Flight Deck

That was certainly a much better April than the one we saw last year. The Blue Jays are 15-8 after their first month (though it was an abbreviated one) and they've managed to have all of this success despite some key injuries and the bats not being at their best. 

We took a look at the series win over the Houston Astros and talked about George Springer dominating his former team, Kevin Gausman's continued brilliance, and some optimism that Bo Bichette might soon turn a corner.

After that, we talked about who Toronto's Most Valuable Player has been early on and then took a spin around the American League East and looked at how baseball's deepest division is doing so far.  Finally, we previewed the upcoming series against the Yankees, who are riding a nine-game winning streak. While the Yankees are undoubtedly a good team, a lot of their success has come against weak opponents, so this series in Toronto will be a test for them.

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The Blue Jays just continue to win games! They won the first game of the series thanks to a Bo Bichette grand slam, an epic comeback highlighted by a George Springer Dinger highlighted the second game, and then, after getting spanked in the third game, Alek Manoah came out and tossed seven scoreless en route to a 1-0 victory. 

The bats might not be rolling just yet but the pitching certainly is! We talked on this episode of BJN Radio about the excellence of The Big Man, Alek Manoah, and how he's exceeded anybody's wildest expectations early in his career. We also talked about Gausman's insane start to his season, as he still hasn't walked a guy through his first four outings. 

We also talked about the struggling offence, if there's any reason to panic, and how the ball seems to be different this year than in previous years. Finally, we looked ahead to another series with the Houston Astros this weekend, in which we avoid the possibility of a third Justin Verlander no-hitter in Toronto. 

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Another series, another win for the Blue Jays. 

To be honest, it really felt like this was a win-one-and-get-out operation, but the Blue Jays rolled into Houston and took two of three from the Astros, an impressive result given the difficulties they've had facing this team in the past. 

We recapped all of the good and bad stuff from the series in Houston and then looked ahead to the four-gamer back in Toronto against the Boston Red Sox.

We also talked about the possibility that Zack Collins is legit, the struggles of Cavan Biggio and what to do with him, Jordan Romano's save streak coming to an end, and a whole bunch more.

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It's a shame this episode didn't come one day earlier.  The Blue Jays rolled into Boston this week and took two of three from the Red Sox, a big win considering this was a team that Toronto struggled with last season. 

Things started off poorly as an error from Bo Bichette late in the first game ultimately helped the Red Sox win a game in which Toronto's bats were completely limp. In the second game, the offence woke up thanks to some contributions from some unexpected sources.

Finally, the third game featured a Kevin Gausman masterclass that nearly came unraveled in the ninth.  We talked about all of the good stuff from this nice series and then looked ahead to the next series in Houston with the Astros.

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It's been a bit of a strange ride early on, but the Blue Jays are in sole possession of first place in the American League East after 10 games. Can't complain about that! We talked about the good stuff from the Oakland series, such as Zack Collins coming out of nowhere with a hot streak and Alek Manoah putting together another great start, and also the bad stuff, like Hyun Jin Ryu getting clobbered and landing on the Injured List.

We also took a look at some of the terrible umpiring that the Blue Jays have dealt with this season and whether or not it's a valid excuse for their ho-hum start to the season at the plate.

Finally, we looked ahead to the upcoming series in Boston against the Red Sox, a team who, like the Jays, have been a little all over the grid this season. We also looked at betting odds for the Cy Young and MVP and talked about whether Vladdy smacking 60 homers this season is feasible.

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It's only April but that felt like September.

 

The Blue Jays and Yankees both took two games in an intense, back-and-forth series in The Bronx. 

With Tyler away on vacation, I was joined by Paul Berthelot to talk about all of the good and bad from the Yankees series. We talked about Vladdy's three-homer game, George Springer shutting up the boos, and Alek Manoah's ace start, along with the struggles offensively from the non-Vladdy/Springer players in the lineup.

After that, we went through what we've seen from starting rotation and discussed what we've liked so far and what we're worried about. We also talked about the injuries to Danny Jansen and Teoscar Hernandez and whether or not calling up Gabriel Moreno is The Answer.

Finally, we looked ahead to this weekend's series against the Oakland A's, who just took three of four from the Tampa Bay Rays.

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Blue Jays baseball returned to Toronto with a bang.

In their first normal Home Opener in three years, the Blue Jays put on an insane show, coming back from 7-0 down to pull off a 10-8 win. They picked up another win on Saturday and then appeared they were on their way to a sweep before the pitching imploded for 11 unanswered runs.

We talked about the wild ride that was Opening Weekend, the comeback and the electricity of the biggest crowd the Dome has seen in years, the clutch performances of the bullpen, the difficult times the starting pitchers had and whether it means anything or not, and, of course, the huge bats.

After that, we looked around the American League and talked about what the other teams got up to before looking ahead to an important series against the Yankees in New York. Remember, we can't say It's Early anymore, not after last year.

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Opening Day is tomorrow!!!

We kicked off this 2022 season preview episode by talking about all of the scuttlebutt surrounding the Blue Jays as spring training comes to an end and the team travels north, such as Nate Pearson dealing with mono, Greg Bird leaving his minor-league deal to return to the Yankees, and Jose Ramirez signing an extension to stick around in Cleveland. 

After that, we went division by division and looked at the competition. Much like last year, Toronto's biggest challenge is going to come from within the American League East, while the Wild-Card race is going to be wide open. Are the White Sox and Astros are going to cruise to their divisions? Can the Tigers and Mariners give them trouble? Are the Red Sox going to be weirdly good again? Can the Yankees stay healthy? Finally, we went on twitter and asked people to give us their bold predictions for the year and we ranked their believability on a scale of 1-10.

We then made our own bold predictions for the year and fought about who was the most optimistic. Good vibes only!!!

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We're just over a week away from Opening Day and spring training is starting to really feel like a slog.  The thing with the Blue Jays this year is that there aren't really all that many interesting roster battles, as the majority of the team's roster has already been sorted out and the only things to pay attention to are what relievers are going to travel north with the team come April.  Regardless, we talked about the worthwhile things from Grapefruit play, including Greg Bird earning himself a roster spot, Orelvis Martinez putting himself on the map with his amazing performance at the dish, and Randal Grichuk getting traded to the Colorado Rockies for Raimel Tapia.  We also welcomed a new friend (well, a familiar voice if you're one of our Western Canadian listeners) named BaggedMilk to the show to talk about why he started to fall in love with the Blue Jays last summer and what he's looking forward to this season.

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This has certainly been a fun few days! Though it took a little while, the flurry of transactions following the new Collective Bargaining Agreement has finally arrived. The Blue Jays rounded out their starting rotation on Saturday, signing Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year deal. Then, on Wednesday, they made a big splash by trading for three-time Gold Glover winner Matt Chapman. So, all told, Robbie Ray, Marcus Semien, and Steven Matz are out, and Kevin Gausman, Chapman, and Kikuchi are in. We talked about the Chapman trade, which is hilariously similar to the Josh Donaldson one a few years ago, and what he'll bring to the team. We also looked at what might be next for the Blue Jays as the team is still in need of a left-handed bat and Jose Ramirez apparently remains a possibility.

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