John_Havok

So basically... Shi reads this board, takes all our ideas, writes a column and makes money while we sit here holding our dicks. Sounds about right.

There's definitely indicators his luck was ass last season. even simple numbers like his BABIP was way up for some reason. per MLB traderumours: "Rodrgiuez posted career-best marks in strikeout rate (27.4%) and walk rate (7.0%) while effectively tying career-best marks in swinging-strike rate (11.7%), called-strike rate (16.4%) and opponents’ chase rate (33.7%). Rodriguez was also among the very best in baseball in terms of limiting hard contact (90th percentile average exit velocity, 87th percentile hard-hit rate)." Now obviously teams don't make massive judgements on just 1 year, but he's been solid for several now. Definitely not a leader of the rotation, but still can pitch near the top quite well if those results start to match the peripherals.

WAR numbers do not necessarily equate to being an ace. In any case, Eduardo is a worthy target, the fact that his ERA was nearly 5 last year should make him cheaper than many other options out there in FA

Not really. Hitting the ball with barrel of the bat more often would though. Barrels = exit velocity increase. His barrel rate is embarrassing. The fact that he gets that many walls scrapers with a garbage barrel rate is actually a testament to his strength.

This. He actually has the ideal average launch angle that a lot of power hitters have... but he doesn't get the barrel on it near enough.

No. What I'm saying is strength isn't the problem. He just doesn't utilize what he has very well.

Every team was interested in Heaney. He's the posterchild for having great peripherals with bad results. Duffy would be a good target if the Jays don't retain Matz.

Another career ruined.

Yeah. I see Thor accepting a QO form the Mets, then waltzing into next offseason as a free agent without the QO hanging over him looking to get paid. That said, there probably are some teams out there that might offer a 2 year deal (2/30) or maybe 2+option (2/30 + 15m team option, 2M buyout kinda thing). Even something like that is pretty risky given his recent history. No way in hell he gets anything close to 100 million over 4 years. He'd be extremely lucky to get half that.

Strength isn't Biggio's problem, the power is already there.

MLBTraderumours predictions for Ray and Semien: The initials and the teams listed are each writer's prediction on where each player will sign. They all think we keep Ray and not Semien. 6. Marcus Semien. Six years, $138MM. TD: Red Sox / SA: Dodgers / AF: Angels Semien settled in as Oakland’s dependable starting shortstop as of 2015, but his offense skyrocketed in 2019 en route to a third-place finish in AL MVP voting. An unimpressive regular season in 2020 led to Semien betting on himself in free agency, signing a one-year, $18MM deal with the Blue Jays and moving to second base. With the Jays, Semien established that 2020 was the fluke, as his monster 45 home run 2021 campaign will net him MVP votes once again. Semien’s Statcast batting metrics don’t stand out this year, but you can’t argue with the results. Defensively, Semien may profile better at second base than shortstop, but he’s played significantly more short in his career and should at least be good for a few years there. Semien does carry the weight of a qualifying offer, but interest should be robust for clubs that missed out on Correa and Seager or prefer not to shop in the $300MM aisle. His market also may differ from Correa and Seager in that he’s more likely to be signed as a second baseman. As a 31-year-old, Semien may be limited to a six-year pact, itself hard to achieve at this age. The Blue Jays will surely attempt to re-sign Semien, but otherwise the Phillies, Red Sox, Yankees, White Sox, Tigers, Twins, Astros, Angels, Mariners, Rangers, Cardinals, and Dodgers are other potential matches. 7. Robbie Ray. Five years, $130MM. TD: Blue Jays / SA: Blue Jays / AF: Blue Jays Drafted by the Nationals out of high school in the 12th round in 2010, Ray was traded to the Tigers in the December 2013 Doug Fister deal. A year later, Ray was dealt to the Diamondbacks in the three-way trade that sent Didi Gregorius to the Yankees. Ray found success in his first five seasons for the D’Backs as a high-strikeout, high-walk, homer-prone southpaw. In 2017, he made the All-Star team and finished seventh in the NL Cy Young voting. But in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Ray’s already-high walk rate jumped to an untenable 20.1% through seven starts, and with free agency looming he was shipped to Toronto mostly as a salary dump. Ray’s brief effort for the 2020 Jays didn’t stand out, and he still walked batters at a higher rate than he had from 2015-19 in Arizona. Toronto saw something they liked nonetheless, making an early free agent strike by re-upping him to a one-year, $8MM deal in November last year. Ray began the 2021 season on the IL for a bruised elbow suffered falling down some stairs. After a six-walk outing on April 18th, the notion of Ray contending for the AL Cy Young award would have been laughable — but that’s exactly what he did. The 30-year-old lefty led all of baseball with 248 strikeouts, also solving his longstanding walk issue with a career-best 6.9 BB%. Ray’s 2.84 ERA was the best in the American League. As Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic put it, “How Ray went from good to elite took a change in his mechanics, a change in his approach and a change in his physique.” Still, it wasn’t a radical overhaul in terms of pitch selection for Ray, who has remained a fastball-slider pitcher. Ray showed strong control over a five-month period this year. For a potential new team, how much does that erase his 13 BB% from the three prior years? It’s also worth considering that Ray allowed a home run to 4.3% of batters faced this year, 19th-worst in MLB among those with at least 100 innings pitched. While Ray is about nine months younger than fellow top free agent Gausman, the lefty bears the burden of a qualifying offer. Their markets figure to be similar.

