Toronto Blue Jays Regular Season Recap

Toronto Blue Jays Regular Season Recap

[Music] [Applause] K14 podcast. And folks, folks, we got stress-free baseball this week all the way until Saturday. I’m a little banged up still, Avery. Uh, how are you feeling, man? Um, I I feel fine now, but I woke up at 1:30 this afternoon. Uh, it’s always great. Uh, fell asleep, got home, just everything left on, lights on, just watching the most ridiculous YouTube videos ever. But, um, an awesome night, of course. I mean, it’s cool. We get to meet some of the guys and, uh, celebrate with them, too. That was that was awesome. Those fellas know how to get after it, man. Um, I mean, I I feel like a lot of it was them kind of getting it out of their system cuz they probably I mean, we didn’t see them out a lot this year. We didn’t go out with the guys much. So, um, we won’t tell a lot of stories, but it was really cool to kind of meet and, uh, see some of the people and finally, uh, shake their hands and talk to them and just kind of congratulate them. So, uh, who was the coolest guy you met or like the most surprising guy that was like an awesome dude in terms of like obviously you didn’t we didn’t know him previously or we did but we never met him in person. Uh, Miles Straw is the coolest guy ever and Miles Straw is the coolest guy ever and IKF we saw him for 30 minutes and he’s just calm, cool, collected like just the just the he is but Miles Straw Miles Straw man he’s number one for me. Cool guy. So when we when we got to Cherries, um I texted Pop and I go, “Um, come come come to Cherries.” He goes, “All right.” So I see him strolling in and he has IKF by his side and I start chanting Isaiah kind of [ __ ] And he just looks at me like, “You’re that guy, huh? You’re you’re the one that started that.” And uh IKF was just kind of it was awesome because kind of hearing what we do is a good thing from players rocks. I mean IKF said it a million times like he loves our stuff and he loves what we do for the team and the way we approach it and all that. And um what a lad. He told me after that walk, was it a walk-off or no? The double against Houston, right? Yeah, it was a big hit. Double against Houston. He said he he doesn’t have social media or Twitter, but he downloaded Twitter just to kind of just to see our responses to his double uh clutch double against the Astros. So, that was really cool. Um it was awesome to kind of be in the setting with all the boys. I mean, we had Mark Wazinski with us. Um all the Pop’s so cool. Popkins is like I was talking to him about hitting for probably 20 30 minutes and man he is an absolute genius and I kind of brought the point up to him and I think it’s a great point. I mean he creates tons of value for players for the team that’s like you can’t really calculate. I mean let’s talk about like I mean for example Ernie Clement guy makes 1.7 million 4.2 two be war this year. 98 weighted runs created plus was pretty good offensively. One of the top five clutch headers on the team according to clutch stats and that’s because of Paul. Like that’s that’s value that makes winning baseball teams. The Miles Straw turning that season around turning his career around like Tyler Heinaman. Tyler Heinaman and he talked about all the guys and how open and like how much they listen to like the strategy and every single thing that goes into it day in and day out and I’m like man that is a thankless thankless job because really at the end of the day everyone hates their hitting coach a lot of the time man. Every team hates the hitting coach. You see it with the Mets now. They want everyone fired. Um, it just it’s awesome to kind of just hear the stories from Pop about how much how he approaches things, what he looks at. And I got an awesome quote from Popkins yesterday where he’s like I was like, “What stat do you really care about?” Like what’s the stat you look at to see like, “Yes, we’ve had a successful season.” He said, “The only thing I [ __ ] care about is Waiter runs creative plus and I was mad we didn’t finish top three.” Like they finished in they finished fourth in May. I mean, this is a team that was horrible in weighted runs creative plus last season and Pop comes in. They were above league average. We won’t say horrible compared to this standard, I guess, now, but he said, “Waiter runs creative plus.” And I said, he corrected me. I was like, “Yeah, you guys are like top 10 now.” He’s like, “No, no, no. We’re top five. We’re fourth.” He knew that [ __ ] right off the rip. So, Popkins is an absolute legend, man. I hopefully we can get him on in the offseason when it dies down. I mean, getting him on in season would be ridiculous. Oh, I mean the the the planning that goes into what that guy does is absolutely insane. And we rewarded him with uh I mean free food and alcohol um because we soak the bill for him. It’s the classic Avery. It’s such a bad move, man. It’s when you put your card down, I was like this [ __ ] I mean this [ __ ] Pop was like how can I like transfer you money or whatever? Like it’s all good, Pop. You’ve done enough for us. Okay. Yeah. You you’re the reason we have this money. Like you guys playing well. So, and he was just so fascinated with the numbers of gate 14. He’s like, “You guys must be [ __ ] killing it now. Like, you guys must be buzzing.” And I was like, “Yeah.” He said, he’s essentially said, he’s like, “Does do the numbers get better?” He’s such a numbers guy. He’s like, “Do the numbers get better as like that we get better?” He’s like, I’m like, “You have no [ __ ] idea, brother. You have no idea.” And I don’t think many people know this about Pop, which is like kind of cool backstory, but he was a pretty good minor league hitter. He won the batting title in high A. Um, and then kind of the wheels fell off. He was a switch hitter, by the way. I had no clue. He said he learned how to hit. He said what makes, in his opinion, what makes him a good hitting coach is the fact that he knows how to do it from both sides and some things work for him from the right side that didn’t work on the left and the left on the right. So, it was kind of cool getting that backstory from Popkins and kind of just talking to him and what an absolute legend he is, man. An absolute legend. He’s he is a cool They’re all cool guys. I think that’s why we’ve always liked doing it to to show off that that they