These Decisions Could Change *EVERYTHING* For The Blue Jays… | Blue Jays Rumours & Breakdown

These Decisions Could Change *EVERYTHING* For The Blue Jays… | Blue Jays Rumours & Breakdown

This team is having a lot of success going down into the final stretch of the season. Now, some guys returning from injury. What does that mean for the rest of the lineup? Who gets sent down? Who gets left out of what could be the playoff picture for this team? We’ll talk about it all on today’s episode of Locked on Blue Jays. You are Locked On Blue Jays, your daily Toronto Blue Jays podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Blue Jays. Thank you for making Locked on Blue Jays your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast channel on YouTube. Part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Today’s episode brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account and redeem code L O C K E D O N M MLB locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. As always, I’m Braden Wasco. He’s Carter first. You can find us on Twitter, Braden Fabby Wasco Carter first two as well on our main one, locked on Jays. You can also follow us on Instagram and Tik Tok, locked on blue jays. And please, if you haven’t already, and if you’re new here or whatever to YouTube, hit that subscribe button. We’ve seen that about 75% of you guys aren’t subscribed. So, if you’re coming back and you’re watching us all the time, you might as well hit it. You get your podcast, your shorts, your live streams, your videos, the whole ordeal. So, hit that button and it helps us out. We’re getting closer and closer to the 3200 mark. So, shout out you guys for all of you that have subscribed already. And let us know what you guys think on anything we talk about today because it is a big episode. It this is going to have playoff implications what we’re talking about today. Um, and that’s players returning from injury, what this lineup will look like, what the pitching staff will look like, who gets added late into the season, obviously going into the playoffs since you do get a couple extra roster spots. We’re going to talk about it all and then obviously we still have a series to preview and a big one against one of the best teams in the entire league, the Dodgers. So, man, my man Carter, I could have went on for a while there. There’s a lot there’s a lot going on today. We we, you know, been waiting to do this episode and waiting and waiting. We were like, you know what? We’re going to say it for an off day because there is time, but it is probably if not this if not one of it probably is the biggest conversation around this team right now. Everything I’ve been seeing on Twitter is, oh my goodness, what happens when this guy or that guy comes back? What happens when Bieber comes into the fold? What happens when Monoa returns? We’re going to talk about it all today. First of all, we’re going to start in talking about the pitching staff, as in the rotation, the bullpen, the whole ordeal there. second segment, we’ll get into more so the position players. And I hate to say this, and I said at the end of last uh la yesterday’s episode, some of your favorite guys that that you have loved watching this season may not be a part of this team going into the playoffs. And you can be sad about that, but it’s what comes with being a winning ball club and being one of the best ball clubs in baseball right now is is you have to make these tough decisions that ultimately could realistically could make or break you in the playoffs. You have to make the right moves and this team has a lot of moves to make. So Carter, I I guess I’ll throw it over to you with Shane Bieber returning, a couple bullpen guys returning, poss the possibility of Bowen Francis returning, Alec Manoa returning. There is a lot of decisions to be made here with not only the starting rotation, but the pitching staff as a whole. Yeah, to start this off, I’m going to go over just the players that are not available to the Toronto Blue Jays right now. who is coming back to force some of these decisions that the front office and John Schneider are going to have to make about this roster construction and the pitching staff right now. Obviously, the main one is Shane Bieber. We’re following his rehab starts very closely and the stuff is looking good. A lot of the stuff we’re seeing is very encouraging. He’s spinning the ball at a very in a good rate. It’s like pre Tommy John’s Shane Bieber stuff and that’s what you want to be seeing. The secondaries are looking exactly like they were, if not better. Some people are saying fast ball he hit 938 which is one of the hardest pitches he’s thrown. I think the hardest pitch pitch he’s thrown since 2022. So that’s a very good sign as well. You’re seeing the velocity being back. So a lot of things are pointing to Shane Bieber being the Shane Bieber that we’re accustomed to seeing. Again, it’s still a big if coming off of a major surgery, but that’s a guy that’s going to be thrown into things. Nick Sandlin, another guy that’ll be thrown in the bullpen. Jimmy Garcia, guy thrown in the bullpen. We will we will talk about him later, but for their starting rotation, Alec Buenoa, another guy. Tommy John surgery that people are forgetting about a little bit with St. Shane Bieber and the acquisition of him. And then Bound Francis, another guy that uh is around will be floating into the mix as we get farther and farther down the stretch here. So uh I guess we’ll start with the regular season. Well, there’s kind of two ways to think about this. There’s the playoff rotation and then there is the regular season. So obviously you have five starters traditionally in a starting rotation, but down the stretch, especially with some of these guys age, you have a lot of veterans on the starting staff. The idea of a six-man rotation has been floated around. I think with the availability of the Toronto Blue Jays pitching staff, which is a crazy situation to be in because earlier on this season when you had Bon Francis making those starts, you really only had a three-man rotation. You had