John_Havok

I know the Raps would never have won with him…maybe Chicago can if his changes are for real, the supporting cast is good enough and they have enough real depth. Toronto had some good pieces as secondary options but true depth was always missing.

Here’s the “progress” today in a nutshell https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/2305943 The players were infuriated to the point they considered walking away from the bargaining table, a person familiar with their plans told The Washington Post's Chelsea Janes. The MLBPA dropped its request to expand arbitration eligibility from 75% of players with two-to-three years of service time to 35%, according to The Athletic's Evan Drellich. (It’s currently 22%) Neither side offered any change to the minimum salary structure or the pre-arbitration bonus pool, according to Drellich. The union's proposal also included coming down $2 million on the competitive-balance tax thresholds each year from 2023 to 2025, Janes added. The league countered with an offer to raise the threshold only in the second year of the agreement from $214 million to $215 million. (Seems like the union made the more significant give) MLB also offered to lower luxury tax penalties to 45% for the first threshold, 62% for the second, and 95% for the third, according to ESPN's Jesse Rogers. (Owners concession) The league reiterated wanting the window of notice to unilaterally impose on-field changes shortened from the current one year to 45 days, which the players didn't receive well, Passan reports. (Unilateral powers with 45 days notice instead of 1 year….really? Wtf owners….) And just when it looked like they were on the verge of agreeing on 4-team draft lottery, that blew up too when MLB insisted on 14-team playoff pool instead of union’s proposal of 12. (Honestly can understand why the owners are taking the hard stance here that’s a lot of extra cash and don’t really get the players reluctance to go to 14) The negative tone of Saturday's negotiations also represented a backtrack from the optimism on Friday that they were close to an agreement on a draft lottery.

Yeah they could do both, as long as the target is a multi-positional player so if Vlad takes it over, then you still have him to play elsewhere. That's why I like McNeil as a target. High floor, low risk, multi-position guy

Its possible he's a better player now, but my only objection is the "now that he's gone from Toronto ..." part that seems to say that he's better because he left and Toronto somehow was preventing him from succeeding. He's been gone for 4 years, and just getting better in his 4th. He was still the same old guy or worse in San Antonio for 3 years.

Looks like Tiedemann is the Jays system helium candidate for the year given all the reports we've seen over the winter.

That's what ST is for. Get him back at the hot corner every day for a month and see if he shows well enough to make the switch. It's not like 1b is so hard that being away from it for 1 month will cause a downward spiral of his confidence into the abyss of irrelevance.

Must be. DeRozan has always put up points and this season is just a slight bit better than his best with Toronto. He's still a pure volume scorer that relies on FG% to be effective, and this year his FG% is way above is career rates as is his 3pt %. Whether those are indicitive of a real change or just a sustained hot streak is the real question

Mets have already said he's on the trade block too so he can be had.

Sign Conforto, package Gurriel + top end prospect as the main return for J-Ram and ... yup.

Manfred is actually on hand for today's negotiations according to a few reports. He's never been present in the negotiating rooms prior to today. Thats a good sign i guess?

Whether directly realted or not, its money they made because of the team. Plus, the Braves are publically owned so aside from them and the Jays, we'll never see anything like this from any other team to even guess at the real numbers.

I'm sure San Diego would be willing to part with Hosmer - but for very good reason. His profile is interesting in that he still hits the ball very hard, he just beats it into the ground way too much, like 60% ground ball rate. If he was capable of making a swing change he'd probably end up having a few good years. And no, not advocating a trade for him, his contract is FUGLY and there's no way to bank on a change being made that makes him useful. Jeff McNeil is available. Can play 2b/3b and LF. Quality bat and results from 2021 dont really match the underlying numbers. Decent bounce back candidate but not like all-star calibre or anything. Just solid.

Hypothetically though, which would you prefer to lose in trade if they did end up getting Ramirez; Moreno or Orelvis? No way a trade gets done without 1 of them for sure.

holy s***. Those shoulders are massive compared to previous years. Lower half looks pretty trim as well.

Yep its a give, and both sides agreed that a bonus pool should be used. THey just differ on the amounts. Meeting in the middle would be meeting at 55 million. Get it done and get on the field.

"Players aren’t looking to meet in the middle, they’re digging in." What are the owners doing? They're moving just as slow as the players. Union wants 110 million bonus pool, comes down 5 million. MLB wants 10 million, goes up 5. Can't put the "not willing to meet in the middle" squarely on the players side.

I think they will be content with winning this round. I suspect greatly that if the owner's gave in to the minimum salary requirements, or at least much closer to their requested # (say ... 700K minimum with 25K annual escalators) the union would quite likely back off the CBT and accept # much closer to where it is right now. I dont think the union is dead set on winning 3 or more "large victories" but they have to appear that they are willing to to get the actual win that they want.

MLS owners have "run out of ideas..." LOL

They did it in 1994/95 when the strike was on. Pete Rose Jr was among the scabs

The ownership group gave a deadline yesterday that if no deal is in place by the 28th, regular season games will be missed and NOT made up. Which, if the Union is serious means expanded playoffs will be off the table as of Monday if no deal is in place. Owners do not want that. Expanded playoffs is another massive revenue haul they do not want to miss out on.

