Andrew Stoeten (The Batflip, formerly the Athletic, National Post, Blue Jays Nation, Drunk Jays Fans) and Nick Ashbourne (Sportsnet and Yahoo Sports) team up every week to discuss all things Toronto Blue Jays! AD-FREE AND WEEKLY BONUS EPISODES AVAILABLE AT patreon.com/BJHH
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. started at third base for the first time since 2019 over the weekend, and in this week's episode, Nick and Stoeten talk themselves into the idea—while also reviewing the recent soft portion of the schedule, Ross Atkins' comments on MLB Network Radio, fresh pitching woes, the real City Connect uniforms, and a whole lot more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Blue Jays' Home Run Jacket has returned, and with it has come some additional offence. It is already too little too late? In this week's clothing-heavy episode, Nick and Stoeten talk about it, as well as the sorry state of the Blue Jays, positive stories to watch going forward, the upcoming City Connect uniform reveal, and the (possibly fake?) "leaked" jersey making waves this week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins chose to meet with the media on the Saturday morning of Canada's first long weekend of the summer to talk about his team's full calendar year of wheel-spinning. In this episode, Nick and Stoeten try to make sense of his performance, and talk about the state of the offence, hope for Alek Manoah, Joey Votto's status, and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Despite some uplifting recent performances, including a surprising one from Alek Manoah, the Blue Jays' bats still feel awfully sluggish—and Statcast's just-released bat speed data concurs. In this episode, Nick and Stoeten will try to make sense of that, while also talking about Manoah's big rebound, Vlad the singles hitter, Springer panic, Turner regression, and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Blue Jays didn't have a great time in their weekend series in D.C., and now face a tough schedule ahead just as questions about the direction of the franchise are truly growing louder. A midweek tilt with a red hot Phillies team awaits, and it feels like things could get interesting over the next few weeks—and not in a good way. The vibes are bad! And in this episode, Nick and Stoeten once again check in on them, particularly when it comes to manager John Schneider's job security, while also...
Things looked bleak for the Blue jays amid a five-game losing streak that featured three low-scoring losses in Kansas City and a blowout home loss to the Dodgers on Friday, but a fresh Danny Jansen hot streak and the ongoing magic of Justin Turner has powered the club back to relevance—or, at the very least, to .500. In this week's episode Nick and Stoeten once again check on the vibes around the team, while also talking about the club's strong catching duo, early impressions of Addison Barger, ...
The Jays can't seem to score more than five runs in a game or finish off a sweep, but things are going well, and the way has been led lately by Daulton Varsho—last year's much maligned major acquisition. Granted, not everything is perfect for the club, but that just gives Nick and Stoeten plenty else to talk about in this week's episode, including: a bullpen confidence check, concerns for the top of the lineup, and the status of on-fire prospects Orelvis Martinez and Addison Barger. Hosted on Ac...
After two ugly ones early on, Chris Bassitt has his ERA down to 4.03 after a second straight gem in a strong series opener against the Yankees on Monday. Berríos and Kikuchi are rolling. Yariel Rodríguez had a very good debut. The bullpen looks great and is only getting stronger. Granted, Alek Manoah remains a problem, but Kevin Gausman... should probably be fine. And in this episode, Nick and Stoeten talk about all that, plus Bassitt's comments about pitching injuries, the red hot Justin Turner...
The Blue Jays and their fans were able to (mostly) put some bad vibes and bad performances behind them—at least for one night—as the club unveiled the fully revamped Rogers Centre in style on Monday with a comfortable win over the Mariners behind José Berríos and the kind of offensive performance they've failed to muster too often already here in 2024. In this episode Nick and Stoeten check in on the post-opener vibes, contemplate some new food options, then look deeper at a tough start for the ...
