Dick_Pole

True...but then you have to weigh in the probabilities of him being total garbage versus at least adequate for a rotation spot. Chances are pretty good he'll be at least an ok inning eater in the NL East. The benching scenario is relatively unlikely. Now if you thought the benching scenario could be fairly high and you still sign him, I think that could be classified as a panic move.

This "opportunity cost" view is a little overdone. You know how they are going to get around the loss of the pick? Through good drafting and development like they always do. Now you could come back and say that good drafting and development would mean the pick is worth even MORE to the Braves. But my counterpoint to that would be based on their history, chances are when 2020 comes around they'll have done well enough with their prospects that the pick lost in 2014 doesn't mean a heck of a lot.

I don't understand how this is a "panic" move on their end. If he stinks, bench him and find someone else. If he's good, the Braves have done well to sign him. A panic move is trading top prospects in poorly timed deals or signing 30-yo second basemen to 10 year $200M+ contracts. Any time you have to make Dan Plesac your second-best example to prove your point, you have not made a strong argument.

Too bad it hit the fans in the stands and not the catcher's mitt.

LOL @ posters calling other posters dorks for saying they don't like her. Realize that everyone has their own tastes. My ex-gf list is filled with 6 foot tall brunettes with some curves. This girl has none of those three attributes. Is she pretty...sure. would I bang her...sure if it was effortless. If she was lined up against a wall with 10 other chicks that were closer to my type chances are she'd be my 11th pick. If someone's coming in here saying "YEAH I'M TOO GOOD FOR HER TO BANG, I CAN GET BETTER" then sure make fun of him for being a dork. But if someone's just saying she's too skinny or whatever or otherwise not their type...there's nothing wrong with that.

New Jays slogan for 2014: f*** it, let's pitch.

Is there anyone else kind of offended by this? Alright, if there's NOOOOOOOOBODY else, I'll sign with this piece of s*** team. Basically treating it like a Walmart or McDonalds job..."I don't really wanna take it...but I have to pay the rent somehow".

3/8/14: Blue Jays sign Ervin Santana to one-year deal 3/9/14: Blue Jays announce Ervin Santana has a torn labrum, out for season

You guys and your f***ing despair The only thing in despair will be this message board when he signs elsewhere and Anthopolous will be slinking around in the background of the sports media world like a prowler trying to avoid the cops.

I think JPR took a fair amount of risks too...but he also took BAD ones like AA just in a different way. Any number of his drafting faux pas could be pointed out as some bad risks. I take issue with you using the phrase "tanked the rest of the year playing prospects"..."tanked the rest of the year playing garbage" might have been more appropriate words lol...like Mike McCoy batting lead off in MLB games for instance.

I think the starting pitching won't be as bad as what people think and that the offense won't be nearly as good as what people think. Maybe I'm drinking the kool-aid on JA Happ. But the unusual way this team has treated him - the uncharacteristic trade for mediocre prospects, the former Halladay trade centerpiece rumours, the guaranteed contract and the guaranteed #4 spot - makes me think that someone (hopefully competent) somewhere in this organization thinks they can strike lightning in a bottle with a late bloomer with this guy. If the Jays can get Jimmy Key or Jamie Moyer level of production out of this guy I will be very happy. He hasn't really had much of a chance yet in a Jays uniform although most of what we've seen so far is mediocre at best. A lot of people slot Dickey and Beuhlre and 3 and 4 pitchers. I really think they are deserving of #2 and #3. Both were pretty good in the latter half of the year after horrendous starts. Morrow is a complete wild card. Let's hope for some #2 production like he did for the team a couple of years ago. And this is me repeating myself over again, but for this offense to be top caliber, the five best performers of this team (Bautista, Lawrie, Reyes, Encarnacion, Rasmus) need to average 150 games this year. That is a tall order for those five guys. Right now 2B is a guaranteed black hole for 600+ PA, 162 games. Having them average only 150, I'm already tossing away an additional 60 games, 200+ PA. Any sustained injury or a combination of them and we can easily see 1000+ or 1500 PA thrown away on mediocre at bats. If any of those two guys are out at the same time, Lind becomes the 4th best hitter on this team. 6-9 will consist of Navarro, and any three of Sierra, Gose, Pillar, Goins, Kawasaki and Izturis. That would rival the Astros for the worst bottom half of the order in the AL and probably a good chunk of NL teams too even with a pitcher at #9. Under no circumstances is a lineup like that going to excel.

