Laika

"SO LONG SARTORI: Friday was Jay Sartori’s final day as Blue Jays assistant general manager before leaving for California to join Apple as manager of the App Store’s sports and entertainment category. Sartori had been with the team since September 2010, handling contracts, arbitration and collective bargaining related matters, among other tasks." Oh, you mean the only things that Toronto has consistently handled well? Greeeat....

49 million for the age 33-36 seasons of a previously overrated middle infielder who just posted a measly 2.6 fWAR in a fully healthy season. Phillips is a 'meh' player and a negligible asset, with an inflated ego. So the Jays, of course, will probably target him and pay way too much.

That would be a tough one. Phillips is probably a little bit of a safer play, but considering ages here, there's a chance that Phillips is done as an above average 2B while Rasmus is just getting started as a consistent above average CF. I could go either way on it. I think I would lean towards keeping Colby, maybe just because of a "devil you know" type of thing. Also, Phillips is a douche and I like Colby.

Really, Brett Anderson can't be worth very much right now. Just one more year of control and he's literally never held up for a full season. But I don't really see the depth in Oakland for them to let him go for cheap. Parker Gray Straily Anderson Griffin Milone Colon is a FA and they probably won't retain him.

"To No49: 96 pick in waiver draft 111 MILB draft To BTS: 33 in waiver draft" My MiLB 6th rounder would be available in a similar fashion to this if anyone wants a "free" pick for next summer's Rule 4.

I agree. He's obviously a first division 2B, but he doesn't really seem like a fantasy monster anymore. His last 2 fantasy years were solid but mostly because of his position, make him an OF and he's probably more of an ~80 O-Rank type of player (like an Alex Gordon). Pretty fair deal. Could swing wildly depending on how those prospects develop. Carlos Martinez could get bullpen'd in STL and turn into nothing but a Holds guy, or he could be given a real chance to start and turn into a high K #2 type, or whatever.

I like sammy's end. Good buy low on a surprisingly young Assdribble + Gray is already doing neat-o stuff in the big leagues + Colby is gravy. Can hardly believe that Desmond is actually the older SS.

I like Sickels' info and descriptions a lot more than I tend to like his grades and rankings.

Oh, I totally agree. Unfortunately, with this front office, what they could/should do and what they can/will do are completely different subjects.

I'm not even saying that they should try to "win" a trade with Texas. I just think that a fair trade with the Rangers could hold good value for Toronto.

I really think that one of the best and most creative / efficient ways to "fix" the team in the short term is to deal Bautista. The Rangers are a perfect fit. No, they aren't going to give up Profar for him. But the Jays would be able to ask for Kinsler +, and that plus would come from a fairly deep farm system. Bautista was born in Oct/1980 and he's under contract for two more years at an AAV of 14M + a team option at the same amount. Kinsler was born in June/1982 and he's under contract for four more yeats at an AAV of 15.5M + a team option at 12M (with a 5M buyout that I've included in the 4 year AAV). Bautista is objectively better. In the last 2 years he's produced 7.2 fWAR in just 927 PA. That's a WAR/150 of 5.14. The year before (2011) he was worth 7.7 wins in 655 PA. Kinsler in the last 2 years has put up just 5.5 total fWAR in 1345 PA. That's a WAR/150 of just 2.82. But the year before (2011), he was worth a lofty 7.3 wins, and he has a couple of nearly 5 win years on his resume before that. So the upside is there. Bautista has been better, but that's why the Blue Jays can justifiably ask for a fair chunk more than just Kinsler. Bautista is also 2 years older and *might* be breaking down a bit, so whether he'll be much better going forward is up for debate. Kinsler has been fairly healthy in the last few years after looking like he might be a somewhat injury prone guy a few seasons ago. He also has 2 more years of control at a not unreasonable rate, which would extend some of the contractual control that Toronto currently has on its core players. It's a lot easier to plug a corner OF hole in free agency than it is to plug a middle infield hole. It's not all about straight wins, sometimes it's about peer relative wins. A 4 win player might be a better option than a 6 win player, if the 4 win guy plays a position where almost all free agent options are more or less replacement level. You can trade your 6 for the 4 + a legit arm/prospect or whatever, then go sign a 2 in free agency to fill the hole you made by dealing the 6, and come out on top. Last 3 years Kinsler has been the #4 2B in baseball, with 12.8 wins. Last 3 years Bautista has been the #7 OF in baseball, with 15 wins. Bautista also kind of seems like a selfish whiny suckface who might have a bad or weird clubhouse influence (not that I would place any value in conjecture like this). What if they could land, like, Kinsler and Matt Harrison? or Kinsler and Feliz? or Kinsler, Ogando, and Luke Jackson? Or anything in that vein.

