Laika

I'm a Randy Arozarena groupie but not sure we line up.

Why sign Michael Brantley when you already have Josh Palacios?

I don't remember seeing any? Happy to chance my opinion and move him out of the danger zone. He seems interesting to me but also very much an in between OF prospect.

There are still numerous players who could be DFA'd or traded for cash without any regret. I'm not sure Derek Fisher plays a regular season game with Toronto this year. Out of options. Ty Tice is completely fungible. Same with Josh Palacios. Payamps of course is cuttable. Zeuch or Wag could be traded for a light return.

It's extra weird because they aren't even a horrendous team. Some holes, sure, but the core is good and they have a puncher's chance of getting into the playoffs. They must just think Benintendi is almost a push with Cordero... and projections kind of support that. Steamer600 Franchy = 1.3 wins, Tendi = 1.6 wins. Cordero is also more tooled up than Benintendi and has more team control so sure.

Sounds like the Royals, Red Sox, and Mets are about to have a three way! wow!

Final offseason moves, my predictions: Rick Porcello signed, 1 year deal, Kluber money Justin Wilson signed, 1 year deal Joe Panik signed, MiLB deal but he breaks camp with the team

More importantly - what will the new team name be? You can't be Twist and no Trout. ISO Horny is available...

I was going to say, I bet a few blue chip prospects from our first prospect draft have been held onto

The long teased Trout trade... Sounds like it is happening. FTD must be sitting on some strong offers already. Everyone should put their best foot forward today!

The Fangraphs writer is just wrong. He doesn't have to love the system but he clearly made a snap judgment before objectively comparing the team to the others in baseball. The lowest a reasonable person could have Toronto would probably still be in the top half of MLB.

Martin >>>> both!

Reminder of what Fangraphs said:

I'm relying on you, pigeon, cause I won't be

Please review the new rules. Let me know if I missed anything new... 1. League Basics 1.1 20 teams; 4 divisions of 5 teams; 8 teams make the playoffs, being the 4 division winners and 4 wildcards. 1.2 This is a 7x7 league with R-H-HR-RBI-SB-OBP-SLG and W-SV-HLD-K-ERA-OBPA-K/BB. 1.3 26 man rosters with these active positions: C-1B-2B-3B-SS-CF-OF-OF-UTIL and SP-SP-SP-SP-SP-RP-RP-RP-RP-P and six (6) bench spots 1.4 Unlimited IR spots 1.5 Fourteen (14) MiLB slots. 2. MLB Roster Management 2.1 Lineup Setting is mandatory. Owners that do not set lineups with active MLB players for an extended period of time may be expelled from the league or face other discretionary consequences (such as pick loss). 2.2 Unowned players with no MLB games played cannot be added as free agents unless they have cleared rule 2.3. Unowned players with no MLB games played can be added during the NPD (see section 4). 2.3 DEBUT WAIVERS - if a player with no MLB games played plays in their first MLB game, including the postseason, any owner can request publicly that a commissioner place them on Debut Waivers, and any commissioner who sees a public request is obliged to do so. If a debuting player is not placed on Debut Waivers they can be added at 8 PM Eastern Time two days after their first MLB game. If a commissioner places a player on Debut Waivers they must post so in the message board thread or send an email to the league. 2.4 It is illegal to add a player with any type of red flag in Fantax. The punishment is loss of waiver priority and loss of the offending team's highest NPD pick outside of the first two rounds (if the offending team has only first and second round picks they lose their worst pick). 3. MiLB Roster Management 3.1 MiLB rosters will consist of a maximum of fourteen (14) players. 3.2 Before the New Player Draft any players on an MiLB roster with at least 1000 career MLB PA or 50 career (GS + (relief appearances/2)) have to be either promoted or cut. 3.3 Owners are free to promote players from or demote players to their MiLB roster at any time as long as the move is allowable in Fantrax. 4. New Player Draft 4.1 We will use the Fantrax Draft Room and may be limited by its functionality. 4.2 The NPD will take place in February or March each year. 4.3 Each owner will be allowed a 12 hour window in which to make their selection. After the 12 hour window, that owner may make their selection as soon as they arrive, but the draft will carry on in their absence and subsequent owners may make their selections. 4.4 If an owner misses a draft window entirely then all of their subsequent windows for the current draft will be halved. This penalty can occur twice during a draft; windows cannot shrink below 3 hours. 4.5 Only unowned players with no MLB games played (including playoffs) and who belong to an MLB parent team are eligible to be drafted. Players drafted but unsigned by an MLB team in the previous MLB draft are not eligible. 4.6 Prior to the NPD an owner must cut/clear space on their roster for each draft pick they intend to use. It is not clear if owners can make drops to open up roster space while the Fantrax Draft Room is open. 4.7 Any players, including MiLB players with no service time, dropped during the NPD may be claimed on waivers. MiLB players with no service time dropped before the NPD begins may not be claimed on waivers and must be taken during the draft, even if they were dropped right before the official start of the NPD. 4.8 Trades of MiLB assets can happen during the draft, subject to what is technically possible in Fantrax. 4.9 NPD order will be determined by the standings of the previous season with a weighted lottery on the Top 5 picks. The rest of the teams pick in order of regular season standings, with the exception of the league champion who will pick 20th. 5. Trading 5.1 Trades are subject to commissioner approval, but will be approved unless the trade is found to be overwhelmingly unfair or shows signs of collusion or league sabotage. 6. Voting 6.1 All items tabled for league voting must achieve 11/20 votes to pass. Voting is mandatory for all items tabled by a commissioner. Items that fail to pass cannot be tabled again for one year. 6.2 Voting is for potentially substantial league changes where time is not sensitive. 6.3 Matters that require timely resolution may avoid the vote process. Matters that can be best decided by a smaller group of people may avoid the vote process. 6.4 The supreme commissioner Kim Jong NJH has the power to make any unilateral rule changes or actions that he thinks are in the best interest of the league. 6.5 Any league member can call for a league vote. If 12 voting league members disagree with a rule change or action that has been implemented unilaterally by a commissioner, then the change shall be overturned. If 11 voting league members disagree with a rule change or action that has been implemented unilaterally by a commissioner, then the vote will be passed or failed by a secondary vote of only commissioners, excluding the commissioner that implemented a unilateral change. Commissioner is defined in this paragraph as: P2F, TheHurl, NJH, Dinger, z3r0s, and BTS. 7. Special Rules 7.1 Effective January 19 2020 the rule allowing compensation for the sudden loss of extremely valuable players was revoked. There will no longer be any compensation for sudden losses. The below text is kept here for historical reasons.

