Here Come the Brewers

 

George Springer: gets stoked; stays stoked

After a stirring series at home against the Twins—a win over the very fine Joe Ryan in game one; a thorough and crushing bullpen collapse in game two; and a bananas 9-8 win in the series finale (in which my preferred Twin, Byron Buxton, homered twice, but so too Davis Schneider; so too Davis Schneider)—the American League-leading Toronto Blue Jays are set to host the National League-leading Milwaukee Brewers at the SkyDome this final weekend of August and I, for one, am about as stoked about it as a late-innings George Springer who has only recently slid home with a go-ahead run (pictured above, really very stoked). It's going to be a tough set, no doubt, and, on the whole, the Blue Jays' schedule is not an easy one down the stretch. Sadly, neither the Red Sox nor the Yankees seem to be going anywhere, but every day in first place (in one's own division, let alone la ligue entier) is a good day; let us savor this one, and the next, and maybe one and a half of them after that, too (we are three-and-a-half games up, you see). As I have been texting to my baseball pals for a while now, if we can play out the season at a .500 clip—literally fourteen up and fourteen down the rest of our narrow way—that would put us at an absolutely classic ninety-two wins (a number of wins that is truly "show"), and require some fairly remarkable play from either Boston or New York (against both of whom we hold tie-breakers! which could matter!) to catch up. Should you find yourself habitually inclined towards thoughts of doom (not something that can be helped, even if you wanted help), you might note, too, that in order to be left out of the postseason entirely, the Blue Jays would have to be overtaken by the Kansas City Royals (ancient foes of 1985, slightly-less-ancient-but-still-getting-there foes of 2015), who currently sit nine games back; this would require a Blue Jays collapse of 1987 levels (please, no questions; it's still too soon). But man! Wouldn't it be nice! To be tops in the whole league! And skip a whole three-game-coin-toss of a round entirely! And for sure play games at home! But first, these games at home, against the ever-likeable Milwaukee Brewers, accompanied this year by the friendly ghost of the great Bob Uecker ("if they ever turn this park around, I'll be corporeal!"). Shane Bieber and Freddy Peralta on the bump for game one! Let's go!  

KS

Baseball Simulators Are Baseball Feelings Simulators PART TWO

 

available then, certainly

Hello friends! Recently, inspired in part by the reportage of the journaliste John Pollock, who, amidst and among his daily doings, noted that he had been playing a good deal of Baseball Mogul of late ("Oh John," his interlocuter Wai Ting was heard to reply, "not Baseball Mogul again . . ."), I too, have returned to the world of baseball simulation in earnest, taking the 1985 Blue Jays of the secondary world of subcreation all the way to the seventh game of the World Series against the New York Mets (that particular game cut me to the quick, I do not mind revealing to you in all candor), and continuing on merrily beyond. This renewed enthusiasm for baseball simulation (and simulacra!) led me to search through my abandoned Twitter account to find what it was that I had to say, exactly, when I first gave the more-widely-played-than-Baseball-Mogul-but-not-by-me Out of the Park (also a great game!) a solid try a few years ago, and I found that I quite liked what I happened upon in that thread ("Bowsprit cracked with ice and paint cracked with heat. / I made this, I have forgotten / And remember," as Eliot said one time), and wanted to make a record of it here at Baseball Feelings, as a follow-up, of sorts, to the 2022 post "Baseball Simulators: Are Baseball Feelings Simulators," in which I shared a different baseball-simulator Twitter-thread, a 2021 one that chronicled "a long and peculiar Baseball Mogul game (saved as 'Carlos Delgado 2001 til the end'), whose premise had been "what if when I moved to Toronto exactly twenty years ago it was not to go to grad school but instead to run the Toronto Blue Jays and, crucially, be friends with Carlos Delgado." Revisiting that one, the Carlos Delgado one, I can see that things got lightly out of hand, but at the same time, how can you not be romantic about simulated baseball, as a simulated Billy Beane once nearly said to an even more simulated Paul DePodesta-esque simulation?   

The Out of the Park thread that I have dug up, and that I share with you now, actually predates all of that Carlos Delgado-centered Baseball MogulISM, I am somewhat surprised to see. The particular version of the game I was playing at the time was OOTP21, before the game was sold to a mobile game company (I wonder if that helped or hurt the pay-to-play microtransaction stuff I already found lightly gross about it!), and before 日本野球機構 Nippon Yakyū Kikō / Nippon Professional Baseball / NPB was abruptly ripped out of later iterations of the game by a universally despised forced-download patch on Steam (hey sorry guys, we got a mean email from Konami, and now your game that you already paid for has to be worse). Anyway! Away we go! I should note that if you have never played a baseball simulator for computers (I am sure you have played a regular baseball video game at some point, and those are great too of course!), I really cannot recommend the pursuit highly enough, whichever one you choose to turn a portion of your intellectual and emotional life over too. There are others, certainly, but Out of the Park and Baseball Mogul are the ones I know well enough to say anything about. Out of the Park goes deeply deeply deeply on sale in the off-season (or at least it used to? under previous ownership? maybe still does?), and the mobile version is really quite inexpensive at all times (though I feel like, when it first came out, it was literally free, and then you could buy the particular season you wanted to start from? because I am pretty sure I had it on my phone for a time? but now do not?); Baseball Mogul, too, is nearly always discounted, it seems, from its already totally fair price, but its designer Clay Dreslough also makes every edition of the game free after a few years (why not snag Baseball Mogul 2021 for literally zero dollars here, if you have not previously?).    

But enough preamble! Here then, after all of that, is an old thread from a Twitter account I no longer post at, addressing a computer game I played for a bit. 

