A very fine Friday in late February to you all.
I originally had the third Spring Training preview planned for today, but I didn’t have time to delve into the intricacies of Logan Warmoth’s game. Also, as much fun as this has been, the next preview has the second-most players of any of these posts, and I REALLLLY was not in the mood to rush to get that out for today.
So instead, I’ve compiled some bits and pieces of Jays and MLB news to quickly compile and touch on before we head into the weekend. If it overlaps a bit with the season previews, I’ll probably wait until those posts before going relatively in-depth.
In Case You Missed It
My two posts this week were both spring training previews, one of which was focused on relievers, and the other focused on outfielders. Read them or perish!
Schrödinger’s Grapefruit League
Note: The first part of this section doesn’t tell the whole story, as Sportsnet has appeared to have changed its mind since then. An update is provided at the end of the section.
In an unfortunate, but nonetheless predictable wrinkle, fans shouldn’t expect to see many Blue Jays spring training games on TV, as Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun reports.
“The Jays are one of a handful of teams that are banning fans and media from all activity at the club’s training complex 6 km across town from TD Ballpark. While the restrictions are allowed under MLB spring training regulations, it will certainly leave a void in the usual flow of information and allow the Jays to control exactly what details become available to their loyal fan base.
Once games begin, the exposure will increase with limited numbers of fans and media allowed in the stadiums, but even then fans will be left largely in the dark. Broadcast rights holder and fellow Rogers family member Sportsnet has no plans to produce any games while its radio network will carry a handful of contests at best.
We’re told that, when possible, Sportsnet will pick up games broadcast by the Yankees and Phillies, a small consolation for Canadian fans.”
I’ll be the first to admit that spring training games are entirely meaningless beyond getting the players ready for games that matter, but that doesn’t make this any less disappointing. You would think that Rogers and whichever applicable subsidiaries within its corporate umbrella would love to capitalize on the relentless hype machine that is this young, dynamic team, but I guess the cost of producing games out of Dunedin, which they’re going to have to do anyways come April 8, dissuaded them.
But hey, at least we get to experience the YES Network’s broadcasts whenever the Jays play the Yankees? What Blue Jay fan doesn’t wake up craving the dulcet tones of Michael Kay in the morning? And on March 1st, when the Jays play the Pirates, who wouldn’t rather be watching Misplays of the Month for the eightieth time this month while feeling their brain cells atrophy and die?
UPDATE: I didn’t want to delete any of this, because I think the principle still applies, but uh, this isn’t entirely true, as of Friday morning.
I still don’t wanna say this is necessarily enough. I don’t think there’s any reason Sportsnet shouldn’t be able to stream away games using the opposing team’s feed while still producing every home game in Dunedin. But from the TV-watching fan’s perspective, this is certainly better than what was originally reported, even if it was ultimately a half-measure from Sportsnet to save some face.
The massive, massive downside is that Sportsnet is also “streamlining” radio broadcasts by simulcasting the TV feed through the radio. Make no mistake: This is a cost-cutting manoeuvre and nothing more, as Sportsnet now only needs to worry about TV production instead of radio. It’s astonishingly shortsighted to be penny-pinching like this when they should be fostering as much interest in the team as possible.
Not only that, but while Buck Martinez, Pat Tabler, and Dan Shulman are all gems in their own ways, if their commentary is not attuned to broadcasting for people who can’t see what’s going on, the experience for those listening on the radio will suffer.
The only upside is that Ben Wagner, the last radio play-by-play guy standing after the company let go of Mike Wilner, is still part of the broadcast team. This would at least seem to indicate that the assault on radio is a temporary move. We shall see.
Andrew Stoeten goes more into this in his brand new post.
Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club: “I’m about to end this man’s whole career.”
If you follow baseball at all, you know that Kevin Mather made an ass of himself over a video call with, of all people, the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club. Anything I could possibly say has been mostly covered in Jomboy Media’s video on the subject, so I’m going to redirect to that.
