Anything else in these final nine games that's really catching your attention?

I think the state of the bullpen in terms of the bullpen days that the Blue Jays are throwing, it's clearly unsustainable.

We've talked about this with John Schneider over the last week about how... bullpen games impact the game before and the game after and we saw that kind of play out with tyler rogers um earlier in the home stand about him being saved for game one or one game because the next game you know the the thought was they were going to use him in a bullpen game so all of that is to say like the state of the bullpen And how they're being used, how they hold up is going to be interesting to watch.

And then how Trey Savage kind of factors into that.

Like, Trey's not going to come in and provide six innings of whether it's starting or relief.

He's not going to do that.

He's probably going to be able to give two, maybe max three.

When you're thinking about this year, and we've touched on some of this already, but what are some of the storylines, big or small, that stand out to you?

Carter Jensen

...

Jensen off the very first pitch of the game, and Max was working from the stretch, uh, in that first inning right off the bat.

And he said he fell out of rhythm, he ended up walking three batters, he w- allowed one run, he was saved by a Salvador Perez, um, double play.

But Max said that all week long he was thinking about that and not repeating that mistake yesterday.

So he said, "I'm gonna go after Randy Arozarena right off the bat, and I wanna get a good start from there." I mean, he ended up doing that, uh, y- you know, striking Arozarena out on five pitches, striking out the side, and he said that was a lesson for him, what, to not repeat what happened in Kansas, against Kansas City yesterday against the Mariners.

And I think for me, I mean, I know this doesn't really answer your question, but it just, it's top of mind for me, uh, 'cause yesterday was all about Max.

Um, what have your early impressions of Bateman been? And, you know, to kind of what you get at in the story, the boost a guy like that has been able to, to give this team kind of a shot in the arm since the deadline.

[laughs]

I think it was Haz- Hazel asked him, um, he was, he's behind only Shohei Ohtani in voting, which in itself is just wild.

But, uh, Ernie s- I think he said something along the lines of, you know, "It, it sucks losing to the Dodgers once again," and that, you know, it got some laughter from everybody in the scrum.

But, you know, like you said, Ernie's, uh, journey has been well-documented.

Uh, Arden Zwelling wrote a great article about it last night, and I think what I would add is that Ernie is, he's an organizational success.

I think that's an interesting way to look at it.

I mean, they, as you mentioned, they added him kind of from the scrap heap almost, right? And Ernie talked about this yesterday, but the organization allowed him to be himself.

Yes

Um, but to me it's, it's starting to look like this is, like, really wearing on him regardless of what Josh Schneider says.

Yeah.

I, I-- And the story you alluded to with Jose, uh, I spoke to Jose about basically what happens to a player after they go through an epic post-season run.

So Bautista did that in 2015 with the bat flip, was the emotional and statistical leader of the Jays through that playoff run in 2015.

And how does he kinda go forward the next year? Do his expectations change? Uh, does his expectation of winning or himself change? And Vlad's in the same spot now that Bautista was in in 2016, in that Vlad's come off this epic post-season run where he put the Jays on his back.

So how does his expectations change? And I spoke to both of them about it, and it was, like, largely, uh, what's the word?Uh, anticlimactic in their answers.

Uh, they basically both said there's no expectations to change.

[laughs]

Yeah.

Uh, and that was, um, you know, a, a v- a symbol of that.

So I, I chatted with him.

I chatted with David Popkins about it, and what Popkins told me was that Ernie has this elite level of confidence that has grown since what he did in the playoffs, since what he did in the World Series.

And, you know, his swing is so simple that he can go up there at the plate without overanalyzing.

He can just kinda react to, uh, the pitches that come to him, and his confidence kinda helps with that.

This elite level of confidence helps with that.

Hmm

I love watching games on TV as a fan, of course.

Yeah, yeah.

Same.

I mean, but we'll, we'll, we'll mark that down for down the road.

But in terms of Manoah and Trey, yeah, the similarities, I mean, you kind of go down, not to go down the deep rabbit hole that you talked about, but I mean, my goodness, first round picks out of college, rocketing up the systems quickly.

Manoah, I think he was impacted by the COVID season, which kind of throws a wrinkle into his development, whereas Trey didn't have to deal with that.

But in terms of like lessons learned, I mean, John Schneider talked about this the other day, right? I mean, there's the game, the game has changed so much since in the three years that have passed since Manoah debuted or the three or four years that passed since he debuted, right? Like there's been advancements, advancements throughout the game in everything since then.

That's what pitching coaches do all the time for all their pitchers.