It is Cinco de Mayo in Mexico, but Alek Manoah Day here.
The Jays made a minor trade late last night. They picked up right-handed pitcher Joel Kuhnel from the Astros for cash. He’s been optioned to Buffalo.
He’s 29, a big guy, 6’5”, 290. He’s pitched 77 games in the MLB with a 6.30 ERA but a 4.53 FiP. In 85.2 innings, he has 24 walks and 72 strikeouts. In his 87.1 innings in Triple-A, he has a 4.84 ERA with 27 walks and 67 strikeouts.
Kuhnel throws a hard fastball in the mid-90s and has touched 100 in the past. And he throws a cutter, spiller and slider.
He’s an arm, and we really need some help with the pen.
Alek Manoah starts today, and we have no idea how it will go. We hope he has the same day he had for Buffalo in his last start, but we are afraid he’ll be the same guy we saw last year.
Let’s have a little poll.
Keegan Matheson has a story on Bo Bichette’s frustrations at the start of his season. I often hear people say that player x doesn’t care, which I find funny. Of course, they care.
“I wouldn’t say it gets any easier,” Bichette said. “Obviously, you saw me today, there’s frustration not just from my performance but how the team is performing, too. The only difference is that I’m not worried about it in the long term, but it doesn’t get any easier day to day.”
I agree with him about not being worried in the long term, but I would love to see him square up a ball three or four times. I sometimes wonder if he will be the type of player who won’t age well. I think he relies on great reflexes. If he doesn’t learn to control the strike zone, I know how well he will play when the reflexes slow.
I thought the ejection was a little quick. John Schnieder agrees:
“I thought it was a really good helmet toss for his first ejection,” Schneider said. “I thought it was a little early, to be honest with you. We’ve seen equipment violations before with ejections, and [homeplate umpire] Jonathan Parra’s thought was that it was a bit much. Kind of tough to argue that.”
Joanthan Parra had a pretty good day behind the plate:
It is also Cinco De Mayo in Memphis. I’ve always loved Guy Clark’s songwriting, but this one I like just for the first word, ‘Meanwhile’. He