Chris Basset, you had Jos Brios and Kevin Gosman. the other two are like, “Oh no, we got to see what we get out of here and hopefully we can get some guys to eat some innings.” And now you look down the stretch once you have your guys back. If things go really according to plan, you could have eight guys that you could throw into any given start, you’re probably more comfortable with what seven of them are going to do, maybe even condensed to six or five. But you have a lot of options that something that we’re not really used to as being a Toronto part of the Toronto Much Chase pitching staff. But for me down the stretch right now, I’ll start with this guy. You can’t take Eric Lauer out of the starting rotation. It is just a very horrible idea. He is by been by far the best starter in your staff. Again, it’s not a small sample size anymore. Soon as Eric Lower has come in and has been influented in his starting rotation, he’s been unbelievable. His fast ball is just cannot be picked up. The way he hides that pitch, it’s has been playing all season long. So, this is not a fluke anymore. Eric Lowour is the real deal. what he has done for your baseball team this entire season. It would be so unfair to him and it just wouldn’t make any sense because why would you change something that has been such a staple for you down the stretch and something that has been the savior of the Toronto Blue Jays season. So I think Eric Low would be the main guy like you cannot touch what this guy is doing down the stretch what whatsoever. Kevin Gosler another guy you’re going to use him in a playoff scenario another guy you’re not going to touch Shane Bieber I obviously would be a part of this six-man rotation in this sense why wouldn’t he be? So I think the six guys are going to go through. I’ll just kind of quickly go over the rest. Max Sher’s probably in here. Jose Brios, Chris Basset, and those are your guys. So you got your six right there. You have Alec Boo coming back probably starts in Triple A just out of necessity. You can keep him stretched out. You can get him more comfortable with the stuff. Bound Francis as well. So you got your four guys. You got four or sorry, you got your six guys. You got six guys that you can roll out any given day. And I’m pretty confident in down the stretch. Great. I’ll throw it over to you. I think you probably had the same idea for the uh for the rest of the regular season. Or you kind of thinking like, oh, maybe you want to go to the fiveman uh rotation, throw one guy in your bullpen. There is the roster expansion September 1st so you do have some flexibility. So, are you also on that six-man rotation idea now or are you thinking something else? And what kind of six man rotation would you be looking at? No, it’s the exact same thing. And I think that’s the situation that’s in a lot of Blue Jays fans heads right now because you get to make the decision in this late stretch of the season who your best guys are and who is going to be used in a playoff situation. That’s where we’re at now. We’re at figuring out who the best guys for the job are. And right now it’s those six that you said, Shane Bieber, Kevin Gosman, Jose Bals, Chris Basset, Eric Lowour, uh, and Max Scherzer. Those are your guys. Uh, and you have to roll with them. We’ll talk about the expansion of what then happens with Bowen Francis and Alec Manoa as well when they return. But by the time that Alec Manoa realistically returns to this team, it might already be close to that September one date anyway. So, you’re not really having to worry a ton about about what his placement will be because there will be that extra spot that will open up for this pitching staff in totality. Um, so yeah, no, I I think that’s ex you have it exactly right. Now again, if we talk about a playoff situation, well, you move a lot of these guys to the into bullpen roles or piggyback roles. Um, but Carter, I think where the biggest question is because you have to fit Manoa in there as well. And so, uh, if I’m not wrong, sorry, you said it before, how many pitchers technically are you allowed total at the September 1st after? Yeah, you can have 14. So, like you can have nine in the bullpen, five rotation arms, you can go sixman rotation. So, that’s something that you got to look at down the stretch. And with Shane Bieber being again a little maybe a little bit more delayed than we first anticipated. Again, this is going to be close to that September deadline anyway. So Shane Bieber will be coming in and you don’t necessarily have to make a corresponding move right now at all. It’s just kind of whether you want to throw Shane Bieber in, Alec Monoa, do you want to drop somebody else off? And then this is another thing I wanted to ask you as well is that uh this has been something that uh I’ve kind of been thinking about as well is that we look at the six-man rotation and we look at down the stretch like yeah that has make a lot made a lot of sense is like when you’re looking at who you’re going to kick out that’s the hardest question when you’re looking at the problem with the six-man rotation is that all these guys are deserving of a spot in that six-man rotation like it’d be very tough to look at one of those veteran guys and say hey like we need you out of a bullpen role. However, when you get to the playoffs, somebody’s already going to have to make that transition. So, do you want to make that transition early on at that September 1st deadline? Give them maybe some reps out of that bullpen role, especially if it’s one of those guys that maybe isn’t accustomed to being pitched out of the bullpen. Like, if it’s say it’s Max Sher, for example, I don’t know how you’re going to get him to commit to the bullpen to start off. Maybe you convince him to pitch out of the bullpen. Would you not want to give him some runway in the regular season to get accustomed to that role? because maybe that’s something he’s going to do in the playoffs, which obviously is more meaningful down the stretch than a regular season game would be. Uh that that’s a great question honestly because I’ve given this some