All the talk is about George Springer’s ejection.
It is hard to believe that the review got it wrong. Players aren’t allowed to argue after a review, which explains the quick toss. I still think umpires should never throw out someone walking away. George seemed to be gathering himself to get back in the box. He should have been allowed that moment.
It was only the second ejection of his career.
But I like Springer saying this:
“There are kids in the stands who are watching and I can’t get that angry. I don’t want my sons to see me get that bad, so I have to be better.”
— Hazel Mae (@thehazelmae) August 14, 2024
Shi Davidi has a great story up on Horwitz’s home run:
Spencer Horwitz felt down after a rough night against the Baltimore Orioles last week, beat up mentally in a way he hadn’t experienced yet this season. It’s not just that he’d struck out three times that irked him, it was the way he’d struck out — fouling off or swinging through a handful of good pitches to hit — that left him frustrated. So he went to Toronto Blue Jays assistant hitting coach Matt Hague, and told him, “Something needs to change, I need to work,” and the two of them stayed late into the night finding a patch.
They came up with a drill from the 2022 season, when they were together at double-A New Hampshire, designed to help Horwitz stay back on the ball more effectively. At batting practice the next day, ahead of a series opener against the Oakland Athletics, he wrapped a resistance band around his waist and then anchored it to a couple of 45-pound weights on the ground behind him, holding him in place as he swung at pitches.
I would imagine all the hitters will be trying that this week.
In his mind, correlation is very much causation.
“Yeah, absolutely,” said Horwitz. “I feel like I make a lot of contact and sometimes that’s at the cost of power. And sometimes, when I’m making a little too much contact, I’m going really forward to the ball. The band is just a reminder to stay back and helps free me up and to be able to hit it more out in front.”
Apparently, Loperfido has been doing the same drill.
MLB Pipeline has done a midseason redo of the top 30 prospects for each MLB team as well as redoing their top 100 prospects. There are no Jays on their top 100 list, which makes sense. Orelvis Martinez is missing time with the PED suspension and Ricky Tiedemann is to have Tommy John surgery.
With the trades, the Jays top 30 list has changed a lot. The top 10:
- Orelvis Martinez
- Trey Yesavage (this year’s top Jays draft pick)
- Jake Bloss (who came to us in the Kikuchi trade)
- Tiedmann
- Arjun Nimmala (I’d like to think he’ll make the top 100 list in the next year or two)
- Leo Jimenez
- Jonatan Close (came to us in the Yimi Garcia trade).
- Khal Stephan (our second-round pick this year)
- Charles McAdoo (came to us in the IKF trade)
- Adam Macko
There are others of interest. Cutter Coffey (24th) came in the Jansen trade. You may have heard of Will Wagner (20).
I think it is time for the Jays to announce Vlad’s new contract.