Wednesday morning round up

With the Jays losing again yesterday 6-2, it means they have lost six of their last eight games.

Sam Gaviglio managed only 2 2/3 innings as he allowed five runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out two. Since the start of June, he has managed to go more than five innings three times in 11 starts. He now has a 7.92 ERA on the road vs. a 2.82 ERA at Rogers Centre. His record is now 2-4 with a 5.10 ERA. At least we are not throwing Jaime Garcia out there to start at the moment.

On the plus side, the yesterday’s post-game team meeting has helped the Jays re-establish their style of play. If by ‘style’ you mean losing in a less emphatic way, then today’s game was the perfect result.

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Trade talk

Yesterday we waved goodby to a couple more players as we sent Aaron Loup to the Phillies and John Axford to the Dodgers. Loup was the longest serving Jay at just over seven seasons, which i feel was about 6 too many.

We picked up a couple of 24-year-old Minor League relievers in return for the veteran bullpen arms. Right-hander Jacob Waguespack was acquired for Loup and righty Corey Copping was the return for Axford.

Waguespack has spent most of his career pitching in relief, but he does have 15 starts this season. Split between between Double-A and Triple-A, he has a combined 4-6 record with a 4.68 ERA.

Copping also split his time between the same two levels in the Minors in Los Angeles’ system, pitching to a 2.52 ERA while striking out 59 over 53 2/3 innings.

The Jays trade summary to this point: 6 players dealt, 10 come back, 5 pitchers, 5 position players. 5 of the 10 now ranked in the Jays top 30 according to MLB pipeline.

Curtis Granderson, Tyler Clippard, Marco Estrada and even Josh Donaldson, could all be in play during August’s waiver period, so we may yet see more changes.

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In other big trades:

The Dodgers went and got the excellent 2B and all round lovely human that is Brian Dozier

Those crafty Pirates used all their gold doubloons to land Chris Archer from the Rays, which left the Rays with no active starting pitchers on their roster. Lots of bullpen days ahead for them.

Cleveland need a left handed bat and went and got Leonys Martin

The Mariners landed Cameron Maybin

Crafty righty Brad Ziegler returned to the Diamondbacks who also rescued Jake Diekman from the Rangers

The Barves got Kevin Gausman and our favourite homer happy pitcher Darren O’Day from the OriLOLes

The Brewers who were looking around for starting pitching, got distracted by the shiny and useful Jonathan Schoop and promptly swapped him for Jonathan Villar and two prospects

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Pitching relief

Meanwhile some cavalry is on the horizon with Ken Giles is expected to join the Jays on Thursday in Seattle. Given our season so far, we can expect him to be demoted on Friday, following some sort of crazy episode, like setting fire to a mascot.

John Gibbons says Danny Barnes is expected to be activated off the DL tomorrow to help the bullpen. Brandon Cumpton’s 1.2 IP last night means he won’t start series opener vs Seattle.

“I’ve got no idea what’s going to happen Thursday,” said Gibbons...

...so that’s really encouraging. Cue: random pitcher generator and subsequent meltdown.

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Injuries - to others

Talking of pitching, the Red Sox have lost Chris Sale to the DL with shoulder inflammation although they expect him to only miss one start. I’m sure they said that about David Price a while back...

And in something that reinforces how the universe feels about J.A. Happ joining the Yankees, the poor lad has gone down with hand, foot and mouth disease.

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VLAD AAA DEBUT!

And I've saved the best for last as today saw the highly-anticipated Triple-A debut of baseball’s No. 1 prospect, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Vlad’s first ever line in a triple-A box score as 0-for-1 with three walks, two runs scored, and an RBI as the Bisons fell to the IronPigs.

But this is what we came for. Nearly a double, but the sac fly will suffice.