Laika

Quick and dirty sort of the negative WAR relievers He should have been decent/good but he wasn't. Bad luck. Swanson (-0.7) Romano (-0.3) Mayza (-0.2) It's your fault, Ross, for acquiring this guy and giving him so many innings. Pop (-0.6) Cabrera (-0.5) Little (-0.4) The neg WAR guys who are harder to categorize are Richards, Green, and Pearson. Green has good Stuff+ numbers but his K rate and FIP are lagging. Hard to know why. Pearson - not wrong to give him innings but he did not develop and instead performed "as expected". Richards - similar to Pearson. not a bad guy to have for $2M but he didn't do very well and was possibly used poorly. And of course, as has been said before, it's not just about the guys who were bad it's about the complete and utter lack of organizational depth behind them. Almost nobody stepped in and provided above replacement level RP innings. I mean, literally one guy did (Ryan Burr). The Blue Jays did not develop and promote and use a single RP prospect this year, other than Brandon Eisert. That sounds hard to believe but it's true.

suffer

He has a near .400 BABIP with the Mariners, a lot of this is luck One thing that isn't said very often is that when fast guys who are good baserunners get lucky, they get REALLY lucky because that bloop single turns into a SB and other value on the bases as well.

It is funny but should have been expected I guess As an amateur Bo was chubby and many scouts didn't even consider him a SS prospect He worked hard and trimmed out But he's a chubster by nature

I don't necessarily hate fat Bo I mean his career can go in two directions and he has to pick a lane tbh Direction A = skinny-ish SS with fringe defense, hits .280+ with 20 HR and some steals and okay baserunning Direction B = fatter 3B or 2B with average defense, hits .265 with closer to 30 HR, no steals and neg baserunning He can't be good at everything

Nimmala's line isn't even that weird anymore though. He could have linear development and end up with almost exactly the same line as an MLB player in a few years You know who the bull case comps actually are? And this is fun as f***... Oneil Cruz and Elly De La Cruz. NIMMALA - 18 years old - A ball - 8.3% BB 31.3% K, .245 ISO, .232./.313/.476 (121 wRC+) ONEIL - 18 years old - A ball - 7.5% BB 29.3% K, .102 ISO, .240/.293/.342 (79 wRC+) 19 years old - A ball repeated - 7.7% BB, 22.6% K, .201 IAO, .286/.343/.488 (134 wRC+) ELLY - 19 years old - A ball - 4.8% BB, 31% BB, .208 ISO, .269/.305/.477 (106 wRC+) (lost his age 18 year to Covid) ELLY and ONEIL in the MLB = 30%+ K rate dudes with .200 ISOs. 119 and 113 wRC+ this year from them. Even if you think he only has a 10 or 20% shot of making it, really all he needs to do is keep everything the same as he climbs the ladder. 30% K rates can work in MLB if you have power and secondary skills.

There is even a precedent Imagine if Gallo was a good shortstop

You guys DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND how many 1-2 WAR players Ross Atkins is going to produce in the next few years

- old age - league has a book on him 1500 pages long - weak muscles - forgot how to aim his line drives - cobwebs - karma - bad juju - rheumatoid arthritis - alzheimer's - just doesn't have it - Cialis side effect - God's plan

I dunno dudes A geezer underperforms his xStats for 1250 plate appearances consecutively... ... you sure it's just luck? you sure about that?

He's pretty young. Stupid decision, very immature, but I don't exactly blame a guy for being burnt out after catching an entire NCAA season and then a month in A ball. Who knows why he wanted the season to be over. Mental health issues? If it's gambling related then he is f***ed. If he was thinking the other team would return the favor so he could hit some cheap homers and look better than he is, then he is f***ed. But if he was just burnt out and is depressed or something, then some team probably will sign him for nothing and get a free s***** C prospect.

