Sunday Bantering: Ryu

Once again there isn’t much for Blue Jays news out there.

We are still all happy about the signing of Hyun-Jin Ryu (and happy, but maybe not as euphoric about Shun Yamaguchi).

Some of the comments about Ryu is about the size of the Korean community in Toronto and the feeling that more from that community will come out to watch him pitch. It is great that we will get more people interested in baseball and the Jays. I think we’ve likely max out the old white guy demographic.

And yes, I need to order the tee shirt.

It will be interesting to watch attendance at his starts. Will attendance for his games be up 1000 people? 2000? 5000? How much will it be because he’s the big free agent signing and how much will be be the Korean community coming out to see one of their own.

The other question is does he make us a contender?

Your answer to the question likely depends if you think we are building on the Blue Jays team that went 67-95 last year or the Blue Jays team that went 27-28 after Bo Bichette came up.

If you think we are building on a 67 win team, the addition of Ryu wouldn’t get us to .500.

If you think we are a .500 team, Ryu (and the other additions to the pitching staff, plus the maturing of the young guys and Vlad hitting the way we expected he would ) could give us a shot at competing for a wild card spot.

The thing I would like the team to do is get someone who can really play defense in center field. I’d still be willing to give Anthony Alford a chance, but it really looks like the team has decided he isn’t going to be the guy (though I do wonder if they are thinking about him for the 26th spot on the roster. He would be handy to have there, can pinch run, play all three outfield spots and be better defensively than any of the guys who are likely to have the starting job).

I’d imagine they are looking for someone to play center, unless they see something different in Teoscar Hernandez than I do.