TwistedLogic

Game #74 Baltimore Orioles (Harvey) @ Toronto Blue Jays (Kay) Schedule | Standings | FanGraphs | News | Video | Spotlight | Twitter | Reddit | Instagram 

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/67837/moonshot-how-low-can-the-rpm-go/

I'm a one percenter. Spanky seems like a good dude. I definitely used to get annoyed. Not sure what happened in the years I wasn't active on here but ever since I came back earlier this season, Spanky's been awesome. Feel like he's really mellowed out and improved as a poster over time. Feel like this whole forum has improved as a whole in general. Used to see every new poster get attacked and accused of being someone else before they even had a chance to integrate into the community (and to be fair, in many of those cases, they were dupes). Used to see a lot of dogpiling and bullying take place as well. Haven't seen all that happen nearly as much since returning.

Minor league rule 5 pick so he's probably nothing. Fangraphs had him in the honourable mentions section of their Mets lists last two years. Espino is a contact-oriented shortstop who lacks bat control when he takes big hacks, and bat speed when he’s under control. That sounds like someone who could be a potential breakout candidate with the right coaches.

Are you saying that photo is Genie? Holy s*** I thought that was Cobie Smulders.

Here's one potential theory for why Schwarber is suddenly playing Major League Baseball on easy mode:

Schwarber is carrying them hard as f*** right now. He's on the second hottest short-term home run tear of all time: Guy's got 12 homers in 13 games. Singlehandedly taking himself and the rest of his team off the trade block.

Ironically, there is a team active right now that actually might be better than Murderer's Row at the moment. The Houston Astros as a team have a f***ing 127 wRC+. That's one point higher than the 1927 Murderer's Row roster that posted the highest wRC+ of all time. The Astros don't have a Ruth or Gehrig but they've had 9 Combs, Meusels and Lazzeris. Correa (310 PA): 160 wRC+ Brantley (247 PA): 159 wRC+ Gurriel (293 PA): 154 wRC+ Alvarez (264 PA): 150 wRC+ Altuve (300 PA): 146 wRC+ Castro (71 PA): 137 wRC+ Toro (45 PA): 134 wRC+ Tucker (276 PA): 132 wRC+ Bregman (262 PA): 120 wRC+ Diaz (126 PA): 117 wRC+ McCormick (134 PA): 113 wRC+

Looked like such a good pick on draft day too. So many failures over years of what look like promising drafts.

These are all good points. I was gonna mention something along those lines in my post but it was already too long. The fact that all those failures happened under a different front office and the team now has better executives at the top, a new scouting director and different player development practices, it could mean these recent successes with prospects are meaningful examples of future successes to come. That being said, it's still too early to definitively say anything about most of these players. Vladdy would have always been an elite prospect no matter which organization he was in. But is Bo Bichette truly that 130 wRC+ type player he's been to this point? I hope so but we only have one season's worth of plate appearances on him so far. The other guys have even more question marks. We'll need a few more years of data to really get an understanding on how good this front office truly is at identifying and developing talent. The early results are incredibly promising and if people are projecting those developmental successes forward on players like Martin and Groshans, that's a totally understandable approach. It's easy to get attached to prospects and it becomes a lot harder to part with them when your front office starts showing the ability to actually turn those players into something.

Again, I didn't realize Scherzer was expiring. I thought he still had 1-2 more years left on his deal.

I'm not saying people didn't want those guys traded. It's not like people were upset Gose or Osuna were traded when they were either. I'm talking about the hype those prospects each had at different times. Lawrie after his first 43 games in 2011 was probably the most untouchable prospect I've ever seen in Toronto until Vladdy emerged. I've never seen a young baseball player more hyped in this city before that. I remember wondering if he'd be the next Blue Jays hall of famer. I think watching Lawrie fall off was the most gutted I've ever been over a prospect not meeting expectations. It's also the first time I really experienced that in general since I only became a hardcore fan leading into the 2011 season, due largely in part to the hype around Jose Bautista's 2010 season. My point is, up until this recent class started turning out a surprising amount of players, no elite Blue Jays prospect actually turned out to be elite. Syndergaard was the only one and he came up with the Mets. Besides Syndergaard, every bonafide top guy they've had over the years, whether it was in the Snider, Wallace and Drabek era, or the d'Arnaud, Marisnick and Sanchez era, or the Pompey, Alford and Norris era, literally 0 of the elite Blue Jays prospects over that time have become even a threat to make an All-Star game. And we thought all of these guys would be perennial All-Stars at different times. Even among the guys they traded away that hurt at the time, like Marisnick, Hoffman and Norris, none of them seriously came back to bite them. The only really good players the Jays have lost, like Boyd, Gomes, Musgrove and DeSclafani, were afterthoughts in their system at the time of those trades. Nobody was really crying about losing any of those guys. Prior to Noah Syndergaard, the last time a #1 prospect in the Jays system turned out was Alex Rios in 2004.

