TwistedLogic

I did miss it at the time, but I eventually made that unfortunate recollection and included a little note in the OP. I used a "1" size font to represent the ceiling for Justin Smoak's career WAR. I kinda don't blame him, lol.

I agree on Feldman in that I liked the move at the time. The ratings I gave each move were considering hindsight and what actually happened, which is why I moved Feldman into bad and Upton into the mediocre category. I think both of those moves were excellent at the time considering where the team was. I liked the Chavez trade quite a bit as well. I still think Upton could pay dividends (especially if he's platooned with a guy like Pagan). On a more general note, after taking another look at the stat pages, I'm starting to want Luis Valbuena on this team more than I want to bring back Jose Bautista. He had a better 2016, he does everything that Bautista does (better defense, less power - maybe), he's a lot younger, and he's not going to cost much. Additionally, if a team makes a desperation lunge at Bautista, that draft pick is still out there.

Introduction This post was intended for the negative cesspool that is reddit right now; considering that it is original content and many here don't browse reddit, I felt that I should post here as well. Please take into account that much of the included rambling was geared toward a more casual audience and I understand that the sentiment on this forum is generally more positive toward the front office. I will begin by saying that, while I will try to be as objective as possible, the basis of this post is very subjective in nature, and that will likely seep through in the following content. I have grown tired of seeing so much of the discussion surrounding this team being focused on how badly the front office has done, and how poor the team looks moving forward. This post will take an opposing stance and try and highlight the positives about this team, both on the management front, and in the organization and roster itself. 2015-2016 First, let's take a look at the transaction history for the first season under Mark Shapiro's regime (lead by Tony LaCava and Ross Atkins): http://i.imgur.com/bS23UDg.png Here I have provided a list of major transactions made by the front office (information sourced from baseball-reference) and have also included a subjective rating on what I think of the moves. We are not gauging whether or not these moves were no-brainers (Price, Estrada), but simply whether or not they were good or bad moves. Excellent: Price, Happ, Estrada, Biagini, Grilli, Liriano Good: Barney, Benoit, Bolsinger Mediocre: Thole, Storen, Upton Bad: Feldman Terrible: Chavez Note: The Justin Smoak extension wasn't included on Baseball Reference's transactions page and I had forgotten about it at the time of this writing. For the purpose of this exercise, I would categorize the Smoak extension as "terrible". Somebody please extinguish the Smoak. Most of these ratings are unquestionable. Of the rest, I've rated Bolsinger good because Bolsinger is a decent depth piece, and getting rid of Chavez, at least to me, was addition by subtraction. Storen was bad for the Jays but Revere was equally bad for the Nationals, and despite not doing much for the 2016 Blue Jays, Upton provides a very useful 4th OF/platoon bat for minimal salary going forward. From the moment they've taken over, this front office has made a slew of brilliant, shrewd moves that have cost them next to nothing in resources and provided an incredible amount of surplus value. Of the only two poor moves that were made, Feldman cost a no-name low-minors prospect and while Hendriks was and is a solid middle-relief pitcher, Chavez was coming off a 2.3 fWAR performance at the time of the trade. This front office has given no reason for the fans to ridicule them and every reason to have faith that their under-the- radar moves will continue to work, until they don't. 2017 A list of transactions for the 2017 season so far: http://i.imgur.com/wr5PQSn.png This list doesn't include the signings of Jason Grilli, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Glenn Sparkman (a Rule 5 pick that has actually put up better numbers than Joe Biagini at every level of the minors). There is no reason to speculate on what will be done with the roster spots of Cecil, Bautista and Saunders until those decisions are made. Speaking on Encarnacion, Pearce and Morales, all we know is that the team offered $80M to the first, and then signed the next two for a combined $45.5M. As I wrote earlier this season, there are many reasons why Morales could be viewed as a breakout candidate heading to the Blue Jays, despite being 33 years old. Between his elite hard-contact rates (Top 5-10 in MLB), his propensity to hit for power and the Jays lack of speed-oriented baseball, Morales is heading to a prime environment in which he will have every chance to thrive. Steve Pearce remains one of the most underrated players in baseball. Having posted a gargantuan 4.9 fWAR in just 102 games in 2014, he was back at it again in 2016, providing 2.0 WAR of production in just 85 games played. His wRC+ (136) was actually higher than that of Encarnacion's (134) albeit within a smaller sample. People have criticized this signing because of Pearce's injuries in 2016 but he is only taking the roster spot of another injury prone player (Bautista or Saunders). He provided more value than Michael Saunders in 55 fewer games played, and more value than Jose Bautista in 31 fewer games played, and there isn't any real reason to believe any of these three players is more dependable for playing time than the others. Despite having been bogged down by injuries and poor-decision platoons (Pearce is actually an above average hitter from both sides of the plate), Steve Pearce has been a legitimate contributor. There is a high likelihood that neither of these two players outperforms Edwin Encarnacion in 2017, but there is a very good possibility that they do provide more value collectively, for nearly half the cost of what the Blue Jays were willing to offer Encarnacion. Moving Forward From this point until more moves are made, all we can do is speculate and offer suggestions on what we'd like to see. Personally, I'd love to see an acquisition like Andrew McCutchen, but I am also wary of the price tag involved. I don't think an acquisition of that caliber is necessary for this team to succeed. Since it's impossible for us to accurately read the trade market, my preferences from the remaining players in free agency would be as follows: 1) Re-sign Jose Bautista to play 1st base: While I hate the idea of putting him back out on the field and I have greatly soured on his personality, this is still Jose Bautista, and he is still projected for a 2.7 fWAR in 2017. He is unquestionably the best remaining baseballer available on the open market. My contingency for not getting Bautista would be someone like Luis Valbuena, who could be a very good fallback on a very cheap deal. http://i.imgur.com/kjxv6vI.png 2) Sign Angel Pagan to play RF or LF: Angel Pagan is 35 years old, which means Angel Pagan will cost very little to sign in free agency. He is coming off a 2.0 fWAR season and is still a good defender in the outfield. He is also a switch-hitter who has historically hit righties well, and would therefore make a perfect platoon partner for Melvin Upton Jr., who mashes lefties. There aren't many ways that you could replace Michael Saunders' offensive production, while at the same time greatly improving the defense for a significant portion of your field, that are better than Angel Pagan. It is my belief that this can be one of the better under-the-radar moves of the offseason. http://i.imgur.com/eDeZgF8.png 3) Sign Matt Belisle and Jerry Blevins: Or whoever else. Belisle is a specific preference of mine because he has consistently been one of the more underrated relief arms in baseball and has been a solid contributor for a long time. http://i.imgur.com/xzPiJVQ.png http://i.imgur.com/NWXxvAA.png 4) Release Justin Smoak (at the local animal shelter): I know this isn't technically a free agency move, but you could make it a free agency move by making Justin Smoak a free agent. Please remove him. http://i.imgur.com/fcftMxk.png

