Terminator

Yeah they suck. It makes for a better playoffs with the clearly inferior AL team out of it.

I'd probably take that deal as well under the theory that he could provide enough value on the frontend of it and that inflation would take a bite out of the latter half of it to make the contract palatable. I'd hate to give up anything of value for him though.

Why did he play those 3 years in the KHL anyway?

Yeah the Sportsnet board is probably the worst. Reddit is also bad. Shatkins is largely responsible for the fantastic team in Cleveland so I trust them more than dopes on the internet.

There is all sorts of s*** from this presser that Atkins is saying. Bautista is likely gone, wants to add speed, Vlad Jr. not in the 2018 plans but won't count him out, Blad Jr. might get OF reps next year because Atkins thinks both Donaldson and Vlad can be on the team, etc.

Oh don't get me wrong. I think he sucks and hated the signing the moment it was made. I just don't think we are going to get anything for him at all unless we pay for half of his deal or perhaps even more. Given that we are likely stuck with him I'd take him out of a 100% guaranteed starting role and let him scrap with Pearce for the DH AB's. In year 3 we might be able to buy him out or something then.

We might as well just keep him. I'd move him and Pearce to part time roles. They can DH, both can play some 1B and Pearce can play a little LF. If all goes according to plan they could each get a few hundred AB's. I know that Morales' complete lack of defensive value isn't ideal for a part-time/bench role but it's not going to be bad for the team to have a league average bat like Morales on the bench. Having guys who are good at something is going to be better than most of the guys we've had on the bench in the past.

The club option could have a buyout attached to it if its declined but a vesting option would work too.

He's been pretty solid this year. Shatkins said he wants 8-9 MLB starters. I agree with you he shouldn't be given a rotation spot but I think he'd be a great fit in the 6 or 7 spot for us. I'd probably start him in Buffalo and woulf fully expect him to get 20 starts or so.

I'll never forget that year. It was one of the first MVPs after I caught on to advanced stats. Morneau was the third most deserving candidate on his own team after Mauer and Johan Santana. I remember I wrote Buster Olney telling him how stupid he was for voting for Morneau and my argument was based largely on positional importance. Olney replied that not only did he take positional importance in to account but that it favored Morneau because for a small market team, the 1B for the Twins HAS to drive in a lot of runs. So not only was Morneau really good at driving in runs, he did so under extreme amounts of pressure. He ended up writing an article on it but I can't find it. I've hated Olney ever since.

Play stupid games (like pitching with a ridiculous jump step delivery to gain an advantage) and win stupid prizes (funky delivery makes you injury prone).

How many do they think we have now? 8-9 is necessary but it seems like we have quite a ways to go.

He's been worth 3 WAR over his past 4 seasons, all of which were years in which he was more of a bench guy than a regular. That's not a bad player and certainly an improvement over Goins and Barney.

Yeah I agree. I think we need to sign a #2 or #3 and then Biagini can start in Buffalo.

Biagini has a 4.17 xFIP as a starter as well and deserves to be on the list. He's had a solid year, he's mainly been unlucky because he has a 58.7% LOB% as a starter which is pretty bad. I think he can be a backend SP.

There's a non-zero chance but he'll have to sign for peanuts.