There was literally nothing wrong with Montoyo's management of the bullpen today. Guys need work. In the three days prior to this game, the only relievers that threw were Chatwood, Mayza and Romano. They have new pitchers on the team who they've barely had a chance to look at. They used the opportunity a blowout game provides to do that.

lol, the Red Sox and Rays absolutely grinded out a 0-0 game for 8.5 innings and then Manny Margot got on with a single, stole second, advanced to the third on the errant throw and came home on a wild pitch.

Not sure why I thought Scherzer had more control than that. Thought only Schwarber was expiring. I definitely wouldn't move him in a trade for just rentals. If I'm moving a guy like Martin, I'm looking for an elite level talent like Scherzer for at least two years with another impact player packed in, or a young controllable guy with 3+ years. Either way, they need arms, whether they're young and controllable or guys with pedigree that instantly slot into the top of the rotation. If they can pull any of that off without using Martin I'll be ecstatic.

Sure, if the return is good enough. If he's headlining a package for Schwarber and Scherzer, for example, yes I'd pull that trigger. I used to get a lot more married to the Jays top prospects. Then Anthony Gose turned out to be a replacement level player and Devon Travis could never stay on the field and Travis d'Arnaud just had a meh career and Brett Lawrie played himself out of the league and Franklin Barreto became nothing for the A's and Dalton Pompey essentially retired at 25 years old and Anthony Alford turned into a pumpkin and Jeff Hoffman went on to post a 6.13 ERA and Aaron Sanchez literally died to blisters and Roberto Osuna beat up his girlfriend (allegedly) and now Nate Pearson is always incapacitated. How many of those guys were considered untouchables by Jays fans at various points? Many of the guys that were traded brought back quality talent. Many of the others could have brought back high-value assets and were instead kept and became zeros for the Blue Jays. I love Martin. He's my second favorite guy in the Jays system and was my #1 until Moreno broke out. I wouldn't have an easy time seeing him get moved. But I also know that the Blue Jays have plenty of home grown talent on the major league roster and need to make trades to supplement that and you're not going to get an ace pitcher for Samad Taylor.

Anyone know why Moreno isn't in the NH lineup today? Regular rest day?

It's such a strange thing, watching borderline pitches and seeing them called correctly every single time. This umpire is going to spoil me.

It's ironic that some baseball writers have been saying that the Blue Jays will look for a lefty bat at the deadline and that Kyle Schwarber could be a prime trade target, and now Schwarber himself is carrying the Nationals up the standings and putting them in a position where both himself and the Jays top rotation target in Max Scherzer will likely become unavailable. Guy has 8 homers in 5 games and 11 in 13 since sliding into the leadoff spot. Absolutely insane tear.

The fact that I've never heard his name tells me he's probably pretty good.

In the minors, only Moreno. In my opinion he's already a legitimate Top 10 prospect in baseball.

Is this the best ump the Jays have had all season? Who is that? He's been excellent. Only missed call I remember was Strike 1 to Grichuk.

There are just over 5 weeks remaining until the trade deadline and most years, you start to see the first few moves being made around this time as teams iron out where they are on the contending spectrum. BlueRocky shared this tweet earlier today discussing Mark Shapiro's confidence in adding to the current Blue Jays ball club: As discussions begin around the league about potential moves to be made and players to become available, we'll keep tabs on everything in this thread.

Springer not in the lineup. They're giving him a regular rest day but he won't need full games off so he'll be available off the bench late in the game.

Game #73 Baltimore Orioles (Kremer) @ Toronto Blue Jays (Kay) Schedule | Standings | FanGraphs | News | Video | Spotlight | Twitter | Reddit | Instagram