Artificial Turf Wars

Josh (Howsam) and Josh (Kusnick) look back at the first two games of the World Series, look ahead to the what the Jays will need to do in the next couple if they want to win the series and finish things off with a bizarre rumour surrounding the Jays Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s time to take a trip around the Toronto Blue Jays farm system. Your driver, Tyler Zickel, the play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canadians, will shuttle you across the continent as he speaks to his fellow play-by-play voices in the Blue Jays system, bringing you the latest news from across the organization. It’s the Around the Nest podcast. First up, Tyler speaks with Buffalo Bisons broadcaster Pat Malacaro about how the Bisons will be moving into a spoiler role as the regular season winds down. Pat tells us about the rehab visit of the newest member of the organization, former Cy Young Award winner, Shane Bieber, the spillover effect of the earlier promotion of Will Robertson had on players like Riley Tirotta, and the naming of the broadcast booth at Sahlen Field after Buffalo baseball, Hall of Famer and Pat fellow broadcaster Duke McGuire. Next up, Dunedin Blue Jays play-by-play voice and Johnny King doppelgänger Eli Fishman tells us all about the scintillating young lefthanded pitching prospect, as well as some of the new faces currently having an impact on the D-Jays lineup. In the three hole for this edition, it’s a two for one special, it’s Tyler speaks with New Hampshire Fisher Cats play by play voices, Joe Pratt, and the winged but not out Chris Jared, grinding it out after some lip surgery. Joe and Chris talk about the loss of starters Juaron Watts-Brown and Khal Stephen at the trade deadline, the continuing brilliance of Trey Yesavage (who was just promoted to Buffalo), the struggles of Fisher Cats hitters to make contact, and an upcoming two week road trip as the double-A affiliate's season winds down. Hitting cleanup is Tyler’s broadcast partner Chris Georges. The pair of Monty’s Mounties’ voices wax eloquent about RHP Fernando Perez and his assault on the strike zone, leaving plenty of weak contact in his wake. Like their fellow affiliates, the C’s are moving into the spoiler role as the Northwest League season winds down. Many of the team’s first half “glue guys” have been promoted, leaving Vancouver with a lineup on the younger side. The Around the Nest podcast: it’s Blue Jays farm system news that you can use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second episode of Around the Nest, the Blue Jays minor league podcast, host Tyler Zickel (the play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canadians) takes listeners on another continent criss-crossing look around the Toronto Blue Jays farm system. First stop on the tour is a visit with Buffalo Bisons broadcaster Pat Malacaro, who was with the Bisons in Allentown, PA. Pat and Tyler talk about how the inclement northeastern weather has continued to have an impact on the Bisons. They also touch on players like Braydon Fisher and Paxton Schultz who came from other organizations, and have been called up to the big leagues. Players going the other way, like Alan Roden and Davis Schneider, were discussed, and the conversation ends with a fond farewell to Steward Berroa, off to the Dodgers after being designated for assignment to make room on the Blue Jays 40-man roster for Fisher. Next up, Tyler’s colleague in the C’s broadcast booth, Chris Georges, stops by. Tyler and Chris detail Trey Yesavage’s Northwest League debut, Sean Keys’ graduation from Bucknell with a mechanical engineering degree, and the C’s struggle in one-run games. With all the promotions to AA that took place last week, both express surprise that Pat Gallagher–who has been Vancouver’s most reliable bullpen arm–was not elevated to New Hampshire as well. In the 3-spot for this episode is the voice of the Dunedin Blue Jays, Eli Fishman, fresh off his own graduation from Ithaca College as well. Two bats making a lot of noise for the D-Jays right now are Edward Duran and Sam Shaw, and Eli talks in detail about their contributions to Dunedin’s offence. With some big league rehabbers in town about to move on, Eli and Tyler speculate about some possible promotions from the Florida Complex League like Carson Messina, Johnny King, Landen Maroudis, and Silvano Hechavarria. Hitting cleanup is the tag team of Bob Lipman and Chris Jared, play-by-play men for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Just like