are cool and uh they’ve been super gracious to us. So I I said every time I was just happy for the guys. They they were super pumped up about it. It’s great to celebrate. Job’s not I’m sure they’re hurting today, too, but we’re we’re back on it tomorrow uh to get ready with with all the games starting. Um yeah, Pop Pop’s really cool. We we tried to pitch him a couple content ideas cuz I feel like he he does like the content stuff. Oh, he loves it. He loves that [ __ ] Yeah. Like we definitely need to get him on have a chat with him and then him like a hitting lesson. You you and pop in the cage I I think would be uh would be awesome. It would do numbers. We And we were talking about everything too. We were talking about that tweet like I know Chris Bowling Y is going to talk about this. YJ’s posted the the Ernie thing of oh if you get three more miles an hour of bat speed you’re going to hit a million more home runs and it’s like you know what doesn’t totally work like that if you have elite bat deval they they like a sliding scale and yeah he’s not really in on the drive line stuff too which I found like pretty fascinating in terms of that he’s like yeah it’s like sure Ern because I asked him I brought up the Ernie thing and he’s like um yeah it would be awesome for him to gain bat speed but then we’ll l we’ll lose the bat to Oh, and I don’t know if he’s going to put balls in play like that. And uh I Yeah, that’s not just like a drive line pro. I understand how drive line um like markets themselves cuz they would try and get Ernie to to get into their system and hopefully it works out and they they can obviously uh gain more traction by doing that. So yeah, I don’t think he was like uh he was chirping the the No, he wasn’t true. He was just saying like he he he likes his philosophy more and it’s like obviously whatever you like. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. or whatever works for you and it clearly clearly works. And I’ve gotten tons of tweets and DMs about where I got this um division champs hat. I was originally like I wouldn’t say I was angry in the moment cuz it was whatever. But I remember just want we were at the bar and Lfidto just rips my hat off my head, the Gate 14 hat, puts it on himself and then just gives me this and I’m like it’s a pretty fair tradeoff I guess. I mean, uh, yeah, Lopes, you can have the Geek 14 hat, but I’m taking that division champs hat. He’s like, “Oh, I got tons anyways. It’s fine.” But, um, yeah, that’s how I got the hat. And I didn’t realize in the moment, but I think this is like one of my favorite things I own, man. I mean, this is straight from the clubhouse. Um, a division champions Blue Jays hat that not many people can say they have as of yet. So, uh, or just have in general from the clubhouse. So, they were wearing some hilarious stuff when they went out. Like they were wearing the giveaway jerseys. That’s what they were all wearing was the giveaway jersey. So So David Schneider was wearing the Chris Basset basketball jersey that you get in the giveaway and Ernie Clement was wearing the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hockey jersey. It was like they and they wear those all the time. Like I’ve seen them BP all the time wearing these random things and it’s so good. And we got we had Callum come back. Callum just out of the blue. Cameraman Callum from Spring Training. Hadn’t seen him in months and he came out. He’s my favorite person in the world. That idiot. I love him so much. Yeah, he’s the man. And he he got to re rekindle the relationship with uh Bowen and uh Ernie and Davis. And I’m sure they were throwing chirps at him. Obviously. Lopes gets in. He walks in. I said, “Hey, what’s up?” He’s like, “Did Callum do 75 hard?” And I was like, “What are you talking about? He looks great right now. now. He hadn’t even seen him yet. Last time we saw him was spring training and Callum was so so excited when Joey Loito followed him on Instagram randomly when we were in spring training. That’s his favorite story. So that was great to see him too. That’s the fun stuff when we can bring everyone around. Like that’s why I really like doing it. It’s awesome, man. I mean Gosman was there too and uh he’s the best. He’s the man. I mean him and I had a great convo. I mean uh and then Budzinski is such a beauty. He was there with his wife and her friend and they were like having awesome conversation. So, just ordered a bottle of procco. I’m assuming that was on our tab as well. No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t. It wasn’t. It wasn’t. Wow. All right. Thanks, buds. But, um, just an awesome night, man. And again, maybe it’s not a day that I will look back on right now, but I know in the future I’m going to look back on this and be just like, I I can’t believe we went out and celebrated a division champion with the actual team that won the division champion championship. So, absolutely unbelievable stuff. You know, it’ll be cooler though, John. Well, the the parade, but um the parade will be cool. We got three more. That’s what Popkins DM me. Popkins or uh text me. He’s like, “Awesome night. Uh looking for hopefully we can celebrate three more times.” And I go, “Pop, anytime, any place, anywhere. You know, we’ll be there. We’ll travel. We’ll travel.” Yeah. Just an absolute legend. So, awesome night. That was kind of the night recap. If people didn’t like listening to that, I I I got nothing for you because I I like obviously talking to this about the stories about that and I I love people listening about it. So, shout out to IKF. Miles Straw is an absolute beauty. By the way, Miles Straw is having a kid this week. So, I want everyone to put that into perspective in terms of like a legacy hit coming up, little dad strength, his second child. So, congratulations to Miles and his wife. Um I believe he left today actually to go um go to the hospital to uh in Florida to see his wife and he put his he grabbed my phone. He’s like here take my number down and uh yeah just he’s like text me next time you’re you guys are in Florida when you do the Vlatty thing and we’ll get something going as well. So just an absolute legend, Miles Straw. An absolute [ __ ] legend. And it’s so awesome that we root for a team full of good guys, man. I I’ll be honest with you, like I’d be pretty straightforward if if if there was guys that I just didn’t like or