have no problem with him. It's just again, if I'm going to do the tiebreaker there of okay, him and Springer, they're both at fifth and I understand they could just be tied, like that's how a blame pie works. I get it, but I look at it as Kirk is not stealing at bats from Janssen, like Kirk has to catch sometimes because you can't catch Jano every day. There are whatever the number has equated to is seven Davis Schneider at bats that we didn't get this year. That's probably way too many. But whatever the number is, there is a lack of good or better that we saw because Springer had to occupy that spot, whereas I don't think Kirk, Kirk was not holding you back from getting more Danny Janssen in your life. >> This is a tough one, listen, I'm not stuck in the moment with these percentages. Justin Turner had three hits yesterday, he's still got 11% of that blame pie. He's got four less percent of the blame pie than Alejandro Kirk and George Springer. And part of this is, hey, again, the contract and the expectations, like it should Justin Turner have been relied upon as much as he was considering he's 39 years old and he kind of tailed off the back end of the last season with Boston Red Sox and he has the slowest bad major league baseball, maybe, but he's 11% of the blame pie. >> Yeah. >> No, I like that. I like Turner there and it's, I'm just going to pepper this in. I know like anyone with a brain realizes we're just talking about the players here. But yeah, like the front office is not included. It's like, yeah, the Justin Turner part of the blame pot just goes to Ross. Yeah, exactly. That's how it works. I think Turner's good to put in there, especially given maybe we didn't expect that of him, but clearly the team expected something, hence the money, hence the opportunity. >> Kevin Kermier, 9%, now, part of this is like a lack of performance. Some of it is the lack of performance offensively. We know what this guy's going to be defensively and he's one of the best defensive outfielders of his generation in major league baseball. Part of this is on him for having such a good year last year offensively. >> Yeah. >> Like you blew it. >> And Kevin and the run. >> Yeah, you blew it. You were too good. When the Blue Jays saw you as a potential option in free agency, like devil, we know as opposed to the devil, we don't. We know you're going to bring defensive lay and sure, we need offense. But you know who was actually like sneakily a good offensive player or season ago? It's a guy that had a career year coming off hip surgery in the his mid 30s. Guess what? Also not sustainable. So like, again, you're being asked to do too much, but sorry, you're part of the problem. Like if you were the guy that you were last year, we're not having as many questions about the offense. But now you look like a fourth out field of your 9% of the blame pie. >> Yeah, I agree. It's not his fault that he's been put in this opportunity, but he performed and he got the opportunity and you need more from him there. It's certainly we've already done one of the other outfielders. It's certainly not going to be the other guy. There's a reason in our show. So yeah, I'm wholly fine with him going there. >> Okay, so at 5%, I've got four guys. And this is probably, I almost like want to change this on the fly, but let's just go with it. >> Sure. All right. >> 5%. >> You're a better man than me. I can't tell you how many times we've been doing these. And I'm like, man, that's wrong. I'm just going to change this. >> Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is 5%, which is the same as Daniel Volgobock, Ernie Clement, and Kevin Bijino. Now why would I say that? So there's twofold. >> Bang. >> So there's twofold here. Again, like its expectations, Daniel Volgobock signed a minor league deal, okay? And he's like, Daniel Volgobock, his whole job is to eventually be DFA'd off a roster. >> That's what they would say. >> That's what he does. Ernie Clement is a career minor leaker. This is kind of what you should have expected from him, but like he could have been better. Kevin Bijino, this is the Kevin Bijino experience. He's a guy that is, is a rosterable on a decent team and he'll have runs where he looks like a starter. But yeah, you're in bad shape if you're relying on Kevin Bijino and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been acceptable and in the month of May was like good without hitting any home runs. But he doesn't hit home runs. I mean, we have to get to the place where we now, that's just part of the expectations with the player. But no man, if he was a guy that had the OPS and the on base and the batting average and the power. >> Sure. >> Now you got a team. >> Yeah. >> He needs to eat some of the blame pie. >> He does. It's just, I could not think of a bigger dichotomy between names mentioned at one point type. It's like, yeah, bigger and the walking DFA, the teachers petting Kevin Bijino and then flatty. Like it is, it is the four oddest horsemen of the Blue Jays season apocalypse that we see here. I, you talked me into it at first blush, I said no flats less than than those guys. He is. He's not very confirmed, but the lack of pop is a big, big reason why this team is not performing. And again, like all of these, it goes with the caveat of say what you will about building your team in the way that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has to provide as much pop as they need him to. But this is the way the team is built. And that is what they're asking him to do, at least in this iteration of a Blue Jays team. I do