Taking a deep dive into CJ Van Eyk’s first outing in 619 days

619 days.

The last time CJ Van Eyk pitched in a professional baseball game was 619 days before Sunday’s return to action with the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays.
The 24-year-old right-handed pitcher threw his last baseball on August 26th, before receiving Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, as he stated in an interview with CsPlusBaseball’s Niall O’Donohoe.

The 2020 second-round pick made his return with the Dunedin Blue Jays on Sunday. Let’s take a look at the play-by-play of that game.
Taking a deep dive on Van Eyk’s first game of 2023:
He generated a swing and miss against the first batter he faced. On the fourth pitch, the batter lined out to right field. Van Eyk walked the next batter on six pitches, before getting the next batter to flyout. Up next was Carlos Aguiar, who singled to Jaden Rudd. Danny De Andrade, who had walked, made a foolish decision to run on Jaden Rudd, who threw him out at third.
In the second inning, he got Minnesota prospect Ricardo Olivar to ground out. The next batter struck out looking on a 92.6 mph pitch which Savant considers a curveball, but it was likely the fastball with a ton of sink. The next batter reached on an error, before Van Eyk generated his second ground out of the inning.
In the third inning, Van Eyk got a flyout, before Jorel Ortega had the only extra-base hit of the inning. A wild pitch and a walk put runners on the corners with one out, before the 24-year-old got a timely ground ball to end the third inning and his first outing in 619 days.
The metrics:
Anytime you can confuse Baseball Savant into thinking you are throwing a 93.9 mph curveball, you’re doing something right.
Van Eyk threw 25 fastballs, which averaged 92 mph. Moreover, the hardest fastball he threw was 94.4 mph, which also had the highest spin rate of 2292 RPM. The slo …

Read More

Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Boston completes the sweep of Toronto with a dominant 11-4 win

The Blue Jays straight up did not have a good time in Boston!
This four-game set against the Red Sox went about as bad as it could have gone, as Boston completed a dominant sweep of Toronto with a 11-5 win tonight. Boston had this game in hand from the very beginning, highlighted by a 5-run second inning that was a nightmare for Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman. This loss also exceeds the loss total against the Red Sox from all of last season.
Blue Jays Nation’s Player of the Game: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Vladdy had his third consecutive two-hit game going 2-for-4 with two RBIs, including a towering solo home run and a RBI double. His home run went 403 feet and was hit 108 miles off the bat, and it tied Bo Bichette for the team lead in home runs with 7.

After his 450-footer over the Green Monster earlier in this series, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit this one 441.
Here’s some real footage of a good thing happening to the #BlueJays today: pic.twitter.com/rUhzT2oeUX
— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) May 4, 2023

Things worth mentioning:
Kevin Gausman: There was a lot of confidence heading into today’s game, as sending Gausman to the hill when the team needed a win sounded like a good situation to be in. Gausman had thrown 14 straight scoreless innings heading into this game in wins over the Yankees and the Mariners, and had just set a career-high in strikeouts in the latter outing.
Conversely, things simply did not go well for him much at all tonight. The scoreless innings streak was snapped right away as Gausman allowed a home run from Mas …

Read More

Author: Evan Stack / Blue Jays Nation

Three x-factors for the Maple Leafs heading into their first round matchup against the Lightning

The time has finally come. The 82-game regular season has ended, and the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs are set to begin tonight. As we know, Toronto’s opponent in the first round is none other than last year’s opponent, the Tampa Bay Lightning.
It’s not shocking at all that these two teams are matched up with each other again, to be honest. They were the first two teams to lock in their matchup and although it wasn’t confirmed months ago, we all kind of knew they were set to play each other around Christmas time.
However, despite these two teams being in the same division, knowing each other pretty well and just playing each other last playoffs, there’s always one or two key x-factors for a team come playoff time, and in this case, I have picked three x-factors for the Toronto Maple Leafs as they prepare to face the team that has gone to three straight finals.
 
