Artificial Turf Wars

Greg and Josh discuss the latest in Blue Jays land starting with the 9-3 overall record against the league bottom feeders including a sweep of the Royals that included some red flags that have shown up in the Texas series. They also go over the first few games of the Texas series and what has gone wrong, the continued strong offensive showing of the Buffalo Boys, Davis Schneider, Ernie Clement and...

Greg and Josh discuss the latest news around the Blue Jays including the recent rash of injuries to key members of the lineup, Bo Bichette, Matt Chapman and now Danny Jansen, that luckily has had good performance from the replacements, the recent tough performance from a few pitchers, including Mayza, Jackson and especially Berríos, the continued excellence of Hyun-Jin Ryu, an improved offence bei...

It’s time for host Tyler Zickel (Vancouver Canadians) to perform a check-in on the Blue Jays minor league system to see who has been performing during these dog days of summer. Pat Malacaro (Buffalo Bisons) leads off from Syracuse, NY to talk about the lengthening of the Bisons’ lineup with the return of Nathan Lukes and Ernie Clement to triple-A to complement Spencer Horwitz and Rafael Lantigua w...

Greg and Josh discuss the latest developments for the Blue Jays including the still-performing pitching staff, the injury returns, including a rejuvenated-looking Jordan Romano, that will provide even more depth and rest to one another, the Alek Manoah demotion to nowhere and the patience we should have with the situation, the still struggling offence despite better RISP numbers in the month of Au...

Greg and Josh discuss the latest in Blue Jays land including the historic debut from Davis Schneider and the skillset that lends credibility to the belief that he will continue to contribute, Alek Manoah's strong return from the awful events of his last start, baserunning follies in Boston, the continued excellent pitching from Yusei Kikuchi, and encouraging start for Ryu that ended in injury, pro...

Starting from low-A Dunedin, broadcaster Chris Valentine speaks about Roque Salinas, whose bat finally caught fire in July, J.J. Sanchez's 95-mph fastball, Josh Mollerus' wipeout slider, and Kelena Sauer's sweeping slider. Podcast host and voice of the Vancouver Canadians Tyler Zickel then speaks about his team being the first affiliate in the Blue Jays organization to reach 60 wins and Wednesday'...

Greg and Josh go over the moves made and not made the trade deadline. They discuss the pickup of leverage reliever Jordan Hicks and what he'll bring to the Jays' bullpen in terms of performance and variability, the cost of Sem Robberse and Adam Kloffenstein, the pickup of Paul DeJon and what he'll bring as both a temporary starter while Bo Bichette recovers and as a reserve afterwards, and finally...

Greg and Josh discuss the up and down road trip that led to a split against good teams, but got there in disappointing ways, the very tired bullpen thanks to the disappointing offence, the reinforcements such as the acquisition of Génesis Cabrera and imminent return of Chad Green, how the 6-man rotation with Hyun-Jin Ryu will hurt the bullpen depth, Jordan Romano's injury and how they'd cover the...

Broadcaster Gareth Kwok's Fisher Cats are still waiting on their first walkoff of 2023, but the broadcasters from the other affiliates talk about the most exciting walkoffs of the season so far. The Bisons' Pat Malacaro tells us his team is finally getting consistency from the starting nine and the starters, Ernie Clement and Spencer Horwitz's dual five-hit day, Orelvis Martinez's triple-A debut,...

Greg and Josh talk about the last week of Blue Jays baseball starting with the All-Star game Jays news and Vlad's home run derby win. They also discuss the unheralded reliever corps repeatedly doing its job up and down the pen, Bassitt and Berríos continuing to give the Jays the chance to win, Kikuchi showing an ability to make adjustments that wasn't present in 2022, Manoah's discouraging start,...

Greg and Josh discuss the return of Alek Manoah to the rotation and what changes they did and didn't see in his excellent outing against Detroit, the changes José Berríos has made to his repertoire to reclaim (and even exceed) his former glory, the still somewhat struggling offence beating up on bad pitchers while having issues with solid ones and the pending return of Hyun-Jin Ryu, the confusing...

Dennis Gilbert, the architect of the Bobby Bonilla contract joins the podcast (37:00) to discuss how he got into the agent business, how the Bonilla contract came about and why he encourages all players to take some deferrals in their contracts to protect their futures. Greg and Josh also discuss Yusei Kikuchi's excellent June, Chris Bassitt rebounding when reuniting with Kirk and the change in hi...