if there was guys that were kind of [ __ ] and I’ I’d openly say it, but I genuinely genuinely mean it. This is a very very close very very good ball club and it it all starts from top to bottom. I mean, guys were we were there with the strength coaches and the assistant strength coaches and the trainers and seeing how the players embrace those guys. It’s it’s like they all just love each other, man. And and Dan Scholman said it. He’s like, “I’ve never seen a team this close.” And it’s just been an awesome ride and it’s it’s finished so far the regular season with the best accomplishment you can have so far, which is the best record in the American League. So, shout out to the boys, man. And um job’s not finished. What a rip. Job’s not finished, but just an awesome couple days we get here until Saturday to kind of look into it and be like, “Wow, pretty [ __ ] cool, man. Pretty cool. Pretty cool.” Um all right, so playoff time. Uh we have the bracket set up. The wild card series are Guardians Tigers. That goes to the top uh the other side of the bracket where the Mariners are waiting for them and then Red Sox Yankees starting tomorrow and then the Blue Jays will play the winner of that. Um predictions, John, as to how the AL Wild Cards will go. Listen, we got to have a conversation about the AL Central. some of the mo I mean and again I I I don’t understand Major League Baseball having the one seed have the hardest [ __ ] way to get to the championship series. How the [ __ ] does the one seed get to face the three or four team but the two seed or whatever it is faces the five seed the four or five seed or whatever it is. Right. Did I [ __ ] that up? You you had lost me there in a for a minute. Okay, hear me out. How the [ __ ] does the Blue Jays, the one seed, either face the Yankees or the Red Sox, right? Which is like the one wildcard seed and the two wild card seed, but the [ __ ] Mariners get to face the the lowest division seed and the last wildard team. How the hell does that make sense? Yeah, I mean the NL side makes it make more sense. The Yankees being as good as they are is the problem. That’s that’s the only problem is that the Yankees are just as good as the one seed. That doesn’t h that’s not happening in like they have the same record as the one seed. The four seed the exact same record. I would be so angry if I was in the Yankees fought. So angry. Here’s the best record in the AL technically. Here’s the Boston Red Sox and Garrick Crochet while the Guardians or the Tigers at like the Guardians are throwing Gavin Williams. It’s like it’s unbelievable [ __ ] But I will say I I’m kind of in a buy low spot with the Tigers here for I think I think that’ll be pretty popular really cuz you have scubble game one like you have to chalk that up as a if you they can’t win that then but they lost to him last week. They they beat him last week. Yeah. No, I’m saying the bo spot it should be popular. I like the Tigers too. Like I would think it’s Tigers Yankees that get out. would I know the Guardians are the hottest team in baseball and maybe we’ll look back in a couple days and think how silly that was to to put that out there that uh the Tigers are gonna win but I don’t know I feel pretty good with with Crochet on the mound in uh in game one too but like you just look at the NL Cubs Padres’s Dodgers Reds like if you’re the Phillies having to play the Dodgers in round two or your first playoff round is shitty but like the Brewers path seems right? At least like it’s not that crazy. So, we’ll get into that. Going to be a nice blood bath between Boston and the Yankees. I hope like really hope it gets to game three and then we can uh have that happen. But that is great. The reason we are here today though, kind of going over our 2025 season preview, the uh what we came up with with some of our Oh, I listen to it and uh it’s so funny. It’s not great, folks. It it’s it’s not great some of the things we said, but again, it wasn’t really that bad. It was just things we hoped for that just didn’t even come remotely close. Like I openly said on the pod, it’s Allen Rhoden’s job in the outfield until he loses it. Um, and for I I guess technically that was right. He did lose it pretty bad. Like at the at the time, nothing that was said was outrageous, but it is funny to look back at. It is funny to look back at. Yeah. Toronto Blue Jays in the regular season finished 94 and 68. that is first place. They spent 81 days in first place. Um their biggest lead in the division was 6 and a half games. The furthest back in the division they were was eight games. Wow. Back. Um they got up to 27 games over 500. Um or that was the most games over that math seems wrong. And the most games under 500. They were four games under 500 as of May 7th. The longest winning streak was 10 games. Absolute heater from the 29th of June to July 8th. That was awesome. Um and their longest losing streak was five games. So, um also we’ll we’ll mention 49 comeback wins. Holy Santa Claus [ __ ] Yeah. Um they had they were shut out six times. That’s honestly pretty pretty impressive, Abe. Yeah, they were shut out by the opponent six times and they had eight shutouts themselves. Nine walk-off wins this year. Wow. Nine walk-off wins. So, um we will get into it. Also, we’ll finish this off by 54 and 27 at home, 40 and 41 on the road, the Toronto Blue Jays. So, uh doing that was was super super special to get those home games throughout the playoffs because they were so much better at home than they were on the road. So, we’ll go into our season in review. Um, we’ll just go over what we said, what happened, uh, to let you guys know. So, we started with the win total of over under 78 and a half wins. I was on the over, Johnny was on the over. Johnny, how did that one finish? Oh, I mean, blew it out of the water. Yeah. Blew it by 16. Just absolutely dusted that number, too. So the next question we had was are Vlad and Bo on the team at the end of the year. Um both of us said yes. Glad that happened because at the time John that was the biggest worry of anything that was going on and that’s why probably the win total was low, right? I mean being dealt but uh yeah that happy to say that that is the case right now. Is Bo techally on the team right now? I don’t I don’t know if he he’ll play, but um yeah, that that’ll always be the biggest question mark here is uh like if they