You forgot these pictures of Darwin Barney.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCK00zNXLhc&t=0m31s

I hated Turner. Loved Jackson and Pentecost.

rip

With the second overall pick in the 2014 draft, the Miami Marlols passed over Rodon and Schwarber for Tyler Kolkek. Gotta have that 5.0 BB/9 heat for your intraqsquad spring training games to see if the Rowdy Tellez-like shitters in your organization can connect with a manly man's pitch.

Because scouts are pussies and it makes them uncomfortable to put fat kids high on their lists. Most scouts are too busy literally jacking off at the kids who look like athletes to pay attention to the fat ones, the short ones and the discipline/control guys.

I think it's important to make sure that the post's author has his message spread since he put in so much effort. Nothing wrong with that imo. A quote like what I just did with yours is much easier to read and makes for less scrolling. Agreed.

Morales and Pearce aren't supposed to make up for Edwin and Bautista, they're meant to make up for Edwin and Michael Saunders. I don't think it's really that far-fetched at all to expect Morales and Pearce to collectively outperform Edwin and Saunders in 2017. Unless the team is dumb enough to platoon Pearce with someone whose better platoon split is still worse than Pearce's worse platoon split, Pearce could easily break his career high in games played and post 2 wins more than Saunders alone. Too much has been made of the potential downgrade of Edwin to Morales and not much has been made of how much of an upgrade Pearce is to Saunders in every facet of the game. The guy who is supposed to replace Bautista isn't on the team yet, and that guy might still be Bautista himself.

