Dick_Pole

There is something oddly satisfying about this deal. He gets paid but he gets to rot on a perpetually mediocre franchise. Meanwhile, he stays away from a contending AL team. It does make sense for them given their farm, but I'm sure the Padres will find a way to screw it up.

Remember when the Jays had the $2 500 level seat promotion? Those were the times. Apparently the one time I went on that deal, I was lucky and it was pretty tame. Heard much dumber stories.

Coming from me, this is a compliment.

Smoak will go where he can get paid. The market for his skill set has completely collapsed. He'll probably re-sign on a one year deal for less than what he is paid this year unless he puts up over 140 RC+ this season.

Fixed

Also, someone with much more internet talent than me should get these two memes in while they're fresh: 1. The Stewie Griffin follows fatass with a tuba meme. 2. The AA "OMG look at the size of his ass, why is he shaped like the overweight older female secretary at my office" walking away meme.

Your profile pic from afar really helps with that image too. On close examination it looks like some kind of animated candy house. From afar...a nuclear explosion.

That's the look of a big man who is proud/relieved after a big dump. Would not want to go into that room any time soon.

To be fair, I think he meant good players, like Carlos Gomez.

Stroman took one look at how Bautista's demands were handled and he decided it was a good move to double down on that. Next you'll know he'll be asking for a $200M contract to make up for all the value he provided three seasons ago. Just when I was starting to reconsider my annoyance with Stroman, he sets me back on the right track.

I agree that was gold lol. Especially since I can imagine the Jew or the four-eyes saying it with a straight face.

The CBA can't be changed soon enough. f***, what dorky answer. First time I'll be 100% on the player's side. But the MLBPA will probably find a way to f*** it up to try to cater to all the 30+ year old players whose big pay day came and went already instead of fixing the misaligned value versus compensation for the young guys coming in.

Caveat emptor for any baseball GM who drafts someone with a legitimate shot at any other sport. The monetary rewards are just so much sooner in other sports. I guess it's fitting that Beane is the one to take a loss here since he's the father of gaming the CBA.

The tl;dr argument is there eventually isn't going to be any Halladays or Sales or Scherzers in baseball (or very, very few) and a whole lot of Sam Gaviglios bouncing from team to team and minors to majors.

I don't think you quite understand my argument. It's not the impact on today that I am so concerned about. This is laying the groundwork for a paradigm shift in baseball that I'm not very optimistic about. Chris Sale types don't just magically appear at age 17, able to handle a 200 IP workload of MLB hitters with above average velocity and multiple off-speed pitches. Teams have to develop those pitchers. My argument is the way baseball is headed, teams will reduce or eliminate this development. And if the big payout for pitching is no longer there, that'll push baseball-minded athletes with arms to try right field or quarterback before pitching. A double whammy of talent drain on pitchers leading to less skilled players taking on reduced roles that are judged by a computer algorithm to maximize their otherwise inferior ability.

Oh Spanky you know that you would switch lives with tercet in a heartbeat, minus the obvious incel rage.

I've said this a couple of times already but this opener ******** is going to open the floodgates for bullpen games becoming the norm and a future scenario where guys like Bumgarner no longer exist. Especially if they expand rosters and don't limit transactions. We all know that developing young pitchers is more risky and therefore a sub-optimal use of resources. So what's the most efficient way for a "progressive" front office to compete? By putting all of their resources to signing and developing position players and filling out pitching as an afterthought. You can get 3 WAR over 200 IP a year for 10 years out of one guy by using up a first round draft pick and paying him over $100 million during that time. Or you can mimic that production over several different pitchers a year found out of a dumpster by optimizing their use and spend much less in terms of draft picks and cash. What do you think will happen? s***** teams that can't afford real payrolls like the Rays will exploit this idea and other teams will have to follow suit to compete. Maybe some of you masochists out there will get off seeing teams use thirty Ryan Teperas a year as long as you know there's a computer algorithm behind optimizing their use. Me, I personally will weep for seeing the end of the Halladay type of pitchers who were good enough to get guys out the third and fourth time they saw them.

The Gasol deal was already a win for most of us. Now you consider they upgraded Miles to Lin with no commitment past this year. Very good series of moves. An upgrade to center, an upgrade to the backcourt, less total dollar commitment beyond this season and all it took was Delon Wright, who was very likely headed out anyways considering the Raptors cap situation. Then if we look past this year there is an option to re-sign Lin so that he becomes the new FVV and FVV becomes the new Lowry should they decide to go the trade route there.

You guys are just jealous because this star poker player gets to spend his February in Florida scouting Jays minor leaguers and laying down a hundred Benjamins on each pre-season game while you're looking over your shoulder trying not to get caught posting on this site lest your boss reprimands you for goofing off during work hours.

Fair enough, next time I'll actually consult player transaction histories instead of relying on ******** false memories. Minnesota still sucks though even with multiple high draft picks over the years. Yes of course a couple of players make the largest impact. No one is debating that. What's up for debate is the necessity to tank for that, or that tanking enables/speeds up a turnaround. Rather than just being a well run team in the first place.

If Stroman was white I'd have to issues with anything he does off the field. But yeah you shitbags are getting high on him again. Don't you know the rules? When you piss all over the little big mouth he performs well. When you call him an ace pitcher he goes out there and pitches a bag of turds. He has gotten his energy to win off of social media hate and doubt his whole career, since this board has been calling him to be too small to be a starter when he was in AA. Even the stuff he doesn't read and know about.

Is it???? Let's take a look at recent anecdotal evidence. Minnesota tanked for Wiggins...well they've tanked this whole decade really. How has that worked out for them? The Lakers had to bottom out for 5 years between Bryant and drafting the new guys. Even with LeBron playing a part of the season, they're still barely a playoff team in the West. And then the most notorious tankers, the 76ers. Three really embarrassing years bookended by two bad years, so that was neither a fast nor easy turnaround (well not easy for anyone outside their front office who coasted with "Trust the Process" line to appease their gorilla fan base). What do they have to show? They are the East's Portland Trail Blazers. Great job guys. Could have gotten to that level while be a good team like the Blazers have during that time. Yeah the Spurs had Duncan and the Cavs James but those examples are from years ago. Is there an example of a tank that worked? Maybe the Bucks but they drafted Giannis with the 15th pick. So it's still more about skill than tanking. I guess that goes back to your second sentence about doing things WELL. But that's the key. Not tanking.

I think the biggest issue here is with the word rebuild, and what that means to every individual. There is absolutely no question based on ages and contract length of several key players that a significant churn in roster will take place either this offseason or next. What I take issue with is the implicit assumption of the term rebuild that the team must/will/need to/is even able to suck during that time. I'm perfectly fine with the team exploring the idea of trading Lowry, Ibaka or Gasol during the offseason. What I don't care for is the Jim/tercet loser mentality of purposely tanking for a high draft pick. It's not necessary with the way this team has drafted and developed late round picks and it's pretty much not possible with half the league being absolute dogshit with that skewed towards the Eastern Conference.

No, I just hate lots of people and sometimes the rage just needs to come out, like a volcano. Time to get in my car and take it out on other drivers now!

I like the idea of pitchers in the NL hitting, as a relic of the game or something that separates the two leagues. I don't really like watching it though. The "strategy" of the double switch in baseball is at a Grade 5 level of comprehension.