Dick_Pole

At no time did I say that the Blue Jays should sign Curtis Granderson in 2020. My goodness, do you guys have Don Cherry on the brain and getting early dementia? I thought it was pretty obvious when I say any trade involving Gurriel would ideally bring back a young pitcher with control. Making the aging curve argument moot because you're replacing one player headed into his prime with another. Then you replace Gurriel's production with an older player signed to a 1-2 year deal, ideally replacing him in 2 years with a similar player to a similar contract. This may be an easier route for the Jays than trying to fill all of their major pitching holes strictly through free agency. But if they do manage to fill existing holes through free agency, I am happy for them to keep Gurriel.

Curtis Granderson 2018: wRC+ 116. 1 year $5 million contract I'm not saying definitely trade Gurriel. But let's not act as if he is irreplaceable. Corner outfielders projected to be 15% above average hitters are dime a dozen now. The fact that the Jays outfield is in the shape it's in is an indictment of the moves the FO has made recently to fill OF spots. Not an indication of the outfield market or what the FO could potentially do this offseason for the position. If the Jays can sign two good pitchers, I am happy with that. If they end up signing only one pitcher and one outfielder and trade Gurriel, I am fine with that too, depending on the details of each move. Somehow I think the latter will be more attainable.

Oh yes, I'm assuming any trade involving Gurriel will not be the John Olerud for Robert Person kind. That should go without saying.

As easy at it should be to fill out starting pitching given this crop of free agents, it's much, much easier to fill out corner OF options with okay defense and big bats with multiple options at any year. With little commitment and at a decent price for basically anyone above 30 nowadays. If you can get a pitcher that can slot in #2 with 3+ years of control, even considering the more expensive salary, for Gurriel, you do it 10 times out of 10. He is the most tradeable asset PR wise given his status as the Brian Epstein of the Guerrero, Bichette, Biggio and Jansen quartet anyways.

Immigrants, a substantial portion coming from colonial or allied forces in WW2, probably DO care a lot more than many Canadians. Do people not realize India's contribution or that Mussolini was busy being cucked out on the Northern African front? It's hard to know what went on inside Cherry's head when he was spouting it, but I feel it was more a rant against Toronto (urban) liberals. And yeah, a lot of that may be in the form of whitewashed non-white second or third generation immigrants who care about veterans as much as the typical whiny white millennial.

Meh. FO interviews in early November don't hold much weight with me one way or another. Let's see where the team stands in a month after the winter meetings.

Pretty sure that this is exactly what Don Cherry wanted. Going full IDGAF mode to "liberal media" CBC. He either gets a nice retirement package or gets to yap progressively less coherently about stuff everyone secretly agrees with but doesn't have the balls to say.

Top notch reporting: He's the first Leafs goalie to go winless in his first 6 games of a season since it happened a couple of years ago. Is Richard Griffin working hockey now?

The loser mentality in this thread is getting high. JP Ricciardi did a number on the psyche of Jays fans to justify his mediocre tenure (and then went on to sign AJ Burnett). If the Jays fail to sign two pitchers better than anyone currently on the roster it is a failing of the front office, nothing more.

I wonder if Don Cherry has any empirical evidence to back his claims? When he referred to "you people" he made reference to those in downtown Toronto which pretty much translates to (mainly white) liberals, not immigrants. But then he had to go on his milk and honey rant which muddies the waters. He should have just continued to do what any good Canadian does, which is to hate the people of Toronto, but love our sports teams. Much less backlash then.

Masai is gunning for Gillick's spot as top exec ever in Toronto. Just one game but that bench looks solid again after those three seconds last year post-Gasol trade where it looked shallow.

When you can reasonably expect 10+ WAR from four guys in scarce positions making a combined $2 million, have no long term salary commitments of note and there just so happens to be ample free agent supply to fill out your glaring needs, you can afford to take some risks.

