Laika

This is AMAZING. Chaim Bloom strikes again. Boston drafts Noah Song 137th overall in 2019. Signs him. Keeps him all through his naval service. Elects not to protect him in the recent Rule 5. Philly picks him Dec 2022 in the Rule 5. Two months later, he is granted a discharge. He might be a weapon in their pen immediately and a future rotation piece.

Merrifield is the 4th OF, Espinal the backup SS, Biggio is the third 1B option on the team and a platoon player. Pretty different functions despite them all being "second basemen" I like the flexibility. Any of the three can play themselves into a more or less prominent role depending on actual production... There is even a way for Barger to steal the 2B job outright and relegate all three of them to the bench.

Fangraphs top 100. Barger made it at 53rd Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw 40/45 60/60 50/60 40/40 40/40 45 Barger has huge left-handed bat speed and a shot to stay on the dirt, just not at shortstop. The Blue Jays coaxed Barger away from a Florida commitment with $270,000, and he barely played during his first two full seasons, one of them lost to the pandemic. Toronto didn’t accelerate his promotion schedule to make up for the lost time, so he began 2021 back at Low-A as a 21-year-old and (mostly) flew under the FanGraphs prospect radar as an old-for-the-level player until 2022, when Barger hammered High- and Double-A pitching as a 22-year-old. He hit 26 homers and 33 doubles and posted a 148 wRC+ at Vancouver and New Hampshire before he was promoted to Triple-A Buffalo at the very end of the year. Barger then went to the Arizona Fall League, where his left-handed bat speed stood out among lots of other good hitting prospects. His swing is a spectacle, lots of fun when he’s on time and frustrating when he’s late, utilizing a narrow, open stance and a huge leg kick. Barger can really cut it loose and is a threat to do damage on every swing. Though he’s been playing a lot of shortstop, he isn’t a fit there and his hands and actions are below average. He’s okay at second and third base, but the Blue Jays’ infield is already pretty loaded, so he’s likely to see time in the outfield this year. Ideally he’ll play a few different positions based on the game situation. We think there will be enough power for Barger to produce like an average regular in a multi-positional role.

Kirky makin' meatballs happy for him f*** Rob Longley

I think Castillo is an Ace and Kirby and Gilbert are very good. Ray seemed to be slipping last year but he may be able to do it if he can just chew innings. Oh, also, these are FANTASY projections by Eno Sarris so not necessarily WAR projections. The Mariners pitchers have a good park, so they get a park factor boost.

Sandy is on there but Luzardo is 64th Guardians have Bieber and McKenzie. Civale is 70th

hmmm let me see. yes, several. and many with 3 in the top 60 as well. Brewers 1 - Burnes 6 - Woodruff 51 - Peralta Yankees 2 - Cole 10 - Rodon 25 - Severino 36 - Cortes Mets 9 - Verlander 11 - Scherzer 35 - Senga Mariners 13 - Castillo 30 - Kirby 31 - Gilbert 32 - Ray Padres 21 - Snell 22 - Darvish 23 - Musgrove Twins 53 - Lopez 55 - Mahle 60 - Ryan Rays 7 - McClanahan 20 - Glasnow 33 - Rasmussen 45 - Springs Rangers 8 - deGrom 49 - Eovaldi 52 - Gray 54 - Heaney Dodgers 19 - Urias 34 - Kershaw 41 - May Braves 3 - Strider 29 - Fried 42 - Morton 48 - Wright Astros 16 - Javier 26 - Valdez 44 - Garcia

they have some ugly looking contracts right now if they are blowing it up. parayko, krug, faulk, schenn, leddy, binnington

I can permanently ban you if you want. But I would also suggest just blocking connorp. He's a f***ing loser, everyone agrees.

This makes sense considering you have probably been catfished twenty times by now.

They have kind of started with a traditional projection model and then layered in projected Stuff+ etc. as new components, to improve things like projected BABIP. Berrios was an enigma in 2022. I'm guessing the Stuff+ and Location+ components have brought down his projected ERA in their model, but not enough to be in line with the guys who have better recent track records of run prevention.