All I’ll say is that I encourage everybody to keep in mind that every single Major League Baseball club partakes in the blatant service time manipulation. Even your favourite! It’s just a matter of Mather being the only team executive stupid enough to say it out loud. And also being an extremely unlikeable piece of human garbage for reasons beyond this fuckery.
I’ll also say that if the MLB Players’ Association is smart, they will be bringing this up incessantly at the next CBA negotiations. What an absolute gift to labour rights the world over.
The Lineup
Mike Wilner examined the potential outcomes for the Jays’ lineup. The leadoff spot especially gets a lot of attention, as the debate seems to be between established Jays leadoff hitter Cavan Biggio and newcomer George Springer, who mostly hit out of the leadoff spot for the Houston Astros in recent years. Marcus Semien also led off fairly often for the Oakland Athletics in 2019, though he doesn’t have the same consistently high on-base percentage as Biggio or Springer.
I don’t think you can really go wrong either way, but I do like the idea of having Biggio leading off and Springer right behind him ready to knock him in. Knowing Charlie Montoyo and/or the Jays’ analytics department, I also think the Jays aren’t going to roll with a permanent lineup throughout the year, instead adjusting it day-by-day based on need. For example, deciding whether playing Randal Grichuk or Rowdy Tellez is more beneficial on a given day, or whether moving Biggio down in the lineup when they’re facing a high-velocity pitcher may be a good idea. And, of course, moving people up and down based on who’s hot and who’s slumping.
Whatever they end up going with, we can at least rest assured that the Jays won’t regularly roll up with lineups including the likes of Travis Shaw and Jonathan Villar. All and all, it’s safe to say this isn’t a bad problem to have.
Eric Pardinho
TSN’s Scott Mitchell has an article out on pitching prospect Eric Pardinho, who the Jays signed in July 2017 after he had pitched for the Brazilian national team in the World Baseball Classic Qualifiers of 2016, dominating poor Team Pakistan with a mid 90s fastball at the age of 15, as I watched covertly in the middle of a sociology class.
Since signing, Pardinho has struck out an excellent 28 per cent of hitters, while posting a 2.57 ERA in 87 ⅔ innings in Rookie and A ball.
Unfortunately, Pardinho underwent Tommy John surgery in February 2020, and the now-20-year-old is currently rehabbing. If that wasn’t enough, he’s been stuck in the Clarion Hotel in Dunedin since February, unable to return to his family in Brazil.
The silver lining (besides the fact that he’s been in a hotel for a year. That just plain sucks) is that he’s very young. Pardinho only turned 20 in January. The Jays can afford to take their time with (not that they shouldn’t if he was older), and hopefully, if the latter stage of his rehab goes well, their 16th best prospect (per Fangraphs) should get some minor league games in.
VladWatch 2021
Rejoice, sickos! We’re talking about Vladmir Guerrero Jr.’s weight!
While nobody could deny that it’s certainly for the best that Vladdy gets his weight and conditioning under control, I can’t help finding it icky that so many people have put the weight of a 21-year-old under a microscope to this extent. Obviously, I do hope/expect that his improved conditioning should help both his career and the Jays’ results, but part of me is also mostly looking forward to never having to talk about his weight again.
Anyways, Vlad lost over 40 pounds, getting help and support from his teammates along the way. Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic has an article out (behind a paywall) on both Guerrero and the team-first mentality that has taken root among the Blue Jays. At the risk of being disgustingly corny, it’s the kind of story that makes you really happy about the team you cheer for. It also really hammers home how glad I am that we didn’t sign Trevor Bauer.
Beautiful complex! Just don’t ask how they paid for it!
This is the Toronto Blue Jays’ state-of-the-art Player Development Complex in Dunedin, Florida. It is very cool, and most importantly, very pretty. At The Athletic, Kaitlyn McGrath has a breakdown of the facility here (paywalled). Long-story short, it is a baseball player’s utopia.