have a problem, kind of, I guess the expectations part of it. I would, I don't know who I'm taking it from and who I'm giving it to. But like, flatty to me feels a little less than specifically Daniel Volgobock. And like maybe his, I could also be talked into Daniel Volgobock having zero percent of the blame pipe. Cause what could you possibly have expected? How do you blame me? I'm Daniel Volgobock. Yeah. And then he's like, I don't get any. Yeah. I want a little slice tomorrow. David Schneider, the, of course, David Schneider, Danny Jansen, the only guys that they, they're like looking at these guys eating their blame pie and they're like, that looks not so delicious. Yeah. I'm kind of glad I don't have any in front of me. Carb free, carb free over here. They're zero percent. I got Dalton Varsha would 1% because like, yeah, he could just be better than the guy. He was in Arizona in 2022. He's quite good. I can't live in a world where on last year's team, a wholeheartedly, that you couldn't give enough blame pie to Dalton Varsha. This year's team, what we've seen from everybody else and what you've seen from him, he is to me just as blame lists as Schneider and channel. Yeah. Yeah. Again, not stuck in the moment. I guess I got 2% because his agent was too good. Like he's good and like he's, he's been everything you would have expected him to be and more. But so what? Like I'd still rather see a row of a smart DNA or Spencer Horowitz or anybody than Isaiah Kinerful. Yep. It's, it's not his fault, but you're to blame. Yep. For this. No, that's, that's well done. Quickly. I'll just run through the pictures. Uh, leave it away. So wait, did that, so that's 50%? No, that's 100%. Okay. Okay. I was curious. I just wanted to know about the math. I wasn't. That's 100%. So shock it wasn't towing it up as we went. No pitching side. I got Eric Swanson 20% of the blame pod. Yeah. Okay. Genesis Cabrera, Tim Mays, a 15% Nate Pearson, Alec Manoa, which I feel bad about the Manoa thing. Mm. This is like, is it your fault? Uh, 10%. Kevin Gossman. Eight, eight percent. Yeah. Again, like feel kind of bad about that one. Oh, I could be talked in higher for Gossman, honestly. Bowden Francis again. Like, is it? Yeah. Or that you weren't up to the task of being a major league star to 7% Jose burrios, you say kukuchi, Jimmy Garcia, all at zero percent. Jordan Romano. Did I mention him 10%? Mm. Okay. Because like, he hasn't been good, but he only blew one save before he got injured. Yeah. But like, how many saves can the Blue Jays afford to blow? Yeah. Not too many. No, zero is the answer. So. All right. I told you numbers were filling my head. They are. I just viewed the sports world as just a series of ones and zeros. Let's talk about Mitch Marner through that lens. Great. I can't wait. Okay. So we've now got, we haven't gotten huge breaking reports of like, Hey, here's the trade that's on the table. Or here's the conversation that happened between Brad's we're living in Darren Ferris, as far as him asking Mitch Marner to waive his no move clause, but we got some little drips and drabs for June. It's not bad. Let's talk about the odds that exist with Mitch Marner. And now you got to give me some numbers. I've already put some down, but okay, it does feel like the favorite right now is that Mitch Marner stays and just plays out the rest of the season, then hits free agency and either walks for nothing. Or at that point, the Leafs have had this playoff success and they're more than willing to hand him an extension. Do you agree? Yes, I would. I would say that is a greater than 50% chance for sure. I would like, give me a number, 65% I still think it is such a tenuous road to walk. And I mean that for all parties involved that there is a very likely world, a 35% chance quick math. Look at me on the fly that you will see that that you can see him kind of capitulate or change his mind on that. But right now, yeah, I wholeheartedly would say 65% chance that he plays out the season and it's a UFA or whatever it is. I think it's 80. I think it's higher than that. I mean, these are all arbitrary numbers, but part of it is just is the messaging that's coming out of his camp and then, yeah, Brad for a living, basically indicating that doesn't sound like there's going to be dirty pool, everybody breaking down his history when it comes to these types of situations and whether he's leaked stuff to the media, whether he's made it uncomfortable for people and he doesn't have a reputation for doing that. He believes in this era. I mean, maybe to their detriment, they've made it comfortable for their players. And like, do they want to show the rest of the hockey world that, yeah, this is a changing of the garden in that regard that like, hey, if you are a pending free agent or you are an Ontario guy and you want to return home, careful, because like you could be, it could be ugly for you on your way out, not just from the fan base, but from this front office's perspective. And I just like, there's too much logic in it as well, right? Like, it's not an ideal spot that the Leafs are in where they could shop them to anybody, but they don't live in that ideal world. You can, I think given their druthers, like Brad's are living only being here for one year, honestly, if you asked him honestly, he might want like, there's a reason why Kyle Dubas was tempted to run it back year over year over year because he saw the talent there. Do you think there's like a non-zero chance that Brad's for living, like given his own, like his own experiences and a neutral environment