The whole “complete science” argument is ********. Science is never complete. That’s it’s entire point of being a thing. People who use the “incomplete science” defence can have the exact same argument used against them in dozens of other aspects of their lives that they never even think about. There’s no complete science about the long term effects of COVID either, but that doesn’t seem to matter to people who don’t do a damn thing about trying to avoid it. There’s no complete science on Ivrmectin as a treatment, but people love to throw that out there like it’s proven. There’s no complete science on virtually anything. It’s the worst argument anyone could ever use as a defence. “I just don’t want to” is more defensible.

I’ll term you ya uphill gardener!

32 million AAV isn’t all that insulting, but the length of the deal…. Yeah I can see Correa being more than a little upset by that.

Definitely. He can still take his walks but needs to not worry so much about spraying it. He also doesn’t handle the fastball high in the zone well which is kind of a problem right now. He does have lots of oppo power though.

Yeah, it's all semantics. Lying... misleading... whatever. I don't get why the media has the right to know someone's vaccination status, nor why any athlete's opinion on vaccinations is relevant at all. They're all idiots for the most part (as are the media asking the question) that wouldn't recognize real science if it hit them in the head and gave them a concussion.

He said everyone in the org knew he wasn't vaccinated. "The organization & my teammates knew exactly what my status was.. there was nothing that was hidden." ""I'm not an anti-vaxx, flat-earther.. I have an allergy to an ingredient that's in the mRNA vaccines. I found a long term immunization protocol to protect myself & I'm very proud of the research that went into that" - LOL at that one. The whole issue is that he told the media he was "immunized." The whole interview was pretty entertaining but really all it showed was that Rodgers doesn't really know what critical thinking is, thinks he understands things he doesn't, and still won't take other vaccines that he's not allergic to. That pretty much sums it up.

I have 0 problem with people that don't want to get the vaccine, but there's a big disconnect in most of those people's logic logic, especially those like Rogers who calls himself a "critical thinker" who then talks to Joe Rogan for treatment advice. Consulting anyone other than a medical professional for treatment advice isn't critical thinking, it's f***ing stupid. Choosing to get vaccinated or not is absolutely a personal decision, but that personal decision has the potential to not just impact that person. It has the potential to affect people that have no control over the situation. Also, don't be a scumbag and lie about it. Get the vaccine or don't, but don't lie about it. The PA agreed to the rules, follow them or don't. If you don't there's repercussions. Own your decision and stick by it. Now he says he didn't get it because he was allergic to an ingredient in the mRNA vaccines. Who has a problem with anyone saying they cant get it because they're allergic? Nobody tells you take something you're allergic to.

COuld expain why Castellanos opted out the millisecond the World Series ended.

Biggio definitely walks that line between patient and passive though. Seems there's an abnormally high amount of times he just doesn't seem interested in swinging, like he's made up his mind before the pitch if he's going to swing or not.

Might not be the best post-season to be posted given the labour issues... but then again, depending on the results it might be one of the best.

Continue to hang your head in shame sir.

According to reports he might be having the surgery next week and is planning on being back in March, just after the Olympics

Who’s advocating Espinal as a starter? He’s the perfect bench bat backup infielder making league minimum. No reason to stick him in AAA at all unless you just signed a ton of guys and some solid 2-3 WAR IF is lost in the shuffle. The least of the Jays concern is the backup IF role.

He's not real good defensively though. Not like dogshit bad, but you wouldn't be expecting much contribution defensively aside from the positional flexibility.