John_Havok

Sale threw a pitch 100.1 mph last night and another at 99.6 37 years old.... Why does it feel like Sale is underrated somehow even though he's a slam dunk HOF

I read the new proposal from the owners and it's honestly pretty stupid overall. Everything they offered is contingent on a cap/floor system being agreed to They want weekly rosters where you set your 26 man roster on a Sunday or whatever and stays locked for the next 7 days (injury exceptions of course). Basically brings back the problem of a starter getting blown out early, having to use 4 or 5 arms to finish a game and setting your pen back by a few days. Even if you were carrying an extra arm, 2 games in a row like this and you're basically done for the week. This is stupid. Option limits change from 4 to 5, IL is now 1 week and two weeks rather than 10 and 15 days, 60 day IL is a 12 week IL, pitcher limit change up to 14 from 13 ... Reasoning given by MLB is "This reduced transactional frequency would help teams maintain a more consistent roster, allowing fans to build a deeper familiarity with players while also mitigating instability for players." - really just sounds like they want less transactions for some reason. Kinda hard to imagine this being "better" given the amount of injuries a team can sustain over the course of a season. I would guess though the PA might like this as it would increase the likelihood of guys reaching option limits and thus trades and new guys being added to the 40 man roster... probably a very small effect overall though. Rule 5 draft changes to allow anyone under 20 to be grabbed at the 4th draft after their signing rather than the 5th, 20 or over can be taken at the 3rd draft after their signing rather than the 4th. On the surface this seems like good idea, but I don't see how much impact it would actually have since an 18 year old high school draftee is almost never ready by the time he's 22, though college bats (depending on age) could be eligible up to 2 drafts earlier. Rule 5 is barely a needle mover in the MLB so this is largely an optics move IMO. The free agent signing period thing... also seems inconsequential to me. They basically want it to all signings have to be done in a 2-3 week window at the Winter meetings which is like Dec 1-21 (give or take) then shut down again until the 1st Monday in February. Trades would also be not allowed from Dec 21 to the first Monday in Feb but would be allowed as usual from the end of the WS moratorium until the end of the winter meetings. They say they want to build excitement on the FA signing period like in the NFL and NBA...realistically it's just about giving players and agents far less time to shop around and get more money from somewhere else as needs change in the offseason.

Yeah, that's the guy, he clarified in his post that the EV was actually 115, not 112 Don't know what "catcher who's not a catcher" means without explanation, especially from a blog writer and not a talent evaluator. Either way, 115 EV for a 5'7" potato in AA is S tier.

I searched around a bit and cannot find anything about his defensive acumen at all. Thats usually a good thing but for a forgettable underslot college pick theres not really many eyeballs on him in the prospect rankings community. HR tonight was 115 mph ev and 443 feet according to some dude on twitter

Aaron Parker - 23 y/o catcher in New Hampshire just hit his 17th HR of the year, more than doubling last year's total in Vancouver in the same # of ABs. He's listed at 5'7" and 210. Was a college savings pick in the 6th round in 2024 and signed below slot, jumped right in to Dunedin that same year, all last year at Vancouver and was pretty forgettable. Still, pushed up to AA for the start of 2026 and has been solid all season long. Had a weak April power wise but has a .500 SLG or better every month since, OPS has gone up every month. From 2025 in Vancouver to AA in 2026: Strikeout rate? up from 19.6% to 31.2% Walk rate up from 7.6% to 12.9% ISO up from .153 to .213 and SLG from .386 to .472 wRC+ from 90 to now over 120. Pretty much tracks with his pre-draft scouting report of "defined by high bat speed and raw power, generating impressive exit velocities and hard-hit rates despite a high-maintenance swing featuring a large leg kick. He showed excellent collegiate production, slashing .379/.460/.632 with 12 home runs in 2024, though scouts note he can expand the strike zone and has some contact questions. Defensive Profile: quick hands and an average arm that throws with good carry. From Baseball Prospectus a few weeks ago: A sixth-round selection in 2024 out of UC Santa Barbara, Parker is enjoying a breakout offensive season in Double-A, posting an .857 OPS through his first 47 games. There’s still some swing-and-miss concerns, with the K-rate currently north of 30%, but Parker’s ability to impact the ball and defensive ability behind the dish could earn him at-bats in Toronto in the very near future. Already profiling like a pretty solid backup even if the defense hasn't taken a step forward. Under the radar break out candidate ??

From a team starved of power, that's probably not a great idea.

