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Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jordan Romano throws the ball during a game. The Canadian press
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When the Blue Jays won their first World Series, they did so with an everyday lineup that really isn’t any better than what lineup manager John Schneider puts out most days.
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The difference between the 1992 Blue Jays and today’s edition: Pitching.
The real difference: the bullpen.
In the World Series against the Braves, the Jays’ deep bullpen, which included starting pitchers Jimmy Key, Todd Stottlemyre and David Wells, dominated Atlanta, throwing 19.1 innings over the six games. They allowed just one earned run in that time.
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In all, the Jays bullpen pitched 37 playoff innings between the World Series and AL Championship Series against Oakland and had a combined earned run average of 1.45. More importantly, just one relief appearance in those 12 postseason games could be considered a failure of any kind.
Tom Henke shut down the Jays back then and Duane Ward was the setup man in ’92 and they’ve never had anything like it since. Back then, the Jays had Mike Timlin, Mark Eichhorn and starters-turned-relievers in Key, Stottlemyre and Wells for a deep seven-man bullpen.
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I can argue now that the Blue Jays’ current roster is stronger at six of the nine starting positions than the league’s and even argue that the rotation of Kevin Gausman, Alek Manoah and Jose Berrios isn’t that far behind Jack Morris. David Cone and Juan Guzman.
This is not a championship bullpen. But this has the look of a championship lineup. And at this point in history, when starters aren’t going nine innings like Morris accidentally went nine innings, and bullpen depth is needed now more than ever, the Jays don’t have it.
They have two days to acquire it.
THIS AND THAT
The Detroit Tigers have the most hitting team in Major League Baseball. They also have one of the best bullpens. The Blue Jays have one of the best hitting staffs in baseball. It wouldn’t make sense for some kind of trade between the Jays and the Tigers.. Aaron Judge has 42 home runs in 102 games for the Yankees through Saturday afternoon. The magical number 60, certainly without performance-enhancing drugs, seems more than possible in this MVP season… Is Shohei Ohtani on the block? No. That’s what happens this time of year. Everyone in baseball is calling everyone and asking about the availability of virtually every player. Just because someone is asking about Ohtani doesn’t mean the Los Angeles Angels are looking to trade the once-in-a-lifetime player.. Matt Chapman is the latest Blue Jay to step up to the plate. We’ve seen it this season with Lourdes Gurriel Jr., with Teoscar Hernandez and we’ve seen the incredible consistency of Alejandro Kirk. What, I wonder, if Vladdy Guerrero Jr. or Bo Bichette get really hot. We really don’t have that this season.. The Jays couldn’t have timed the firing of Charlie Montoyo and the hiring of Schneider any better. Schneider’s first game was against a depleted Phillies team. His first series was against the Kansas City Royals. He returned after the All-Star Game against a slumping Red Sox team, part of the St. Louis Cardinals, and now the rather unsuccessful Detroit Tigers. The 9-3 start is nice. August gets a little tougher with series in Tampa, Minnesota and Baltimore… The Orioles were 25-35 after 60 games. In their last 40 games, they are 26-14 and will open August playing in Cincinnati, Texas and Pittsburgh before taking on the Blue Jays on August 8.
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LISTEN AND There
Some of the best work Ross Atkins has done as a general manager has come from what he was coming from, not necessarily buying into the Blue Jays. He got Hernandez, Robbie Ray and Santiago Espinal in deadline deals that cost him little in return. He’s not known throughout baseball as a great dealer, but add in the Chapman trade and the Berrios buyout deal, and that’s an impressive to-do list for any short-term GM. Atkins said the pitching price is too high as the trade deadline approaches. Other GMs disagree. They say it’s business as usual at deadline time. The Yankees got Andrew Benintendi without giving up a prospect of consequence … Albert Pujols Tuesday and Wednesday. Miggy Cabrera on the weekend in Toronto. What a week to love baseball and its history… The only baseball players with more home runs than Pujols: Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Alex Rodriguez, and two of them have asterisks next to their totals. .. Pujols had 686 home runs. on Saturday night. Cabrera is next among active players with 506. After that is Nelson Cruz with 457. Believe this: No one will approach Albert for a long time, if ever… If the drafts are anything like will see the Rogers Center. As after the renovations, count on me. They look spectacular…Nice to see Rogers paying $300 million to renew around the same time they’re going to pay Guerrero Jr. more than that to play first base…Chapman had a .571 OPS in May, .851 in June, and an unsustainable but impressive 1.068 in July. His putts are way down from the 202 he had a year ago. He’ll probably finish with 160 strikeouts, or somewhere in that range.. One thought many had when Manoah was drilled by a line drive to the elbow Friday night: There goes the season. That’s how valuable he’s become to the Jays. They need it, fresh, healthy, to be great all season long.