don’t win the World Series, what could have happened if Bo was still healthy? And hey, hate that we have that to think about, but you win a couple games and we can forget about that hopefully. Um so we had their position finish in the AL East. We both said third place in the AL East. You know where’ they finish, John? I would have been happy with it. They probably would have meant a playoff spot. They’d probably be facing the Yankee or they’d probably be facing the Red Sox, I guess. Yeah, that’s in Fenway. That’s kind of what our thoughts would have been. Um, we asked if the Jays were going to make the playoffs, we both said yes. So, since we said yes, what stage of elimination were the Blue Jays going to um be outed? I said the wild card. I said it would be funny if they just didn’t win any more games in the wild card again. uh in the division series for you, John. So hopefully we are both wrong, but yes, it mine is an impossibility. So at least you get better points than I do for that one. Do Mark Shapyro, Ross Atkins, and John Schneider all have their current jobs for 2026? We can’t totally mark this as we know what’s going to happen, but we both said yes. John, you think there’s anyway? I am. It would be a catastrophic [ __ ] up for them to both lose their jobs, right? Don’t think it would be fair. Yeah, it’s like Yeah. And Shapyro is the only one who’s up like we stated in that uh in the original video. I don’t know how you can’t give Mark Shapyro his job back. I I I don’t know. He He did the renovations. The stadium’s packed. I mean, team’s good. It’s would be kind of dumb uh to not give Mark Shapyro that job back and extend him. Okay, so we did the best starter on the team pitching wise. I said Kevin Gosman, you said Jose Bereios. Oh, you wanted to say Gossman. You thought it was the chalk answer, but you said, “You know what? I’ll go with Jose Briio.” I could tell you, John, you definitely weren’t right on that one. It did not go Jose Burio’s way this year. And then we did the best bullpen arm right after. I said Jimmy Garcia and you said Jeff Hoffman. Um I don’t think anyone gets points for either of those. Yeah, I think Okay, I’ll ask you this question right now then. Who is who who wins your MVP in the bullpen? That’s a great question. I just went to look at that. Is it Y- Rod? No. Like like can Yrod be the best in the bullpen and then not on the playoff roster? He’s going to be on the What? I think there’s a there’s a chance he might not be on it. Oh, he’s on the Come on, Abe. What makes you think that? I just don’t think he’s pitched very well as of late. Okay. Um, who would you say the MVP then? Braden Fischer. I don’t know if you can say that either because he wasn’t there for half of the time. It’s You’re going to hate it, but like Brennan Little probably gets some some flowers for that. He’d probably get some votes. He He’s probably up there for mine. Brendan Little, and we brought this up on stream. I mean, Brendan Little walks for nine. I mean, I don’t even know who would get it. Like, I might even just give it to Eric Lowour instead as as a [ __ ] out. Just you know what? You were in the bullpen a little bit. You get to win this. Like the Lower Hour. Congratulations, brother. Yeah. Like Fischer’s definitely up there. Um, and I’m just looking at Winsbow replacement numbers, which I know it’s not the best for for bullpen guys, but it’s like Little and Fischer are up there. Um, yeah, that’s pretty much it. And the whole bunch of [ __ ] kind of near the bottom. So maybe Brandon Little is the guy who wins. Do you have a name that you would care about to say who’s the best in the P? Although he was here a short period of time, he essentially saved the I got to go Braden Fischer. I really I mean stepped into that Yimmy Garcia or Jimmy Garcia role. It It’s really hard for me not to say Braden Fischer. Okay. And that is your right to say whatever you want, John. And I I don’t totally disagree. But like Flu already had a couple times where he threw in massive spots to to get things done. Like the Dodgers game. Think about if he doesn’t get an out in the Dodgers game. Different. If he doesn’t get those two guys at the end, they end up losing that game. That would have been a sweep uh in LA, but Fluard is able to do that. And then this week too, he did it big. So, um, each person kind of had their pockets of doing things big. U, but we got to see this through. Okay. We had a the best hitter, everyday hitter. You and I both said Vladimir Guerrero Jr., which would have been wrong, but I said Bob Bashette uh, guaranteed to hit over 300, which he did, so that was good. But I mean, none of us said Springer, brother. You should have heard what we said about Springer at the end of that episode and we we will touch on it here. Um Bo hit 311 this year. 134 weight runs created plus. Um the next one was who was going to be the best bench bat? My answer. Hilarious. Um Will Wagner was my answer. Oh my god. Will Wagner was my answer. Um, I don’t even know who we would put in best bench bats um this year. You said David Schneider, so obviously you had a better answer than I did. Checkmate, [ __ ] Obviously a better answer than I did on that. Checkmate. But it’s like some of those guys are Yeah, Davis is probably like the only one who was kind of a real bench bat, right? Or like Heinaman might have been up there because like Ernie was playing all the time. losing. Yeah, Ernie’s not Ernie’s an everyday player. Yeah. Uh, Straw was playing Straw played 137 games. I don’t know how many pinch hit stuffs um that happened, but yeah, you definitely had a better answer than me there. So, I’ll give that one to you. The who was going to be the surprise player? Um, surprise player and breakout player ended up being the same for both of us. Uh, we answered the same thing for both. John, do you remember who you put as your surprise player and breakout player? Alan Rhoden. Alan Rhoden for both for Johnny Juna. And my surprise player and breakout player was uh Brennan Little. Brennan Little was mine. So I I definitely had a better answer than you for that one. Um mid-season pickup. Who was going to be a mid-season pickup for the Blue Jays? I said Stephen Matz, Michael King, or Lucas Sims. Obviously none of them. Um, none of them ended up as Blue Jays. And Johnny, you gave the worst answer ever, actually. Um, for what we needed, you just said