Grant77

That idea seems even more asinine after our hot start in April. Playoff calibre teams with great farm systems don't trade MVP calibre players that want to sign a contract extension.

What makes you say that? He's basically Grichuk with less defense and a lot more strikeouts.

MLB has something called arbitration, which is similar to restricted free agency. Other teams can't make offers, but players can dispute their salary in arbitration if they can't settle with the team. We control Aaron Sanchez through 2020 via arbitration so an extension is not urgent, but it is generally a good thing to lock up your star young players to contracts. He seems to like it here, so I don't see any issues in that regard. The Jays are an average team in terms of payroll, so we should certainly be able to afford extensions for all of our young players. As for the salary cap, I can't see that happening. There's already a lot of tension between the players and the union that could eventually lead to a strike. The new commissioner is generally seen as incompetent by most fans, making several very unpopular decisions.

I can't speak for others, but I'm extremely excited about the farm system. One prospect in particular, Vladimir Guerrero Junior, is the best in the game and maybe the best that we have ever had. He was born in Canada and his father was a Hall of Famer with the now defunct Montreal Expos. Vlad Jr. is only 19 years old, but he looks like he is ready to be one of the top hitters in the league in the very near future. We have another prospect named Bo Bichette who is not far behind, giving us the league's best prospect duo. The rest of the system is also pretty good and I'd say we're around the 5th or 6th best in the league overall. I think that most of the pieces needed for the next step are already with the team. We just need to integrate the prospects that I noted above into the existing roster and we'll be looking at a long period of success. The most important issue for us right now is to retain recent league MVP Josh Donaldson, who is a free agent at the end of the year. Also important is to sign core pieces like Roberto Osuna, Aaron Sanchez, and Marcus Stroman to long term deals.

We're glad to have you aboard! This is the best place to discuss the Blue Jays. You'll find no shortage of diehard fans to discuss baseball with. I suppose the most unique thing about the Blue Jays is that we play in a different country. That's given us certain advantages and disadvantages over the years, but it's cool to have the entire nation as the fanbase as well as a fair number of American fans like yourself. If you get a chance to watch a game in Seattle, you'll find that our fans out West take over the entire stadium. In terms of the history of the team, you have to start with 1992 and 1993. That's perhaps the most clutch hit in baseball history and a defining moment for the team. Before that, we were expansion cousins with the Mariners in 1977 and have seen a lot more success over the years. Before the 92/93 Championships our trademark was being the best team in Latin America, getting a ton of players from that market. Since 92/93, we have floundered as an average team that is never really below average, but not good enough to win a Championship. Unlike the NBA, there is no salary cap in baseball, so the Yankees and Red Sox often dwarfed our payroll in that period. Recently, the team had a renaissance under a divisive general manager named Alex Anthopoulos. He has since been fired, but the new leader Mark Shapiro has continued that success and the team is looking like they have a good shot at the playoffs this year. I won't ramble any more, but feel free to ask anything specific.

Yes, I consider the two seam and four seam to be two different pitches. The four seam is a plus pitch, but it plays down because of his lack of command. I'm not ready to say that he has completely lost the curveball after just 3 starts this season.

Have you ever even played baseball before?

The important thing now is that he has four above average pitches to go with. I trust Russ Martin to sort it out eventually and make the most of this new ability.

We've seen in the past that payroll is based more on long term trends than short term peaks and valleys. That could certainly change, but I really have no way of knowing. I suspect that ticket sales make up a relatively small proportion of revenue anyways.

I really don't think they went through all of the effort of hiring Shapiro, only to serve him with an ultimatum like that. As things stand today, we're looking at a playoff calibre roster and a top 10 farm system that is certainly still on the rise. A full rebuild was never really necessary and I think that they knew it from the start. Playoffs or not this year, we're still in a position to make additions to the roster for 2019 without sacrificing the future. I'm generally very happy with the way that they have handled the situation, outside of the Encarnacion/Morales debacle.

You don't see a team hit 20 very often, even in extra innings.

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pirates/2018/04/09/felipe-rivero-name-change-prescilla-vazquez-sister-pirates-closer/stories/201804090160 Felipe Rivero changes his name to Felipe Vazquez at his sister's request. Really strange story, sounds like his every move is controlled by her. "I do everything for her,” Felipe Vázquez said. The pitcher also said he may change his jersey number next season in consultation with his sister. “When she says it’s time to change my number, I’ll do it,” he said.

Teoscar Hernandez can't keep striking out like that if he wants to make it back to the majors. His K rate was sky high in the spring and in his cup of coffee last year too.

Any perfect game would have to be a pretty likely player of the week if not paired with a crappy start.

Perhaps Solarte needs a rest of he wants to get Morales' bat going after a solid showing yesterday. I usually don't question the players in the lineup because only they know about nagging injuries and whatnot. The order in which they appear is another issue entirely.

It's a little early, but if Gurriel maintains a hot start, I'd love to see him in the majors at some point this year.

Maybe we'll be ahead of them in the standings.

I've always wondered if we have a tip on Hamels. Our batters seem to lay off of his breaking ball like they know what's coming.

That would really suck.

It looks like there is some serious work to be done when it comes to integrating analytics into bullpen usage. Both Boone and Kapler have struggled to use keep their pitchers fresh, despite reasonably good performances from their starters. It makes me appreciate how Gibby handles the 'pen even more.

Russ Martin: Solarte is like Kawasaki with a little more pop.

Claudio's delivery looks incredibly hard to pick up.

I was just stating my own rationale for my list. It wasn't an attack on your selection.

Well of course they do, but what relevance does that have? He's already a legit prospect is he not? To me, new legit guy means someone who is off of the radar, but will have a great season and emerge as a future regular.

We can't assume that he is going to use the same mix of pitches in every game. The takeaway point here is that he has another pitch that is getting a lot of swings and misses. That's a big positive in my opinion.