Dick_Pole

A rebuttal to that could be that if the Jays have excess payroll available, they might as well spend it on someone like Liriano to hopefully build up his value. And if the team is out of it in July, trade him and try to extract some reasonable prospects in exchange for eating his salary like they have done twice already.

I dunno, is there such a thing as "young and promising" when we speak about relievers? If we're talking about guys who have already been relegated to the pen from the minors, unless they are at Osuna level, I'm assuming they are all pretty much replaceable cogs in the eyes of the organization. Unless you're coming from the angle that not one penny above the minimum should be spent on pen arms.

First day of spring training and....

I like how in two different threads members are complaining about two completely unrelated aspects of Stroman's douchiness shown through his wardrobe choices...on day one of Spring Training. f*** the Tulo injury meme, this is going to be the meme of the year. Either Stroman has been really stepping it up a notch, or I have just been noticing it more.

Osuna Biagini Loup Tepera Barnes Liriano Hutchison (or equivalent type of players not yet on the roster for those last two)

Whether you are a fan of Jerry Howarth or not, he has always been there to pretty much everyone on this board except the geriatrics. He will be missed. Enjoy your retirement Jerry, though I have a sneaking suspicion that he left because his health is in worse shape than what we know

If they bring home Hutch on a similar deal I'd be happy. Dude has had nearly a K an inning primarily as a starter in his MLB career. Certainly worth a look while the Jays are in the dumpster looking for hidden gems on non-guaranteed contracts for the bullpen.

This should come as a surprise to no one. Anything less would be a pretty bad oversight by management.

I think this takes the prize for strangest idea I've ever seen on this board. 1. Unless you're his wife who heard Tulo's sweet nothings in her ear every night, you don't know what the hell this guy is thinking. 2. Him being #1 player on the team will have absolutely no impact on his ability at the plate or on the field. As a highly paid professional, he should be going 100% when he's not injured no matter the scenario. 3. Todd Helton 4. (mentioned already) Josh Donaldson

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The market efficiency this year looks like pitchers on shorter term contract. The Jays could use a guy for three years given the lack of commitments to anyone in the rotation. Why go after a guy like Cashner who was looking for three years and might have to settle for one when you could go after Lynn or Cobb who might have been looking for five years but might have to settle for three? Aim higher first. Of course I could just be completely out of the loop on these things and the Jays' FO may have already exhausted their efforts for Lynn or Cobb by now thus the Cashner rumours.

If you were Raptors GM would you trade some of those young guys for a star or leave the team as it is? If the team is left as is, there's a good chance it'll get pounced in the playoffs for the reasons already discussed here. But the team is also set up to be above average for the next 5 years when the dominant teams start to fizzle out, except Boston which has the same competitive window as the Raptors. If you trade for a top player, there's a good chance the Raptors become the #2 team, but are still miles behind #1. You mortgage that future for a reasonable shot at finals appearance....that lasts maybe 5 games.

The Cavs are +4 at home to Minnesota tonight. The bookies have finally given up respecting this team. It's like they want everyone to bet Cavs. I have to admit it is tempting.

LOL Cavs are terrible. I know it's unlikely but I so, so want them to fall out of the playoffs. But knowing our luck they'll drop to #8 and the Raptors up to #1 and sweep them in the first round. I know that this is just a system simulation that probably is based heavily on point differential and strength of schedule, but the Raptors are now the favourite to win the finals haha: https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/playoff_prob.html Cleveland 1.4% chance of winning the Eastern Conference.

Also Colon is clearly sticking around for 300 wins and guaranteed first ballot HOFer. It's take him until 50 at this pace. He'll also be the first ever 300-300 player. 300 wins, 300 pounds.

That one game against the Jays was pretty good. That's probably what is keeping his AL opponents' stats in the "effective" category by whatever Heyman is using.

I would agree to this if it comes out of a general MLB revenue pool. Imagine if you're a team that was smart enough to draft and develop a Trout. Congratulations! Your reward is to start paying him a $5M annual salary starting June and that f***s up your budget for the year. Have the first X amount of games of his salary covered by the league no matter when he crossed that threshold. That avoids teams trying to game the system where players cross the threshold April 5th but also allows them to plan their budget in the off-season since they can reasonably estimate when they have to cover the player's salary.

You know what, this thinking is a bit ******** too. It's not like that player woke up and was immediately good completely naturally. Players have received countless hours of the top training advice, medical services and equipment from the team. And most of those players bust. Teams don't do that without some expectation of getting a return on their investment and they have to recover that investment from somewhere, and that is through their stars. If JD Martinez has such an issue getting paid only $22M when he provided $108M of value, he can leave baseball at any time and be paid exactly what he is worth as a human being outside of baseball and that is $12/hour bagging groceries.

There are three aspects to this that I see: 1. GM's are wising up to the fact that paying old players for past performance is a dumb idea. This is good. 2. Teams are purposely tanking and not participating in the free agent market. This is bad. 3. Teams are gaming the system. Extending control of future star players by keeping them in the minors. This is bad. #1 is a perfectly legit way to go about business. Making smart business decisions based on analysis and 30 teams coming to the same conclusion is not collusion. Moreno's Angels debacle has been the final straw that broke the camel's back on that one. Star players and future HOFers are seen as "negative assets" in today's climate based on how much they are paid. #2 and #3 are tied to the same problem. Baseball rewards losing. Teams should be expected/incentivized to put the best roster available to them out there at all times even if the playoffs isn't within reach. I like Boras' idea where team get compensated more for meeting a certain threshold of wins. I think a draft lottery like every other sport would help too. Baseball has avoided the draft lottery system up until now, mostly because prospects are rarely immediate roster impacting players like in the NHL or NBA. But with how the game has shifted to valuing players with control, I think it's about time for one.

*cringe* Dude, how the hell did you ever muster up the courage to get a baseball board shut down with illicit pics of someone without their permission? You are totally the permission-seeking type.

Let's just say I have a sensitivity to clicking links you post now after the Ministry debacle.

Surprised that nobody has brought this up yet. But if there is any truth to Bautista coming back, it very likely means the team has a plan to ship out Morales which most here would view as a net positive. There is no way Bautista would WANT to come back with the roster the way it is right now. I think it's fair to say that this man may not expect a starting role, but should at least be given a chance to be a backup on an MLB roster. If he's going to settle for a non-roster invitee deal, it's going to be with a team where he has a reasonable shot at making the 25-man roster. At this point Carrera, Hernandez and Alford should be ahead of him on the depth charts for the 25th spot on this roster.

Baseball revenues are still increasing. Team values are increasing. The gravy train is very much alive.

Boras is whining, but I agree with his principle at the very end of the article. You should reward winning, not losing.

I'd take Kennedy plus whatever prospect in a heartbeat. The Jays don't have a salary issue they have a roster construction issue. Morales is redundant, the Jays could always use an extra arm. The team is light on multi-year commitments to starting pitchers so Kennedy nailing down the #5 role (or #6 if the Jays build enough SP depth) for the next three years is not such a bad situation.

How can somebody be so pro-Blue Jay, and still be so f***ing annoying to me? I can only imagine how rival teams' fans would view this guy, if they've been paying close enough attention. Stroman's douche factor is well past Machado's by now. The best use out of Stroman would be to rage troll all of your guys friends on the Orioles board. But that only works if the Jays are actually in playoff contention in 2018 and the O's are out of it.