Laika

Toronto is 29th in baseball at Pull% The wOBA on pulled flyballs is much better than centre or oppo flyballs. I am not sure but I don't think xwOBA necessarily adjusts for horizontal angle. Isn't it just based on velocity and vertical angle?

Yeah Baseball has become a long-term tactical sport. You need to plan on a multi-year basis to be good in very specific ways. Are you seeing pitching trends like high spin four seamers, sweeping sliders, seam shifted wake changeups, etc. emerging? Well, you need to start training your offensive pipeline so that your hitters can handle those emergent pitching tactics at an above average rate. Are you seeing vulnerabilities in the league wide approach of hitters that you think you can train your pipeline of pitchers to expose? Well, you need a comprehensive three year plan to develop that pitching approach effectively. And you need to hope you are early enough for it to work. You also need a cut-throat, search-and-destroy executive that combines advanced analytics and high operational acumen. You cannot just have a decent analytics department advising Ross Atkins and then have him mulling over the depth chart for months while trying to fine tune his MLB roster. Is there a reliever DFA'd with a repertoire that your nerd wing thinks could be tweaked into a backend reliever? Then he should be yours, immediately. Do you have a young 1B player with amazing tools but a problematic body and sub-optimal approach at the plate? Then you need to publicly shaming the fatty and forcing him to spend every waking hour committed to your diet and exercise plan and your neuro-developmental batting simulation laboratory.

I'd give him a chance but it looks like a reliever to me

That's only a half troll. There are MLB organizations that call out their own players for things like being out of shape. Toronto would never dare, now here we are.

Vlad, Kirk, and Manoah are all fat shits. Toronto was infected by woke culture. Beautiful at any size! No fat shaming in the clubhouse!

they were doing okay on trades then they went and traded gabriel f***ing moreno plus a kicker for a platoon player

tbh it just sounds like the Jays were letting people renew for far below market value, for a long time if Toronto thinks they can sell premium season tickets in an upgraded lower bowl to rich people and businesses at these high prices, with three year commitments, then all the power to them. Go Shapiro Go!

Toronto is just mediocre at everything. It's incredibly frustrating. Mediocre coaching. Mediocre analytics. Mediocre managing. Mediocre drafting. Mediocre development. Mediocre trading. The franchise is mid. The only do a couple of things well. Those are probably spending money and executing the business side of things (Shapiro is godly). This is starting to feel like the Ricciardi era. Except instead of winning 87 games and missing the playoffs they win 91 games and sneak into the playoffs only to get bounces in the minimum number of games.

First pitch breaking ball not in the zone... gotta swing!

Behold, Alek Manoah.

He is starting to remind me of Mat Latos, who was washed up and throwing low 90s by age 28. He was also a 6'6" fatty with a s***** personality.

Stick a Dominican in Buffalo and this probably happens half the time

agree with most of this i'd also consider bringing up Juenger... maybe piggy back him with Pearson for a more effective 5 innings than whatever the f*** Manoah has been doing.

Relax

just f***ing demote him call up Kloffenstein

f*** year, three walks in two innings vintage Womanoah on the bump

Double play yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

yeah that's a horrible signature

I dunno man. It would be hard for me to pull the trigger on that.

If connorp was in charge Trevor Bauer would be a Blue Jay on an MLB deal right now ignoring connorp is a good starting point for most things

Still, it's nice to see them succeed after making some aggressive signings. Also, good example that you don't really need an elite farm system to churn out production. A couple of years ago their farm was getting ranked in the bottom third of the league. Now a lot of their production is coming from young players they have continues to develop... or that they have acquired recently. Garcia, Heim, Lowe, Duran, Taveras, Jung, Smith are all either farm products or shrewd trade acquisitions. And they all have at least 0.5 fWAR right now.

The Rangers have had just about the softest schedule in the league so far. Philly, Baltimore, Cubs, Royals, Astros, Royals, As, Reds, Yankees, DBacks, Angels, Mariners, As, Braves, Rockies, Pirates. Lots of gimme series + a few against mediocre teams like Angels/Mariners/Philly/DBacks

I thought he was an infielder!? Maybe one of those 2B only types who even sucks at 2B. That would help explain it.

Imagine being this Michael Busch guy in LA. 25.5 years old now. In almost every other organization he is perhaps an MLB starter in 2021, or at least to begin 2022. But now he's just some AAAA guy with no path to playing time. Toiling away, hoping for a trade or catastrophic injuries.

yeahhhhh but there is a lot of wiggle room in that bucket he could sit 91 but touch 94/95 on occasion with good shape and have an effective fastball. particularly if he only has to throw is 40% of the time because the secondary pitches are plus. yeah, that might not be a ceiling higher than an SP5 but Toronto will take any kind of MLB projection from him at this point