Laika

Manoah in 2021 is realistic. That's the Stroman timeline. SWR in 2021 is realistic if he continues this precocious trend. Pearson contributing in 2020 is realistic, of course. The context for Stroman/Osuna/Sanchez was very different. That was an older team pushing chips in. This current context is not the same. If they aren't signing decent SP talent to bridge 2020 to 2021, then they'll definitely have to do some Rays-ish things with openers and piggy-backers in order to put up enough competitively pitched innings to have any chance at stealing a WC spot.

I like some of the names you listed. Cole Hamels might be a good target given his age. One year deal? I would be all over Rich Hill on a one year deal. Keuchel might be worth a gamble on a 2 or 3 year deal. Roark, Alex Wood, Kyle Gibson, Wade Miley are all interesting enough mid-level targets of varying talent levels. There are enough options that it would be unacceptable for them to only pursue guys like Nova, Cahill, Chacin, Buchholz.

Ah yes, the one that got away... *checks list of every player Atkins has parted with*... Harold Ramirez.

Weird year for Grichuk. The poor BB and K rates are steady with his career, and AVG and OBP are basically steady with his career. His contact and swinging strike rates are actually career bests but his ISO is down by a grade. Roll in some unexpected negative runs from baserunning and defense and he's gone from 2 WAR to almost 0. I'm not sure what to make of any of it but I would expect him to at least regress to the career means next year. Boring f***ing player either way. I'm not sure if I like Teoscar or him more at this point.

What is the best up to date 2020 free agent list right now? There is one on some sportrac website but not sure if it is solid. I'm not seeing any MLBTR tracker just yet.

Man the SP depth chart is depressing through the lens of trying to compete in 2020. SP 1 - ? SP 2 - ? SP 3 - ? SP 4 - Shoemaker SP 5 - Thornton SP 6 - Borucki SP 7/8/9 - Waguespack, Kay, Zeuch SP 10/11/12/13/14 - Murray, Perez, Murphy, Diaz, Hatch (most are RP or opener-level talents) SRF = not realistic SP depth (RP) Merryweather = not realistic SP depth (injury) Pearson = slide him in wherever you want but he is a prospect with limited pro innings so it's hard to rely on him Then some relevant long men or opener types in Font, Pannone, Gaviglio... Basically the organization has SP depth figured out and accounted for except for like, the three most important pieces, which are completely missing. lol. I don't mind the above players if they are positioned as such on the depth chart, but right now you're counting on Pearson to be like an SP2 and Shoemaker and Thornton to round out the top 3. Gross! There's really zero need for crummy veteran signings (although some minor league ones are warranted). I would welcome some productive opener shenanagins in 2020 if the team can't bring in enough actually good SP. I do not think guys like TJ Zoinks should be given long looks as normal SP, if they have trouble getting through lineups multiple times.

Brett Gardner?

Multiple mid-level SP should be signed or acquired (assuming none of the big fish SP will sign here, although Atkins should sincerely try to sway them). Jose Abreu might be a fit? I think they should bring in a 1B/DH especially if Vlad is playing third in 2020. Bringing back Donaldson is interesting to me... give him 2/45 or something like that. I guess he’ll get a QO though and Toronto really isn’t in a position to lose draft picks

What the f*** did you just say about Brock Stewart?

That's not exactly obvious. Improvements in player development and player projection seem to have made it much more likely that players breaking in (league minimum players) will contribute. Even in San Francisco, Mike Yastrzemski, Austin Slater, and Alex Dickerson have all been as good as Pillar, maybe even better than Pillar. Teams are also rightfully petrified of the downside risk on free agent contracts. Who really knows anymore. It could have been a market over-correction or it could have been appropriate.

I disagree with you. Pillar made almost $6M in arb2 this year. It would not have been worth the money and the roster spot to keep him through 2019 on the chance that he would project to retain enough skill through 2020 to be a viable 4th OF standing to make about $8M. Recent free agency markets demonstrate that a team can sign a similar 4th OF for less than that. No sense staying married to Pillar. It doesn't look like they got any player talent back for Pillar, in hindsight. That's unfortunate but at the time of the trade there was a reasonable chance that Law could have been a decent RP with control or De Paula could have been some sort of pitching prospect worth keeping. There's also opportunity cost to keeping Pillar. Toronto found out this year that Gurriel looks like a good outfielder, in part because the outfield was wide open and there was room for him. They got to trial Grichuk and Teoscar in CF. They got to give guys lots of playing time in the OF and evaluate talent. Pillar's presence awkwardly gets in the way of some of that.

Cap leagues f***ing suck Having a rich teams to hate on is actually good for the sport

I'm not sure that reasoning from anecdotes is actually a "good approach to these kind of questions". If you go back to the beginning of time (2006) here are some notable A or A+ names with K rates over 35% in 300+ PA Lewin Brinson - made the majors, sucked, will probably always suck Bobby Dalbec - has cut the K rate by a lot in AA this year, will very likely make the majors, we will see Joey Gallo - we are not worthy Travis Demeritte - made the majors, we will see, will probably suck Tommy Pahm - hey now? did not expect this guy's name Austin Beck - 95 wRC+ in A+ this year, Fangraphs has him at a higher FV than Conine. Not sure why I put him here. And of course there have been oodles of prospects with K rates approaching or above 40% who never made it.

Probably just skating home from the gastropub on his longboard, dude

Early playoff dividends from Syndergaard

Interesting scores right now... featherD with 1 category against p2f! Thehurl with a huge lead in his matchup!

Todd The Mod He has a great bod

They are kind of like the Angels. Just pathetic.

They should actually shrink the seats and make some standing room only sections so the capacity is 80,000. Think of all the additional revenues!

No it's f***ing not. Even in 2016, the average attendance was like 42,000. What is it this year, 20,000?

It's downtown toronto though - there is nothing green around it. It was also originally called the Skydome and the most "natural" the landscape gets from the inside looking out is when the sky is clear blue, which is an effect exaggerated by the blue seats which become contiguous with the sky. I get the green seat thing mostly because it's toned down, but I think it makes more sense to just tone down the blue a bit for the updated seating for the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Stadium Dome. The current shade of blue is pretty stark when the seats are empty.

If Todd is right he gets to be a mod

So you got like six plate appearances against the same pitcher? Okay.

The Amazon is burning. Who cares!

Carolina having won the Stanley Cup always surprises me.