John_Havok

1 game samples are key in determining skill. For sure.

I don't think Gibbons wants to be here through a rebuild. I think it's more of a mutual/Gibby decision situation, which would be the only situation I would accept without anger towards the FO.

That's not saying much. Pillar's bat is about as bad as it can acceptably be given his defense.

Smoak's option is a no brainer, as is not exercising Solarte's so that 2 easy decisions to me. No need to bring back Marco or Clippard. Honestly, there's no real hard decisions on the roster right now. The hardest decision will be what FA pitcher(s) to sign for 2-3 years. Actually hang on, I think the hardest decision will be wheteher they keep both Drury and Travis. Guerreri, Barnes and Pompey aren't anyone to lose sleep over if they have to cut bait. Neither is Maile really with McGuire there. Anyone know who is Rule 5 eligible if not added?

You answered your own questing when you posted "why take the risk?" There's far more risk in signing more big money FAs than there is in doing what they did, given they already had a core of high piad aging veterans. The Jays will never be the team that signs the Harpers, Stanton or Machados in free agency when Rogers owns them. You say they should have been able to read the tea leaves better, but they did absolutely nothing to hurt the longterm outlook, and arguably made that outlook even better with the myriad of depth acquisitions, low risk vets and then dumping everyone they could dump aside from Estrada and Morales. You don't need the #1 pick to rebuild, baseball drafts are so much of a crap shoot it's far more likely than other sports you can get a guy anywhere from 1-10 that can be a cornerstone. Plus with actual attention to international talent, there's not as much need to tank outright IMO. To me, that's reading the tea leaves right. They took on zero contract risk, improved the long term outlook, and have financial flexibility to add some low risk high reward guys again in 2019. One thing that people need to understand is, there is no such thing as satisfying the casual fan base. To a casual fan, you need to spend like crazy every year or you're not trying, therefore they mad. Spend like crazy and win for a couple seasons, then realize they're up to their necks in anchors and have no flexibility it means you didn't spend wisely enough and they mad. Tank and they mad because who wants to watch a bad team for 3 years? The casual fan base doesn't understand how many levels of pro ball there are below the majors and hve virtually no clue about what is needed to build a sustainable team.

No, and no.