might just say, you know what, I do want to see it again. Like, we got the thing that is missing in the postseason we added and we, we didn't, we didn't win a zero, no, but like we can do that, we can do that again and we can get better goal tending and the cap going up ever so slightly. There are ways to increase the things that matter most in the postseason with this team. Hey, I can just claim I tried but couldn't make it work. Like, I think there's a world in which Brad's for living is not the most disappointed that Mitch Marner's returning to this team. Yeah, I think a very real one. I think, I think it is the, I think the safest, easiest, cleanest way for change with this team and nobody wants to hear it is like, let John Tavares be the change when this contract is up and he either does the, you know, maybe it's not Gio or whatever, but it's like team friendly deal. You want to be, it's the Joe Pavelsky, like three times three or whatever, whatever it is. I think that's where they see this is the most likely on ramp. I also think it's one thing to not play dirty pool in June, the calendar just flipped here. It's a completely different thing to do it at training camp or as that's, as that's approaching. I think the point you make about them not wanting to dirty the waters of how guys perceive them, especially if the Marner trades you're looking to make is one where he would just open up cap space and then you're going to try to spend that money. You have to be really, really careful about that. But I also don't think this org is past playing dirty pool, especially you mentioned trees history there. That's to me, the biggest indicator of this is it's never gone well for him. And we can, we can litigate. He put himself in that position. He didn't put himself in that position. You know, he made the best deal he could. He didn't make the best deal he could. But, I mean, go look at Mathika Chuck, go look at Sam Bennett, you know, we've seen this happen here. It's like, you know, the, those trades are not going to be ones that he holds up on his resume for all of eternity. And I just think that it's a guy who's been bit dealing star players and trying to do the, we'll get, you know, three quarters for a doll or whatever it is. And it's not worked out well in any of those other spots. And I think that is honestly the biggest indicator of it all is that Brad for living has typically, and guess what? Most people who are trading the best player when the best player is an all star level silky winger dotted all the, all the, you know, the superlatives rightfully lay at Marner. It's hard to win those trades. And I think for a living, honestly, probably more so than any active GM in the league right now understands that. And I think that's probably the biggest thing that should inform this. You know, you mentioned the, hey, the big win at the conclusion of this season will be getting John Tavares 11 million bucks off the books and that'll open up just a limitless amount of opportunities for this team. And as the cap goes up in 11 million bucks, you still get John Tavares is going to come back for nothing. Yeah. God, if, if that had, if you'd had that just a year earlier, like one year earlier, because like, could I see a world where boy leaves again disappoint in the postseason where like, okay, maybe it's another just a one round win, but they lose in the second round. And again, we're like at this place is like, okay, but at least finally you can rid yourself like you can, you can extricate yourself from this cap hell of having four forwards, making all that money, except like the one guy that you'd want to keep is Mitch Marner. But it's so untenable to sign him to that extension. And it would be like just from an optics perspective, and he shouldn't operate in the optics world, but like that if there's another postseason disappointment, even if you're rating yourself with the 11 million bucks of John Tavares, the idea of signing Mitch Marner to an extension that would be market value for a guy that had a Mitch Marner type season and was like, maybe not cons might level player in the postseason, but like looked closer to the regular season version of himself in the postseason, like the idea of signing that guy to an extension unless you have like supreme postseason success, it just feels untenable. And it could have been easier if you could build that team today without John Tavares, but you can't. >> No, you can't. And it would be, I think the other thing that is going to be interesting to see how this all plays out is not that Austin Matthews is going to fall off a cliff offensively or Marner or anything. But we talk about Craig Barubay of not putting the shackles on like Jordan Kyrieu and Robert Thomas. That's one thing. Okay? It's a completely different animal when it's a Matthews and Marner and knee lander. I really do wonder what their numbers are going to look like. And again, I'm not sitting here predicting 80 point seasons for all those guys, but the idea that Matthew is going to have his 60 again and Marner is finally going to eclipse the 100 point mark far, far, far from a guarantee here. And I think that that is another thing that's going to go into this is not that Marner's going to lose himself any money, but there's a chance the best deal he could sign for himself is one now. If he were open to an extension, not here somewhere else because there's no world with the Leafs give him a big bag now. The other last thing on the cap is that no one wants to hear how good it is that Mitch Marner got signed to 10 nine because