Dick_Pole

Not a fan of this idea. Small frame AND big mouth. Plus I don't think he would sign at a "hometown discount" or whatever it is called when a team deals with his ******** in stride.

Does Steve Simmons have a HOF vote? I hope so. And I hope he votes only for relievers or some stupid s*** in a lame personal protest or vendetta. Would love to see the board meltdown in a jealous rage over someone who has attained a level of success in life that these guys will never, ever achieve.

He would be excited. He has a chance to pitch as a starter on a team that will have a very good offense over the next two years with a long leash due to s***** SP depth, at least as of today. This dude has 22 wins then free agency written all over him.

You sure as hell can if you don't mind rotating a bunch of pitchers through the minors that you know won't be picked up by other teams.

Can always trust Spanky for the Friday night entertainment when my chick has the cramps and has to go home early. Speaking of spanking...

240. But most of that is weight wasted in height.

The opener is an awful idea that is taking over baseball because of stat nerds and tranny commies like Ramos what's-its-name. Instead of teams taking the time to actually draft and develop competent starting pitchers which is a riskier investment than position players, they'll just stuff their system with a bunch of fringe losers to pitch 30 innings for them over the course of the year. The commies will be happy with that because that provides an MLB pay check for a few weeks to a bunch of guys who would otherwise not earn it in a pure meritocracy. The opener/bullpen games will contribute to the devolution to the art of pitching in favour of roster efficiency created by a bunch of quant models on a computer by stat nerds who "love" "baseball" but their 10 inch arms and 120-pound nerd frames were never strong enough to pick up a baseball bat or throw a baseball past 10 feet. I hope you guys enjoyed watching Halladay pitch. He will truly be the last of his kind. I do find drunk Spanky calling out alarmism on this to be funny though. Like a crotchety old guy working at a plant who doesn't see technology making him unemployed in the next few years or something.

Agree with most of this, except that a lot of that move up was a result of young guys who were under AA's tenure progressing through the system. He didn't gut the entire farm, just the upper part of it. Let's just say that AA moved on at the right time. Since 2015 we got two good years, two mediocre ones. The verdict is still out on 2019 and by 2020 things should be reasonably well again. Will probably be a .500 or better team for those six years with two maybe three playoff appearances. That's not too bad. There are enough complaints for AA and Shapiro from different armchair QB's on here. I think each controlled the team at the right time in its competitive cycle, more or less. If Beeston was here longer it could have been worse (I think he is the source of the of AA's brain farts more than anything).

Because Spring Training is still several weeks away? The FO has demonstrated it can move fast when identifying a need. Like quickly signing Happ and Estrada when AA left with a SP black hole and it ended up being a strength in 2016. With the position this team is in, there is no need to rush things and I think they acted too rashly with the Diaz trade.

I'm very disappointed that after 3 years of Trudeau and 2 years of Trump that not even one athlete in the MLB or NBA has been soyboy enough to make Toronto their home. It's as if all the people "threatening" to move to Canada are all useless plebs who just want to leech off our social safety net. Dammit.

I don't get the desire to trade Sanchez now. He's not going to net anything other than depth piece type of prospects, which the front office has demonstrated an ability to hoard. The team doesn't really need more of those types of players. It could always use more high-ceiling guys which Sanchez might be able to net upon a strong couple of months. It's worth the gamble to keep him. Of course if Sanchez outperforms, that just increases the chances of this gosh-darned team actually performing well enough to try to compete in 2019, much to the chagrin of all the tankmeisters on this board who want everyone traded for prospects. What an unfortunate conundrum.

On that note I had an enlightening conversation with a writer friend who is doing some investigative work on the human trafficking issue in Montreal related to the strip clubs and sex work. Between that and the Vancouver real estate bubble created by the Chinese mobsters using it as a vehicle to launder their money, Canada really is showing itself to be a bastion for corrupt politicians on multiple levels of government. MLB in Montreal again would be cool and realistic. Every city that has ever lost a baseball team since 1900 - except Brooklyn which doesn't really count - eventually got one back. It's bound to happen.

It's also a matter of priority. Getting these two guys without shipping out salary pretty much eliminates any chance of FA SP spending.

The Jays can do both, and I would be happy if they did.

Oh I agree completely. It's just that the Jim types have worn me down and I don't feel like debating the prospects of this team being competitive when we are several weeks away from spring training with more moves to come. More work will need to be done on the pitching side to avoid giving innings to sub-replacement players, I'm pretty confident on the position player side, maybe just an OF upgrade.

That is a very reasonable contract to take on given the payroll flexibility and team needs. Even if he crashes and burns, what else would the Jays spend on between now and when the young guys start getting paid? A good Keuchel during those four years could be the difference between an 87 versus 90 win season in 2020-22. A bad Keuchel is a waste of $20M annually which creates the inability to do a Liriano deal this year and as far as the other three years...well, you just hope some douche on this board in 2021 doesn't link back to December 2018 comments on how we thought signing Keuchel was a good idea.

"10 Inch Marcus Stroman Plush" Do I even wanna know?

I think it's a symptom of the fact that no one really gives that much of a s*** either way and no one here will have to pay for it so it doesn't really effect us. It would be a landmark to go to for those of us who do the stadium tour thing. If a concept like this came to Toronto where the Gaddafi of baseball stadiums was built half way to the Toronto Islands at a cost of $7 billion to taxpayers I think we would unanimously disapprove and we are all baseball fans here. As far as the remnant of the existing stadium, LOL, that's some hippie s*** right there. Glad to see their city council is as brilliant as their counterparts on the other side of the bay. They should make a bludgeoned Raiders logo out of dirty needles on the infield to really set the tone for the place.

Looks excessive though it being half way onto the river is an interesting concept. This looks like something that no businessman in his right mind would build without asking someone else (taxpayers) to pay for it. I like the motto on their website "rooted in Oakland". Pretty appropriate for a team that spent more than half of its history in other cities.

That chin. The first thing I thought of was Whitley Strieber's Communion.

What beautiful group of humans. You jackasses should start a Jays hottest coaches list. I nominate Duncan for my #1.

If the team sucked I'd be open to that idea. But now is not the time to get sentimental. There is no one I would displace from the current roster just to make room for Vince Carter.

Defeatist attitude brought on by a Canadian inferiority complex and years of Ricciardi brainwashing. Toronto/Canada was plenty good enough for Winfield, Molitor, Morris, Stewart and Clemens, some of the biggest stars in the game. Winning, or the history of a winning attitude and smart franchise brought those players here. There's lots of places that are less desirable than Toronto for most players, and not every player is the same. Remember the Yankees fans through a big hissy fit when their team was the first to be told to f*** off by Ohtani. Pretty sure if you look through the history of free agents, Toronto has signed more than its fair share of stars. An average team signs only 1 out of every 30 players. We're just looking at it through the eyes of the aforementioned inferiority complex and the close division rivals get even more than their fair share. All that doesn't even account for what BTS said about it being a poor strategy.

To be fair, his exposure to the post season was non-existent and he grew up with a stupid team that tolerated his behaviour. If Buck Showalter was your manager during your formative years as a player would you not have been poisoned as well? Now that he has been exposed to how baseball should be played, he can adjust his attitude accordingly.

See, and that's why bad teams exist. To fill their roster with old-ass players who you thought retired long ago so they can build up their counting stats. I was too young to witness Pete Rose's 4000th hit while in an Expos jersey but based on the highlights I imagine if felt something like that.