TwistedLogic

So Jeff Sullivan did a write-up about Strasburg's trade value on FanGraphs today (here), and while I don't really care about the article or the topic itself, I just wanted to mention how crazy an article like that would have been had it been written about Josh Donaldson, if his trade availability had been made public before he was moved. If Strasburg is worth all that with two years of control, coming off 7.6 wins over the past two years, projected for 7-8 more wins over the next two, it's kind of feasible to say that Donaldson would have been worth nearly twice as much, no? Man, the Jays made a good f***ing move.

Don't think it's free, unless you count the free trial. Probably like Netflix, where you get 30 days to try it and then pay after that. http://i.gyazo.com/2b8531a5bbf91c5e121d81e9c50d3d1f.png

That's also dumb and doesn't make sense. What is your rotation at that point? Hutch, Dickey, Buehrle, Estrada and Hendriks? Lol

Oh and if anyone's thinking of signing up, I'm not sure how much of a plus this might be for some people, but they're throwing in a 2014-2015 season pass to NHL GameCenter Live with these promos. Not sure if that's like MLB.TV for Hockey, but if it is, that seems like a nice little perk. They're also adding in a trial till March 31 for something called "shomi" which looks like an ugly knockoff of Netflix that I probably won't use.

TekSavvy was one of my primary alternatives when I decided I'd cancel my Bell s*** all the way back in October, but when I called into TekSavvy and tried to get the price on the internet/phone, the lady on the other end was an absolute bitch. She seemed bored and disinterested from the very start of the call and it didn't look like she had any interest in trying to pick up a new customer. The pricing also just seemed way more expensive than I thought it would be. The first month bill was coming in higher than $350 because of all the various installation charges and the fact that I had to buy the modem, phone and various other s*** that I needed to buy to have their services. Another drawback with TekSavvy is that I think they use the Bell DSL lines, and Bell's lines can only provide speeds up to 25 mbps in my area right now, so TekSavvy (and all the other third party companies like Acanac, Distributel, etc) are hampered by the same limits. They can't compete with Rogers' lines, which give my area access to any of their speeds (which are hitting 350 mbps at the highest end at this point). That said, I haven't had Rogers in years, so I'm not sure if their speeds are consistent, how much they throttle, and if the service ever drops.

This is why I was almost positive that the guy was telling the truth when he said that if I called into Rogers, they wouldn't have this deal for me. Was a pretty pleasant surprise to find out that the guy on the other end confirmed that the offer did exist. I bet if I had called in with no knowledge of that offer though, they wouldn't have given it to me. The key is to probably tell them that you've already been called by their sales department and that you've already been offered the services at that price, you just didn't sign up because you weren't aware of the legitimacy of the offer and the people calling you.

The call did take forever, but in all fairness, that's because I asked him a million questions and made sure I knew what I was getting. Saved me more in the end, because in the original deal I was signing up for the 60 mb internet with the "unlimited usage" add-on, which is an additional $25 on its own. My family regularly uses 350-380 gigs a month, so the 320 wasn't enough for me. I told him that I liked the deal as it was, but the extra $25 for usage (which was pushing the package over $140) was looking really steep, and I asked if there was anything he could do to reduce the price there. He kept saying that because there's already so much reduction on the internet, he wasn't sure if he could cut the price anymore. At that point I basically asked him if there was a GB usage point between 320 and unlimited that I could choose, say 400, that wouldn't take as bit of a hit on the monthly bill as the unlimited was. He asked me if I could hold while he checked if there was something he could do. Two minutes later he came back and said that he had something he thought I'd like more than the previous option. He said that I could basically pick the 150 Mbps internet (550 gigs of usage) and it would actually cost like $3 less than what my bill was coming to with the 60 Mb+unlimited. That's basically the point at which I was sold, lol. I get the hate for calling into call centers, I have the exact same problem, I can't deal with it, but I think whenever you call into sales for new services, the calls are always a lot more pleasant lol.

I'd already signed up when he said that, so I don't know why he'd lie about it. He seemed pretty nice and knew his s***, he's the one who told me about the CRTC legislation for the change in cancellation policies, which I immediately searched up and found to be true. Toronto is well-known for being one of the most expensive internet/mobile markets in the world, and the prices constantly hike, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was true. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter, because I still see the deal I got as a damn steal.

Okay so some dude called me a few days ago offering me the $85 package. I thought the price was too good to be true, and it seemed shady because he wouldn't give me a callback number and told me that if I called Rogers, they wouldn't have this promo; it's only offered by his department. This was a red flag for me because this is how I originally got my Bell services a few years ago; an outbound call that was offered by what looked like a third party company working for Bell. Essentially, the guy lied to me about everything, all the s*** they gave me was differently priced and I got lesser services than what he offered. Since I had no reference of the call and didn't know where they called me from, I didn't have any evidence to support my cause. Bell tried to help me as much as they could, but I still felt burned because even with the credits and reduced prices, it wasn't nearly as good as what the guy offered me. I didn't want to deal with that s*** again, so I told the guy to call me back later and I'd think on it. Then I called in Rogers and dialed in to their sales department. I talked to the sales rep and told him I'd received this call and wasn't sure if it was legit, he's offering me these three services for $85 and I really like the price; if I was sure it was legit, I'd have already signed up. This guy essentially confirmed that yes Rogers does have that promo running now, where you get basic TV, phone and 60 Mb internet for $84.88. The additional 200 gigs of usage (popped up from 120 to 320) is free, as is the advanced wifi modem and the PVR receiver for the TV. He said they usually charge $50 in installation for each service, but they're offering $100 of credit back, so the installation should cost "49.99" total. If it all works out, this is wayyyyyyy better than the trash I'm getting from Bell right now. I'm paying basically the same amount as what Rogers offered me, except my internet is 25 Mbps with 375 gb of usage (almost 200 gb less of data and 1/6th of the speed) and I don't have caller ID on my phone.