it wasn't. Except for this moment right now that the Leafs are not finding themselves in a dry saddle situation where they have to lose a whole middle six winger to give him the raise that he is going to be due going from dry saddle eight, five, two. Hey, Frank said it with us on Monday 14 was so good to hear that about somebody else. Marner's going to get a race, but he's not going to eclipse Austin Matthews or anything close to that on this team. So the raise you're giving him will be minimal if that is the route they take. They're so far between now and then and it feels super untenable now, but man, like if this team's in a conference final and they do that, it feels nuts now, but it wouldn't then. No, no, you make a conference final like is as low a bar as that is. It's not a low bar. Yeah, no, you could you. I think at that point it's okay. Fine. Do you want to borrow? Stepford had million is 11 millions off the books. Yeah, okay. Fine. Mitch Marner, 12 million. Now, you know, okay, you can move forward with that. It also depends on how Mitch Marner is a part of getting to that conference finals as well. Well, I just don't. I don't see a world where the Leafs get to a conference final and it might not be the last moment, but where he doesn't have a super productive impactful series in one of the two leading up to that, right? Like, I just don't see a world in which, I mean, hey, like I'm not putting a pass Austin Matthews or William Newlander to also do that, but there's just no world where the Leafs have team success in the playoffs that Mitch Marner is not special for at least one of those series. Yeah, you would think. All right, when we come back. Blue Jay is looking for the series split against the Baltimore Orioles this afternoon. What did I say? 5% of the blame pie to Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. He's been better, but he's not hitting home runs. You Kevin Barker had a little screed about this on his show. Blair and Barker this week, we'll talk to Kevin. Next, as the fan morning show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590, the fan. Unrivaled insight, analysis, and opinions on all things Blue Jay's. Blair and Barker, be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. That fed my soul when I heard that earlier this week. A fan morning show of Sportsnet 590, the fan, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning. Those were the dulcid tones of our next guest. Kevin Barker of Blair and Barker, and that very day, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. hit a home run, but still stuck on five for the season. That puts him in a tie for 18th among Major League Baseball first baseman. How's it going, Kevin? What's happening? I think he's got six. He sure changed him one. That might have been as a DH then. This is like as a first baseman. So this that doesn't count in my official. Okay. Make it harder on him. Six, six, five, and five. Okay, fine. He's 14th. Sorry. 14th. No, hold on. For 14th among first baseman. Hold on a sec, Kevin. How would you have felt as a player if somebody's like, no, that one didn't count. You were a DH and no, that didn't count. You were in the field, not amongst first baseman. No, just Ben. You can't be doing that to guys. Yeah, I never talk to him again. I'll be a taste. I guess. It's obviously hard to hit a homer. I mean, it's a fair fit of that. There is no debate, Kevin. You would know it's extremely hard. Even when you hit the ball a quadrillion miles an hour, which nobody questions. Vladimir Guru Jr. does too often. No, it results in just a single base, which is better than no bases, right? Like, most important thing is not making outs. In this season, Vladimir Guru Jr. doing a pretty good job of not making outs. But yeah, when you play that position, when you're the middle of the order guy, when your whole motto is to the core, it's up to the core, to create runs and you can't create runs and you can't hit home runs. And it's because of you and you did it. I get it in a season where you played in a bunch of minor league ballparks in 2021, but you hit a bunch of home runs and you're not doing it. Like, yeah, do you think Vlad knows that those homer totals are unacceptable? What do you think the thought process is that like, May was good, like OPS over a thousand. But you got to hit, you got to be like, each hero, if you want to create that kind of offensive production without hitting home runs. Yeah, sure he does. He knows exactly where he's hitting in the order. He knows, you know, what everybody expects him to do and how he should go out and look as an offensive player and the way he's not looking as an offensive player. Look, the difference between the minor league parks and here is the ball the other way. I mean, once the last time he saw him hit a line drive home run to right center field. Well, I mean, I'm sure he's done it since 2021, but not a lot. Like that, that's the difference, right, is if you're going to hit 40 plus, you got to be doing some of that the other way and the other way for whatever reason in the air. You know, I know we want him to pull everything and we want him to, you know, knock ground out the third or short like he did a couple of times last night, but you know, it is home run hitters, guys who run produce. They use somewhat the entire field. I'm not talking line to line. Line to line don't grow on trees, man. Like it's not like you can go down, you know, in a Tobico and find 15 dudes who can hit the ball, you know, line to line for home runs. It just doesn't happen, but it is that