Andrew Stoeten (The Batflip, formerly the Athletic, National Post, Blue Jays Nation, Drunk Jays Fans) and Nick Ashbourne (Sportsnet and Yahoo Sports) team up every Tuesday to discuss all things Toronto Blue Jays! stoeten.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jays RHP Chris Bassitt stirred up controversy this week with some fairly benign—but, admittedly, fascinating—comments about the Blue Jays, their pursuit of Shohei Ohtani, and the failures of their offseason and 2024 as a whole during an appearance on the Chris Rose Rotation, before clarifying in a hasty seeming follow-up interview that his intentio…
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The Blue Jays and their fans are now firmly into the process of getting to know a number of young players acquired at last month's trade deadline, so it's time to think about first impressions. Joey Loperfido has struggled, Davis Schneider still looks lost, and Addison Barger has yet to find his footing, but Will Wagner had a loud debut, and we've …
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The trade deadline has come and gone, the Band-Aid has been ripped off, and now the Blue Jays—and their fans—get to float along into the unknown. The vibes feel like they've improved in the days since 1/3 of the roster was overturned, but how long with that last with little to do but watch young hitters experiencing growing pains and struggling vet…
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Trades, trades, trades! The Blue Jays had a wildly active trade deadline, and in this episode Nick and Stoeten review the particulars of all eight of them and discuss where this leaves the team in 2024, how it sets them up for the future, and whether or not the team was successful in this one small aspect of what's obviously been—and will continue …
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For the first time since 2019, the Blue Jays will unambiguously be sellers at the trade deadline, giving them just a week to start reshaping their roster for 2025—assuming they believe that taking a crack at the playoffs again next year is even viable. Whichever way that plays out, the choices they need to make with their two most important players…
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One of the worst qualified hitters in baseball after nearly three months of play, George Springer has suddenly, surprisingly been one of the best in MLB over the last few weeks. Is this anything? PLUS: Prospect talk, Yariel Rodríguez, Kevin Gausman, Alek Manoah, Nate Pearson, the future of the Jays' rotation, and a whole lot more. Hosted on Acast. …
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Vibes, Vlad, and a Very Big Trade Deadline Upcoming
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We're now less than a month away from what will likely be the most significant moment of the 2024 Blue Jays' season: the trade deadline. And while Vlad's heated up, and guys like Spencer Horwitz and Yariel Rodríguez have been good, the team has continued to spin its wheels. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…
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Well that was quick. Top Blue Jays hitting prospect Orelvis Martinez is gone as quickly as he arrived, thanks to an 80-game PED suspension. And somehow that wasn't even the worst part of the week for the losers of seven straight. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Blue Jays are once again turning to a product of their farm system, as top hitting prospect Orelvis Martinez has joined the club—though only because (future Dodger?) Bo Bichette's calf strain has landed him on the injured list. And more help is potentially also on the way in the form of Joey Votto, who has finally started a rehab assignment dow…
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Alek Manoah's brief resurgence will end in surgery this week, meanwhile the Jays cut bait on Cavan Biggio, and their playoff chances—though nominally increasing—continue to feel as though they're hanging on a knife's edge. In this week's episode Nick and Stoeten talk about all of that, plus Spencer Horwitz at second base, the bizarre Yusei Kikuchi …
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Vladimir Guerrero Jr. started at third base for the first time since 2019 over the weekend, and in this week's episode, Nick and Stoeten talk themselves into the idea—while also reviewing the recent soft portion of the schedule, Ross Atkins' comments on MLB Network Radio, fresh pitching woes, the real City Connect uniforms, and a whole lot more. Ho…
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The Blue Jays' Home Run Jacket has returned, and with it has come some additional offence. It is already too little too late? In this week's clothing-heavy episode, Nick and Stoeten talk about it, as well as the sorry state of the Blue Jays, positive stories to watch going forward, the upcoming City Connect uniform reveal, and the (possibly fake?) …
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Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins chose to meet with the media on the Saturday morning of Canada's first long weekend of the summer to talk about his team's full calendar year of wheel-spinning. In this episode, Nick and Stoeten try to make sense of his performance, and talk about the state of the offence, hope for Alek Manoah, Joey Votto's status, and more…
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Despite some uplifting recent performances, including a surprising one from Alek Manoah, the Blue Jays' bats still feel awfully sluggish—and Statcast's just-released bat speed data concurs. In this episode, Nick and Stoeten will try to make sense of that, while also talking about Manoah's big rebound, Vlad the singles hitter, Springer panic, Turner…