bullpen pieces. Like, no [ __ ] dude. Technically, I was right. No, you I you got Louis Vland. And by the way, Allan Rhoden was technically an impact player cuz he was a part of a package to get one of our good bullpen arms. So, I mean, not to spin zone this crazy, but I’m It wasn’t the worst answer to be fair. Okay. Yeah, he he wasn’t on the team. Uh, an active player to get traded away. Mine was Lao Jimenez. And John gave a great answer here. You said Chad Green. [Laughter] My thing back to that was if they’re going to be good, why was Chad Green getting traded at that point? Um, which I still think makes sense, but he pitched so bad he had to get cut. He got traded to unemployment. He got traded to unemployment. The I mean, I wasn’t I wasn’t the worst answer. Yeah, the accountant didn’t make it to Q3. Yeah. No, he did not. Not even close, actually. Really, if you think about it. Okay. The funniest season moment. I didn’t know. This is what we said. And I went back as I was doing this exercise. The funniest moment of the season. Johnny said, “The Jays get no hit again.” Like Rodell Blanco. And mine was Johnny throws the first pitch and it goes to the back stop. I did I didn’t remember saying that. I can’t believe that is [ __ ] [ __ ] that you said that. That is you putting that in the universe is [ __ ] [ __ ] Like now I know now I know why I did that. There there was bad juju in the universe because my co-host said I was going to [ __ ] airmail a first pitch. And by the way, a lot of people doubted Johnny Junth to throw in a first pitch. They doubted us. They doubted me. They doubted G 14. I doubt it. You doubted it. I doubted it. And what happened? June 19th, we threw out the first pitch in front of probably like 30,000 people there. And did mine go well? No, probably not. But if you threw a strike, no one would remember, right? Yeah, he threw a strike. Okay, the next one. Um, does anyone get suspended? I said Alec Manoa was going to get suspended for throwing at someone. And you said Arvis Martinez was going to get suspended again. Two guys who don’t play for the team aren’t in the organization anymore. To be fair, Arvis Martinez technically got suspended. He got suspended from the Toronto Blue Jays for being legit the worst prospect in the history of this organization. So, I mean, I wasn’t technically wrong. Yes, I’ll give you that one. Uh, Vladimir Guerrero’s contract over under 550 million. I said under. You said that was spot on the number. We know that to be uh wrong because it was 500 million. Well, inflation by the time the contract comes up, I mean, it could accumulate to 550. I’m not sure. Um, but yeah, I mean, it is awesome. I listened back on it and just the uncertainty we had of the team and the uncertainty we had of Vlatty being here forever. It is so awesome to have at least the comfortability in knowing that Vlatty will be here forever. You know that that’s if I can give a little advice to old Johnny, it’s like listen man, it’ll all work out, pal. It’s all going to work out for the boys, you know, and I’m happy it did. I’m happy it did. Shout out Vlatty. Um, next one was Max Scherzer over under 99 and a half innings. We both said over. Max Sherzer threw 85 innings this year. So that would not be correct. Um, we also had Bobette in the AL or NL next year. You said the AL, I said NL. Said if we don’t if we don’t get him, I want him gone out of the league. So him and Trey Turner can go battle the hits in the uh NL. They can. Anthony Sandere over under 35 and a half home runs. We both said under. We both said under. Thank god we had we I mean we that should have been a take out a mortgage type of bet if that sand there. Do you know how many home runs he had John? Six. Six home runs. So we hit by we had like about 30 wiggle room. Yes. Pretty good. Um George Springer over under 50 and a half games. Oh my god. Out of the leadoff spot. Out of the leadoff spot. Okay. Okay. We said under for both and he was 39 games leading off. I believe that was that was the number I I saw. Jeff Hoffman, was he gonna have more than 36 saves this year? Romano, that was the most he ever had as the Jay’s closer. I said yes and you said no. Jeff Hoffman had less than 36 saves this year. Um, right. Yeah. Did I get that right? It had to get 35. Yeah, it had to have been super close. I I was totally not thinking about that. Saves 33. Yeah, 33. 33 total saves for Jeff Hoffman. Okay. Will Andres Jimenez be a league average hitter? Avery Shen said yes. Johnny Juna said no. Oh, credit to me again. Bang. Johnny, do you know his weight runs plus what he finished at? 73. 70. Even worse. Oh my. 70. Um, will Aelvis Martinez get everyday reps at some point? We both said no and we were both correct. Almost couldn’t get every day. I’ve always been a a part of hater FC for Ravish Martinez. So, I’m happy to be on the right side of history for that. Credit to me. Okay. Credit to us, I guess. But, yeah, he did not get every day at bats and he might never will in the big leagues. So, he he might never in the big leagues again. That is for sure. Um, higher weight runs grade plus Allan Rhoden or Will Wagner? I said Will Wagner Johnny Rooden guy said said Rhoden. Uh, Wagner 78 this year and Roden was 56. So, so I want to make this very clear and I’m going to future note to myself. I’m not going to listen to the [ __ ] prospect guys anymore that we’re calling the guy fourth best hitter on the team this that. like I’m just going to let [ __ ] play out after spring because I was fooled. I thought we had ourselves a young Carrie Carpenter um coming up with the Jays and this guy was nothing short of a horrific product for the Blue Jays this season. I can’t even remember a memorable hit he Do you do you remember a memorable hit? He hit one home run. I don’t even know like if it wasn’t a big part of the game, but that is what I remember. He was just ground ball man. His only memorable part actually was when he the Jays were down 50 to the Phillies and he eye block into the wall. That was really the only Yeah. memorable part. He It was a ground ball issue. It It always was. Yay’s knew. Okay. The fact that we were talking about these two are are very funny at the end here. Uh does Jake Bloss make a major league start? This was pretomy John. Yes. Um so there’s an asterisk beside this. Yeah. I said yes. I thought it just happened. I didn’t think there was a