middle of the order, guys that we've seen do it before that can go. If you're right handed, right center to the left field line, right, that's and for whatever reason, you know, I've got my theories on why it is moving around in the box and, you know, some mechanical tweaks that he needs to make. I'm not talking about overhauling things, just talking about giving him a little bit more opportunity to be consistent with the barrel ending up in an upward direction when he makes contact. That's the point, right? He's not going to change his path because that's sort of what got him to the big leagues. That's why everybody who's in Oz whenever he grounds out at 119 miles an hour is because of his path. It's just the finish of his path that I think is inconsistent. And when it's inconsistent, most of the time he hits the ball where he doesn't want to hit the ball and it's frustrating. I just remember the first time he wore the jacket and you can hit read his lips and he said to himself, it's about time. That will tell you right there everything you need to know about Vladimir Guru, Jr. Yeah, he knows, right? Like we can sit here and talk to ourselves and God have we about the hard hit rate and the exit V low and hey, even the, you know, just the batting average and the OPP OPP has gone up like we like those things. But how much of them, you know, feeling this and the about time of it all is the removal of the power from the rest of the lineup. How much differently would we feel about what Vladi was doing if there were run producers behind him? Like it doesn't have to be Teoska Hernandez, but that's the place everybody's going to go with this. How much differently would we feel about what Vladi is doing now if there was just, you know, some real power threats right behind him like you would think of your three and four hitters, typically. Yeah, they'd have a better record. That'd be the first thing you would talk about as man. They're not in the last place. And man, there's not seven teams in front of them for the third wild card spot. Like you'd be more excited, right? They'd be driving in more runs. They'd be scoring more runs. I would assume their pitching would be a little bit better. You know, I know they need to make tweaks to the bullpen and that needs to get better and stop giving up homers. But I think their pitching would probably be a little bit better if they had a couple more guys that you could point the finger at. Instead, I always point the finger at the same guy. I think we forget that. I mean, you know, Bo and Vladi are human beings. So like I know, you know, they get paid a lot of money and we expect them to be robots and go out and just, you know, do everything, every single hit bat. Oh, how dare you ground out? Like how how dare you go through it? Like, what what's wrong with you? Like your robot, like they have it plouch you into some giant computer in the underground, you know, Blue Jay City and, you know, figured out how that's what city connect means. Yeah, absolutely. To get you to be what we all want you to be. Like, you know, I forget, I think we forget that they're human beings and how hard they try and everything they're trying to do. I mean, Bo showing up at the field. Like, again, I ain't making excuses for these dudes and these dudes make tons of money. And, you know, we always hold these dudes to the to where they should be held. But that's the job. I think we forget that sometimes they don't, you know, they're human beings and they need help. Like the right there, they're run again, run producing at bats are totally different than any other at bats. Like, if if you if anybody thinks differently, then they've never tried it. Like that's that's how pitchers lose money is giving up runs. That's different. The the the pitching, all of a sudden, is starting to attack things that you don't like that they may not do that. If there's nobody on base and you're leading off in any or you're coming up with two outs and nobody on base. So, yeah, and that's an art. You know, it just doesn't happen overnight. That's what I said whenever I saw spring training of two years ago, who the heck's driving in the runs on this team? Like, yeah, yeah, no, they don't really have them. And then this off season, it was sort of the same exact thing when you're bringing in the cure fires. And yeah, Turner was a nice ad Turner's an experienced guy. He'll give you a professional at bat. I heard that. I know the season he's had right. It's been all over the place. And you probably explain that because of his age. And, you know, pitching is really good. And they made an adjustment by if you're trying to get the ball in the air with an uppercut or probably going to elevate the ball with some hard stuff. Like it's a game of adjustments. And, you know, his health and all the things that go into just being a little bit of an older hitter. That's why everybody I think is, you know, saying, man, like, what if, what if you got more? I mean, I tell Oscar things ran its course. And Lord of Scurial, Jr. is not having the greatest of years. What kind of year would he have on this team? I, I get it. But it's, it is, you can close your eyes and go, man, if you didn't always have to point the finger at the same two dudes, how would those two dudes season look? Yeah, I don't think we ever know that. I, well, yeah, seems that way. Because I don't think like Spencer Horowitz is going to walk through that door. And then all of a sudden, oh, yeah, it's the key that unlocks everything. I'll be hitting seven. Yeah, probably. And like, yeah, I like