thought in my head as well. And what I think happens is while you’re remping up Shane Bieber back into this lineup, you go with the six-man. You give him the extra day of rest. But then I think as you get closer to the playoffs, maybe you do start to make that switch soon as Bieber’s comfortable and back comfortable pitching games and and in the regular rotation of, you know, every five days, uh, you switch that and you do throw a guy into the pen. And will that be Chris Basset? Possibly. Will that be Max Scherzer? I sort of doubt it. Or will it be Eric Lowour? I think that’s a very good possibility as well. When when I look at this team and what they might throw out in a playoff scenario, realistically there’s three guys who are your three starters and that’s Kevin Gosman, uh Shane Bieber, and Jose Bereos. Those are your three guys. And then maybe depending how the team matches up, maybe Eric Lowour just because he’s from uh you know from the South. So you you might throw him in one of those situations as well. Sort of team dependent on who you play. But I think Chris Basset for me is slotted to be a long relief bullpen arm in a playoff scenario. So do you move him earlier into that? Possibly. I think that is a very logical step here that could happen soon as Shane Bieber is fully ramped up and ready to go. So that’s who you you would have Chris Passet moving to the bullpen role for playoff rotation. So what do you do with Max Sherzer at that point? Is he making that playoff squad or is that he like you’re just not having him a part of it or how how’s that going to work for you? No, he’ll he’ll be a part of it. Will he and I don’t know it that he he will make the fourth start or whatever it is. Maybe you don’t need to, right? Maybe you you will get enough rest where you don’t need to go to Max Sher, but he is ready and available if you do in that case of a game four or whatever it may be that maybe yeah, Max Sherzer is the guy you call on who has been getting better and better every time. I think that there are more I think Chris Bassid is is a guy that’s going to play along that will do whatever it takes to win and if that’s coming out of the bullpen in a long relief role in a big moment where you know that this guy can get the job done I think that’s Chris Basset Eric Lowour a guy that I think would have no problem heading back to the bullpen and sort of being that guy as well. So but again I think Eric Lowour may get a start just depending on who they play. That’s a very big possibility. So there there is always movement that could happen. Um, but I think the biggest component of all this and why I chose Chris Basset is his willingness and want to win and and understanding as a veteran pitcher that you may be asked to do different things. And if you are comfortable to do that, that may be a key success here to helping your team have uh success in the playoffs. Yeah. When I look at the playoff rotation right now, you said you don’t necessarily have Eric Clower in. I think Eric Clower is a shoe in. How do you look at what Eric Clower has done now at this point in the season, not have your best pitcher all regular season go into the playoffs? And this is a guy that has had some playoff experience pitching earlier on in the 2020s uh in a playoff game. So, if you’re not wor if you’re worried about experience, this guy has some playoff experience. At what point do you have to look just what’s right in front of your face? Look at the numbers who your best pitcher has been and throw him in that scenario. Like look at what Jose Briio is doing has been doing these last few starts. Like say the playoffs started tomorrow and you look at Eric Lauer and his last few starts because compared it to Jose Bio was a 571 RA over 34 and two/3s innings giving up 22 earn runs over that span a 1.44 whip. is right now would you want to roll out Jose Brios who hasn’t really showed you any stuff over a guy like Eric Lowour who has been really good in the last 12 games in a row and show you that epitome of consistently has shown you he can give you five innings consistently of one two run maybe even shut out baseball so I think at this point you have to go to Eric Lowour I agree to to an extent I I I agree to an extent I think that yes he has been fantastic and that’s why I said depending on who which team you play That’s maybe where you swap Eric Lowour in in a scenario like that. But I think that again maybe just with I I’m just trying to think about how this team views their pitching and who they were willing to give starts to. I’m not necessarily making this coming from me. This is me seeing a little bit of the future here. And if I’m a guy looking into the future, I I I could tell you any day of the week who I think these this front office and management squad would want to roll out and that is Bieber, Gossman, and Bereios. If it’s a if it’s a wild card game, it’s those three guys. And I could almost bet my life on it. But I think that if they were smart, I think, yeah, Eric Lowour in a situation, maybe a a team that has some very strong lefties, maybe you have to go to Eric Lowour and maybe the chips get put in being like, “Hey, why would you pitch Jos Burrios against a very strong lefty when you can have Eric Lowour come in and get the job done and make it a little bit easier um than it would have been against Jose Burio?” So, I agree. I’m just trying to think management wise. If if Eric Lowour does not pitch in a three-game playoff series, that is going to be worse than the Jos Brios getting pulled out of that start that he made when you look better than he did all season long. Like that is something that is so obviously right in front of your face. It’s your best pitcher all season long. Like at some point you’re going to have to it’s going to be a tough conversation obviously and I think that’s the hardest part about this is that you have three guys and Kevin Gosman, Chris Basset, Jose Brios. When you look at for me two of those guys it’s either Chris Basset or Jose Bio. I’ll give you my answer after this, but you’re going to have to get have a tough