John_Havok

This is one of those calls where if either safe or out had been the call on the field, they wouldnt be able to overturn it. Which is the single biggest problem with the rule on challenges.

looked safe to me

To me it looks like he's at the point where if he is to continue his career it's either going to be on a bottom-dwelling team that just needs any warm body it can find... or a minor league deal. From the looks of his stuff, he's just not an MLB caliber pitcher at this point. He's the shade of a shade of his former self, which is sad.

I'm pretty sure Scherzer is the long man at this point by default, and they're just hoping he can turn back into a SP, while he starts games. I know that might not make sense, but ... i think you understand what Im getting at.

The bigger win would be his thumb not falling off after those 5 innings.

They'd just trade for more

f***ing Rays. Every year someone down there sells their soul for another year of getting max results out of a middling group

2-hit Whit has retired

Both are true to a point. Both Berrios and Bassitt are top 20 in MLB in IP, and if Gausman had the same # of starts he likely would be too. He probably has gone to Green too much in higher leverage situations. Aside from that. The overuse of the pen is largely due to the lack of a 4 and 5 SP.

Then he needs a full compliment of starters. Right now he has 3, plus Lauer who can really only go 5 innings at best. Plus a pen day. So, any of those actual 3 starters that suck ... like Gausman has been, pen gets used more. s*** happens. Fix the rotation and the pen issues get fixes by proxy.

Every reliever has sucked today except Fisher, what's he supposed to do pitch 4 innings?

Springer you beautiful bastard

Lauer right now is pretty much the left handed version of Francis last season. Really hope he doesnt turn into a pumpkin the same way too

What do you think would need to ge given up by the Jays, hypothetically? Would anyone be off the table?

Think the Skenes trade rumors have any weight? For Skenes ...man that's a haul waiting to happen

They should introduce Vlad to the reverse series of drills to increase his attack angle.

Well stated.

Triple slash of .254/.359/.507, with 13 K, 11 BB in 78 PA. Not bad. Davidi wrote something for BA a few weeks ago about swing changes he's made, but its behind a pay wall. Spanky, you still have a BA sub?

There's no reality where Atkins or Shapiro thought this was a good value signing. It just doesn’t fit their MO. As for whether they "spoke up as strongly or as convincingly" ... i mean, when do billionaires ever really listen to their underlines who disagree with them? What were Atkins and Shapiro supposed to do differently? Refuse to sign the paperwork or resign in solidarity? Besides, its not purely an on-field baseball signing. There's nobody I know of with any baseball acumen that thinks its a good on-field value signing. But, Rogers has their marketing face locked in for the next 14 years to sell advertising and all kinds of crap that isnt related to the baseball product. Vlad is likely worth more than 500 million to Rogers Corp.

And hitting. About the only part of the game they don't need improving is defense

I think it's a bit different. I don't think Vlad goes up there looking for a specific pitch to hit. I think he overthinks himself into guessing at what's coming and just isnt ready to hit all the mistakes when he gets them. He still hits a few but..not as many as he should. Also, when he gets a borderline call against him, he has a tendency to swing at the very next pitch unless its very obviously a ball. Pitchers can take advantage of that by throwing just a bit further out in that same location to induce a bigger swing/miss chance. Another problem is his the fact that he has the capability of inside-outing pitches on the inner half. That's a great skill. That type of swing with two strikes is fine, but he does it way too often in non two-strike counts. It's like he doesnt realize he should be looking to park those pitches in the left field stands. Couple all of that with an objectively bad attack angle swing, and an inherent talent for making hard contact and you get what we see today; a guy who hits missiles all over the park, but not at the optimal launch angles with enough regularity to generate the type of power results that a guy of his talent should generate. A bad season for him should be 30-35 HRs.

Vlad's patented 111mph grounder. Ya love to see it

quite right, he's probably a sunk cost at this point.

Even though the Jays are rolling right now... 5 through 9 still really makes me sad from a hitting standpoint.

It might take eating a massive chunk of salary, but someone might take him for a non-useless warm body for AAA filler or something.