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Oct 29, 2020: "out of the park baseball" is on sale for v. little money rn so I got the most recent one (having not played in years) and my first impression is man idk about this

Oct 29, 2020: I got it not cuz I weary of baseball mogul (of which the weariest will never weary [if the weariest are me]) but cuz of how: 

you can do NPB/KBO leagues which sounds sikk

p. much everybody says it has gotten way better than baseball mogul

it is 75% off for hallowe'en (ok!)

Oct 29, 2020: it is a little disheartening that right after you buy the game & install it (for several thousand hours) it invites you to play PERFECT TEAM mode which seems to be like a freemium game (except you already bought a thing) where you buy packs of cards like hearthstone or something

Oct 29, 2020: I started an 87 Blue Jays game and skipped into the play-by-play mode p. quickly cuz I heard it was 3d now (it def wasn't last time I played one of these!) and it is "of an ass" like why would it be like this

Oct 29, 2020: it's weird cuz all the menus and the overlays on the field are super fancy and modern looking (mb too much so tbh) and then the terrible player models are like bleep bloop blort but in a way that is kind of shit (rather than kind of shitty, and thus possibly neat, if you see)

Oct 29, 2020: I was again a little disheartened BUT in no time at all I had another game started with 北海道日本ハムファイターズ Hokkaidō Nippon-Hamu Faitāzu as Hakodate is, as you know, sister city to Halifax

Oct 29, 2020: there we were at KLEENEX STADIUM MIYAGI (クリネックススタジアム宮城, Kurinekkusu Sutajiamu Miyagi) against the Gōruden Īgurusu! this might still be neat! 

(I will let you know)

Oct 29, 2020: gonna consult "An absolute beginner’s guide to the game of OOTP Baseball: Come, let us be baseball video game dinguses together" (Kate Preusser/Grant Bronsdon) cuz I think I am so baseball mogul-conditioned that idek where to look for things (link here)

Oct 30, 2020: UPDATE I AM THE GREATEST OOTP PLAYER WHO HAS EVER LIVED as my 1987 Blue Jays are 17-3 after a month but also when I finished simming this same month I had like 40 emails to read as though this were in fact an email simulator

Oct 30, 2020: mb this is something ppl really like but ootp is kind of a having-an-actual-job simulator with all these fvkkn emails & also *specific* things your boss wants you to do and it's nothing sikk like "employ willie upshaw in perpetuity" or else you get fired from yr computer game

Oct 30, 2020: a thing I find goofy with modern video games (or ones from like twelve years ago, the last ones I have) is all the ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED! stuff which is unfortunately here too like ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED! LLOYD MOSEBY HIT STREAK! like dude "the shaker" would never say that

Oct 30, 2020: now I am 37-10 with 91 emails

I was gonna say it would be weird to be simming like 19th century stuff and getting all these emails but I guess it's pretty anachronistic to be getting them in 1987 too (should be payphone calls from scouts with bad marriages imo)

Oct 30, 2020: unless you are method man sending me messages on my motorola sidekick in def jam fight for new york I do not want to get emails in computer games I don't think

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED! TONY FERNANDEZ HAS A 26-GAME HITTING STREAK may christ welcome him

I am 56-19 with 194 emails

Oct 30, 2020: idk if it's every time but when I open up the game it is v. insistent you go and CONSUME CONTENT OF VARIOUS KINDS AT SOME WEBSITES uhhhhh sorry dude I am here to unlock achievements and check my emailz

Oct 30, 2020: it is July 1st and Tim Raines is hitting .420 (not for me but I am happy for the Expos) and four players have 70+ RBI (George Bell at 76!) wtfffff

Oct 30, 2020: 59-20 (ten games up on the Tigers!) with 163 unchecked emails in my inbox when the simulation stops to show me an especially important email from my owner that says I still haven't upgraded at second base like he asked DUDE I AM 39 GAMES OVER .500 WITH MANNY LEE YOU MUST CHILL

Oct 30, 2020: OOTP 1987 Blue Jays are now 70-26 and had seven players selected to the AL All-Star Team (Jimmy Key, Steib, Henke, Ernie Whitt [5.5 WAR!], Tony Fernandez, George Bell, Lloyd Moseby)

it stopped my simulation for roster issues not of my making but I fixed it

I have 204 emails

Oct 30, 2020: you get these emails from your scouts that revise their assessments of players which makes sense but it is weird to get a message that revises someone's speed, like yeah the first time I saw him he was fast but now he isn't I guess, sorry that's on me

Oct 30, 2020: getting a bunch of these

Oct 30, 2020: THE 1987 BLUE JAYS SEASON HAS COME TO AN END w/ 103 wins but alas lost a one-game playoff to Detroit but the important thing is that everybody played hard & the computer kept stopping to say there were players somewhere in the organization w/o roster spots

I have 367 emails 

Oct 30, 2020: YOU HAVE UNLOCKED THE FOLLOWING ACHIEVEMENT: SEASON OVER -- GREAT JOB

lol idk about any of this

also the Mets have won the World Series

I have 389 emails

Oct 30, 2020: I do appreciate the encouragement tho

Oct 30, 2020: you have to hire all the staff which is mb a little much especially when you get rebuffed by your heroes so unceremoniously 

(also they got his date of birth wrong)

Oct 30, 2020: oh SHIT though I upped the offer and he's in

next up: mr. belvedere

Oct 30, 2020: to take my 103-win OTTP 1987 Blue Jays to the next level I am gonna have to trade for Bo Jackson

Oct 30, 2020: lol it turns out that if you set it up to use historical roster and lineups but do so inexpertly (that's me!) it disable both trades and the draft lol

Oct 30, 2020: here I am playing baseball simulators for computer in my nice green sweater

Oct 30, 2020: THE DATE IS FRIDAY JULY 1, 1988 and the Toronto Blue Jays lead the AL East w/ a p. tasty record of 52-27; my key off-season additions of Bo Jackson (-0.2WAR) and Alfredo Griffin (0.0WAR) have yet to settle in but they probably will because of how I like them

