Laika

Davis v Turnbull SP matchup favours them, lol. Civale v Berrios Pretty even matchup on the mound. TBD v Bassitt The only SP matchup favouring Toronto Sticks need to be live to sweep!

truly a must sweep series

Yeah not many sellers. A few more teams will fall out of it but the ones that tumble will probably only trade expiring contracts. I am not sure I see a SP acquisition that is really worthwhile. Peralta is not getting dealt. Sale, AA said he isn't trading him. Kelly and Gallen and Eflin would be like trading for another Bassitt/Berrios. Alcantara has been so bad. Only thing that might make sense is paying A LOT for a guy with team control and upside on a bad team, like Edward Cabrera.

You have to be careful with unregressed, small sample platoon splits. His career split probably isn't so extreme. In any event the projections will tell you to play Gimenez over Clement against every RHP, forever, so on the team level they kind of need to make some non-computational decisions based on soft information to decide what to do if they want to go against the projections. But yeah if Gimenez loses playing time it will be against lefties.

If Gimenez doesn't start hitting, he might lose some 2B playing time to Clement. They simply can't justify benching Barger or Clement, they are too good and have been too good. I don't think it makes sense to put Barger's 3B development over the importance of fielding an optimal lineup, though. LF - George CF - Varsho RF - Barger 3B - Clement SS - Bo 2B - Gimenez 1B - Vlad C - Kirk DH - Santander George gets regular games off and a bench OF plays. Santander gets some regular rest days and a bench OF plays (George DH) Gimenez gets some days off if he isn't hitting, and Clement slides in there with Barger covering 3B.

Phenomenal AI goop I like the asian guy with no legs in the bottom left

Arjun NimmalaTrey YesavageRicky TiedemannJuaron Watts-BrownKhal StephenAlan RodenOrelvis MartinezYohendrick PinangoAdam MackoKendry RojasJake BlossJosh KasevichLanden MaroudisJonatan ClaseRJ SchreckJohnny KingGage StaniferSam ShawGrant RogersBrandon Barriera

They would need to go like, 55-35 over the rest of the year to make any noise. I guess it's possible but that's getting close to having to be the best team in baseball for the rest of the season.

I wonder if having strong defenders at 2B is helping out his positioning?

Hard to notice any difference as far as 1B defense goes. -10 OAA to +2 (so far) is a huge and meaningful swing though. I haven't thought about his baserunning at all since the first week or two of the year when he had a TOOTBLAN so I guess that means he has been better on that front.

It doesn't really compute 21st in pitching fWAR but 7th best in ERA 12th in position player fWAR 9th best team in baseball with a +64 run differential? Their ERA-FIP on the team level is -0.72, by far the best in baseball. What's up? Over a full season that would be the best since the 2020 Dodgers. And TBR is a good to mediocre defensive team so it's not that.

Yeah it is an objectively positive development for the MLB team, sadly. Even if Scherzer is just a 4.50 ERA guy who gets through 5 or 6 innings every night, that would be fine.

The AL East might get crazy this year.

I am the only one

Every battle ball that inning by Toronto was over 100 mph Three outs on smashed balls

Rafael Devers To Start Work At First Base With Giants June 17th, 2025 at 5:00pm CST • By Darragh McDonald ... “They’re the men in charge,” Devers said today, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. “I’m here to play wherever they want me to play.” You love to see this. I love it here. Baseball is amazing.

HOORAY!

I don't know why this doesn't bug you, lol. It's generally true that good teams can be fine with one bad arm in the pen but it tends to be a replacement level guy soaking innings or a young kid with upside who is struggling. Toronto's backend is uniquely bad. Swanson has a 10.20 FIP and Green's -0.7 fWAR is nearly the worst of all RP in baseball. They essentially play shorthanded every night, two men down unless you want to punt the game.

This rendition of the Toronto Blue Jays has been sewered by relievers more than once: 2020 WC Game 1 - AJ Cole gives up 2 ER in a 3-1 loss 2021 - Brad Hand single handedly makes them miss the playoffs 2022 WC Game 2 - The infamous bullpen collapse. Mayza, Bass, Romano give up 6 ER in 10-9 loss. 2023 WC Game 2 - "reliever" Yusei Kikuchi gives up 2 runs in 2-0 loss. If they miss the playoffs by a game or two this year, people are not going to look back in an understanding way at these innings being given to Green and Swanson

Devers + Sale + Betts for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs, Jose Bello, Jeter Downs, Alex Verdugo, Connor Wong, Vaughn Grissom say what you want about Devers, and say what you want about $/WAR and payroll considerations, but this trade history looks like what the worst owner in your dynasty league might do on a snap rebuild one year before quitting the league without notice

Green and Swanson in June 10.1 IP 13 ER 4 HR 7 BB 6 K

Looks like some good hittin' to me.

Sandlin has had 4 rehab games so he should be good to go... unless he is not 100% physically Yimi had a bullpen session but no rehab games yet Burr, dunno what he is doing. Paxton Schultz is the obvious swap on the 40 man roster and he should be here over Swanson, for sure. I would say over Green as well. Yeah Nance is one of the obvious non-40 man choices. His projections are better then Green or Swanson, I think. But if they select Nance, he can't just be demoted later if they want. Lazara Estrada and Ryan Jennings are two other non-40 man choices. I think the 40 man roster is at 39.

Green + Swanson + Francis -2.0 WAR combined projections of Green and Swanson are replacement level or below we are at or over the line where giving any of them any more MLB innings, other than in a blowout, is incompetent Schneider has to use them at certain points if they are on the roster so Ross needs to make some aggressive cuts here. I understand having to stick with Francis until a replacement (Scherzer) is ready but the other two, I see no reason for them to still be here.

Because it wasn't intended to be formally/legally binding; because there is no precedent for it and for all we know the CBA doesn't even allow it. It would be a hard to operate provision in a sport where things can change so quickly due to decline, injury, etc. But if it was said it was said. In the world of negotiating contracts that can have certain implications. You could consider it a moral obligation that both sides understand cannot be enforced legally or formally. You could consider it a representation to induce contract, also. I am not saying Devers acted well in all of this but he did at the first instance do what was best for the team. He went to DH, and hit well. The Red Sox compounded this by telling him to "put his glove away" or whatever. And he does not actually have a formal responsibility to "put the team and his teammates first". His contact does not say that. If his employer is going to ignore moral responsibilities, why should the employee Devers live up to his moral obligations? He is paid to play baseball. He continued to play baseball. He was doing his job. All the power to him. I kind of respect him not being a pushover. The line between doing what is best for the team and being a pushover for a s***** organization employer, is pretty blurry.