lot of depth at the Triple A level. We did mention Eric Lowour that he could kind of get it done. That was nice that we said that you were in on on Eric Lowour at that point. And then Johnny, you didn’t even answer the question, but you said Manoa would get a start before him. Turns out both didn’t make a start. And the last thing was Yeah. Will Alec Manoa pitch well enough to talk postseason start? Tell me we said no. Oh, I said yes. I said no. I Another one where you didn’t really answer. We just kind of talked. Okay. Well, we’ll just chalk it up that I said no. Um yeah. Holy [ __ ] Looking back on those takes. I mean, wow. Someone Someone’s got to Someone’s got to do it. I Yeah, that’s that’s not great. I mean, looking back on it though as well, we were talking about the lineup construction, the outfield construction, and I I can’t stress enough how much of a difference George Springer being good means to this baseball team. Like, we were talking about, all right, he’ll get he’ll play four or five times a week, maybe four times a week, and just if he’s league average, we’ll be happy. brother. He just put together one of the best seasons of all time for a guy over the age of 35. One of the best seasons of all time for a guy over the age of 35. He is going to get MVP votes. As he should. And now I’m looking at it like I’m I’m just like I’m just pondering. I mean TW next year we got Springer another year next year as well. like we got Springer another year next year, you know, like let’s [ __ ] get to work, George. And this this point was brought up to me by by some of the guys that George had the year that Vlad should have had. Like those should be Vlad’s numbers. We like we’re happy with that. So, it’s like it kind of got disappointing at the end for Vlad with with the struggles there, but George did the Vlad carrying of the offense. Yes. So, and it’s just the beauty of sport, man. just like the most a guy you would have never picked ever. And if you genuinely picked that, you’re a liar. You you you never like no one ever said that. I think you said it the year before, but what that George Springer would be like good again. I said it like I said it in passing this year, but you said he has like one good year left in him. I think that was that was last off season. Yeah. Okay. Or it was this offseason coming up, but then I talk about it here for his war. like I didn’t I didn’t stand on that take well enough where I should say that um I truly truly believed in him going into this year. So the next thing we did was overunder fan graphs wins above replacement for these guys. So we took the projections and you and I said over or under what we thought they would be. So Vlad’s projection was 5.6 wins above replacement. We both said under um which would be correct because Vlad finished as a 3.8 Vangraph wins above replacement. So, we’re both correct. Bo, his projections 3.9 wins above replacement. We both said over. We got screwed by the injury cuz he finishes with 3.8. No way. 3.8 wins above replacement. Andreas projection 3.4 wins above replacement. Both said over. Finished with one win. Oh, he finished with one. Oh my god. He finished with one win. Kirk 3.3 wins over replacement. Uh we both said over. He went 4.6 wins. We were Kirk FC riders. And if you look back on that episode, I listened and we both said that the Kirk deal was a masterclass because they’re buying low and this is a guy who’s proven he could hit and he’s a great defensive catcher. So I want to give oursel a little pat on the back for riding with Kirk. That was we had our struggles this year at the start of the season and and in May, but man did he show out for this ball club. The second best catcher according to war in baseball. Pretty [ __ ] good. Pretty good. Next one. Daltton Varo. Nope. Never mind. Santandere. Anthony Santandere. 2.6 wins above replacement. I said over. Uh, you said under. And boy were you right. Negative.9 wins above replacement. I might I might have cooked Dave. I think you are. Yeah, you’ve been good. So, you didn’t know [ __ ] about the pitchers, but you did pretty well on this one. The hitters. Yeah, you did. I think you got every pitcher wrong. Um, you you Sorry, you did get every pitcher wrong. We did. But you have been great here. We’ll keep going though. I’m a hitter though. I’m a hitter’s guy. Exactly. You know, you got your guy. You were doing it. Yeah. The next one was Dalton Vo. 2.3 wins above replacement. I had the over. You had the over. We got screwed by injuries. He finishes 2.2. No [ __ ] way. 2.2 wins above replacement. 2.2 and he played a quarter of the games pretty much. I think that was kind of baked into his number because of the injury preseason. I know we did talk about that. But next, George Springer had a preseason wins replacement. 1.8 was his projection. And boy were we wrong. We both went under 1.8. George Springer War finishes with 5.2 wins above replacement. special. Wow. Ernie Clement one win. Both said over the the disrespect. That’s what we mentioned, too, cuz we said, well, he’s the everyday third baseman at this point. So, um, one win seemed bad. 3.2 Fan graphs wins both. Tripled it. Tripled that [ __ ] He did the dog. Uh, Rhoden.5, we both said over. Negative.1 was Alan Rhoden’s. Will Wagner.5 we both had over negative.1 for Will Wagner. Uh we had the David Schneider.4 we both had over. He was 1.4 wins above replacement. Then Tyler Heinman was also point4. We both had the under. Tyler Heinman 2.1 fang graph. He sned Odley’s chain. He did. Uh and the next one was overunder pitchers erra for starters. Uh this was the zips projection. So, oh, sorry. You got you got uh one right here off the bat. So, I’m sorry for saying you were wrong on all of them. Kevin Gosman, his projection was 3.65 ERA. We both said under. He finished with a 359 ERA. It’s funny how close these these get. Pretty impressive. Actually, these projections like line up decently. Jose Bereos 4.06 RA. I said he was going over that. You said under. He had a 417 erra. Next one was Chris Basset. 4.04 Erra projected. I said under that. You said over. 3.96 erra. Um for Chris Basset. Next was Bowen Francis. 3.92. I said over that. You said under 6.05 uh for Bowen. Then the last one we had was Max Scherzer. 3.61. I said over. You said under. He finished with a 519. Jesus Christ. 