conversation with one of your three-headed monster guys. The guys we talked about a three-headed monster in those three guys, the guys that have been eating innings, just been giving you gritty outings for years now that have been with your organization for a long time. You’re going to have to have a tough conversation with them. But if you don’t throw your best pitcher in a playoff scenario, like it’s it’s gonna go down as one of the dumber things that Toronto Muay’s management has done in recent history. So, at at some point, you just got to like look at what you have. It’s the same idea as Shane Bieber. This is the guy that’s only going to be here for maybe a couple starts. If he’s your best guy and he’s going to give you the best chance to win, that’s the guy that you do have to go with. So, for Sorry, I’m just I’m not arguing I’m not arguing personally with you at all here. I agree. I I think at some point, you know, as much as we say we’re not analytic, guys, right? It’s it really it is something that that just makes sense. But I think that we’ve seen management try to stick to their guns on some of these things and and could do you think like like I think that’s a very realistic possibility that Eric Low doesn’t if it’s a wild card series doesn’t pitch in in the or doesn’t start in the three games and I as much as I hate that I I think that that’s a possibility. See I I can’t believe that. I can’t believe that this management team is looking at what Clower is doing and they’re not going to throw him in a playoff scenario. Like for me right now, like I’m going to be throwing Eric Lower game one. Like I’m not completely there yet, but I I think I’m still going Kevin Gossman and then we got to see what Shane Bieber does, but like like if Eric Eric Lauer can do this like down the stretch now when these games are becoming more and more and more important like why would you go away from that? He’s shown you then the high leverage games that are going to come in the big games against the Brewers, the Yankees, these divisional opponents, the Red Sox games. that might mean something. If he makes one of those starts and shows you a very good outing and gives you maybe like six six innings, seven innings, like what if it’s one of those massive starts, like at some point it’s so obvious that you’re going to just have to do it. So like it’s again, I think a lot with a lot of these things with your starting rotation, it’s going to be made clear down the stretch. There’s still a lot of baseball games to be played. There’s still 46 baseball games. That’s a lot of starts for these guys. that’s like give or take nine starts again when you go to the six man rotation maybe that’s eight starts seven starts six starts whatever it is but whether it’s injuries hopefully not but whether it’s poor performances I think a lot of questions will be answered as we continue down the stretch but for me if you’re looking at like if you were going to go to that fiveman rotation or even just have a guy out of the bullpen for me it’s Chris Basset he has been a little bit unpredictable uh in his starts recently and a guy that has just shown the flexibility of pitching in any single scenario and in a playoff scenario where maybe he comes in when there’s inherited runners. He’s coming in in a very tight baseball game in the later innings. That’s a guy that I’m very certain is not going to fa be phased on the mounds. He’s not going to let the moment get to him. Not going to let the moment get too big. He’s going to be the exact same as if he was pitching in a spring training game in a meaningless game in March uh as he would be in that playoff scenario. So for me it would be Chris Basset which right now like if we continue on this stretch like Max Sherzer the way he’s been pitching I still need to see more from Max Sher. So you get three more starts from Max Sherzer. That’s a guy that with his playoff pedigree and if those fast ball is playing at 95 and he’s, you know, getting the strikeouts like he has been recently, that’s another guy that maybe is thrown in the mix. So I think there could be a playoff scenario where if you would have asked me a couple months ago, hey, who are we going to be rolling in the playoffs? It would have looked a whole lot different. There’s a scenario where again I don’t see Kevin Cam Gosby bumped out of this but if you would have be arguing to me that could be a Shane Bieber, Eric Low and Max Scherzer if things go a certain way down the stretch that might not be the craziest take of all time with uh just how some of these pitchers have been pitching all season long. Yeah, it’s going to be interesting. Something very interesting to watch and that’s why we have to have these conversations because I I again I’ve just seen this management group, you know, make mistakes. And the other part of all this is Jose Brios in in the playoffs looks really good and so do you take any stock into that as well, right? A guy who sort of got screwed over by this management group in years prior. So there’s lots of questions here and you know we think we have the answers and we think we know best but the management is going to do what they’re going to do. So we’ll have to wait and see and see how this stretch plays out. We’ve spent a lot of time on this. We still want to talk about the bullpen and the players here who we think might get sent down. Probably not. We won’t spend as much time on the bullpen, but there we got to talk about it. So, we’ll take a quick break, Carter. We’ll come back. We’re going to get into all that and then we still have a serious preview to get to. So, lot more to come on today’s episode of Locked On Blue Jays. Today’s episode brought to you by Game Time. I always talk about how much I love Game Time because it’s my go-to ticketing app. It’s I would not go anywhere else at this point because they have the best deals. I have the the the the all-in pricing up front, so I know exactly what I’m paying. I don’t have to wait till I’m in the checkout and think, “Oh, oh, I’m going to get the tickets for this price.” And then I go to the checkout and it’s $30 more. That doesn’t happen. Game time is too good for that. 