John_Havok

77.5% win percentage for the jays now, lets get it to the bullpen.

Yes! Kirk with that new daddy power

Best cleanup hitter in Jays history already. Varshooooooo

Heh, Bo decided he was going to try and murder that first pitch beforehand for sure.

nice! having a good year from Springer would be f***ing amazing

Yankees game wrapped in 2 hours 33 minutes, making it the shortest Yankees game since the invention of television.

ANATOMY noun: teres major either of two muscles passing below the shoulder joint from the scapula to the upper part of the humerus, one ( teres major ) drawing the arm toward the body and rotating it inward, the other ( teres minor ) rotating it outward. Well, i learned something new today, had never heard of that before either.

Baseball savant is pretty good, though it sometimes struggles to update in real time

THis is the part that i liked the most and had to most questions about: "“Literally after every game, they get an email with the pitches they missed. They must log in and look at the ones they missed. And there’s commentary about how they missed, and why they missed." So .. what happens when guys miss the same pitches over and over and over and over again like Angel Hernandez? Reprecussions is not the right word, but what training or additional support are they mandated to take in order to get these calls more right in the future?

Under the CBA, minimum annual salaries would be as follows: At the complex league and rookie ball, $19,800, up from $4,800; Single A: $26,200, up from $11,000; High A: $27,300, up from $11,000; Double A: $30,250, up from $13,800; Triple A: $35,800, up from $17,500. The salary increases are estimated to cost MLB around $90 million annually. Other changes: • Players who sign at age 19 or older are going to be under club reserve for six years, rather than seven, which is the blanket number that previously applied to all players. This policy is not retroactive to players who previously signed at age 19 or older. • Some improvements to MLB’s housing policy. Players will have their own bedrooms at home at Double A and Triple A. Players are going to either receive a bedroom or be allowed to opt out and instead receive a stipend at Low A and High A. Spouses and children are going to be accommodated in club-provided housing. Housing is free for players except those who make a higher amount. • One of the elements MLB pushed hard for in the deal, and an issue the MLBPA gave some ground on, was the right to reduce the size of the maximum amount of players that can be carried on the domestic reserve lists. The union agreed to allow MLB to trim the maximum to 165 during the season, down from 180; and to 175 in the offseason, down from 190. Those cuts, however, cannot take place until 2024 at the earliest. MLB looks at this as right-sizing rosters, believing that if it were starting the minor leagues over today, there wouldn’t be as many spots as there are now. MLB initially wanted a blanket right to downsize rosters as the owners saw fit, which the MLBPA did not allow. • Transportation: For rookie ball, Low A and High A transportation to and from the field is guaranteed to players. At Double A and Triple A, issues are to be addressed as they come up. • The creation of a joint clubhouse nutrition committee to oversee meal quality, and increase in per diem. • A committee for feedback on rule changes that MLB implements in the minors. • A joint drug agreement and domestic violence policy. • Players receive their NIL rights, and the MLBPA plans to do group licensing. • With medical issues, players in certain circumstances will have rights to second opinions. • Different training periods: The fall training period lasts from the end of the season until the Friday before Thanksgiving. A dead period follows from the Saturday before Thanksgiving through Jan. 1. Then there will be a winter training period from Jan. 2 until spring training. During the training periods, players are to be paid at one rate if they’re home, and if they’re called into the complex for instructional leagues or other work, they’ll be paid at a higher rate. The minimum salaries listed above assume players are at home during those training periods, so players can make more money than those minimum salaries listed. • MLB formally agreed that there would not be contraction of minor league teams during the life of the CBA.

Manfred on the automated strike zone via The Athletic: “I do think that improved application of technology in the calling of balls and strikes over the long haul is a really good thing,” Manfred said. He then spoke about 2 main issues they see with ABS No. 1, there is a body of the MLBPA unit … they refer to them as ‘framing catchers,’ that kind of make their living in the major leagues on their ability to frame pitches,” Manfred said during a luncheon hosted by the Paley Center for Media. “And you know, unions are kind of one for all, for one, I like unions, it’s a good thing, and it’s sort of a nice concept. And you have to understand that when you’re making a change, and it arguably could eliminate a certain kind of player — not a guy or two, but a certain kind of player — that’s an issue.” The second issue is that ABS, at least thus far, interprets the strike zone differently than umpires. “(Umpires) are really skilled and dramatically more consistent than 15 years ago as a result of the application of technology in the training process,” Manfred told moderator Tom Verducci. “Literally after every game, they get an email with the pitches they missed. They must log in and look at the ones they missed. And there’s commentary about how they missed, and why they missed. “But what they call — you know, the rulebook strike zone’s a rectangle, above the middle of the plate — they call an oval. So they don’t call that inside corner, and that outside corner. There’s a reason they don’t call it: because you can’t hit that. Okay, so while we have the technology, it’s kind of right — accurate — there are issues that we need to work through before it’s ready for prime time.” MLB is testing two applications of ABS in the minor leagues. With one, the umpire is told on every pitch what to call. The other is a challenge system, where a team has three challenges to an umpire’s call per game. He says the one where ABS calls everything is less liked. “In the minor leagues, we have tested the umpire using (ABS) for every pitch in the game,” Manfred said. “Players know these things because they’re players — it does cause a problem with these corner pitches … because nobody has ever been trained to treat those as strikes, or hit them.” But the challenge system, meanwhile, carries an appeal that’s similar to instant replay. “The theory of instant replay was: fix the big miss,” Manfred said. “And we decided, well, why don’t we try the same theory? We’ll give pitchers, catchers, and hitters all the right to challenge a pitch, certain number per game. … It’s a very appealing way to correct a problem, or a miss, in a game where it can be a high-leverage situation.” But I think it’s an example of players … become more accepting of technology on the field, and then dictating how and when it’s going to be used. “The automated strike zone, this is another place: you know, you whiff sometimes. I held this belief for a really long time: if we could get a system that was … accurate to a tenth of an inch on every pitch, that everyone would carry us around on a big gold chair. We know that every pitch was right. It has not been received that way by players, and there are actually good reasons for it.” Manfred said the system is today actually accurate to a tenth of an inch. Although ABS has been referred to as the “robo ump,” Manfred emphasized Wednesday that it’s a misnomer. “I get emails from fans talking about the robot,” Manfred said. “There’s no robot. The umpire has an earpiece, it tells him what to call, he calls it just like he calls it today. It looks the same for the fan.” So, is ABS going to arrive in 2024? “The short answer is, I don’t know what’s going to happen going forward,” Manfred said. “I’m trying to get through this year’s change. We have some work to do, I think, on ABS.”

