Laika

Yeah Anyway, to be serious, the key point is getting more player filtering into the ranks. It doesn't actually help IMO to shame the non-commits. If there were more quality Canadians in the league and in the minor leagues then the replacement level would be better. We wouldn't see Aumont, Loewen, and Axford on the roster. We wouldn't see the 19 year old guy barely out of rookie ball with a 91 mph fastball. There will always be non-commits but it just sucks so be replacing them with seniors and babies. The Blue Jays winning a World Series would probably do more for Team Canada Baseball on a ten year timeframe than anything else.

To be holistic, Canada did really well this year at getting most of the best minor leagues to commit. At least there is a strong position player core. Freeman is amazing to have. The top portion of Canada's lineup can hang with anybody.

omg it's mason_mcrae i remember he had some insanely wrong opinions about blue jays prospects and draft prospects and he would circle back and delete them all the time

I guess, but at 39, in the last year of his contract, and with the Reds having nothing to play for this year... you'd think he'd have been game for one last try. But I just looked up his spring stats and am only seeing 2 AB. Looks like they are doing the Brandon Belt slow roll with him. Probably his idea.

If Taillon gets a pass then everybody gets a pass. He just reached the financial finish line - secure for life after a massive FA contract. He's on easy street.

Here is the list of notable non-attendees as far as I can tell: Completely get it Guerrero Jr (not really Canadian) Paxton (health) Soroka (health) Sort of get it Pop (MLB bubble player with realistic shot to make team) Traitor! Romano Taillon Votto Pivetta Charles Leblanc Josh Naylor Rowan Wick Adam Macko Can't really think of any other minor league players who would have helped all that much. Balazovic is a mess. Am I missing any, say, top 200 or 300 prospects who are Canada eligible?

I'm not upset that Bratt didn't perform It's just annoying that Whitt threw the kid to the wolves I think they should have led this game off with Brash or one of their better relievers to at least try and start.on the right foot Or like Grant said a veteran who would at least not be nervous

You expect to lose You expect to get blown out even Still frustrating to have to watch a kid squirm and barely throw a strike

Canada did okay. Some of the guys not playing like Paxton and Soroka, you get it. Rowan Wick would have been nice. Pivetta hurts. Taillon hurts.

Canada has a handful of prospect-y pitchers who, just by looking at K-BB numbers, have some stuff. I guess there is a chance that a bunch of pitchers you have never seen before with okay stuff could keep an all star baseball lineup relatively quiet. My prediction for tonight is that it's a close game until the 8th inning and then Ernie Whitt calls on Adam Loewen for some dumb f***ing reason and he comes in throwing 90 poo and gets his tits lit up.

Looks like maybe you are thinking of 2013. They used Axford to close out 10-3 win over Mexico. Then the next day they are losing 5-4 to USA going into the 9th. They use Mathieson to end the 8th and to begin the 9th but he can't keep USA off the bases and they have to use Axford anyway. Combined Mathieson and Axford give up 4 ER and the game is out of hand. Maybe if they held Axford back and he was 100% fresh, he is fresh and the one being used for the final 1.1 innings and it's a 5-4 game heading into Canada's final chance... against prime Craig Kimbrel, lol.

Yeah Canada is not horrible but so weak in pitching - this is why Brash should be deployed against two of Mexico/Colombia/USA if possible and why using him against GB was silly. He's one of the team's only MLB quality arms! Should have let Adam Loewen or Scott Mathieson or one of the other 40 years olds who has not pitched professionally in years finish that game. It was a shame to even use Curtis Taylor against GB but Ernie kind of had to roll out a legit arm to take control of the circus game.

hmmmmm A. Use best pitcher to pitch against good teams like USA and Mexico B. Use best pitcher to mercy the Brits Canada is probably going nowhere so maybe mercying the Brits is the best we can hope for anyway

plays around the diamond and steals the 2B job outright in the second half

Jays have a top 5 pen Belt + Kiermaier combine for 6 WAR Bo Bichette MVP Barger top 3 in ROY voting

Can we talk about how stupid it was to use Brash while up 10 runs? Good lord, Ernie.

yup

what a pathetic comment errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr uhhhhhhhhhhh i just don't want to do business with the guy because I don't like his politics

So you should be buying Kelenic in all your leagues then. Are you making offers?