the player. But yeah, I think too. Yeah, if you're a three homers, I don't know the last time. Yeah, no, that's the thing. It's like, oh, you're a little underwhelmed by Vladimir Guru Jr. Let's get the guy who plays the same position, but it's like not as good. So like, yeah, anyways, but to the bowl of it all, like, okay, I understand they're human beings, Kevin, don't want me in there. Like, I get it. They're not robots. But that's part of the job, right? Like, that's part of the big money that's part of being who they want to be is like you, and especially when the general manager says it's up to this, the core of this team. And it's two guys. And one guy's bounced back. Andy, I wish Vladimir or junior had more home runs, but he's hitting close to 300. And maybe this is just his offensive profile. I also am not going to fall into the trap I fell into in 2022 of saying like Boba Shet, like maybe he stinks now. Like, man, he showed proof of concept that he can salvage the whole season with the best month in the history of the franchise in August in September. But to that point, like, what is it about bow that he's susceptible to these like, not just slow starts, like horrible, horrible starts. And are you convinced that he's going to rebound the way he did in 22? Yeah, look, I, I think just track record would tell you back of the baseball card would tell you that probably at the end of the season, his numbers will be somewhat normal, like they should be what they are, right? He'll get close to 200 hits and everything will be gravy. I think he swings it too much stuff. Like, I think the big leagues are going away, though, right? It should like the again, that you just talked about the way we should talk about these guys because of how much money they make that that that is sometimes look, I don't think everybody asks Bo to be who you're not, but it's okay to adjust and go right now. This bow is just not what I want this bow to be. So maybe I should try and make an adjustment. I just know the line driving hit the first base was somewhat right down the middle. I know the two singles that he had in the two games before this were right down the middle. I think he hit the double to right center and the single to right center. Both pitches right down the middle. Like I, again, I think sometimes it's not rocket science. Like, I know they try and turn it into rocket science by, again, plugging them into the computer and trying to figure out the future is not always the easiest thing when you could just basically say the bat the ball skills and the things he can do with his eyes directing the barrel to the ball is like no other. Right now it's not that way. Let's try and simplify this. Hey, Bo, hey, show him that. Show him video of where the two balls were at that he hit like really, really hard and had the result that he wanted to have and then show him all the other effects. The, there's a lot more of all the other effects than the one that he got that were right down the middle that he had success on. So yeah, this league again is really, really hard, man. Like again, I, you know, I poke fun at the khakis, but that's what they do, right? They see a weakness and they attack attack attack attack attack and you don't have to throw Bo a strike to get him out like that. That's the reality of this thing. And when you got these two dudes in the middle of the order that a lot of the times will get themselves out and it's the same old thing every at bat over and over and over and over again. That's why I went on that little mini rant that you guys played to begin the show there. So that's the part of it that I don't understand. There's so many hitting coaches and so many smart people behind the scenes that want to give out all this information. John Snyder's words, not mine. I mean, we just give them the information. It's up to the player to go out there and execute. Well, maybe the information is not real good. You know that that may be the part of this thing that that I think whatever you come out and say that thing. Yeah, like it's just sort of how do I get the best out of the people that are here. If that's what you're trying to tell us is it's gonna we're gonna live and die, but what we got here. Well, why does this look like this all the time? I that's the part of it. I don't you know, I know again, nobody wants to hear this that Bo is a human being. He is he tries, you know, and I think sometimes he feels like if he's done, they went and and you know, that's not the easiest way to go about a bats and play baseball and you know, baseball's like that snowball effect, man. The harder you try, the faster that snowball goes down that hill and when it gets real hard and real fast, it's real hard to stop it. And I think Bo is a little bit in there, right? It's it's not mechanical, right? When you've been around as long as Bo and and had as success that Bo's had, it ain't mechanical. That that's not the thing, right? I mean, everybody, it's it's a lot of moving parts. It's kicking it to your ear. It's doing that sweet little two striker approach that he has. All of those things are on point, right? I mean, he's balanced. He's finishing where he wants to finish. It's just the obvious thing that he's doing right now that he, in my mind, can't stop doing because he's had success doing it. And until he sort of says, just right now, I'm not saying forever, just right now, the old Bo ain't working. Let's try and figure out how to get more balls down the middle, not respect. We had Davis Steiner on and he said, I'm on the on deck circle thinking