Fans from the Stands

This episode covers the Toronto Blue Jays' performance in the early part of the MLB season, discussing various players' contributions. The big event is over the last few days is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s contract extension. We analyzed the team's strengths and weaknesses in the early goings, including pitching, defense, and offensive power, while also touching on league-wide topics like standings, player suspensions, and technological innovations in baseball equipment (Torpedo Bats). We concluded by discussing prospect Tres Yesavage.

It our annual prediction episode.Today we discuss the Blue Jays' roster for the upcoming season, including player lineup, and predictions for individual performances. We also reviewed other teams' situations, particularly the injury-plagued New York Yankees, and make predictions for division standings and individual awards across the league.

It's a new year and in this episode we talk about the free agency action over the last month or so, particularly the Roki Sasaki saga that played out and the odd move made by the Jays front office in attempt to lure the Japanese phenom. This week we also welcome two guests, Pat O'Hearn and Chris Gagnon to help us unpack this whole debacle.

Today we discuss the off-season moves around the league and the somewhat disappointing Blue Jays free agent/trades thus far. Here's to hoping the Jays make a splash during the holiday season.

It's been a minute. Mick and Yvan have gotten over the disappointment of the 2024 Blue Jays and are ready to dive into the offseason. This episode will cover the bright spots in the Jays season and discuss where the team should look to improve. They also discuss the post season and Award winners. The guys also talk about how bad their preseason predictions were.

In this episode, we discuss the mediocre performance of the Blue Jays since the last episode. They have a record of 20-24 over that time. The injury bug has hit, the bullpen has more holes than Swiss cheese and the offense continues to be anemic. Around the league, Trevor Bauer is perking up ears with possible legal action against the MLB and the all star starting players are named.

A shorter episode than usual this week. The Jays had relatively light schedule with a few off-day a postponement. On the positive side, there seems to be a glimmer of hope with some of the stars coming around offensively and Manoah looked great in his most recent start. Around the league we discuss some of the surprises in the standings and this weeks prospect spotlight is on Josh Kasevich.

Ugh! It's been a rough stretch for the Blue Jays. They've only won 5 of 14 games since our last episode. Today we commiserate. We discuss what going wrong with the offense, who is underperforming, who is carrying the team at the moment. We also talk about some of the injuries that are starting to pile up. Around the league we chat about the sad tale of Mike Trout who is hitting the IL again, strange umpiring decisions and more.

We've have a few weeks of baseball and the Jays have play pretty much .500 baseball. There have been some good and some bad but overall as expected. There has been so trouble with a few injuries (Romano and Swanson) and our ace has not looked good. Around the league we talk about the MLBPA admonishing the pitch clock and the role it has played in the injuries to pitchers. We also put the spotlight on Orelvis Martinez, a player that we talked about a few years ago and currently the #2 prospect in the system.

We are excited to get the season started. Opening Day is here and we are set to make our annual predictions. Before we get into that we must first discuss the big new in the MLB, Shohei/Ippei sports gambling saga. We also talk about the Blue Jays 26 man roster and results of some position battles.

It's been a few months since our last episode and as the calendar changed to the new year, so does the change to a new season. Spring Training is in full swing and the excitement is palpable. This episode we chat about the new faces that have been signed, the resigning of players and what we hope to see this spring. Around the horn we discuss the announced retirement of the Comish Rob Manfred and some of the more significant signings and non-signings. Things are getting "nuts" with the new MLB official uniforms, we discuss some of the issues with them and the main gripe from the players. No Blue Chip discussion this week as we await the new official MLB Prospect rankings.

This episode we talk about the Shohei Ohtani Saga. The plane tracking, the restaurant reservations and the Dragon/Shark. If that sounds crazy, well that was Friday December 8th 2023 in a nutshell. Join us unpack our feeling about what a weird weekend it's been.

This episode we do a little bit of dissecting of the Jays post-season run. Can we call it a run? It was more of a stumble. Anyways, things didn't go well and the fan base was left with a lot of questions. We'll discuss some of those questions. On the more positive side, many Blue Jays were nominated for Gold Glove Awards, Kiermaier, Varsho, Berrios, Chapman and Kirk. We finish off by talking about the rest of the post-season and upcoming World Series.

