KingKat

Although I haven't owned him in fantasy for awhile, I still find this pretty eggregious.

IIRC, one of the main point of optimism was the the potential to convert a lot of fly balls into homeruns especially at Rogers Center.

Yeah that's fine but spring training itself is a small sample and teams DO make decisions based on what happens during spring training no matter how misguided that may seem. Mind you, Smoak's potentially just one really good game away from making this a non issue and I think we'd all be greatful to put this to rest but it's not out of line to speculate a bit about what impact a prolonged slump might have on roster decisions.

I think there's a chance. He always was a bit of a redemption project. The team would like to see a reason for optimism. Maybe you can still see it in his approach but it's really hard to divorce one's evalution of the approach from the results it yields. That's only human nature. Add the fact that from what I understand Barton's the better defensive option and you can see why Smoak wouldn't be a slam dunk.

Why? It's fun to dream. Un unlikely scenario isn't an impossible one and a dream doesn't have to be mistaken for an expectation.

Any chance he can be the 2 win pitcher he used to be again? A 2 win, 200 IP guy for a roughly 6-7 million dollar payroll bump (assuming Navaro's contract goes the other way) seems like a justifiable move for a potential contender looking for pitching depth.

It's easy to get down on Sanchez because he's been around awhile and has mostly underperformed but a lot of that gets skewed by the fact that he played his first season in the Jays system at 17, not even college age. He'll still only be 22 this season about the same age as a college senior. It's very easy to lose sight of that. I know I certainly have.

Well Thole might not have much pop in his bat but he can play the position. Gosewitch has some pop but by all scouting reports is a disaster defensively so based on that assumption and based on the fact that he will probably strike out a ton and neutralize a lot of that pop, I think we're looking at something like Jesus Montero's early years or Arrencibia with worse defense. That being said the Diamondbacks seem like they might be too old school to look beyond the natural power. I'm not convinced they make a move unless they want to cut cost a bit in which case Cahill for Navarro would make sense.

http://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/719319 [h=1]3 pitchers the Blue Jays should target in a trade[/h]by Dan Toman 11h ago David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports / Reuters Few teams can withstand the loss of their best pitcher. For the Toronto Blue Jays, in particular, the season-ending injury to Marcus Stroman is crippling. The Blue Jays must now rely more heavily on a rotation that entered the season with pre-existing question marks. Toronto was already asking a lot from its youngsters this year - at least 380 innings of above-league-average pitching from Stroman and Drew Hutchison - not to mention optimistic results from veterans R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle. The Jays have Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion under contract for at least one more season, and the 2016 free-agent pitcher class is shaping up to be extremely deep. For now, they could do worse than rolling the dice on these three pitchers: [h=3]Trevor Cahill, Arizona Diamondbacks[/h]2015 Salary: $12 million 2016 Status: $13-million option ($300,000 buyout) Oh, you were expecting Cole Hamels? The Blue Jays have coveted an ace to compliment their high-powered offense, but at this point they need their top young trade chips (Daniel Norris, Dalton Pompey andAaron Sanchez) contributing to the wins column now. Cahill has struggled to demonstrate consistency during his six-year career, and suffered through his worst ERA and walk rate in 2014. But the Diamondbacks right-hander is still just 27 years old and averaged slightly over 200 innings from 2010-13. There's optimism Cahill can rebound to his previous form with a new arm slot, and the Diamondbacks need a catcher (Dioner Navarro). Cahill might not outperform Sanchez or Norris, but he wouldn't have to. There will surely be more injuries, and the Blue Jays need the depth to roll with them. [h=3]Bartolo Colon, New York Mets[/h]2015 Salary: $11 million 2016 Status: FA Pivoting off the previous point, it's not clear what exactly the Blue Jays are expecting from Sanchez and Norris. The pair combined to throw just 39 2/3 MLB innings last year, and neither pitcher has claimed a defined role on the staff less than a month to go before the season. Adding the 41-year-old Colon would allow the two prospects to develop more organically. Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos loves acquiring players with years of control, and it's no secret he's working on a team-imposed budget. But Colon's ERA, FIP, and BB/9 rate over the last two seasons would be tops among Toronto's current starters, and therefore makes this an obvious option to explore. [h=3]Mike Leake, Cincinnati Reds[/h]2015 Salary: $9.775 million 2016 Status: FA Leake, 27, is coming off a personal-best 214 1/3 innings pitched - only Dickey threw more - and the highest strikeout clip of his career. Despite a high HR/FB rate, the right-hander has been better than league average at inducing grounders and fly balls for five straight seasons. Those are encouraging numbers for a pitcher at hitter-friendly Rogers Centre. The Reds already dealt impending free agents Mat Latos and Alfredo Simon this offseason - why not gut the entire staff?

Thole is a much better catcher than Gosewich.

Odd are that it's no but since there's no fun in that, I'm going to say yes with Sanchez being the Avery of the group.

Agree with all of this. The Jays can absorb an injury to the rotation relatively well. Ideally it wouldn't be to Stroman but still even with it being Stroman, it's a relatively manageable injury for now. Of course, there will be a cumulative effect if there are more injuries to the pitching staff as less and less capable replacements are brought in.

I think AA just wants to empty the holster because in a desperate attempt to win now but there are a lot of potentially good relievers who should get consideration before converting very young starting prospects to relief. There's Wilton Lopez, Matt Mest, Preston Guilmet and Greg Infante to name a few. The later even throws as hard as Castro fwiw.

There's no doubt the needs align but whether the front offices agree on valuations is the sticking point. The Diamondback may underestimate their need and the Jays may overestimate Navarro's value. The current impasse certainly suggests that one or both of those things is going on.

AA says so thought it might also just be prospect fluffing.

Small trade to process that got lost in yesterday's CataSTROphe. To House of Kingkat: Gryffindor's 1st round waiver Alex Colome To Gryffindor: Shane Greene House of KingKat's 4th round waiver

Your handle suits you so well.

True but they haven't produced at the MLB level yet. That's child play after dealing Stroman.

Drafted and developed a top flight JAYS prospect and didn't get so sentimentally attached that you wouldn't move him in the right deal. That's impressive.

That's funny, I could have sworn NJH owned Stroman.

Lyons and Carpenter offset some of that deadweight IIRC.

Might be a legit prospect but a legit fantasy prospect? So called fantasy oriented prospect lists often don't seem to make that adjustement as much as they should.

Jonah Keri was of the opinion that such a complicated trade probably consumed a fair amount of time that could have been spent working on a more meaningful deal.

Well that seems kind of infantile.

Is Wiggins an impending free agent? Otherwise I can't see how it's tampering.