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Blue Jays Mailbag: We're Actually Talking Playoff Baseball

After a disastrous start, the Toronto Blue Jays are somehow in the mix for a wild-card spot.
Photo by Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

Andrew Stoeten answers your questions in our Blue Jays Mailbag, which runs weekly at VICE Sports. You can send him questions at stoeten@gmail.com, and follow him on Twitter.

We're into the dog days of August, and the Blue Jays are… relevant again???

MLB's addition of a second wild-card spot is doing exactly what it was meant to, keeping teams that would be also-rans in most normal years still in the thick of the hunt. And you know what? I'll take it! PLAYOFFS!!!!

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And it sounds like most Jays fans—though not all—will take it, too. At least judging by the questions I received for this week's edition of the mailbag. So let's dive in, shall we?

If you have a Blue Jays question you'd like me to tackle for next week, be sure to send it to stoeten@gmail.com. As always, I have not read any of Griff's answers.



How much more do the Jays need to do in order to justifiably pull back Estrada and maybe buy?

Adrian

This is obviously referring to the fact that it was reported over the weekend that Marco Estrada had been placed on MLB's weird, revocable, August trade waivers. First of all, I think we need to review how the waiver process works. A player is only on these waivers and claimable for 47 business-day hours—meaning that, if the Jays put Estrada on waivers over the weekend, he'll have passed through by the end of Tuesday night. The Jays won't need to pull him back unless a team actually claims him. If a claim is made, which it apparently was according to Jon Morosi, the Jays would have 48.5 business-day hours to decide whether to let that club take him for nothing, to work out a trade, or to pull him off waivers (in other words, to revoke the waiver) and keep him. They will apparently keep him.

What the club does or doesn't do on the field doesn't really have a whole lot to do with pulling him back or not, which is a specific part of the revocable waiver process.

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To the broader point, though, uh… I don't think they're going to have to do much else to justify keeping Estrada, in the event the report of the claim is true. I'm not sure about actually buying just yet, but there's still quite a lot of August left to go for that equation to change. And hell, if you squint hard enough, their acquisition of Brett Anderson on a minor league deal might be considered "buying." He's been awful this season, but he broke camp as a member of the Cubs' rotation, so it's not like he's nothing.

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Are we making the playoffs?
ALL CAPS

After all the consternation and the whining and pissing and moaning all season long, that would be pretty amazingly funny, wouldn't it? I sure hope it happens. Bless the dumb second wild-card spot!

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How much fun is it having relevant baseball in August three years in a row?!
Christopher

It's more fun than not having relevant baseball in August, that's for sure. And it's way more fun than whatever the hell we've just slogged through. But talk to me in September. That's when the fun will really starts.

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The Blue Jays are not making the postseason…They will have to jump over 5 other teams for the 2nd WC spot
Sam

Five teams. Twenty-five players on each roster. Average of about 6'0" tall. Hmmm… yeah, that's about 750 feet, if you stack them on top of each other vertically. A pretty big leap!

No, but seriously… get the fuck out of here with this horseshit!

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The Blue Jays, like the rest of the AL, are somehow still in the playoff mix. Photo by Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports

I'm not saying that the Blue Jays will make the playoffs, but have you looked at those teams ahead of them? I'll assume you haven't, otherwise you'd know there are actually seven teams ahead of them, not five, including the holders of the second wild-card spot.

And they are all trash.

You really think the Jays can't win four more games than each one of the crappy Angels, Twins, Royals, Orioles, Mariners, Rays, and Rangers over the course of their last 44? It's maybe not likely, but it's very doable.

It's especially doable considering the Jays' schedule, which includes a whole bunch of the teams ahead of them: they're in the middle of a series with the Rays, who they visit next week. They then host the Twins, and they begin a series against the Orioles at the end of this month. They play the Orioles again in September, as well as the Twins, and the Royals. Right now they're just 5.5 games back of the Yankees, who hold the first wild-card spot, and they have six games left with them, too.

They also have nine left with Boston, and three with the Cubs (as well as three with Detroit), so it's not going to be easy. But they still control their own destiny in a truly significant way.

And with Josh Donaldson suddenly looking like an MVP again, and Estrada pitching better, and Aaron Sanchez on his way back, it's hardly an impossible dream.

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Giancarlo Stanton apparently just cleared waivers. What do you think the Jays would have to give up to get him? Is it worth dreaming on?
Kyle

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The Jays would have to give up something close to the $300 million he's owed over the next 10 years, which is why I really don't see it happening. I don't think the Jays have any bad contracts that would appeal to the Marlins as a way to offset some of the cash, and while they do have young talent that they could give up to maybe convince Miami to pick up a bunch of the tab, I really don't see them going that route. Not with their system such as it is. There are other organizations out there that have the financial wherewithal and the prospect capital (if necessary) to at least have a little bit better of a chance to make that move than the Jays do. It's not all that different than if he was a free agent, really, and I wouldn't expect the Jays to be in the running there, either.

He's a great talent and a hell of a lot of fun to watch crush baseballs, but I just don't see it happening. Would love to be proven wrong.

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Maybe I'm looking for a conspiracy. But could there be more to the Sanchez story than a bubble of water under the skin?

Thanks,
Derek

Seriously? It really shouldn't be very hard to understand why blisters can be so debilitating to a pitcher. Gripping the ball is kind of important. And there have been plenty of pitchers over the years who have suffered from them—Al Leiter jumps to mind, as does Josh Beckett.



"Have you ever had a blister on your foot, and you don't have a Band-Aid, and you're walking, and suddenly inadvertently you're limping because of it?" asked Leiter when speaking to VICE Sports' own Eric Nusbaum for an excellent feature on the affliction last summer. "You just can't help it. It's impossible to throw a ball if you have a blister. It hurts, it's sore, it's coming off your finger, it starts to bleed."

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"Pitching is an act of extreme and violent athleticism. But it is also one of extraordinary finesse, especially at the point where the baseball departs from the hand," Nusbaum explained. "In order to pitch effectively, you need to be able to release the ball off your fingertips in a specific place, and with a specific amount of pressure, over and over again. When you have a blister, you can't."

So, please. It's hardly just "a bubble of water under the skin."

And if what you're suggesting is that he's actually out for some reason other than what the club is telling us, that's even more ludicrous.

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Hi Stoeten

How many OFs do you think the jays will carry in September?

Off the top of my head I can think of 11 that could get ABs (Bautista, Pillar, Carrera, Pearce, Aoki, Alford, Smith Jr., Fields, Saunders, Hernandez & Pompey)

Thanks
Joshua

Well, Fields and Saunders aren't on the 40-man, and Pompey still isn't playing, so I'd imagine those guys won't be here. And I wouldn't necessarily bank on Alford, either, as his call-up was a bit of a surprise and mostly because everybody ahead of him was hurt. I'd guess that he'll be here, though, along with Smith and Hernandez and the other guys already on the roster.