It's been about a month and it's been a relatively good month for the Blue Jays, that's not to say that there haven't been times where curse words were uttered at the TV. But as it appears, things have righted themselves. This episode we discuss what the Blue Jays have done rights in the last week or so. We talk about specific players that have been playing well or at least up to expectations and our outlook on the playoffs. Around the league, we talk about odd strike calls by umps and even more odd gift giving decisions by the A's. This weeks Blue Chip isn't a blue chip yet, but it appears the the Jays are on the verge of signing 16 year old Kennew Blanco.

This week we discuss our failed attempt are recording a live on location episode from the Rogers Centre and our thoughts on the Jose Bautista Level of Excellence ceremony. We talk about the Jays success over the last few weeks going 10 - 6 over that span. Around the league the big story is the Wander Franco story, with the MLB putting him on administrative leave. Our Blue Chip topic this week is 23 year old OF Alan Roden currently in AA.

This week we discuss the trade deadline. We talk about the moves made by the Jays front office, the rumors and moves not made. Around the league we recap the bigger deals that we struck. We didn't focus on any particular blue chip prospect this week, but we did provide a few updates on the Jays top prospects.

After a long hiatus, we are back. This week we cover the last month of the of games. We talk about the All-star game and homerun derby. We also discuss some of the surprises in the standings. Our Blue Chipper this episode is 1st round pick, Arjun Nimmala.

The Jays seem to be coming out of a slump as we discuss the lows of the last month of so. We talk about Manoah being sent to the Florida Complex League. Some Blue Jays seem to be coming around (Belt and Varsho) others keep rolling (Bichette, Keirmaier, Merrifield) and some are cooling off (Chapman, Vladdy). We discuss the great work of the bullpen lately and the fantastic work of Gausman, Bassitt and Berrios. Around the league we talk about some of the surprises in the standings and what is the plans for the Oakland/Vegas A's new stadium are so far. Our Blue Chip focus this episode is power hitting infielder Davis Schneider (no relation to Manager John Schneider

This week we recap the downs and ups of the Jays over the last couple of weeks with the low point being the complete beatdown in Beantown and the high being the destruction of the Pirates. We discuss the imminent return of Adam Cimber and the IL stint for Pop. Who's the odd man out? Around the horn is covering franchise moves with Bally's spearheading the A's new location at Tropicana Resort in Vegas and a group pushing for an MLB stadium in Orlando. Our Blue Chip are thinning out so we discuss 6 movers and shakers, 3 trending in positively and 3 not so much.

It's been a few weeks since our last episode and in that time the Jays have gone 11-7. The starting rotations seems to have stabilized with the majority of starts being considered "quality starts". For a while the bullpen looked elite, with the relief core not being taxed with short starts. But not all things are rosy in Jaysland as we discuss the struggles of certain relievers. Around the league we marvel at the performance of the Pirates and question the non performance of the Cards. We discuss some injuries and return from injury of some major MLB starts. Today's prospect spotlight is on LHP Brandon Barriera.

This week we recap the last week of games where the Jays closed out the last 2 series of the road trip by going 5 and 2. We talk about some the performance of so players so far in this young season. Around the league injuries are starting to creep up with some standout players hit the IL. We also discuss the surprising starts to the season by teams expected to be cellar dwellers. We also talk about Cade Doughty the Jays' 78th pick in the 2022 draft.

This week we discuss the start of the Blue Jays season and it hasn't been pretty so far. The Blue Jays starters have struggled, but the offense looks ok. Around the horn we discuss the suspension of Rendon and some surprising starts by some teams around the league. Our blue chip prospect this week is 19 year old infielder Tucker Toman.

It's our annual prediction show where we give out predictions on individual division standings, Jays player stats and major award winners. But before we get to that, we quickly recap the World Baseball Classic and give our thoughts on the tournament as a whole.

This week we discuss the performance of some key Blue Jays hitters and pitcher during spring training. We talk about the Vladdy knee situation and the possibility of him being ready to go in the next week or so and the Kikuchi not being terrible situation. We talk about the new pitch clock and the effect that it's had on the game and the gamesmanship of some pitcher looking to exploit it. We discuss the new larger bases and the effect on the running game. Our prospect focus is on the recent play of Addison Barger and his impressive physique, the guy is built like a tank.