this dude ain't as good as me. He ain't perfect. He's a human being. I know he's, you don't like the ball up, but he if he throws me three strikes at the top of the zone, tip my hat, walk away. I but I'll bet you he can't do that because he's a human being. I think for me anyway, Bo needs to have a little bit of that look right down the middle sooner or later. If you let him, he will throw it there. Yeah, I heard that from Schneider. I thought that was really illuminating because, you know, I've heard this before in terms of just the idea of, you know, from a hitter's perspective, you think, I swung at a bad pitch. Now he's got me. I'm in this vice and from a pitch perspective, it's like, hey, you throw him a ball and all of a sudden you think you're behind the eight ball and we do kind of forget about the other, the other element of it. I mean, this team has tried a myriad of ways to create offense and just one last point on that. It is remarkable how often it does just come back to pitch selection. I mean, with everybody, but those two specifically of latter third, they've tried it. They said they don't want to try it a bunch. How much more are you able to squeeze out of the offense offensively? And is it worth it with? Let's be honest, what you lose defensively when you put Vlad over there. I thought the Vogelbach was a thing. Why didn't he play yesterday? Yeah, I don't know. Like, if you're going to make you know what the word was, they're going to give that some run. They're going to they're going to give him an opportunity to have to change the game a little bit because he's a big left handed hitter who's got some power, which was they don't have a ton of right. And then you have a couple of apps probably. I'm assuming that, you know, the cutter is not friendly to a lefty. I would assume Suarez throws a cutter. I will think Vogelbach probably don't like cutters. Aren't we past overthinking this thing? Like, it is sort of, if you're going to do this, do it, man. Like, again, I don't know. I haven't looked today how many games are out of first place. It's a lot. I don't know. I haven't looked today on how many teams are in front of them for a third. It is a lot. It's a lot. So what, why? What difference it may do I like moving your gold glove first baseman to third? Absolutely not. It's not Gladys fault that they didn't do anything in the offs. The last two off seasons to solidify their lineup. It's not Gladys fault. Again, he's a good defender. I mean, he's had some hiccups at first this year, but I think that's because more of the offensive side is carrying over a little bit to the defensive side. But I think this is sort of where we're at, right? I mean, I'll give John credit for the lineup because I've been told that everything that happens with the lineup is John. So John will. No, but I, you know, again, I think it's, it's, it's whenever you're, you know, fighting for a lot of things. I ain't say I don't have any idea about this job thing and whether the gym's getting fired or the manager's going, I have no idea. Like I mean, Jeff are going to stop talking about that. We have no idea. Like we don't hear enough from the, from the front office to even know what they're thinking. Or, you know, if they even think that this team has a chance, I know we, the last time we heard Ross on the MLB network, he was talking about how excellent everybody is. Oh, you were so excited to see Vladi back at third base. You know, the place that they moved him off of because he couldn't hack it. Right. Yeah. No, he's super excited to get Daniel Volgabock in there who like you rightly going out was not in there. Yes. Yeah. I don't, I don't know again. It's just, I think this, this time of the year, it's these things are tough sales. You're moving your goal glove first base from the third to tough sale because of what you haven't done. And again, I think if I were in the front office, I'd want to gain a little momentum. I would want to, you know, sort of tell and show my 26 guys on the field that, you know, this is not good enough. This is not the blue Jay way. Losing is not a thing. We, we have too many good players that this is not acceptable. And for them, just to not do anything. I mean, I've done nothing. That's, that's the part for me. It's just confusing. I try something like that. You know, they, they called it barter. I am. Okay. Yeah. And then they stopped. And then it was over. And then it's, then it's, you know, you, you add nothing. And that that's the point. I don't, the horror was not going to change the game. He's not going to, you know, carry this team for two weeks. But I think it would show not only the fan base, but it would show the guys that are struggling, grinding, doing everything possible before the game starts to be the best product they can be offensively that they, you know, that they want to try and do something about stinking. And I think that for me is where I'm out with this front office is, you know, it's, it's, it's time. It's time to figure out some things when it comes to that offense and, and show people. Yeah, do something. Yeah. I, I, they're probably not the answer. The guys in Triple A, but at least, you know, it's something different. Because it's not guys. It's not guys. No, don't, don't, don't say guys. It's a, it's one guy. Who else is I listen, I, I listen, I'm not throwing out Addison Barger's possibility of being a guy just because he had a bad five games or whatever in the major leagues, right? Like I, I'd be open to seeing him again. I get it. Ralph is Martin has only 22 years