Dick_Pole

Sunday night Twitter during NFL season is the best Twitter

How many players hit free agency "in their prime"? Jason Heyward? Molitor and Clemens both left their original team to sign with Toronto. That's like a dagger in the heart back in 1990's terms. Based on your stringent definition there are probably 20 teams in the league that never sign anyone of note outside of players they control.

I get what you are saying but relying on one young arm let alone three with the experience each of those have is just not smart roster planning for a team that should be on the peripheral of contention. When AA left, the rotation was in slightly less shambles than it is now and Shapiro solidified that basically in the first month on the job, at great prices too. So this FO regime is more than capable of bringing in at least two guys who can be pencilled in at #3 or better without breaking the bank ($ or traded player wise). Especially now in this environment. If the FO fails to significantly improve the pitching staff this off-season it is because: A. Atkins is completely incompetent and needs to go. B. This is a direct order from Shapiro to do a longer tank than necessary which is stupid for multiple reasons (wasting young guys' cheap years, impatient bandwagon fan base yearning for 2015 that's been proven to spend money during winning times), which in that case they both need to go. I've been hard on Atkins lately, calling him a weenie, beta male etc. But this is chance to prove me wrong this offseason and I still have some optimism that it can happen. This is a minimum 81 win team by next March.

In an era where free agents are considering creating their own training camp because there are so many holdouts well into spring training, the conditions have never been better to overcome the "Toronto/Canada effect".

My personal priority of needs would be: 1. SP1 2. SP2 3. 3B with defensive skill (Moustakas) 4. SP3 4. CF or big corner OF bat

This is crunch time for Atkins. A ton of money to spend in an era, just like glory said, no one wants to spend money on players. The premium positions are locked up C, 2B, SS with Vlad and Grichuk being passable defensive options for 3B and CF. As far as the desire to not totally disregard the offense, I get that. But if the team has, say, $50 million in payroll space, I'd much rather see $40 million of that spent on pitching. I can go into 2020 spring looking looking at that roster of position players and not be too upset but the pitching is an absolute mess. Any of the DFA candidates that have been debated on here - including Alford and Drury - not a second thought should be given to any of them if Atkins is competent enough to build a good team with depth with the massive payroll flexibility he has. f*** em. I expect a significantly improved roster going into 2020 and if that has not occurred, Atkins absolutely needs to go.

I must admit, Houston not managing to get a thing out of these guys makes me like this trade a lot more.

So many terrible posts since I triggered the conversation with Beeston's bait and switch on the renos. 1. There is one and only one circumstance that the team will ever get a new stadium, and that's if Rogers is offered an arm and a leg for the land from some condo developer. Then they replace the dome with a stadium around Ontario Place, Downsview Park or somewhere northeast of the zoo. Believe me, inconvenience for fans and a possible attendance hit will be WAY down the list in any business model where the upfront payment for the dome land is massive. 2. Rogers selling the team makes no sense. Unless there's a rich dude who loves sports and wants to throw around his money - and that's a hard find in Canada - a heartless corporation is pretty much the best bet to own the team. The Jays did fine under Labatt's. And the feeling should be mutual with the Jays being great content filler. Plus as a publicly traded company, Rogers has an easy scapegoat to investors for their failing media division due to their s***** ideas like their magazine business by claiming the Jays as a loss leader. 3. Not liking the NFL is pretty wimpy, but that's fine. Everyone is allowed to have their own tastes. But not wanting the NFL to come to Toronto (or CFL to f*** off) so OTHER people can't enjoy it just because YOU don't like the sport is the ultimate in soy boy triggered whininess. No wonder Bob liked that post. I don't like the theatre so I hope they demolish all of King West for more condos. See what a douche that makes me sound like?

Depends. Is there a team name that one person finds offensive to their race and therefore must be changed? I'm in for that. I can't wait until I self-identify as a bird and reek havoc on baseball.

f***. I know I'm in the wrong when I'm thinking like Hurl

Connor: Not excusing it. Then goes on about why the behaviour should be excused, using generalizations MRA incels would be proud of. How do you know if she's a lazy, vindictive bitch? Maybe she's a good mom and he's a deadbeat?

Being a "clutch" hitter (or "clutch" in any sport) isn't a talent. It's a personality trait. Someone who can be smooth and focused under pressure. I suppose that plays into being a veteran, having been there before so pressure situations become routine. But MLBers have been in pressure situations since Little League. It's a concept that's easy to explain to newbs but difficult to measure. That's why it keeps on surviving as a "skill". There is probably some merit to it, for instance, if you're super duper nervous all the time you're probably not gripping the bat optimally. But if you're super duper nervous you're probably not making it to the MLB level anyways. If I had my choice I would pick the good hitter who is kind of flaky under pressure than the terrible hitter with ice in his veins.

I remember fondly those days back when some of you guys were all cheering for the Argos to f*** off from the Rogers Centre because you believed Beeston's BS about that being the roadblock to replacing the turf. The players have to play on turf but they also don't have to play doubleheaders in September because of rainouts in April. You win some, you lose some.

I think you have a fantasy pool mindset on this one. The lineup looks good. The defense does not. That's why the Jays aren't doing so great on positional WAR. If Vlad is on 3B next year and there are no upgrades to the OF, this is a bottom 10 defense in the MLB. Jansen can't do it all by himself.