the Bisons, the weather has played havoc with the Fisher Cats’ schedule, and Bob talks about how the team adapts to that. Chris discusses the impressive double-A debut of Grant Rogers, and how the highlight reel defence of Cade Doughty has helped stabilize New Hampshire’s shaky defence. Ryan McCarty and the Iowa Meat Truck himself, Peyton Williams, also came up for discussion. Travel all around the Blue Jays farm system without ever leaving your living room with this second episode of the Around the Nest podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The broadcasters from the Buffalo Bisons, New Hampshire Fisher Cats, and Vancouver Canadians look back at the 2024 season in the Blue Jays minor league system. Pat Malacaro (triple-A Buffalo) leads off with host Tyler Zickel (high-A Vancouver) to talk about a Bisons season that did not turn out as expected, with the likes of Leo Jimenez and Addison Barger spending a lot of time in Toronto with the big league team, Orelvis Martinez serving a big part of the season on suspension, and pitchers Ricky Tiedemann and Chad Dallas finding themselves on the injured list. This forced the Bisons to adopt the "next-man-up mentality", exemplified by Alan Roden who struggled after being promoted from double-A before finishing very strong. Andrew Bash and Paxton Schultz solidified the Bisons' pitching, Will Robertson had a strong finish to a good bounceback year, and Payton Henry became a hero coming back from a horrific head injury, hearing loss, and the death of his brother. The 20th season of Fisher Cats baseball did not turn out the way the team wanted; however, Chris Jared and Bob Lipman (double-A New Hampshire) are excited about the return of some of the team and players coming up from Vancouver in 2025. Alan Roden and Josh Kasevich were noted as having made a huge impact at the level before their promotions to Buffalo, RJ Schreck, Charles McAdoo, and Yohendrick Pinango were fun to watch after their acquisitions at the trade deadline, former water polo player Johnathan Lavallee just shoved for the team down the stretch, and Eric Pardinho, who has lost the top-prospect shine, was a dominant reliever at double-A. Tyler and broadcasting partner Chris Georges (high-A Vancouver) were sad to see the Canadians' season ending with a walkoff hit-by-pitch in the Northwest League Championship, but they were proud to see the team keeping the series with the Spokane Indians relatively close given that Vancouver was 8-20 against that team during the regular season. Jace Bohrofen took a couple of months to adjust to professional baseball, but then blew up in the second half, including August in which he OPSed 1.055. After being signed out of independent baseball, Je'Von Ward made a big impact both at the plate and in the outfield for the C's, Jackson Hornung continued to hit all year despite his transition from catcher to first base to outfield, and Peyton Williams may have been too good for high-A. On the mound, Kendry Rojas and Lazaro Estrada were spicy punches, and Ryan Jennings' stuff and dumpster were things to behold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The second half of the Minor League Baseball season seemed to have just started and teams are getting ready to put their feet up for a breather as they enter All-Star Game weekend. With the trade deadline coming soon after, the Blue Jays' minor league broadcasters are gearing up for various roster machinations that could affect their teams. The episode starts with the Voice of the Buffalo Bisons Pat Malacaro inviting long-time New Hampshire Fisher Cats broadcaster Bob Lipman to join him to call some triple-A games in Worcester. Then, Pat reports on his team, who have been in a funk. However, things are looking up as Riley Tirotta continues to be consistent at the plate, newcomer Gabriel Cancel has had a white-hot start, and Chad Dallas has returned to good health. Diving into Aaron Sanchez's return, Pat tells us that he is going through the process of learning how to become a new kind of pitcher now that he's not throwing as hard. From Manchester, Bob is joined by Chris Jared who showed off the Fisher Cats' 2011 Eastern League Trophy replica giveaway (Saturday, July 13). Nominative determinism (and the Cavan Biggio trade) have brought reliever Braydon Fisher to the 2024 Cats team where he has been showing off a curveball that could be better than Adam Macko's. Chris also tells us about Ryan McCarty on and off the field and Deveraux Harrison's success in their rotation, while Bob reassures