I dont think anyone is headed to the bridge and ready to jump over this. Moreso that it's the off day before the season starts and there's nothing else really to discuss. Hairs will be split.

Like we saw last season with Zimmer. God that was hard to watch

He was working on the power last year according to some report i was looking at, 11 HRs in under 500 PAs... Yeah I know, he's not a REAL power threat, but he's about the best one they have that's left handed and ready to play a bench role.

McDavid the first player to hit 140 points since 95-96. That's not nothing Though I think that guy down in San Jose is also having a pretty quiet monster season too. If he hits 100 points it will be first 100 point season by a D-man since Brian Leetch in 91-92.

I feel like Lopez is going to be some sort of Espinal/Biggio hybrid. He won't be quite as good defensively on the IF as Espinal, but will better defensively in both the IF and OF than Biggio. Not sure where his power will eventually settle, but probably in the same ball park as Espinal where 10 HR per year would be the max expected output.

Could have gone either way, I would have taken Lopez just for maximum defensive flexibility, but as the 26th man, Lukes will be fine as a pinch runner and lefty with some pop off the bench. Realistically, the Jays don't really need their 26th man to be specifically an IF or OF... the roster they have already have 5 OF (the 3 CFs along with Merrifield and Biggio) and enough IF (Merrifield, Espinal, Bo, Chappy, Biggio, Vlad, Belt). All they need their 26th man to be is a guy who can pinch run late in games for Kirk, Jansen, Belt and/or Vlad and pinch hit for the lighter hitting RHH like Espinal, Merrifield, maybe Jansen if they get matched with a tough righty. They've got enough RHB on the bench as is, so Lopez, while he certainly has more defensive utility, would really be wasted in that role. I get the move even though Lopez is probably a better overall player.

Here's the schedule I wrote up looking like a 4 year old with a crayon. 1 - Manoah - normal rest, 6 starts 2 - Gausman - normal rest, 6 starts 3 - Bassitt - 6th start would be on 5 days rest 4 - Berrios - 6th start would be on 6 days rest 5 - Kikuchi - 1st start would be on 7 days rest (since he pitched today but not a full outing) then the 2 starts after the first would be on 9 days rest each Now, there's lots of room for changes to this if they wanted to give guys an extra day of rest instead of rolling out every 5th day, but I get the feeling that Manoah and Gausman would not want that so early on.

hows the rotation looking for the frist month or so. early in the season there's always a bunch of offdays so the #5 spot in the rotation is only needed a few games. I think obviously Manoah and Gausman will be going on 4 days rest no matter what with team off days, giving them each 6 starts before the end of April Who's 3-5 ? Bassitt probably the 3 and then Berrios or Kikuchi as the #4 ? I ask because with all the off days, the #5 guy is only needed for 3 starts in all of April so one of them is going to get lots of off days Who would you want pitching 5 games vs 3 as of this moment, Kikuchi or Berrios?

Excellent news for everyone playing them this season.

f*** that. All Star or GTFO

It's all about nuance. For pitchers, you care about certain things like spin rates, velo, new pitches being added or pitch sequences changing... all of that matters. Staying healthy matters. For hitters, you care about seeing their swing paths being consistent, swing decisions (but not as much...) and seeing them implement any changes that they're working on, or any meaningful changes in exit velocity, GB or FB rates, though even those youre dealing with relatively small sample sizes. For younger guys you are trying to crack a roster, you care about all of the above depending on pitcher or position player, as well as getting a better feel for their baseball IQ. For older guys like Jay Jackson, almost everything matters. Wins and losses are meaningless. For full time no doubt roster players, stats are not meaningless, but they also generally arent meaningfull. ST is important for looking at stuff behind the stats, not the stats themselves.

Honstly, he's probably #1 on the callup list ahead of Pearson depending on the situation.