If the Jays do well in the offseason, Drury becomes a redundant asset whose salary can be allocated better elsewhere. I said this before, but if the Jays have any hopes of competing, Biggio, Bichette and Vlad need to total 450+ games between them. Under that circumstance, the Jays can afford to give 150 plate appearances to some min wage replacement or below player. If one or more of those players lose time due to injury or poor performance, then the Jays chances of competing become significantly impaired. And under those circumstances, who really cares if the team is giving several hundred plate appearances to min wage replacement or below players, other than the people still watching the games. Plus there's the very likely chance that if Drury sticks around, he will be a significantly above min wage replacement level or below player. Keeping Drury around is inefficient roster management. If somehow he clicks at age 27 with another team, good for him. The Jays have been on the winning side of that deal for a while now with Bautista, EE and Smoak.

The Jays do not need an innings eater. They have over 1,500 innings worth of 4.50 ERA/FIP guys in that list BTS just laid out. Mother f***er this team would have looked good with Halladay.

I like the idea of Tepera being dropped more than the actual move itself. In that the FO is showing itself to be liberal in expunging deadweight from the roster. Although they inherited Tepera. Let's see what they do with Drury.

Apparently the Jays already have/had him: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/salazda01.shtml Similar Pitchers Yordano Ventura (982.4) Matt Shoemaker (970.6) Zack Wheeler (969.0) Zach Davies (966.3) Anthony DeSclafani (964.4) Steve Swetonic (963.9) Kenta Maeda (963.2) Mark Prior (963.2) Aaron Sanchez (962.9) Jose Berrios (961.6) Similar Pitchers through 29 Chase Anderson (973.5) Chris Young (969.6) Dillon Gee (969.5) Zack Wheeler (969.0) Matt Harvey (968.6) Kelly Downs (967.7) Tim Leary (966.1) Pascual Perez (966.0) Shane Reynolds (965.7) Garrett Richards (965.4)

To be fair that's a risk for many pitchers.

My hierarchy on this based on options discussed so far: 1. Move Vlad to first, sign a good third baseman 2/3. Sign Smoak or EE, depending on relative cost 4. Mystery move 5. Sign Thames 6. Keep sending Tellez out there

I'll reserve judgement on this move until February. If he's expected to be #4 SP by February, this is a very good move. If he is expected to compete for #1 SP, this is a very bad move. It's all about the FO's mindset. They've never had a problem supplementing the roster with depth. But if they are trying to throw a ton of depth at the roster as an excuse to avoid getting top end talent while getting to a somewhat not Tampa payroll then I will not be pleased. One could easily turn this around and say Milwaukee is freeing up salary space to make a bigger splash in the FA market in a good FA market year. So it could be a win for both teams. For a move a few days after the World Series and before free agency, it's okay. The FO is not really showing its cards for the off-season here yet.

It's just been an all around weird year for sports. Blues, Nationals, hell even us poor Toronto folk get thrown a bone with the Raptors. Stupid Tom Brady ruined it though.

But, you know, if the St. Louis Blues do something similar....LOL @ NHL parity!

Having a grounded opinion on him to see how he performs on a tough mostly road schedule = jealous of old lady banging apparently. I will gladly double and triple down on this if it results in the Raptors outperforming expectations.

Being a starting pitcher, he can get away with being a douche better than most other athletes in a team sport setting. All he needs is to be on a good working relationship with his catcher and that's it. Sit on the far end of the bench and pout for four out of the five days for all I care. His little outburst is a good thing for the Jays, if we are still allowed on here to contemplate the small possibility of a deal. It'll take a few teams out of the running that base their decisions on "character", which I don't think the FO is like that at all. The irony of recent events with Osuna aside. At least it pretty much seals his fate out of Houston. 1/29 possibility as opposed to 1/30.

What I don't get is people fawning over the team over the four road wins. The only way that can happen is by losing three at home which is a pretty chumpy feat. I'd rather give credit to a team that was 2-0 at home and 2-0 on the road.

It's clear to me that a winning business plan will be dropshipping some China-made Expos 2019 World Series Champs ripoff hats to desperate Canadians.