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The Blue Jays didn't have a great time in their weekend series in D.C., and now face a tough schedule ahead just as questions about the direction of the franchise are truly growing louder. A midweek tilt with a red hot Phillies team awaits, and it feels like things could get interesting over the next few weeks—and not in a good way. The vibes are b…
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Things looked bleak for the Blue jays amid a five-game losing streak that featured three low-scoring losses in Kansas City and a blowout home loss to the Dodgers on Friday, but a fresh Danny Jansen hot streak and the ongoing magic of Justin Turner has powered the club back to relevance—or, at the very least, to .500. In this week's episode Nick and…
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The Jays can't seem to score more than five runs in a game or finish off a sweep, but things are going well, and the way has been led lately by Daulton Varsho—last year's much maligned major acquisition. Granted, not everything is perfect for the club, but that just gives Nick and Stoeten plenty else to talk about in this week's episode, including:…
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After two ugly ones early on, Chris Bassitt has his ERA down to 4.03 after a second straight gem in a strong series opener against the Yankees on Monday. Berríos and Kikuchi are rolling. Yariel Rodríguez had a very good debut. The bullpen looks great and is only getting stronger. Granted, Alek Manoah remains a problem, but Kevin Gausman... should p…
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The Blue Jays and their fans were able to (mostly) put some bad vibes and bad performances behind them—at least for one night—as the club unveiled the fully revamped Rogers Centre in style on Monday with a comfortable win over the Mariners behind José Berríos and the kind of offensive performance they've failed to muster too often already here in 2…
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It's been a boom-or-bust start of the season for the Blue Jays and their much maligned lineup, and it was definitely a bust when they opened their midweek series with the Astros by getting no-hit by Ronel Blanco. In this episode Nick and Stoeten check in on the post-no-no vibes, and try not to draw any hard conclusions from the starts we've seen by…
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In the triumphant return of Blue Jays Happy Hour after a dormant offseason—for both the boys and the Blue Jays alike—Nick and Stoeten return to look back on an underwhelming winter, to discuss several spring training standouts, to talk about what's expected of the Jays in a pivotal 2024 season and beyond, and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 120: It's Over!
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Of all the seasons of Toronto Blue Jays baseball I’ve watched, that was certainly one of them. Fittingly, the team made a two run deficit feel insurmountable right to the very end—though not before embarrassing themselves with a too-clever-by-half pitching decision that will live long in the memory. Fire Schneider? Fire Atkins? Fire Walker and Hudg…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 119: Confirmed Losers (of Game One Against the Twins)
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The Blue Jays played a decent, hard-fought game in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening, making some nice defensive plays, hitting some balls hard that found gloves, and getting the kind of outstanding relief work we’ve become accustomed to around here this season. Unfortunately, a couple of poorly located pitches from a struggling Kevin Gausman, some mi…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 118: Here we go again...
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The Blue Jays did it. They’re back in the playoffs. And they’re playing a team—the Minnesota Twins—that, based on their indifference toward Sunday’s result, they’re perfectly happy to be up against. One of these teams will end a years-long streak of playoff futility, the other will be in for a longer and colder winter than any of their fans are rea…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour: Episode 117 - On Trop of the World
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A good weekend at the Trop? In this economy??? When Nick and I recorded Episode 116 back on Thursday, we figured that we'd better add a second episode to our schedule this week, expecting that the Jays by here on Monday night would be about to embark a fight for their playoff lives. Instead, they've come through a second straight weekend in which j…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 116: Lumps of Cole, Rays of sunshine
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The Blue Jays came up short against AL Cy Young frontrunner Gerrit Cole on Thursday night, and now face an incredibly tough test against the Rays this weekend at the dreaded Trop. But they’re still in the driver’s seat in the race for the final AL wild card spots. They are also, somehow, tied with the Astros for the third-best record in the America…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 115: Blue Jays Sad Hour
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The Blue Jays are bad, the Alek Manoah situation is weird, Nick and I talked about both things on our latest episode of Blue Jays Happy Hour, and you should give it a listen! You can find us in all the usual places, such as Apple Podcasts… …as well as Spotify, and others. (If you’re a Google Podcasts user, I’m still hopeful that the feed will actua…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 114: Missing the Forest for the Playoff Tree?