I have 637 emails

Oct 30, 2020: that you hire staff is on the whole a needlessly tedious element of the game imo but when somebody proposes a trade and a note on your screen says "Assistant GM Bob Uecker says, 'This is not too bad!'" it is kind of a big deal for me emotionally 

Oct 30, 2020: WELL WELL WELL LOOK WHO'S COMING AROUND ON MANNY LEE

I do not like the owner at all and also why am I dealing with him and not Paul Beeston? this is nonsensical

Oct 30, 2020: I have accepted the Expos offer of Dennis Martinez in exchange for youngsters Todd Stottlemyre and Pat Borders against the advice of Assistant GM Bob Uecker but I value his counsel more than he could ever know

I am going to win the fvkkn World Series

I have 671 emails 

Oct 30, 2020: an email from my scouting director has informed me that Alfredo Griffin, at the age of thirty, has suddenly gotten faster

and tbh in this case I believe it

Oct 30, 2020: AL East champs (102-59)

Rance Mulliniks stepped up after the Kelly Gruber trade (for Bo [who is still figuring it out])

do not be fooled by Alfredo Griffin's 100 OPS+ (it is because he apparently appeared in no games lol oops I let the computer decide)

Tony Fernandez forever

Oct 30, 2020: oh wait there was one day left: 103-59

lololololol Rance Mulliniks had 225 hits and won the AL batting title (.348) this game is frivolous TO MY ADVANTAGE

Oct 30, 2020: the 1988 ALCS shall be contested between the late-Exhibition-Stadium-era Toronto Blue Jays and the Oakland Athletics . . . of the Bash Brothers (fast lovers)

Oct 30, 2020: play by play mode in this game is imo awful (more on that later) which is actually better than if it was just kind of bad in which case you would slog through it but in this case you just sim and read summaries OF YOUR CECIL FIELDER WALK OFF 1-0 DAVE STEIB FOUR-HITTER ALCS GAME 1

Oct 30, 2020: eight-inning of shut out from Jimmy Key and a three-run bomb from RANCE MULLINIKS is all you need for ALCS Game 2

Oct 30, 2020: seven scoreless innings from Dennis Martinez (I do not and could never hold this against Bob Uecker) and a 10th-inning Rance Mulliniks (lol wtf) double cashed in by MANNY LEE THIS IS UNCANNY oh shit more like unmanny

Oct 30, 2020: LLOYD MOSEBY CASHES IN ERNIE WHITT IN THE 10th OFF DENNIS ECKERSLY FOR THE SWEEP 

WE ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES AGAINST THE CINCINATTI REDS (r.i.p. to the pirates in six)

PROBABLY TOMORROW BECAUSE IT IS ALREADY LATE AND I HAVE GROCERY STORE SUSHI

ALSO I HAVE 853 EMAILS

Oct 31, 2020: it is with a heavy heart that I must announce that the 1988 OOTP Toronto Blue Jays have fallen to the Cincinnati Reds as Chris Sabo came across in a two-run bottom of the tenth in a game that saw Dennis Martinez himself knock in a run (lol the NL is wild man) 

I have 865 emails

Oct 31, 2020: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED well let's see

it is sometimes cautioned that ootp is too complex, but you can let the computer do almost all the things you don't want to except get emails

imo it is not that it is too complex so much as the interface is cumbersome yeah I said it cumbersome

Oct 31, 2020: it is sometimes said that ootp is hard to get good results in but I have def never won 103 games in consecutive seasons in baseball mogul so how true can that be (lol I will prob lose 100 games if I let it go another season though); plz remember that I am not good at these games

Oct 31, 2020: in terms of æsthetics ootp does not really succeed for me in that the menus (& the game is naught but them) are all wearingly supersaturated and of a style that is like idk like you were gonna play MLB 10: The Show (perhaps other ones also but I don't have those) but just in menus

Oct 31, 2020: the modern look of everything seems to be what many ppl like of it but imo it just looks like everything else and why would you want baseball to look modern in any way

it is undeniably decorous with like how topps 2020 cards look though (no diss I have a set of these) so whatevz

Oct 31, 2020: one might well contrast ootp's deliberate supersaturated glare of ultramodernity with the soothingly haphazard windows 3.1 vapourwæve lethargy of baseball mogul æsthetics and then real quick guess which one I like better lol

Oct 31, 2020: a couple of other ways baseball mogul is better I think aside from its low-key unlicensed/jostenswæve vibez are first that it is a tiny and super fast program that makes no demands on your computer (it is p. much a spreadsheet lol) whereas ootp is a bit of a hog for what it is

Oct 31, 2020: and secondly baseball mogul totally has play-by-play mode figured out and has for like at least ten years; all of the several ootp play-by-play views, even the one that copies the mogul one, range from awful to make me seasick lol (I have read that this gets other ppl too)

Oct 31, 2020: if all you ever do is sim games in bunches this wouldn't matter at all but I really like play-by-play mode! it is how you really *connect* with alfredo griffin running heedlessly into ruinous outs

Oct 31, 2020: I think the ideal baseball simulator TO ME would be baseball mogul with NPB, KBO, and Minor League mods but nobody seems to be modding baseball mogul anymore (the humble baseball card mod remains the greatest of all mods imo) so I get it, ootp is v. good too 

Oct 31, 2020: ootp's advantages are imo mainly that 1) it has all kinds of non-MLB leagues (with iffy rosters in NPB right? idk about the KBO ones) and 2) (probably more important for lots of ppl) you can change *everything* whereas baseball mogul just does mlb (but imo does so v. pleasingly)

Oct 31, 2020: ootp's disadvantages are that it is garish and complicit with power

Oct 31, 2020: that plus play-by-play mode

Oct 31, 2020: IN SUMMATION ootp is still like no money cuz of the hallowe'en sale and baseball moguls up to/including the 2017 one are utterly free (they charge money for the new ones they make) and Each Holds Its Place in the Divine Economy imo

ty for yr attn to these matters

more later mb!

