Thursday Bantering: Jays Notes - Yahoo Sports

We have made it back from Japan. It was a wonderful holiday. Thanks to Tom M for doing a great job of running things while I was gone.

The last few days we saw a fair bit of sports. We went to a:

Sumo wrestlers’ house. It wasn’t the season for sumo, but the wrestlers train together and we got to see them train. Their workouts were very tough. Strength plus flexibility and balance. It did amaze me that these rather large men were way more flexible than I am. I had a tough time sitting on the floor for the two hours they trained. And they did some exhibition type matches for us. Leg strength was a large part of the training, lifting one leg high and doing squats on the other leg. It was more interesting than I thought it would be, but they need more clothing and/or lots of waxing.
A baseball game. Swallows vs. Tigers. It wasn’t a great game. The Tigers scored 7 runs in the first three innings. But fans for both teams cheered and chanted and sang all the way until the last out. No one left early. The best part, for us, was that we were sitting beside two guys from Switzerland who had never watched baseball before. Spent time chatting and we went for supper with them after.
A soccer game. Also fun and also fans for both teams cheering, singing and chanting all game. Good play, not premiership level or anything but a lot of fun.
And lucked into watching basketball, which again, with the fans being so into it, was a lot of fun.

Wearing Blue Jays caps got me into a lot of conversations. Everywhere we went people wanted to talk about the Jays.

Beyond that, food was great, there was beer, and Japanese whisky is very good. And we went to a saki tasting. Went to many Shinto Shrines and Buddhist Shrines. Played drums, watched people who knew how to play drums. Got a sword lesson and watched people who knew how to use swords. And many many other things.

I was feeling a bit cut off from the Jays as most games were happening while we were sleeping. They aren’t having the start to the season we were hoping to see. And many guys are injured:

Trey Yesavage: Pitched yesterday. I see mention that he hit 96 mph on the fastball. Had some troubles with walks. Might make one more appearance in the minors.
Addison Barger is working his way back from an ankle sprain. He’s working his way up to running at full speed.
José Berríos made a rehab start yesterday, throwing 55 pitches. 4 innings, 3 hits, no walks. He’ll need a couple more rehab starts.
Yimi Garcia is still 4 weeks from returning from elbow surgery. He has been throwing.
Shane Bieber is starting to threw bullpen sessions. But he won’t be back until late May at best..
Ricky Tiedemann is out with elbow soreness.
Alejandro Kirk had a screw put into his broken thumb. He’ll miss all of May.

And the active roster has guys who I haven’t heard of:

Lenyn Sosa has a higher batting average than on base percentage.
Joe Mantiply hasn’t been all that bad, 4.50 ERA in 8 innings, with 12 strikeouts.

I have heard of Eloy Jiménez and he’s had a good time of it, .409/.462/.462 line in 22 at bats.

And some guys aren’t hitting:

Kazuma Okamoto has a .207/.289/.333 line, but has been a bit better the last few games, .278/.381/500 in the last five games. Hopefully it will continue.
Nathan Lukes has a .235/.273/.294 line, but is .500/.524/.650 in his last six games.
Davis Schneider has a .176/.333/.324 line. At least he’s getting on base a bit. He’s hitless in his last 10 at bats.

And, of course, Hoffman has been awful. I don’t know how he can be that bad with 24 strikeouts in 10.2 innings. 24 strikeouts out of 32 outs, seems like a good thing. But, of course, 16 hits against, with 2 home runs. I don’t know what the answer is, but he doesn’t look confident (and I can understand why). Pitching scared isn’t a good way to do things.

But then Louis Varland hasn’t allowed an earned run yet.

I’ve seen more about Bo Bichette’s troubles than anything else. He has been a slow starter the last few seasons, but it is tough when you are on a new team, after signing a big contract. And worse when your team is losing. Lucky for him, New York baseball fans are well know for their patience.

No game today, which is good because I’m dealing with jet lag. I was so tired yesterday and then, about 2:00 am I was wide awake. But it should only last a couple of days and I’ll be back feeling normal.

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