John_Havok

Not a bad take honestly. I dont see much of an arguement for the Jays being anywhere near the top 10, nor the bottom, so middle of the pack seems about right.

Vast majority of AAA pitchers welcomed the changes according to all the polls they did. Said it took them about a month to really get used to it. That said, they didnt have the pickoff rules in place as well, just the pitch clock.

I like watching this kind of thing, and can see how baserunning is going to be extremely important. You can see how runners on base will be able to time their secondary leads and stealing jumps quite easily based on the pitch clock alone regardless of how many pickoffs may or may not have been attempted.

What's a balk now? A technicality

Thomas hit so many home runs when it looked like he was way out front on those low and away pitches, but he was soo...damn... strong.

Well most guys will have agents that aren't idiots, any agent would (or should) be up on who from every team is about to head to the 60 day DL as soon as spring training opens because yeah, that would absolutely influence a decision on where a guy might sign a minor league deal.

It will be an interesting dynamic to say the least and watching how this evolves to impact the game will be interesting.

Slight addition to that, anytime a baserunner advances during a plate appearance, the # of disengagements resets. So, say the pitcher has already thrown to first once, and stepped off once, if the runner steals a base, the pitcher gets 2 more disengagements again.

That's more the part I'm worried about. The Jays pitchers aren't exactly known for being quick to the plate.

I think he will be more aggressive in spring training for sure to get a feel for how the brains his players work with the new rules and info and overall we'll probably see the attempts go up, but I dont think it will be like a track meet or anything out there.

Werth wasnt even all that good before they Jays traded him. Minor league track record was meh, the 100 or so PAs he got with the jays were ... meh.

Assistant Pitching Coach - Strategy. My guess, is that he sifts all the data they get, identifiies trends (positive or negative) and gives the info to Walker to use at his discretion. As for his qualifications.... he's a nerd with a degree and has spent a few years doing baseball s***. "David Howell completed his baseball playing career at Dassel-Cokato High School in 2016. He attended the University of Minnesota and completed his degree program in Management Information Systems in just two and one-half years, graduating in December of 2018. Having a passion for baseball, he applied for numerous baseball-related jobs but initially had no success. That changed in 2019 as his experimenting with sabermetrics brought him to the attention of the baseball world. Howell worked as a R&D Intern for Driveline Baseball in the summer of 2019 before spending the fall term at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. In Shreveport he worked with head coach Brent Lavallee to incorporate metrics into their baseball training program. The Toronto Blue Jays hired both men to work in their minor league system for 2020. Howell was scheduled to work as the development coach for the Buffalo Bisons before COVID-19 forced the 2020 minor league season to be cancelled." Management Information Systems (MIS) is the study of people, technology, organizations, and the relationships among them. MIS professionals help firms realize maximum benefit from investment in personnel, equipment, and business processes. MIS is a people-oriented field with an emphasis on service through technology. Key takeaways - he did a 4 year degree in 2 and a half years, so he's probably not un-smart.

No doubt, I'd love to get my hands on the math that equated out to a 132 wRC+. according to MLB, "The system uses statistics from the previous four years for players from ages 24-38, and it weights more recent seasons heavier. For younger or older players, it uses weighted statistics from only the previous three years. The system also factors velocities, injury data and play-by-play data into its equations." His minor league numbers are probably still weighing in pretty large

Probably the same idiots that voted for Dickey, Napoli and the other complete joke votes this year.

Sure, but lets not pretend gold gloves and silvera sluggers for pitchers matter... at all. Greinke was better than Pettitte definitely. I don't know that the margin of how much better he was than Pettitte is enough for me to vote in Greinke, but I bet he does get in.

I think the dynamic would probably be the nerd going through all the very raw data and put together the trends for Ware and Walker to use when they talk to the pitchers. I have a hard time picturing Walker going over mounds of spin rates, pitch selections, sequencing and whatever other data they get by the ton from their various sources on every guy.

I think the more apt comparable to Greinke is Pettitte. Much closer in career length, similar fWAR totals, very similar careers in that they had 1 elite season each, then a bunch of pretty good ones... I truly dont think Pettitte is a HoF guy, but very close. I probably put Greinke in the same tier as Pettitte.

And making an appearance for the second day in a row:

Not saying that Doc is, or should be the bar for the Hall, but his career was definitely more dominant. Just using fWAR Seasons at or above 5 FWAR: Greinke 3, Doc 8 Seasons at or above 6 fWAR: Greinke 1, Doc 6 Seasons at or above 7: Greinke 1, Doc 2 Seasons at or above 8: Greinke 1, Doc 1 Basically Greinke had 1 elite season and 2 great ones, Doc had 3 elite seasons and 5 great ones. Greinke also had 3 seasons at 4.8 or 4.9, so one could probably give him some extra credit there. Docs peak was basically 2001-2011, 62.9 fWAR over 11 seasons. Exactly 2300 IP, 319 starts and put up a 2.98 era, 3.08 fip, 3.16 xfip Greinkes peak was 2008-2019, 54.2 fWAR over 12 seasons, 2416 IP, 376 starts 3.11 era, 3.19 fip, 3.34 xfip. Greinke was pretty solid, #’s are pretty close. Halladay definitely better but not by a large margin. Greinke easily has the longevity factor, he will have 7 seasons outside his peak, though none of them have been anything other than 2 fWAR or lower. The way I see it, both have identical fWAR over their career as it stands right now Greinke 65.5 vs Doc 65.4. Doc did that in 15 seasons with the vast majority of it in that 11 year peak, it’s taken Greinke 19 seasons. Halladay better, Greinke a tier below.

f***ing ipad double post ********. Anywho, here's the 3 in house non-roster LHP ST invitees: Brandon Eisert: https://www.fangraphs.com/players/brandon-eisert/sa3014798/stats?position=P Jimmy Robbins: https://www.fangraphs.com/players/james-robbins/sa3011145/stats?position=P Jimmy Burnette: https://www.fangraphs.com/players/james-burnette/sa3017367/stats?position=P All look like they can miss bats, but Burnette looks like he also misses a ton of plates. Not sure what to make of Robbins as his K/9 took a big step back in 2022, but his walk rate also improved dramatically. Eisert probably the best bet out of the three, though slightly homer prone. Chafin signing incoming? I can't seriously think that the FO wants to go into 2023 with 1 proven lefty and 3 non-roster invitees as their only options.

This leaves us exactly 1 left handed reliever on the 40 man roster. Feels like that’s not ideal?

This leaves us exactly 1 left handed reliever on the 40 man roster. Feels like that’s not ideal?

Even normal, every day, healthy FA signings usually take a week to 10 days to become official after they announce the "agreement to sign"

Waived by Toronto in November along with Casey Lawrence. Lawrence went unclaimed, Suacedo was picked up by the Mets, who just tried to sneak him through waivers now, and he got claimed again.