John_Havok

I think it’s just that counting stats are easy to quantify, others are not. There’s any number of different defensive metrics, all calculated differently based on different data. Hell, there’s probably a defensive metric out there somewhere that has Bo as being average or better based on some weird data set that isn’t public

Look at Espinal as an example. He's definitively better with the glove at SS than Bo, but ... the bat is so much worse. 2.1 Million in his first arb this season. I do think defensive guys are undervalued monetarily, but... i wouldnt go so far as to say that Espinal and Bo should have comparable arb salaries either.

Yeah Jose's was good. JB's quotes: "If this is going to happen, I think it should be natural, organic, quick and easy," said Bautista, who is eligible for free agency at the end of the season. "It shouldn't be pull and tug over a few dollars here and there. "I didn't want to waste their time or their effort, so they can start planning ahead, and if it's not going to happen, they have plenty of time to [respond]. They asked me about two weeks ago, and I told them, that's it. There's no negotiation, I told them what I wanted. They either meet it, or it is what it is." Bautista technically might be underpaid now, but that won't be the case at the end of the season, and for anyone who believes he might take a hometown discount, think again. That's not on the table. "That doesn't exist, not in my world," Bautista said. "In my eyes, I've given this organization a five-year hometown discount already." (for context, these quotes were taken at the start of spring training in 2016 he was heading into the last year of a 5/65 deal) Bautista said he didn't give the Blue Jays a firm deadline to accept his offer -- which TSN's Rick Westhead reported as being five years and $150 million, terms Bautista denied were correct he then had a pretty pedestrian 2016 and ended up signing a 1 year 18.5 deal for 2017 with Toronto - played like dogshit, then played like even worse dogshit in 2018 for the Phillies, Braves and Mets and retired.

year errors would be a number they could use, but it would be just 1 out of all the rest. Defense has never been all that important when it comes to arbitration.

In his first interview since the winter meetings in early December, Paul Kinzer — Encarnacion’s agent in what is now a sluggish free-agent market for power hitters — told Sportsnet 590 The FAN that the slugger has six multi-year offers to consider. But a reunion with the Jays was always his top priority, and could have happened if the club hadn’t signed first baseman/DH Kendrys Morales just “two days” after offering Encarnacion $80 million over four years. Morales was signed for 3/33 million.

Fangraphs latest on George Springer https://blogs.fangraphs.com/george-springers-not-so-great-still-very-good-year/

There's a limit on what stats can be used. Its basically anything that is public and easily calculated, but nothing proprietary by the team .. or even Statcast is allowed. fWAR could be used for example, ditto wRC+ since they are based on publicly available stats that anyone can calculate. Statcast stuff isnt allowed because the underlying data is not publicly available.

Yeah, that old rant from Crash Davis in Bull Durham rings true. over 600 PAs (only like 13 players had more than 600 At bats last season, so just using it as a reference point) , the difference between .250 and .300 is 30 hits if we assume walk rates and the other stuff that dont count as At bats are about the same. .250 avg = 150 hits, 1.08 hits per game assuming all 162 games are played 300 avg = 180 hits, 1.11 hits per game assuming all 162 games are played. Baseball season is 26.3 weeks this year... basically 1 extra hit per week. Doesnt seem to be a huge skill gap does it.

Nah. missing a couple really household names. Alan Ashby and Kendrys Morales

Shi Davidi did a pretty good breakdown of the numbers a few weeks ago: https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/examining-the-cases-for-bo-bichette-and-the-blue-jays-in-looming-arbitration-clash/ Some relevant number comps:

Pitcher wins "may" be an idicator that a pitcher is good, and lets be honest, generally the more wins you have, the more skill you have as a pitcher, but it lacks precision and context. It's just a weird thing to award to a single player in a team sport like baseball. it makes only marginally more sense in hockey. It's like looking at batting average, it's a very easy stat to look at and say "oh he hits over .300 therefore he must be a great hitter"... when they guy hits .310/.320/.350 and cant hit his way out of a paper bag, vs the next guy who hits .270/.350/.500 is obviously a far better hitter. It's just a stat that lacks precision and context.

Correct sir

Only if you asked him to.

For sure. Guys like Barger, Barreira, Toman, Zulueta could make their way into the top 100 with good showings and Tiedemann should hold strong or even get into the top 15-20. Should that happen, yeah the Farm could climb the rankings by the midpoint.

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.