Laika

uh huh. then the under-developed kids can make the rep teams when they develop physically and are good enough. you've actually just highlighted one of the issues with starting the rep/travel pipeline so f***ing early.

It sounds like you have a healthy perspective on all this. Sorry if you took my posts personally. I still think the pro camp for 5 year olds is weird but you're clearly being thoughtful about this stuff.

These people are in a cult, right? It's basically a cult.

Oh it's not baseball specific at all. Some kids just aren't good athletes. There will be cuts regardless. It's okay if they get cut... they can play house league. If you have to drill fundamentals with your kid at 5 and 6 just so he doesn't get cut from the travel team at age 7, guess what - he's almost certainly not going f***ing anywhere in that sport. Read him more books.

I just remember when I was 6 my dad sent me to a Canadian Hockey Enterprises camp. Seemed innocent and I wanted to go. Roger Neilsen bag-skated me for the entire week and he made me wear a dress. It was a nightmare. It hurt even more when I later found out that my dad was gay and only put me in the camp so he could ask the old pros out for drinks.

It's about parents taking kids sports way too seriously. A camp with old pros for five year olds is just absurd.

Parents should have enrolled the kid in Kevin Mench's "Dingers and Diapers" Camp. Only $100/day. Teaches the fundamentals like how to s*** in a f***ing toilet. If you don't drill those fundamentals early you'll have a pants-shitter forever.

If I had a 6 year old daughter who wanted to play with a GI Joe I would give her the GI Joe. Any parent who goes further than that and tries to force or foster a gender swap is a f***ing psychopath. I still don't understand what this has to do with the line about youth sports.

Is this directed at me? I am legitimately having troubling straightening out the analogy and figuring out what your gripe is.

I'm glad YOU are excited for it but sorry, this is an early example of the type of modern youth sports s*** that has parents spending thousands upon thousands of dollars for their kid to maybe end up as a solid fundamental high school baseball player, but they are just as likely to end up resenting the sport. It's also part of the culture that makes sports like baseball and hockey inaccessible to poor kids; five year olds should be as connorp says "chasing butterflies" on a school ball diamond and maybe doing some catching and hitting if they like it, but that's about it. Your kid doesn't know who the f*** Brad Wilkerson is and he'd probably have more fun if you dressed up like Wags the Dog and flipped balls to him. He's not rubbing elbows with Bo Bichette. Products like this are marketed to the parents. Again, I'm glad you are excited about it. I am not just being a snarky wet blanket. This is a microcosm of problems that are part of a broader discussion about the nature of youth sport and accessibility to sport. Everything that you are saying about Florida baseball culture seems s***** to me. I remember playing AAA hockey up here at 10 and 11 years old and how serious the adults took it almost ruined the sport for me. I was pretty good but after those two years I hated hockey. Surly coaches, angry coaches after losses, annoying off-ice training multiple times per week, parents screaming at referees and getting into arguments, long ass bus rides all the time even on school nights. I'm glad I had the presence of mind to tell my dad that I didn't like it anymore after those two years. 5 year olds are so impressionable. Most of them will copy their parents, do what they like, do whatever dad says. If your kid truly is a baseball rat and never loses the fun then that's awesome but I hope you listen to him and he doesn't just end up as some cog in a youth baseball business marketed at you that will steal a huge chunk of his childhood.

No no no, groundballs up the middle are what make money in mosquito baseball

Neither of them are actual stop gaps. Turner might take 3 years to sign, same with Didi. This DJLM rumour mill is turning into the blob because New York is at the centre of it but Gregorius is 1.5 years younger and pretty damn good... he could get about as much $$ as DJ when the dust settles. Stop gap might be someone like Gyorko, Brad Miller, Kike Hernandez, Hanser Alberto, maybe Marwin Gonzalez, maybe Maikel Franco wants to sign a one year deal, maybe the market for Cesar Hernandez never develops and he is cheap. Sexy list, right?

Sign Max Headroom, cowards!

Apparently not... at least not anyone on the BA top 50

What the f*** are ex pros going to teach a FIVE year old? lol. Five. Like five years? Five years old? Kindergarten?