Springer ages 26-32 (2016 to 2022) .271/.358/.500 10.8% BB 20.0% K .203 ISO +3.7 BsR +4.3 SPD score 45 SB in 826 games -22.1 Def (talent + position adjustment) 42.7% Pull 35.8% hard hit (not statcast) 36.1% FB 45.1% GB 89.1 mph EV 116.4 maxEV 10.2% barrel Springer ages 33-34 (2023-2024) .241/.318/.393 9.3% BB 18.6% K .152 ISO +2.6 BsR +5.0 SPD score 34 SB in 288 games -14.6 Def (talent + position adjustment) 40% Pull 32.7% hard hit (not statcast) 34.1% FB 47.2% GB 88.1 mph EV 115.9 maxEV 8.4% barrel There are some weird trends there. The decline in raw power is expected, but why are the speed components of his game ticking up? Is he trying to cope with the change in his skills and provide value in other ways? It seems like there is an associated approach change and he is hitting the ball up the middle and on the ground more often. I wonder if this is sort of intentional or just a side effect of less bat speed. It would be frustrating to find out he is trying to defy the aging curve by slapping the ball around more and doing sprints all offseason so he can steal more bases... Like, a power hitter who is a .271/.358/.500 dude, who declines a bit, you would expect to maybe walk just as much or MORE as an old man but just hit for a lower average and with a bit less pop. Like Carlos Santana, who was .259/.366/.498 at age 30 and .240/.318/.429 at f***ing 37 years old. That's less hits but still a .189 ISO. Corner outfield guy like George, you kind of want him to age into a DH who can still do damage, right? George's power has declined more than it should have. There is a way out of this, and it's pretty simple, he needs to just find his old batted ball profile and pull it in the air a bit more. He won't do that and hit .271 anymore because that level of skill is gone, but can probably hit .230/.320/.430 or so instead of the not impactful .241/.318/.393 (101 wRC+) line he has provided in the last two years. Not a huge bump but that might be a 110 wRC+ or so. Which would be fine.

Also not the worst Some of these guys are good for like one season and then then into 0 WAR pumpkins At least Springer still does... some stuff

Also not the worst Some of these guys are good for like one season and then then into 0 WAR pumpkins At least Springer still does... some stuff

Francis is a bit of a command artist I guess I think his K rate could go up if he gets more confidence in his secondaries and throws them a bit more often next year Not that he necessarily has to since the fastball has good shape and can get outs. 50% fastballs will mean lower K rate but it might mean less walks and more efficient outings I guess Bailey Ober and Joe Ryan are comps The Twins would love this guy

He's also an injury risk because of the age Butter him up because He's Toast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what are you guys smoking he had a 104 wRC+ last year and has a 97 wRC+ this season. That is across over 1200 PA. he turns thirty-f***ing-five in 7 days I would love for him to be 18% better than league average with the stick but that doesn't strike me as at all likely

HOT NEW TORONTO BLUE JAYS WAIVER CLAIM RELIEVER!!!!!!!!!!!! Brett de Geus

Splits are funny I think his second half and first half wRC+ are identical He really just had one hot month, July

LOL that reaction I love him

I mean he is right, even if "playing the game the right way" is pretty heavy coded language that the Baseball Old Boys Conservation Club uses all the time Toronto continues to be one of the worst baserunning teams in baseball and a lot of that is just stupidity. They ground into double plays at an alarming rate, don't exactly rise to the occasion ever, they blow games, they are not clutch... the defense is not as solid as it was pre-deadline: Kirk - great Varsho - great Clement - fine but yips Vlad - s*** Barger - s*** Horwitz - s*** at 2B Wagner/Schneider at 2B - I mean these are guys you hide at 2B Schneider in LF - sucks Springer - bad What does this organization even do right? What do they do "the right way" at this point? They suck on talent and they suck on fundamentals, lol.

f*** that man Leave him in

Yeah but I think it was... "we have our main 3B but if Chapman falls in our lap I guess we can make IKF the UTIL" it wasn't really... "we have our plan B 3B but we are still going to shoot for Chappy"

lol it wasn't "bad" remember the context. The 3B FA/trade options were Chapman, Suarez, Candelario, or.... IKF. Nobody wanted B or C (B worked out well in hindsight!) and A made it almost impossible for Toronto to sign him. C was a pricey flop. Toronto paid $7.5M AAV for a guy who was a very high probability 1.5 WAR 450 PA 3B, given what was known about his defense and contact skills. There was also some weak evidence that he might be a better hitter than he'd shown (maxEV is decent) and getting anybody out of the New York pressure cooker seems like a good idea generally. It was a boring/safe signing with some interesting sprinkles and those sprinkles paid off very well. Boss Ross.

They are saying it was a bad signing and Ross got lucky.