Cant even begin to imagine the erection over a lineup of: Springer J-Ram Vlad Freeman Teoscar Bo Gurriel Biggio Jansen/Kirk Or whatever order the last 3 go in, doesnt matter... that top 6 is murderous.

I'd love to get him at 4/120. THat would be fun.

You also need to take into account all the peripheral income owners receive from baseball related, but not direct baseball operations that they never report as basbeall income. Baseball owners are not hurting by any stretch of the imagination. And as far as streaming goes, whatever current baseball TV deals are signed or coming into play as of this year, streaming doesnt impact that at all. The contracts are already signed, the dollars are already committed. It will only impact potential future deals, but don't think for a second that the teams won't be getting a pretty big slice of that pie. As for the advertising... if the owners aren't even willing to increase base pay by 50k per year, why would they willingly give up millions of ad revenue from player patches? Those patches won't be cheap and you won't see any from Al's Gas n Sip. They'll be multibillion dollar corporations paying through the nose for exposure.

Writeups on the Jays: 10. Gabriel Moreno, C, TOR Age 22.0 Height 5′ 11″ Weight 210 Bat / Thr R / R FV 60 Tool Grades (Present/Future) Hit..........Raw Power.....Game Power......Run.....Fielding......Throw 55/60.......50/50..........40/45..............50/50.....45/50.......50 The most athletic catcher to come along since J.T. Realmuto, Moreno’s 2021 power output was a bit of a caricature, but his bat-to-ball ability is real and spectacular. As much as any prospect could break out during the dark 2020 minor league season, Moreno broke out. He was fairly well-regarded coming out of 2019, then was seen on alternate site video, during instructs, and later in the Venezuelan Winter League, where he hit .373/.471/.508. The length of his year was as close as any catching prospect came to replicating a full season behind the dish in 2020, and there was already enough buzz at that point for us to include Moreno on last year’s Top 100. Then 2021 began and Moreno started on an epic tear, slugging .650 at Double-A New Hampshire before missing a couple of months with a fractured thumb. He ended up playing in just shy of 40 regular season games, then picked up reps during the Arizona Fall and Venezuelan Winter Leagues. The visual evaluation of Moreno’s power does not support the idea that he can slug .500, his career mark. One could argue that’s because he was most widely seen coming off a hand injury that might dilute his power, but his batted ball data from before the injury also indicates his Double-A output was inflated. You can’t fake an 11% strikeout rate, though, which is Moreno’s career mark. While he’s an aggressive hitter who sometimes takes fundamentally unsound swings, he has 70-grade bat control and tends to find a way to poke, spray, and slash contact all over the field. He can square high-end velocity, and though his overall hit tool grade projects below his raw barrel control due to his flawed approach, there’s enough offense to make him an All-Star offensive performer at catcher. He also has rare speed for the position and has an overall skill set like that of a less-toolsy Jason Kendall. Defensively, Moreno catches on one knee until there are runners on or there are two strikes, then sets up in a very wide crouch as if he’s always preparing to block a breaking ball in the dirt. He’ll sometimes finish on one knee in an effort to frame a pitch on the edge, even if he didn’t start there. He popped in the 1.95-1.98 range during Fall League, a slightly above-average range of times for throws down to second base. 32. Orelvis Martinez, 3B, TOR Signed: July 2nd Period, 2018 from Dominican Republic (TOR) Age 20.3 Height 6′ 1″ Weight 195 Bat / Thr R / R FV 55 Tool Grades (Present/Future) Hit...........Raw Power..Game Power......Run.........Fielding........Throw 30/45.......50/60........35/60...............45/40.......30/45..........55 One of the most significant talents in the 2018 international class, Martinez projects as a prototypical power-hitting third baseman. After destroying Low-A, Martinez posted a league-average batting line during a month at High-A Vancouver, which would be impressive even without a .197 BABIP anchoring his line. Before the promotion, he had more than a 10% barrel rate at Low-A and his top exit velocity was over 110 mph. Between that and a pretty healthy walk and strikeout mix, you have the foundation of a very impressive offensive talent. If anything, the visual report glows even brighter than the statistics. A tick above six-feet tall, Martinez is a chiseled athlete with explosive rotational ability. His bat-to-ball skills are advanced for a High-A hitter, never mind the youngest one in the league. He also adapted very quickly to the circuit’s better arms, bashing nine homers and walking six times in his final nine games after an uneasy start. Like any 19-year-old, there is some risk in the profile. Hit tool volatility is one potential variable: Martinez’s current timing mechanism leaves him vulnerable to soft stuff and he’ll lunge at quality breaking balls if he’s expecting something else. He also thinks he can drive anything in on his hands, and while he’s often right, pitchers can induce defensive swings if they’re able to get in his kitchen. Some of the contact he makes is thus very soft when he gets off-balance, which leaves lingering questions about how his approach will fare against a steadier diet of better breaking balls. And defensively, he’s a little raw for short. His hands weren’t great in former contributor Brendan Gawlowski’s looks last season, and while he’s quick under way, a slow first step suggests that a move down the defensive spectrum is likely as he physically matures; we have Martinez projected to third base. Ultimately, though, this is a great athlete who has performed as a teenager against much older competition. The bat should play anywhere, and if he’s able to stick on the left side of the infield, he has an All-Star ceiling.