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OT: The Toronto Blue Jays

CH1 said:
"If you can't identify the cancer in the locker room, you're probably it"
--- Kevin Gausman, September 3rd, 2026
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He's also been pretty bad since going to the Cubs.

The ticker below the US broadcast was flashing some ugly numbers throughout the game about him. I can't remember what it was, maybe that he hadn't been able to get through 5 innings in most of his starts and had like a 5.00 ERA or something. Whatever it was, it was bad, made me think that there probably is no reunion in the cards next season.
 
Fwiw I think his improvement in AAA this year is legit and we will see him hit more hard line drives as he learns MLB pitching. Right now he's pretty clearly just trying to make contact and run.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
He's also been pretty bad since going to the Cubs.

The ticker below the US broadcast was flashing some ugly numbers throughout the game about him. I can't remember what it was, maybe that he hadn't been able to get through 5 innings in most of his starts and had like a 5.00 ERA or something. Whatever it was, it was bad, made me think that there probably is no reunion in the cards next season.
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He was kinda bad with us this year tbh
 
MindzEye said:
Fwiw I think his improvement in AAA this year is legit and we will see him hit more hard line drives as he learns MLB pitching. Right now he's pretty clearly just trying to make contact and run.
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Based on the approach of most of our dudes this year, thats a fantastic decision tbh
 
MyNameIsJonas said:
Based on the approach of most of our dudes this year, thats a fantastic decision tbh
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Also, it's not like he's not getting good contact, he's just not selling out on pitches.

His EV today was

93.6 (Single, .430 xba)
91.4 (Groundout, .140 xba)
53.1 (Single, .180 xba)
93.3 (Single, .560 xba)

That's 3 good pieces of contact. He's just not swinging hard enough for any of those to turn into 'barrels'. His average bat speed is 68.4mph, which would be near bottom of the league (funny enough, Steven Kwan is worst in the AL...and both Clement and Gimmy are near the bottom). What he's actually pretty good at is squaring up the ball, stat cast has him squaring up 34.3% of his contact which would put him top 50 if he was qualified. Basically, he's getting good EV considering how fast he's swinging + how hard the incoming pitch is.

There are some red flags though. For a guy who isn't up there swinging very hard, he strikes out a lot. I honestly think that's the biggest difference between him and Kwan. Strike out 10-12% of the time instead of 20% of the time and when you're putting a whole lot more balls in play to make up for your babip eventually regressing.

To the Kwan comparison though, early performance sure suggests that Bateman is the better CF by a bit of a margin and is quite a bit faster than Kwan as well. Bateman's speed is looking closer to 65-70 than 60. 11th in MLB in 1st to 1B time, much better sprint speed than Kwan.

To use savant's little race tool:

1788478967776.png


and to show what he looks like vs 80 speed

1788479036726.png
 
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MindzEye said:
Also, it's not like he's not getting good contact, he's just not selling out on pitches.

His EV today was

93.6 (Single, .430 xba)
91.4 (Groundout, .140 xba)
53.1 (Single, .180 xba)
93.3 (Single, .560 xba)

That's 3 good pieces of contact. He's just not swinging hard enough for any of those to turn into 'barrels'. His average bat speed is 68.4mph, which would be near bottom of the league (funny enough, Steven Kwan is worst in the AL...and both Clement and Gimmy are near the bottom). What he's actually pretty good at is squaring up the ball, stat cast has him squaring up 34.3% of his contact which would put him top 50 if he was qualified. Basically, he's getting good EV considering how fast he's swinging + how hard the incoming pitch is.

There are some red flags though. For a guy who isn't up there swinging very hard, he strikes out a lot. I honestly think that's the biggest difference between him and Kwan. Strike out 10-12% of the time instead of 20% of the time and when you're putting a whole lot more balls in play to make up for your babip eventually regressing.

To the Kwan comparison though, early performance sure suggests that Bateman is the better CF by a bit of a margin and is quite a bit faster than Kwan as well. Bateman's speed is looking closer to 65-70 than 60. 11th in MLB in 1st to 1B time, much better sprint speed than Kwan.

To use savant's little race tool:

View attachment 36137


and to show what he looks like vs 80 speed

View attachment 36138
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One thing I love about him is that he's rarely an easy out. He has incredible patience and calm at the plate for a kid who has been in the majors for five minutes, and many of his at bats are battles. 5-6 pitches and then often a walk or hit.
 
Bateman just seems like a useful guy to have around. Sort of like Lukes, someone you're okay to have in the lineup. If one of them were a righty, they'd make a great platoon. Although in very limited action, Bateman has actually been able to hit lefties, so that could also potentially give him an edge if he's not just a platoon bat. Lukes was mildly playable against lefties in 2025, but this year has been hella bad.
 
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