 
1. Ryan O’Reilly
2022-23 stats: 53 GP – 16 G – 14 A – 30 PTS – 17:56 TOI
2022-23 stats with TOR: 13 GP – 4 G – 7 …

Read More

Author: Joseph Zita / The Leafs Nation

Knies and the playoffs, GM opening panic, and an ideal draft lottery outcome: Leaflets

Knies and the playoffs, GM opening panic, and an ideal draft lottery outcome: Leaflets

I don’t think there is a time of the year that I am truly more excited about hockey than the few day window between the regular season and the postseason. I’m so happy the season has come to a close and the playoffs still are a reason for hope and excitement. As soon as the puck drops I’ll stop pooping until the Leafs’ fate is decided.
In this small window of fun reflection and looking forward, I’ve got my weekly stray thoughts. Let’s get to them.
Fitting Knies into the Leafs playoff lineup
To say that Leafs fans are excited about Matthew Knies is an understatement. He’s quickly shown that he has the skill set to be a part of an NHL lineup, it’s just a matter of getting him into some practices between now and Tuesday to see if he truly belongs in the Leafs Game One lineup.
If the philosophy is to take a gamble on the upside from the beginning, the Leafs will probably go with Knies. That doesn’t seem like a decision that most NHL coaches would make. There’s a lot more risk aversion than that as well as there needs to be some conside …

Read More

Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Realistic expectations for Knies, fixing the Leafs’ top six, and playing Gustafsson: Leaflets

It’s Leaflet time and I feel like I’d be doing a disservice to myself if I didn’t immediately start off by complaining about the lack of NHL hockey last night. The NHL not only had an empty evening but chose to miss the opportunity for some daytime hockey as well, which certainly would have been welcomed by most hockey fans. Thankfully the Women’s World Hockey Championship filled the primetime void and the debut of Dennis Hildeby for the Marlies gave us some Leafs content, but with less than a week to go and teams with five games left on their schedule, it was a wild decision.
Now Leaflets…
Going on record one last time about Matthew Knies
Today’s National Championship game is likely the last game Matthew Knies will play in the NCAA. That’s nothing new and honestly, Knies getting a chance to play out his goal of reaching the National Championship rather than getting him earlier in the spring is going to be better for both Knies and the Leafs long term.
It has been interesting to see how the Frozen Four tournament has played out for Knies and it certainly bares a resemblance to how he’s performed on the biggest stages previously, both at the Olympics and the World Jun …

Read More

Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Bruins edge Leafs 2-1 in a second round playoff preview: Game Highlights

The Leafs and Bruins faced off for the final time in the regular season on Thursday night. It was a low scoring, chippy affair that felt a lot like a playoff preview. Of course, the Leafs will have to win a round first, but there is a good chance these two squads meet again in the postseason. Below are the highlights from the game.
There weren’t many quality scoring chances early in the first period. The game’s first notable highlight came in the form of a fight. AJ Greer took exception to Sam Lafferty’s hit on Matt Grzelcyk. Then the two depth forwards engaged in a spirited tilt. The Leafs went to powerplay afterward due to an instigator penalty on Greer…

Lafferty and Greer drop the mitts! 🥊 pic.twitter.com/aEFc0tzNEu
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 6, 2023

Jake DeBrusk had one of Boston’s better opportunities of the first period. Ilya Samsonov turned his wrister away with the shoulder…

high shot off the shoulder for Sammy pic.twitter.com/nhGbH1Epua
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 6, 2023

The goaltending battle continued in the second period. The two teams traded chances partway through the middle frame. Samsonov’s save started the counter attack for the Leafs but Jeremy Swayman read the play perfectly and denied William Nylander…

Both goalies are locking it down so far to keep the game tied 0-0. 🔒 pic.twitter.com/0LNV9J9Om7
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 7, 2023

Toronto finally broke the deadlock more than halfway through the game. David Pastrnak had an uncharacteristic turnover leaving his defensive zone. Sam Lafferty intercepted the careless pass, got the puck deep, drove the net and deposited the game’s first goal…

Starts with LaffsEnds with Laffs! pic.twitter.com/RWKhbxfBOj
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) April 7, 2023

The Leafs held onto the lead for most of the third period but one goal is rarely enough t …

Read More

Author: Scott Ony / The Leafs Nation

Toronto Blue Jays 2023 Aggregated Top Prospects: Part 2

As described last time, I sorted my sources into “Pro” and “Fan” lists, even though I’m sure those in the latter set might rightfully object to being described as “just” fan blog sources.

My intention, in part, is to allow a comparison between what the major presumable well-resourced publications concluded and what well-equipped sources say. This list is aggregated from eight such sources (I actually had nine but 11-30 were behind a paywall and I’ve already paid for one list for last week’s column so I dropped it). Even so, these sources range from 15 to 50 so I choose to use the same 30-point system. Which provokes the previously noted inadvertent tiers in the point totals. Still, I’d rather have this than a too-short list.
There are two different writer’s lists from Fantrax, as well as Pitcher’s List (a fantasy source), Prospects1500, P361, the Batter’s Box list, the just finished Bluebird Banter list, and Brennan’s Top 50 here at BJN. The commentary on these will be much more brief, if at all, because 17 of the 20 names overlap.

