BTS

If he was betting on his team it's a lifetime ban as far as I know.

Guy was already in the majors starting regularly with a very good ERA. He has to believe that he's 1-2 years away from millions per season, and 4-5 years away from a contact worth tens of millions. I can't fathom f***ing with that by throwing games. There's also the pride issue. How do you get to that level and not want to have the best career you possibly can? The whole thing just blows my mind.

http://nypost.com/2015/03/25/the-one-fastball-masahiro-tanaka-is-leery-of-throwing/ However, Tanaka did offer an explanation why we haven’t seen his fastball push speed guns into the mid-90s so far this spring training. “The reason for the 88, 89, 90 [mph] is that I am throwing two-seamers,’’ Tanaka said of the fastball gripped to sink and not with the velocity of a four-seamer. After saying his four-seamer got hit hard last season when he dominated hitters until suffering a small tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in July, Tanaka has used this spring to refine the two-seamer. “The reason I am not throwing it much is because a lot of the four-seamers were hit last year,’’ Tanaka said. “I am doing this on purpose.’’ According to the Yankees’ analytical department, Tanaka’s velocity (89-to-92) Wednesday against the Mets, is in the same range as a year ago.

I like Matz, but the only piece I have that would get it done is Abreu, and I can't move him.

So he sat 88 for three innings, before getting back to his usual area, and still struck out 6 and walked 1 over 4 innings, this after looking phenomenal in his first 7 innings. Better just give him TJS now.

Lol @ 'looks awful'

Tanaka looked fantastic in his first two starts. Didn't see him today, but sitting low 90s is pretty normal.

lol, that's awesome

Isn't there a lot more to be gained by putting up the best numbers you can and getting a big contract?

IIRC it was the season immediately after they did the same thing with Vizquel, who was a disaster on the field and a clubhouse distraction, which makes it worse.

Actually, now that I check he sucked too lol. Awful defense and a league-average bat.

No. I'm saying that this FO has done nothing at all to warrant your stance of "If the team says a player is ready, I trust them enough to ignore evidence suggesting that he isn't". This FO has a long track record of neglecting to round the 25-man out with quality talent, and as a result has been forced to give their league-min AAA talent roster spots to start the year. We've seen this story before. Consideration of Sanchez's results to date tells me (and a lot of other people) that Sanchez probably isn't going to be successful in the rotation this year. The FO's track record isn't such that their endorsement makes me reconsider my stance.

Of course. Just less wrong than the Jays FO has tended to be when it comes rounding out the 25 man roster.

Replace Sanchez with Goins, JPA, Thames or Sierra. More often than not, internet consensus has been right and the FO has been wrong when it comes to situations like this.

Now that I think about it, recent guys who the forum had a consensus "plz don't do this" opinion about: Thames, JPA, Goins, Vizquel, Sierra, Thole DeRosa is one of the only players I can think of that we didn't want, and who actually played well.

I'm pretty sure that when it comes to opinion on preseason 25-man decisions, the 100+ IQ bluejaysmessageboard.com posters are way ahead of the Blue Jays front office.

your dumn

People keep posting about everyone 'giving up' on Sanchez. What does this even mean? The biggest pessimists on the forum as far as Sanchez is concerned are skeptical that his skill set will translate well to the rotation, and would prefer he work on a 3rd pitch and hopefully dominate at AAA, or get traded if some other GM values him higher than some of his red flags dictate that maybe he should. Nobody is saying that he should be discarded.

Allow me to be the first to tell you that nobody but you gives a s***.

Votto is like 55% better than Phillips offensively.

lol ang

Brandon Phillips is a f***ing idiot lol

"I don't do that MLB Network on-base percentage (stuff),'' Phillips told USA TODAY Sports. "I think that's messing up baseball. I think people now are just worried about getting paid, and worrying about on-base percentage, instead of just winning the game. "That's the new thing now. I feel like all of these stats and all of these geeks upstairs, they're messing up baseball, they're just changing the game. It's all about on-base percentage. If you don't get on base, then you suck. That's basically what they're saying. People don't care about RBI or scoring runs, it's all about getting on base. "Why we changing the game after all of this time? If we all just took our walks, nobody would be scoring runs. Nobody would be driving anybody in or getting anybody over. How you going to play the game like that. People don't look at doing the things the right way, and doing things to help your team win. "I remember back in the day you hit .230, you suck. Nowadays, you hit .230, with a .400 on-base percentage, you're one of the best players in the game. That's amazing. I've never seen (stuff) like that. Times have changed. It's totally different now. "But that's just me. "And I don't give a damn what people think about me.''

You sonofabitch

I'll probably nab him in the waiver draft next year as a late-week SB play.