John_Havok

I always use cots contracts

Little nugget out of Vancouver, the Jays extended their player development contract with the Vancouver Canadians through the 2022 season.

Damian (Roanoke, VA): In the span of a year, Bo Bichette has gone from 93 to 44 to 8 on this list. Any chance he ends up the better player (not hitter) than Vlad Jr? J.J. Cooper: He can play a middle infield spot and Guerrero will have to work hard to stay at third base, so it is possible. If Bichette ends up being one of the better hitters in baseball while staying up the middle, that would be a very, very valuable player. Greg (Kellyville, OK): How wide was the margin between Kyle Tucker and two hitters ahead of him in Tatis Jr. and Bo? I can easily see arguments for all hitters ahead of Tucker but I am having trouble with Bo. What did Bo do that put him ahead of someone with tools and a track record like Tucker? J.J. Cooper: A number of factors. One, Bichette is a middle infielder, either a shortstop or a second baseman while Tucker is a corner outfielder. Advantage: Bichette. Two, Bichette’s track record is actually at least equal if not superior to Tucker’s at this point. Yes, he’s a year younger. But compare Bichette’s rookie ball season (.427/.451/.732) to Tucker’s (.246/.294/.353). OK, compare Tucker’s first full pro season (MWL/CAL) to Bichette’s (MWL/FSL). Even without making adjustments for the better hitting conditions of the Cal League to the FSL, Bichette hit .384/.448/.623 in the MWL and .323/.379/.463 in the FSL. Tucker hit .276/.348/.402 in the MWL and .339/.435/.631 in the CAL. Tucker does have a HiA/AA year that Bichette doesn’t have yet because he was drafted one year earlier, but comparing apples to apples, at the same points in their career (half season + 1 full pro season) Bichette has more isolated power, a higher batting average and because of the higher batting average, a higher OBP. Tucker has a slightly better K-rate and walk rate. Bichette has better normalized stats as well. You can make a case for Tucker (closer to the majors, power surge in 2017) but Bichette has a lot going for him as well. Ryan (Montreal): Never seen an 80 hit grade (with a 70 power!). What gives you so much confidence in Vlad's tools to basically classify him as one of the best offensive prospects in years? Kyle Glaser: Because the scouts and pro scouting directors and general managers across the game see him as that, and every single stat metric you can dream of backs it up. If both the numbers and the reports line up, no reason to shortchange the kid. His barrel control, bat speed, plate discipline, power potential…it’s all on a level not seen in a long time from an 18 year old James (Kentucky): How rare is Vlad Jr's. 80 hit tool? What other prospects have garnered an 80 hit tool? Josh Norris: Without having the data at hand, I’ll go ahead and say very few. Another way of looking at it: How many 80-grade hitters are there in the major leagues? Probably less than five. That should tell you how special we think that bat could be. Tommy N. (San Diego): What was the reasoning of ranking Bichette ahead of Tatis? Kyle Glaser: I had Tatis one spot ahead of Bichette in my rankings. Others had them right next to each other as well. They were 2-3 in our Midwest League prospects rankings. Scouts see them and talk about them very similarly in terms of potential, the numbers on both are stellar. It’s really, really had to separate the two. Bichette’s slightly tick better pure hit potential gives him a smidgen advantage, which I can see, but I think honestly thinking about the two of them as tied for 8th is the most accurate way to see it Ian (Toronto): Hype up here on Nate Pearson is through the roof. Do you think that with a longer track record he'd already be top 50? or is it just a case of over inflating our own prospects'...er... prospects? Kyle Glaser: Ben Badler took care of the Jays for us this year and got scintillating reports from both opposing scouts and in-house folks who aren’t known as BSers. Pearson appears to be a steal (Note: BA had him about 15 spots higher on the BA 500 then where he was drafted), and there is a very real chance to takes off next year. BK (Vancouver, BC): Is Danny Jansen just a case of "we need to see him sustain this for longer" before he's considered a prospect worthy of top 100 discussion? Kyle Glaser: Yeah. This was a fantastic year, and I think it’s reasonable to expect him to continue to perform now that his vision is fixed. But in the context of the Top 100, another season of track record would help Justin (Cincinnati, OH): With Vlad Jr getting an 80 grade hit tool, I was curious how many other 80 hit or power grades have been handed out over the years? And how many guys have topped the 80/70 hit/power combo of Vlad Jr? Matt Eddy: This question also intrigues me, and those grades you cite for Vlad Jr. formed the backbone of my defense for him as No. 1. The most logical place to begin looking for similar grades would be Bryce Harper (60 hit, 80 power) and Mike Trout (70 hit, 65 power) in the 2012 book, but you can see we were more conservative with their grades. I spot-checked a few other high-profile prospects of the past seven years and nobody topped Vlad, who scored 150 out of a possible 160 points with his hit and power grades.

