Laika

This is not a good thread. Place Vlad in his prospect context (80/80 hitter, "messianic" hit tool, etc) and most of these points are obviously dumb. - "better than average chase rate" --> bro who the f*** cares he was supposed to be the MESSIAH not "above average" - "numbers on middle-middle bunnies "pretty much the best" on the Jays over the last few years" --> why would we compare him to other Jays hitters? Those aren't supposed to be his peers. How does he compare to Judge, Soto, Alvarez, Mookie... also lmao at "pretty much the best" because that means "not the best". He should be twice as good as the next best Jay on these pitches!!!! - "If you say the elite exit velo is just because of groundballs, you're wrong." --> nobody says this. they say he wastes too many hard hit balls on the ground. - "If you say he's a one-year wonder, you're wrong. Over his entire career, he as the 6th best OPS+ in franchise history." --> funny how you keep using OPS and not WAR, Chris. - "If you say Bo Bichette is more reliable since that one trascendent year, you're wrong." --> Chris, nobody says this. This is not your first straw man in this thread.

Damn Bassallo has 0 walks And hasn't caught a game, so I guess they are giving up on that

also gold glovers at 3B and 1B good defensive C handsome 2B most of the time a SS with lots of hair

Mize has seen a big stuff+ jump from pre-surgery. Changes his pitch arsenal in a lot of ways. His K rate might just be lagging his talent right now.

It's really disappointing. It must be a general athleticism thing. His maxEV and avgEV since the start of 2023 are both lower than the 2021/22 period. Maybe he f***ed up trying to lose weight and ended up losing some muscle, then eating a bunch of churros and now he just has a higher bodyfat% than he used to?

How are they going to fit all these guys in (that's what she said) Holliday must be approaching demotion levels of suck

okay Mr. Projections

His stuff+ is the same as last year He has a 99.4% LOB rate, .250 BABIP against, and has been a bit lucky on homers/FB. I don't actually see any changes vs 2023 other than.... - minor pitch mix changes (8% more two-seamers, mainly. a few less changeups. added a cutter as seldom used 5th pitch) - GB% up 9% (career high)

Berrios is actually a lot like Bassitt. They have okay stuff but their best trait is probably just the durability and innings. Last year only 25 SP threw 180+ innings. Guys who take the ball 32 times and can throw 6 innings every night are rare!

It's not a cake walk by any means but it's better than facing NYY, TBR, HOU Boston is pitching incredible, their RHSP will be tough to get to. They did just lose Casas long term and Devers seems banged up. O'Neill still out. KC is just a good team. Half of their lineup is legitimately good and they have some arms. They aren't a sub .500 team anymore. Brewers are very good. I feel like the Angels just blow and are the easiest matchup here but they still have Trout. Twins are alright. Pitt is interesting but still bad IMO.

It's not about his feelings it's about his performance He's probably a worse pitcher if he's not in that capital C closer role We've seen him suck in non save situations for years

Votto retired two days ago They had to amputate

Just let Romano be the Closer because it's a mental thing for him Meanwhile Yimi can face the best hitters in the 7th or 8th. Like tonight

If I was the Jays hitting coach all I would let Vladdy do in BP is pull homers It's just a home run derby He practices nothing other than pulling homers

Sadness BB is cooked for a while sigh Wonder if RT meeting with team doctors is a good thing? I mean it's a better update than "Barriera and Tiedemann are sharing a cab to Dr. Keith Meister's office"

We are talking about INJURY RISK how is this so hard to understand you nincompoop I don't care if you think that trading for Sale is a good "roll of the dice" he's still injury prone and risky

Strider had TJS in school and throws hard and near his max Morton is 40. Literally forty years old. Forty. Chris Sale is.... Chris Sale? What does "looks healthy" even mean the guy is f***ing 35 with bad mechanics and the last time he made 25 starts was pre-Covid. Lopez did not throw more than 66 innings from 2020 through 2023. It's not like he can just go 175 this year for them. Fried had a semi-serious elbow/forearm strain last year and only took the ball 14 times. Well that was f***ing easy, try again next week Bluey.

There is almost no difference between 2022 Varsho, 2023 Varsho, and 2024 Varsho. Lots of flyballs, pulled balls, and a decent clip of strikeouts just = a higher variance player. His xwOBA in 2024 is actually a putrid .286, very close to his 2022 and 2023 figures. His current FB rate is 52%, and he has a 20% HR/FB which he has never sustained. Almost every guy who has a FB rate like that and doesn't suck is a .210 hitter with huge power. Maybe Varsho will just become Kyle Schwarber or late career Max Muncy. Nothing wrong with that. Lean into your strengths, stop trying to fix your flaws. .210 with 30+ HR is better than .229 with 19 homers. He can bunt his way to being a .230 hitter anyway. Varsho needs to embrace his true identity.

I am sure Ross is trying to move one of the Buffalo guys for his AAA or AA SP equal. Something like Palmegiani for a bum like Gunnar Hoglund or JT Ginn.

people reading too much into that report "is deemed ready" could mean a lot of different things from a) if he feels good to if he strings together multiple quality starts in AAA and the stuff measures out as improved

Atlanta had a glass cannon Ace, who is now hurt And then two geriatrics in Sale and Morton and a career reliever in Reynaldo Lopez The two rotations never had and do not have the same risk profile See Chris Bassitt's recent comments about not being part of a rotation that "chases velocity" Being said you can even say good things about Toronto's depth if you have a more positive bias. Manoah in AAA trying to figure it out is arguably a luxury piece of depth. Francis has objectively good stuff per the models.

Dude was supposed to Miggy/Pujols And here we are hoping he can just be a poor man's Yandy Diaz. Just for a few months. Please Vladdy baby.

The best someone can reasonably hope for is an .800 OPS sad

Have you watched him play? Do you even watch the games anymore or do you just get the scores fed to your pocket calculator?

Trade Bo for stuff non-tender Vlad Commit all of that payroll to Juan Soto even if it takes $40M The SS can just be Clement. 1B can be a Horwitz/Orelvis platoon or something.