It is hard not to overvalue the first seven games of the season. 5-2. Playoffs, here we come.
In the early lead for team MVP is Andrés Giménez, a surprise to everyone. Last year, he had a .340 slugging average; this year, he’s Jose Bautista. And in more ways than one. From David Singh:
They’d worked on having Giménez add a leg kick, something that he had used in the past, but the change just didn’t feel seamless to the left-handed hitter during the early days of spring training. He didn’t want to stray too far from the toe-tap that he’d used across the past three seasons.
Last year:
This year:
John Schneider says he’s not surprised:
“It doesn’t surprise us,” Jays manager John Schneider said recently. “Probably surprises a lot of people, but it doesn’t surprise us.”
He lies through his teeth. He can’t possibly not be surprised.
I remember talking to a hitting coach, back in Bautista’s time, that every hitter was trying the big leg kick and that ‘no one can hit that way (other than Jose).’ Small sample sizes and all, I’m sure there will be ups and downs as the season progresses.
Also, George Springer has had a surprisingly good start to the season. Seven games aren’t enough to say that he’s back to 2022 form, but I don’t know that he had this good a run last year at any point.
Add Bo Bichette, and three hitters are doing much better than last year. If they can keep it up, it should be a much better season than last year. We’ve discussed how the team hoped for too many players to turn things around, but maybe we’ll be lucky.
I haven’t followed the Umpire Scorecards this year, but this one is great. Only two mistakes, and both were on very close pitches. And one mistake in the favourite of each team. It would be hard to get better than that.
Arjun Nimmala is starting the season in Vancouver, which makes me think a trip out there would be a good thing.
Top prospects, familiar faces and proven winners. Our 2025 Opening Day roster ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/2qfmXDUaWq
— Vancouver Canadians (@vancanadians) April 2, 2025
As much as I don’t want to talk about catchers and one or two knees, it looks like the battle has been won:
On opening day 2025 every single starting catcher worked out of a knee down setup.
Here’s what they looked like when they made their big league debut. pic.twitter.com/OUwEKFN2p3
— Ivan Quackenbush (@IQ_Baseball_) April 2, 2025