AdamGreenwood

We've been in perpetual contending mode for 21 years. How do you like it so far?

I don't really know why we signed Martin. We're not close enough to chase a championship. Our starting pitching is not very good, and we have a few other weak spots - most noticeably DH. With time running out on EE and Bautista, this would have been an ideal time to have unloaded those guys and picked up some young talent. The Cubs, Dodgers and Red Sox are running over with talent, with guys way too talented for AAA having nowhere to go. These teams are desperate for someone to reach out with a solution. The Dodgers have a massive logjam at both infield and outfield. The Cubs have more young stars than they can count, as every Cuban seems to be working for them. The Red Sox can't find anywhere for Mookie Betts to play. They might shuffle him to left field, even though he's a plus defender at both CF and 2B. A huge waste. We should be capitalizing on this and grabbing talent, and end our cycle of finishing middle of the pack for the 22nd year in a row.

We need to trade some guys away for minor league talent, bench players, and middle relievers: Estrada: Mediocre pitcher who has had some success in the past, but is a terrible fit for RC. Still can't believe we gave up Lind for this guy. Hopefully we can get a cheap middle reliever and save 4 million. Smoak: This guy is just atrocious. WTF do we want a career .689 OPS 1st baseman, who doesn't even have a good split. There is no situation where he will be useful. Dump him and save 3 million. Navarro: Has become redundant with Martin. Should be able to trade him for a reasonable piece (#5 starter) or middle reliever. Saves 4 million. Happ: He's decent as a depth guy, but not for seven million. We need to either start him or trade him. He can still fetch something useful. Lot of teams can use him and aren't bothered by the salary. Saves 6 million. That's roughly seventeen million saved, with a few pieces coming back to us.

I think Cuba is figuring out that all the top talent is going to leave Cuba anyway. They might as well figure out a way to profit from it, as well as let these guys play from the Cuban team when the WBC comes up. I think at some point, they'll give all these guys amnesty, (with a financial penalty), allow them to come home, and then start dominating the international tournaments.

Not if that someone else is Kershaw.

I like how you guys are so desperate for a player to embrace sabermetrics, that you totally gloss over the fact that he referenced wins.

The guy ranked 17th in WAR last year for catchers. In 2013, he was 19th. He's delivered 3.7 WAR over the last two years. Not sure why we think he's disposable all of a sudden. We got lucky we found someone reasonable after dumping D'Arnaud and Gomes to appease JPA's fragile ego.

I haven't been following, but do we have enough in trade assets to trade the whole team away to Minnesota to get Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett?

The steroids shouldn't be an issue anymore. The guy made a mistake. I'm sure he's learned how to avoid detection properly since then. Obviously, from seeing the au-naturel results in 2013, he can't go back to no steroids, but I'm confident he won't get busted again, as long as he's careful about his supplier.

With the money floating around out there, particularly in California, there's team that would pick up Reyes' contact without hesitation. Even with injuries/slumps, the guy has averaged 2.7 war for us. And much more the two previous seasons. There just aren't that many shortstops capable of that. s***, look at how the Dodgers bailed out the Red Sox by picking up Crawford and Beckett, and actually giving them prospects for the privilege of doing so.

Wait a second. We already have Reyes. We don't need two shortstops.

Thinking about it. The Blue Jays acquire a flyball pitcher in a ballpark known for easy home runs. The Brewers acquire a 1st baseman better suited for DH, due to health issues and poor defense. Both players are a poor fit for their new teams. Both GM's are atrocious.

That's brutal. We just traded our third best hitter, who was reasonably affordable, for a flyball pitcher, who couldn't hold his spot in the rotation of an NL non-contender. Negative 0.3 WAR. The worst part is that we don't have any depth to replace Lind. Dan Johnson? How about Justin Smoak, the career negative WAR .689 OPS 1st baseman? This season is quickly shaping up to be unwatchable.

I love the direction this team is taking. Replacing Melky and Lind with Smoak and Dirks will save us a ton of money, which can be used to increase the dividend to Rogers shareholders.

The main difference between Lind and Saunders is that Lind is terrible against LHP, whereas Smoak is subpar against LHP or RHP. If I had a decent split, he could at least be interesting, but he's got terrible lines against both LHP and RHP.

You have to draw a line in the sand somewhere. How much is too muich? 500k, 1 milllion, 2 million? How many extra wins does a hitting coach add anyway? We don't really know how the negotiations went down, or what the demands were. Also, it's possible that the Jays have a new philosophy in regards to hitting coaches. Each hitting coach has something to teach, and once they've taught that to their players, it's time to bring in a different instructor with other things to teach. For instance, Dwayne Murphy helped Bautista become the hitter he is today. But, with his absence, Bautista is still a great hitter, which makes Murphy kind of redundant.

"success in professional sports is defined in post season appearances" No. Success in professional sports is defined in profit. Just like all corporations. The Blue Jays continue to make money, and the valuation of the Jays continues to rise. The Jays have solid financial footing.

I used to play FanDuel before they signed an endorsement deal with Michael Vick. Now I play FantasyFeud instead. Basically the same product. Maybe a little better.

I think most Cuban defectors would be pretty reluctant to come to Toronto, as the border crossings are going to be a huge hassle while their citizenship is still in limbo. Justin Turner is the guy we should be going after.

Any room in this league? There must be somebody that deserves to be kicked out?

Yeah, I had a bone to pick with a few guys that just wouldn't let the Teahen thing go, which was why I was a little antagonistic when I first re-joined. Still, someone had to stand up to the FanGraphs groupthink that was going on.

That's nothing. You should have seen the fallout I got from saying that Mark Teahen could play second base. Had to delete my account and start over.

The following Blue Jays have options for the Blue Jays to consider in the off-season. (Let me know if I missed anything). Adam Lind: $7.5 million/$1 million buyout. JA Happ: $6.7 million/200k buyout. Dustin Mcgowan: $4 million/500k buyout Josh Thole: $1.75 million Sergio Santos: $6 million/$750k buyout Brandon Morrow: $10 million/$1 million buyout I think that's it. Cott's isn't as reliable as it once was.

The way you guys talk about these fringe players having value makes me wonder if there's 50 teams in the league.

The commissioner brought this on himself. It all started with Vick. He decided to suspend him optically by banning him for two years. Although, closer scrutiny reveals Vick was suspended the day he plead guilty and reinstated only days after he was released. So, the NFL 'suspension' didn't actually cost him a single game. But, suddenly that became the bar, so the public expects every crime that's on a level with Vick to get a similar suspension. Goodell can't come out and say: 'hey, we didn't actually suspend Vick at all, that was just a smokescreen to make you idiots think we care about animal cruelty'. Suspending a star player has a significant impact on the NFL team that owns him, so ideally he wants to leave it up to the team, but the teams show over and over again that they really only care about winning and money. If Osama Bin Laden was alive and a talented wide receiver, some team would probably try to sneak him past the public. Frankly, I don't think the public even cares about these guys. If it wasn't for the fact that sponsors are pulling out, I don't think the NFL or the teams would give the players anything more than a slap on the wrist.