John_Havok

Pop is still under control through 2026 and this is just his 2nd year pitching in the majors. He should still have options remaining too.

As speculated: The Blue Jays are “making a play” for Angles starter Noah Syndergaard, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Blue Jays Nation’s Brendon Kuhn was first to report the club’s contact with the Halos. Jon Morosi of MLB.com tweets that the Jays, Braves and previously-reported Phillies were among the teams with recent interest in Syndergaard, although he notes that Atlanta’s acquisition of Jake Odorizzi could take them out of the market.

Wonder how many future paternity lawsuits happened at that party

Yeah the command guys always carve up the low minors because they’re almost never pitching from behind. Hopefully an uptick in velocity happens as I just cannot see an 86-89 fastball playing in MLB for very long regardless of his command unless he’s able to throw the entire kitchen sink along with it. But he is a lefty, so that’s nice.

Worst list I’ve ever seen.

The Cardinals are finalizing a deal to acquire starter José Quintana from the Pirates, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link).

Newsflash, fatties generally don’t chase carrots.

Hard to say, Atkins is pretty good at keeping his possible moves out of the public until they happen. From my POV though, anything less than a top end shutdown reliever and improvement on the bench is a failure. SP would be nice, but I don’t think it’s nearly as essential as those other two spots. Complete wish list would be, 1 better bench guy, 2 RPs and a SP.

The Blue Jays are in the mix for Pirates starter Jose Quintana, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, along with such previously-reported suitors as the Yankees and White Sox. The veteran left-hander is having a bounce-back season after struggling in 2019-21, and Quintana could help bolster an inconsistent Toronto rotation. Pirates GM Ben Cherington previously worked in the Jays’ front office, so this familiarity with the AL East side’s prospects could help the Blue Jays in the bidding, though the two sides haven’t completed a player-for-player trade in the two-plus years since Cherington went to Pittsburgh

Joe Jimenez for the comparable to Romano, and yeah Chafin would be nice but he’s not vaccinated.

Need 1 more lefty, and for my money I’d want at least 1 guy that’s equal to or better than Romano. It just feels so much better to have at least 2 guys that you have absolutely no qualms about finishing off the last 2 innings in any part of the lineup. Cimber, Mayza, the other hypothetical lefty and Garcia can get you through the 6th and 7th easily enough I think. There’s no in house option for the guy who’s equal to or better than Romano though. Pearson might have that ability but he can’t be counted on for this season. Maybe Gage can be that lefty, but with such a short track record, I don’t know if he’s that guy this season. Maybe going forward he can be. Guys like Zulueta might get a shot down the stretch too given that he’s a 40 man add this coming off-season, but again, still a question mark. Gimme Joe Jimenez to be the 8th inning guy and I’ll figure out the lefty when I have more time.

Holy s*** a Chappy sighting! That's even more rare than a good start from Kikuchi

There's very few relievers, if any, in baseball I would trade a starting catcher with Jansen's value for.

You’d give up a perfectly fine reliever, a starting catcher who is defensively sound and hits for power and a lotto ticket for 3 relievers? I don’t even know where to start at tearing that apart

Stripling is a free agent after 2022… might be a tough re-sign if he keeps this up

CHappy havin just great PAs recently. Swinging at all the right ones, spitting on the s***** ones…

I’m kinda hoping Joe Jimenez just stays in Toronto when Detroit leaves…

Feels like a good LF makes that catch. Pretty circular route there

Maybe, but im sure teams will be fine to move to plan B or C if it's getting down to the wire. There's a point where a team just cannot wait for some other situation to resolve

Correction to the above, Bednar is not a lefty. He hits left, throws with his right.

Or, option him, punt a uselss pen arm, and bring in a real bench bat with some utility.

1 top end pen arm and 1 mid level pen arm should suffice, I think we're stuck with the rotation we have and we have to hope they all stay healthy and the ones that have sucked, need to be better, but not even like lights out better, just need to be average to slightly above average. This offense is good enough we dont need the 4 and 5 spots in the rotation to be great. What we need is 1 pen arm that's clearly better than Romano, and 1 pen arm that's in the tier below Romano and a better bench bat than Collins. Should not need to sell the farm for that, especially given the return that Naquin landed.

s***

Dont see Kirk strike out on 3 pitches very often.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/torontos-hunter-mense-on-developing-good-swing-decisions/ Good read but i'll save you the click - cloes notes version is the Jays use a rating sytem to grade swing decisions. Mense is the assistant hitting coach. Nice tidbit here: Laurila: Can you give an example of a guy for whom that’s come pretty naturally? Mense: “It’s always come pretty natural for Alejandro Kirk. He’s always been a very good decision-maker. And if you want to talk about somebody who is very laid-back, and very thoughtful, he’s your prototypical guy. Even at the lower levels of the minor leagues, he was always walking more than he struck out. He was always getting himself into good counts. “We have a grading-out system of decision-makers in the organization, and Alejandro was always one of the better ones, even at the lowest levels. His success has come from hitting the ball harder and in the air a little bit more, but he’s always kind of had that innate ability. You don’t necessarily talk about it a whole lot when a guy is really good at it, but you do continue making sure they keep at it.” Laurila: How does the grading system work? Mense: “If you’re able to take a pitch that most people are swinging at, you grade out really well as a decision-maker. And then if you’re swinging at pitches that have an expected slugging percentage that’s really good, you’re going to get high grades. Spencer Horwitz is another one in our organization that’s always been a really good decision-maker. He swings at every pitch that’s in the area where the expected slugging percentage is really good, and he takes a lot of pitches that are strike-to-ball — pitches that 75-plus percent of people are swinging at, he’s able to take them. “That’s how you ultimately grade out. It’s not necessarily just low chases and high in-zone swings, although that does play into it. But how tough is the pitch that you’re taking? It could be a really easy pitch, a ball out of the hand that everybody takes. Conversely, if it’s one that starts in the strike zone and goes out — maybe it’s from a pitcher with really good stuff — you’re probably a pretty good decision-maker.” Good to hear about Horwitz. Just need to find him a position and he may be something far more useful. He also mentions that Orelvis has improved greatly in this regard so far this year.