Friday Bantering: Bits of Jays stuff

It is looking more like the game tonight will be played tonight, the forecast is better than it was earlier today.

Anyway else think the starting rotation could be pretty good for the next while, and, hopefully, the rest of the season. Ryu, Ray, Matz have been solid. Manoah was terrific yesterday. He won’t always be that good, but he looks like a solid member of the rotation. And Ross Stripling looked very good for 7 innings in his last appearance. He made a number of changes to his windup, changed where he stands on the rubber. I’d like to think that will carry over to future starts. I’m would be happy if we retire the idea of having an opener for him, but, like most things that fail, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The bullpen, on the other hand, really does need a couple of good arms, but if we can get 6-7 innings a start, they will look that much better.

In Jays' news I don’t want to talk about, Roberto Alomar has other allegations against him. This is separate from the investigation that had him banned from the MLB. Brendan Kennedy also says that the Jays were investigating allegations from a 3rd woman when MLB was doing the investigation that led to his banning.

MLB Traderumors has a post about how Marcus Semien’s signing is paying off. Among other things, it says:

Semien is off to a career-best start at the plate in 2021. The 30-year-old is hitting .288/.355/.545 over his first 220 plate appearances. He’s completely regained his 2019 power stroke, posting a personal-high .258 ISO (slugging minus batting average), while his thirteen home runs is tied for sixth in MLB.

Today’s lineup, Bo gets the half-day off as DH today, Semien to short and Panik second:

An old friend, DeMarlo Hale, is acting manager for Cleveland this weekend. Terry Francona is going to his ‘youngest child’s wedding’. Maybe, for old time’s sake, he could throw a couple of games for us.