Shapiro pretty much said it, without saying it. ""I’ve said this a couple of times internally, there’s only two people that I know are going to be here at the end of a contract that we sign with Vladdy and that’s Edward (Rogers) and Vladdy. So he better be involved."

Winning 9 of 10 will do that to ya. Sure would be nice to see the Jays win 4 of 5 let alone 9 in 10.

Or someone else going to the 60. Clase perhaps.

He's thrown 1 rehab outing in Buffalo. It is possible they hold him down for another one, but... this pen is gassed as f*ck so it would make some sense to just bring him up 1 appearance early as a stop gap until Sept 1

It's a lot of result oriented explanation though. He says their is a rotational problem causing him to cheat and get started early to generate the bat speed which in turn means he is chasing more but because his hand-eye is so good he makes more contact, but weaker contact. Yes... i think we can all look at the numbers and see that. What is causing the rotational issue? - That's the root cause and is not discussed here. Some sort of nagging injury to his core is a likely root cause. I would like one of these guys out there to do an actual mechanical side by side swing comparison from last year to this year and actually show the physical changes in his swing and timing.

my gut says Little is going down and Mantiply is coming up to give another available arm. As it stands now they only have 4 pitchers available unless they want to try and squeeze an inning out of Miles and/or Dallas if they need to. Arrighetti/SWR/Fisher/(Mantiply?)/Varland today. Hopefully the first two can go at least 6+ combined.

John Schneider on MLB network radio now. (11am eastern) Cant listen myself but if anyone can and post the highlites, that would be super.

Central has been dogshit for years now really. Occasionally a team pops out and wins 90 but usually it's 1 team that's good and beats up on 4 crap teams that inflates their Ws and they get blasted in the playoffs. That said, alot of talent is signing in the NL / signing with the Dodgers every offseason. That is also coinciding with the smaller market teams seeing the benefits of having seemingly 3 or 4 extra picks every year for the past 10 years and getting the young talent up at the same time.

Gonna need 5+ from Arighetti tomorrow and that's pretty unlikely. Mantiply is almost ready too so maybe they abuse Little again tonight for as much as they can and send him back down for Mantiply tomorrow. This injury to Bieber sucks. Its basically going to result in some guys getting DFA that don't really deserve it. Currently on the 40 man with options in the minors: Cellucci Klein Lee Tiedemann Van Eyk Other injury updates: Jameson Taillon is supposed to throw a rehab game in Buffalo on the 28th so that's some news... Bieber... feels like old Yeller time for the season but ... his injury is just inflammation, nothing structural. Two weeks, likely a rehab start then maybe gets 1-2 more with the big club as the season winds down. A real decision is coming with Trey - if they don't think he can make it back for the end of the season they should probably shift him to the 60 day IL to make room for Guerra or Stanifer. Clase might be able to be shifted to the 60 day as he's dealing with plantar fasciitis which can take a long time to recover from... he's already been out just over a month. Urias ... that's a mystery card for now as it's a quad strain and he would be on track to come back in mid September if all goes well in rehab. Any setback and he might be 60 day IL Josh Smith will likely be back as soon as he is eligible or a few days later depending on how they want to manipulate the roster.

They should, but then he'd probably pull a quad from sitting on the bench the wrong way.

Ah yes, remember when Craig Biggio's son had 2.6 WAR in about 2/3rds of a season of PAs as a rookie and it looked like a legit 4 headed monster of Vlad, Bo, Jansen and Craig Biggio's son would carry the team for the next decade? Good times....

Kade Anderson Stuff+ and Location+ from his first outing were nothing special, give him a few games of course to let things settle in but... Pitch/Stuff+/Location+ FA - 88/103 SL - 98/102 CU - 93/71 CH - 114/62 Overall was 97/87

Him or Stanifer is likely now with the Bieber injury

Yeah, my point is there is really isnt THAT much to whine about. Injuries killed them and 1 major underperforming supposed superstar player playing like a below average regular.

Yes. They literally forgot their jobs after the last 3 seasons of the staff being nearly perfectly healthy.

It's very rational to complain about the dumpster fire of Vlad Jr all season long. Probably rational to complain about Little getting too much rope. May be rational (a wee bit) to complain about Hoffman until he moved out of the closer role.

Was listnening to the post game last night and he stated that they picked up on the Diamondbacks hitters just sitting on the splitter with 2 strikes, so he just laid the fastballs in low all night. 22 called strikes with the fastball I think and 4 of the Ks were looking, all on fastballs

Someone tell the fat lady, she should be warming up to serenade the Jays playoff hopes in a few days