KingKat

It's the Hall's decision not his. I'd imagine if Vlad was dead set on the Expos they would have respected that but I guess they wanted to get an Angel into the HOF.

Lol at Angles.

Goins can definitely get some. Guy looks like an underwear model.

Thome on the first ballot. I thought they hated DHs. I can't even find consistency in the biases.

Singleton actually had a good season last year (albeit as 26 year old in AA). I considered him a bit of a post-hype sleeper. Shame that he's back to square one again.

Keith Law

I would have liked to see what he could do as a reliever but even as a reliever he might not have been better than a Greg Infante type. He's not good enough to be a deal breaker.

The most encouraging thing about Tellez is that the Jays thought enough of him to protect him from the Rule 5 and add him to the 40 man roster. I'll admit I didn't see that coming. Based on that endorsement alone, I'd expect an offensive bounce back.

Seems like a similar philosophy to the targeting of strikeout pitchers. You can't teach stuff and you can't teach power. If you have one or the other, there's something to work with. As for Smoak specifically, the analytics guys always loved him. AA even said that is was the reason he was acquired. The Smoak extension was surprising because, I think at that point everyone had given up on that potential ever transferring to the field but clearly the front office had not. In a sense this all ties in to the broader idea of becoming better at player development like Dick_Pole said in his post. There seems to be internal confidence that the team can "unlock" players that have the right raw tools.

He's the guy I picked up when I cashed in Manuel Margot. I remember that you supported that move.

Cripes if you guys want a CF, make me an offer for Michael Taylor. Pretty young guy, cf eligible, probably a 20/20 guy over a full season. That's gotta be worth more than Billy Hamilton or Dexter Fowler.

There's a whole range of possible outcomes. If you can still get strikeouts (Benoit, Liriano, Grilli, Alburquerque) this fo seems to figure there might still be something there to tap into for a spell.

Can't really go wrong with a minor league signing but I'm particularly fond of this one. The front office likes guys who get strikeouts. He could be a very similar asset to what Benoit was in 2016. Guy who just comes in throw hard and enjoys short term success.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-agree-minor-league-deal-pitcher-al-alburquerque/ TORONTO – Reliever Al Alburquerque and the Toronto Blue Jays have agreed to terms on a minor-league deal that includes an invitation to spring training, an industry source told Sportsnet on Thursday morning. The 31-year-old righty appeared in 21 games for the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox last season, allowing five earned runs over 18 innings with eight walks and 14 strikeouts. His fastball velocity also recovered to an average of 93.5 m.p.h. in 2017, up from 91.3 in a 2016 spent mostly in the minors with the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners. Alburquerque, originally signed by the Chicago Cubs, emerged as a solid setup man with the Detroit Tigers early in his career, his best season coming in 2014, when he posted a 2.51 ERA in 57.1 innings over 72 games. Over the course of 245 innings in 264 career big-league games, his fastball-slider repertoire has produced 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings and a 48.6 per cent ground-ball rate but also five walks per nine innings. He joins a bullpen mix that features closer Roberto Osuna along with setup men Ryan Tepera, Dominic Leone, Danny Barnes and Aaron Loup. Youngsters Tim Mayza, Matt Dermody and Carlos Ramirez are also in the mix but have options and could open the season at triple-A Buffalo.

So I missed that Orgfiller had accepted my trade yesterday before I accepted Nafro's trade today so I most definitely have enough 2018 picks now.

In news that's hardly surprising, Josh Harrison wants out from the good ship Buccaneer. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/pirates-josh-harrison-says-perhaps-it-would-be-better-if-he-was-traded-as-well/ Within the last few days, the Pittsburgh Pirates have traded away staff ace Gerrit Coleand franchise player Andrew McCutchen. Neither trade was a surprise -- both players had involved in trade rumors for weeks -- but they were still tough to swallow for Pirates fans. The trades were also tough on Pirates players. Josh Harrison, now the team's longest tenured player, has been involved in plenty of trade rumors himself this offseason, and he's not too happy Cole and McCutchen have been traded away. In a statement released to The Athletic, Harrison suggested it would be best if he were traded too. From The Athletic: "Over the last week, many have asked me how I felt about first the trade of Gerrit and now, the trade of Andrew. My focus has been on my family, my training and my camp with my brother Vince on Martin Luther King Day. It is now time to respond," Harrison said. "Baseball is a business and I understand that trades are part of the business. While I love this game, the reality is that I just lost two of my closest friends in the game. Cole and Cutch were not just friends, they were the best pitcher and best position player on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Now, I am the most tenured member of the Pirates, I want to win, I want to contend, I want to win championships in 2018, 2019 and beyond. "My passion for Pittsburgh, what it has MEANTto me, what it MEANS to me, can never be questioned. I love this city, I love the fans, I love my teammates. Saying that, the GM is on record as saying, 'When we get back to postseason-caliber baseball, we would love our fans to come back out.' If indeed the team does not expect to contend this year or next, perhaps it would be better for all involved, that I also am traded. I want what is best for the organization that gave me a chance to be a Big Leaguer." Harrison isn't the only player this offseason to suggest it would be best if he were traded. Both Christian Yelich and J.T. Realmuto of the Miami Marlins made similar statements a few weeks ago, after Giancarlo Stanton, Dee Gordon, and Marcell Ozuna were traded in salary dump moves. Like Yelich and Realmuto, Harrison has no official recourse. He can request a trade -- Harrison didn't really request a trade in his statement anyway, he only suggest it might be best for all involved -- but the Pirates are under no obligation to request it. That said, his name has been mentioned in trade rumors all winter. It could be that he is next to go anyway. The 30-year-old Harrison hit .272/.339/.432 with 16 home runs last season while playing standout defense at second base, plus he's signed affordably through 2020, meaning his trade value is significant. Then again, you could have said the same about Cole, and the Pirates received a package that has generally been regarded as quantity over quality in that trade.

That's a pretty sad story.

I seem to recall Granderson discussed in another thread. I'm surprised he would want to play on turf this last in his career but he's probably been sitting on this offer for a while hoping for something better. Good on the Jays for playing the market well.

I wonder what kind of offer the Yankees made for Cole? Hard to imagine it being much worse.

The Jays already have too many 1B/DH/LF pylons on the roster. This wasn't a good fit.

Pedroia is available.

I can't see Grandy wanting to finish his career playing on turf.

I think there's a lot of value in having a decent #6 with options who starts the season at AAA. Someone like that is going to get enough work to more than cancel out missing out on a few bullpen appearances early in the season. I mean it's possible that the Jays won't have enough comparable options for the bullpen and be forced to use him but that's not a desirable outcome IMO. Having the luxury to pencil him into a taxi role is what you'd want.

I don't understand being content with where he currently stands on the depth chart as opposed to pushing him further back by signing a 5th starter (with the caveat that this 5th starter is a hypothetical player that you still have to obtain somehow but at the very least, that's something that should be on the radar screen and in an ideal scenario obtained).

I'm with Terminator on this. He's a fringey guy in both roles and he has options so you might as well hold him back in the AAA rotation and wait until need dictates his usage. I mean that's one of the big benefits of a rule 5 guy is that after that first year, you can start using their options as you like. He might currently be the best fifth starer option and one of the best bullpen options but there's no reason to be content with that. Much like the team created a buffer between Tulo/Travis and Gift Ngoepe, they should create a buffer between the more established pitchers and Biagini. Pushing Biagini right to the rotation to start the season is AA style roster management. Pass.