Rickey Tiedemann – LHP – 240 points
You thought it would be someone else?
Addison Barger – SS/3B – 227
He landed at #2 on six of the eight lists involved here. My guess is that he plays at least 2/3 of the time at SS as long as Martinez is in AA, and when Orelvis gets promoted (theoretically) the two of them will split SS and 3B more or less evenly. He’ll also get enough run in the OF to see if he’s competent out there.
Orelvis Martinez – SS/3B – 223
You can note the closeness of the point totals in this tier, the top four here were the top four, in various orders, on six of the eight lists surveyed. The organization would LOVE for him to establish that he’d learned from and corrected his failings last year in the first 6-8 …

Read More

Author: Tammy Rainey / Blue Jays Nation

A couple of CHL free agents for the Leafs to consider

It’s that fun time of the year when we got a number of NCAA free agent signings, a few European free agent signings, and a handful of Canadian junior signings mixed in as well. For the most part, the Leafs have focused their efforts on the European signings and those often come later in the spring, there have been a handful of NCAA free agent signings like Alex Steeves, Max Ellis, and well… I guess that’s it save for a lot of AHL signings. That tends to be Leafs preferred strategy of late anyway, but we’ll look at a couple of potential options that might be worth the Leafs busting out the NHL standard player contracts, after all, if they can take a gamble on Max Ellis, they can gamble on these guys too.
The Leafs also have only 31 committed to contracts for next season out of 50, so they can start having some fun on swing for the fences overagers. They only have three picks in the June draft, so restocking the prospect pool wouldn’t be a bad thing,
So let’s get to the prospects. Both were highlighted on 32 Thoughts this Saturday by Jeff Marek, and while there were a couple of defensemen mentioned as well, I’ve opted to zero in on the two centers that were discussed.
Ivan Ivan
Ivan Ivan …

Read More

Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Cavan Biggio hits a home run, Drew Hutchison has a good outing, and more as the Blue Jays split the split squad games (again)

For the second time in spring training, the Blue Jays split the split squad games.

In the televised game, they beat the team from Atlanta 3-1, while they lost 6-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays in the untelevised game.
Let’s start with the win.
The Blue Jays’ 3-1 win against Atlanta:
It was nice to get off the schneid with a win on National TV. There were quite a few players that deserved the player of the game, but I went with…
Blue Jays Nation’s player of the game: Nathan Lukes
There were two homers in this game (which we’ll get to), but today we’re going to go with the 28-year-old Nathan Lukes as the player of the game.
His impact on the game was immediate, as he registered the first out of the game on an outstanding catch in centre field.

Nathan Lukes (@nathan_lukes) with an incredible catch to start the game and get the first out.
Very good defender.#BlueJays pic.twitter.com/HTBPb7hXTL
— Brennan Delaney (@Brennan_L_D) March 9, 2023

Lukes also went 2-3, with all three of the batted balls registering an exit velocity of over 95 mph (hard hit). Furthermore, his ground out had an exit velocity of 110.1 mph a game-high. Moreover, he could have easily been his third hit of the game had the first baseman not been positioned perfectly.

Nathan Lukes (@nathan_lukes) may mess around and win the Blue Jays Nation player of the game award.
2-2 today, along with an outstanding catch in centre field.
95.9 mph exit velocity here.#BlueJays pic.twitter.com/kZpqJvyQgH
— Brennan Delaney (@Brennan_L_D) March 9, 2023

Added to the 40-man roster in November, Lukes is looking for his first MLB plate appearance, and there’s a good chance he gets that this season.
Things worth mentioning:
Kevin Gausman looked more comfortable in his start this afternoon. He pitched 3.2 innings, allowing two hits, but struck out two. He has yet to allow an earned run this spring training, and hi …

Read More

Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Ugly OG Anunoby showing proves Raptors should have traded him at deadline

Ugly OG Anunoby showing proves Raptors should have traded him at deadline

There once was a time when OG Anunoby was viewed as one of the few untouchable players on the Toronto Raptors roster. Long thought of as one of the most underrated and versatile defenders in the NBA with his offense improving every season, Anunoby is the archetype of the ideal Masai Ujiri player. The script […]
Ugly OG Anunoby showing proves Raptors should have traded him at deadline – Raptors Rapture – Raptors Rapture – A Toronto Raptors Fan Site – News, Blogs, Opinion and More

Read More

Author: Mike Luciano / Raptors HQ