Gut/rebuild wouldn't make very much sense given how, uh, in deep the team is already. Doesn't make sense to get in up to your neck and then decide the water's too cold. There are smart and efficient way to trade key pieces for what is needed, trade minor league assets for what's needed, and sign free agents to fill some holes. It won't be easy and I have almost no confidence in the FO's ability to put it all together, but it's not impossible.

Money is a thing

DRGAF what Steamer says, I think Goins is a meh bench piece at the very most but I'd still take him over Thole or Cibs, and I don't think it's even that close. I'd take Jimenez over Goins though. I agree with the earlier poster who said that 2B and C are both gaping buttholes that need to plugged. f***ing ugly positions. It's silly as hell to even argue about which one could be left alone. At the absolute very least, sign a couple of cheap buttplugs like Kelly Johnson or John Buck (or one of their peers).

A coach's hitting tendencies as a player seem to have very little to do with how they coach. At a glance it seems like a non-factor, basically. The Red Sox are a famously patient ball team and their hitting coach for the last 2 years, Greg Colbrunn, had a 5.6% career walk rate. The Blue Jays were free swinging HR chasers under Dwayne Murphy, he of the 14.3% career walk rate. And of course, there are numerous hitting coaches who could never even hit in the show at all. Busts, career minor leaguers, etc. Coaching hitting and actually hitting major league pitching are two completely different things. People get way too concerned about how specific/potential coaches hit during their careers. But if I'm hiring a hitting coach, I'd probably prefer to hire a guy who never really had any substantial major league success. If you get a guy who could actually hit big league pitching, then you run the risk of having a coach that thinks they have the answers, a coach that thinks they know too much about what is essentially a non-science. I would want a humble and open minded hitting coach, not somebody who could potentially be blinded by their own experiences and inadvertently arrogant.

Then they have.... issues.

The fact of the matter is that the Blue Jays absolutely are not, and absolutely will not be, deep enough to afford a Pete Kozma type of experiment. They'll probably do it anyway though because they're dumb like you guys. And it'll probably work out too, because AA is due for another blind squirrel event.

Brett Lawrie is easily worth more than David Price. I don't even think it's a debatable topic. Ok, I mean "worth" more. Real baseball isn't exactly a rational market.

Promoting DeRosa into pseudo-retirement would probably be a greater net benefit to the 2014 Blue Jays than hiring any single specific free agent hitting coach out there.

No. Just..... no.

I think Mark DeRosa would make a great hitting coach!!!

probably not but let's pretend that's true

Best bet here is that Mottola just didn't fit in with the old boys clique. Maybe he started critically thinking a bit too much about hitting. Maybe he started describing hitting success in terms of weighted on base average instead of arbitrary 20-80 scale numbers. He made the mistake of trying to explain BABIP to Anthopoulos. He started telling guys like Lawrie and Rasmus to maybe be less aggressive at the plate, if they felt comfortable reeling it back a bit. But the last straw was when they found a copy of The Book and a tablet PC in his locker. That was just too much.

We'll talk next offseason after his Profarian leap to top 10 prospect status. And then again the year after that, when he's numero uno.

Judging from the Shields trade, if they move Price they'll be looking for a big fish. I doubt that they'd even consider Sanchez to be such a prize. The Jays don't have a d'Arnaud burning a hole in their pocket like last offseason, and I can't really see the division rivals getting exceptionally creative, so I think it's out of the question. Although, I'm sure that Tampa has taken note of the obvious value that one Ryan Goins brings to the table with his elite defense. Hmmm....