Can confirm, didn't read a word.

Remember when NJH slammed me for saying Tellez was better than Mitch Nay? I member.

Tellez has moved to the Dunedin area to get a head start on his training. https://www.canadianbaseballnetwork.com/canadian-baseball-network-articles/blue-jays-prospect-tellez-moves-to-dunedin-to-get-head-start-on-2017?platform=hootsuite

I dunno about Moss... he's been kinda s*** lately. This will probably be unpopular, but I think I'd kinda dig a Pagan signing instead. Don't really need Moss's power, and Pagan's a switch hitter with some speed, some OBP, legit defense and he K's a third of the time Moss does. Actually kinda surprised that the Jays haven't been tied to him at all. Seems like a natural fallback from Fowler. I love Valbuena. Grab Valbuena or Carter for first, throw Pagan in left, suffer another year of Bautista in RF and then re-evalaute a year from now. They can probably find pen pieces anywhere but if they're looking FA, Belisle has been solid for a long time and will probably come cheap. Just grab Belisle and Blevins or something and call it a day. Take a month off and then hope your squadron of senior citizens have enough tape to hold themselves together once spring training rolls around.

If you bought OOTP 17 during this sale, you can proudly say that you bought the PC game of the year for $1.00.

Totally unrelated but Ubisoft is doing a giveaway every day for the 30 days of Christmas. Today's giveaway is letting people claim every game they gave away this year, for free. The list includes Assassin's Creed III, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell and The Crew. All are free, and you can claim all 7 games with one click if you have an account (register if not). You can also go back and get all previous giveaways by clicking on each day in the calendar. Most of them are useless, just GIFs and wallpapers and stuff. 30 Days of Giveaways: https://30days.ubi.com/Promotion/Calendar Day 22: https://30days.ubi.com/Promotion/RedeemCode/?giveAwayId=giveaway3 Direct link to giveaway page for 7 free games: https://club.ubisoft.com/en-CA/ubi30 I know there's a gaming thread in the off-topic forum, but I thought I'd post here since more people are active here. Obviously didn't think it was worth its own thread so I put it in here.

The sub out for Gio and the save by Frei. Rip in piece Toronto FC (2016-2016), we hardly knew ya.

Oh my god.

Jesus f***ING CHRIST that f***ING SAVE BY STEFAN FREI.

@Twins: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Yorman Landa, Twins MiLB pitcher who tragically passed away last night in Venezuela." Scouting Report: Yorman Landa signed with the Twins out of Venezuela as a 16-year-old in 2010 and has yet to pitch above low Single-A, but the right-hander was added to the 40-man roster in November to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Landa's numbers have been good at every stop, including a 2.53 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 181 career innings, but he's thrown more than 40 innings in a season just once thanks to injuries. Shoulder surgery ended his 2014 season and sidelined Landa for the first two months of 2015, but he returned to throw 36 innings with a 1.25 ERA and 40/16 K/BB ratio while holding opponents to a .167 batting average and one homer. Keeping the ball in the ballpark has been a major strength for Landa, a ground-ball machine who's allowed just four homers in 784 plate appearances as a pro. Last season opponents slugged .228 off Landa, including zero extra-base hits by lefties. Landa works in the mid-90s with his fastball and generates strikeouts with his slider. His control definitely needs work, as he's issued 104 walks in 181 innings and has never walked fewer than 4.0 batters per nine innings in a season. Based on a typical promotion schedule Landa wouldn't be in the Twins' plans until mid-2017 at the earliest, but since he's already on the 40-man roster a quicker call-up is always possible. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa597276&position=P

While I'm sad to see Fowler go to the Cardinals, I'd like to thank him for giving me the opportunity to troll the f*** out of reddit on this blessed day.

I resonate strongly with both of these tweets.

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Well that's what I meant with my next question. He wasn't close to the majors because they kept him in Rookie ball for four years for some reason, despite him posting pretty decent numbers. Guessing injuries or makeup issues or something? Seems pretty weird.