It's been a boom-or-bust start of the season for the Blue Jays and their much maligned lineup, and it was definitely a bust when they opened their midweek series with the Astros by getting no-hit by Ronel Blanco. In this episode Nick and Stoeten check in on the post-no-no vibes, and try not to draw any hard conclusions from the starts we've seen by Vlad, Springer, Kirk, Varsho, Francis, White, Clement, and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
In the triumphant return of Blue Jays Happy Hour after a dormant offseason—for both the boys and the Blue Jays alike—Nick and Stoeten return to look back on an underwhelming winter, to discuss several spring training standouts, to talk about what's expected of the Jays in a pivotal 2024 season and beyond, and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Of all the seasons of Toronto Blue Jays baseball I’ve watched, that was certainly one of them. Fittingly, the team made a two run deficit feel insurmountable right to the very end—though not before embarrassing themselves with a too-clever-by-half pitching decision that will live long in the memory. Fire Schneider? Fire Atkins? Fire Walker and Hudgens and Mattingly? Trade Bo? Run Vlad out of town? Blow the whole thing up? I mean, probably not. But people are sure going to have some thoughts abou...
The Blue Jays played a decent, hard-fought game in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening, making some nice defensive plays, hitting some balls hard that found gloves, and getting the kind of outstanding relief work we’ve become accustomed to around here this season. Unfortunately, a couple of poorly located pitches from a struggling Kevin Gausman, some missed opportunities at the plate, a couple balls that just couldn’t quite leave the yard, and a glaring baserunning gaffe conspired to make it so that ...
The Blue Jays did it. They’re back in the playoffs. And they’re playing a team—the Minnesota Twins—that, based on their indifference toward Sunday’s result, they’re perfectly happy to be up against. One of these teams will end a years-long streak of playoff futility, the other will be in for a longer and colder winter than any of their fans are ready to contemplate right now. They’re in and, for the moment, everything is possible. How did the Jays get here? Just what was that game on Sunday? Wha...
A good weekend at the Trop? In this economy??? When Nick and I recorded Episode 116 back on Thursday, we figured that we'd better add a second episode to our schedule this week, expecting that the Jays by here on Monday night would be about to embark a fight for their playoff lives. Instead, they've come through a second straight weekend in which just about every result they needed went their way. The Mariners lost three times to the Rangers, the Astros lost three to the Royals, and the Jays the...
The Blue Jays came up short against AL Cy Young frontrunner Gerrit Cole on Thursday night, and now face an incredibly tough test against the Rays this weekend at the dreaded Trop. But they’re still in the driver’s seat in the race for the final AL wild card spots. They are also, somehow, tied with the Astros for the third-best record in the American League. It’s only going to get weirder from here, folks. And to get you setup for the weirdness, we kicked this week’s episode off with a semi-tradi...
The Blue Jays are bad, the Alek Manoah situation is weird, Nick and I talked about both things on our latest episode of Blue Jays Happy Hour, and you should give it a listen! You can find us in all the usual places, such as Apple Podcasts… …as well as Spotify , and others. (If you’re a Google Podcasts user, I’m still hopeful that the feed will actually get fixed at some point!) THE BATFLIP is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or pa...
Blue Jays fans are loving their Buffalo Backup QB Syndrome Boys! But how real are the things that Davis Schneider, Spencer Horwitz, and Ernie Clement doing? Where should those youngsters/older-than-Vlad-sters fit into next season's plans? And how much more would we appreciate what they're doing—or Chris Bassitt is doing, or the delightful return of Hyun Jin Ryu—if Rob Manfred's expanded playoffs hadn't resulted in a standings-obsessed race between mediocrities trying their damndest to back their...
Meaningful September baseball. It’s all you can really ask for at the start of a baseball season, and here we are about to have some, Blue Jays fans! CAN YOU FEEL THE EXCITEMENT? It's been a chaotic week for the Blue Jays, as they managed to go just 3-3 to begin a 15-game stretch against a bunch of mostly awful teams. For the time being the sky has yet to fall, but with the bunt-loving, pinch runner-hating John Schneider at the helm, that moment feels like it could come at any minute. On Episode...
At the end of this week’s episode of I mistakenly said that Davis Schneider was going to be in the lineup for the Blue Jays on Wednesday night. He wasn’t. Which only makes our open wondering about why the Jays haven’t managed to find more at-bats for him recently hit all that much harder! Before that, we talked about the pesky Seattle Mariners, the Jays’ surging lefty power hitters (Brandon Belt and Daulton Varsho), John Schneider’s decision-making, Alek Manoah, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and so muc...