The model for location+, I believe, measures the value of a pitch based on its location at the plate. Something like "sliders in this location tend to be good, and this guy throws a lot of sliders there." I think it is independent of results like SwStr. I think it's a bit different than measuring command, which is "did the pitch go where he wanted it to go." Of course Command+ and Pitching+ would track, but it's theoretically possible for a pitcher to have a tendency to miss in a "good" location.

Eno Sarris / The Athletic did "starting pitching ranks for 2023, with Stuff+ powered projections" RANK / PLAYER / IP / ERA / K% / STUFF+ / LOCATION+ 17 Kevin Gausman 179 3.19 28.1% 110 105 28 Alek Manoah 199 3.63 24.6% 100 99 47 Chris Bassitt 176 3.87 22.1% 98 102 56 Jose Berrios 176 4.00 22.9% 101 103 126 Yusei Kikuchi 115 4.15 25.5% 107 97 157 Nate Pearson 67 4.22 25.1% 172 Ricky Tiedeman 185 Mitch White 76 4.38 20.0% 95 100 189 Thomas Hatch 21 4.43 19.0% 105 97 195 Zach Thompson 41 4.64 17.7% 86 100 takeaways for me: 1. Kikuchi's projection works for me. Rank 126 means he projects to be an SP5. 2. Eno ranks Pearson here but I don't think Toronto is considering him as a SP at all in 2023. 3. Tiedemann is an arbitrary rank. There is no data, so no projection. 4. Zach Thompson sucks. 86 projected stuff+ is horrible. 5. White does not have good projections but with a 100 location+, he just needs SOMETHING to tick up on the stuff side to be decent. His projection is still above replacement level, though. 6. If the top 4 starters pitch to these numbers I think we will all be very happy. 7. White + Kikuchi combining these two projections in the SP5 slot would be something like 1.5 WAR.

Sounds kind of like Sixto see you in 2025, Daniel

It doesn't sound good

It's definitely a big year for the Jays pitching development. No doubt it has let them down in the last couple of years at the MLB level, despite some big home runs like Manoah. It takes a while to create a good development system. Mitch White was a 2016 draft pick so unless Shapiro was miraculously able to have a good pipeline from day one, you'd kind of expect to not have as many guys like that. But they've had a lot of flops when it comes to acquisitions. It kind of looks like real talent is reaching the middle minors. The year will be very telling I think. If guys like Robberse and Juenger and Santos and Zulueta look useless, then it's not a good look

Not if he sucks

So, nobody? He's the #6

That doesn't make sense. Fangraphs' own depth charts have the Jays as 3.7 wins better than the Rays

"it's a flawed system" says the player who clearly filed for way too much money and overestimated their own position

Well, Grayson Rodriguez of course. I do like Bradish.

Yeah so maybe people should stop tonguing their butthole for collecting seven Cole Irvins and moving the fences back 50 feet

It's fine to say the Jays don't have ideal SP depth but you have to acknowledge that pitching depth is fluid and the Jays have been consistently and constantly adding to it for the last couple years. Just seems like a dumb thing to criticize at this point, in this context. They've added a lot and they've also intentionally put some horses up front, which should matter. It's not a f***ing draft and hold league where the team you bring to camp is all you have all year long...

Yeah behind four #5 SP and a rookie, haha. I think they have the third lowest projected P WAR in baseball

yeah it's a funny example. per mr kiley mcdaniel: Grayson Rodriguez, RHP, 60 FV Cade Povich, LHP, 50 FV D.L. Hall, LHP, 45+ FV Seth Johnson, RHP, 45 FV Drew Rom/LHP 40 FV Mike Baumann/RHP 40 FV Chayce McDermott/RHP 40 FV Carter Baumler/RHP 40 FV vs Ricky Tiedemann, LHP, 55 FV Brandon Barriera, LHP, 45+ FV Hayden Juenger, RHP, 45+ FV Yosver Zulueta, RHP, 45 FV Adam Macko, LHP, 45 FV Sem Robberse, RHP, 45 FV Dahian Santos/RHP, 40 FV Trent Palmer/RHP, 40 FV C.J. Van Eyk/RHP, 40 FV