jaysblue

Calgary is probably the best place to live in Canada IMO. Affordable cost of living and real estate; big city vibes though not as congested and expensive as Toronto/Vancouver; an hour from the mountains. Only downside is the winters can be long, though there are some days where Calgary gets Chinooks so in January it could be +15 degrees. Also, they could use a baseball team haha.

Charleston is high on my list of places to visit. I've been to Savannah which has the same feel. Austin was a cool city. It's a bit woke for Texas, but still very fun and loved all the restaurants, bars and barbecue places. I went to New Orleans one year for Mardi Gras and it was crazy. I would love to go sometime again when it's not as busy. Amazing restaurants, cocktail bars, architecture and the city has so much character. Like you said though, wouldn't want to live there since too much partying and high crime rates. For me Toronto and New York are a toss up. As a tourist would prefer New York, though to live Toronto. Boston is far better than Montreal in my opinion and I'll give Vancouver a nod over Seattle. Otherwise, for other Canadian cities, Calgary is very nice. Bad weather for like 8 months of the year which is downside, unless you really love the cold. But for living, very affordable real estate and you have the mountains right in your backyard. Victoria is nice as well, but a very small city. Want to explore more of Vancouver Island sometime in the future. But yeah definitely a lot more interesting places in the States than Canada.

Nashville is in my top 5 for sure. Such a fun city! Wish they just had a baseball team! Seattle reminded me a lot like Vancouver, though more homeless and crackheads. I enjoyed going to ballgames at Safeco (now T-Mobile haha). Overall it was meh. Chicago wasn't a big fan. Too congested and is ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in North America. Shocked you put Houston as well. I loved Houston when I went. It's a huge city to cover for sure. Not much downtown other than Minute Maid Park (which is beautiful and an awesome experience to watch a game), though the surrounding areas of Houston have great breweries, restaurants, and NASA haha. Houston is one of the best food cities I've been to. Real estate is very reasonable there as well, and you're about an hour and a half to the coast like Galveston. For me, my top five in no particular order would be: Boston, Nashville, Tampa Bay/Clearwater/Dunedin/St. Pete's (throwing them all in one since they're all close haha), Savannah, and probably Denver. Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin are pretty close up there as well, and out of all places in California, I would say San Diego was by the best and most beautiful.

I think Grant would be the only poster on here who wouldn't like Boston haha.

I love Boston much better than New York. Less crazy and less congested. Probably one of the best sports cities in terms of fan atmosphere, venues, teams, etc. Fantastic restaurants. An hour or so drive out to the Cape. It's like if Halifax was a bigger city.

Oh really? Out of all US big cities I've been to, I would say Boston ranks near the top for me if I had to live somewhere in the US. Overall, still a great city to spend a weekend in and watch sports!

Boston is a far better city than New York. The seafood restaurants are amazing! Makes it good for a weekend baseball trip!

Yeah I guess the original conversation was about professional players preferences on which cities to play in and some poster posed the question like why would Player A want to play in Baltimore or Cleveland instead of Toronto, which is a beautiful city. Or something along the lines of how many American big cities aren't as nice as Toronto. And yes, the conversation did go off tangent, though everything was civil and nothing was offensive. It's not that hard to just scroll and skip a couple of posts if your not interested. Some posters need to chill.

Giles would be a nice pickup for the Blue Jays. They really could use him.

East Hastings in Vancouver is pretty bad. Huge homeless and drug problem in that area but I find even now it has expanded a bit towards Downtown Vancouver last time when I was there two years ago. Me and my friend even noticed just walking down a street on a Saturday afternoon. More mild weather and not that humid, so that's why San Fran, Seattle, Portland and Vancouver have a huge homeless problem. As for Toronto, the homeless/drug problem isn't as bad as Vancouver but it has got worse over the last 4 to 5 years. Walk around Parkdale, and you'll see a lot of homeless and crackheads. As well, two years ago I parked underground at City Hall and when I walked inside to catch the elevator, two homeless people shooting up needles outside the stairway. Also, Toronto allowed parks and along the Gardiner to be filled with homeless tents. Was becoming tent city everywhere downtown which was becoming too much.

Fantasy Baseball trade deadlines, NFL drafts, Hockey drafts and then basketball should be next haha. We just keep 5 or 6 players anyways and do a live draft after.

It's alright, just bad luck. This is an amazing team and they're still World Series contenders!

The Economist is biased when it comes to some of those rankings such as Top Ranking Cities of 2021 and I take them with a grain of salt most of the time. A lot of those cities are ranked high because of free health care, green policies, and other politically motivated aspects. Tokyo and Singapore IMO are much better than Toronto, safer, cleaner, way better infrastructure and more thriving in terms of night life, entertainment etc. Sydney and Melbourne are also nice cities. Copenhagen never been but heard its really nice. Expensive and most people there are very well off and a smaller population in comparison to other bigger cities so which makes social and healthcare services more accessible. Toronto's infrastructure in comparison to Tokyo or Seoul or other major cities is really far behind. As well, Toronto's population is growing at a high rate, which is driving up real estate and renting prices, alongside we're already seeing a strain on social and health care services across the GTA and Ontario. More money needs to be invested in infrastructure here and health care (Provincial government), because it is lagging. Yeah like I said, Toronto is relatively safe still for a big city in comparison to other major cities. LA, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Washington DC etc. are worse when it comes to overall violence. Still a little worrisome though how Toronto has been heading in the wrong direction since it's pretty easy for a city to be a thriving safe metropolis and then all of sudden have a complete 180. Also, depends on the area in the GTA. Some areas are obviously safer than others, though even still gun violence has reached the suburbs and what are considered safe areas. I remember last summer there was a shooting at Sherway right outside the Joey's. I was there the day before as well. Scary to think something like that would happen in broad daylight out in the west end. Montreal I find is worse than Toronto. Vancouver I find is better though they have a huge homeless and drug problem. At the end of the day, each big city isn't perfect.

