There is a change in the site coming this evening. Today’s GameThread will have to be written early to avoid the ‘migration’. Tomorrow afternoon we should be back to business as usual. As always, whenever there is a change, there will be a lot of complaining about how ‘they’ve ruined it and how this is all terrible now’. And then, a few years from now, there will be another change, and people will say, 'They've ruined it; it’s all terrible now.'
But, the one thing I do understand is that things either
change or die. We’ll have a few grumpy days, and then it will seem normal until the next time.
The most significant changes will be on the writer's end. They’ve walked us through how things will be done, then, tomorrow, when I’m staring at the new story editor, I won’t understand how it works at all. But, with my nursing duties here becoming less full-time than before, I should get time to figure out how it all works. My wife is doing better each day, exercising and pushing herself to go out for walks with her crutches. It’s still a long road, but the pain seems to be a little less than it was (there is the odd day when it is overwhelming again). The whole thing has put me off the idea of knee replacement surgery.
Bruce Dreckman had a fairly reasonable day for him. But we ended up on the short end of the stick. Being fair, the misses were pretty close for the most part.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26077394/ump.jpg)
Arden Zwelling has a story on Shane Bieber's first start in the Jays organization.
As a Blue Jays scout reported back upon watching one of the right-hander’s final rehab outings in the Guardians system, he looked like Shane Bieber. Working ahead, mixing speeds, changing eye levels. He earned six swinging strikes and got hitters to chase nearly half the pitches he located outside the zone.
Only four of the 12 balls put in play against him were hard-hit, as Bieber’s velocity and pitch action held throughout.
It looks like he’ll have one more start with the Bisons and then we’ll see. At 62 pitches (short of the 75 they set as a target), a jump to 75-80 would put him where he could be expected to go 5-6 innings in the majors.
Those were a fun few days.
This year, he’s hitting .218/.363/.396 with 5 home runs in 46 games. If he can continue to get on base like that and hit the occasional home run, we’ll be ok with it.
Two Years Ago Today:
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 4, 2025
Davis Schneider becomes the fourth player in team HISTORY to homer in his first @MLB plate appearance! pic.twitter.com/yhZ6uiuxNp
Shi Davidi talked to Jeff Hoffman about it being ten years since his trade to the Rockies.
“The resources they (the Rockies) had in place and to help guys get better and to help guys reach their full potential, I think was lacking,” Hoffman said of his experience with the Rockies. “I feel like if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backwards, and I definitely don’t feel like I was moving forward. It was a very plateau point in my development and obviously the atmosphere of pitching in Denver doesn’t help anything. I definitely don’t think I would be who or where I am now without all that happening, so I definitely don’t lose sight of that.
“I just think that definitely kind of halted some things that I didn’t really figure out until I got to Cincinnati.”
“At that time, I was throwing a four-seam fastball, a big, like, 12-6 curveball and a circle changeup,” Hoffman explained. “Big breaking balls just don’t work there. They just spin and hang out right where the barrel is going to be, so everything that I was as a pitcher didn’t really make sense for me to be one of the guys going in that trade. Like, my whole arsenal was going to have to change at some point. But you kind of get thrown into the fire and it either works or it doesn’t and obviously it didn’t work.”
It’s an interesting read. The Jays front office talks about development a fair bit, and we’ve seen guys come up and be better than we figured they might be.
Tonight we start a three-game series with the Rockies. Denver has a beautiful park and a great downtown area. I want to go back one day, if things ever become more normal. Of course, he’s also the only city where I’ve been close to an ‘active shooter’ situation.
Starting pitchers are:
Today: Eric Lauer (6-2, 2.68) vs Tanner Gordon (2-3, 4.85).
Tuesday: Jose Berrios (7-4, 3.84) vs Kyle Freeland (2-11, 5.26).
Wednesday: Kevin Gausman (7-8, 3.99) vs Someone.
More from bluebirdbanter.com:
- Smoak homers twice, Jays beat Red Sox
- Bluebird Banter Top 40 Update - July 13
- Blue Jays Roster Moves: Estrada DL, Dwight Smith up
- Blue Jays mid-term report card: Grade Teoscar Hernandez’ first half
- One bad inning costs the Blue Jays
- Around The Nest - Blue Jays Minor League Podcast - Week 14
- Blue Jays mid-term report card: Grade Yangervis Solarte’s first half
