baubau

For once, they may have not been flying in the air. Either way, love it. "Billy Boy". Donaldson is quickly becoming my favorite player.

If they acquire Hamels, do the Dodgers have the best rotation in the league? Kershaw Hamels Greinke Ryu Haren

Truthfully I am a little surprised by Smoak. I am a even surprised Estrada was kept. Thought his price tag was not worth it.

This. I too would imagine Fowler would be in LF should he be acquired with Pompey at CF. Reyes Fowler Bautista Encarnacion Donaldon Martin /FAP

To his credit, Bautista did keep his mouth shut throughout this year. Only one incident occurred. I didn't think he should have been thrown out from the news reports, but he should have kept his mouth shut in that situation anyways.

http://replygif.net/i/272.gif

Indeed. They have yet to arrest his vocabulary when it comes with dealing with the media.

I'd rather sign Nori Aoki who would provide similar value to Melky at a fraction of the cost and invest the savings into other areas for upgrades be it free agents or space for trades.

Sanchez for Gordon. Only logical thing for AA to do now after the Donaldson trade.

Martin? Donaldson? I am now convinced that BTS has a mind control device which he is using on AA. I love it! <3

They really need to get grass on that turf. Independent of Melky's comments, we've herd enough times throughout the year were enough Jays made their opinions about the turf known. Free agents and people whom have the Jays on their no-trade list also refer to the turf as a negative. In the end, if you pay agents will come but its enough to be driving away some of the players.

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130305053659/imotwom/images/f/fc/FACEPALM.png @ me.

..nvm

Please go to Boston.

Should have been traded for Chase 'God Damn' Headley. SD would have eaten his salary too. Guh! I would rather have Burly as he is just as much of a workhorse, doesn't need a personal catcher and from everything I've read, a good leader/mentor. Its hard to place a value on leadership, I know, but would rather have him than Dickey. I found it funny when Stroman was basically his shadow after the O's incident. With that being said, I agree that you would have to trade him. His value is likely its highest, he only has 1 year left and chances are once his deal expires he'll be out of Toronto to join his family/dogs. Don't blame him for that. With Dickey you still have years of control and at a lower hit.

Call me crazy, but I bet you that Stroman kid makes it!

That isn't that bad of a package honestly. Oakland gets, what currently projects to be, a no. 3 or better starter. Stroman provided 3.3 WAR this season and while I suspect he'll have his up and down years he'd still roughly remain around that area. Pompey is still relatively unproven. I know he had a hell of a rise this year and I am unsure what his future value may hold but for now lets say a 4th OF to a passable OF. Still a top 100 prospect none the less. Lawrie still provides the great defense at 3rd and potentially at 2nd should A's move him. The biggest problem with him is always going to be his ability to stay healthy. I suspect if he had a healthy season he'd put up about 3 WAR season. Overall, you're pretty much giving up a group of guys that have a lot of years of control. Lawrie may get a slight bump but I doubt its anything absurd. The other teams I could see beating this package would be Boston and Texas. But I doubt it happens. You'd see a uproar from the casual fans about trading two "Canadian" boys. Imagine the PR night mare for Rogers. Which sucks. I would love Donaldson as well. Would be the best player on the Jays now and for years to come.

Nice. Darn, thought bunting may have a bigger impact than just at best 20 ish more hits. Guess Gose will always just be best as a 4th outfielder at this point unless he learns how to hit.

The biggest issue I have with Gose is he cannot bunt. Seriously if he could learn how to bunt properly he could get a lot of base hits. His skillet allows his biggest advantage is being on the bases and defense. I suspect the team will go with a Gose/Pillar combo early for the start of next year and call Pomey out in 20-25 games. I think Pompey has looked great. I mean, he took two walks in 1 game. TWO! I don't think I've seen Gose take two walks in one series. He is showing great plate discipline, switch hitting so we don't have to worry about platooning him and provides the ability to steal bases and play defense. I'd like to say he needs some more "seasoning" in the minors but at this point I don't think the team can afford that given their options.

Oh hai guys. Did you hear? That Jere guy is retiring. Man I'm surprised they talked so little about it. Guh... f*** jeters retirement

Fixed that for you.

Finishing at a certain position really doesn't mean much. A lot of factors can go into why a team placed higher than another. The team could have a better record overall next year and find themselves worse than 2nd if the teams around them improve.

Avirl who? It is Shopia Bush. Dickey isn't a bad starter by any means. I'd say he is a decent no. 3 everything considered. The two biggest issues are, a. what we gave up for him, which I do not blame Dickey for. b. his personal catcher Thole which also weakens our lineup when he plays and takes a spot on the bench. I do blame Dickey for this somewhat. Nah, he hates us. He just doesn't wanna say it out loud. Probably went "lol @ dat turf. Imma commin back balty" once Davis got hurt.

ffs stop showing Billy crystals face so much..

I have always seen Gibby take his time and go to the umps. Hell because he took his time and was so slow Maddon protested the game. He has certainly made the "gut" calls and that was mostly either due to the 1st base coach's opinion (Ryan Goins beating out the tag a few games ago and the 1st base coach stated he was likely in), challenging at home plate when players are stated to be out but aren't (Melky in Okaland on the phantom tag and Melky again when he was blocked at home vs CWS). Those "gut" reasons are usually due to the players having a feeling that the call is wrong. There is no issue with him making those calls as most managers would. Wagner's arm injury could have resulted regardless if Gibby put him out longer than he should have. I will agree that Gibby certainly needs to be better in managing them (bring Loup in situations he shouldn't, letting Casey/Santos pitch in games he probably shouldn't have gone to them and the occasional McGowan f*** up) but overall he can't keep on using the same guys over and over each game. This is certainly a area that I agree needs assessment but not for the reason you are stating. This I disagree with. He usually platoons quite well. When a certain pitcher is announced to the game he knows to switch out certain players for others given their splits. This has arguably been one of Gibby's better strengths this season. It just sucks that the players he has on the left are high power strike out guys (I.e. Rasmus, Franny) and his depth of righty hitters that can hit lefties recently improved as it was mostly Tholleson before. Again, I'd argue that even if you swapped Gibbons with any other manager in the league, this team would still have such a record. He wasn't the reason players kept on making errors last season and as much as the media loves to throw the term "fundamental baseball" that is something players should already know how to do from the minors up. I agree on this as well. Gibby is going to be the scapegoat as undeserved as that is. For everything you listed I could list against AA (terrible trades: Jomes for Rogers, Happ trade, Dickey trade), raising payroll for 2 consecutive years and potentially 3 and likely missing the post season all 3 of those years, unable to find a starting 2nd baseman, holding too long to assets to lose them for free (should have traded Jansen last year), etc.