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Blue Jays fans are loving their Buffalo Backup QB Syndrome Boys! But how real are the things that Davis Schneider, Spencer Horwitz, and Ernie Clement doing? Where should those youngsters/older-than-Vlad-sters fit into next season's plans? And how much more would we appreciate what they're doing—or Chris Bassitt is doing, or the delightful return of…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 113: Meaningful September baseball is here! 🥴
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Meaningful September baseball. It’s all you can really ask for at the start of a baseball season, and here we are about to have some, Blue Jays fans! CAN YOU FEEL THE EXCITEMENT? It's been a chaotic week for the Blue Jays, as they managed to go just 3-3 to begin a 15-game stretch against a bunch of mostly awful teams. For the time being the sky has…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 112: Swing and a Belt
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At the end of this week’s episode of I mistakenly said that Davis Schneider was going to be in the lineup for the Blue Jays on Wednesday night. He wasn’t. Which only makes our open wondering about why the Jays haven’t managed to find more at-bats for him recently hit all that much harder! Before that, we talked about the pesky Seattle Mariners, the…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 111: Being Bob Nightengale
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Should Blue Jays fans be afraid of the Seattle Mariners? Do we believe anything about Bob Nightengale’s suggestion that John Schneider’s job could be in jeopardy if the Jays miss the playoffs? Would Ross Atkins actually bring the kind of heat onto himself that he’d receive by firing another manager? Will anybody remember a 1999 Spike Jonze movie th…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Ep. 110: The Davis Schneider Episode
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The Toronto Blue Jays have never lost a game Davis Schneider has played in. That remains even so after Tuesday's loss, in which the red hot rookie remained glued to the bench as the Jays were shut out 1-0 against the Guardian in Cleveland. That he didn't play is, of course, entirely fine and far from unexpected for a guy who wasn't deemed worthy of…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 109: Trade Deadline Reaction!
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MLB’s annual trade deadline has come and gone and, like a whole lot of other teams vying for playoff spots, the Blue Jays are better, but probably not better enough. Génesis Cabrera. Paul DeJong. Jordan Hicks. These names are unlikely to go down in history alongside ones like Henderson, Tulowitzki, or Price. Of course, it’s not going to matter wher…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour: Episode 108 - Pre-deadline vibes
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Above you’ll see a picture of Danny Jansen, who was barely mentioned in this week’s episode of Blue Jays Happy Hour, but probably could have been! Jansen’s been swinging a hot bat lately, and is part of the reason the mood of the fan base is doesn’t seem as bad as it could be after a 3-3 west coast road trip that just as easily could have been 6-0 …
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 107: Vlad & Alejandro & Alek & Ross & Hot dogs
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The Blue Jays salvaged their series with the Padres on Thursday afternoon, eking out a 4-0 victory despite having Blake Snell on the ropes all day, thanks in large part to a Vlad Jr. home run and Alejandro Kirk’s best game in weeks — maybe months. They now head to their home away from home, Seattle, for three games over the weekend a half game up o…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 106: Second half predictions!
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The All-Star Game has come and gone, meaning that the second half of the Blue Jays’ season is about to get underway. In this week’s episode we look both forward and back, discussing Alek Manoah’s performance last weekend in Detroit, All-Star week’s most notable Jays moments — including Jordan Romano’s back tightness, Vladdy, Lourdes, the Jays being…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 105: Three comebacks
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The Blue Jays saved us from another grim episode on Tuesday night, as they actually managed to come back from a 3-2 deficit in Chicago to beat the White Sox 4-3 on the back of a two-run opposite field home run off of the bat of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. But that's not the only comeback Jays fans will be talking about this week. It was announced prior t…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 104: Marcus Strawman
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Alek Manoah was shelled this week in his first competitive outing after being sent all the way to the Florida Complex League, and a certain former Jays pitcher had some thoughts for the haters — whoever they may be. Clearly the ugly box score drew a lot of attention from around the baseball world, but should it have? Should it matter? And where do …
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 103: Off the Schneid?