519. Yeah, I didn’t hit on the pitchers. Sad. No, you’re you’re the you’re the hidden guy. Didn’t hit on the pitchers. You hate to see it. I went back today, tweeted out some things like the leaders for for offense and uh it was basically just run by George Springer. So, I did the the leaders pretty much had to be qualified to be in this cuz like Lopes was the highest in average, but he didn’t qualify. So, average Bob Bashette led 311. OBP George Springer 399. Slugging percentage George Springer of 560. George Springer had the most home runs 32. Vlad was next up with 23 home runs. Like that was the difference. Bashette led in RBI’s 94. George Springer led in runs with 106. He stole the most bases with 18. Had the highest weight runs created plus and the highest F war. So it was the the summer of Springer, the season of Springer. He uh he absolutely did it big. But that’s what I got for the year in review, too. We can go I don’t know anything else you want to touch on more, John. Yeah. What would you grade the pitching as a whole? Like a B minus maybe? Yeah. I I was leaning C++ kind of. It wasn’t great. Yeah. Offense A+ obviously, right? Absolutely. Yeah. for what we thought about the projection systems were pretty right on the Blue Jays pitchers. Yes. Like how they thought about them in in the offseason, they didn’t get really like tons of high ceiling guys. They just the floor is just so high with them and their ability to stay healthy too helps this team a ton. So like they didn’t pitch their greatest. It kind of worries me a little bit. Like I love them to be a great pitching staff, but um some of the best pitching staffs didn’t make the playoffs. So that’s what happens. Watching this team was genuinely fun all year, I think, just because they scored runs. I like pitching as much as the next guy. But when you can score runs, it makes everything a lot more fun. And when you can like just the the bluecollar mentality of never being down, like never being out, I think that’s what made it so enjoyable, man. You you alluded to like the comeback victories, how many they have. You said 45 or whatever it was. I think Yeah. It’s just unbelievable to look back at Avery. Like it’s it’s what a ride. And that’s really kind of how you win playoff games, man. Right. Like never say never, especially with how random playoffs are. It’s awesome to do that. Um have you started mentally preparing yourself for the inevitable Jay’s Yankees um probably happening this? Nothing can can prepare me for that. Yeah, I I I I I’m not looking forward to it. Nothing will ever prepare me for that. The only positive I have spin zone not to because we’ll do a season a series preview on Thursday. Um is the only positive spin zone I have is is is Schlitler will probably be either going game one or you go Luis Heel and you can kind of just get hopefully get an early lead in terms of like the the series because it’s Max Freed game two, right? So, absolutely. That’s really the spit zone I have with that. Is there anything that wants you to play the Yankees so they can win? You got to beat the best. You got to beat the best to be the best. And I think icing on the cake, a cherry on top would be beating them in the division and then beating them in the playoffs. Man, I I can’t imagine what the vibes would be for that. I I really can’t. I’m not I’m not going to think too ahead. But when you get that first W, when you get that first spot, the number one spot, you get home field and you get that buy. The pitching matchup, like we talked about yesterday, it’s in your favor. You got your big dogs. One, two, three. Don’t have to worry about throwing a four guy, a five guy. It’s one, two, three. That’s it. You get it. And then the guy pitches again on uh in game three, you get or game four, you can go uh Gossman right again on the Wednesday. That’s five days in between. Four days in between. So, um, Jay’s in a good spot. I am. Are you going to Okay. Are you going to emotionally hedge the series? No. No. No. No. Nope. I I don’t need to. It’s good. Sometimes I look back playoffs. It’s make or break. Sometimes I look back at that um Mariners game when the Jays were up 8-1 and I I remember looking at the odds. The the Mariners were like plus 2,000 or 3,000. I was like, if I put $50, I could cash out like 1,500 as an emotional hedge in case the Jays blow this. And I didn’t do it. And I still kick myself to this day. I will not do it for this Yankee series. Yep. But yeah, I I I am nervous. I’m still going to enjoy the playoffs the next couple days and not think about it. That’s kind of where I’m at with it. I hope Max Freed throws 140 pitches, Gar Crochet throws 140 pitches, they play till the 12th and then they have to go game three. Do you think we should if it goes like game three Red Sox Yankee? Should we stream it like just tuck behavior? That’s what that’s what John Boy or Joey Josie McFly would do. I’m not. Or Dan Ror. I’m not doing that [ __ ] Um it is fun. What are your thoughts process Avery on the cuck behavior from Johnboy media talking baseball tweeting every Cal Rally strikeout like end of the year. And they’re Yankees. I mean, I know I know, but like the thing is they sell you on not being a biased page, but then they do that. You know what I mean? It’s like Yeah. We just know what they are and every like you can’t can’t think differently. I think absolutely they’re Yankees fan. It’s like if you and I hired someone from around here to run a page and they just tweeted more Blue Jay stuff than anything else. I’m not surprised that it happens, but if they keep trying to tell you, yeah, that their their social media is um not biased at all, then I would say you’re wrong. So, I have no problem with them doing it because I mean, I understand they’re Yankees fans, so they’re going to do that stuff. And they they care a lot about who’s going to win MVP, and I do think Aaron Judge is going to win MVP. I don’t think that’s hot take at all, but yeah. Um, it would have been cool for Cal Raleigh to win MVP, but I mean, Aaron Judge was better hitter overall, I think, and more valuable. How insane is it to you, Avery, that the Astros didn’t make the playoffs? That’s crazy. Oh, I don’t really ever think about the West that much. Um, but yeah, they had so many people hurt. Like, they didn’t they weren’t set up for success that well. They were trotting out like Taylor Tral and [ __ ] Like yeah, it’s like when when you do look at that, I’m not I’m not crazy crazy surprised, but the Guardians doing what they did obviously the biggest uh surprise. Do you think Steven Vo uh took the manager of the year? No. With that? No. You think it was You think John Sher essentially is the winner now? Yeah, I think he should be. Yeah, absolutely. 