Dammit Jim, even when we conceptually agree on something you have to add in your nonsense. It has nothing to do with genetics, but behaviour. Vlad's granny feeds him to death because she remembers a time when her family didn't eat. You don't need to say anything beyond that.

What also has to be said about this is not just how he can play with this type of weight, but how can he actually maintain the weight metabolically. A 250 lbs 20 year old pro athlete and he's gaining weight. WTF? Is he downing 8,000 calories a day?

If John Gibbons was still here Vlad would be 162 pounds and be afraid to eat a sandwich. However AA would have to be in hiding because the whole not practicing what he preaches thing. But beta male Atkins and nitwit Montoyo don't have it in them to send Vlad to a dietician. And yeah yeah yeah I know, he's an athlete and should know how to take care of himself. In reality he's 20 years old and grown up with privilege in a poor country. 20 year olds are dumb in general and 20 year olds growing up with money are 10x as dumb. Then add the fact that he has a grandmother who grew up poor and who has literally one instinct, to feed her family. Do none of you have old European grandparents who feed the s*** out of you every chance they get? Because they grew up in a society where if there is food today there might not be food tomorrow so you eat a lot today. So yeah, it's on the team to make sure they can extract the $10 billion in excess value or whatever Vlad has during these 6.999 years of control. I 100% blame the Jays for letting this situation get completely out of hand. Even if it is the player's fault.

What the f*** is wrong with you? You used to defend Cross Dresser and his right to post fun-loving, old fogie type of posts. Now you're on him worse than anyone else. You guys have a spat or something? What he said isn't even that bad. It's a good problem for the Jays to have, two good catchers and no AA to trade them both away in the span of two months. If Jansen's workload as starter is something like 110 games, McGuire will get a significant look anyways. As far as the "When he is on the Jays all they do is win" comment, I agree, that was intolerably dumb. But no reason to call the poor guy retarded.

Oh no guys! A media outlet meant to hype up the franchise to casuals and bring in more revenue (thus increasing the team's ability to spend) is putting out fun, useless articles/tweets to that casual fan base. Immediately gouge out your eyeballs with ice cream scoops so you're not subjected to this. You are all WAY too smart to put up with this junk. See, this guy knows the correct reaction to this.

I hope you are just pulling things out of your ass and don't actually know these facts.

The sensible thing to do when you have a short bench is to call up the guy with no positional variability to team up with the other guy with no positional variability, but at least can take a walk. I kind of want a couple of injuries to happen in a game. Nothing long term, but maybe a couple of calf strains or a rolled ankle just so Montoyo has to go with a pitcher playing the infield so Atkins and friends get a valuable lesson in contingency planning.

As far as Atkins is concerned it is obvious his shrinking pool of supporters will defend to their deathbeds his moves. Galvis being a minor move or not, it's showing a consistent pattern of Atkins getting outplayed by the league. He moves fast, he gets outplayed like with the Stroman trade. He stands pat, he gets outplayed like with Galvis or against KC with Luciano. The only defense that is somewhat plausible is that the FO has a 100% rock solid plan and they purposely don't care about maximizing asset values in trades or proper roster management in a season that they didn't have to, but chose to, throw away.

When this team isn't rostering 14 pitchers it has plenty of room for Smoak. Need someone who can take a walk. He is a perfectly adequate player for next year until the team determines the construction of the infield.

Jays down to -48 run differential. Would be nice if they can get to positive territory by the end of the year.

Maybe you're going for the role. People complained about AA's bad roster management. This is piss poor ridiculous. A perfectly serviceable MIF depth jettisoned for nothing two weeks after the deadline. A 2 WAR player for $5 million. Extrapolate that level of efficiency among $50 million and you have a contending team. Galvis didn't have a lack of value. The Reds obviously valued him. The problem is Atkins has absolutely no hustle or negotiating skill. What's the point of being smart if you half ass your job? This guy better hope that his prospects turn out because outside of drafting and player development Atkins has been mediocre to terrible in all other aspects of being a GM. Luckily drafting and PD are the two most important aspects of developing a contender. Two main themes have popped up ITT: 1. That Montoyo played Galvis too much 2. The Jays are being nice by letting Galvis play more for a contender. f*** that. Defending this pathetic beta male Atkins from his beta male actions. First, he should pull up his big boy pants, look Montoyo, his subordinate, in the eye and tell him he wants the kids playing more if that was indeed an issue. As far as Galvis is concerned, he should pull up his big boy pants twice as hard, look him in the eye and tell him this is his new limited role here now. Galvis knew or should have known that at best the Jays were going to be a fringe contender this year and next. He also should have known with two near-MLB ready MIF in the system that he had a good chance of losing some playing time at some point during his contract. If Galvis doesn't like it, he should fire his agent. Instead Atkins once again takes the weenie coward way out of dealing with potential problems and dumping the guy for less than his value (in this case nothing). And the weenies here are defending him by saying that Galvis was no big deal. Other than the 2 WAR per $5M I already mentioned, Galvis isn't an isolated incident. It shows a pattern of s***** behaviour by Atkins. And you guys are eating it up because he is living off the recent call-ups that are more AA's legacy than his own.