MLB Pipeline hitter of the Year: Vlad JR By Jonathan Mayo | September 5th, 2018 Over the years, there have been some contentious debates over who should be MLB Pipeline's Minor League Hitter of the Year. This year, the conversation took approximately as long as it took to say the name Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Next. Sure, several hitters put up very good numbers across the Minors in 2018, but choosing the No. 1 prospect in baseball as this year's winner was as easy an award-winning decision as there will be this season. It's easy to run out of superlatives when describing the season that the son of the Hall of Famer had, but some of the highlights: • Led the Minors in batting average (.381) • Led the Minors in slugging percentage (.636) • Led the Minors in OPS (1.073) • Set career highs in doubles, home runs, total bases, RBIs, average, OBP, SLG, OPS • Has not gone consecutive games without a hit since July 20-21, 2017 "I was happy with everything that transpired throughout the season," Guerrero Jr. told MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez. "I go out there on a daily basis and work hard. I fully understand that I can only control what I do on the field, but have no control over what happens off the field." "My 'seat' from the third-base coaching box, I was always on high alert in case he yanked one my way," said New Hampshire manager John Schneider, who also managed Guerrero at Class A Advanced Dunedin in 2017. "It was a historic type of year. He hits the ball so hard, has such great barrel-to-ball skills, great feel for what pitchers are trying to do to him, makes adjustments from pitch to pitch. "His work is so good, he's so convicted in what he's doing, and obviously he's confident. He's so talented and he's so smart in the batter's box. He's the best hitter I've seen in the Minor Leagues my whole life." While Guerrero Jr. was easily the unanimous choice, there were other hitters whose performances warrant mentioning. Only prospects who spent at least half of the season in the Minors and appeared on a team Top 30 Prospects list were considered for this award. • Rays first-base prospect Nathaniel Lowe won his organizational triple crown by hitting .330 with 27 homers and 102 RBIs across three levels. • Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker finished with a .332/.400/.590 line in the Minors to go along with 24 homers, 93 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. • White Sox outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez finished with a .337/.384/.477 line with 22 homers and 75 RBIs in 108 games. • Mets first baseman Peter Alonso topped the Minor Leagues in RBIs (119) and shared the MiLB home run title with 36 long balls. • Twins outfielder Alex Kirilloff led all Minor Leaguers with 296 total bases, hitting .348/.392/.578 with 20 homers and 101 RBIs across two levels of A ball. Still just 19 years old, Guerrero Jr. flirted with hitting .400 for much of the 2018 season. He was up to .410 in Double-A when the only thing that could stop him, an injury, sidelined him. A strained patellar tendon in his left knee in early June kept him out of action for five weeks, not to mention meaning he couldn't play in this year's Futures Game. He ended up at .402 when he was promoted to Triple-A Buffalo. There, he "slumped," hitting just .336/.414/.564 to bring his average down to .381 for the year. He set those career highs in all of those counting stats despite playing in just 95 games and compiling 357 at-bats. He'll be heading to the Arizona Fall League to make up for some of those lost reps. "My move from Double-A to Triple-A was just another step closer to the ultimate goal," Guerrero Jr. said. "I feel baseball is baseball. The only thing that is different was better quality of players, faster players, faster pitchers and many players that have already made it to the bigs." That streak of games without consecutive 0-fers, now at 135 games? The last Major League player to have a streak that long was Ichiro, who went 180 games from during the 2008 and '09 seasons. Guerrero Jr. managed this with a combination of an innate ability to barrel up the baseball and his incredibly advanced approach at the plate. He struck out just 9.3 percent of the time in 2018, while walking 9.1 percent. And while his average was lower in Triple-A, he actually upped his walk rate (11.7) and lowered his K rate (7.8) compared to Double-A, and he still has more walks than strikeouts in his career. "It was certainly encouraging to see the consistency of approach and plate discipline as he moved up each level," Blue Jays farm director Gil Kim said. "What was most encouraging was to see the level of commitment to improving his defensive footwork and athleticism, and how he'd consistently challenge himself to be the best teammate, athlete and third baseman he could possibly be." This wasn't a fluky year, one where he found holes and hit a bunch of flares. In 61 games with Double-A New Hampshire, he hit 83 balls with an exit velocity of 100 mph or higher, with a maximum of 120 mph. That came on a single to left Schneider remembers vividly. "I looked at the third baseman, he looked at me," Schneider recalled. "We both had wide eyes. We were both thinking, 'Thank God that wasn't at one of us.'" There are stories about Guerrero Jr. that border on myth: Getting thrown out at second on balls off the left-field wall that normally would be easy doubles but turned into outs because he hit the ball so hard -- in consecutive at-bats. Or the time in Hartford when he turned on a two-strike, 96-mph fastball down and in and hit it out of the park down the left-field line so hard that the umpire couldn't get in position quickly enough and initially called it a foul ball. The crew conferred and reversed the call. "People shouldn't be able to do that," Schneider said. "Everything he hit was hard, almost everything was ridiculously hard." "I was never trying to reach .400, I just went out there to give it my all on a daily basis," Guerrero Jr. said. "I was very selective in waiting on a pitch that I felt was my pitch and put good wood on the ball. I tried to use all fields, just put the ball in play. Now I will go home, continue to work hard in the next three weeks and come back ready for the Fall League, to continue on my ultimate goal and finish line, God willing." Aside from the innate ability to hit, that's what separates Guerrero Jr., his tireless work ethic. He has a passion for the game that comes out both in how much fun he has playing the game and how willing he is to put in the time to become great. "For as funny and loose and good as he is, he's very driven, focused and works hard towards what he wants to accomplish," Schneider said. "The cool part is he knows exactly where that line is. Let's stay loose, let's have fun, but at the same time, let's get our work done. He's a pro about it. He wants to be an All-Star and Gold Glover at third base."

From BA's Hot Sheet 13. Bo Bichette, 2B, Blue Jays Team: Double-A New Hampshire (Eastern) Age: 20 Why He’s Here: .382/.432/.647 (13-for-34), 8 R, 4 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 6 RBIs, 3 BB, 6 SO, 1-for-1 SB The Scoop: After taking the minors by storm last year in first full professional season, Bichette put forth an excellent encore in his first test at the upper levels. His 43 doubles were one shy of the most in the minor leagues, and his 61 extra-base hits placed him among the top 10 in the sport as well. He won a championship last year in the Florida State League and now will compete for a second ring as his Fisher Cats enter the Eastern League playoffs. (JN) HELIUM Alejandro Kirk, C, Blue Jays The Scoop: Signed out of Mexico in 2016, Kirk got just two at-bats in 2017 before making this year his de facto first full season. And boy, did he make an impression. He punished baseballs from open to close, finishing among the top five in the league in all three triple-slash category. He's a big boy who makes a big impact, particularly on fastballs. He knows how to work the count, too, and walked 12 more times than he struck out this season. He split his time behind the plate and at DH, and allowed just one passed ball and threw out 43 percent of runners when he strapped on the tools of ignorance. (JN) Those who are curious, he's listed at 5'9" 220.

Gotta be emotional for him for sure given his Mom died 2 weeks ago.

That's how I feel at this point. Running out nothing but the 4/5s we have in the system right now is most certainly not a viable option. There needs to be some stability in the rotation and while that's not license to go out and blow your wad on 1 or 2 guys, signing a couple of starters to 2-4(leaning more towards 2 than 4) year deals depending on the arm and dollars is practically a necessity at this point.

