2021 Blue Jays (Cito still sucks)

[Frobby]

45 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Yep, he's doing a bang up job of being Miggy.  But if you're going by OPS+, not even Miggy finished a year over 200.  Of course there's a lot of baseball to be played, but Vlad is over 200 right now.  For the record, Trout hasn't finished over 200 for a year either.  Whether Vlad Jr can or not remains to be seen but there's certainly a chance that he could.

They've moved him off 3rd but he also put in a tremendous amount of work to lose weight this offseason.  I'm not sure if Miguel Cabrera was ever interested in that.  If he can be an average first baseman defensively, that'll be good for the Jays.  But it ultimately really doesn't matter, the bat appears to be that special.

So I just did a check of how many 200+ OPS seasons there have been.   It’s been done 109 times.   By my rough count, 11 of those were in the 19th century, 48 in the Negro Leagues, 50 in the 20th/21st Century AL/NL.   Here are the 21st century instances:

Bonds 2002, 268

Bonds 2004, 263

Bonds 2001, 259

Bonds 2003, 231

Soto 2020, 221

Sosa 2003, 203

It would be pretty amazing for Vlad Jr. to join that club.

 

[Frobby]

By the way, think about this: Vlad has posted those numbers without even playing a game against the Orioles’ pitching staff yet.   He might be at 300 OPS+ for the rest of the season, playing the Orioles 19 times in 96 games!

Starting on Friday, we play the Blue Jays 10 times in 21 days.   

[Moose Milligan]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

By the way, think about this: Vlad has posted those numbers without even playing a game against the Orioles’ pitching staff yet.   He might be at 300 OPS+ for the rest of the season, playing the Orioles 19 times in 96 games!

Starting on Friday, we play the Blue Jays 10 times in 21 days.   

 

Yeah, it's a lock that he's going to OPS 200+ if he gets to beat up on us. 

Glad I stocked up on his rookie cards.

[Moose Milligan]

2 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

A lot of players who start in MLB at age 20 need a year or two to really start dominating. Ken Griffey Jr. was good as a rookie, but it took him a couple year before he was one of the better hitters in the league. 

With Vlad Jr. I was hoping maybe he wasn't as good as advertised, but I knew by year two or three that would change and it did. 

Griffey Jr. hit .300 on the nose with an .847 OPS and a 136 OPS+ in 1990, his second year.  Hit .327/.926/155+ in his third.  He was pretty fantastic right away.

He didn't really get into his power in a big way until 1993 when he went from 27 homers in the previous season to 45.  First time his slugging was over .600.  He didn't struggle like Vlad Jr. did.

[SteveA]

5 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

 

Yeah, it's a lock that he's going to OPS 200+ if he gets to beat up on us. 

Glad I stocked up on his rookie cards.

Ah, he ain't all that.  He just hit into a triple play.

[ArtVanDelay]

When you check the standings and the Blue Jays are 33-34:

[Frobby]

I was thinking about the medium and longer term future of the Blue Jays today.   It feels to me like they’re in good shape over the next four years, with Vlad Jr., Biggio and Bichette all under team control through then and Springer signed through 2026.  Grichuk and Gurriel are signed for two years after this one, and Hernandez is under team control until then.    So, they’ve got a nice offensive core to work with, though they will need to replace or resign Semien.  For pitching they’ve got Ryu for another two years, but will need to replace or resign Ray and Matz.

It’s interesting to note that the Jays at 49-47 are 7 games under their Pythagorean record of 56-40.    There’s a good team lurking in there that hasn’t put it together for some reason.   But they could.  

The Jays tend to be an afterthought when we think about competing in the AL East, but they shouldn’t be when looking at the next few seasons.  
 

[LA2]

On 7/28/2021 at 3:59 PM, Frobby said:

I was thinking about the medium and longer term future of the Blue Jays today.   It feels to me like they’re in good shape over the next four years, with Vlad Jr., Biggio and Bichette all under team control through then and Springer signed through 2026.  Grichuk and Gurriel are signed for two years after this one, and Hernandez is under team control until then.    So, they’ve got a nice offensive core to work with, though they will need to replace or resign Semien.  For pitching they’ve got Ryu for another two years, but will need to replace or resign Ray and Matz.

It’s interesting to note that the Jays at 49-47 are 7 games under their Pythagorean record of 56-40.    There’s a good team lurking in there that hasn’t put it together for some reason.   But they could.  

The Jays tend to be an afterthought when we think about competing in the AL East, but they shouldn’t be when looking at the next few seasons.  
 

Or, apparently, this season, too! Anyone else surprised by the number of big acquisitions they made the last few days (Berrios, Soria, Hand) despite being in 4th place?