Darin' Daulton

 

I feel bad for George Springer. I mean not entirely, he is still a member of the 2017 Astros, but a little. He's an average fielder who's in his early 30s, and he has to share the outfield with two of the best defensive outfielders in the game. Kevin Kiermaier's accomplishments need no explanation, but Daulton Varsho may be just as much of a threat in left, and has made them even stronger of a defensive squad. If you had to share an outfield with Kiermaier and Varsho, you'd feel inadequate too.

Daulton Varsho in Toronto is something I figured would work the second I heard the news of the trade. On one hand, trading Lourdes Gurriel may have been a bit unwise in hindsight, as DHing Springer and having a Gurriel-Varsho-Kiermaier OF would have been awesome, even if the D-Backs weren't giving up a core piece for nothing. But Varsho was just coming into his own, and needed somewhere he could really fit in, and it feels like Toronto is one of those places. I saw him have some awesome hits in Spring Training, he looked impressive even then, and so his excellent defensive start doesn't surprise me whatsoever. He also have 10 steals, 26 RBIs and 11 homers, which is also extremely good. 

Even for a team that is somehow only fourth in the AL East, the Blue Jays have one of the most fearsome lineups in all of baseball, and have managed to get Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi all cooking at the same time. All of those starters have five wins or more, 70 strikeouts or more, and have made all 14 starts. Even in a rotation that is once again missing Hyun-Jin Ryu, that is a scary level of consistency, and while a fifth man has yet to really appear just yet in the absence of Alek Manoah, it's implied that Mitch White's return to the rotation is forthcoming, and hopefully he'll continue that level of consistency. 

The problem I have right now with this team is honestly a strange one. The starters are all doing pretty well, there's just not a lot of depth. Not a ton of proven emergency contingency strategies if more of these guys get beaten up. The younger bench guys, Nathan Lukes foremost, aren't inspiring a ton of confidence. It's cool to see Ernie Clement beginning to figure it out though. Along with Owen Miller and Nolan Jones, it's nice to see so many former Cleveland utility men begin to figure things out. But yeah, I really hope this lineup stays healthy, because I'm not sure what the plan b is gonna be. If what's happened to the Yankees happens to them, I don't know if they'll be as lucky.

There's also just...as good as this team is, there's still three in the AL East that are better than them. Which, while odd, does still track.

I think the Blue Jays are still capable of great things this year, and the standings are gonna keep swishing around and bending all over the place. With the lineup the Jays are currently working with, I think they'll be alright in the long run, they just need to be careful.

Coming Tomorrow- A rookie catcher given a golden opportunity to stake his claim that he's 100% capitalized on.