We Take W's of All Shapes and Size (Series Preview: New York Yankees (16-6) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (15-8))
Roster Contraction, Best Bird Update, Fuck the Yankees
“You can’t just do that,” the strawman I built in my head just now sobbed. “You can’t just keep winning one-run games despite a floundering offence against the best AL team of the last half decade.”
The blue jay cocked its head. It’s beady black eyes shining with a playful, cruel intelligence. Regarding this pitiful whelp of a man (let’s say… Marty York. Why not?). It takes some short hops towards the wretch, leans in, and lets loose a warbling call that is nonetheless perfectly intelligible to speakers of the English language.
“Haha fun differential go brrrrrrrrrr”
The man screams, shitting and pissing himself, his head inflating like a balloon until he explodes confetti shooting into the air, upbeat Latin music blaring as he does so.
The Toronto Blue Jays have made it through the month of April with a 15-8 record after facing a veritable gauntlet of tough teams, most recently the Houston Astros, who the Jays took two of three from after getting blown out a bit on Friday. They responded nicely by squeaking by on a couple of one-run wins that they may not have actually attained had George Chelston Springer III, Kevin John Gausman and the withering arm of one Giordano Roberto Romano not, in fact, been members of the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club Ltd.
But hey, last I checked all those wins count, so whatever. These are wins that we won’t have to regret not pulling off in September. Going into this month, I fully expected the Jays to be hovering around .500, given how tough the schedule has. And if you were to have told me that Teoscar Hernández, Hyun-Jin Ryu, and Danny Jansen would go down with injuries, Ryu and Yusei Kikuchi would be bad, and overall the team’s offensive approach would be pretty limp every other day? These would have been pretty grim editions of JAYSLAM, I’ll tell you what.
Now, the New York Yankees come to town in the midst of a nine-game wining streak, as part of a larger 12-3 since since they last split a two game series with the Jays in the Bronx. Now, they’ll be coming in to face a Toronto team that is noticeably better than the competition they’ve faced over that stretch, which ranges from “poor” to “could only charitably be described as a Major League Baseball team.” But while I do relish in shit-talking that team and the clown car that is their fan base, it would certainly behove the Jays to find their stroke now at the beginning of this new month of May, especially as they won’t be throwing debatably their two best starting pitchers to face New York, Teo won’t be back until later in the week, and the Yankees aren’t throwing chumps out there. We won’t be seeing Gerrit Cole or Luis Severino, but we will be seeing the underrated Jordan Montgomery, the solid Jameson Taillon, and the incredibly irritating Nestor Cortés, who is almost certainly going to be inexplicably good for reasons I’m still going to be trying to quantify.
But all that being said, that just means there’s never been a better time to banish these fuckers to the shadow realm. Until next week when Toronto is in New York again. Christ.
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TRANSACTION NEWS
Left-handed reliever Tayler Saucedo left Friday’s game early after only facing two hitters, meaning that he was required to be placed on the IL. Sure enough, Saucedo was listed as inactive on Saturday, and Bowden Francis, who had thrown nine pitches of garbage time against the Red Sox on Wednesday, was recalled as he was passing through Niagara Falls.
Francis’ time back with the Jays was short-lived as he didn’t make it back into a game, and with the rosters contracting, was optioned back to Buffalo, where he’ll continue to serve as starting pitching depth. The other victim of the roster contraction was super-utility man and fan favourite Gosuke Katoh, who, along with Francis, will be optioned for the second time this year.
Katoh didn’t make it into a ton of games, but he did enough to have a really fun small sample size slash line of .143/.400/.286 with a 122 wRC+ in 11 plate appearances. He also filled in ably at second and first base, looking more useful than Cavan Biggio, as much as it pains me to say. This will almost certainly not be his last stint with the Blue Jays, and he’s undoubtedly a fun guy to have around.
Sticking around on the bench are Zack Collins, Tyler Heineman (who’s picked up some hits in an even smaller sample size), defensive specialist Bradley Zimmer, and the newly called-up super-utility man Vinny Capra, who started in left field on Saturday, going 0-for-2 before being subbed out for Raimel Tapia. Keeping Capra instead of Katoh likely boils down to offensive versatility. Both play a lot of positions, but Capra can play shortstop, and while Katoh can play first, so can Biggio, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and Collins, in a pinch. Katoh has more of an offensive track record in the minors, but he’s also a left-handed hitter, and the Jays are kind of filled out for left-handed bench bats with the likes of Tapia, Zimmer, and Collins. While Capra isn’t a terrific hitter by a long shot, he at least provides a different look, for all that’s worth. He should get some more run to show what he can do, with the Yankees throwing left-handed starters Montgomery and Cortés in this next series. Biggio eventually coming back from the COVID IL onto the 40-man also means that someone will have to be cut. And not to be pessimistic, but Capra would certainly seem to fit that bill.
