Laika

Yeah but Bryce went: 9.3, 2.0, 4.1, 3.2, at ages 22-25 Vlad will have gone: 6.3, 3.3, 1.3, 3.4, at ages 22-25 (guessing on 2024 final) 18.6 vs. 14.3 Higher highs and lower lowers. Harper way more general athleticism. But you do have a point. It's not all about WAR. You have to assign value to certain elite characteristics even if how those have shown up in the on-field production historically has been sporadic. Vlad is similar to Harper in a lot of ways that very few other baseball players would be... just fundamental stuff like natural physical talent, ability to hammer the ball, etc. I would not give Vlad 10/300 of course but there is probably a 10 year deal in the 200s that I would do. A lot of people point to the Matt Olson contract (8 yr, $168M) as the most that Vlad should get because it's the highest recent precedent for a star 1B under 30. But how are they an actual comp? Olson is a skills-maximizer who used to struggle with a 25% to 30% K rate. He was not a star until he turned 27, and then he figured out how to put it all together and string together some 5 WAR seasons. But now look at him at 30.... 92 wRC+, .220/.300/.389 and the power isn't there. Back to the worst version of Oakland Matt Olson. Would Vlad ever turn into a complete pumpkin like that? Actually kind of hard to imagine. Yes he could groundball his way to a bunch of middling seasons like 2023 and that would suck.

Most underrated player in baseball though Hasn't even made the All Star game since 2019. Not kidding!

Yeah it's bleak They could put together a roster that projects for a WC spot if they make some big FA moves but even then it's going to be a bit of a studs & duds roster that relies too much on guys like Horwitz, Schneider, and Yariel Rodriguez. Even if they sign f***ing Soto, Bregman, Flaherty, and Ryan Pressly or something like that that would still be: - a rotation that is hoping for bounce backs from Gausman and Berrios, relying on Y Rod, and relying on a very old Bassitt - a lineup that is relying on a bad defensive SS with an injury history coming off a nightmare season, underwhelming IKF at 2B, Varsho in CF who cannot hit, Kirk at C who cannot hit, Springer the old man in RF, and then DH that is a Horwitz/Schneider platoon or something that is just okay. - a bullpen that has f***ing nobody you can have confidence in. Just a few okay pieces at the backend but Romano might be f***ed, Pearson who knows, Green doesn't seem great anymore unfortunately. As the season goes on and on and the team continues to play like total dogshit their chances in 2025 just seem worse and worse. That should be obvious of course. If the team was actually good, fundamentally, despite the poor performance and run differential so far, they probably would have started playing better already! They don't need to do a 5 year rebuild but they probably should unload Vlad, Bo and anybody making big money and use 2025 to just see what they have with this assortment of younger roster players. Maybe Leo Jimenez is a 3 WAR SS. Maybe Spencer Horwitz is actually a stud bat. Maybe maybe maybe.

I don't think he's trying to be bad Maybe the opposite. Trying to hard to hit his way out of Toronto (pressing) to negative results. Or trying to play through injury so he remains a trade candidate, and having it backfire.

One more piece of speculation - did Bo come back from injury too early, on his own accord, because he wanted to get traded? You have to consider the possibility!

Then why is Bo doing it? Nobody said he was a genius. - playing like s*** - horrible body language - entertaining trade hypotheticals with multiple out-of-town reporters - reportedly telling friends that he would welcome a trade It all tracks and there are little objective pieces of information that support the narrative. We had Atkins on the radio being surprised about some of Bo's comments a month ago. Bo also has this general history of being a bit stubborn. Weird swing he didn't want to change. Sort of picked his team in the draft.

Bit of a different list I guess. They did "top 50 players who could be dealt" so some of the ranked players are long shots.

don't really see the point in Lux, the Jays have enough 2B types between IKF, Clement, Horwitz, Barger and Lux doesn't even project better offensively at this point Outman is more interesting but he's just a platoon OF

I don't think an offseason trade is that weird. It's a soft tissue injury so teams won't care that much about it in 2025. Some teams will still like him as a player since he will project well enough. Toronto, even if trying to compete in 2025, will have a handful of holes to fill. They may be able to piece together SS between Jimenez, IKF, and Clement. Bo is becoming a negative clubhouse presence. Sort of abandoning the team at the bottom, in various ways (performance, health, attitude).

I think this guy just made it up. I couldn't fund any new rankings. Maybe it was just some person on TV saying it.

to be fair I wouldn't have any idea what to do with them either Kirk is the better framer and total-package defender Kirk can't hit anymore. zero power backup C profile tbh. with a nugget of offensive upside because of what he used to be. Jansen runs so hot/cold. best hitting C in baseball for certain arbitrary sample sizes, but not anymore. and hurt all the time. Jansen needs to play because he's an expiring asset with trade value. Kirk needs to play to figure it out since he's the #1 COTF.

Jansen is an average receiver Kirk is amazing so Jansen just seems bad. Relative.

I don't think Rogers cares as much as the baseball people would The actual tax money is not consequential but resetting all of the penalties is more important for baseball reasons

Personally I think they should Maybe it's Green for nothing and Bassitt for a B prospect KK, nobody is taking his salary even though it's like $3.8M rest of season. Maybe they can clear half of it. Turner, similar things can be said but again maybe they can clear half of it.

They can probably get under the tax without doing dumb s*** like that, even if nobody wants both KK and Turner, but it would mean giving away Bassitt and Green.

Bo: 2024 escalating RIGHT calf strain 2023 RIGHT quad strain 2023 RIGHT knee tendinitis 2022 minor RIGHT foot injury 2020 RIGHT LCL sprain That right stick turning into a f***ing peg leg

He keeps getting minor injuries because his arm can't handle the stress I guess he'll break at some point Maybe they should just do the bold thing and make him a reliever

He keeps getting minor injuries because his arm can't handle the stress I guess he'll break at some point Maybe they should just do the bold thing and make him a reliever

Okay forget about a Bichette trade He has chronic leg soft tissue issues I guess He's a 34 year old Josh Donaldson already

It was almost still rising when it hit the second deck

f***ing missile 117.5mph

Mariners Designate Mike Baumann For Assignment Jays should pick this guy up for free He would be #3 in the current pen by fastball velo, and similar for Stuff+

well at least he's not broken

It was always there but they made it much easier to navigate to in their update

The ROY gamble is pretty remote. Wilson apparently has below average pop so he's not a sure thing star. 6.4 seasons of him might be better than 6 plus that tiny ROY bonus pick gamble. Also the whole marketing argument. As "fans" need something to come watch other than their closer.