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What what personally do I want? But then what do I think the management’s going to do? And that’s going to come down into every single one of these decisions. And you know, as we continue on, we let’s look at the bullpen first because we got a lot more to talk about with the position players. But the bullpen’s a big conversation as well. Your bullpen as it stands is Hoffman, Yariel, Sir Anthony Dominguez, Varand, Little Fiser, Tommy Nance, and Mason Flu Hardy. And you have to make room still for Jimmy Garcia and Nick Sandlet. So that means there’s two guys that come out. And for me, it’s a very easy answer. It’s Mason Flu Hardy and it’s Tommy Nance that get the boot. and uh you you bring in uh Nick Sandlin and Jimmy Garcia back into this uh bullpen. Do you do you sort of is that just like an easy one for you? I don’t know if it’s as easy as you’re making it out to be. I think that when you’re looking at the way the bullpen at least the management wants the bullpen to be compromised is they’re going to want two lefties in there. They’re probably going to make a push for Mason Florida. Who does that leave on the outskirts? I think just because of the recency bias and just again the predictability facet is you had a guy that has been injured and on the IIL a couple times this year that’s Nick Salin there might be a little bit more unpredictability there maybe you go with Mason Fuardi over a guy like Nick Salin I think you probably test out the waters you see what Nick Salin does have at the major league level so I think do think there would be some trial and error there but I think that would be the one matchup that I would kind of look at. I think I would personally probably rather go with Nick Sandlin, but having a lefty is big in some playoff scenarios. So, I think that is going to be a match up that I would definitely be looking at down the stretch. But Jimmy Garcia, I think that’s guy you have to throw in there. But with the way Tommy Nance has been pitching, like how you going to tell Tommy Nance with the numbers that he’s been putting up that you’re not going to be a part of this bullpen. And uh there’s another thing that we got to consider. For me, I think it’s kind of a shoein already, but the rosters do expand. you are allowed to add another pitcher. But again, with what the Toronto’s got going on in that starting rotation, I think it’s pretty obvious that this probably won’t be an alloc spot allocated to the bullpen, it’s going to be to that starting rotation. I think you’re going to agree with that as well. So, I think you are going to have to operate with eight spots. So, and that’s another thing that down the stretch that will be something that some performances will kind of show you what is going to happen. And then just with the progression with the injuries, with how the rehab assignments go, uh, I think Jimmy Garcia is a shoe. as long as you get the Jimmy Garcia you expect. So again, there’s a lot of uncertainty there, but Mason Fluity could be an option. Tommy Nance an option, Braden Fischer, like how are you going to tell Braden Fischer that he’s not a part of this bullpen. So I think the guys that are like for sure like 100% you’re going to have down the stretch you’re going to have Jeff Hoppin in there. You’re going to have Yiel, Brandon Little, Anthony Dominguez, Louis Varand, I can’t see a world where Jimmy Garcia not in there. And then I’m not going to put Braden Fischer in there, but I think he’s as close as he could possibly be to being in that list as well. I think it’s a very small chance that this this team takes Braden Fishcher out of that would kill me. Like that would hurt my heart because Braden Fischer has done everything possible asked of him. He’s been so good. I I would hate to be the guy that has to go down and tell Braden Fischer, “Sorry, yeah, we got to boot you after everything you’ve done this season.” I that I don’t know. That would kill me. But that’s the bullpen situation and I know we could talk a lot more about it, but we sort of did want to cover everything today and a big conversation has to now go towards the position players on this team because a lot of people might have hurt feelings over this one and I might be right there as well. Um, so right now in this lineup you have Nathan Lucas, Bo Bashette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Addison Barger, Alejandro Kirk, Daltton Vo, Ernie Clement, Joey Loperito, Davis Schneider, Tyler Heinaman, Ty France, Buddy Kennedy, and Miles Straw. Um, you’re going to get George Springer back and you’re going to get Andre Jimenez back and you may get Anthony Sonair back for this. We’ll say he’s back. We’ll say he finally figures it out. The shoulder is miraculously nurse to health. Yeah, we we Braden gave him his arm and that’s why he’s just going to, you know, have the greatest fielding stretch of all times. He’s just going to have the Braden athletic ability out there in right field. Maybe hopefully at DH, hopefully he doesn’t even see the field, but he’s going to be prepared just in case. That’s right. Yeah. So, no, I I agree with you. As much as I am still very worried that he is even going to look anything like Anthony Sandon at all this season, you have to assume that he comes back because if not, I don’t know what they’re not telling us about this injury, but something has gone the world imploded because Anthony Santandere cannot lift his arm. It’s al just more fun to think about Anthony Santere just, you know, hitting absolute nukes into the the night at, you know, whatever whether it’s at Roger Center, hopefully it’s at Yankee Stadium, wherever it ends up being in the playoffs as well. It’s just a lot more fun to be hopeful about some of the power coming back to the Toronto Blue Jays with Anthony Son back in this lineup especially just with the way the lineup’s compromised. I won’t go on too big of a tangent here but we have a lot of guys that get on base a lot of guys that don’t strike out a ton. So you need some