Laika

One of the only good stories on the farm He has gone from somebody not even on the depth chart to one of the more interesting call up candidates

Yeah

Ernie Clement is going to take Espinal's job... immediately

I used to call this the Kevin Pillar problem. Sometimes a guy would be a better hitter if his hit tool were worse. Pillar used to make too much contact, much of it weak, but if he just whiffed a little bit more he would have ended up with more walks and homers. Same issue with Vlad...

It could be mechanical or hit tool related. His IFFB% since 2021 is 4th highest in baseball (qualified). Those are as bad as strikeouts. That could be a swing path issue, or just basic hit tool issue that doesn't manifest purely in strikeouts. Some of the other high IFFB% guys are: Santander, Carlos Santana, Kike Hernandez, Arozarena, Chapman, Bellinger, Schoop, Profar... some good hit tools in that list but also some fringe hit tools. For the most part these guys have trouble hitting .250 or better. Also, Nolan Arenado and Jose Ramirez show up on the list. Kind of interesting.

The annoying thing is... You just KNOW he is going to sign in some random place like Chicago for his prime and end up winning an MVP or two in a different uniform Vlad 2027 = 50 HR season at Wrigley

Vlad remains pretty disappointing. Could have been Miguel Cabrera but it looks like he's just a Manny Machado type hitter, without any defensive value of course. Fat Manny!

Toronto doesn't even control him for his age 27 season so... we need him to be great NOW

The Varsho trade... It's kind of like trading for a GG SS then playing them at second base. A lack of developed talent + hyper-focusing on team needs = Atkins twisted himself into a pretzel.

How long term? Lowe is the 2-3 year option but Vaughn is the one of you aren't competing right now

Bauer reiterated that he and the batter met on the Japanese version of Tinder before the game and discussed this type of interaction. Bauer explained his kink for surrendering barrels and facing extreme forms or public humiliation.

I'm not sure how anyone can sincerely think JS is the issue.

It's been a bad few weeks.

I'm not so sure the Yankees profile any better than the Blue Jays long term Toronto could be better than Boston and the Yankees indefinitely. Who knows.

Emasculating loss. It's over, guys. Who should we trade?

Things are pretty grim, to be honest Division might be too good

Morel was GOOD in 2022 and then destroyed AAA and is now killing it for Chicago. wasted bullets! maybe they got an additional year of control over him though, I dunno I hope they miss the playoffs by 1 game

The Cubs wasting 100 PA on Eric Hosmer while both Christopher Morel and Matt Mervis were in AAA was insane.

We need some big time flops in Baltimore. Grayson and Gunnar are both scuffling so far... hmmm....

You're not understanding the nuance of what I am saying. It's okay. Sleep on it.

Not everything takes 162 games to stabilize. We also have some new categorical knowledge. e.g. we are pretty damn certain at this point that Moreno is not going to flop. We did not know that 6 weeks ago.

Kirk MIGHT have landed Alek Thomas. Some people here liked Thomas. He sucked and was recently demoted.

The thing with baseball is if you wait for the answer to be obvious, you'll be too slow. You'll never get the good players. You'll never sell the declining players in time. You have to consistently search for an edge and act as quickly as possible. It's "okay" sometimes to use visual or short term information as a supplement to statlines and projections. You can make decisions more quickly that way. There is risk to it, if you turn out to be stupid. But some people have a good brain at putting all of the information together and making quick decisions while being right more often than not. Just not seeing anything with Varsho that makes me thing he could improve a bit on his fundamental skills, from 2022. That's a bit disappointing; there was a glimmer of hope when the trade happened that he might in fact be able to make incremental improvements and be a monster. And the previous stuff I said on Moreno, I would reiterate. Is 6 weeks long enough to make a conclusion on the trade? No, of course not. Is 6 weeks enough time to start sliding your opinion on the probabilities a little bit? Absolutely.

Vlad, Kirk, Manoah at some point you have to wonder if there are systemic issues in the organization when it comes to nutrition and exercise

6 weeks is a small sample but not a meaningless, tiny sample! + watching the players play. + the emotional pain of this current Blue Jays season.