Muck Bartinez

I overheard Buck and Tabby talking earlier. Some snippets: "Plays the game the right way" "... a real scrappy hitter..." "Checks all the boxes." "Not afraid to get down and dirty." *** Translation: Is white, has haircut.

♫ He loves to drink and suffers from incessant masturbation. ♫

The meh-est of meh's.

I don't think this is what the Jays had in mind when they asked him to work on his launch angle and exit velocity.

It sort of is, but not by much, IMO. Did he bet on every single game? If not, what does that say about the games he didn't bet on? What if he bet $100 on one game, but then $500 the next? Pretty shady stuff, and I think deserving of a severe punishment.

That must be worth a pretty decent amount to Rogers just based on the exposure that the Jays would get.

The more I watch him and get used to seeing him move around, the less I worry about his weight, at least in the short term. The first few times I saw him I couldn't get over his size, but now when I see him it doesn't seem like he's strikingly large. To me he doesn't look at all like Prince Fielder, Mo Vaughn, Tony Gwynn etc., and almost more like a football player in the lower half. He thicc but it turns me on a bit.

Well he could have easily died just now.

Insanity. Where would a fella find such numbers?

Seems to be a huge trend across MLB this spring. I wonder if the Jays will keep it going with anyone else (Vlad, Stroman)

Not sure if this was intentional or not, but it's delightful nonetheless.

Love that Alford makes the team as well. Time to give all of these sink or swim guys a chance and see if any of them are good enough to stick when the Vlad/Bo era kicks off.

Excellent news!

Obligatory "looks trim/best shape of his life" sighting for Kendrys.

In b4 tercet tells us that Pannone is, in fact, not Chris Sale (or other very good lefty).

It looked really awkward but it didn't seem like anything bent in any weird directions. I'll guess a knee sprain.

Morales hasn't just been bad this first month, he's been terrible the whole time he's been with the Jays (.242/.303/.428 for a 91 wRC+) and isn't getting better. Even if you include his 2016 season, his wRC+ only goes up to 101. Pair that with no position in the field, and horrible baserunning, and you've got yourself possibly the least useful player in baseball. If you don't agree with bringing up Vlad that's one thing, but whether you keep Morales or dump him, that money is being thrown away regardless. No reason to throw away wins just to justify his contract.

Vlad Jr. - A Pre-Debut Extension I was thinking about this last night with the topic of Morales being trash and how to get more out of the roster. It's become pretty obvious to everyone that he's basically a sunk cost and is costing the team money, wins, and flexibility. I feel it's becoming increasingly obvious that Vlad is basically MLB-ready, despite his age and lack of professional experience. There's probably no one that would argue that the Jays would be better off with Vlad in and Morales out, if things like money and service time are disregarded. In order for it to make sense for the Jays to bring up Vladdy, I think there would have to be some sort of extension in place in order to make sure his call-up wouldn't cost the Jays a year or two of team control. But what would that even begin to look like? Scott Kingery and Jon Singleton are the only two players to ever sign an extension with zero days of service time. I don't think the Singleton example applies here, as he signed a very team-friendly (or so it seemed at the time) 5 year, $10M in order to avoid a marijuana suspension. The Scott Kingery example is a good place to start. According to this article, the extension is for 6 years and $24M, and then 3 team options that brings the total to $65M ($41M for the 1st 3 FA years). This seems like a good framework to work from. At the time of his callup, Kingery was the number 35 overall prospect. Vlad is clearly a top 3, and with Acuna graduated he's probably 1 or 2. So with that in mind, I've got some questions: 1. What would you be comfortable with giving Vlad? Does his body type/defensive skill scare you off at all? 2. Do you think Vlad would be open to something like this? On one hand, he probably doesn't care as much about money since he came from an MLB family, and might only just want to play in the bigs as soon as possible. On the other hand, since his family doesn't need the immediate payout, he might be more willing to wait and not give up any of his FA years. For the record, I'd start with 6 years, $42M, with 3 team options at $15M, $20M, $25M and see what he says.

I wonder if Vlad Jr. would accept some sort of extension that buys out a FA year or two on the condition he's called up almost immediately. Another few weeks of him dominating AA and I don't know what else he could prove down there. If we're only keeping him down to stop his clock from starting, this could solve some problems. Swapping him for Morales would almost certainly be a boost at the plate, plus improve roster flexibility since Vlad can play 3rd. Probably a not well thought-out dream of mine, but I'm ready for some Vladdy and no Morales.

To be honest, I'd rather he just be released. I want Barnes/McGuire/Alford/Pompey/Travis to keep getting AB's in AAA, and Morales will just cause the same issues for roster flexibility in Buffalo that he does here. The best scenario would be some sort of phantom DL stay where he works on his hitting and then possibly comes back with some gusto. I'd be low-key putting him on the juice and hope that he goes full Collabello (either hits well or gets suspended).

I don't think Morales can be assigned to the minors. "Also, if the player has five or more full years of major league service, he must give consent to be assigned to the minors. If the player withholds consent, the team must either release him or keep him on the major league roster. In either case, the player must continue to be paid under the terms of his contract." I doubt that he would give his consent, so the Jays would just have to release him after a DFA. I still think this is the right move though, as he provides no upgrade over anyone on our roster in any facet of the game.

Blue Jays FG playoff odds now at 44.1%, up from 37.1% at the start of the season. Angels are right behind us at 39.5%.

Just as predicted, after 21 games, the fWAR leaders for your Toronto Blue Jays are: Teoscar Hernandez, Yangervis Solarte, and Luke Maile (with a resounding 0.6 fWAR each)!

Really going out on a limb there... Last season only 23 hitters had an OPS of .900 or better. Rizzo, Smoak, Springer, EE, Gary Sanchez, Gallo, Posey, Carlos Santana all were under. I'd be thrilled if Teoscar settled in around .800 with average D.

It's not humanly possible to be as bad as Dante in the OF. In 1999 he hit 34 bombs with a .298/.354/.541 slash line and posted a fWAR of... -2.1. League and park factors made the slash line worth just a 100 wRC+, and he paired that with a negative 40.6 def rating (!!!). So yeah, no chance Bo is that anywhere near that bad. https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/dante-bichettes-unbelievable-1999-season/