Chip off the old block for sure...

Yeah no worries, I just think there's a lot of conclusion jumping going on here without any real info. Hell, if I died tomorrow I'd have trace amounts of morphine in my system because I ate cheese tonight. Point is, trace amounts of any of those drugs wouldn't do anything to anyone.

Trace amounts were found. If it was something prescription or even impairing there would have been a lot more than trace amounts found.

Can't even imagine having to make a decision on whether my wife was to remain on life support or not, gotta be the worst

I'm still trying to figure out what his 1 tool is....

There are incentives for playing time in the deal as well, so the top end may be higher than 5 million, but either way it won't be so much more that it turns into a bad deal. Good signing with limited downside

True, you just have to beat whichever one doesn't take the division, but that's still a tall order.

Jesus.....

He's a left handed Pillar who can actually steal bases. I'd much rather see him in LF over Zeke

Lol wut?

Interesting story about former Million dollar Arm pitcher from India, Rinku Singh. He has been signed to a developmental deal with WWE and is now hoping to have a pro wrestling career

Donaldson 23 million confirmed, avoided arb

Just a record contract for someone who is arbitration eligible.

Option 1: hope he stays healthy and the Jays are clear sellers near the deadline so they can trade him for a return that is better than a comp pick in the 2019 draft. Option 2: hope he's healthy, all of Boston and New York players get stricken with polio and can't play in 2018 leaving the door open for the Jays to make the playoffs, and then lose Donaldson for nothing more than a comp pick in the 2019 draft. Option 3: hope he's healthy and signs a team friendly extension for 4 years max. Option 1 is really the only likely scenario here

Lowry played his ass off tonight

Damn, Lowry broke his ass.....

Then you're dating the wrong women my friend.

Yeah, that's what I was a getting at, which I don't think is ideal(not the Alford in AAA part... the Zeke being a FT player part). Punt Kendrys and his useless bat out the door, let Pearce DH and have Zeke on the bench with an average LF and you likely improve 2-3ish wins alone. Zeke plus Pearce are projected for 1.3 WAR, 1.3 of which is Pearce. Kendrys projects at .4 Lorenzo Cain would be the ideal addition if they went the FA route, stick him in LF. That would require giving up a pick though and probably too long a contract to ever happen. Pearce is bad enough defensive that he can DH without seeing much of a value hit,

A Pearce/Zeke platoon in LF isn't ideal at all imo of they truly want to contend..but the bigger issue is no true backup CF. Zeke can play there in a pinch but I don't ever want him suiting up as a starter there for more than 1 or 2 games in a row and only due to injury. Find a way to dump Kendrys, let Pearce DH, Zeke to the bench and hopefully Alford is healthy and starts in LF. Then if Pillar goes down, Alford can go to CF and Zeke to a corner and bring up someone else to fill the bench role.

It would be a nice stepping stone from 25th

He's incredibly overrated defensively but offensively he's a surefire HOF any day of the week. The issue I think most have is that he's revered as some defensive wizard, when he was overall pretty below average and downright awful the majority of his career. The fact that he had such a great bat and played in New York cause many to give him way more credit for defense than he deserved, and is actually overrated as a result. The fact that Scott Rolen and Jeter finished their careers 1 WAR apart and 1 is talked about like he's the second coming of Christ and the other is just written off the HOF ballot likes he's nothing... shows that Jeter is in fact overrated, whilst Rolen is criminally underrated.