20 wins. Like the Guardians were in the playoffs last year and they got worse. Yeah, the Guardians comeback is more the Tigers collapse than it is the Guardians comeback in my opinion. The Guardians won what it was like 17 of 19. They they took they took matters into their own hands, too. And then the Tigers just absolutely collapsed. Absolutely. Yeah, I guess it’s a mixture of both. Yeah, the Guardians 88 wins. How many wins did they have last year? Do you know? No, they won the division. No, they won the division though. Yeah, they were 90. So, they got worse from last year. Okay. I I don’t think that I think John Schneider get should get more credit than Stephen Vote obviously and then yeah the way the Tigers ended I don’t think that uh Hinch will will win either. No, that that ship has sailed Avery. Yeah, absolutely. Like I don’t even know if they have odds up for awards anymore. No, they don’t. They do. Oh, they have them up still. American League MVP they have up. Judge is minus 330. Cal is plus 250. Yeah, that’s over. I think that’s over, too. They have like World Series MVP up. Oh, okay. So, they don’t have manager of the year up. Don’t have manager of the year up. All right. Okay. So, I’m going to do announce the giveaway with jug tickets. I have the wheel right here. Here’s the proof. There’s the wheel. Tons of entries. I’m spinning it. I am spinning it. This is a long spin. I think you could change the uh number of seconds. All right, the winner of the playoff tickets is Cammy Bowser. Sounds like a fake name, but um congratulations to Cammy Bowser. You won tickets to either game one or game two of the wild card or the division series or even game I guess if you want to wait. H I don’t think that’ll make sense. Game one or game two of the division series. So, congratulations, King. Shout out Jug Tickets for that. And um yeah, Avery. I mean, I I’m pumped to watch just good ball this week. stress-free ball. For example, what this week is, and I know we there’s not many football fans listening to this podcast, is it’s if your if your football team won on Thursday night football, you just get to enjoy Sunday, you know, get to enjoy Sunday football. It’s like, yeah, all right, let’s uh let’s watch these let’s watch these boys go at it. And I’m excited for it. What are I saw some people tweet about them not being in on day baseball for the playoffs. Crazy take. Are you out on that or in on that? We have a job where we can watch all the games. So, I’m I’m super in on it. I would I would understand if you like the only way to say no to that is you have a job where you can’t watch the games all the time. So, that’s where that would come from in my opin. But, we we’re just going to watch all the games the whole day tomorrow. It’s going to be sick besides when you have to to drive home from work. But, no, I am I love playoff baseball. It’s so good. So good that we get to be a part of it again this year. It sucks watching it when your team’s uh not doing no horse in the race. Yeah, it sucks. No horse in the race. So, super stressful to watch, but we’re in the playoffs. You can’t win the World Series if you don’t get in the playoffs. So, uh a lot of fun coming up hopefully. And yeah, and announcements on the merch. Um the last quarter or last like probably 20 orders. Um Canada Post went on strike while the orders were in transit, so they had to deliver them back to the distributor. So, I got them all out today, though. They should be all out today. Yeah. So, you should be good if you got it. Some of them were for the players in the team, so I felt kind of bad that they didn’t get it like two weeks after they ordered it. But, um, yeah, you should be getting it uh this week before the playoffs like we promised. So, uh, anyways, we’ll talk to you guys on Thursday after we know who our opponent is for the division series. Awesome. Awesome last couple days as a Blue Jays fan to kind of just celebrate and and those saying, “Why are you smoking a cigar? I celebrating it, [ __ ] I never know when I’m going to experience this [ __ ] again. I’m I will celebrate like I just won the World Series cuz this is my World Series so far. This is my World Series winning the division. Best record in the American League. I will celebrate this [ __ ] Yeah, not finish, but there’s reason to celebrate. Yeah, it’s always the Yankees fans. There’s just spoiled rotten. There was that guy on Twitter. I’m not going to name his name. His name rhymes with Bam. Uh, Bam L16 who said, uh, why am I smoking a cigar? He’s a Jays fan, but I don’t understand that, but whatever. Um, oh, by the way, Charlie Mononttoy moment of the week. Harold Reynolds saying that he doesn’t think Dalton Bar will make the postseason roster for the Blue Jays. Love that take. Where did that come from? What was his thought process? I’m really not sure where that came from from Harold Reynolds. But that was the Charlie Mononttoyo moment of the week. Welcome back uh to that segment. But truly one of the most insane takes I think I’ve ever heard. Maybe is that 22 home runs? It’s a beautiful take. It’s great. It’s like I [ __ ] it. I’m going to be Stephen A just for this take. That that’s where he’s at with that. But um awesome stuff. Awesome last couple days. Love you guys, man. Thank you for 11K on um on our YouTube. Appreciate you guys. Gate 14 forever. We’ll talk to you guys on Thursday. Enjoy enjoy playoff baseball cuz it absolutely [ __ ] rocks. We could be talking to you guys on Thursday and the Reds beat the Dodgers somehow. That would be so cool. Like that’s the beauty of it. So, we will see what happens. Enjoy the week. Love you all. Gate 14 forever. And uh I’ll be announcing the giveaway for that Jay’s care package tomorrow on uh on the Twitter. So, love you guys.

Breaking down the end of the season, some playoff stuff and we recap our preseason takes.

Gate 14 is the most electric Toronto Blue Jays podcast on the planet. Join Johnny & Avery as they navigate the ups and down of 162. New episodes drop twice a week, so subscribe now!

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