Host Tyler Zickel (Canadians) is joined by the wonderfully mustachioed rookie Chris Valentine (Dunedin Blue Jays) and the reliable veteran Bob Lipman (Fisher Cats) to talk about the state of the Blue Jays minor leagues. Chris nominates Ryan McCarty as the D-Jays' hitter of the month and updates us on Rafael Ohashi's return to form, Alex Amalfi's new curveball, Irv Carter's phenomenal changeup, and...

Greg and Josh discuss the latest in Blue Jays land. They cover the offensive approach that is limiting their power output and thus run production, the bad luck with RISP exacerbating the issue, the lineup shakeup to try and increase offensive production, the depth/roster construction issues being highlighted by Brandon Belt's injury, the extreme (mostly) highs and lows of Kevin Gausman and Chris B...

Pat Malacaro (Bisons) speaks about the Bisons' low-slugging lineup, Cameron Eden's role as a second leadoff guy, and Paxton Schultz's solid debut. We welcome new Nester Chris Valentine, the voice of the Dunedin Blue Jays, who talks about the ebbs and flows of hitting and pitching in low-A, Brandon Barriera's performance ahead of his injury, Ryan Jennings preventing barrels, and some tough times fo...

Greg and Josh discuss the latest in the Anthony Bass saga including a Ross Atkins interview that was immediately undone by Bass' clear lack of growth, and announcement that Bass would catch the first pitch on Pride Night then a live reaction to the sweet release of the Bass DFA. They also talk about why the Alek Manoah demotion needed to happen, what he'll have to work on and potential timelines f...

Greg and Nick open the show by discussing the ugly actions of pitcher Anthony Bass and the team response to the issue. ATW stands with the 2SLGBTQ+ community in full and condemns all forms of hate speech and actions. When they move onto the play on the field, the guys talk about the incredible contributions from the pitching side especially Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt - who seems to never pitch u...

Pat Malacaro (Bisons) speaks about the return of Bowden Francis, Yosver Zulueta emerging as a bulk guy, Rafael Lantigua and Davis Schneider's grit, Paul Fry, and the automatic balls-and-strikes system in triple-A. Gareth Kwok (Fisher Cats) makes his Around The Nest debut and earns his wings by providing coverage of Chad Dallas' flaming start at double-A, Adam Kloffenstein finding his command and g...

Greg and Josh take a look at what has gone wrong during a really rough stretch of intra-divisional play for the Blue Jays. They point to some poor timely hitting from certain parts of the lineup, depth problems and mental/defensive lapses at the worst times. Not everything has been bad though, as they give shout outs to Chris Bassitt and Brandon Belt for really doing their best to carry the club a...

Greg and Josh discuss the up and down road swing that saw Daulton Varsho and Brandon Belt start to heat up, the position player roster starting to show cracks, Jay Jackson joining the club after an injury to Zach Pop, the odd, extreme swings from the 2-5 starters on the club and a Alek Manoah's continued struggles. They also answer listener questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...

The broadcasters for the Buffalo Bisons, New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Vancouver Canadians, and Dunedin Blue Jays' comms guy gather to provide their insights on how Blue Jays prospects have played in the past week. Pat Malacaro (Bisons) speaks about his team's big 21-9 win, Nick Fraze's debut, and Hayden Juenger's struggles to start 2023. Steve Goldberg (Fisher Cats) gives us an update on Ricky Tiede...

We start by welcoming our new podcast friends, Around the Nest, to the feed, then Greg and Josh break down a very up and down (and very down) week of the Jays as via: The Good: Gausman dominance, Chapman player of the month and Varsho swinging for power The Bad: Berríos and Kikuchi rough starts, bullpen breakdowns and The Ugly: Lots or errors recently and confusing managing decision, all happening...

The broadcasters for the Buffalo Bisons, New Hampshire Fisher Cats, and Vancouver Canadians gather to talk about how Blue Jays prospects have started the 2023 season. Pat Malacaro (Bisons) introduces listeners to the hand gestures that can be used to challenge an automated ball and strike call, Ernie Clement's hot start, and who is in the early running to be a spot starter for the Toronto Blue Jay...

Greg, Josh and Nick discuss the latest week of developments for the Blue Jays including the incredible run for the rotation, the lack of depth that popped up temporarily with Chris Bassitt's injury scare, the changing bullpen roles that led to the return of Nate Pearson, Danny Jansen heating up, Brandon Belt slowly rounding into form, the bottom of the order powering a few wins and a potential inj...

Greg and Josh discuss the latest happenings in Blue Jays land including the upside down rotation with strong work from Kikuchi, Berríos and Bassitt and stinkers from Gausman and Manoah, Chapman continuing to use the opposite field to produce, Guerrero ending his power drought, Romano's double-slider usage, Merrifield being the only fighter in the 2B battle and Nathan Lukes getting the recall. They...