It's 2023 and we start our 3rd season going over the Jays' off-season activity that closed out 2022. They have traded away Lourdes Gurriel Jr and top prospect to the D-Backs in exchange for Daulton Varsho. The Jays also sign veteran 1B/DH Brandon Belt. This accomplishes the task of have a less right handed lineup. The Blue Jays aslo revealed the progress on the first phase of a massive stadium reno. The digital renderings show a really nice set of fan spaces (the Corona Rooftop patio, the new WestJet Flight deck, the raised bullpens and new seating experience in the outfield stands). Around the league we discuss some of the other signings around the league most notably the Carlos Correa Saga.

It's the last episode of the season and it's Christmas time so we talk about our Christmas wish list for the team. We discuss the moves the team has made over the last few weeks. We also talk about the endless pit of money that the Mets seem to have at their disposal. We go over the many moves and signings made around the league.

It's time to review our preseason predictions. We were on point on a few and way off on others (Cleveland...wow were we off). We somehow thought that Pete Walker would turn Kikuchi into a stud a la Robbie Ray. That didn't happen. We thought that Merryweather was going to be a solid setup man vying for save opportunities. He fizzled and broke again.

This week we discuss the World Series results and the upcoming Award Nominee announcements. We congratulate Vlad Jr on his Gold Glove award and Alek Manoah on his Cy Young nomination. With the office season officially underway, we talk about the the contract decisions/qualifying offers/free agents. We debate what decisions the Blue Jays have to make and that a catcher is likely to be dealt. We talk about the toxic Yankees fans and their treatment of their star player and MVP award front runner over the last stretch of the season.

It the MLB Post Season and we couldn't be more disappointed. In the last episode, we were excited and optimistic for the Blue Jays to start a run to the World Series. Since then the train went off the rail, with the Jays being unceremoniously ousted by the Mariners. We talk about what went wrong in that Game 2 collapse. We talk about what's to possibly come in the off season. Around the league, we discuss the surprising results of the Wildcard series and the unexpected participants in the NLCS. In the AL we await the result of the Yankees and Guardians series and will move on to face the Astros in the ALCS.

This week we celebrate the Blue Jays not only qualifying for the MLB Postseason, but secured the top wildcard spot. We discuss who we believe will make the postseason roster. We also talk about a few a few roster questions due to a few players that have been on the injured list, Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Santiago Espinal. Around the League we talk about the Homerun Milestones that were reached over the last week, Judge hitting 62 and Pujols hitting 703. He debate whether Judge has done enough to earn him an MVP over Shohei.

This week we talk about the great play of the Blue Jays as of late. Is the AL East title in sight? We're only 5.5 game out! We talk about the drama surrounding a certain TSN host's comment on Kirk's appearance and being an embarrassment to the sport. Manoah didn't stand for it. We talk about the white hot Bo Bichette and the "clutchness" of Springer. Around the horn we talk about the rule changes that were approved for 2023 and again Pujols who seems to have found the fountain of youth along with teammates Molina and Wainwright.

Recorded on August 30 (didn't upload properly) This week we talk about the Jays being a good position to make the playoff, but is it where we expected them to be at the start of the season. The Jays celebrate the 1992 World Series team in a pregame ceremony over the weekend. The AL east have 5 teams above .500 (wow). Around the league the MLB will have teams playing regular season games in London England. Minor League Baseball players are looking to unionize. Ichiro Suzuki is honored by the Seattle Mariners. We talk about Pujols aproach to 700 homeruns.

This week we see a positive upswing in the Jays performance punctuated by winning 3 of 4 versus the Yankees. Unfortunately, Springer seem to be playing through some lingering injuries...still hitting well going 6 for 6 in is at-bats in the Yankee series. There may be some relief in the bullpen with the possible return of Tim Mayza and further down the road Merryweather and Pearson. Around the horn we talk about the Machine Albert Pujols who is slowly approaching 700 HRs with his player of the week performance. In the minors we reopen the interesting topic of Orelvis Martinez, who just broke the Ficher Cats (AA) record of 28 HRs in a season.