Generally speaking, taking a generational talent's 1 number and saying that another guy has that same similar number doesn't mean it will also work for him.

I never said they were an additional problem, they are most likely largely the cause of the problematic walk rate.

Well, his D at 2B isn't great, but it might become average. And a walk rate issue is kind of important. When pitchers realize they don't have to throw you strikes and you still offer at them, everything else with your batted ball profile suffers. So far in 2018, LG is sporting a 38% Oswing, where league average is 30.8%. Ocontact% is 70, league average is 63.1% Those need to improve.

For me, it's nit that he has the opinion, it's that a major morning show gave him a platform to spew it as fact, then actually state that it was refreshing to hear something so "definitive." Like it or not, a huge chunk of people that listened to that garbage will actually believe it, and those same people are probably the ones that think atkins is doing a bad job because he took over a gutted minor league system, and a major league roster with 0 depth, grossly bloated contracts on injury prone veterans and somehow expected different results than what they've received.

Elated about? hmm... Gurriel could be in there, Biggio and Bichette, Smith, Espinal, Castillo, Warmoth, Vicuna, Taylor, Lopez, Lantigua, Groshans, Rivas and Martinez would be my guesses. I've got Hiraldo as a 3b so I excluded him

You shouldn't be. There's zero reason to be the 2019 version of the 2018 Orioles or Royals.

He was just a product if a roster crunch? Maybe? I guess? The numbers he pit up he should have been moved up to Lansing 2 or 3 months ago to see if he is actually interesting. Just like Noda last year, advanced college hitters should be making a mockery of rookie ball. So now next season Cal will be in Lansing all year again, just like Noda this year... and Noda hit well enough to show he probably should have been moved up to Dunedin, which he wasn't. Not sure if it's by design that the FO is slowing these guys down and making them play full seasons lower thah their talent indicates so they don't get higher up until they're 24/25, and I'm crtainly willing to admit that not having seen any of them live takes a bit away from a full formed opinion, but people don't put up slash lines they those 2 did at the levels they played at without being better than the level.

There's not enough internal options to form a rotation, unless you're okay with a parade of #4/5 guys out there all year.

MLB.Com has them #9 before the season, 5th just before the trade deadline. Bleacher Report (I know...just...whatever) has them #3 John sickles has them #6 Not sure about BA because evrything is paywalled now Just listening to that segment though, it's pretty clear that Law just wants to be controversial in the market, Lansberg and the other clown were great at sucking his dick because it was "definitive" (lol). Seems like evryone on radio these days just wants to stir s*** up rater than have honest discourse. Where was the other side of the argument from someone who does believe the jays are top 10 or top 5? What's Law's support for his position that the system has nothing past their top 3 guys? He never provides the why on any opining, just states his opinions as if they are facts and gets verbally fellated by the hosts for it. Mega star upside Vlad Star upside Bichette, Biggio Avg to above avg upside, Jansen, SRF, Pearson, Alford (f*** you todd), Below avg to avg upside : Borucki, Zeuch, LGjr, Gaviglio, Pannone, McGuire, Guerreri, tellez Pure depth/bench at best: Urena, Smith Jr Guys further away that are high end but need to get higher before the load is blown: Pardinho, Groshans, Smith, Danner(debatably already in the avg section, but I want to see AA results first). Other interesting names, Noda, Chavez Young, samad taylor How is there no depth Keith? f***in idiot

Prove there was a better offer out there? Second, prove a comp pick is worth objectively more than Merryweather because that's the only other alternative unless you're living in a dreamworld that he would have accepted a QO, or signed some kind of extension.

Oh and this

Closest thing to the truth you've posted here since the Trump election win.

Thanks.i'll post for you next time I see an article on uterine fibroids.

Not what this "earning a promotion" thing is. September call ups aren't for guys that standout in the minors, they're basically added depth guys that make little to no difference to anything except to make games way the f*** longer while every team cycles through 8 relievers every game. Sure, you can find teams that do bring up some guys that have had unexpectedly good years (like Houston with Josh James), but let's not pretend he would be up with the team right now unless they were allowed to have 40 guys instead of 25. To me, earning a promotion means you get added to the 25 man roster when you're ready (or after you're obviously ready because of service time manipulation), not the amazingly stupid 40 man roster in September. Besides, this is actually the 1st season he hasn't hit well in the minors, given his injuries and early career football fling

Not sure if anyone read this today, but at Fangraphs, Sheryl Ring wrote her 2nd good article today about the MLB PA hiring a bigtime sports legal gunslinger to head their negotiation team. https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-mlbpa-has-a-new-chief-negotiator/ I really hope they avoid a work stoppage when the CBA is up but obviously this guy doesn't get hired unless they're expecting a really big fight. This dude beat the friggin NFL and NBA over free agency issues. Dude is legit