us that Cade Doughty just needs some more time to settle into double-A life. With our host Tyler Zickel in Portland, Chris Georges has been handling the mic for the Vancouver Canadians this week. Since the second half, the C's have been red-hot with a 14-4 record to lead the second half standings. Chris and Tyler took this opportunity to heap praise on catchers Jackson Hornung and Robert Brooks. They are also looking at the success Payton Williams and Dasan Brown have been having and are thinking that they may be on their way to New Hampshire sooner rather than later. They also gawked at Grayson Thurman's splitter, which his teammates have rated as 80-grade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One month into the 2024 minor league season we get our first reports on the performance of Blue Jays prospects from low-A to triple-A from the Around The Nest crew. Host Tyler Zickel, the Voice of the Vancouver Canadians, is joined by long-time Nester Pat Malacaro (Buffalo Bisons) and newcomers Chris Jared (New Hampshire Fisher Cats) and Larry Larson (Dunedin Blue Jays). Leading off, Pat talks about the hot-hitting Bisons like Spencer "More Hits" Horwitz and Orelvis Martinez. The 2024 Bisons are arguably the most prospect-laden team since the Blue Jays affiliation. Chris actually makes his return from the podcast after his first debut in April 2017 talking about Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in Lansing. This time, he's talking about Josh Kasevich who has been making good contact, Alan Roden who has been getting on base, and Miguel Hiraldo's bad luck at the plate. The true newcomer Larry Larson checks in from Florida to talk about how the D-Jays' manager Jose Mayorga keeps it loose through a six-game winning streak in early April and their nine-game losing streak in late April and how things are going despite injuries to Brandon Barriera, Landen Maroudis, and Tucker Toman. Tyler wraps up the show with a report on the C's starters Ryan Jennings and Chris McElvain, rel;ievers Rafael Ohashi and Naswell Paulino, and hitters Ryan McCarty, Jace Bohrofen, Nick Goodwin, and Dasan Brown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Instead of the traditional 26 in 52, Nick and Josh break down the various sections of the roster and the strengths and weaknesses of each. They also answer listener questions and give their predictions for the 2024 season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh and Nick discuss the Jays offseason so far including the odd slow pace to the whole league, the somewhat confusing additions of Kevin Kiermaier and Isiah Kiner-Falefa and what they bring to the table, the depth signing of Yariel Rodriguez and his value to the club, Ross Atkins fanning the flames of the fanbase and finally, what comes next. They also answer listener questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Greg's final episode as the host of Artificial Turf Wars, he, Josh and Nick give out season ending awards in categories ranging from the obvious (best pitcher, favourite moment, team MVP, etc.) to the unusual (most unfairly maligned, bona fide or Bonifaco, etc.) including submissions from the listeners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brandon Warne of Access Twins and Locked on Twins joins the podcast (11:00) to preview the upcoming Wild Card series between Toronto and Minnesota. He goes over the changes to the roster since the Jays saw them earlier in the year, how the lineup stacks up even with some key players possibly unavailable due to injury and how the rotation and bullpen have been reshaped to provide support for a hot offence. Greg and Josh also talk about the end of the season notes and signs from the final two games as well as how the roster will look for the first round of the postseason. They also answer listener questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greg and Josh look at the recent events as the Jays enter the stretch run They discuss Biggio earning regular playing time with both improved hitting and, perhaps more importantly, defensively around the diamond, Bo finding his timing again, Vlad dealing with an injury that hopefully won’t linger, a tremendous rebound from the rotation following a rough turn against Texas, with an especially important 7 innings from Berríos, Cam Eden finally adding a true speed element to the bench, and Brandon Belt slowly making his way back from injury. They also answer listener questions and give out a Gold Star. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices