Terminator

Recker should double down and raise his profile by calling these guys fat or in Stroman's case too short. I didn't even know who Recker was until this. Although MLB network might not want spicy takes.

Lol good lord these guys are sensitive

I'm not surprised with Gausman. Seems like he's always attacking down and his splitter is often in the dirt.

This isn't specific to the countdown but since this thread also contains a lot of throwback Jays and reminiscing about guys and moments we barely remember how about this one? Frank Thomas hitting his 500th home run in one of those infamous black Blue Jays jerseys in 2007.

That's garbage

How do I post a youtube video? I've got a nice throwback moment I wanted to share in this thread.

The number that stands out here is Varsho. It's simply jaw dropping because he put up 4.6 WAR with a wRC+ of 106 last year. If he has a 132 wRC+ bat and his defense holds, we are talking about a ~7 WAR season where he's potentially the MVP.

He's got options and projects well so you'd think someone would give up a ham sandwich for him at least.

Potentially Ryu too!

If he comes back healthy, there's a lot of cat and mouse on these options and the Jays come out pretty well in all of them. 3/27M, 1/6.25M or 2/21M are all good terms for the Jays if he's healthy. But I don't think he accepts the 1 for 6.25M unless he's hurt. That would be a steal for the Jays and perhaps their preferred outcome. If he declines he gets either 2 for 21M or he's a FA, both of which are better than 1 for 6.25M IMO.

No I think the way it's written makes more sense than your interpretation where you turn the first team option into a mutual option for some unknown reason lol

This is a crazy deal lol

It says "Jays option." He can't decline a team option. The "if decline" means if the Jays decline it.

This is kind of hard to wrap your head around but if everything is declined it won't be the full 8.5M. Seems like that's the number if he exercises his club option next year. But we will have the opportunity to exercise a 3 year option prior to him deciding on his option. But having the two year option as the fallback could force his hand on the 1 year option. But it's hard to say without knowing all the exact numbers. Regardless, Fangraphs had him ranked as the #42 overall FA this offseason, even with his injury. Ahead of pitchers like Kenley Jansen, Zach Eflin, Kimbrel, etc. So this is a pretty significant signing.

It'll be interesting to see what the terms are but he's a damn good reliever.

Yep, that's the plan. I'm not expecting him to be that great but hopefully he can eat some innings as a 4/5. That's right near the trade deadline so if he has any setbacks we can switch gears.

Yeah they probably should call it as much as I hate it. If they don't, then they are doing this weird thing where the ref has to input the stakes prior to the call which probably leads to worse officiating.

It was the right call but given the implications I think the ref should have kept the flag in his pocket.

They are one of my favorite franchises other than the Jays. Probably the 2nd best franchise of all time after the Yankees despite having a market similar in size to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Tampa, etc. I don't know how much the competitive picks have helped, it sure hasn't helped those other franchises to this level. They are a great example of "winning breeds winning." They have finished below .500 only once since the year 2000 (they won 79 games in 2007) and only 32 times since 1882. They used to be the southern and western most franchise so they had a large original fanbase that they've been able to maintain with all the winning. Also, their affiliates are strategically placed (i.e. AAA is in Memphis and they've got a big following there) which gives them more population to draw fans from. Add it all up and over time they've curated a large, hardcore fanbase that punches well above its market weight and allows them to continuously field competitive payrolls. They've shown that constantly trying to field competitive teams can be an effective long term strategy and one that the Jays should also try to do as well IMO. It just cultivates a better longterm fanbase than the compete-rebuild-compete strategy does.

I respected his talent as a pitcher and he was also a great heel for the Jays. A guy I loved to hate. As a Jays fan I can't help but bring up him and Bautista going at it. Bautista owned him pretty hard with 4 homers and a .368/.571/1.000 line in 19 ABs vs. O'Day. This video has a lot of those highlights and the Orioles/O'Day action starts at about 1:30:

Looking forward to the Fangraphs article on how the new dimensions will affect the run environment. I have no idea really but my best guess is that it will be a net positive for offense but nothing major. I believe next year they are reducing the amount of foul ground in the infield. That could boost the offense more than anything.

The team hates Biggio. It's clear as day with the moves they make. And with his batted ball data I can see why even though he projects pretty well. The one thing he does do is walk but his OBP is dragged down by a brutal xBA of .214, .207 and .193 xBA for the past 3 seasons. He's one of those high walk/low BA guys that is right on the knife's edge of either being really good or being out of the league. You see it a lot with aging sluggers like Jose Bautista at the end of their careers. If guys like that can hit .230 they are damn good but if they hit .190 they're done. And Biggio is trending a lot closer to the .190 for 3 seasons running. Maybe the shift ban helps him but he hits the ball in the air so often I'm not sure how much it will help. If there is some sort of data that shows that he's going to get a big BA boost then I could be convinced to change my mind. So yeah I would do a Biggio for Barlow trade. Barlow's statcast page has a ton of red and he has successful closing experience showing he has the nerves to handle it, for whatever that is worth.

There's no point in posting about The Sheriff's personal life anymore when I keep getting outdone by a real life version.

Irvin going to give Kyle Gibson some competition for Opening Day starter.