There is Blue smoke around literally every player.

It's very possible the Blue Jays don't feel like they need a big infielder. If Martin and Groshans looked mature at the alternate site, both could start in AA or AAA. I know it sounds aggressive but we don't know what any teams are thinking about prospect development right now. We might see Toronto just get a one year option for 2B or 3B later in the offseason

10 Manuel Beltre Manuel Beltre Dominican RepublicSS Notes: Born: June 9, 2004. B-T: R-R. Ht.: 5-11. Wt.: 165. Report: One of the best hitters in the class, Beltre is a baseball rat who has spent years documenting his path to professional baseball on his social media accounts, sharing his daily training and highlights on his Instagram account of more than 60,000 followers. Beltre has a short, simple swing, performing well in games with a high contact rate, good feel for the strike zone and gap power. Beltre isn't as tooled-up as some of the other top prospects in the class, but he has a ton of game experience relative to his peers and it's evident in his all-around instincts and fundamentally sound play. Beltre, who trains trains with Jaime Ramos, is expected to sign with the Blue Jays. (they don't mention a bonus but the #8 player is expected to sign for $2.5M and a few players below Beltre are expected to sign for $2M) 39 Last: 38 Martín Giménez Headshot Martin Gimenez VenezuelaSS Notes: Born: Feb. 15, 2004. B-T: R-R. Ht.: 6-3. Wt.: 160. Report: Gimenez and Wilman Diaz, one of the top shortstops in this class, train together with Alexi Quiroz. Gimenez has a long, lanky build with plenty of room to pack on weight. He has a chance to develop into a power bat once he fills out, with some scouts praising his swing and approach, though others said he's still learning to recognize breaking pitches. Gimenez has a strong arm for the left side of the infield and it should grade up as he fills out, with a good chance he ends up at third base or possibly an outfield corner as he gets bigger. The Blue Jays are expected to sign Gimenez.

You cannot be a consistently great SP in NPB without stuff. Sometimes a pitcher with great command will have their stuff UNDERRATED. I think that's what's happening here.

He is arguably wrong. Sugano's NPB numbers compare favourably to other Japanese pitchers who have come over and had great success (Tanaka, Maeda, and others). Sugano is easily distinguished from Gooch, who basically had one random good year in Japan but was mostly a reliever and wasn't even consistently pitching on the main circuit over there. Remember, the point he is responding to is not "Shun Yamaguchi is good" it is "Tomoyuki Sugano is very good". His rebuttal is "Shun Yamaguchi was bad therefore Sugano should not be expected to be good". It's an argument as weak as his fragile Fangraphs ego, and he is delivering it with the stuffy arrogance of a 15 year old. The Blue Jays took a flyer on Gooch and paid almost nothing to do it. To compare Sugano to Gooch is so disingenuous and much worse than comparing Sugano to a #2 SP.

Why are all Fangraphs prospect writers snotty little f***s?

Yours is worse

Common sense and reason. Toronto brass are outspoken about not shooting down any rumours, so these things take on a life of their own. The organization has Bo Bichette. They have multiple very good infielders in the pipeline in Groshans, Martinez, and Hidalgo. No CF on the MLB team and not much in terms of great OF prospects. Springer will cost no prospects and less than half the money of Lindor. Laika's brain cells say Springer is way more likely than Lindor. Kim is a separate type of asset and is one of the likeliest free agents to land in Toronto, I think. Nice 3B fit for 2021 and then who cares after that, maybe one of him or Biggio go to the OF.

But why would you just go by media reports?

When I think about long term investments in players I tend to make a mental list of weak points. The more there are, the less I want to commit. For Springer: - Never been a workhorse. Injury risk? - Some performance questions going forward (cheater) - Not a great defender - Already over 31 He's a very well-rounded player and the sum of his parts has been very good, but there are a few small cracks that could become big issues. But these are also all reasons that his contract could end up as quite reasonable. He projects for ~4 WAR... is there really a huge amount of risk on say a $110M contract? How big does the deal have to be before it's a turn off?