Daily Duce: Wednesday, August 23rd

Kevin Pillar reflects on his dumb ejection on Tuesday night to Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet, and finds himself searching for answers (and, ugh, bringing up Derek Jeter). Maybe instead Kevin should probably be searching for his April approach at the plate — HEYO! (Don’t get me wrong, the ejection was total bullshit; even if it was dumb of Pillar to chirp an umpire as he ran past, to get straight-up ejected for that??? C’mon, blue. Be better.)

Richard Griffin argues in the Toronto Star that the Jays’ recent lineup changes — specifically, moving Josh Donaldson to shortstop, and José Bautista to third base — should be made permanent. Well, at least for the balance of this year. And you know what? I tend to agree. The Jays, on the other hand, are going with Goins and Barney up the middle tonight — with Steve Pearce leading off! Hopefully that’s just because it’s ground ball king Marcus Stroman on the hill tonight. Speaking of…

Some great ones from FanGraphs, as Craig Edwards goes deep into Marcus Stroman’s batted ball profile, and comes out with a fascinating comp: young Felix Hernandez. Worth reading to see just how he gets there! Meanwhile, Travis Sawchik talks to Justin Smoak about his incredible transformation as a hitter this year, and David Laurila asks a number of players and coaches about whether they think hitters will adjust to the high-spin high heater (a pitch we’ve seen Marco Estrada use to great effect these last few years). Among those David spoke to for the piece are Miguel Montero, and Derek Shelton, the Jays’ “quality control” coach.

Israel Fehr has a great one up over at the Athletic — who just hired Ken effing Rosenthal (!) — as he looks at Kendrys Morales’s trouble with the curve, and the Jays’ trouble with his roster spot.

Speaking of Kenny Ken Ken, his first piece for the Athletic is on David Price and a shared medical quirk he has with Nolan Ryan — an elbow that heals itself.

I missed these at the time, but well worth checking out Steve Givarz’s pair of at-bat-by-at-bat scouting reports on Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for Baseball Prospectus. He saw them during their early days for Dunedin, when Vlad especially was still adjusting (he’s on track there now, of course, as I wrote earlier this week).

And great stuff, as always, from BP Toronto, as Mike Passador looks at the Jays’ potential September call-ups.

Robert Murray of FanRag tells us that Marco Estrada’s stay in Toronto may not be over after this season — something we’ve obviously heard before, but that is still nice to hear. “The player loves Toronto, the agent says publicly he doesn’t want to go anywhere,” one person within the organization told Murray. “Frankly, we are open to extending him.”

Let’s go back to Sportsnet, where Shi Davidi has a great feature on Teoscar Hernandez, looking at the trade, the move to Buffalo, and how he lost his top prospect status before finding it again. And more Buffalo stuff from Sportsnet, as Emily Sadler talks to Rowdy Tellez, who is finishing strong after a season of personal and professional adversity.

Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun has an even longer feature on young Rowdy!

Speaking of Teoscar (which… weren’t we?), he got a mention among MLB Pipeline’s top prospect performers of the night last night, with a 4-for-5 including two homers for the Bisons. It was actually a pretty weird one, considering this:

Gregor Chisholm of BlueJays.com has a mail bag this week, and as always it’s worth a read.

Hey, seems like Negative Nick wrote a thing! Over at Yahoo! Sports, Nick Ashbourne tells us how the Jays’ lack of speed is hurting them in every facet of the game.

Clutchlings talks to the awesomely named Maverik Buffo, who exists, and who they say is aiming to be a “Top Gun” for the Jays. I get it!

Bluebird Banter shows us the awesome Expos-inspired jerseys the Vancouver Canadians wore on Tuesday for Tim Raines Night.

BBB also reminds us that Joe Biagini was pretty good for the Bisons last night, and is pretty much fully stretched out.

Lastly, over at the Blue Jay Hunter, Ian asks a very important question: Have you seen these J.A. Happ “Win With Milk” videos yet???