Jays Talk Plus: No Free Rides to October

Jays Talk Plus with Blake Murphy kicks off with his summary of the team’s second consecutive shutout loss to the New York Yankees. He opens up the JTP Mailbag to address the audience's ‘feelings’, questions and comments about the team amid the final week of the season. In the latter part of the hour, TV play-by-play voice Dan Shulman dissects why the Blue Jays are adding complexity to their situation, deciphers the significance of certain players falling out of the 'circle of trust,' and explores why even a challenging week can still secure their postseason berth (27:04). As we step into the second hour, Blake is joined by MLB.com's Mike Petriello to discuss the impact of the Rogers Centre's revised dimensions on hitting, while being conversely auspicious for pitching and defense, and explore the idea of shaping future team rosters to align with the ballpark's characteristics. Lastly, they examine how MLB's new rule changes have influenced the rise in stolen base activity (53:34). Wrapping up today's show is Alex Eisert of FanGraphs, who delves into his latest piece on the “Quiet Brilliance of Kevin Gausman’s Splitter,” before getting into the analytics of defensive fielding data and aggressive vs. patient hitting approaches (01:20:00).

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.