Orgfiller

You're correct about the long 2's thing. Statistically, in his career he's taken about 31% of his shots from 16+ feet to below the 3 point line, this season that's down to 18.5% - he's also been better at making them, fwiw. He's turned a lot of those into 10-16 foot jumpers, which he's making 50% of the time. Every single spot on the court he's making shots at a higher rate than his career, and for some of them they're easily new bests.

Both Derozan and the Raptors are playing at a level that we have not seen before. Could they regress? Sure, but right now this kind of performance is unparalleled in their respective histories. Demar is more efficient than ever, he's not shy about the occasional three, and he's a very willing passer. The team on the other hand, like NJH points out, has talent all over. The second unit might have the best defense in the NBA, and they absolutely ADORE ball movement, even if for the most part they're not offensively polished enough to make shots. Obviously this means s*** if we get to the playoffs and we get demolished by LeBron and co. again, but at the very least this looks like a noticeably better team, hopefully they won't disappoint. Basketball in Toronto is really fun at the moment.

No kidding, completely different team after halfway through the third. The defense was outstanding, and multiple stops eventually lead to offense. Demar was great, career high 45 going 6/9 from 3.

Who the f*** suggested that Addison Russell will have to move from SS? Wasn't that all that he had as a prospect?

He'll also be converted to starter. This could be a good thing, or it could not.

Vlad/Bichette is the best core since Strasburg/Harper. Just kidding, Bo isn't a pitcher prone to TJS. They're better.

Nelson Cruz is the Adrian Beltre of designated hitters.

I could definitely see the Dodgers taking the L and cutting him, but I think some team will take a chance on him as a pinch hitter or occassional DH, just dear god no one put him in the outfield ever again. He's done as a FT player but I don't think he's out of baseball completely.

You may have been a tad overzealous with the copy/paste lol.

Let's be realistic now... It's Miguel Cabrera. It's always been Miguel Cabrera.

Huh, I wonder why you'd be wanting to trade Rosenthal after such a good season.

This is great news for fangraphs and its readers, but a tad unfortunate that he's not coming in as the lead prospect guy. But in Longenhagen's defense he's been doing a pretty good job.

This is also how you never end up with Chris Archer type deals. There's a lot of risk and a lot of reward, you just gotta determine which one has more weight towards the future.

Gross return. I get saving money and tearing it down to do a full rebuild, but this is an egregious transfer of value.

I honestly don't think it's fully relevant whether or not Travis will be ready to start the year. The matter of fact is, he's had season-ending injuries for three years in a row; he's a really nice player to have when healthy and I'm rooting for him, but you have to go into the season with the assumption that Travis might not be healthy for extended periods of time, and come the playoffs, if the team is miraculously in it, you don't know if he'll be there to contribute. I'm glad the front office is pursuing the backup options this aggressively before it's too late in the offseason and you're forced to have Ryan Goins and Darwin Barney types to cover for when our regulars get injured - like always. This team isn't White Sox or Padres or Phillies bad, there's enough talent for a bunch of s*** to go our way and the team to find itself in a playoff position, supplementing our oft-injured players with legitimate plan Bs is how you guarantee that we don't suddenly crash and burn because Devon Travis' knee buckled when the team plane hit some turbulence.

I don't know man, Liriano can get pretty unwatchable at times. He's such a wild card.

Uh...https://www.si.com/mlb/2016/08/14/giancarlo-stanton-miami-marlins-injury Stanton has had more than 600 PA in 3 out of 8 seasons. It's definitely a valid concern.

Ryan Goins and Darwin Barney combined for 821 PA over 272 games last season. Tulowitzki and Travis combined for... 457 PA over 116 games. To me this isn't at all an indication that someone from the infield is out the door, but rather trying to make massive improvements to our backup plans when our projected starters inevitably go down like they always do. And since Aledmys and Harrison aren't glove-only players, they actually provide more as bench players and could get the occasional start.

Having Harrison and Aledmys Diaz as depth would be fantastic, since they'd basically become starters by May. I imagine even in the rare scenario where Tulo and Travis are healthy at the same time for more than two weeks, both would be getting some playing time providing at least average production.

Come on Dodgers, it's not too late to offer Verdugo+ filler. You can't even fit him into the team anyway!

I know the MLBTR comments section is awful, but why is everyone getting downvoted to hell for being excited? If I were a Yankees fan I'd be pretty ecstatic that Judge-Stanton is going to be a thing. f***

It's fantastic that baseball managed to snatch up an elite athlete like that over basketball and football. Obviously he's not the only one - hell we even have one of those - but it's always a good sign for the sport.

The Dodgers need to get in on this ASAP. They don't care about money anyway and can trade multiple top 75 prospects without a care in the world.

The second unit is special.

VanVleet is playing like a monster. I rag on the dude a lot but he really does play hard.