Oct 31, 2020: oh dang my ootp season score is 921 which the computer describes as "phenomenal" and characterizes me as "a genius" lol I must warn you young lady I am susceptible . . . to flattery

Oct 31, 2020: there is no way alfredo griffin would *ever* dm this to me, this is a major AI failure

Oct 31, 2020: 3rd AL East title in a row, this game is EASY (87-75 this year though, huge decline) and Tony Fernandez (8.9WAR) is "op" as fvkk *but I like that* 

ken griffey jr. has arrived and he hit like .360 as part of his like 1.000 ops or something

once again I will ALCS w/ tha A'zzzzz

Oct 31, 2020: AND SO ENDS OUR TIME TOGETHER ON THIS PARTICULAR OOTP SAVE I BELIEVE as I thank you once more for your time and note in closing that I have 908 emails even though hundreds seemed to have deleted once they were a year old

what a game

Nov 1, 2020: just when I thought I was "out" (of the park baseball 21) they pull me back in haha as I was offered both orel hersheiser and kirby puckett for not that much (yes plz) and 97-65 and a FOURTH consecutive AL East title & yet also this to deal with, what the hekk (plz see attached)

Nov 1, 2020: IRL Tony Fernandez had seasons of 5.5 and 5.6 WAR at his best; here's OOTP Tony Fernandez in the five seasons of this sim in which I am an AL East juggernaut: 7.9 8.0 8.1 8.1 10.5 

TEN POINT FIVE WAR, this game is frivolous / Tony Fernandez fielding smooth, like an exquisite fish

Nov 1, 2020: my ALCS rotation of Orel Hersheiser, Juan Guzman, Dave Steib, and Jimmy Key has proven too much for the Chicago White Sox especially since John Olerud hit like .500 in the seriesssssssss look out Cincinnati Reds 

I wonder if in this sim Marge Schott is still racist

Nov 1, 2020: in case you are too yung to know: "She [Schott] was banned from managing the team by MLB from 1996 through 1998 due to statements in support of German domestic policies of Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler; shortly afterwards, she sold the majority of her share in the team."

Nov 1, 2020: Harpo notes: "She referred to Eric Davis and Dave Parker was 'million dollar n-words who aren't worth a damn.' and she didn't understand why people were mad."

fully reprehensible also imagine being so blinded by hatred that you couldn't even tell that those specific guys rule

Nov 1, 2020: you know who is great in these simulation games? Greg Myers, which is sikk because 2003 Greg Myers is for sure my all-time fav season by a Blue Jays catcher

(they were calling him "Crash" at that point which I think happens to p. much all old catchers but I bet they all like it)

Nov 1, 2020: DAMN IT lost to the Reds in six games and got WKRPwned 11-3 in the clincher 

as a "Blue Jays choke in every season prior to 1992" simulator OOTP21 is so far flawless

Nov 1, 2020: 90 wins was not enough for the 1992 Blue Jays to finish any better than third but Tony Fernandez has led the league with 10.2 WAR and even more importantly with 15 triplzzzzz

irl tony fernandez is one of the thirty best SS ever by WAR

ootp tony fernandez is gonna break top ten

Nov 1, 2020: 1993: 92 wins (another 8.8 WAR for Tony Fernandez!) and the team owner is threatening to fire me

and now we see the violence inherent in the system

Nov 1, 2020: THE 1993 MONTREAL EXPOS ARE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS and to such an extent, like you wouldn't believe the year Larry Walker had

Nov 1, 2020: while the expos GM is unthrilled with my attempts to secure both marquis grissom and randy johnson without giving up all that much, my spirits are bolstered, as ever, by assistant GM bob uecker

Nov 1, 2020: once you know which buttons to press when your simulation gets stopped over some deep-dive orginizational roster tedium that seems like a chore, the problem of there being way too much to do in OOTP completely disappears, you just let the AI take care of things like . . .

Nov 1, 2020: that said I win like 90 games a year with Tony Fernandez headed to the HOF on the first FRIKKIN ballot easy but it looks like I'm gonna get fired so it's a mixed bag

current inbox status: 892 emailz

Nov 1, 2020: 1995: another AL East title; another 6.2 WAR for Tony Fernandez whose 79.0 career WAR has him the fifth best shortstop in the history of baseball (I'M *SAYIN*); another 784 emails that contain demonstrably unnecessary information

playoffs bb let's gooooooooo

Nov 1, 2020: far enough along in the timeline now that other GMs are like hey how about these several baseball players you do not love in exchange for yung Carlos Delgado whom you do and Assistant GM Bob Uecker is like "I don't know about this one, boss" and I am like you said it Uke

Nov 1, 2020: Orioles in three, Brewers in seven, now the Mets in the World Series and look at this beautiful lineup I have assembled thru no guile but instead feelingz (my big three starters are Juan Guzman, Orel Hersheiser, Jimmy Key, assembled similarly)  

note MANNY LEE 

# l o y a l t y

Nov 1, 2020: omg it happened

Nov 1, 2020: Orel Hersheiser (whose model Louisville glove I have had since like '91) pitched a game seven two-hitter at Shea Stadium and that's it, these 1995 OOTP Toronto Blue Jays join the 1985 Baseball Mogul Toronto Blue Jays as the only simulated baseball teams I won with/did not ruin

Nov 1, 2020: I would like to thank you all very much for joining me on this extraordinary journey thru pretendball (dj brilliant's important term) and huginn (thought) and muninn (memory) and 心 kokoro/shin (mind/heart/spirit) 

I have 803 emails

Nov 1, 2020: imagine if you dare how ripped Assistant GM Bob Uecker is gonna get tonight

Nov 2, 2020: and so this OOTP save has run its course with the retirement of Tony Fernandez with a career WAR of 90.2 making him the third best shortstop ever (Honus Wagner, Cal Ripken Jr.) and a better career than, like, Ken Griffey Jr.

