Dick_Pole

Alright guys the Raptors did what they were supposed to do for any team with a shot at 50 wins. Mop the floor with weaker competition at home. Let's see what Siakam does over these next two weeks before completely licking his ball sack clean.

Whoever is cheering for Washington because of the Expos is weird. If I'm a salty Expos fan, I want the team to fail and then fold or move out of Washington for the third time, maybe back to Montreal. Washington and Montreal have no relation to each other whatsoever.

If you're a Trump supporter in that situation, would you cheer? The crowd could be 25% against Trump, 25% for him and 50% indifferent and the 25% loud mouths plus some hangers-on could be filling the stadium with noise. No, I'm not defending Trump here, I just think it's not a newsworthy event. Half the people in the country don't like him. WOW! what a revelation...

Obviously yes! I'd feel sorry for Timberwolves fans given that the franchise is arguably the worst team out of the big four leagues, but they keep on proving themselves to be very stupid people. They deserve Wiggins for the next decade.

Rogers allowed a $160 million payroll at one point in time. What's it to them if the front office decides to spend ~$30M a year of that on one star free agent? If it's a decision point between $160 million and $200 million, then yeah I can see where that might be a bit more of a tough sell.

Well, I haven't had a history of banging supermodels. That doesn't mean I should not try when the time is right (one of my stock picks explode, and I have money to throw around like a maniac).

- Godfrey and Beeston are not Shapiro. - "Massive" contracts other than A-Rod weren't really a thing at the time. Burnett's was a pretty big one. - Marlins trade, Tulo, Martin etc. Though I get it those didn't have the seven years attached to them.

So we are mostly on the same page here except for this comment. I don't know what planet the FO would have to be from to sincerely expect the rotation to be filled with internal stars. Especially given the volatility of young pitchers. The only way they'd do this is if they found some kind of secret sauce like Houston did. It doesn't look like that's the case given the mediocre pitching prospects over the last two years performing as expected. The "gaps" in the rotation would be #1 and #2 if we reasonably expect Pearson to be #3, Kay to be #4-5 and the rest of the also rans filling out #5-7 and the BP by 2021. That's a pretty damn big gap to close. Might as well try to do that now. As far as Cole, frontload the hell out of it. Offer him 2 years @ $100M and the other 5 years @ $25M if you have to. Or a similar idea to other pitchers. It's not like the Jays don't have the room for it.

Have people been paying attention to the pitching staffs of the two teams in the World Series? Even looking with Jays rose-coloured glasses there is 0% chance this team can develop a rotation approaching Nationals or Astros quality before 2023 using strictly internal options. The team must supplement using the free agent or trade market. The smart thing to do would be to try like hell this year, where supply of FA SP is greatest and accelerate the win cycle in a large market MLB city that that been proven to support this team at record levels in two different generations. If this FO can't recognize this blatantly obvious situation and move to rectify it then they need to get canned. They should have known the situation two years ago and be laying the groundwork for a plan of attack in December 2019 and I expect that this is what they have done. Signing three Happs won't get the job done though that is better than signing no one at all. These next 2-3 months will seal the deal on my opinion of the FO. I refuse to play apologetics or have lowered expectations while the World Series is still going on.

Hey guys, if it makes you feel any better, this whiny reporter with a so-so face and probably fat body is totally NOT getting away with this. I wonder how many anonymous rape threats she got on social media today?

Terrible contract. Awful, awful contract.

Alright, I concede defeat. Greatest move ever. Siakam being the #1 option on the Raptors right now is more a function of it being a 45-50 win team in a joke conference than Siakam being a consensus top 30 player, but we will see what happens. Hopefully I am wrong. Point totals for tomorrow's game is 231.5. I know it's against the Pelicans, but still it seems high for a team that I expect to have challenges on offense but be a rock on defense this year.

I actually completely agree. But you managed to get yourself into an argument where none is needed by somehow framing this as an Encarnacion versus Tellez debate. The issue isn't either/or. Any number of scenarios could take place including re-signing Smoak, putting Vlad at first with focus on 3B signing and having a rotating DH that helps to ensure Tellez doesn't get any more extended looks. The EE scenario is merely one that can be presented as a realistic, low-hanging fruit opportunity to improve the team should Krylian's wet dream of the Jays striking out on absolutely every free agent possible happen and the team has like $60 million committed two weeks before Spring Training starts.

You make some good points. I don't think Siakam is as whiny and sensitive as American born players would be, but he did make is comment about "where's my free house?" or whatever it was that was offered to Leonard when the city's suck up mode was at full force. It sounded like a joke but who knows. Still I think the biggest risk here is how he will perform being the team's top offensive option. I would have liked to see that before committing big money to him.

I really wish they would have waited on that to see how he performed as the number one offensive option this year. I mean, what's the benefit of signing now? His feelings don't get hurt? If he does well this year and they offer him the same contract at the end of the year he's not going to say no. Ujiri did well with Lowry but this was not a smart move. Same with DeRozan but then he managed to get out from under that one (whether he thinks that or if he actually thought that was a sacrifice that needed to be made to get Leonard, only he knows). It's like he likes spending all his cap space on home grown players then when there is an opportunity to add, he has to bust his ass to make something work. What if Siakam stinks it up this year and Anunoby is the one who steps it up? EDIT: Yeah I know, whoever the f*** his name is, is the actual GM.

Ugh. There are 29 teams that will fail to get each of these players' services this year. There are also about 15-20 free agents who can add 3 or more WAR to the Jays roster just by replacing a scrub. Open a dialog with every one of them and chances increase that you'll sign one or two. 1/30 = 3.333333% chance a free agent will be signed. Talk to 15 and it's a 1-((1-1/30)^15) = 40% chance that a free agent is signed. You should just become an Orioles fan. I bet you loved how much time and paperwork that FO saved by not even trying to lure in Ohtani.

Jim...I am sure there are some comments from you somewhere talking about how useless Morales was. Tellez is a worse and fatter version of Morales in everything to do with baseball. A below average hitter who needs like a .900 OPS before he becomes useful.

Depends on the price. He could be a substantial upgrade over Tellez though I agree that this should be several rungs down the priority list. I'm fine with a rotating DH next year if the team insists on having 1-2 rest days per week for their early to mid-20's high performance athletes.

LOL love it! Trying to subvert the FO by sucking up to the city/fans didn't work for Bautista or Stroman but now that it's Shapiro's turn he's using the same tactic on the owners. Shapiro should get a tattoo of the CN Tower on his face just to prove his loyalty. The problem for him is the casuals seem to hate him outside of the few dozen posters on this board.

It's all about Jim's orange-tinted mirror.

What's the smart thing to do when you have a reasonable expectation of 10+ WAR coming from 3B/1B, 2B, SS and C and paying a combined $2 million for them all? Use that excess salary room to compete. Front load contracts if necessary before arbitration comes knocking.

The Jays can be good again next year if the FO makes a serious effort in improving the starting pitching. Also, there is no hyphen there.

Cardinals and Nationals NLCS. But, you know, haha NHL playoffs!

So THIS is the Grant that irks this board so much. Makes much more sense now. It would not take $2.5 million on the free agent market, nor someone coveted at a price above league minimum on the free agent market, nor even an external option to equal or better Drury's contribution to this team. If you actually want someone good to be a backup, my contention is that money is much better spent on SP then OF then defensive 3B starter then RP over any player meant to be a backup MIF. Defending Drury being tendered is defending laziness from the FO. It is the ultimate do nothing scenario. No attempt to upgrade, no attempt to negotiate. Just "here you go, here's $2M+ for 1.5 seasons of being a turd".

Houston Astros