Laika

Tommy Pham, who basically everyone here wanted as a buy low LF, is already at 0.8 WAR after signing late and free with the White Sox

Did buddy actually use Pearson in a 4-3 game? Does John Schneider even watch baseball???

Yeah nothing of substance "we have the talent and the time but we need to turn it around now" okay bro

I wonder if Ross will say anything worth listening to lmao lmwrdgikrsnglknglkfdngmf "ultimately it's on the players to perform" "we will continue to do the work to define the processes and provide the tools and information to everyone in our organization to be the best they can be" you just know he is going to get 7 softball questions and then maybe the rest will be about Alek Manoah because none of these reporters know what to ask they won't ask why no hitting coaches have been fired they won't ask about his accountability for the farm system not developing enough talent they won't ask about the early career catastrophic declines of multiple hitters they won't ask he is worried about his job they MIGHT ask about the lineup decisions lol they MIGHT ask for injury updates on Joey Votto

The Apple broadcasters are WAY better this year

was just gonna say, he didn't even have a good success rate!!!

holy f*** elly de la cruz might actually steal 100+ bases

It's not even over the top, you can look it up. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5325414/2024/03/14/mlb-franchise-rankings-wild-card-era/ See, the Wild-Card Era (1995 to present) franchise rankings are not a creation of my fallible mind. They are borne from a tested, trusted, completely objective, never-been-questioned, all-math, no-bias formula borrowed from football writer Bob Sturm and tweaked to fit baseball’s postseason structure. Winning the World Series (WS): 9 points Losing in the World Series (WSL): 6 points Losing in the Championship Series (CS): 3 points Losing in Division Series (DS): 2 points Losing in Wild Card (WC): 1 point As of last year, the scoring system also incentivizes division titles (+1 point) and penalizes prolonged losing cycles, docking teams (-1 point) each time they lose at least 90 games in consecutive seasons. Tally the point totals for the past 29 seasons, from 1995 to 2023, and the result is the franchise rankings as listed below — along with each team’s point totals from the past decade, and average points per season. Tiebreakers are World Series wins, then World Series losses, then Championship Series appearances, then Division Series appearances, then division titles. Pirates - -4 points Royals - 7 points Reds - 9 points Orioles - 9 points Jays - 10 points Rockies - 10 points Brewers - 14 points Ms - 14 points Washington - 14 points Marlins - 16 points This is the analysis!!!! And anybody would take the Orioles or Brewers right now for their development systems, so the how-do-you-look-today tips way in their favour. And the Royals and Nats have the WS titles which earn a lot of fan satisfaction. So there is a strong argument that Toronto is bottom 5 in the last 30 years. Bottom five org!

Seattle is in the same bucket as Toronto. Pretty sad history. They have been okay the last few years, and had that half decade of competitiveness in the late 1990s around Griffey and ARod. Seattle is worse overall since the Jays have 92/93. But since 1994, about the same. They wasted Ichiro and Felix's careers.

The point is that it SHOULD be over. 1/4 is a brutal chance at things when you consider certain contextual factors like: - The final wild card spot is a s*** prize anyway, probably just the right to watch John Schneider literally turn into a tomato this year while the team loses 3-2 and 2-1 to the Royals - It's an old, expensive team - Many of the underperforming players aren't just getting unlucky; they seem actually broken. - There is not much on the farm to be excited about - There is not much on the MLB roster that looks good and is controllable past 2025 - The team has certain players that can only be sold this deadline (Kikuchi for one) or will be worth significantly more if sold this deadline (Bo, for one) - The organization is rotten in several ways and needs at least a minor purging They are going to be in striking distance of the WC at the deadline and I am guessing they will make the terrible decision to just stand pat or even buy. Then all of the big picture, long term issues become even worse.

The issue is that f***ing second wild card spot If you look at it right now, 4.5 games back with 74% of the season to go seems like nothing. And much of the competition is very flawed. Astros - may not have the pitching this year Tigers - are the tigers Red Sox - several holes, SP corps overperforming massively for them to even be .500 Texas - a lot rides on Scherzer and Eovaldi coming back and being good. suspect SP otherwise. Tampa - not scary this year and in the division so easy to make up ground in theory if toronto beats them Twins - okay team KCR - better than expected but still have a lot of flimsy players Like, Toronto might be 1 or 2 games back of the second wild card in a few weeks lmao. Ugh.

The Blue Jays are definitely in the discussion for saddest franchise in MLB That may seem over the top but it makes sense when you measure actual accomplishments in the last 30 years. The Jays have almost nothing other than the 2015/2016 runs and some individual accomplishments. Most other franchise in baseball can match that other than perhaps the Pirates and Rockies but even Colorado had a WS appearance lol. Jays probably bottom 5, maybe bottom 7, unless you give them a handicap for being in the AL East lol. Like yeah some of the teams that finished 3rd might have won a different division but losses are still losses.

It's over Even if you think the team is not as bad as it has played, they've buried themselves. It doesn't look like it by raw record (few games under .500) but the division is brutal so it's over. Even if they climb back to .500 around the trade deadline it would be foolish to not sell. Just have to hope the BOD decides to either can Shapiro and Atkins, or at least make Shapiro can Atkins, sooner rather than later so the team has a clear direction

that's one of the best connorp dunks ever and i say this as the undisputed king of connorp slams

lmao

Turns out having a bare cupboard is fine if you know where the grocery store is

It's really sad when you think about it. Year 5 of the Vlad/Bo era (or year 6 of the Danny Jansen era...) and there has been no second wave. More like a dripping tap. Kirk - came one year after Vlad/Bo but is now closer to a bench player than a star Pearson - useless Manoah - closer to a AAA SP than a major leaguer Schneider - they still have time to screw him up Clement - they still have time to screw him up There is almost nothing here. Most of the young players they have tried to break in since 2020 have just flopped completely. Some arms like White, Francis, Pop. Some bats like Josh Palacios. Some have flopped here and then done well elsewhere. Merryweather, Otto Lopez. Trent Thornton. Some of the other youngsters that may have broken in have been traded away. Moreno, mainly. Waves of suck. The org can't scout or develop prospects. The only saving grace is that the payroll commitments all expire in short order. The only things they are good at are having money to spend and not spending it horribly at the MLB level. And I guess some level of MLB development when it comes to pitchers like Ray, Kikuchi, Matz, Stripling.

oh my god

okay buds now go look at his k rate, era, fip, xfip, xera, siera. dude is clearly struggling so far and looks nothing like the dominant closer we have seen. his stuff+ fell a bit after 2021 and we might be seeing another step of decline fastball stuff+ 2024 - 126 2023 - 137 2022 - 134 2021 - 144 Hopefully it is just injury cobwebs and he shakes it off. So that we can trade him. Because this season is f***ing over.

Would be easy to do just compare talent to the known aging curves for WAR

Go back 12 years and you basically have that because you'd have it all covered. First 6 years of team control + 6 years of minor league development so that even the slowest of prospects is caught in the sample. Only thing missing would be the development of players acquired through trade or free agent signing. The Jays f***ing suck. Reese Autkins needs to take a hike.

Pop got out of it Now we see if they can somehow shut down the best offense in baseball with this s***** pen, for four more innings lol

Barger hit a 432 foot homer in AAA last night Not sure if you guys toggled the cutoff low enough to see but the one promising thing from his MLB sample was his swing speed. His bat speed and fast swing rate were right there with Vlad and better than Varsho's. Same swing length as Vlad too so he's not winding up like crazy or anything.

jesus christ john schneider why kikuchi is good and the bullpen sucks

wtf is the argument there? he has to run to third and get thrown out for the interference to count?