-------------------------------------------

And that would seem to be where we left things! I may well start up another OOTP game, I am now thinking, once my current Baseball Mogul exercise at last attains whatever final form awaits it in the fullness of time (maybe pretty good? a pretty good form? not too bad a one? still way too early to tell). 

 KS

This Continues To Be Great

 

first of many

After the Blue Jays swept the poorlier and poorlier Colorado Rockies—scoring forty-five runs on sixty-three hits along their exceedingly merry way—there were two lightly disappointing losses last weekend against the mighty and largely unmindable Dodgers. I say only lightly disappointing, in that one's baseball happiness cannot really be permitted to hinge on whether or not you beat the Dodgers, or else there will be precious little baseball happiness to be had at all, right? But right after that, like even before the Blue Jays left Los Angeles even, there came what was, I'm pretty sure, their best win of the year so far, a 5-4 Sunday afternoon comeback win on the strength of late home runs from Vladdy, Barger, and finally Ernie Clement. After Jeff Hoffman almost incomprehensibly walked five batters in just two-thirds of an inning of work (a new one to me, I think), the peerlessly-named and well-sweepered Mason Fluharty struck out Shohei Ohtani and got a groundout from Mookie Betts (both of these occurrences occurrencing with the bases loaded, mind you) to end just a tremendous back-and-forth game. It really was quite a thrill! From there, two-out-of-three at home against the very fine Chicago Cubs in front of huge crowds (even on Thursday afternoon!), in which Hoffman got right back on the horse and, whilst ahorse, struck out all kinds of guys. And then! And then! Guys guys guys it happened! Just last night! It really happened! By which I mean: Alejandro Kirk stole a base! For the first time ever! And almost certainly the last! It was seemingly a broken hit-and-run, runners on first and third, in which Myles Straw swung through strike three, and nobody really covered second base, so there you go; that's literally all it takes. It is notable too, I suppose, that Kirk had previously homered in the seventh to bring the Blue Jays back into a game that Jacob De Grom had made pretty difficult for them up to that point, and that, in the eighth, Kirk also knocked in Vladdy and Bo to put the Blue Jays ahead for the first time in the game (and permanently, because Hoffman is rolling now), but the main thing is that Alejandro Kirk now has the literally highest possible career stolen base percentage, surpassing by far, for example, say, Lou Brock, or Rickey Henderson. To mark this lofty feat, Vladdy snagged the actual literal physical base at the earliest opportunity, like immediately after the final out, and presented it to Kirk, who had already been standingly-ovated over this delightful turn of events. What a fun time! Everybody loved it! And then just this afternoon and early evening, in fact at this the very hour of our composition, Myles Straw, of all people (eight career home runs in his nearly seven-hundred games played headed into today) homered twice as the Blue Jays beat the Rangers 14-2. They keep coming up with fun new stuff, these 2025 Toronto Blue Jays, and it's really great! Long may it remain more or less so!

KS  

And Just Like That, The Blue Jays Have The Best Record in Baseball

 

How can we know the flipper from the flip?

I was already perfectly content with how things had gone, and how they were continuing to go, when the Blue Jays picked up their fifty-ninth win of the season in their hundredth game, a feat they have never managed previously. I was even more content when, after sweeping the San Francisco Giants and taking two-out-of-three from the defensively-woeful Yankees (I feel no woe about that personally, of course), the Blue Jays trounced the sliding Detroit Tigers to overtake Houston for the top spot in the American League broadly (please note that the Astros will forever be a National League team to me and nothing can change this). But after last night's additional Tigers-drubbing, my heart grew contentlier still, as the Blue Jays now hold—however fleetingly—the best overall record in baseball (sixty-two wins against forty-two losses) for the first time time since August 2nd, 1992, a season I remember as vividly as baseball from thirty-three years ago can be remembered (which is actually super vividly, in several key regards). This season has been, and continues to be, a marvel, and one of the particular ways I have been marveling at it is to consider how much it feels to me like 1992, in particular, in that the 1992 Blue Jays, on paper, did not present all that differently, in terms of what you'd expect from them, from any team since about 1987 (I am setting aside our best-ever 1985 squad, a missed opportunity forever to be mourned), which is to say: the 1992 team looked like a solid contender, just as they had for the better part of a decade, but there were several other solid contenders against which they must inevitably contend, and who can say what might arise out of that contention? But then they won, and you look back at it, and maybe even run a little Baseball Mogul or Out of the Park (who among us has not at least dabbled?), and it is like, yeah, an excellent baseball team, but what made that team the one that finally won? Happenstance, as much as anything, I suppose. About the 1993 team, there is of course no mystery: having spent all of the money that has ever existed, the only time the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays were not on base is when they were jogging back to the dugout from home plate having recently scored. It would have been insane for them not to have won. And so they did. 

This is in no way a prediction, of course, or an expectation that I have, but the 2025 team gives me the 1992 feeling, in that they are a team that, despite last year's obvious disaster, has been contending with the same core for five years, made a few little tweaks but nothing remarkable headed into this year, and yet here we are atop the league, somehow. And yet, here's how we're doing it: leading the league(s) in batting average, on-base percentage, and on-base-plus-slugging, all of which feels heavily 1993-coded. They aren't slugging like one might have hoped or expected, but they are putting the ball in play at an improbable rate (not by historical standards, but by contemporary ones), and BABIPping their way to glory and renown. The starting rotation has been good but not great; the bullpen has been good but not great; and people are still complaining about Vladdy (perhaps the only player in the league who could go two-for-four with a single, a double, and a walk, and it'll be like "man what's wrong with Vladdy?"). And yet here we are. Oh, and of course the fielding: it has been excellent once again; we are truly spoiled for fielding, and having watched the Yankees kick the ball around the other night for four errors (a gross tally that, even in its grossness, does not capture the extent of their misplay), dude I am so grateful for all the fielding (great job guys!).  