BEST BIRDS
Hitter: George Springer (2), .300/.462/.900, 2 home runs, 2 RBI, 0.16 Win Probability Added
There is no statistical proof that labelling a given player as “clutch” is a particularly meaningful distinction to make, as most players either will not have enough plate appearances over their given career to really make a determination one way or another, or tend to regress to the mean on the off chance they are. And I tend to agree with this line of thought If you as a manager are pinch-hitting last year’s Silver Slugger winner for a fringey quadruple-A bench bat who went on a two-week hot streak but has since cooled down because the pinch-hitter has been super clutch over four plate appearances then understand that if I ever meet you, it’s on sight.
However, there are always exceptions to the rule. There’s so much variation in human psychology that I don’t think it’s beyond the pale to say that there are some people out there whose mentalities are particularly suited to high-pressure situations, though I don’t know if this is ever something that would necessarily show up in a stat line. My only proof for this theory is the existence of George Springer
Honourable Mentions: Raimel Tapia, Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
Pitcher: Kevin Gausman (2), 7 innings, 27 batters faced, 6 hits, 2 earned runs, 0 walks, 0 home runs
What if a Pitcher Simply Never Walked Anyone?: A Social Experiment Brought to You by National Car Rental, Apparently.
Honourable Mentions: Tim Mayza, José Berríos, Jordan Romano
Best Bird Standings:
Hitters:
George Springer- 2
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.- 2
Santiago Espinal- 1
Zack Collins - 1
Danny Jansen- 1
Pitchers:
Alek Manoah- 4
Kevin Gausman- 2
Jordan Romano- 1
SCHEDULE/PROBABLE PITCHERS
(Stats are from 2021-22)
Monday, May 2
Jordan Montgomery (3.70 ERA, 3.66 FIP, 23.8 K%, 7.5 BB%, 6.9 Barrel%)
Ross Stripling (4.64 ERA, 4.83 FIP, 21.5 K%, 6.9 BB%, 9.7 Barrel%)
Tuesday, May 3
Jameson Taillon (4.18 ERA, 4.35 FIP, 23.0 K%, 6.7 BB%, 8.0 Barrel%)
Alek Manoah (2.90 ERA, 3.66 FIP, 27.3 K%, 8.5 BB%, 5.3 Barrel%)
Wednesday, May 4
Nestor Cortés (2.61 ERA, 3.35 FIP, 29.0 K%, 6.2 BB%, 6.5 Barrel%)
Yusei Kikuchi (4.51 ERA, 4.78 FIP, 23.8 K%, 10.2 BB%, 10.4 Barrel%)
THE OPPOSITION
Pythagorean Record: 16-6
Season Series vs. Blue Jays: 2-2
Record since the last series vs. Blue Jays: 12-3
Last 10 games: 9-1
Nice to see that Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo, and Kyle Higashioka all finished doing their own research and arrived at the conclusion that “getting money is better than not getting money.” Such heroes worthy of the support of the classy, dignified Bronx faithful. At least the support of those who won’t decry them as vaxxed beta cucks the second they start to slump again.
Best (Healthy) Players (2021-22 Stats):
Aaron Judge, Right Field, .289/.372/.559, 155 wRC+
Gerrit Cole, Starting Pitcher, 3.20 ERA, 3.03 FIP, 32.7 K%, 6.2 BB%, 9.4 Barrel%
Jordan Montgomery, Starting Pitcher, 3.70 ERA, 3.66 FIP, 23.8 K%, 7.5 BB%, 6.9 Barrel%
Jonathan Loáisiga, Relief Pitcher, 2.60 ERA, 2.92 FIP, 24.2 K%, 6.5 BB%, 3.2 Barrel%
Aroldis Chapman, Relief Pitcher, 2.88 ERA, 3.84 FIP, 38.3 K%, 16.0 BB%, 14.3 Barrel%