old. You're, you're done with Barger. You're like, he's not not this. No, not this year. I think they've seen that it's the big swing. It's the obvious holes. It's the, you know, he looks heterish, but he don't get any hits. I mean, I used to look at way and I was in the double way. Right. So, you know, again, it's, it's that, it's that thing. It's, it's, it's beauty that you can sell the Vladimir Girov junior hard hit percentage. And it's the obvious that the Davis Schneider's and the Barger's of the world have to produce. It is how many hits you're getting. Like it's funny how that works, ain't it? That, you know, they ain't selling that hard hit percentage to dudes that nobody's ever heard of before. They're only selling that to the first baseman, which is, you know, and, and the right fielder. And, you know, the everyday guys, which is, makes me chuckle. Like it makes me chuckle that there's, there's two sets of rules. There's a role for people that nobody's ever heard of, really, that are fighting a claw and to be big leggers in and there's rules for dudes that they're paying a ton of money to, which is kind of funny. So yeah, there's one guy for me. That's Horowitz. You know, Horowitz seems like he can handle the bat and, you know, it looks, you know, he's, he can handle quadrants. He can handle different moves on different kinds of pitches. He can pull a fastball. He can take a breaking ball and hit it the other way. Like he can use some of the entire field. He'd be a tough out with a runner on second. Like he would make their lineup a little bit longer, hitting at the bottom of the order. Yeah, that for me is inviting. Like, I want to see that. Yes, but there is nobody else. Like you cannot, you cannot say to me that there's a plethora of other guys that are all going to be on the same uber on the weight Toronto to play and, you know, and be in the everyday lineup for the Toronto play chase there is not. So, and I know people are going, well, Horowitz Martinez, you know, rebels Martinez don't like right handed pitching and don't have a position. No, that's a whole different fan. It's might be a better second baseman than a Ralphus Martinez. Bam. So there you go. So it's. Yeah, good. So I think it is what it is. I would just like to see the front office show a little bit of spunk and yeah. I mean, another way to do this. That's all fans. Well, fans know we're the teams at this very smart fans that watch this baseball game. They're very smart. They understand where the team and the organizations at it would just be like, let's try and have a little momentum. Let's try, you know, to just add instead of always being roundhog day and showing up and reading the same lineup all the time, which is not the easiest. I would even dare say play Kevin Bizio more or somebody I'm not saying that's going to help. But, you know, it would give it a different look. It would you would be married to something other than the same old lineup all the time, which I think for fans would be kind of nice to see or getting March a buyer on the competition committee and like lobby for games to be decided by who had the best exit velocity in that individual game that would be. I mean, I'm sure I'm sure you have read off that, you know, wow, look at that. No, the out wrong. You're talking the wrong guy. No, no, I bet. I've heard it. I think I've heard you say it. I've been on the show with you lies. Kevin's facts. No, great rant. Great rant. I love it. I love chatting buddy. Thanks for this. You guys rock, man. Thanks for getting me up early. I appreciate it. No problem. Our pleasure. Kevin Barker, Blair and Barker, the best and certainly awake now that the only the only good thing about a bad Blue Jays team is a better Kevin Barker. Like, I'm sorry. He's great at breaking down good hitting and good pitching. That's more fun. I'm not even saying he's better at that. That's just more fun for me, personally, anyways. Correct. Time to have the waken right presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown sports book 19 plus bet responsibly Blue Jays with an afternoon affair. You say kakuchi trying to bounce back against Cade Povitch, a top 10 Orioles prospect making his major league debut. Is there more? Yeah, sure. And he's having a good minor league season. Let's strike outs there in AAA. It is Blue Jays slight favorites. It's basically a coin flip though. Minus 115 of the Blue Jays Orioles minus 105. The total eight and a half Orioles minus one and a half. They're not losing to the Blue Jays twice and it's not going to be particularly close twice. Another kids make it as major league debut, but that almost works out better for them sometimes than the second or third time through through an order. So yeah, give me the Orioles minus one and a half. Get a little plus 155 on it. That's what I'm taking there. I like the the under here. I think you say kakuchi is better than he showed his last outing and I think put him to bed at seven 30 last night. Right. Yeah, that's a good question. Did day games better suit his 11 hours of sleepy gets a day? I'm not sure. Maybe not. Yeah, the Blue Jays won a game where they scored three runs and I don't have a ton of faith that they're going to figure it out against a guy that they have no video of. So yeah, give me under eight and a half minus 110. That was the wake and write presented by sports interaction, your homegrown sports book 19 plus bet responsibly. When we come back, Ben Nicholson Smith is the fan morning show continues, Ben Dennis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590, the fan.
