Laika

That's what he's said publicly, since the trade. AA would never lie to the fans and pay his own players lip service, right? If AA even likes Gose that much, he probably gives him the LF job rather than signing Melky.

Or maybe Miami/New York simply insisted on the right guys.

When does MLB.tv normally drop down to ~10 dollars or whatever?

Ryan Braun auction? I'll bid one whole Brandon Belt and half of a Jon Niese.

The Yanks have an insane amount of players/money coming off the books this winter. Cano, Robinson $15,000,000 FA Granderson, Curtis $15,000,000 FA Kuroda, Hiroki $15,000,000 FA Pettitte, Andy $12,000,000 FA Youkilis, Kevin $12,000,000 FA Rivera, Mariano $10,000,000 FA Hughes, Phil $7,150,000 FA Logan, Boone $3,150,000 FA Hafner, Travis $2,000,000 FA Chamberlain, Joba $1,875,000 FA Overbay, Lyle $1,250,000 FA TOTAL = $94,425,000 They'll give Cano ~25 per and still have a f*** ton of cash to throw around.

7/10. 8.5/10 given the context

Absolute robbery.... and I don't like Mike Olt very much at all.

Fangraphs' updated projected standings predict that Toronto will go 80-82. Tied for 13th last with the Phillies.

They're overrated at baseball ops due to some very lucky world series titles. Not saying they've been s*** long term, but IIRC they haven't even won a division title? And they've only made the playoffs twice? In other words, normalize their playoff luck and they're a 20 year franchise with little more than a couple of 90 win seasons and early playoff exits followed by optically displeasing firesales. I don't think the organization's reputation as a "shrewd cycler" is necessarily well deserved. I agree that if they had a better figurehead and PR team, they could be in a decent spot. Unfortunately they have a terrible, slimy villain art collector at the helm, and apparently not even a PR intern.

Like when they irreparably alienated their entire fanbase?

It's almost like they did it on purpose.... market inefficiency? Or simple ignorance (chasing gas instead of K's. i.e. chasing grades instead of production).

Miami has some weird starting pitchers now. Henderson throws mid 90s and doesn't miss ANY bats. Nathan Eovaldi sits 96 and he doesn't even K 6.0/9. Jacob Turner has always had good stuff and good velo, but he didn't even miss bats in AAA. Aside from Jose Fernandez, Kevin Slowey has the best strikeout rate in their rotation, and he sits 89.

Seven innings. One walk. One strikeout. Hendo is definitely back, baby!!!

Tough-sign high school pitcher.... duh.

I guess it's time for this? Sigh... Not including today: 1 Houston Astros 33-63 2 Miami Marlins 35-60 3 Chicago White Sox 38-56 4 Milwaukee Brewers 40-56 5 Minnesota Twins 41-53 6 San Diego Padres 43-55 7 New York Mets 42-51 8 Chicago Cubs 43-52 9 Seattle Mariners 45-52 10 Toronto Blue Jays 45-51 11 San Francisco Giants 45-51 12 Kansas City Royals 45-49 13 Colorado Rockies 47-51 14 Los Angeles Angels 46-49 15 Washington Nationals 48-49 Two top 11 picks would be kewl. Seattle is up 10-0 on Houston right now. Mets won 5-0.

I thought he did pretty well to get Wheeler + a 1st + an ok prospect. But yeah, that trade would've really sunk your team this year. You and him would probably be flip flopped in the standings.

Sure, but any rational person has thought this all along. His s***** year so far doesn't even really move the needle. Still, he could be one hell of a part time player. Imagine if Rajai Davis walked twice as much and could play a mint CF, while making 500k... you'd have a most ideal 4th OF / platoon player.

I'm gonna go out on a flimsy limb and say that Anthony Gose just has a case of the "AAA's". Sometimes young players get bored and disinterested when they feel like they should have been in the big leagues a while ago. Gose has never repeated a level. He probably had 2013 penciled in as his first full MLB season.

So f***ing stupid.

Probably neither. Sorry. I'll take "decent middle reliever with power stuff and inconsistent results". And that of course is IF he stays healthy.

Sure he was

I'd like to say that there is a 0% chance of this happening, but AA's trade history won't let me. - Traded young assets for 1/2 a year of Brandon Lyon, when the team had virtually no chance of making the playoffs. - In the Dickey trade, dealt a heck of a lot for 1 year of control, showing that he'll include extensions (contingent or possible) into his trade calculus. Assuming the Cubs can't get a type A prospect for Garza, in a Wheeler-for-Beltran type of rental raping, then I could see AA sending B pieces for him and trying hard to get an extension done. Because, you know, Garza had a decent ERA for a few years in the AL East back when he was on the other side of his physical prime. Ugh #LOLThisTeam!

Simmer down. Even s***** players can have a hot month or two. Looking at their YTD slashlines, I don't see what's so positive. Smoak has a freaking .146 ISO. The kids problem has always seemed, to me at least, to be that he just doesn't have plus power, despite the massive frame. He has a power hitter's approach, and maybe 55 grade pop on a good day. Hence the 3.5 year BABIP of .266 Now a Hosmer "breakout", I could buy. Having seen him play a bit this year, it does kind of look like he's figured something out. Still nothing special though, at least not right now. He's maybe gone from sad bust to massively overrated young league average type 1B (Freddie Freeman's former office).

Didn't watch the game (hardly watch at all anymore. It's amazing how terrible the product is, with what happened in the offseason). How did Lawrie look at 2nd? I want meaningless one game scouting reports on the 20-80 scale, by respected posters only.

Ok, I'll bite. a) It's pretty hard for someone to strike out 31% of the time and keep producing like he's been producing, for the long term. His HR/FB seems perhaps a bit unsustainably high, judging from his own career mean (17.6% right now vs. 12.1% career, and 13.2% last year in Toronto). Now, if Colby has indeed figured a little something out, this HR/FB% figure could totally be true talent legit.... it's just a little early to say so. c) His BABIP seems a little bit lucky right now, judging from his batted ball profile and his career mean BABIP. Insert nearly identical second sentence as in here. d) He's done this before in Blue (good looking partial season). 2012 Colby had a 120 wRC+ in the first half, and a 38! wRC+ in the second half. That's .259/.328 with 17 HR vs. .176/.238 with a measly 6 round trippers. Right now he's .261/.324 with 16 HR, remarkably similar to his first half last year. Disclaimer: I really like Colby, as a player and as a person. I think he's a good CF and I think he's an aesthetically pleasing entity in this particular spectator sport. But people are completely justified in withholding their praise. Let's wait and see what Gump brings in the 2nd half