KingKat

Yeah but wouldn't his projections going forward adjust for his BABIP? The point isn't that he's expected to produce as much value, the point is that he's still projected to provide good value (about the same as Ruiz who definitely has the more attractive skill set but is off the market).

The Salty hate is bordering on irrational. I mean he was generally considered the 2nd or 3rd best free agent catcher and now that the other two are gone, there's a whole lot of noses being lifted which doesn't make a whole lot of sense given the dwindling options. I get that the skill set isn't popular because he's a lot like JPA but he's unquestionably an upgrade.

Marcum.

Ruiz is just easier to like because there are no flaws in his game. He has the reputation of a catcher who does everything right and while the stats may not be able to capture the full impact of his play behind the plate, they don't contradict that impression either. That being said, the catching market is thinning out and Salty is nothing to snicker when you look at what's availabe. Hanigan, because Ruiz is gone and because he is basically the anti-JPA, is the apple of everyone's eye right now but the big caveat is that we don't know what he will cost. The assumption is that the cost in salary and in trade for Hanigan makes more sense than the cost in salary for Salty but even though that's a fair assumption, it's still an assumption. We don't actually know what Cincy wants and we don't know if they are more likely to trade him to the Jays than to someone else. Given the crappiness of the other free agents, given that Toronto and Cincinatti have yet to come to an agreement on a trade and there's no real news that they are even working towards something let alone getting close maybe signing Salty would be a very good idea. Certainly better than playing catcher hot potato/musical chairs and ending up with JPA again.

You're the alternate universe Blue Jays.

The memorial Cup bumps Jays off the main Sportsnet altogether every year. Of course the impact has been lessened since the creation of SN1.

Damn. I was really hoping we would see him reuniting with Gibbons.

It's really quite sad. You just can't have a discussion with him in his comments section. He always reacts like you're trying to pick a fight.

Someone didn't read your bio or is really bad a math.

WTF? How did that rumour get started.

That makes his reaction even more immature frankly.

I call bs on that. This isn't the nineties. The NFL is a passing game now. Look at the NFL leaderboard for passing seasons. Eight of the top ten seasons of all time have come in the last two seasons. [TABLE=class: stats_table nav_table] [TR] [TD=align: right]1.[/TD] [TD]Drew Brees (32)[/TD] [TD=align: right]5,476[/TD] [TD=align: right]2011[/TD] [TD=align: right]NOR[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]2.[/TD] [TD]Tom Brady (34)[/TD] [TD=align: right]5,235[/TD] [TD=align: right]2011[/TD] [TD=align: right]NWE[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]3.[/TD] [TD]Drew Brees (33)[/TD] [TD=align: right]5,177[/TD] [TD=align: right]2012[/TD] [TD=align: right]NOR[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: hl] [TD=align: right]4.[/TD] [TD]Dan Marino+ (23)[/TD] [TD=align: right]5,084[/TD] [TD=align: right]1984[/TD] [TD=align: right]MIA[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]5.[/TD] [TD]Drew Brees (29)[/TD] [TD=align: right]5,069[/TD] [TD=align: right]2008[/TD] [TD=align: right]NOR[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]6.[/TD] [TD]Matthew Stafford (23)[/TD] [TD=align: right]5,038[/TD] [TD=align: right]2011[/TD] [TD=align: right]DET[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]7.[/TD] [TD]Matthew Stafford (24)[/TD] [TD=align: right]4,967[/TD] [TD=align: right]2012[/TD] [TD=align: right]DET[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]8.[/TD] [TD]Eli Manning (30)[/TD] [TD=align: right]4,933[/TD] [TD=align: right]2011[/TD] [TD=align: right]NYG[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]9.[/TD] [TD]Tony Romo (32)[/TD] [TD=align: right]4,903[/TD] [TD=align: right]2012[/TD] [TD=align: right]DAL[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]10.[/TD] [TD]Kurt Warner (30)[/TD] [TD=align: right]4,830[/TD] [TD=align: right]2001[/TD] [TD=align: right]STL[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_yds_single_season.htm

I would not exactly call that crowing but it was enough to antagonize Stoeten. Given how thin-skined he is and given that he has helped promote the site, it's probably best to not engage with him at all.

The NBA will always be the toughest league to promote in Canada due to its schedule miroring the NHL schedule. Add the fact that the Raptors don't have much cultural currency (the whole identity of the team is tied to a twenty year old movie for crying out loud) and there's just not much to work it. The Raptors didn't get popular in NHL strike seasons so they're not going to suddenly get popular now even if TSN promotes it as well as they have promoted the CFL because that league had deeper roots and a better schedule.

Look I like to mock the CFL as much as anyone but this is just ignorant. It's not merely filling air, it's being watched. I don't get what people see in it either but clearly a lot of people see something. The fact that it actually draws more viewers than the Jays is a real eye opener to anyone like me who kind of assumed that with the NFL's offensive renaissance and the prevalence of its coverage, the CFL would just fade into irrelevence.

It's more about how these guys get their WAR. Ruiz contributes more to run prevention and I think that's what people would like to see in a Jays catcher.

Oh the sanctimony... It burns.

Yes that's basicaly true but it also be huge good luck/bad luck red flag. Take Joe Mauer's big power season in 2009 (28 HR). His flyball percentage only saw a slight increase (28,3% to 29.5%) but his homerun to flyball ration went from 6.5% to 20.4%. So yes on the surface that's a good thing. Hitting homeruns is good. On the other hand, as a predictor of future performance it's a huge red flat. There was just no way that Mauer was going to continue to get homeruns on one fifth of his flyball. In 2010, Mauer maitained a 29% fly ball rate but he "only" hit nine homeruns. His HR/FB percentage went back to 6.7% as many who had looked at the advanced numbers predicted it would. To this day, there are still people who wonder where Mauer's power "went". Well... it didn't go anywhere. It was the same the whole time. He just had a disproportionate amount of flyballs go over the fence in that one season.

The numbers don't really bear that out. Edwin showed more power in the minors and early in his MLB career than Sierra ever has. The arm is his only plus tool. That being said he will only be asked to be a platoon player so the bar might just be low enough for him to work out.

You could start by bookmarking the following: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/glossary/

Sierra has a strong throwing arm.

I wonder if they'll just end up gobbling up TSN...

Yeah you might be right. I didn't really research my post. Sierra has hit lefties well in the majors but the sample size has no real value. The main point I wanted to address was the idea that him and Lind would play a lot of 1st which makes no sense as long as Edwin is around. As for Sierra, just becaue one can find a role for him doesn't mean one should. Giving jobs to crappy players just because they are out of options really shouldn't be part of the m.o. at this point. The best use of Sierra would have been to convert him to pitchers but for whatever reason AA treated him like he was a legit OF prospect and now that he's out of options, it's too late for the conversion. I wouldn't be shocked at all if Sierra became this year's version of Eric Thames, kicking around for longer than he should despite a limited skill set and no real upside.

Edwin would still get the bulk of 1B start but if Sierra can handle a little first then Edwin could slide to DH from time to time agains LHP. Bautista would also get a lot of DH starts in a scenario where Sierra is the right-handed complement to Lind. He's probably no worse than Derosa would have been in that role.

Wow very nice piece by Neyer.