Baseball's best high-upside hitting prospects of 2017 Sep 7, 2017 Eric Longenhagen Special to ESPN.com The term "upside" is used across sports as a way to describe a ballplayer's potential if he developed in a perfect world, one in which all of his skills were polished and his physical abilities were free to reign supreme. The idea of "upside" requires us to assume that technical proficiencies -- such as strike zone awareness, breaking ball recognition and fastball command -- are all learnable or teachable, while physical attributes such as arm strength, speed and power mostly are not. A prospect described as "high upside" in baseball has those physical attributes, and it is hoped that, if he lacks polish, feel, instincts or other baseball abilities, those will come with time and repetition. Evaluating athletes based solely on upside can be dubious. Many athletes across sports excel due to technical proficiency more than raw physical ability. This is especially evident in baseball. Beer-drinking, chicken-eating Wade Boggs was much more effective than Bo Jackson, and Jamie Moyer evolved and survived on nothing but pitchability toward the end of his 25 years in the big leagues, while legendary flamethrower Steve Dalkowski never got there. But statistical leaderboards are full of prototypical athletes with prototypical bodies and loud tools. Here are this year's examples of minor leaguers who possess the most superlative of these physical attributes at the plate, discussed here without concern for statistical performance, proximity to the majors or anything but their assumed upside. To make this list, a prospect can't be in the big leagues yet (so no Yoan Moncada here). 10. Bubba Thompson, OF, Texas Rangers: Thompson quarterbacked McGill-Toolen Catholic High School to Alabama's 7A state championship game. He was a multisport commit to Alabama but was drafted 26th overall by Texas and chose baseball. He began making more authoritative contact as a senior and has shown flashes of power in pro ball, and he's likely to grow into more power as his lean, 6-foot-2 frame fills out. He's still getting comfortable against pro pitching but seems to track pitches well while showing some feel for opposite-field contact. He's a long-term project, but his plus-plus speed and improving power are very exciting. 9. Will Benson, RF, Cleveland Indians: Benson was a Georgia high schooler and Duke commit who was All-Georgia second team in basketball. He drew Jason Heyward comparisons in high school because of his size, build and swing (perhaps unfortunately). Cleveland drafted him 14th overall and signed him for $2.5 million. Benson's hitting ability is raw, as he is a hulking 6-foot-5 and easily gets tied up inside. His swing was reworked this year, and he is hitting for power but is still striking out frequently. He has elite arm strength and rare baseball size, with huge power potential if he ever figures out a way to make more contact. 8. Jesus Sanchez, OF, Tampa Bay Rays: I think Sanchez is a slightly better overall prospect than Estevan Florial, but this list is about upside, and Sanchez is more likely than Florial to wind up in a corner outfield spot. Sanchez shows great hand-eye coordination and breaking ball recognition as well as an ability to drop the bat head and whack pitches down and in. He generates big power without overswinging, but when he really cuts loose, Sanchez produces plus-plus bat speed. He is the least athletic player on this list, but aside from perhaps Ronald Acuna, he has the most promising bat-to-ball ability. 7. Estevan Florial, OF, New York Yankees: Florial has high-effort, plus-plus bat speed and a bat path that allows for power to all fields, similar to Ian Happ of the Cubs. Florial is an aggressive hitter, which leads to some strikeouts, but he has 25-plus-homer potential. Many scouts think he'll stay in center field for a while. His bat profiles in right as well. After three strong months with the low-A Charleston RiverDogs, Florial was promoted to high-A and hit .300/.358/.450 there. He is headed for the Arizona Fall League. 6. Jordon Adell, OF, Los Angeles Angels: Adell has plus-plus bat speed and hit .562/.667/1.437 with 25 homers and 21 steals for Ballard High School this spring. He was drafted eighth overall by the Angels and continued to dominate in pro ball, earning a promotion to the Pioneer League after a month in the Arizona League (AZL). Pro scouts haven't seen him play defense, as Adell has only DHed, but many consider him the best prospect they saw in a talent-packed AZL this year. Amateur scouts had concerns about Adell's throwing arm this spring, which was odd considering he was clocked throwing up to 93 mph on the mound the previous summer. Assuming whatever is going on with Adell's arm can be remedied, he projects as a plus defensive right fielder with a plus arm, and some scouts think he runs well enough to play center field. 5. Luis Robert, OF, Chicago White Sox: Both U.S.-Cuba relations and MLB's international free-agent rules have been changing in recent years, and Cuban ballplayers exited the island en masse in anticipation of the current CBA, which greatly limits their earning power. Luis Robert will likely be the last of these international amateur free agents to be paid anything close to what the market would pay them without restriction. He netted a $26 million bonus (and Chicago paid nearly that in overage tax) and has been playing in the Dominican Summer League for the White Sox since midyear. Robert looked heavy and sluggish when I saw him with the Cuban national team during a Can-Am tour in the summer of 2016, but he looked sleek and explosive during workouts for teams after he defected, running well and hitting for power against workout pitching. He has a rare combination of power and speed, but he's old for the Dominican Summer League (DSL), so his performance there means very little. Stateside scouts were hoping to get a look at him during the instructional league, but he isn't on the roster I have seen. We might have to wait until next spring. 4. Daniel Flores, C, Boston Red Sox: Flores was signed out of Venezuela for $3.1 million in July. He turns 17 in October. Teenage catchers are notoriously risky prospects, but we don't care about that for this exercise, so let's examine Flores' gifts. He's an advanced defensive catcher with promising receiving skills and rare athleticism and mobility for a catcher. That quickness allows him to exit his crouch and release the ball quickly on throws to second base, allowing his already plus arm strength to play up a bit. These are the uncooked ingredients of an elite defensive catcher. Flores is a switch-hitter with power, and he might have plus raw pop at maturity. Catchers typically take a while to develop because of the burden placed on their development by their defensive vocation, and switch-hitters often take longer to develop because there are two swings to work with. Flores is both. It might take a while, but elite defensive catchers with power are perennial All-Stars, and Flores has a chance to be one. 3. Monte Harrison, OF, Milwaukee Brewers: Harrison excelled in three sports in high school. In addition to his baseball prospectdom, he averaged 17 points and nine rebounds per game in basketball and caught 13 touchdowns and ran for 12 as a senior wide receiver in football. He was committed to play football and baseball at Nebraska but was Milwaukee's second-round pick in 2014 and signed for $1.8 million. Harrison's early pro career was dotted with injuries and uneven performance when healthy, but he has finally gotten regular reps this year and has broken out, hitting .270/.350/.480 with 21 homers and 27 stolen bases between low-A and high-A. He's a plus runner with plus raw power and elite arm strength. His expansive approach might eventually become an issue. 2. Fernando Tatis Jr., SS, San Diego Padres: The Padres acquired Tatis from the White Sox in exchange for James Shields early in 2016. Tatis hadn't yet played a game for a Chicago affiliate and had been seen by only a handful of scouts in the U.S., who saw him during extended spring training. He showed acrobatic defense at shortstop, present power and a 6-foot-3 frame that promised more. Tatis turned 18 in January, and a few months later, he was the starting shortstop at a full-season affiliate. He thrived on both sides of the ball, making highlight-reel plays at shortstop, hitting for power and showing patience at the plate. He was promoted, aggressively, to Double-A for the season's last few weeks. There's some concern that Tatis will outgrow shortstop eventually, but he could be an elite defender there. Certainly, some teams would live with a fringy defender at short if he's hitting 25 homers. 1. Ronald Acuna, CF, Atlanta Braves: Acuna is a dynamic power/speed threat who has mashed his way from A-ball all the way to Triple-A at age 19. He takes his share of bad at-bats, which is fair to expect from a prospect this young in the upper levels. But he has also shown bat speed, a quick adjustment to breaking balls, an ability to move the barrel around the zone and a natural, power-producing uppercut in his swing. He runs well enough to stay in center field for a while, and his plus-plus arm will prevent extra bases if he needs to move to right field. It appears that Acuna will hit for average and power while playing a premium defensive position. He is hitting .338/.388/.536 at Triple-A and will go to finishing school in the Arizona Fall League. Others considered: OF Pedro Gonzalez, Texas Rangers; OF Seuly Matias, Kansas City Royals; C M.J. Melendez, Kansas City Royals; OF Heliot Ramos, San Francisco Giants; SS/CF Royce Lewis, Minnesota Twins