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SCENE AND LISTEN
The Maple Leafs are paying $48 million this season, more than any team in hockey, for the top five players on their roster and so far have very little to show for it. In other words, they are paying 58% of the salary cap for 23% of their training. Is it new math or old analysis? … The two-time champion and two-time runner-up Tampa Bay Lightning are the closest to the Leafs paying $44 million for a Top 5 that includes Conn Smythe Trophy winners Andrei Vasilevskiy and Victor Hedman. And there are few teams that do better than the St. Doug Armstrong’s Louis Blues, who have won a Stanley Cup and are only paying $34.5 million for their top five players… In the Brendan Shanahan era, Tampa Bay has played in 155 playoff games. The Leafs have played 39. If you add it up, that’s an extra $100 million or so in playoff revenue for the club that the Lightning have taken and the Leafs haven’t… The Florida Panthers confuse me. Yes, they traded for Matthew Tkachuk. It’s hard not to like this. But they’ve lost Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Mason Marchment, Claude Giroux, Ben Chiarot and most likely smiling Joe Thornton from their playoff roster. I don’t know how that makes them better… Here’s a solution for any team chasing Nazem Kadri that doesn’t end up with the free agent center. Call Chicago and make a deal for Jonathan Toews. He doesn’t want to be part of a rebuild. And if you get the Hawks to pick up half his salary, which is doable, you’re only paying $5 million for a decent second-line center. I would do that kind of deal. Second half of last season, Toews was back in the fold. He scored 24 points after barely appearing on the scoreboard in the first half. I could see Colorado or Calgary making a move for Toews if neither gets Kadri. He knows how to win.. For some reason, the Seattle Kraken have not announced that the rather soft-spoken Ed Olczyk will be part of their broadcast team for next season. Expect the announcement any day now.
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AND ANOTHER THING
As each week passes, the challenges become more intense for Canadian quarterback Nathan Rourke. But it doesn’t just hold. He leads the CFL in passing yards, touchdown passes thrown and a ridiculously high 79.3% pass completion rate. This remarkable story is becoming more fact than fiction after six games and five wins for the BC Lions.. The Raptors didn’t trade for Kevin Durant this summer, but they did sign actor Juancho Hernangómez, the prospect of dominating basketball from the movie Hustle. . There are no plans, I’m told, to add Adam Sandler to his team of scouts or coaches… Happy belated 55th to Nick Nurse, whose golf tournament is at Wooden Sticks on Wednesday. Among those expected to participate: Julius Erving and Kyle Lowry…I don’t watch much golf, other than majors. I can’t imagine what I could be interested in watching a LIV event… If you follow the history of Vince McMahon and everything that has happened for the publicly traded company that is WWE, this is the great TV show, Succession , just in real life terms. With McMahon playing Logan Roy’s Brian Cox character…Succession is on my short list of favorite TV shows of all time. Somewhere stuck in a list with The Wire, The Sopranos, Boston Legal, M*A*S*H, Ray Donovan, All In the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Seinfeld, Jeopardy!, SCTV and Hill Street Blues… And sorry, I couldn’t I can’t find a place for Gilligan’s Island… Is it me or do NFL training camps seem to take forever? … Remember when the Commonwealth Games really mattered? They used to be a great TV event to watch… I didn’t understand the attraction…