Hockey out...perceived AL East weakness in December 2012. From a marketing standpoint Rogers picked an excellent time to go for it. And the buzz going into the season and ticket sales showed this was true. It was just executed ineffectively (questionable trades, poor roster management, not having contingencies for an injury prone line up) mixed in with some bad luck.

I agree. Henderson Alvarez can throw 20 no-hitters in his life and I won't bad mouth Anthopolous for that specific trade because I thought his career was headed nowhere based on his complete lack of ability to miss bats. Nothing given up in the Marlins trade made me go "oh s***, the Jays gave HIM up?" except Escobar but like you guys said he was probably (stupidly) gone anyways. Now the poor roster management and inactivity this year...he can be blamed for that. Where it gets murky is this back and forth claim where AA's hands are tied with respect to payroll. Either he is which made the addition of all those expensive players for prospects very ill-timed. Or he isn't tied and he was just being lazy or too cheap/a poor evaluator of the FA market. People say he *could* have had an extra $40M to play with without those trades. Well, we are unclear if he had that much money to spend THIS offseason and if he was just playing cheap. So very likely the payroll and starting rotation without those trades would be the current state of the team.

The story is kind of funny...Alomar was already amped up from being booed as the city's number one enemy at the time, and I guess he felt he was justified in leaving. Him already being upset probably led to the spitting incident. Now in retrospect and with how much heat Cito and Beeston get for the favourable treatment of Joe Carter and unfavourable treatment of John Olerud, Shawn Green and others, Alomar probably did the right thing in leaving all along.

That's not a problem, they'll just carry 14 pitchers then and a couple of those guys will be in the minors *thumbs up*.

As opposed to gold glove winner Lind? I suppose the point is moot anyways since Lind has no decent platoon partner, but this just encourages him to be playing everyday.

This question is not asked quite right, and it's a hard question to ask correctly. In an "ideal" world you take the calm, collected player. But in the terms of Bautista vs Wells you have to ask this: Would you rather have Wells, the quiet guy who can perform but then plays like a lazy of s*** when he's injured and doesn't speak up about it, thus infecting the clubhouse with a culture of half-assing it? Or would you rather have Bautista (or Lawrie), the guy who plays balls-out constantly but then f***s himself up with injuries or suspensions and is potentially disruptive with a short temper?

There's two pikes reserved for the heads of Beeston and Anthopolous if this team is nowhere near a playoff spot. I think the pressure to perform is ample enough.

Then it goes back to this philosophical debate...would Detroit be the "class" of the AL in the AL East against tough opponents? I don't think so. Detroit is overrated imo because their team looks so damn good as a fantasy team...pitching and hitting. But then people forget that their defense is super, super s***...well some of the SABR freaks may point it out, but not enough of them.

I wouldn't consider the division weak, I think every team will finish .500 or better this year. I thought the same last year and was 80% right lol. Because they play each other so much, it makes it hard for teams to have 90+ wins in that circumstance unless they all really beat up on the AL Central again as usual.

I want a tie...a perfect tie....then they have to use the magic of computers to fuse Bautista and Sogard's faces together.

I assume he means Baltimore @ 81.5. Honestly none of these odds speak to me. Yankees under 87 would be my favourite of the 5 but the odds are s***.

I actually don't like the return on the Jays anymore. When the World Series odds came out on my book I was salivating because the odds assumed the Jays season win total would have been around 74-76. I would have cleared my bank account to take that one, but not at 79.5 and not at 1.74 return.

My favourite part of being in the Wrigley stands is that you're so close to the field you can literally see Soriano's eyes checking out the various 15 yo girls in the stands. Of course for that bonus experience you need a 15 yo girl in the stands and a Soriano out in left field. I managed to take a pic of that lazy f*** with his head turned around to the stands with action in the infield in the far background. Only in Wrigley are you close enough to the field where you can get that sort of angle in a realistic shot *EPIC WIN*

This is a sign that these projections are mostly an assumption have regression to averages. I would take a guess the highest projected improvement would of been the 2004 Detroit Tigers and that projection wouldn't of been too wrong.