To be honest, nobody needs 150 megs of internet. My current garbage plan with Bell is only giving me 25 mbps and that's already more than enough. The 60 mb they're offering in the $85 is probably faster than what 95% of the population has. I'd really recommend the $85 package with the caller ID and voicemail ($5) for $90 per month. The guy I talked to told me that prices for TV/internet are about to rise again, so it's a good time to change your services. Timing is really good for me too. Most companies have a 30 day cancellation notice, where you need to wait a month after you cancel to really be free of their services, but the new CRTC legislation that was recently passed has made it so that companies HAVE to cancel your services immediately, starting on Jan 23 of this year.

The offer I received over the phone was basic phone, basic cable and 60 Mbps internet (320 gigs of usage) for $85 per month. Internet is my biggest priority, and you won't get internet at that speed and usage anywhere in Toronto for $85 alone, let alone the other two services with it. What I ended up ordering was higher because I got several add-ons. The overall package and price I ordered was something like: - TV: Basic cable with an additional international channels pack for the parents ($10), with a free PVR and a second receiver for my grandma's TV ($5.50) - Phone: Basic home phone (keeping my existing number) with Caller ID and Voicemail added ($5) - Internet: 150 Mbps hybrid fibre with 550 GB of data usage and a free advanced WiFi modem. Price: $137 per month. The promos last a year (at which point you can call in and ask for new promos) and there's no contract or cancellation charges if you ever opt at any point beforehand. The basic TV does include Sportsnet, but it doesn't include Sportsnet One or Sportsnet 360. That isn't a problem for me, because if you have any Rogers service, you can watch all the Jays games online with their free RogersOnDemand service anyway.

Going off-topic here, but kinda in the same vein of forking your hard earned money over to Rogers, I think I officially joined the dark side yesterday. I've been sick out of my f***ing mind with Bell and I've been thinking about going with individual third party companies for a while now, but I got a great offer from Rogers over the phone and couldn't pass it up. Starting on the 26th, I'll officially be a customer of Rogers, switching all three of my services over (phone, TV, internet), for a massive upgrade over what I had before, and paying less than I was giving to Bell.

It's realistic in terms of value, but it's not realistic in terms of what the Nationals would ask for. I could easily see them saying no to Hutch/Pompey/Osuna. The same way if we were the ones trading away Strasburg, most of the people here would frown at that trade in disgust, despite the "realistic" value trade-off. I'm not sure I'd make that trade if I was either team.

That doesn't exactly make sense to me. What is "Strasburg money"? What he should make, or what he will make? Because that's where my argument is in the first place. He is going to make a lot more than he should. You're saying that if every pitcher hit the open market today, and you could get guys like Kluber, Quintana, Zimmermann, Price and Darvish all cheaper than "Strasburg money", you would still rather overpay Strasburg? We're talking about talent and what that talent is worth. If the premise here is that Strasburg will make a f*** ton, and there's several guys out there that are probably better than him and probably wouldn't make as much, then you proved my point.

It's funny because I agree with you and I loathed that trade at the time, but there's an actually realistic scenario at this point that when all is said and done, that might have actually been a decent trade for the Jays. I remember reading somewhere that RA9-WAR was a better indicator of Dickey's talent than regular fWAR, and by that measure, he's already been worth 5.3 wins for the Jays and that's even before taking into account the Dickey effect. If he gives the Jays another two years at that level, the deal doesn't look as bad as when it was signed, even if Syndergaard develops into a stud.

That's amazing. You could probably sell two home openers and make most of the money back, and keep two home openers for yourself.

Why should he? There were 12 pitchers that were better than him last year. Over the last three years (2012-2014) he ranks as the 14th best pitcher in the game. Strasburg is an ace, but he isn't some inhuman world-beater. You could make two full rotations of pitchers better than him before you pick up Strasburg.

Probably the most. Things that were written about Strasburg: The best draft prospect ever. The best pitching prospect ever. The most hyped debut ever.

How much did the package itself cost you?

Max Scherzer at 170/7 is not reasonable.

flap flap flap

They weren't three games back of the pennant. They were 10.5 games back in the "pennant race" on the 1st of September. Being three games back of the second wild card with only a few weeks left isn't exactly going to invoke a mountain of enthusiasm and excitement. Fans had the wind knocked out of their sails after the garbage August. There would have been a lot more interest in the team in September if you swap their May record with their August record.

The next time you are laying next to AA on the massage table, tell him to sign Jesse Crain.

BTS' offer is the closest to what I would make if I were to make one, but even then, how big of an upgrade is Strasburg over Hutch? 3 wins, optimistically? Last year the difference was 1.7 wins. Who do you play in place of Pompey? What if Bautista or Saunders go down? I'm not sure an outfield that regularly plays Pillar and Dirks at the same time is something you want to run with.

This kinda hurts the Jays both in the present and in the future; losing Travis and two more starters will murder their present day depth, leaving you with no safety net if one of the SP's goes down, and resorting you to playing Izturis, Goins and Kawasaki full time, and probably wasting a roster spot on Tolleson to make sure you don't lose him. Norris, Pentecost and Travis' future value also probably outweighs Strasburg's, especially at the salary he'll start commanding in arb.