thumpers. You need some guys that when those guys get on base they got to be able to hit them home and Anthony Sonair traditionally is got to do can do that. So for this scenario just because again it’s a lot more fun increases the team’s upside. We’ll throw Anthony Sonair in here. But do you like just want me to fire off a lineup quick or just kind of go over more of the guys that are on the fence because obviously there’s some shoe wins, some guys that aren’t going anywhere on the Toronto Woods team. Yeah, I guess if if you want you can go through the guys that are that are forers, but I I think everybody already knows that. I realistically there are only a few options. So I mean Vladimro Jr., Bo Bashette, um, Addison Barger, Alejandro Kirk, Daltton Vo, I would even honestly at this point say Nathan Lucas and Ernie Clement are pretty much shoe wins for me. I I don’t think there’s any argument there. Tyler Heinaman, no argument there. That guy has to be there. You need two catchers. As much as I I think Daltton Vo could throw on the mask, I think I would have to throw myself out of a window if uh if I see Daltton Varel put on a catcher put on the catching gear again. uh ever. So, um that leaves you with Miles Straw, Buddy Kennedy, um Ty France, Joey Loido, and Davis Schneider. So, you got five guys there, and you need to cut three of them, or I guess two of them because you get the September player back as well. So, you’d have to cut two. Is that right? Am I doing math correctly? Yeah, like you would have a bunch of bench spots available. You should have five bench spots available available because you have 14 guys on the pitching staff. You’d have 14 guys uh throughout the lineup as well. So, I’m just going to quickly rattle off my my lineup. I’m just going to do this one against right-handed pitchers. This is what I would have. And then this I will kind of talk through it with the guys I have available. So, I would have Faith Lucas leading off still against Ry’s George Springer and Vladimir Gro Jr. I keeping B in that four spot. You have Barter in there at five, Kirk at six, Son Dere at seven, Faru at eight, Andre Smith at nine. By the way, what a lineup if everyone’s firing on all cylinders. Oh my goodness. Like I would be absolutely love to see that. Ernie Clement, like I said, chew in. like you can’t cut Ernie Ernie Clement from this roster. Uh Tyler Heidman backup catcher, you’re going to need him there as well. Uh when it’s a playoff scenario, when we’re looking at the playoff roster, I don’t know how you don’t have Miles Straw on this team. It’s the perfect defensive substitute. Like it’s it’s a guy that down the stretch pinch running like a lot of scenarios where I think Miles Straw would be the best case scenario. He’d be better than David Schneider, better even than Ernie Clement, better than Joey Lito. So I think Miles Straw for me. I don’t know about a shoe in necessarily. Well, I’m I’m but he’s for me pretty close to a shoe in closest to a shoe in as you can get. So clearly you’re not on the same page as much there. But uh and then so I won’t throw him in as the shoe wins. So I guess that leaves us with four guys. Dave Schneider, Joy Lido, Ty France, Miles Straw, two spots. That’s that’s where we’re at. I I as much as maybe I don’t agree with this or people may not agree with this, I think Ty France is going to be in. I think he’s a lock for me. I think that you don’t make that move and bring him in. I think he has a enough of skill where he can do a lot of things. Um I I hate to say that because he has not been a core piece and he’s not a differencemaker to me, but I think he’s a shoein. Um, I I think it really comes down to Miles Straw, Davis Schneider, Joey Lopeido, and there are going to be some very very hard conversations to have. I I think I think Miles Straw may be the first to go. See, I think like down the stretch, maybe in the regular season, but you come come playoffs, like who would like you want a guy that you’re going to throw out there and he’s going to be surefire defensively, especially if you’re up in a baseball game. I know you already have a lot of guys that can play defense on this team, but Miles Straw again, who’s going to lay down a bunch in a big scenario? Who’s going to steal second base in a big scenario? Do you want Troy Lido doing that? You want Ty France doing that? Again, he kind of has the same idea with Ty France. That’s why I have him on my roster because he’s pretty good at first base defensively. So that’s a guy that I would throw in in a lot of scenarios. But it’s just it’s the Bradley Zimmer effect. It’s, you know, it’s teams adding like Ben River is one of the reasons that he was there. It’s Daltton Pompei when he was with the Toronto Blue Jays down the stretch. It’s just the guy they’ve always traditionally had, the guy that’s a very good defensive replacement and a very good base runner. So that’s I think Miles Straw is as close as he could be to a shoe in for really making that playoff roster is the perfect prototype for what you would want in a late inning scenario. Ty France for me uh offers a lot of the playoff uh experience that you might want with the Toronto Blue Jays lineup not the most playoff experience of all time. So Ty France a guy that’s kind of been there before has been through some of the scenarios and just again can offer that defensive alternative there. So for me it’s between David Schneider and Joey Le Pito. Like there’s two spots buddy get into. Sorry. I mean obviously not really in the running here whatsoever. So David Schneider, Joey Lido. And that really just comes down to who’s playing better down the stretch. I think if like the playoffs started well playoff start tomorrow with David Schneider because Jo might not have a knee right now. So I think that one again one of those things that kind of answered itself. But the way Dave Schneider’s playing, like if if it really happened tomorrow, like I don’t know how you put Ty France out there over David Schneider. I mean, the guy just had an unbelievable series against the Rockies, you know, was against the Rockies, but