This week bemoan the recent play of the Blue Jays who have a terrible record versus teams with more that a .500 win percentage. Those teams are the ones they'll be facing in the post season. We talk about the return and health of a few key player (Springer and Stripling). We also discuss the struggles of some of the pitchers in the starting rotation (Berrios and Kikuchi). Around the league, the big news is the 80 game suspension that was issued to Tatis Jr. and the reaction by Padres GM. We lighten things up with the march to 700 homeruns by Albert Pujols. This weeks Blue Chip topic is newly acquired Alex De Jesus who is a 20 year old SS/3B that the Jays got from the Dodgers in the Mitch White trade.

It's been a while and we apologize but we've got a great episode for you. In this episode, we talk about Charlie Montoyo being fired and the improved performance under interim manager John Schneider. We also talk about the trade deadline activity and how this could impact the Blue Jays going forward. We also discuss the most recent Jays series versus the Twins and the controversial call on a plate at the plate.

It's been a long time, so this episode is super packed. We talk about the up and down month the Jays have had...is anyone else feeling sea sick? We talk about the reemergence of Cavan Biggio and the stack of players heading to the 60 day IL. We talk about the imminent return of Danny Jansen and Yimi Garcia, both of whom are starting rehab assignments and how this open an interesting topic. What do we do when Jansen returns? Does someone get traded? The Blue Jays are in need of pitching, does a catcher get moved to make that happen? We talk about the mighty Yankees (sorry I misspelled damn Yankees), the terrible umpiring, and the Freddy Freeman/Agent Drama and more. We end my discussing a prospect we highlighted early in the season but had to talk about how lights out he has been, #4 prospect Ricky Tiedeman.

This week we lament the lack of offense…again and the fact that the starting pitching and bullpen are, for the most part, keeping them in games. We talk about the injury to Tim Mayza (forarm) that appear to be minor and the fac that Romano was unavailable for a few days due to gastro bug. We talk about the possible rehab assignment of Nate Pearson. Around the league we discuss the balls for the umpteenth time and a few odd pitching appearances made by a couple of Cardinals legends. This weeks Blue Chipper is Irv Carter, a 19 year old RHP with big upside and potential.

As the Jays lick their wounds after a rough week, we discuss what went wrong and hope the return of Teoscar Hernandez will be the spark that was missing in the offense. We talk about the schedule return of Ryu and the progress on injured Blue Jays Danny Jansen, Cavan Biggio and Nate Pearson. Around the league, an umpire made headlines (again) so we discuss the Dan Bellino MadBum incident. We talk about both NY and LA teams leading their respective divisions for first time in MLB history). Are the balls juiced for nationally televised games, some people seem to think so. This weeks Blue Chip subject is Sem Robberse a 20 year old righty from the Netherlands.

This week we celebrate a great couple of series wins and the pitch performances from Berrios, Manoah and Gausman. We also marvel at the fact that the Jays have 15 wins and 11 of those wins were closed out by Jordan Romano. We talk about the possible return of Teoscar Hernandez by the end of this week hopefully followed by Ryu. Around the league we discuss the Met combined no hitter, Kershaw's Dodgers all-time strikeout record, the dreaded new about Trevor Bauer and once again terrible umpiring. This week blue chip spotlight is on Vinny "the Bat" Capra.

This week we recap and discuss the last week of games and discuss some key performances from Zach Collins and Santiago Espinal. We chat about the possible return of Teoscar Hernandez (10 day IL - Oblique) and the progression of Nate Pearson (10 day IL - Illness). The topic of bad umpiring, more specifically pitch calling, is talked about after Jeff Nelson was trending on twitter for the Jays-A's game. We send our best wishes to Buck Martinez who has announced that he'll be stepping away from the broadcast booth to deal with a cancer diagnosis. Around the horn, we celebrate the newest member to the 3000 hit club, Miguel Cabrera and show our distain for the behavior of Yankees fans at the end of the game vs Cleveland. This week's Blue Chipper is 19 year old Ricky Tiedemann a lefty pitcher with the Blue Jays single A affiliate.

The MLB season has finally arrived and this week we recap the Blue Jays opening weekend vs the Rangers and the first few games against the Yankees. We will also talk about the some the injuries that have occurred and the outstanding play of some key players. Around the league we'll talk about Pitchcom and how it works and what it's doing to the pace of play. We'll also discuss the joys *sarcasm* of being the 40th (then 41st) man of an MLB roster. And finally we briefly chat about the Buffalo Bisons' opening weekend and the recent promotion of Blue Jays top prospect Gabriel Moreno to AAA.