With just a few days to go before the trade deadline, the Blue Jays are expected to be as "all in" as is realistically possible given who is available (it's not going to be a huge year for anybody, looks like), but maybe the biggest improvements are to found internally? As soon as Daulton Varsho returns, our already-excellent defense improves, and we'll be getting more out of his bat than we're getting out of Myles Straw's (no diss, Myles Straw; love your hustle out there bro); can Anthony Santander offer at least the possibility of a power bat off the bench, once he is able to resume "baseball activities" (a phrase of which I am very fond)? What if Alek Manoah, continuing his long rehab, is able to offer even minimal service down the stretch, to lighten the load on the bullpen if nothing else? That last one is probably a stretch. The boldest move, and the one that appeals to me the most, would be to truly follow the example of the 1992 season, and trade for David Cone. But nobody listens.

KS

Really This is All Going Very Well

 

All-Star guys, All-Star belts

Have the Blue Jays ever had fifty-five wins at the All-Star break? No, they have not previously, no, and the fact that the actual date of the All-Star break has shifted around a little here and there does nothing to damper how rad I find this all to be. First place! By a couple games! The ten-game winning streak that included four in a row against the Yankees at home on and around Canada Day is not just a season highlight, but a Blue-Jays-so-far-this-century highlight, and not one I sill soon forget (how vividly I recall the Blue Jays four-game road sweep of the Yankees in 2003, and yet this one was way, way better). Has George Springer ever hit quite like this? Even when he was busy winning the 2017 World Series MVP? Maybe, maybe, but please keep in mind that he is super old now, and so all things must be seen through through that darkening lens (do you guys know the poem that goes, in part, "Do not give way to pride. / For a brief while your strength is in bloom / but it fades quickly; and soon there will follow / illness or the sword to lay you low, / or a sudden fire or surge of water / or jabbing blade or javelin from the air / or repellent age. Your piercing eye/ will dim and darken; and death will arrive, / dear warrior, to sweep you away"? I ask on account of how it is a good one). What a weird season! Would you believe the Blue Jays would be in any kind of shape at all at this point if you knew going in that Vladdy and Bo were going to have "just okay" years, that Varsho and Santander would be quite thoroughly hurt (plus Yimi slipped in a tub), and that a complete Bowden Francis collapse would leave the rotation short-handed and the (Yimi-less) bullpen overtaxed? Sounds like a disaster, right? And yet here we are, looking to go all-in at the trade deadline to win our first AL East title in a literal decade. That everything could still totally fall apart, remains, of course, self-evident, and while I am acutely aware of this ever-present fact, I must say that I am in no way worried about it. Could totally happen! Wouldn't that be both silly and a shame if it did! But what can you do? This has all been great; perhaps it will continue to be; wouldn't that be neat?  

KS

Half-Way (Half-Way) Blue Jays (Blue Jays): Let's Play Ball?

 

You've Got: A Diamond
You've Got: Nine Men

Eighty-one games down! Eighty-one to go! And where do we stand? What better place to determine that than the literal standings, which have our forty-four-win, thirty-seven-loss Blue Jays a mere three games back of the less-than-amazing-so-far New York Yankees, and three-and-a-half games ahead of the pretty okay Cleveland Guardians (the best-performing team not currently tucked all comfers/cozers into a tidy little playoff berth [our present tucking has us at "Wild Card 2"]). There are several things to note about the Blue Jays' collective first-half performance, I think, and the first is that it took last night's nine-nothing win over the Red Sox to push the Blue Jay's stubbornly poor run differential into positive territory; this is to say, on the level of scoring runs and also preventing them (this is a very important level! of baseball!), this is really not a team that should be playing at a .543 clip, an eighty-eight-win pace. Outperforming your run differential, or badly underperforming it, can just be a function of weird luck, of course, but it can sometimes be a function of either a particularly well-performing or especially unbearable bullpen situation, but I do not think this is the case here? Among the characteristics that have defined our first half, you would not list "a lockdown closer ensuring we win all the one-run games" among them, right? And yet the Blue Jays have in fact been winning all kinds of close ones, even with an overworked and not-always-so-sharp bullpen, and winning lots and lots of comeback games, too, which is obviously a super exciting kind them to win. It is entirely possible that this has just been noise, statistically, and that the Blue Jays, without really regressing in terms of run differential (bro, they are the mean), will play a little under .500 in the second half and end up almost exactly the eighty-three-win team FanGraphs projected them to be. However! The value of early-season wins is greater than ones that come later! In that it is first-half wins that compel teams to add ahead of the trading deadline rather than ship guys off! The second-half is often characterized by strong teams, now stronger, running—if not roughshod, than at least roughershod than before—over weak teams that have become, at least in the short term, weaker (owing to a deepened lack of guys). I think maybe the 2025 Blue Jays are a more-or-less .500 team, who have by luck or guile snuck out of the first half with enough wins to convince the front office to add a couple arms and maybe even a bat en route to what could be an oddly understated ninety-win season? I feel like this is where I would really like the rest of this summer to go: I would like the 2025 Blue Jays to be the least impressive ninety-win team in Blue Jays history. I have begun to think that nothing, in a way, could be finer? 

KS

A Scant Hundred Games Remain

 

club vibes

After yesterday afternoon's full-on drubbing of the still-good Phillies, the Blue Jays moved into a tie for second-place in the good-but-not-great AL East, and a tie, too, for the WC3 playoff position. All of this is good! You will recall that not long ago they were playing so poorly! And yet, after sixty-two games of this 2025 season—a number of no real importance, other that it leaves precisely one hundred games to play, which is also a number of no real importance, other that it is, in a sense, a pleasing one—here we sit at a perfectly reasonable 33W-29L, good for a winning percentage of .532 (despite our -1 run differential!), an eighty-six-win pace extrapolated over the fullness of the long summer. Eighty-six wins has been enough to get you into the playoffs in two of the three seasons since this welcoming new format has been adopted, a format which keeps you more or less in the running most of the way should you so much as stay slightly above .500. So far, so good, mostly? 