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The 2023 Blue Jays continue to give us whiplash as they swing back and forth between good vibes and bad, and earlier this week things were bad enough that there was even chatter — though not of the particularly serious variety, as evidenced by the fact that a couple of wins and a few hits with RISP seems to have instantly quieted it — that manager …
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 102: Solving Vladdy and the fifth starter's spot
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The glow of four straight series wins has long since dissipated for the Blue Jays, as they struggled this week, dropping two of three in Baltimore after a similarly disappointing weekend series against Minnesota. There have been bright spots, like José Berríos, Nate Pearson, and Trevor Richards, but — as always — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is the centre…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 101: The last time we have to talk about Anthony Bass
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The Blue Jays keep winning, completing a series victory on Thursday night by taking their third of four from the Houston Astros — and, importantly, winning the season series and thereby giving themselves the tiebreaker in the event that both teams finish with the same record and tied for the final playoff spot. They’ve now won four straight series …
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 100: Large mouth Bass
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Blue Jays Happy Hour has reached triple-digits. It's episode 100! Unfortunately, rather than giving us something celebratory to talk about, the Jays this week have given us a mess of a situation involving reliever Anthony Bass. In this episode we discuss what Bass did, his "apology," the Jays' insufficient response, potential fallout, and why the t…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 99: Not Suited to the Human Mind
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Woof. On losses and more losses, John Schneider’s future, Ross Atkins’ future, the Varsho trade, Alek Manoah, and so many more sources of existential angst! Have a listen! You can find us in all the usual places, such as Apple Podcasts… …as well as Spotify, and others. (Google Podcasts continues to incredibly stupid about our switch back to our pre…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 98: In Defence of Meatballs
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The Blue Jays had a chance to make a statement this week in their four-game series against the Yankees, but instead it was Aaron Judge who spoke loudest. Or, actually, it was probably New York manager Aaron Boone who spoke loudest. But Judge and his mighty bat — which time and again managed to make loud contact that rose above the din of the Rogers…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 97: Battle for the Belt!
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The Blue Jays did not have a fun time in Philadelphia this week, but they return home with their heads clearly above water — despite playing in a ridiculous division — with a whole bunch of road games already in the books. Where they go from here metaphorically, however, is a different sort of question. Two of the front office's major objectives ov…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 96: Bullpen Gut Check
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The Blue Jays have followed their best stretch of the young season with by far their worst. A week ago the club was riding high, in the middle of what would become a six-game winning streak powered by a near perfect homestand. Then came Sunday and a gut-punch loss to the Mariners that was just a little too reminiscent of last October’s disaster, wh…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Ep. 95: Danny's Bats and Yusei's Balls
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The Blue Jays sucessfully dismantled the Chicago White Sox this week, and now head into a weekend set with Teoscar Hernández and the Seattle Mariners with a 16-9 record — the best start in franchise history. They're also, uh, currently in third place in their division. But things are mostly going well. Especially when it comes to the club's two mos…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 94: You are now experiencing a rotation inversion...
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The Blue Jays are really in it now. A tough series with the Astros only let up for a day on Thursday while the club travelled to New York for another tough series with the Yankees. And yet, things seem to be going fairly well for the club — save for one reliever, Anthony Bass, who continues to pile up losses. He's also not pitching very well. HEYO!…
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 93: Turtlenecks and Poutine Dogs
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The Blue Jays have finally opened up the new look Rogers Centre, returning to Toronto to begin the home portion of their schedule with a series victory over the Detroit Tigers. There was a big win — thanks to a five-run, eighth inning outburst — in the opener on Tuesday, a thrilling walk-off in extras game two on Wednesday, and a grim slog through …
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Blue Jays Happy Hour - Episode 92: Welcome to the Luplow era!
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The Toronto Blue Jays had themselves a roller coaster of a first week of the season, but as we looked up on Saturday morning, with their record at 5-3, all seemed just about right with the world. Sort of. Vladdy and Matt Chapman are on fire. Daulton Varsho has come as advertised. The speed and the defence they wanted to add are there. And, uh, now …
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