I amended the league rules in anticipation of our transition which is almost complete. Everybody should review them. Other > League Rules Summary > scroll to bottom and see League Message. Let me know if I forgot anything that was discussed!

Any MLB games played = free to add right now No games = can only be drafted in the NPD During the season, when an unowned player debuts they will be subject to "debut waivers" or free to add at 8 PM Eastern Time on the second day after their debut (I still need to rewrite our rules for the new setup). We are done with the whole AA/AAA thing we used to do.

IF the rise in strikeouts has been partly because players are willing to trade strikeouts for homers AND IF the ball deadining has a significant negative effect on flyball distance THEN the answer is yes. Players with middling power will return to more traditional, contact-oriented approaches AND/OR teams will give playing time to more traditional, contact-oriented hitters. We will see. You won't see a sudden change though. And if most of the rise in K's is due to pitch design and increased velocity then there might not be a big or appreciable change whatsoever.

Jack Roslovic seems pretty good himself. I still don't understand how/why he was in that trade. Pure gravy for Columbus. Is there a non-zero chance that he ends up being the best player of the three going forward?

The Yankees rotation is basically Cole and then 6 glass cannons. There's a very real chance that it implodes and Toronto can just ride Big Diesel Roark to the crown. Muahahahahaha

I don't think Toronto is quite done adding talent. I also don't buy some of the projections ahead of them. Yankees are a pretty risky team so while they are the projected favourite the error bars on that projection are huge. Kluber, Taillon, Severino, Stanton have pretty big non-contribution risks. The AL East should be a pretty close three team race... I think Toronto will be better than Cleveland and the Angels.

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/standings/

I'd do the deal but you are right to be hesitant. In a league with only 252 MLB keepers, it's easy to end up with a worthless MLB-side prospect (say if you promote Pearson and cannot demote him but then he's pitching through injuries and in the pen for a couple of years...) I don't think Dominguez should be considered a blue chip prospect yet in a league with your settings. Very far away and some serious body questions. Manning has his own arm concerns. Main reason to do it is that Lamet is as good as Bauer and two years younger. Even if he gets TJS tomorrow all you'll have lost is the 2021 production. If any of the three prospects are fantasy relevant it's house money - you might not even need them to pan out and all three have legit flipping potential. As in, you could trade them right now for some good stuff I would think.

Are Pearson, Manning, and Dominguez taking up one of the 18 keeper slots or are they on the minor league side and not part of the 18?

14 team dynasty? How many MLB players, keepers, prospects? I'm assuming you are competing in 2021?