Terminator

Donaldson is calling it quits.

Wes Parsons would be the staff ace of the Boston Red Sox. We've got incredible starting pitching depth this year.

Are you serious Dean? Double corner OF utility? Lol you even hit me with a capital "YOU"! If a bench player can play RF he can also play LF. It's a simple concept Dean. Now the team probably does put some stock into a player's individual preference because the difference in value between the two positions is small. But your argument regarding Whit disproves your point because it shows the a previous LF roadblock is no longer with the team, thus clearing the way for more time in LF for Biggio if it comes to it.

Yeah IKF is a sneaky upside play (the team obviously thinks so as do I). His batted ball profile improved dramatically and was almost league average last year (.324 xwOBACON) and his defensive metrics show that he might be among the elite at 3B. Last year was a weird year for him because the Yankees had him playing the OF and through an ankle injury (his sprint speed dropped dramatically and should return to being well above average again). He already projects to be about 1.5 WAR player as is and that's not that bad for 2/15M as is. If his batted ball profile holds, his sprint speed returns and he's playing his best position full-time he might hit 2+ WAR.

Hurl doesn't know s***

Yeah he's probably ass in the OF but right now we don't have a true 4th OF on the team. Schneider is also probably ass but he's currently our 4th OF right now. I expect Biggio to see some time there as things currently stand. He's a lefty but he can actually hit certain lefty pitchers so there will be days where it makes sense to play him out there instead of KK.

I think he's played more RF as a function of Springer being hurt or needing days off. I can assure you that if he can play RF he can also play LF. Though I do agree that he sucks at both as well as 3B (which we once tried and he failed at miserably).

Going to be a ton of moving parts to the lineup this year. The platoons aren't going to be traditional lefty/righty platoons either but based more on pitch types. As you mentioned, 3B and 2B will see a ton of guys rotating through but DH (maybe Vogelbach if he makes the team as well as Jansen/Kirk) and LF (Schneider and some Biggio) are going to see a lot of that as well.

Barger hitting his 60th percentile projections probably makes him a better option at 3B against righties than those other guys too.

Barger hitting the 60th percentile projections as a 3B/RF would be a pretty sweet addition to the team. And you're right, him being able to play the field (over Vogelbach who can't) means less Turner at 3B, more DH days for Springer, etc.

Probably not but we are in a new era where we can track everyone's pitches and compare them to last year. Even vets come in to Spring with new tricks up their sleeve.

No statcast today is annoying. I'd like to look under the hood.

Yeah Davis would have been a better fit if we didn’t already have Turner.

For this to make sense there had to be some sort of huge falling out between the team and Chapman. No way you offer a guy 6 year for 120 mil and then end up not topping the deal he got with the Giants.

Regardless, Atkins is definitely on my own personal hot seat! He’s running a Top 5 payroll and we have a coin flip chance at the playoffs and a bottom 1/3 farm system. He needs a big year to keep his job.

The Turner deal is the biggest head scratcher but by that point you are probably right in that they had an idea that the Giants were always going to beat us on a one year deal. Even though it’s improved, some players still don’t want to play in TO. Chapman is a west coast guy that lives in Arizona. He doesn’t even have to move for ST anymore and he’s a lot closer to San Fran. Jays seem to do better with FL guys now, but there is still probably some hesitancy from CA/AZ guys. Jays internal projections might be down on Chapman anyway and the team may have been wise to pass on him and save their remaining dollars in case of injury. Manoah was iffy as is and now with a shoulder injury he’s even more of a question mark. Perhaps a German or Lorenzen signing is more necessary now.

Well it’s more of a Brandon Belt catch lightning in a bottle situation with a veteran on a one year deal. Giants resigned Flores too so they definitely will look to move Davis now I think.

It’s possible. He’s from the Bay Area and has spent his whole career there other than two years with us. Perhaps he couldn’t swallow crawling back to TO after turning down 100 mil previously. But a new start for his hometown team was something he could take. Regardless, now that his Jays career is over that was one hell of a trade. He piled up a bunch of WAR in a couple of seasons and now we get a comp pick. And we gave up nothing of significance in return.

TL;DR: The other moves are okay in a vacuum but the one that really screwed us was signing Turner for 13.5 mil in February at a time when it looked like the market was going to put a squeeze on Chapman and others and there were still plenty of DHs out there.

Yeah been saying JD Davis would be a fit all offseason. He’d be a perfect fit if we didn’t sign Turner but I’d still take him at this point. He’s in a FA year and he has flashed some serious offensive potential before. He gets labeled as a butcher at 3B on this board but his UZR is okay and his OAA is decent. Really just his DRS sucks.

Most of the moves made sense at the time: -Chad Green options were picked up very early in the offseason. Seemed like a solid move after the previous offseason saw far worse relievers getting more guaranteed money. -KK on a one year deal seemed like a decent deal. This was lower than what Fangraphs projected. -IKF seemed like an overpay but the numbers are nominal and other than Chapman he seemed like the best 3B fit on the market. They probably see this as an upside play too. But this deal looks worse after the other infield options like Urshela signed for far less than we thought they would but no one has a crystal ball. -Yariel got a good chunk of change but his AAV is low. If he’s even a number 5 pitcher that will be a decent contract. If he’s a #4 that will be a good deal. Another upside play. Ok now all that makes some sense, especially in the timeframe in which those guys signed. But here’s the real kick in the nuts: -Justin Turner signed very late into the offseason for 13.5 mil. By this point it was clear that the market was developing slowly and with ST starting in just a couple of weeks that some prices were going to drop. Chapman was still there as were plenty of DH options in JDM, Soler, Pham, Belt, etc. We also have Horwitz and then picked up Vogelbach for free. We weren’t desperate but Atkins made a desperation move. Even after what turned out to be overpays for KK and IKF, if he doesn’t sign Turner we STILL could have gotten Chapman. And at this point he should have known that there were going to be some bargains. Signing Turner is where Atkins really screwed up. Really, the only explanation for this is that Atkins thinks Chapman is cooked after his final 4.5 months of the season and just doesn’t even want him. It’s possible he’s got some info that we don’t. It’s not like the rest of the league thinks Chapman is that good either. But this doesn’t square with the rumored contract we offered Chapman earlier this offseason. I guess the other explanation would be if we signed Snell or spent money on someone else but that seems almost impossible after letting Chapman walk. I’m not entirely off the Atkins train yet but I would like to formally apologize to the Atkins haters who were sticking a fork in this offseason a month or two ago. IKF and Yariel could ball out and make it turn out okay still but it seems like there were better moves to make.

Tulo was a little different. He hit a 320 foot opposite field wall scraper and then talked s*** the entire time he rounded the bases because we cut him.

He’s such a crybaby over everything

He has one of the slowest trots in the game. He’s definitely enjoying them but let’s be real, I also think it’s a product of his speed and fitness lol

lol yeah Frank the tank couldn’t make contact. I bet the guy in question had some damn good stats in D3 though. I’ve been impressed lol.