Laika

Bo actually pulled a fastball hard today Sure it was a 92.5 mph s***** sinker but a pulled FB is a pulled FB Also hit a fastball to CF. Then pulled two sweepers. He's back!!!!!

One of those ones that is hard to evaluate with WAR because Atlanta cared more about getting someone they thought was a good bet to be positive value while CHW just cared about sorting through a bunch of players that would probably suck as they try to find one or two decent keepers. Bummer - 0.2 WAR in 15.2 innings Shuster - 0.2 WAR in 18 innings Soroka - horrendous Shewmake - horrendous Nicky Lopez - horrendous Riley Gowens - good numbers in A+ So you could say it looks like a good one for CHW. They get Shuster, who seems to be an MLB arm and he is pre-arb, along with a so-so prospect in Gowens. Bummer has options after this year but at $7M they aren't really worth anything. Lopez, Soroka, Shewmake --- possibly irrelevant and will only stick on the Chicago 40 man if they fail to find viable alternatives. But I guess they have all year to continue working with Soroka. His 93 stuff+ is close enough to viable that maybe if he at some point finds average command, he could piece it together as an SP5. There are worthwhile SP5s with worse stuff+ numbers than 93.

Sounds like the Blue Jays minus some payroll

For the most part it just hates his fastballs Stuff+ like rates secondary pitches based on the fastballs Location grades aren't stable in one start anyway

You have to go to the pitcher leaderboard on fangraphs then toggle to Blue Jays and pitch modeling and stuff+ One possibility is that his changeup is actually good and stuff+ misses it. It has issues with change ups Visually the slider has more depth now

Yeah still bad Location+ was very good though

Vlad is now seventh in 1B fWAR Not even on pace for 20 HR but the defense is much better per the fancy stats Feeling better about him. I'm sure he'll go on a homer binge at some point.

Doesn't really matter, can do better

No .

The org has also already f***ed up two IL decisions this year with Gausman and Yimi Just a clown show at this point

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