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Blue Jays Podcast (VIDEO): Tulo, MVP & Playoffs!

By Shaun Doyle |

After missing a week of the Jays Nest Podcast, we’re back with a beauty of a show! The Toronto Blue Jays have provided us with a lot to discuss over the last little while. We welcomed our newest writer, Jeff Goldenberg, to the podcast. We started the show off with the hot topic of Troy Tulowitzki‘s spot in the lineup. We also covered the American League MVP race, even though some would say it is too early. We also looked at the odds of seeing playoff baseball in Toronto. We debated how the return of Marcus Stroman should look. Our “Charge the Mound” segment featured some advice for potential playoff games at Rogers Centre as well as some commentary on John Gibbons. We wrapped up with our usual weekly awards. It is a great episode.

Remember, to catch all of our episodes, you can find us on Stitcher (for Android) and iTunes. If you’d rather watch our show, check us out on YouTube. The video will be a tad different as we’ve switched up our platform a little bit. If you like what you hear, please be so kind as to give us a good rating or some stars. Thanks! As always, you can tune in live on Google Hangouts to interact with our panel with questions, etc during our LIVE broadcast. We would also love to respond to your questions/ comments on air. You can submit them to @JaysNestPodcast or to JaysNestPodcast@gmail.com.

The conversation about where Tulo should hit has become more of an issue for Blue Jays fans than I had anticipated when I explored it a few days ago. His struggles out of the leadoff spot have been documented and debated. He’s not gotten off to a great start in the Blue Jays lineup. We know that. The question has been whether he should be moved further down the lineup since he is not a lead off guy by nature. In fact, on any other team, he would not be. But, in an effort to get him at bats, John Gibbons has put him where he is.

Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto Blue Jays /

Toronto Blue Jays

While it can be tempting to try and over manage to get the most out of every spot, we’re talking about Troy Tulowitzki. He’s one of the premier players in all of baseball. He’s perfectly capable of working through a slump. And, while this slump spans his time in Toronto, we need to remember that it is just a slump; one that is not negatively impacting the team.

From there, we moved on to talking about the red hot, Josh Donaldson, who is hitting over .500 over his last 7 games and making a run at Mike Trout for the American League MVP award. Some would suggest that with a month left in the season, it is too early to be debating this. But, given the nature of playing in Canada, perhaps Donaldson needs this to be discussed a lot. Maybe we need to be talking about it more. He is going to need more attention than perhaps Trout would. Trout is struggling right now. Donaldson is making this a close race. But, without a lot of discussion, he may just end up to be an “also ran”. Ultimately, the respective teams making the playoffs will certainly help with voters. Playoffs certainly brings attention.

Other topics you’ll hear in this week’s episode of Jays’ Nest Podcast:

  • We looked at the Blue Jays’ playoff odds and how exciting it is to be talking playoff baseball. We talked about how much we would pay for a one game Wild Card game. The chance at one playoff game, where anything can happen doesn’t seem like such a big thing now that we are so close to possibly seeing the Blue Jays winning the division.

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  • Marcus Stroman returning as a starter. Even if he isn’t stretched out to throw a complete game, we want to see as much of Stroman as we can. At this time of year, there will be more bullpen reinforcements to supplement a start from Stroman. His impact is too valuable to limit him to the bullpen, particularly in a playoff race.
  • I “Charge the Mound” about etiquette at the ballpark. With playoffs likely, some fans are going to have to clean up their act. Save the drunken debauchery for other locations. I recounted a story from my visit to the ballpark for their last home game. Don’t be “those people”. If you’re going to playoff baseball in Toronto, which hasn’t had a taste of this atmosphere in 22 years, and you’re going to party and misbehave, you don’t deserve the ticket. Give it to someone who would appreciate it.
  • Jeff “Charged the Mound” about the attitude people seem to have about manager, John Gibbons. Our panel loves the guy and feels he has earned a bit of a leash. Some will argue that his job is easy with this lineup. There is more to managing than just filling out the lineup card. He’s grown a lot from the guy who was getting into fights with his players.
  • We took a couple reader questions about how to construct a pitching staff and who we can expect to see in September as rosters expand. Realistically speaking, this might be one of the more uneventful call up periods. The players who come up will be depth as opposed to the exciting young prospect.

From there, we handed out our weekly awards. There weren’t any real surprises here. But, we’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on our award choices or any other topics covered this week.

AUDIO:


Jays’ Nest- Jays Journal- Podcast about Toronto Blue Jays – Jays’ Nest #33- Tulo, MVP and Playoffs!

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