Now ask the taxpayers of Pinellas County what they think about it. I’d wager their point of view is, uh, less glowing. Andrew Stoeten talks a bit about it here, really laying out how even the best things about professional sports are shady to some degree or another. Love that profit motive, baby!
YOSVER ZULUETA SIGHTING
Now I’m no pitching coach, but oh my god. I’m starting to see why Fangraphs was so high on Zulueta.
Further home ballpark shenanigans
As we know, the Jays are gonna play their first two home series in Dunedin, but they don’t have any stated home field after those two homestands. I was under the impression that was just precautionary and that the whole season was nonetheless gonna be played out in Florida (Toronto’s chances are about nil at this point, I would imagine) but Bluebird Banter’s Minor Leaguer pointed something interesting out in a Twitter post last week.
This is pure speculation, of course, and I’m not sure how the logistics of the Buffalo Bisons and Rochester Red Wings (the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate) would necessarily work, but this sounds potentially viable! Preferable even, if the summer storms in Florida are as bad as I’ve heard.
Transactions
I’m not going to talk about Tommy Milone, because that’ll come on a later spring training preview. That said, there are a few transactions I wanted to mention.
On Tuesday, Shi Davidi tweeted that the Jays had invited 27-year old relief pitching prospect Hobie Harris to big league camp. He had originally been selected from the Yankees in the Triple-A phase of the 2019 Rule 5 draft.
The outstandingly named Hobie Harris is ranked 34th on Fangraphs’ Jays prospect list with a fastball that touches 101 mph, as well as a solid splitter, and below-average curve. He’ll get a look in spring training, and may even make an appearance for the big league team if he impresses in Buffalo (Rochester?).
Mere hours after I published my first post, the stupid Red Sox made it irrelevant by claiming Joel Payamps from the Jays.
I mention in my post that Payamps may not have been long for the Jays, though I didn’t necessarily realize how not long for them he would be. What set Jays Twitter abuzz was the suggestion that this may have been a move to make room for a sorely needed starting pitching acquisition. Jake Odorizzi, anyone???
Breyvic Valera. It was probably Breyvic Valera.
Apparently, Valera, who was placed on the Restricted List after being unable to leave Venezuela for reasons unknown last year, is back in Dunedin training with the Jays. And it turns out that he literally needs to be added to the 40-man roster after coming off of the Restricted List.
*Sad trombone*
Nothing against Valera, who finds himself in the mix for a backup infield spot, but that process was a little bit of a bummer.
Finally, minor league first baseman and left fielder Ryan Noda was sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers as the Player to be Named Later in the Ross Stripling trade. 24-year-old Noda was drafted in the 15th round of the 2017 draft, but I feel like I’ve been hearing about him forever. He fucking destroyed low minor league pitching in his three years in the Jays’ system (190 wRC+ in Rookie ball in 2017, 160 wRC+ in Class A in 2018, and 138 wRC+ in Class A+ in 2019), but prospect projections aren’t super high on him.
Per Eric Longenhagen:
“Noda has elite walk rates, his exit velos are very strong, and he’s hit for power at every level of the minors. He also strikes out a lot for someone older than is usual for his level, which I think is evidence he’ll fall on the wrong side of the Quad-A bubble.”
Disappointing as Ross Stripling has been thus far into his Blue Jays tenure, I don’t think too many people are that upset about Noda going the other way. Prove us wrong, Ryan!
Brandon Morrow
To finish up today, I wanted to direct people towards a video from the Jolly Olive on YouTube that goes through Brandon Morrow’s near-no-hitter on August 8, 2010. I actually saw this game on TV, and it remains by a fairly wide margin the best pitching performance by a Jays pitcher that I’ve ever seen live.
It’s also a depressing reminder of how good Morrow could have been, as well as of how absolutely hideous the black jerseys and that weird “T” (“J?”) cap were. So glad we went from that to one of the best jersey sets in baseball.
Check it out!