John_Havok

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.

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.