Laika

Sal Fasano?

Good deal, I think Lugo is pretty good and he will earn that and then some.

As good as Tyson Heineyman

I think I have decided that Toronto should sign Joey Gallo and deploy him as the starting 3B out of spring training

you're a fringe guy

Fangraphs kind of likes the system, judging from the grades and the blurb at the bottom. System Overview In last season’s System Overview, we noted the way this system skewed toward high-variance guys, and that largely remains true. The Jays have taken seven-figure shots on multiple high schoolers in each of the last several drafts, and Tiedemann was a junior college pick. All but a few of the prospects with “grades of impact” in the 40+ FV tier and above are volatile, high-variance players. This system is stocked with meaningful redundancy, with plan As and plan Bs. There are pockets of players who are comparable in many ways layered throughout the org, perhaps as a way of mitigating the risk associated with those high-variance guys. You can see the trends in low-release height guys (Tiedemann, Barriera, Macko, Cooke and Juenger) and pervasive slider-first approaches to pitching (most effectively Brock and Cooke) in this system. Meanwhile, the bones of the position player group include bat-to-ball specialists with little power (Jimenez and Kasevich, among others) and power hitters with iffy defensive homes (Orelvis, Doughty, De Jesus, and Palmegiani). Including the many players who recently graduated from rookie status (the likes of Davis Schneider, Nathan Lukes, and Otto Lopez), the Blue Jays should be able to stock their bench and reserve role group from within for the foreseeable future. Free agent departures, especially Matt Chapman’s, open up playing time at second and third base. We think Santiago Espinal, Jimenez, Barger and Martinez are more talented than both the OBP-driven Schenider/Cavan Biggio combo currently projected in the RosterResource starting lineup, and the contact/speed duo of Lopez and Ernie Clement. Schneider has already done enough in the big leagues to call him an unfortunate omission from last year’s list, but it looked like the book on him was out late in the season. There are so many possible permutations of this 2B/3B combo on the 40-man that the Jays should be able to backfill a lot of Chapman’s production from within. ^ that sounds like a blurb for a farm that would rank middle of the pack. Nice to get some industry confirmation of what a (very) few of us noticed during 2023 - that the system is trending up and is deceptively good, or at least deep.

Can't wait for MLB salaries and contracts to become a ponzi that is directly tied to a bunch of shady US hedge funds! fun!

This logic stops mattering when you are so high above the marginal income tax brackets His effective tax rate is near the top marginal rate whether he makes $25M or $70M

It can't be an income tax dodge. I bet the highest marginal tax rate in Japan is as bad as California. The difference may only be a few points. I guess he could take up permanent residency somewhere else. Weird though.

It would take Toronto decades of success to be seen on the same pedestal as the Dodgers or Yankees The current players and recent events are almost completely irrelevant

Only so much you can do

Alright So at the end of the day it's basically a 10/$440 contract for Ohtani Real close to what most pundits expected going into the offseason The $700M figure is just for advertising.

No matter how you f*** the chicken here, the Dodgers are winning.

Where did you read that? It can be an interest bearing escrow account. $68M compounded 5% annually for 10 years is like $111M haha.

It's the same thing though. The non-monetary factors are part of the bid.

It's all added revenue though. Are they incurring more expenses because Ohtani is on the team? Maybe, but they would be negligible. Anyway, you are generally right. The point was just to illustrate the absurdity of the whole thing. I am sure the hardcore math more or less tells you that $700M deferred is about the same as a reasonable contract today. Say, the Harper deal.

It's honestly a f***ing stupid deal for Ohtani UNLESS the income tax savings he can get are massive (which they very well may be...) For the Dodgers, it's amazing. They will make $25M annually in added marketing for the first few years, almost guaranteed, regardless of what happens on the field. So they are net +$23M or so in 2024. What is 23M compounded by like 8% annually, for a decade? Like $54M? The first year of marketing money basically pays for the first year of deferred payment in 2034. The contract ALMOST pays for itself. And I am sure "Guggenheim Partners" people think they can do better than 8 points when the prime rate is like 6%. Ohtani would probably have been better off, financially, just taking a straight 10/$400 deal from a team. Then investing the money. Big caveat there being the income tax implications which, I dunno. But I cannot imagine that Japan is a "tax haven" for income tax.... California certainly isn't... Ohtani is not moving to Florida or Dubai. Unless he does. Who knows. I am sure he left significant money on the table from the Blue Jays. If he rejected 10/$600M which was mostly NOT deferred, then he left hundreds of millions on the table, right.

Dodgers ownership group is basically a hedge fund, right? Guggenheim

Yeah good point Milk sponsorship money while playing them get the income once retired

Hoskins absolutely cannot play 3B

I don't think Jays fans could stomach Varsho and Adames. That's a lot of the same kind of flawed hitter.

that is literally the Fangraphs contract prediction they have been pretty close on everything else, except for Ohtani

I hate all of this except for Yamamoto I am signing: OF --- Jung-Hoo Lee (4/$60) or Brantley (1/$10) DH/1B --- Belt (1/$8) or JDM (1/$12) or Pederson (1/$12) SP --- Paxton (1/$10) or Montas (1/$8) IF --- some 1 year geezer like Longoria or Urshela or Tim Anderson Schneider is my 2B. I'd sign someone like Tony Kemp to be the 2B/OF guy on the bench. 1 WAR projection. Basically, just patch all the holes with the best 1 year commitment you can find. Work the trade table hard all offseason for better players.

7/$259M or so remaining for Mike Trout. I guess he's just retiring as an Angel

SFG is horrible for every hitter. I was listening to a podcast the other day and they were talking about Chapman and SFG. Apparently Marco Luciano is going to be their SS so having a GG 3B would be huge for them. But think about Chapman's battel ball profile in that park...