John_Havok

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

Well when Felix won though the guys with the high win totals were clearly not as good. But, there were actually a few other guys who were arguably better than Felix the year, but he won because of his low ERA. Winning based on ERA is not as bad as win totals, but its still not great. And DeGrom might not even get to 10 wins. Dinosaurs aren't extinct enough yet to let that slide

People hate what they don't understand. We'll be the same way when we're old and curmudgeony

Not enough wins. Obviously can't pitch well enough to keep his team in games.

I think the whole org philosophy on pitching needs to change. So many guys with pitch-to-contact type arsenals. First step is losing the 2 seam fastball and forgetting it exists in favour of the 4 seam.

If LGJR is an average major leaguer that would be fine. His ceiling is higher than that with improvements to plate discipline and defense which are 2 things that do tend to improve with experience, but there's no telling for sure if they actually will, or how far. Your previous statement about not having bat speed and hard contact though are just flat out wrong.

I think the more pertinent question is why he has the same approach every game when it clearly isn't working.

It won't take 3 years. If there's no clear progression by mid to late 2019, there's not much point in trying to put a square peg in a round hole, and you turn him loose in the pen