I thought it might be an interesting time to check in on how everyone is doing in the broadest sense, which is to say by having a quick look at everybody's fWAR, the FanGraphs version of Wins Above Replacement. A very general note on the scale of things here (feel free to quibble): by definition, a statistically determined replacement-level player would accrue 0.0 fWAR over the course of a full season; an average player would accrue something like 2.0 (one of the great virtues of WAR as a concept is it recognizes the significant value of being average: a roster full of replacement-level players projects to a miserable forty-something wins, depending how you do it; but a roster full of average, 2.0 WAR players would likely win more than ninety games and be a legitimately championship level team); 4.0 WAR represents a true All-Star kind of season; 8.0 WAR and you're looking at a league MVP (naturally, when using terms like "All-Star" and "MVP," we mean richly deserving ones, and not the super weird things that happen when weird votes happen, like when 1996 Juan Gonzalez wins the AL MVP as the third or fourth best player on his team [3.5 fWAR {a good season!}], whereas Ken Griffey Jr. did not, despite having literally one of the greatest seasons of all time [9.7 fWAR]). So that's the scale, and we're only sixty-two games in, so multiply any of these by 2.6 to get a sense of what these would be over the full season, if you like. Oh hey, quick note: Aaron Judge, I am noticing just now, is at 5.3 fWAR so far, so he's on pace for a 13.8, more than a full win better than any individual season by Actual Barry Bonds, though it would still come in a little under Babe Ruths's 1923 season. He's having a good first half! Shohei Ohtani, if you're wondering, is comparatively dogging it at 3.3 fWAR, which projects to a merely conventional MVP-level season of 8.6 in a season in which he is still rehabbing his elbow and therefore not pitching. You're embarrassing yourself, Shohei Ohtani. If you were wondering who is doing the worst by fWAR so far this season, it is the White Sox Andrew Vaughn, who put up -1.3fWAR before being sent to the minors, and about whom a recent headline reads, "Is There Any Hope Left for Andrew Vaughn?" That's a tough spot. Anyway, here are our guys: 

THE GUYS OVER ONE SO FAR: 

1. Alejandro Kirk 1.8

2. Ernie Clement 1.7

3. Addison Barger 1.5

4. Kevin Gausman 1.4

5. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 1.4

6. Chris Bassitt 1.4

7. Bo Bichette 1.2

8. Tyler Heineman 1.2

LIGHT COMMENTARY UPON THOSE GUYS: Kirky! As he is called by his boiz! It is remarkable that he has become one of the best defensive catchers in all of baseball, which is worth a good chunk of fWAR on its own, but he's hitting everything of late, and so here we are. Ernie Clement is for sure a surprise here, but when we lost Matt Chapman at third, Clement's defense at that position was actually statistically better than Chapman's, plus they are also playing Clement all over the infield now, and he's been great everywhere. Addison Barger, who is built like a monster and hits everything super hard, has exceeded everyone's expectations so far, and it will be interesting to see whether, long-term, he settles in at third or in right (the José Bautista conundrum, defensively: great arm, but how is he at getting to his immediate left or right super quickly?). Kevin Gausman remains, like Chris Bassitt a couple spots below him, a yeoman of a guy, just innings upon innings. Vladdy is having a middle-of-the-road Vladdy season so far, and I will take one of those every year, please. Bo has started hitting for power again of late, which is a delight, and I wonder what they're going to do about his contract? It's a much trickier situation than the settled matter of Vladdy, really, and I would not at all be surprised to see him head elsewhere (I would get it, but I would not like it). Tyler Heineman's standing here again shows the value of a good defensive catcher who is able to hit, like, at all, and the Blue Jays continue their tradition of getting an absurd amount of value out of the catcher spot broadly. 

THE GUYS BETWEEN ZERO AND ONE: 

9. Myles Straw 0.8

10. George Springer 0.7

11. Daulton Varsho 0.7

12. Brendan Little 0.7

13. José Berrios 0.6

14. Nathan Lukes 0.5

15. Mason Fluharty 0.4

16. Andrés Giménez 0.4

17. Yimi Garcia 0.3

18. Nick Sandlin 0.2

19. Paxton Schultz 0.2

20. Davis Schneider 0.2

21. Braydon Fisher 0.2

22. Jonatan Clase 0.1

23. Josh Walker 0.1

24. Jeff Hoffman 0.1

25. Eric Lauer 0.1

26. Yariel Rodriguez 0.1

27. Casey Lawrence 0.0

28. Jacob Barnes 0.0

29. Michael Stefanic 0.0

30. Ali Sanchez 0.0

INTERMITTENT COMMENTARY UPONST THEM: In this range we find a mix of everyday players who are doing alright-to-pretty-well, bench guys who are doing a good job or maybe even overperforming in their limited roles, a whole lot of relief pitchers (whose specific contributions are not necessarily captured in WAR, as their real impact is a product of leverage more than anything, right?), and several players who were on the roster for like twenty minutes. It must be said that Myles Straw, whose acquisition was much maligned, has been fantastic in his limited playing time, and all the bench outfielders have really done well in the absence of Daulton Varsho, who has been great when healthy, but barely healthy so far (a true drag, that, and not unlike the Gimenez situation, I guess, too). George Springer, who is legitimately old now, is hitting! But he is no great shakes in the field at this point, despite his continued efforts, and has been DHing quite a bit. It's not a lot of fun to see José Berrios in this mix, but I'm unconcerned; he'll be at least fine, I bet. Bullpen standouts so far have been Brendan Little and Mason Fluharty (what a name!), whereas I am sorry to report that I have very little faith in closer Jeff Hoffman.    

