Happy Inferior May Day!
Eagle-eyed readers of Jayslam will have noticed that, for the first time since the beginning of this humble site, I’ve failed to cover a series, both the recently concluded sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates and the ongoing four-game set against the Baltimore Orioles.
Why is this? Well, those same readers may have noticed what has been, in my opinion, a distinct drop in the quality of writing since the beginning of the 2022 regular season compared to the previous one. I attribute this to the fact that I was unemployed for all of last season until late September 2021, meaning I had plenty of time to write in between bouts of staring at the ceiling sleeplessly wondering how many more student loan payments I could make.
While I’ve been gainfully employed at a depressing part-time job and now a somewhat fulfilling full-time gig since, and while money is less of an issue than before, I’ve been left with little time to work on JAYSLAM beyond the bare minimum. This has led to an increase of what I’ve called “low-effort” posts to a frequency that I don’t consider acceptable. It’s one thing if I’m on vacation, but if I’m surreptitiously working on it at work to try to get a post done in which the only original piece of writing is calling Michael Rucker Michael CUCKer, something has gone wrong in my process.
Apologies to Mr. Rucker and his family. He’s not even on the Pirates, I just really wanted to rhyme a character’s name with “cuck”. I’ll be better in the future1.
I also just haven’t had as much time to work on pieces that aren’t the exact same formula of “season preview occasionally containing something that could pass for analysis”, and that bums me out. So in the interest of keeping things fresh, I’m going to be altering the output on JAYSLAM.
From now on, I’m going to keep the “series preview” posts to one a week, as opposed to two-to-three times a week. Best Bird will till happen, but we’ll be awarding multiple awards per post. This will hopefully allow me more time to work on both more analysis-focused pieces as well as World Baseball Classic stuff, which is coming sooner than you might think.
Will this mean that overall output goes down? Sure, probably, but as a great man said, “better fewer, but better”. No use in sacrificing quality for quantity. That said, if you like what Jayslam is doing and would like to ensure that I’ll have more time for it in the future, please consider sharing this post with a pal who may be interested! Or an enemy! I’m happy with either.
Likewise, whether this is your first time visiting, or you’ve been enjoying Jayslam for a while now, or if you want to see more of it and/or support its continued existence, please consider getting a paid subscription! Unfortunately, revenues from subscriptions to JAYSLAM are not enough for me to subsist on them on a part-time, much less full-time, basis. The more I can lean financially on paid subscriptions, the more time I can dedicate to everyone’s favourite lightly deranged Toronto Blue Jays blog disguised as a Substack newsletter.
BEST BIRDS
Hitter vs. Cubs: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (6)
Honourable Mentions: Teoscar Hernández, Danny Jansen, Matt Chapman, Cavan Biggio
Pitcher vs. Cubs: Kevin Gausman (10)
Honourable Mentions: Trevor Richards, Tim Mayza, Yimi García
Hitter @ Pirates: Bo Bichette (4)
Honourable Mentions: Cavan Biggio, Santiago Espinal
Pitcher @ Pirates: Alek Manoah (16)
Honourable Mentions: Jordan Romano, Trevor Richards
Best Bird Standings:
Hitters:
Matt Chapman- 7
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.- 6
George Springer- 5
Bo Bichette- 4
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.- 4
Santiago Espinal- 4
Teoscar Hernández- 4
Alejandro Kirk- 3
Danny Jansen- 2
Whit Merrifield- 1
Cavan Biggio- 1
Zack Collins - 1
Pitchers:
Alek Manoah- 16
Kevin Gausman- 10
Ross Stripling- 5
José Berríos- 4
Yusei Kikuchi- 4
Anthony Bass- 2
David Phelps- 1
Jordan Romano- 1
Lol, no I won’t.