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In last week’s SB Nation Reacts survey fans were asked to take a deeper look at the team. They voted separately on the pitching staff, lineup and coaching staff/front office.
Pitching Staff
I think this question came out before Giles came up lame. I’m ok with the pitching staff, but I think it is going to take Charlie a couple of weeks to figure out who should be in which role. Anthony Bass looks like he should be able to fill-in for Giles in the closer spot. I’m hoping A.J. Cole can handle a higher leverage role than Charlie was expecting. I’m also hoping that Gaviglio and Yamaguchi are better than they looked in their first outings.
The starters have been very good once through the rotation. I’ll be interested to see how they ramp up the pitch counts.
I wonder if the MLB should rethink the idea of dropping from a 30-man roster to 28 and then 26. Well, especially for the Marlins. They will just be getting their new roster together and, depending on how many of the infected are pitchers, they will have young guys who haven’t been stretching out their pitch counts.
Lineup
Again, it was before Bo (and Grichuk) was hurt. And Shaw being away doesn’t let us get a good look at him early. I hope his family is ok. There is something weird going on with Baseball Reference, they don’t show any Shaw having any playing time with the Jays this year, but he did play in 2 games, with 2 hits, a double and 2 walks in 8 PA.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette are all having a bit of a slow start. I’m not too worried about any of them, but we don’t have the term sophomore slump for no reason.
I do have doubts about Drury and Panik giving us any offense. I’m hoping they won’t play as much in the future as they have in the first few games.
Coaching Staff & General Manager
There is a good question. I’d prefer to separate the front office from the coaching staff, or at least from the manager. I want to see Charlie be quicker with the hook. And, obviously, I’d like him to notice things that we all can see, like Giles clearly being uncomfortable on the mound. I want him to see that before I do.
I did like that he took Roark out before we saw signs of him tiring. I think the coaching staff should be able to pick up on things we don’t. And I want them to be extra careful early. Our pitchers have looked good, but a couple of arm injuries could change that.
Nationally, fans were asked how they felt about the 2020 season as a whole with 69 percent of fans saying this season is still meaningful. Fans were also asked if they thought players would hit home runs at a similar pace as previous years, but only seven percent thought a single player would hit at least 40 home runs.
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