jaysblue

I took Victor Oladipo. Whose next?

Reimer was never the same after his injury. I think he had some nice potential.

Jose Theodore was top notch. I heard his problem was he enjoyed the Montreal nightlife and girls too much afterwards haha.

In each of his four seasons with the Leafs, they made the Playoffs and some of those years performed really well in the Playoffs. They ran into some tough New Jersey Devils teams I recall two of those four years. Save percentages in the Playoffs were .907, .932, .927 and .914 over his four seasons. He almost got them to the Stanley Cup in 2001-2002. Lost to Carolina in the Eastern Conference Finals. He's probably been the Leafs best goalie over the last two decades & counting.

On a serious note, CuJo was pretty solid. He almost carried the Leafs to the Stanley Cup in 2002 and they did have deep playoff runs with him at least. Ed Belfour had some great seasons for them (2002-2003 & 2004-2005), though I recall never had much success in the Playoffs those seasons.

Vesa Toskula

Hasn't lived up to expectations since being called up, though maybe a change of scenery would help. He's still only 23. Would be willing to roll the dice on him if the Cards are selling low. Even posted 2.4 WAR this season despite putting up awful offensive numbers.

I'll buy a Nootbar jersey!

Yeah I can't imagine Romano would have been sharp after throwing 2 innings and 29 pitches as well. I think you would have needed a combination of Stripling and Berrios to take you maybe into the 7th, and throw in guys like Pop, Bass, Phelps and Richards for sure. Garcia, Cimber and Mayza likely still would have been available, though who knows how sharp they would be after being used 3 consecutive days. Or use Stripling for the first and maybe second time through the order, use some relievers in the middle and then have Berrios close it out. Mariners would have been short handed as well, so definitely would have been an interesting game.

Even if the Jays pulled out a win in Game 2, what would have Game 3 looked like? I'm assuming they start Strip with Berrios backing him up. But what about the late innings? Would have Romano been available on Sunday in a save situation? Would have been three days in a row of work for Mayza, Garcia and Cimber, but they had low pitch counts the previous two days. Though even still you wouldn't be able to push them that hard.

I would like to see the Braves come out of the NL. Love their team and gotta show AA some support! He's done a fantastic job with that organization!

Just remember A. J. Preller is the GM and President of Baseball Operations for the Padres. That should make your decision easier.

The Tribe! Would love to see them knock out the Yankees. Love their rotation of Bieber, McKenzie, Quantrill and their deep bullpen. They don't have a scary lineup on paper, though they can cause havoc by racking up opposing pitchers pitch counts, put the ball in play, and run the bases well. Also, they pay good odds in Vegas!

Brewers probably have one of the best #1-2 punches in all of baseball. They need Peralta to stay healthy. Lauer was solid. Houser isn't that great. Ashby still needs to find some more consistency, but I like his upside still. I don't see them trading Woodruff or Burnes until the trade deadline in 2024 or next offseason if they decide to cash in on one or both of them before they hit free agency. Brewers could probably use another arm in their rotation and push Houser to a swingman role and keep Ashby maybe in the minors to start the year. Shocking to see Stearns admit that. Hader didn't pitch well at all down the stretch with San Diego, though I guess everyone in the clubhouse loved him. I'm not sure trading him or not would have made a difference of them making the Postseason, when they had Devin Williams already, though I suppose it did hurt team morale over the final two months more than anything from the sounds of it. Brewers were in first place on August 1st as well. Interesting.

I had no problem leaving Gausman in personally. I didn't even expect him to get pulled, so when I saw Schneider walking out I was really surprised. I saw he got those two outs and looked like he settled back in. He's your ace, making over $100 million, at 94 pitches into the 6th inning, with an 8-1 lead. As well with a Game 3 looming, didn't you want to save some arms in your pen rather than use them all in Game 2? I think it made sense to roll with Gausman given the situation and a possible Game 3 to played the next day. Sure, we know some fans will question any move and blame anyone. If Gausman gave up a grand slam, I would have been like damn, so be it. It's still an 8-5 game, now you can roll with the pen. I still wouldn't have had a problem with Schneider leaving him in given that situation. If this was in the 7th or 8th inning and he was well over 100 pitches, then different story, especially if it's a closer score like 4-1 or 2-1 etc. I think Schneider was overthinking when he really didn't need to at that moment.

Tough week to be a Toronto sports fan!

If it was during the regular season and in April, the excuse would be "It's still early and there are still so many games to be played etc." Schneider is never going to be perfect. No manager is ever going to be perfect. I agree things get magnified in a short Postseason game, especially in a do-or-die game like Game 2 for the Blue Jays. Though Schneider did mess up big time and his decisions did hurt the Blue Jays when all is said and done. No excuses.

Haha. As a former Shelby Miller owner in fantasy baseball, he still holds a special place in my heart. Though on a serious note, he definitely is a lottery ticket that could pay off in a huge way. Bring him on a minor league deal with an opportunity to opt out if he doesn't make the MLB roster after ST.

After Schneider got in his face, Vlad started to hustle and move down the baseline!

Bet the Leafs tonight with the Braves!

Yeah same here deep down inside. One of the worst, if not the worst managed baseball game I witnessed.

At the end of the day, both Bass and Pop weren't really significant improvements down the stretch this season. At the trade deadline, you want your acquisitions to make a difference and both Bass & Pop didn't really have much of an impact. I still like the deal however and think long term Pop is definitely a nice guy to have around. Even Bass is great value on a 3M team option for 2023. I don't want him used as an 8th inning guy though. Mayza wasn't really that solid when you look at the advanced stats. Easy to upgrade over him. The Jays need another lefty like Brett Cecil or Scott Downs. Matt Moore IMO would be a perfect fit and a nice upgrade over Mayza. Either way Mayza is still an okay piece to keep around if he finds his 2021 form in 2023. It's important for the Jays starters to pitch deeper into games next year to keep the bullpen fresh. Gausman, Manoah and Berrios should be fine. Lets hope some arms at the back end of the rotation can provide some solid innings unlike White and Kikuchi. Even as much as I loved Strip, you can never rely on him going three times through an order. Always was given a quick hook.

Agree with everything you said. Gausman, Manoah, and Berrios are locked in the rotation for sure. I prefer having Kikuchi and White stretched out and keep them around for depth purposes if someone goes down with an injury. Same with Tiedemann. There are a lot of decent solid mid-rotation starters available via free agency, and like you said could probably be acquired on a one-year deal. As well, could always acquire a SP by trading Jansen. Though for sure, I think the Blue Jays need to acquire two starters. As for the bullpen, I've been saying this most of the season, they need one more elite late inning bullpen arm to pair with Romano. Some lotto tickets like Shelby Miller wouldn't hurt as well and I would move Pearson to the BP full time.