Generally, there is at least a little bit of Blue Jays’ news after an off-day. But not today (unless something comes up right after I hit publish).
After a series with the best team in the AL, the Jays have three against the Padres, which is one of the best teams in the NL. If we can get through this series, we have the Rays, Rangers, and A’s for the next ten games. I think that’s an important stretch. If we can’t get at least to .500 by the end of it…..well, let’s cross that bridge then.
David Singh has a great story about Addison Barger and his origin story. First…..baseball has become a game for the rich:
The tale begins with his parents, Adam and Leah, who started a successful software business and had their four sons in the Seattle area before moving to Florida to pursue Bible studies.
The family bought a large piece of land northeast of Tampa, and before a house was even constructed, Adam, an avid baseball fan, built a full-sized diamond on it. His sons, Ken, Connor and Luke, all played but weren’t drawn to the sport in the way that the youngest, Addison, was.
Addison went to the Dominican Republic:
“There’s a difference between a 14-year-old Dominican and your average 14-year-old American,” says Barger. “In the U.S., we’re focused on being good at baseball and learning the game; their focus is more, ‘How hard can I throw?’ and, ‘How hard can I hit the ball?’ as young as possible in order to sign.”
“They’re all tooled out,” he continues. “So, the difference is you have to focus on getting those tools up because at that point, I was a good player. I could field groundballs, I had a decent arm and I could hit a little bit. But I didn’t have power. My tools were never amazing and I think the experience helped me exaggerate focusing on the tools.”
Adam says Barger’s two weeks in the D.R. also helped instill in him a stronger work ethic.
He went to the Domincan Republic the next year as well.
Arzeno, his old trainer and personal coach, has been tuning into recent Blue Jays games and can’t help but draw a direct line between Barger’s style of play and his time in the D.R.
The average kid doesn’t have parents who can send him to the Dominican to work on baseball or, for that matter, build a full-sized diamond in their backyard.
In the Sun, Rob Longley tells us that the Jays are the Definition of Mediocrity. I think they aspire to mediocrity, but it is much the same.
There was plenty to like about the Blue Jays’ effort against the Tigers, who with a 31-16 record has the best mark in the majors. Schneider’s bullpen day strategy on Saturday worked to perfection, for one day at least, allowing observers to ignore that the team is somehow still without a fifth starter. Clutch late-game hits by Alejandro Kirk, Daulton Varsho and Ernie Clement (with the walk-off game-winner), showed some admirable competitiveness.
On the other hand, had the Tigers not issued an intentional walk to Anthony Santander — the coldest hitter in the Jays lineup — perhaps the Tigers would have swept the series, completely dulling whatever optimism the Blue Jays derived from their efforts.
He also mentions Santander’s troubles. We have him for five years.
Baseball Prospectus has a story on the Ecology of Baseball Stadiums. And it talks about how parks are being built.
Each new publicly financed stadium is heralded by the arrival of design images, and these graphics always carries with it a certain cozy, futuristic aura. The greenery of the field is released from its borders and is opened up to the masses, and the stadium is presented as a sort of civic garden. The trees always look so good in watercolor.
The contrast between before and after images are always striking for these situations, though with Globe Life Field, the whiplash is palpable. The mock-ups for St. Petersberg, before Hurricane Milton, are equally idyllic. In the case of Arlington, the lack of greenery is actually a positive thing—using lush, non-native flora would have actually produced a net ecological negative, and the browner local plant life is far more sustainable. But the conflict between “newness” in human construction and “messiness” of nature will remain until we have examples to prove otherwise.
Today’s lineup is pretty much the A-team. Santander is hitting sixth. I don’t know what to do with him. I was thinking I’d put him in the outfield for a couple of weeks and have him do something other than fretting about his last at-bat. I have no idea how to get him going. Maybe there is nothing that could do it.