NBA season doesn't start until mid-to-late October.

You're worse than Mike Wilner.

I said it has started to "become" a s*** hole. Toronto was a great city to live in 5-10 years ago. In terms of safety, yes its still relatively a safe city but gun violence, stabbings and car jackings have been increasing every year since 2015. Heading in the wrong direction which is worrisome. Those are the facts. As well, a lot more drug problems in the city now than 5-10 years ago. You walk in some areas or even in some underground parking lots and you see people shooting up or used needles on the street which is scary. Like every big city, there are good areas and bad areas.

The Blue Jays best window to win a World Series is over the next two-three years. The Blue Jays should be fielding the best teams possible over these next two-three years, no excuses. You can't let this roster go to waste by cheapening on other areas such as the bullpen or roster depth. Vladdy and Bo become FA's in 2026 and will start becoming expensive through arbitration 2023 onwards or if they sign an extension which will tie up the payroll from the Blue Jays spending on other players. Teoscar Hernandez is a FA in 2024. George Springer is getting older and want to take advantage of his so called prime years before he declines. You want to capitalize on Gausman in the early part of his contract because who knows how he pitches at an elite level when he's 34 or 35 years of age. Manoah is pitching fantastic and showing he's healthy - want to take advantage of that as we know with some young pitchers how injuries can pop up and they're MIA for a good year or two possibly.

I don't have high expectations for them to go far into the Postseason if it started today, but who knows come end of September. If this team is playing hot, everyone is healthy and Berrios figures it out, then they have a chance in a short series.

The Blue Jays were overrated this season, though that doesn't mean they still can't make the Postseason and possibly move on to the ALDS or ALCS. This is still a solid core who have underachieved thus far. There are a lot of homers and FO apologists on this board who still think this team is perfectly fine and nothing needs to be added. Some posters care so much about saving $ on the bullpen or transforming Kikuchi from a No. 5 into a No.3, they're missing the bigger picture here.

If anyone ever wants Bills tickets, let me know. Have seasons in Sec 337, Row 9.

Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, LA, San Fran, New York, St. Louis, Minnesota are a couple of s*** hole cities in the US. Toronto has started to become a s*** hole. It's not the same city it was 5-10 years ago. A lot of cities have bad parts and nice parts including Toronto. Like even San Fran, some parts are nice and outside of the city in Northern California is nice, but some parts of San Fran downtown is filled with homeless and drug addicts. In comparison to some big US cities though, Toronto is still pretty decent. Still, there are some better US cities to play in for sure.

I don't really have an issue with any of these contracts, other than maybe Kikuchi, and even that one doesn't bother me. Springer was the top FA that offseason and the Blue Jays signing him showed the rest of the baseball they were serious. Also, showed other FAs that the Blue Jays were willing to spend and make significant improvements to the team. If he's healthy, he can be a 5-6 WAR player. That's why it's best the Blue Jays take advantage of putting together the best team possible during the earlier years of the Springer contract, because likely the latter years are when he'll be declining. Same with the Ryu contract the offseason prior. He was one of the top SPs on the market. Also at the time they signed Ryu, Blue Jays pitching at the MLB level was pretty depleted. They pretty much just had Trent Thornton. Berrios can be a solid No. 2 starter, proven to be durable and was under 30 when they traded and signed him to an extension. I think he's a better pitcher than his 2022 numbers indicate. As for Kikuchi, I'm not a fan of the 3 years. I think signing him to a one-year contract + with a club option would have been a fine gamble. I don't know why they want to try turning him from a No. 5 starter into a No. 3 starter over three years. Just pay a couple extra more bucks for a No. 3 starter to slot in the No. 4 or 5 slots at this point given where the team is. Also, wasn't a fan of the Roark contract or the Morales contract as well. Don't understand again why they went multiple years on veterans over 30 and on the downturn in their careers, who likely would only get one-year contracts from the 29 other teams.

Blue Jays were still a World Series contender in 2016 after AA left. They had a bad start to 2017 with some major injuries. As well, this current FO rather than trading Donaldson at his high point, wasted that opportunity. Plus giving some questionable players like Kendrys Morales multiple years, which was very mind boggling. I'm not suggesting the Blue Jays go all in and trade every top prospect. They don't need to. They have a very strong core intact and all they need to do is spend some money in the offseason on some areas to improve the team such as the bullpen which is easer in the offseason than trading top prospects for guys at the deadline. If you're so concerned about the farm system, wouldn't you agree? I just would hate seeing all this talent and roster go to waste because the Blue Jays were too cheap on adding a bullpen arm or two in the offseason. Like I said, I'm all for this team handing an elite reliever BJ Ryan money at this stage.

Love yours and Brownie19s optimism surrounding every player on the Blue Jays! You both love investing so much time on a 5th starter!

3 years at $12. If it was one year at $12-15M with a club option, fine. The money they spent on Kikuchi could have been used on the bullpen.