It's our 2nd annual predictions show. This episode we talk about who will end up where in the standing, who will win the major awards (Cy Young, MVP, RoY), then we talk about our Blue Jays projected Blue Jays roster and how individual players will perform this season. Then come fall we'll look back on this episode and realized how "out in left field" we were (pun intended).

This week is like Christmas. The labor dispute is resolved and we'll talk about what it took to get both sides to come to an agreement. We talk about the whirlwind week in trades/free agents signings.....And the Blue Jays have established themselves as a serious threat in not only the AL East but in the MLB. We breakdown the moves made by the Jays front office.

This week we lament the on going work stoppage in the MLB and the games being played by both sides. We chat about items that have been agreed upon, items that are major sticking points and possible out comes. We discuss what player and owners may need to do to work out a collective agreement. On the Jays side we talk about the impact this may have on the development of some of the young players on the 40 man roster.

Welcome back to an new season of the show. After a hiatus brought on by the MLB Lockout, we finally have a few items that we want to talk about. This week we'll discuss our thoughts on the planned renovation to the Rogers Centre and the recent hiring of the first female coach the Blue Jays system. We also briefly talk about the Baseball Prospectus Top 101 prospects and the Jays have 4 players on the list. We chat about about another stadium reno with the Orioles pushing the LF fences back in Baltimore. Around the league, we talk about another female coach being promoted to Manager in the Low A Yankees system. The hot take this week is the recent Hall of Fame vote and the divide of opinions across the league and baseball universe about some players missing out. We also wonder about the impact having robo-umps in a high level like AAA in terms of it's effect on pitcher/batters and the pace of the game.

This episode we celebrate Vladdy Jr again, this time for winning the Tip O'Neill Award (Canadian Baseball HoF). We also discuss the flurry of signing that the Jays made leading up to the Lockout. We chat about the Blue Jays "Exes" that signed big contract elsewhere as well as the big spenders in Texas. Speaking of the Lockout, we discuss our thoughts on the lockout and whether this will be a long one and what are some of the points of contention that either side may have. We close out by reminding folks about our first prize giveaway.

This week's episode will talk about the hardware that some Blue Jays players brought home during award season. We talk about the great early off-season signing of Berrios to a 7 year contract and speculate on other moves. We discuss Semien and Ray and what he hope to see happen. We also talk about Pearson having successful hernia surgery and hope that this may have been the root to his performance issues. Around the rest of the MLB we chat about Shohei Othani and his new teammate Noah Syndergaard (signed to a 1 year/$21M). We also lament the possibility of a MLB work stoppage and how this really dampens the Jays competitive window.

This week we review our pre-season predictions. How close were we for season standings, MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year award winners? We had some comically wrong predictions and were eerily on others.

This week we chat about the end of the 2021 Blue Jays and what the front office priorities are in terms of resigning outgoing free agents. We also talk about some of the teams biggest surprises and busts and who would be our team award winners (ROY, MVP, Cy Young). We try to predict with Blue Jay is anyone is going to get traded for reinforcements and what big signing the Jays may make. We discuss the MLB Post Season currently in progress and who we hope makes the World Series. This week's blue chipper is Manuel Beltre. We wonder if he's related to Adrian Beltre and if Manuel will make an impact, being such a high touted 17 year old.

This week we recap the rest of the series vs the Rays and the outcome of "Card-gate", which resulted in a couple of suspensions (Borucki 2 games and Montoyo 1 game). We also chat about the series split with the Twins. We talk about the outstanding play made by a hobbled Springer in centerfield and Yvan admits that he may have been wrong about leaving Springer in the lineup and is impressed by his ability to gut it out. We discuss the playoff bound teams around the league and the possibility of a 5 way tie for the wildcard in the AL.

This week we recap a series win over the Twins and a rough opening to the Rays series. We talk about Ryu not being himself in his last start and speculate about his stint on the IL. We talk about the "scouting card saga" that developed in Tampa Bay. We also rave about Gurriel Jr's month of September. Around the league we discuss the Padres dugout blowup and Mr Scherzer mind blowing tenure as a Dodger. We close out by chatting about the promotion of Gabriel Moreno to AAA.