What a run he had with us. Played a key part in making the franchise relevant again. He was one of the few reasons worth watching during the first couple of post-Halladay seasons and then was a key part in getting the team back to the postseason. I'll miss watching him play but it's time to hang them up IMO. My guess is he tries to keep playing though. I don't really blame him but I'm not sure why kind of contract he could get at this point.

I read somewhere that his poor defensive metrics were the result of bad positioning. The Mets and Indians corrected where he positioned himself and his defensive metrics have improved.

That's probably about right. I'd consider him at that but would take him in a second at 4/80.

Well what do you think he'll get? If someone signs him for 5 years or more and pays him like he's a 140 wRC+ hitter then he's probably not worth it. But if they come in at 3 or 4 years for 110-120 wRC+ of production then I think there could be some surplus value to be had. His career batted ball profile isn't all that different from Ichiro's as they have about the same GB rates and Ichiro often tries to slap the ball in to the ground. That's a pretty insane approach for a big 1B with a lot of raw pop. If you could correct that, future years could become even higher than this year's stats. In some ways he's like a star player version of Justin Smoak with an even easier to identify-and-correct flaw to his game. Everyone under the sun is on board with the flyball revolution. It shouldn't be too hard to get Hosmer to buy in to it too. EDIT: I'll go ahead and make a bold suggestion and state that he should showcase himself as an OF which would move him up the defensive spectrum. He's got good speed and a good arm, I bet he could handle a corner spot. Jays should sign him as a 1B/OF and work on his approach. He'd anchor the middle of the lineup for the next 4 years.

That's a pretty terrible slate.

So who are the interleague away games? Seems like the Mets and the Phillies?

I think having Teoscar starting in RF would be fine. He should provide solid defense and baserunning and he's got 20 homers across all his levels this year. I think he's probably good enough. He can also serve as the backup CF which would allow the team to carry Zeke as the 4th OF. Alford and Urena should be in AAA though to start.