KingKat

This would be so weird. In practical terms, the difference in proximity between L.A. and Seattle is about a 10% or so saving on flight time. Big whoop. If he wasn't dead set on DHing, the Dodgers would have been such a great fit. Killer team, killer front office, pitcher-friendly park, fairly prestigious and marketable franchise, good media market, solid track record with Asian players. Even the Angels with all of their woes would be better than Seattle. At least you get to form a core with Trout.

The Marlins pretty much have to give no trade clauses after the big Jays trade where they dumped Reyes and Buehrle just one year into their deals. Players and agents don't really trust the Marlins to commit to players and probably insist on it now. Stanton and his agent had to know based on track record that there was a high probability the Marlins would try to move him before his 5/10 rights kicked in. This gave him some protection against that. Control over his own fate was probably just as important as the money for the Stanton camp. I doubt the Marlins had a whole lot of wiggle room short of pulling the offer altogether.

Damn that sounds interesting. I assume by regression he actually means downturn.

The subject is already exhausted. Let's not start a thread just to rehash it.

Ohtani would be a godsend to the Angels. As you mentionned they can't get out of the Pujols deal which inhibits they're ability to afford to land top talent otherwise.

I didn't know that any specifics had come out. Yeah you don't need a seminar to tell that you're crossing a line with that s***. I'd be curious to know what Sportsnet might have let him get away with before it got to that point but that's more of a question for Sportsnet to consider with future employees than an excuse for Zaun being such a dickhead.

I doubt that Sporstnet really gave a s*** about Zaun's behaviour until other media personalities started getting heat for sexual misdeeds that, in most cases, were a lot worse than his. Which isn't to say that it's wrong to fire him for sexually harassing co-workers but they probably let their media personalities do and say whatever the f*** they wanted for years before finally only just realizimg that you could get in trouble for that kind of enabling. I doubt he'll be missed.

That was in response to a Brownie post where he talked about Stroman's tweets being proof that semen was being exchanged.

We sure could use some more real news so we can move on to a better topic...

I don't think that kind of bias is unusual among teammates if for no other reason than you see your teammates play more often than the players on the other team. That being said, Stroman does seem to have a thing for developing an intense bro-mance (for lack of a better term) with a single teammate and then getting bitter when it ends or is forced to end. It might be sexual (and frankly I'd understand it better if it was) but I suspect that it's no even sexual but just a testament to his insecurity that he has to quickly establish these kinds of intense friendships.

In a purely hypothetical scenario where Stroman makes the HOF, does he spend his whole speech railing against everyone that aggrieved him à la Michael Jordan? That's the vibe he's giving right now.

Blair pretty much nails it in his piece which, frankly, is hardly over the top in it's criticism. Stroman isn't the one time prospect who was doubted because of his health anymore. He's already proved his doubters wrong and established himself but it just seems like he always wants to make himself a martyr. He's like the guy who contacts you 25 times to tell you how much he doesn't care what you think. It's ultimately more silly than anything else and does no real damage to anything other than his image but it would be nice if it stopped. Try to enjoy the ride dude.

Though I don't get why he cares so much, I think the fact that they are not related is his whole point.

O.k. I'll try to address these one at a time. 1. The Jays want him because he's cheap way to fill the back of the roster. He's also a cheap flyer who might bounce back some but I doubt they have lofty expectations. It was essentially a nothing for nothing trade. 2. Just because someone is blocked doesn't mean that you don't try to extract value from them. If they thought he was anywhere close to the .370 wOBA player he was in 2016 they don't accept so little. They know him better than we do. What they accepted tells us a lot about how they value him blocked or not. I don't understand the argument for ignoring this. 3. I'm not convinced of anything. I told you to be cautious with your expectations and I've provided some supporting arguments. It's quite probable that the Jays didn't pull off some epic heist here. That shouldn't be hard to acknowledge 3. I don't really understand what argument you're making about Gurriel. None of what you said contradicts what I've said which is basically not to count your chickens before they are hatched. Lourdes has not established a baseline for himself. You can't say that he's better than a low end MLB calibre player when he's not established that he even is of MLB calibre. Again, 2018 will tell us a lot. For now, we simply do not know except that early returns, injury clouded as they may be, are bad. 4. I haven't written off anyone. I have encouraged you to temper your expectations by giving you reasons why Diaz might not meet your expectations and why expectations for Lourdes are premature. All I said about Gift is that he's closer to the majors than Lourdes and that by virtue of merely having a glove he could provide more value than Diaz IF Diaz doesn't hit. Both those statements are perfectly sensible and do not by amy stretch indicate some kind of love affair with a fringe major leaguer like Gift.

Gift has an excellent glove and an atrocious bat. Diaz might just be all around bad. I wasn't trying to pump the tires on Gift just pointing out that his Goins-like floor (which is also his ceiling) might make him better than the other two because those two could be all around non contributors.

Well than in that case I think you're being wilfully naive. Your argument in favour of Lourdes is that he was injured but what does him being injured tell us about how productive he is when healthy? It tells us nothing. We still have no idea what he is but so far there's absolutely nothing encouraging about the early reports. At this point, there's just nothing on which to build expectation. Maybe next year it will be different but he has to show something in the minors for us to get to that point. As for Diaz, the Cards didn't trade him for Woodman because they're dumb. They traded him because he's likely terrible.

I find Stroman annoying but as thin skinned and childish as he can seem, he has ice in his vein when he's pitching. Feeling agrieved or slighted in some way seems to be a primary motivation. Ultimately, it's not a big deal. If social media didn't exist, Stroman would probably be universaly adored.

I would caution against too optimistic an expectation for Diaz and I would caution against any expectation at all for Lourdes. Gift is far more likely to see playing than Lourdes in 2018. Gift could also turn out to be a better backup than Diaz simply by virtue of having a good glove.

At this point, I don't think there's any kind of guarantee that's an improvement. You're talking about two lesser defenders coming off terrible offensive seasons.

Here's a scenario that we should all at least be mentally prepared for... the casuals might turn out to be right about this. If 2017 Diaz (- 0.7 WAR) is the real Diaz (there's a statistical argument that supports this) then all Jays will get out of this is cost savings. Diaz is already behind Goins on defensive value which puts pressure on a bat that didn't show up at all in his most recent season.

Well... assuming the defense is solid, he can do Goins' job for less money. Nice savings with some potential upside.

So what if Goins didn't tell him? They're not married. Stroman is just being petulant.

Holly s***... stealth mod. Must have been North.

Man, ice pick to AA's back.

If anyone says Barry Davis they're getting banned again.