NEGATIVE WINS ABOVE REPLACEMENT CAN'T BE A GOOD TIME FOR ANYBODY:

31. Alan Roden -0.1

32. Erik Swanson -0.1

33. Richard Lovelady -0.1

34. Easton Lucas -0.1

35. José Urena -0.1

36. Dillon Tate -0.1

37. Max Scherzer -0.2

38. Will Wagner -0.4

39. Chad Green -0.4

40. Bowden Francis -0.7

41. Anthony Santander -0.8

SAD THOUGHTS ON THESE GUYS BUT NOT TOO SAD: It's easy to slip into a false sense of precision with fWAR, or really with any all-in-one value like this, and it's important to remember that even the staunchest proponents of this measure are quick to caution that there is no meaningful way you can look at fWAR and fWAR alone and say that Player A's 4.2 fWAR season was for sure better than Player B's 3.9 fWAR season; Dave Cameron used to always caution (perhaps he still does, in his private life; who knows) that fWAR is useful to within about one full win, and beyond that, you've got to start digging if you want to make finer distinctions. The benefit of fWAR is that, despite its complicated and varied inputs, it offers us a quick and coarse measure with which we can broadly distinguish between different types of seasons. But someone who is at -0.1 at this point is not necessarily having a very different time from someone how is at 0.1, so we can't get too bent out of shape about this sort of thing. All that said: Anthony Santander, now on the Injured List, has been just awful so far, unfortunately; Bowden Francis, who was utterly thrashed by the Phillies this week, hasn't been much better, and what is up with Chad Green? Being at -0.4 fWAR in only twenty-six innings is wildly bad, especially from a long-reliable reliever. I hope this isn't the end of the line for him, but he's thirty-four now, and one cannot help but wonder. Still with old pitchers: Max Scherzer was for sure with a shot, but it's hard to see it working out all that well from here, probably, right? Ah well. So it goes.  

Anyway, those have been our guys; long may they continue to win slightly more games than they lose, and thus enrich our summer tremendously. Let's enjoy further baseball! And then reconvene to discuss it a little! 

KS

     

Catching (baseball pun? an exceedingly light one?) Up

fun to see but honestly I would hate this so much
and not be a very good sport about it
 ("Vladdy," I would say, "we discussed this, and I said no")

Since last we spoke, the Blue Jays dropped two of three oddly excellent games to the oddly excellent Detroit Tigers (long may they prosper; R.I.P. to our old friend Neil), looked unstoppable against the ever-interesting San Diego Padres (solid contenders for best uniforms in the game, especially when you factor in their outrun/synthwave City Connects), scored but two runs over the course of three games whilst being swept by the Rays in their fairly charming minor-league non-Trop home for the season (hurricanes: remain no joke), continued not to score—almost even, at times, to unscore—in Texas but came away with a pair of wins all the same, then completed a truly rad four-game sweep of the tragically reduced Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas/Nowhere Athletics to peak up over the .500 mark and join the six-team Clutterbuck that constitutes the AL Wild Card situation. It's been good stuff! And so far this week, the Blue Jays got so trounced so early by the Phillies on Tuesday night that you couldn't even really mind the loss (if you stick with all nine innings after a first that looks like that, rather than find another way to spend your evening, that is quite frankly on you at that point), and followed that game with a walk-off win that saw Vladdy steal second (I was so happy for him) on account of how Phillies closer Jordan Romano (remember him?), for all his virtues, has never been much for holding runners at first, before Alejandro Kirk knocked one off the wall in for the game-ending RBI single (they might have had it as a double; I guess it depends on how swiftly Vladdy made his way home [okay I have checked, and it was a single {good hustle, Vladdy}]). Kirk, who is the least emotionally expressive professional baseball player I have ever observed in my forty-or-so-years of such observation, permitted himself quite a smile and even a little helmet toss as he was swarmed by his bros as he rounded second. It was all pretty nice! There's an afternoon game today of the "getaway-day" variety with a nice pitching matchup (Bassitt and Luzardo), and I am fairly stoked for it. These 2025 Toronto Blue Jays are by no means world-beaters, at thirty-two and twenty-nine (tidily outperforming their minus-nine run differential!), but they remain totally in the mix, and have been a likeable bunch. I would take this literally every year, honestly. Let's all enjoy a pleasant summer very much like this, please.   

KS

Haunted Once More by the Rays

 

everybody just loves this guy, on account of how he is "neat"

I tuned into Tuesday night's game just in time to see Vladdy and Springer work two-out walks ahead of Varsho's second homer of the night—this one off the facing of the upper deck in right—to put the Blue Jays ahead 7-6 in the eighth. John Schneider got Hoffman up quick in the pen, as one would do, and I remained quite stoked right up until the moment Hoffman set the ball on a tee for a Junior Caminero grand slam that stood up for the win despite a pair of Blue Jays runs in the bottom half. "This game has had way too many events," I texted to a couple of pals in the immediate aftermath; "Fewer events next time please, guys." Having got my letter, the Blue Jays then played a tight game marked mostly by how rad Alejandro Kirk remains, throwing out one of the fastest players in the game early, and hitting a three-run home run to win it late. Then they got clobbered on getaway day. And so the Blue Jays are again below .500 as the excellent-so-far Tigers come to town (they're twenty-nine and fifteen!). I don't know, man. I don't know.  

KS

Counterpoint: Maybe West-Coast Road Trips are the Greatest?

go Bo

If our west-coast road trips are going to take us to Seattle, where thousands of Blue Jays fans show up every year and make things utterly delightful, and we're going to sweep our way back to the .500 mark, I am willing to settle down, at least in a preliminary sense, about west-coast road trips broadly. A little. 

KS