still a major league baseball team. Like what David Schneider’s been doing recently. You have to have that guy in there against left-handed pitching. It’d be again one of those things that’s like it slap you right in the face and fans would be livid if he’s not on that playoff roster. So, I think again it’s a little bit different if you’re looking, you know, at the time of the playoffs compared to right now. So, I’m kind of thinking at the time of the playoffs. Like my last draw for me has to be on that playoff roster. It It’s an interesting conversation. Uh I I’m really like mindbgggled because I I also think that this comes a little bit down to, hey, what is management looking for here? And are they looking for that defensive sub? A lot of teams do carry one of those guys into the playoffs, right? that can go out there that can do the little things. And Mile Stra is a guy that can do the little things, but I just don’t know when you have to get rid of maybe one of the others. To me, I I think the Tai France of it all really just I don’t want to say throws a wrench into it because he’s done good things too, but it just is hasn’t we haven’t seen the sustainability because he hasn’t been here. So, I think the the back or the backlash of this stretch is really going to prove who it is. Let us know what you guys think down below. I mean, we could sit here and debate this for for literally hours. Carter, I got one more thing as an extension on it. When you get to a playoff scenario, when we look at our pitching staff, like you condense the starting rotation, when you look at the bullpen, you condense the bullpen. When you get to a playoff scenario, you don’t really care about your bench. Like, these aren’t guys that you’re relying on for big at bats. Maybe you have one guy in there for pinch hitting scenarios to go in for maybe a guy that’s lower on in your uh in your batting order, but you want to rely on the guys in your lineup. But you look at the Toronto Blue Jays lineup. uh if like Joy Loid or David Schneider probably not traditionally in your lineup may maybe David Schneider is against lefties and like if the playoffs are tomorrow but you’re relying on your lineups. This is would be a spot that is going to be a bench spot. They’re not going to be starting this playoff game. It would be one of those replacement level players. So I think in that sense if you’re looking for that replacement level player, Miles Straw just beats anybody out when you’re looking at all the things you’d be looking for. My only caveat to that is they have talked nonstop about the platoonability of this team and the subst sub I don’t even know what I’m trying to say with that word but uh the the replacement uh the ability to replace players and and put this guy in because of this specific role this guy in because of this. And there are a couple things here that throw big wrenches into what this team is doing. And I think to me the biggest wrench pause. The biggest wrench is Andre Jimenez. If that guy can’t get his bat going, I get he’s great defensively and he he has to have a spot, but man, if his bat isn’t going, that’s going to really hurt me. I think if we see how good this lineup’s been without him, and then you add him in and he doesn’t show up offensively. I don’t know, man. I I there are a lot of iffy parts to this, but Andre Simenez is the one that I just can’t for the life of me get my brain around other than they want his defense at second and they’re just willing to sacrifice the offense. Well, and that’s why right now I would have David Schneider making this playoffs roster as well because would you want Andre Smith hitting against left-handed pitching? Probably not. The guy can barely hit against right-handers. So David Schneider can play second base. It’s the perfect trade-off. You throw him in against lefties. you have Andre Smith to play that, you know, uh, platinum glove caliber defense and hit against righties, hopefully have a little bit of an advantage there. So, I think right now, that’s why I’d have Miles Strong there. Unfortunately for me, again, baseball kind of took care of this one. As much as I love what Joey Lo is doing, he’s been unbelievable for this team. But for just the role that this team is going to need in that scenario, Miles Straw fits the card a little bit better for me than Joey Lo does. But a lot of these questions will be answered as we get down the stretch. like there might be a big injury. There might be maybe a random free agent signing. Maybe Brandon Belt will come back to save this Toronto Blue Jays baseball team as well. Maybe Edwin will come off the bench and take some at bats in a big scenario in the playoffs. So, again, crazier things have happened. Maybe not than that obviously, but crazy things do happen in the playoffs. So, uh there are some scenarios that we won’t necessarily be able to account for, but uh I think yeah, as as for Buddy Kennedy, some ricochet shots, you want to apologize to him for he got on base for the first time in his legs career. So, credit to him in that Rocky series for what he did in that uh in that game. But the train keeps on trekking and uh it comes into some uh some for lands. It’s some uh some tough scenarios coming up. And it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers and some tough pitching scenarios that we got to get up get into some pitching matchups that do scare me a little bit because uh the Los Angeles Dodgers as much as you know one of them might get injured in one of these outings, they do have a lot of talent in that rotation. So much we want to get into and we will dive right into that coming up. 