Hasn't he always been good in spring training? And always good in the minors? All you even care about is whether MLB quality pitchers are still able to exploit him. What are his K and BB numbers this spring? If the rate is 4:1 or worse, then it's whatever. Probably the same s***** hitter who was able to homer a couple of times off AA quality pitchers.

There is no bump in Kelenic's value right now Not even a tiny bump Nobody f***ing cares about his spring numbers

Do we know for a fact that he is tipping? After thinking about it for many months and watching him stink yesterday, at this point I kind of just think his stuff crossed a tipping point of effectiveness. Like, you know how a guy with a fringe fastball can sometimes be good at 91 but gets hammered at 89 and his career is over? The Hyun-Jin Ryu line in the sand. There might be something similar, but less extreme, happening with Berrios. His 4 seamer has not really lost any velocity or spin since 2016 but is HAS lost effectiveness. Here is the whiff% on his 4S and Sinker since 2017: 4S: 26.2%, 23.7%, 23.9%, 23.5%, 21.5%, 18.9% Sinker: 13.3%, 15.3%, 12.6%, 18.2%, 14.6%, 11.7% When you look at a model like Stuff+ it says the 4S is now a below average stuff pitch. It's not that it has gotten worse, it's probably that the league has gotten better, and hitters are therefore better at hitting fastballs like this. He has okay command of the fastball (103 and 104 location+ on the 4S and sinker) but maybe it's not good enough to overcome what is now a below average four seamer. So maybe it's like... his 55 FA is now a 45, effectively? His curveball still grades out well by Stuff+. In fact, it's basically tied for the best single pitch on the 2022 staff, along with Stripling's CH and Guasman's Split. But Berrios has a close to average 102 Location+ on his curveball while Gausman and Stripling married 109 and 111 Location+ figures to their carrying pitches. So the picture is: 1. Below average 4S with average-ish command 2. Average sinker with average-ish command 3. Bad changeup? 4. Good (or really good) curveball with average-ish command. I think it can be hard to live on a good curveball alone, depending on the pitch. It's a bit different from trying to live on a good tight slider. Sometimes even with good command it's hard to land it for strikes, for instance. Okay, let's look at guys with good curveballs and bad fastballs and try to parse out how they avoid sucking. 115 stuff+ curves with fastballs under 95 stuff+. Wainwright: 135, 75 He is 32% curveballs, 25% cutters, 28% sinkers. He has mostly abandoned the four seamer. The cutter gets decent grades still (106 stuff+) but the curveball is simply in a different class. Kyle Wright: 127, 82 (96 sinker) He is 34% curveballs, 20% four seamers, 24% sinkers. His changeup gets a 100 stuff+ and he throws it 15% of the time, which is a difference from Berrios. His curveball grades out even better than Berrios' but this might be a guy for Berrios to look at. Morton: 127, 85 Another elite curveball, like Waino and Wright. He is 33% 4S and 38% curves. Kelly: 122, 85 A bigger arsenal guy. He is 4S, cutter, sinker, change, curve and he throws them all between 13.5% and 29.9% of the time. Also has better command; a 105 overall Location+ is almost two standard deviations above average. Kluber: 120, 83 He is cutter, sinker, curve (sometimes called slider). Musgrove: 120, 82 Has fastball, cutter, slider, curve, and seldom used sinker and change. JOSE BERRIOS NEEDS A CUTTER. Kluber is 30%+ cutters. Musgrove is 20% cutters. Kluber and Musgrove might be the best comparisons for Berrios if you just look at basic fastball quality and curveball ("slurve") grades. Both of these dudes have developed GOOD cutters. They also have some other tricks, like better changeups, but they don't throw them that much. Option B would be for Berrios to turn his "slurve" into two distinct breaking pitches. A slider/sweeper and curve. He might also consider toning down the % of four seamers. He should be a Sinker/Cutter/Curve/Slider guy.

Bratt is a decent prospect. The Jays' equivalent would be, I dunno, Dahian Santos.

It's like the game just passed Berrios by. His repertoire seems so dated now. He is in major need of a pitch design makeover

17 total runs seems low actually 14 - 8 final