KingKat

Perhaps... The point was that Anderson going the other way was the way to make the Johnson deal make sense. Of course, at this point, it doesn't look like that deal is happening at all so it's all kind of moot.

Because you can't move Anderson without money coming the other way. No one wants to allocate their free agent money to someone with his injury history.

I'm not sure that you can just dump Anderson anywhere. The Jays are desperate for pitching and yet no one here wants them to give a rotation spot and 8 million dollars to such an unreliable option. Why would it be different for other teams?

If Anderson goes the other way it's basically 2 million.

A no. 1 starter is by definition a top 30 starter (not necessarily tops on his team just a player who would be one if talent were distributed evenly), an ace is probably something like top 10, top 15 at most. I don't think you can use the terms interchangeably.

By definition yes. The designations is meaningless otherwise. "Ace" is the more subjective designation.

Yeah no pitcher is coming to Toronto to build their value which is another reason why the whole "go all in, spend to contend" approach is very hard to pull off for a gm of this franchise. I remember when Gord Ash thought he was going to return Toronto to contention by aquiring Orlando Merced, Carlos Garcia and Dan Plesac from Pittsburgh and signing Benny Santiago and Roger Clemens. No one has pulled off a proper rebuild in Toronto since Gillick (tecnhnically a 'build' in that case). Every GM has tried to accelerate the time line with big moves and none of them managed to pull it off.

This didn't start with AA. JPR gave B.J. Ryan five years, he gave Frank Thomas the clause that would trigger an extra year and he although he didn't to drastically over-market for Burnett he still had to give him the opt-out clause so he could potentially leave and get a bigger payday halfway through the contract (which he did).

Meanwhile people ask things like... why did it take three years to sign Izturis? Because that extra year is what's needed to get someone to sign here.

Attrition rate is so high on pitchers that for that to work, you really need to hold on to all of them. When you start playing favorites about which ones to keep (Sanchez, Osuna) and which ones to trade (Syndergaard, etc.) you are greatly diminishing the odds of the strategy working.

Basically Keith Law and only Keith Law was saying Syndergaard might only be a reliever while practically every other prospect writer thought Syndergaard was better than Sanchez.

Anyone want Bailey in DDL? I'm not looking for much in return.

Hiss! Hiss!

That was really interesting and from what I understand this is similar to an issue with Roberto Alomar's defensive stats where he graded much better going one way than the other.

I would have probably signed McCann.

It's become a running joke but it's really not a bad way to gauge how someone evaluate's ball players.

Yeah basically. Not only because the Jays don't deal with him but also because Boras doesn't cave. If no one want to meet his demands initially, he'll wait and wait until the last minute for a team to cave and more times than not, one does. It only takes one after all.

What do you think of J.P. Arencibia?

Drew is great player but he's kind of wasted on a team that's looking for a 2B not a SS. Still, given that he would only cost a 2nd round pick, he could be a steal. The price would probably have to be even less than 10M though. He's worth that muhc in a vaccuum but there should be more affordable options for 2B.

He's still a work in progress. When he was called up by the Jays, he still needed to work on developping a third pitch. He's been doing his development at the MLB level which is far from ideal but he's holding his own despite this.

Each trade f***ed the Jays in a different way. The prospects were better in the Dickey trade but the payroll flexibility hit of the Marlins trade was massive. It's basically why AA can't do anything now.

Ang knew about it from following the Winter Leagues, he didn't post a link but he mentioned it somewhere.

That would be my preferred tandem as well. You have to figure either should be good enough to catch th knuckleball but AA might be hung up on experience with the knuckleball. You would hope that wouldn't prevent him from simply acquiring the best receivers out there but who knows. The other big question mark is the cost to acquire Hanigan. If the price is reasonable you would think AA would have acquired him already by now but who knows.

Reasons to like the CFL - Well established franchises that have been around forever and that Canadians identify with. - It's a different game. Whether it's a better game is of course highly subjective. The traditional argument that the CFL is more of a passing game doesn't really hold water with the explosion of passing in the NFL (it's also my understanding that the CFL has become more defensive in recent years but I wouldn't really know 'cause I don't follow it). In any case, how the CFL is different from the NFL and how that affects pass/run divisions is ultimately irrelevant. The important thing is that it the CFL has enough fundamental difference (3 downs, 12 players, big field) to be branded as uniquely Canadian brand of footballl that people can identify with (despite the fact that the pool of players is largely made up of players who started their careers with aspirations of playing NFL football). The CFL is different enough that people who identify with it can tell themselves it's better football and that's all that really matters in the end. Reasons to like the NFL - The talent pool is better. Not necessarily across the board better but unquestionably better. There are certainly exceptions. Warren Moon got an opportunity in the CFL because the NFL didn't give opportunities to black quaterbacks, Flutie because up until the Buffalo Bills, no team in the NFL adapted their offense enough to allow such a short quaterback to prosper. Are we likely to see anyone as good a those two in the CFL again? Maybe not but there will always be players who unjustly slip through the cracks of the NFL system. Good on the CFL for scooping them up. Conversely maybe a bruiser runnning back like Reggie Bush can't prosper in the CFL the way he did in the NFL but pointing out the exceptions is just splitting hairs because no one can reasonalby argue that the overall talent gap isn't there. Maybe you think that the worst NFL team would be handicaped enough to lose in a game of three down football but even if that piece of pure speculation could possibly be proven true, would it really change the fundamental difference in talent? No it wouldn't so who cares really. - The NFL is the best league at playing the most popular sport in North America i.e. four down football. The NFL is the biggest of the big leagues. It's the league that football players aspire to play in, even many if not most of the ones who currently play three down football. There may be a niche that prefers to watch the undercard, but a lot of people want to see the main event and they did so even when the NFL was a lot less explosive than it is now. The stars of the NFL are superstars and even in Canada, names like Peyton Mannning and Tom Brady have way more currency than whoever the current CFL star is. - The NFL also has plenty of well established popular franchises. From NFL films to the wall to wall coverage that's available now, the NFL definitely permeates the Canadian consciousness despite the presence of the CFL. Everybody's heard of the Cowboys, Steelers, etc.