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Maybe it’s a Caleb Johnson, maybe it’s RJ Harvey, maybe it’s it’s just a random guy in the draft that you’re like, “Hey, people are sleeping on this guy that you hammer a few more than on him and that’s how you make a ton of money.” And the best part is you can use that against your friends and say, “Hey, look, I was right. Look at these slips and look at my prize picks account. I’m absolutely raking in the cash.” And it was all due to my knowledge on sports and prize picks ability to allow me to test my knowledge and, you know, break to my friends a little bit as well. So, you can download the Prize Pix app today and use code locked on MLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code locked on MLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks run your game. So, Carter, just continuing on obviously the Blue Jays Dodgers series. I’m going to go over the pitching probables. We’ll get into it. But I know we’re running long again because there are a million things we could talk about every single episode it feels like. Uh first game Friday. This is a uh 1010 start Eastern. So brutal. Um Max Scherzer versus Clayton Kershaw. Second game will be Chris Basset versus Blake Snell. And the third game Eric Lowour against Yoshobu Yamamoto. And that will be a couple interesting matchups. I think to watch Lowour and Yamamoto go against each other and to watch Scherzer and Kershaw go against each other. Oh my goodness, these are this is like a fever dream of a Blue Jays season. That’s what this reminds me of to watch Max Sher in a Blue Jays uniform pitch against Clayton Kershaw. I I don’t know if I if I’m going to be able to sleep after that game. I might just be so just jacked up. Yeah, that’s one you got to have circled on your calendar and you should be available for because it’s late on a Friday night. So you hopefully you’re not working during that game because that is one I am definitely excited for game for the ages. I mean imagine this was 10 years ago and you had Clayton Kershaw and Max Sher on it probably be on Sunday Night Baseball. So now you got that on a Friday night and luckily you got one of them in Toronto Jay Blue and he’s been pitching pretty good recently. So hopefully he can take that into Los Angeles and hopefully dominate the Los Angeles Dodgers to start the series on a right foot because again big stretch coming up here. You got some tough pitching match ups in this game that Yamamoto start. It’s going to be rough but luckily you got your ace on the mound and your best pitchers so up to this point this year. So uh big series coming up and you want to start this on the right foot, continue on from uh that series against Colorado. But Braden, I’ll throw it over to you for just your predictions and just your expectations in this series. Holy moly. Uh, where to start? Where to start? Um, are you expecting like 45 runs? Is that something that we’re going for again in the series, Carter? I’m I’m I’m praying for three. Um, no. I think the Blue Jays will have success here against these guys, I I just when I was breaking down the games in the last episode when we were talking expectations, this is one in my head that they win one of one of three. But I think I might go against that because I have to. I’m going two of three. Max Sherzer gets the win. Eric Lowour gets the win. I think it’s that Chris Bassid game that may just not go their way. So I’m going to say a Blue Jays series win 2-1. Sherzer gets it over Kershaw. Lowour gets it over uh Yamamoto in game three there. So but I don’t know. I feel like anything can happen in this series. These are the two best team one two of the best teams in baseball going headtohead. Uh I didn’t think I would be saying that at the beginning of this season, but here we are. Let’s ride. I will never predict a series loss for the Toronto Blue Jays. 2-1 Blue Jays. Yeah, I’m going to continue on that board as well, but doing it in a little bit of a different way. Max Sher is going to win the uncoff. He’s going to win the Grandpa Fest. He’s going to take advantage of Clayton Kershaw. I think the Toronto Blue Jays offense going to capture a little bit of what they got in Colorado and continue it on in that start. And then when I look at Blake Snell, this guy does walk a lot of people from time to time. This Toronto Blue Jays is a is a lineup and a team that doesn’t strike out a ton and has pretty good knowledge of the strike zone. So, I’m going to give him that one as well. I think Chris Bass is going to have a big outing. You know, try to reserve his spot in that starting rotation after I hated on him just a little bit. Not really hating on him, just said he’d breathe my option to move him to the bullpen. But I think yeah, maybe he proves me wrong a little bit there and puts up a massive start for the Blue Jays. And then in that last game, again, Yamamoto just scares me a lot. I think Eric Clower doesn’t have a bad start. I just think it’s one of those, you know, pitching duels. And I think the Toronto Blue Jays unfortunately come up on the wrong side of it. But if you take two out of three against the Dodgers, I feel like they are in a great spot and it’ll be on a confident spot going into a couple tough series ahead. Yeah, Carter, I I couldn’t agree with you more. This is going to be a super super fun, interesting series to watch, and I think it’ll give us a very good picture into what the Toronto Blue Jays can and will bring in the playoffs. So, yeah, everybody strap up, get ready, take your uh five energies because you’re going to need it for these late games here uh in LA. Uh but Carter, my man, this has been a crazy episode. I don’t want to keep the people much longer. I know we’ve been talking for ages. So, um, anything else you got to that you want to throw it quickly before we peace out of here for the weekend? No, I’m just, uh, excited for some late game baseball and I’m excited for the Toronto Boogies to once again show Otani and you know, maybe why I should have came to Toronto, why that World Series maybe didn’t matter as much. And there’s way more in Toronto that we probably could have offered him. We just wanted to say thank you guys for watching and just all the support that you guys have given us recently. Whether it’s the live streams, the shorts, the reals, the uh the podcast, whatever it is, you guys have been absolutely killing it and we do appreciate it a ton. And uh we will talk to you guys again after the weekend on Monday.

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