In this regular Sportsnet.ca feature, Blue Jays Talk host Scott MacArthur answers some frequently-asked Blue Jays questions.
It’s been a solid week of Blue Jays Talk. Plenty of calls, lots of good questions and discussion, and the host, me, is left with the distinct impression the fan base won’t be satisfied until you-know-who is called up.
Oh, you think I mean Vladdy? No, no, no… I mean Anthony Alford!
All kidding aside, there’s a lot of love for Alford out there and my hope, like yours, is he gets to swinging it consistently down in Buffalo and finds his way back to Toronto for another chance to make a lasting impression. Alford is an easy guy to root; let’s hope it works out for him.
With the swerve out of the way, let’s get to the questions of the week:
Q: When is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. coming up?
A: Should I just make this the lead question until the call up occurs? Probably, especially because I don’t think we’ll be waiting much longer. I have no information others lack. All things being equal and if I was a betting man (I’m not) I say Guerrero is up some time before the start of May, preferably by the next home stand against San Francisco and Oakland, which begins April 23.
Q: What should the plan be with Lourdes Gurriel Jr.?
A: I think manager Charlie Montoyo is saying the right things and I trust the organization’s actions will reflect those words. Let Gurriel be the designated hitter in games for triple-A Buffalo while he takes infield and works on his throwing in the quieter practice hours — when the stadium is empty, only his coaches and a handful of teammates will be witness — and just see how it plays out.
It’s not a stretch, at this point, to suggest what’s befallen Gurriel is comparable to the Chuck Knoblauch situation two decades ago and Steve Sax’s foibles more than 30 years ago. The "yips," as they’re called, can affect anyone. What remains to be seen is whether this will derail Gurriel’s career.
Pitcher Jon Lester of the Chicago Cubs, dating back to his time with the Red Sox earlier this decade, continues to be unable to throw the ball to first base. He doesn’t attempt to pick off runners, yet somehow he’s still able to control the opponent’s running game. If a ground ball is hit directly to him, he’ll field the ball and run most of the way toward first base before flipping the ball to Anthony Rizzo. Lester has found ways around his issue.
As for Gurriel, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. just around the corner and the likes of Bo Bichette, Kevin Smith, Cavan Biggio, Richard Urena and others vying for playing time around the infield into the future, perhaps it’s time to experiment with what’s been murmured about for a while: getting Gurriel reps in the outfield.
Gurriel can hit, we’ve seen it. It’d be nice if he’d walk more but at 25-years-old there’s too much upside, and too much money invested in the player, to call him a bust and give up on him this soon.
Q: What’s the line between playing aggressively and making too many similar mistakes, like with repeated attempts to take an extra base when it’s not advisable?
A: The line, in my view, is common sense. Mistakes which result from aggressive base running can be difficult to criticize because, really, it’s lack of effort which should bother us more than too much effort. However, this team has been running into too many outs. Additionally, there are situations when you take an ill-advised chance and it works out in your favour, which doesn’t make said chance the right decision.
Freddy Galvis is the last guy anyone should be criticizing given his start but the seventh inning of Friday night’s game against Tampa Bay is a prime example of what we’re discussing. Down 8-0, the Blue Jays stormed back to cut the deficit to two runs. With two outs, Galvis doubled, bringing a slugger, Justin Smoak, to the plate as the tying run. On the second pitch of Smoak’s at-bat, Galvis attempted third when Diego Castillo’s pitch skipped away from catcher Mike Zunino. The wild pitch bounced into Smoak, deadening the ball and allowing Zunino to quickly retrieve it and throw Galvis out at third. The problem: Galvis wasn’t the tying run and effectively gained nothing by advancing. The risk of being thrown out, ending the inning and bringing Smoak up the next inning without the ability to tie the game far outweighed whatever reward that extra 90 feet would provide.
Likewise, Randal Grichuk’s two out double in the third inning of Monday night’s game, then scoreless, in Minnesota. Grichuk tried to stretch his drive into the left-centre field gap into a triple and was thrown out by the Byron Buxton-to-Jorge Polanco-to-Willians Astudillo relay. Who was due up? Why, Justin Smoak! Grichuk would have scored on a Smoak base hit to the outfield.
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