Laika

That's true Also, and this is a razor's edge as far as the convo going off track, but I am sure there are a few right wing baseball players who were shocked by Canada's emergency decision to let banks freeze people's money if they had any whiff that they were connected to that trucker protest. There might be players who see things like that and decide they will just never play for Toronto. It does work both ways though. Maybe certain players would prefer to play somewhere where mask wearing is not as socially ostracized?

murder

Also, despite what the average sprint speed is Tapia has a better top gear. He accumulates a few "bolts" which under statcast are sprints at 30 feet per second or greater. Grichuk has none of those in 2021 or 2020. The whole point of this is that sprint speed percentile is probably not a great measure of baseball game speed.

So speed in the statcast era is somewhat interesting to measure, if you guys didn't already know. Sprint speed =/ basepath functional speed That is to say, home to first times are or can be a better predictor of stolen bases (and baserunning) than raw sprint speeds. I think I have heard and read this from smart people. Acceleration is key for baserunning. By average sprint speed Tapia is 132nd and Grichuk is 157th But by home to 1st times, Tapia is 40th and Grichuk is 241st Both numbers from 2021 Pretty interesting eh

lmao

We are at 10 so the draft is a go. I'm open to any tweaks you guys think make sense. Look at the stat points and player values from last year, let me know if anything should be rebalanced. Also, I think we might do DAILY auto lineups instead of WEEKLY. The default just had weekly but that's a bit articifial.

Hey friends, I made a best ball draft and hold league drafting tomorrow. Draft is 1:30 ET on Fantrax. There are 6 people signed up right now and we need at least 4 more to make it worthwhile. But we can accommodate up to 14 more. How it works: - All you have to do is draft. There are no trades, and no add/drops. No year long commitment! - You draft a 40 man roster. The pick clocks are 30 or 45 seconds so the draft will go fast. - Each week the league automatically uses your optimal players. That's what best ball means. So if you have Kirk and Jansen and Kirk has more points, he is used as your C that week. - The points system is crudely based on the value of real world stuff. Very crudely. Like, I took Fantrax's default best ball points system and just added categories for other events. But all you really need to do is draft good hitters and good pitchers and you will do well - it should NOT require hardcore thinking. The cool thing about a best ball with 40 man rosters is you get to try to make a 40 man roster that will survive the season and thrive. https://www.fantrax.com/newui/fantasy/joinLeague.go?leagueId=5vm65ewtl0q5fprw That is the invite link. Current players: Me, thehurl, jaysblue, L54, Northof49, EZe1, the cats ass

Grant is going to say he was talking about the "smarter" part But BsR is all that matters. Stupid and +5 is better than a smart and calculated zero.

Even these quotes could just be players kind of regurgitating stuff. With legit young guys it's all about arb trajectories and big contracts. Whether they make 750k or 700k in these league min years is just irrelevant. So I think some agents must have the opinion that these league min years are best used posturing. And s*** like this is what they think is effective at, I dunno... showing strength? showing that you are 100% committed to your own paradigms of self-evaluation?

Also, Tapia has a lot of tools and the Rockies are s*** at player dev so maybe there is something to unlock. He wasn't actually scouted as a pure slap hitter, remember. His profile was more like 60 hit, 60 speed, fringe average pop, 50 defense.

Last two years combined: TAPIA 1.8 bWAR 1.2 fWAR 739 PA GRICHUK 1.2 bWAR 0.9 fWAR 776 PA Toronto was on the hook for $20.66M for two years of Grichuk. He had negative value. Now they are eating $9.7M and paying Tapia $3.95M for 2022. This is a slightly better player + $$ position. If Tapia sucks, they just cut him and they save about $6M across the two years and have a whatever prospect who had good rookie ball numbers. If Tapia is good though, they can keep him for 2023 (final arb) and get a player upgrade for about the same money they would have paid Grichuk across the two years. Tapia at 28 and two years younger than Grichuk probably has a better chance to improve. This will be a season in his physical prime. Grichuk is squarely past his prime. I understand that Grichuk appears to project slightly better buuuuuuut we are talking about fractions of a win. That doesn't mean much to me. Most importantly, perhaps, Tapia just fits the roster better. As a LHH 4th OF with speed he should help Toronto more than Grichuk would as a RHH 4th OF whose best trait is power (which the Jays have in spades). And FWIW Toronto might benefit from not awkwardly having to bench a veteran making big money.

Nah this is agent f***ery. I am 80% sure.

I do think all things considered this is a small upgrade so it was worth doing Being said, they could flip Tapia. Some old school team might give up a prospect for him. He is fast fast fast and he was a fringe elite prospect.

If anything Tapia's use might include a higher proportion of baserunning because he's not in the top 3 in Toronto. So he'll be pinch running a lot.

I don't think Tapia is a downgrade on Grichuk. At least not obviously. Yeah projections are a bit higher for Grichuk but look at the age gap and the last two seasons; Tapia 1.2 fWAR in about 730 PA and Grichuk 0.9 fWAR in about 770 PA. Possible Jays internal numbers have Tapia is an upgrade.

Against RHP Greg Bird DH Kirk C Against LHP Kirk DH Jansen C ofc Jansen has to play sometimes against righties

I think it would more likely be Tapia and/or one of the other outfielders on the depth chart like Mallex Smith or Palacios or Chavez Young or whichever one of them can handle centre.

So he's gonna be like that little cheating f*** in Houston, got it.

Grichuk was also not someone who could play CF everyday. Not a complete disaster but his UZR/150 there last couple years was -11 and -6. He's a corner OF. Tapia might be the same in CF as Grichuck due to raw speed, but worse on the corners because Tapia is just a worse instinctual outfielder.

lmfao this is amazing Tapia is not an improvement on Grichuk at all but might fit the roster better and he could, maybe, just maybe, have some untapped potential? Maybe some better coaching can help him access a bit more power. Pinto doesn't seem to crack any prospect lists but his numbers were lofty. 5'8" 2B.

Probably for an arm. Pablo Lopez?

We'll see what happens. I'm thinking it won't be that severe. Something might give...

Who is Charlie Montoya?

Vlad has only had one good season George Springer can't stay healthy Bo is a bad defender Chapman has a hole in his swing Gurriel was dogshit for most of 2021 Teoscar has a risky profile Second base as a blackhole Jansen can't hit at all Kirk is disgusting Ryu is cooked Gausman is overpaid and will get nuked in the AL East again Berrios is an SP3 Kikuchi will have a 5.00 ERA Manoah is fat and overrated Pearson can't throw strikes and won't stay healthy Romano is worse than Parmesan The rest of the bullpen is mediocre or risky Moreno is a catcher, they never come up and do well right away The manager sucks Covid19 and Canadian politics will ruin the season at some point You still have to listen to Buck Martinez

I think it's more about the product than anything Raptors have now been good for quite a while and won a championship The Jays were an awful product for the late 90s, entire 2000s, and the first half of the 2010s. Even the competitive Bautista et al. teams were fleeting geezers. Just now, with Vlad and co., the Jays might be putting together the type of exciting sustained winner that gets young new fans in the fold.