Should Blue Jays fans be afraid of the Seattle Mariners? Do we believe anything about Bob Nightengale’s suggestion that John Schneider’s job could be in jeopardy if the Jays miss the playoffs? Would Ross Atkins actually bring the kind of heat onto himself that he’d receive by firing another manager? Will anybody remember a 1999 Spike Jonze movie that only made $23 million at the box office? Except for maybe the last one, my guess is that the answer to each of these questions is no. But that didn...
The Toronto Blue Jays have never lost a game Davis Schneider has played in. That remains even so after Tuesday's loss, in which the red hot rookie remained glued to the bench as the Jays were shut out 1-0 against the Guardian in Cleveland. That he didn't play is, of course, entirely fine and far from unexpected for a guy who wasn't deemed worthy of a spot on a big league roster until less than a week ago — and not until Bo Bichette got hurt and the trade market failed to produce an established r...
MLB’s annual trade deadline has come and gone and, like a whole lot of other teams vying for playoff spots, the Blue Jays are better, but probably not better enough. Génesis Cabrera. Paul DeJong. Jordan Hicks. These names are unlikely to go down in history alongside ones like Henderson, Tulowitzki, or Price. Of course, it’s not going to matter where they rank if the Blue Jays keep playing against their division rivals the way they did in their first game after trade season officially wrapped up ...
Above you’ll see a picture of Danny Jansen, who was barely mentioned in this week’s episode of Blue Jays Happy Hour, but probably could have been! Jansen’s been swinging a hot bat lately, and is part of the reason the mood of the fan base is doesn’t seem as bad as it could be after a 3-3 west coast road trip that just as easily could have been 6-0 or 1-5. Anyway, what did we talk about on this week’s episode? With the trade deadline coming up, naturally much of our focus was there. Plus, we got ...
The Blue Jays salvaged their series with the Padres on Thursday afternoon, eking out a 4-0 victory despite having Blake Snell on the ropes all day, thanks in large part to a Vlad Jr. home run and Alejandro Kirk’s best game in weeks — maybe months. They now head to their home away from home, Seattle, for three games over the weekend a half game up on Houston, and 2.5 games ahead of the Red Sox, who currently sit fourth in the AL wild card race. Things could be worse, in other words, which is why ...
The All-Star Game has come and gone, meaning that the second half of the Blue Jays’ season is about to get underway. In this week’s episode we look both forward and back, discussing Alek Manoah’s performance last weekend in Detroit, All-Star week’s most notable Jays moments — including Jordan Romano’s back tightness, Vladdy, Lourdes, the Jays being in the running for the 2025 event, and more — plus the draft, Orelvis Martinez, and our biggest fears, biggest hopes, and some predictions for the Ja...
The Blue Jays saved us from another grim episode on Tuesday night, as they actually managed to come back from a 3-2 deficit in Chicago to beat the White Sox 4-3 on the back of a two-run opposite field home run off of the bat of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. But that's not the only comeback Jays fans will be talking about this week. It was announced prior to Tuesday's game that Alek Manoah — who on Sunday struck out 10 Double-A hitters over five innings in a three-hit, one-run start for New Hampshire — i...
Alek Manoah was shelled this week in his first competitive outing after being sent all the way to the Florida Complex League, and a certain former Jays pitcher had some thoughts for the haters — whoever they may be. Clearly the ugly box score drew a lot of attention from around the baseball world, but should it have? Should it matter? And where do the Jays go from here with respect to their rotation? All that Manoah stuff, a midseason vibe check, Chris Bassitt’s wobbly stretch, Kikuchi’s lack of...
The 2023 Blue Jays continue to give us whiplash as they swing back and forth between good vibes and bad, and earlier this week things were bad enough that there was even chatter — though not of the particularly serious variety, as evidenced by the fact that a couple of wins and a few hits with RISP seems to have instantly quieted it — that manager John Schneider’s job might be in trouble. A Scheider-focused vibe check, the potential fallout for Ross Atkins of making the rash decision to fire ano...
The glow of four straight series wins has long since dissipated for the Blue Jays, as they struggled this week, dropping two of three in Baltimore after a similarly disappointing weekend series against Minnesota. There have been bright spots, like José Berríos, Nate Pearson, and Trevor Richards, but — as always — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is the centre of attention for this team, for good or ill. And right now it’s mostly been for ill. A vibe check, Vladdy’s weird numbers, the search for a fifth sta...
