Blue Jays Notebook: Why team’s skid makes pre-season goals harder to reach

TORONTO – It took lower than two months for the Tampa Bay Rays to construct a ten.5-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays within the American League East standings, and even for those who don’t consider the true expertise hole between these golf equipment is sort of that large, the separation within the standings is quickly making the Blue Jays’ pre-season aim of profitable the division more difficult. 

Remember, to earn a first-round bye and keep away from the unpredictability of a three-game wild card sequence, you need to win your division. And whenever you do some math, it turns into obvious simply how laborious it’s going to be for the Blue Jays to catch the Rays this summer time, particularly with fewer head-to-head matchups on the schedule.

Now, troublesome isn’t unimaginable. Could the Blue Jays play at a 101-win tempo from right here on? They did for the primary month of the season, so it’s not out of the query. And might the Rays concurrently regress? Sure.

It’s simply that the Blue Jays are actually relying on each of these outcomes in the event that they’re to have any shot of profitable their first division title since 2015. And first issues first, they should get again into the playoff image earlier than any discuss catching the Rays turns into practical. After their struggles in May, there’s actually no assure of a wild-card berth.

With significant trades powerful to finish earlier than July, the advance probably has to return from inside. All of which implies a weekend towards the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins guarantees to be attention-grabbing because the Blue Jays’ street journey continues. In the meantime, some ideas on a staff that out of the blue finds itself in final place:

ADVANTAGE O’CLOCK

Alek Manoah grew to become predictable Thursday, ready out the pitch clock so typically that the Rays had been in a position to time his supply with ease and steal 5 bases whereas he was on the mound, contributing to a 6-3 Tampa Bay win.

But elsewhere, groups are discovering methods to bend the pitch clock guidelines to their benefit in minuscule however nonetheless vital methods. Among the approaches groups are utilizing to achieve somewhat extra time between pitches:

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• If a pitcher asks for a brand new ball with at the very least 9 seconds remaining on the pitch clock, the clock resets, offering the pitcher a number of extra seconds to arrange (Manoah’s used this technique successfully at instances).

• With a runner on, catchers will throw right down to first base even after they know full properly they’re not choosing anybody off. The considering: the ball will get to the pitcher later, that means he has extra time to recalibrate.

• Along these strains, catchers will generally delay returning the ball to the pitcher, even calling pitches with PitchCom throughout that middleman window to provide pitchers a barely longer breather.

All groups are stated to be doing it, and every part above is authorized – bending but not breaking the foundations.

FIVE GUYS

Twenty-nine groups have needed to take a look at their beginning pitching depth this season, dipping into their bullpens or minor-league associates for rotation reinforcements (the Rays lead baseball with 11 starters used up to now). The one exception? The Toronto Blue Jays.

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Eventually, Hyun-Jin Ryu might present depth on that entrance (he’s months away, even best-case state of affairs) however with Mitch White and prime prospect Ricky Tiedemann nonetheless sidelined, the Blue Jays don’t even have a lot in the way in which of accessible rotation depth until you’re an enormous believer in Casey Lawrence, Zach Thompson and Drew Hutchison, all of whom have ERAs above 5.00 at triple-A Buffalo.

Under these circumstances, the Blue Jays badly want the likes of Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and Jose Berrios to remain wholesome and proceed stabilizing issues. Otherwise, their depth could possibly be examined in undesirable methods.

STILL ELITE

It’s been an uneven season for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who has slumped for stretches in May and has but to attach for a house run in Toronto. But for those who zoom out, you’re a participant who’s enjoying plus defence at first whereas hitting .298/.366/.489.

And think about this query, which Arden Zwelling and I contemplated on the newest version of At the Letters: what number of gamers can realistically be anticipated to out-hit Guerrero Jr. from now till the top of the season? The checklist of clear-cut solutions is brief. If you ask the ZiPS projections at FanGraphs, solely seven gamers are protected bets to out-hit Guerrero Jr. from right here: Yordan Alvarez, Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Juan Soto, Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Bryce Harper.

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