Muck Bartinez

Bah God, that sound!

The frame rate!!!

Vladdy beating out that chopper was decent too. I think he looks a lot chunkier than he actually is. That Kardashian ass of his just throws me off every time, but it obviously helps him generate power at the plate.

Bichette with the oppo taco bomb!

Fangraphs Playoff Odds released today, which takes strength of schedule into account. Jays project at 85.2 wins and a 41.6% of making the playoffs. Best non BOS/NYY/CLE/HOU odds at making the 2nd wild card, coming in around 10-15% better than the Twins and Angels. https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds

Maybe Pannone was buying his dog food from the same store as Collabello.

Where's #MeToo when you really need it?

He got destroyed this afternoon as well.

Carlos Rodon out til June as he recovers from shoulder issues. No reason to rush him back anyway.

My anaconda don't...

Jays had 1423 PA against LHP vs 4731 PA against RHP. That's basically a 75:25 split for Solarte in that scenario. I'm all for keeping Travis healthy and using the platoon advantage, but that's too much. FWIW, Travis has no career splits (112 wRC+, .339 wOBA vs both). Unregressed and SSS especially for LHP (200 PA). Solarte has more PA, but is basically the same for his career against RHP as Travis. (111 wRC+, .332 wOBA) and worse against LHP (92 wRC+, .303 wOBA)

2017 runs scored per game = 4.28 2018 runs scored per game = 5.06 (proj.) They have us at 5th in the league in runs per game. Last year we were tied for 25th. That would be one hell of a turnaround. Taking the 1042 (!!!) PA that Goins/Barney/Refsnyder/Coghlan/Urena got last year and giving them to Diaz/Solarte (or, fingers crossed, some to Travis/Tulo) should help a lot. I'd also love to see the 237 Maile/Montero PA's given to someone half decent, but there's only Lucroy, Ruiz, and Soto out there now. 2017 runs allowed per game = 4.84 2018 runs allowed per game = 4.73 (proj.) A slight improvement in run prevention is a lot easier to see than the huge offensive one IMO. If Biagini goes to the pen and replicates some of his success, Garcia is semi-decent, and Sanchez stays moderately healthy, that projection should hold true. Not to mention no Bautista bleeding runs on the defensive side of the ball. Of course, Ohtani's 3.6 WAR projection (3.0 SP + 0.6 DH) could look pretty silly and blast us out of contention in a hurry. Still, there's lots of reason to be optimistic for this season despite the pure s*** that was 2017.

How about when he (and Martin) got ejected against Oakland last year? Stupid ejection, and Stroman sprints up to the plate to get in the ump's face, but then he actually goes and hides behind Martin so that Russ will hold him back. What a clown. Great pitcher though.

I never used to get that vibe from him at all when I listened to him on satellite radio, but after watching him on TV I think that all the time. His hand movements are so frequent and awkward that it's painful to watch.

In 2015-16, Tillman had FIP's of 4.45 and 4.23. Wouldn't be the worst idea to see if he can regain some velo and get back to 4.50 or under, but a MLB deal would be pretty gross. By the way, his FIP's against Toronto for those same seasons were 8.62 (lol) and 4.94. 2015 was amazing when that offense was just destroying everything.

Doesn't Rosenthal need TJS? Or am I way off here?

I think it would be awesome if the Twins won it all, but only if they played great baseball in the playoffs to do it. It would suck for them to run into injured teams and sort of sneak their way to a title. They have literally no chance of winning, but I like the Twins, so maybe I'm not really answering what the question is actually asking. If the Rangers were in their spot, I'd hate for them to win.

A new stud corner OF, a 4th OF, and SP 1 or 2 all in 2 signings? I'm in. An OF of Martinez, Pillar, and some sort of Pearce/Hernandez/Alford/Ohtani would sit just fine with me. Any chance we can transplant Goins' healthy legs onto Travis? Then we'd really have something going here.

Ohtani plz. Imagine!

The same Gregorius who's averaged 3 WAR over the past 3 years? That's probably a 95th percentile projection for Urena, who projects around replacement with a ~65 wRC+ and scratch defense. I'd settle for 1 Win/600 as the middle infield backup guy getting ~300 PA (though probably more like 450 with our two glass girls up the middle).

I have literally not seen or heard one person of sane mind advocate for signing Donaldson (or any other 30 something FA) to a 6+ year contract.

Agreed. If Morales, Smoak, and Bautista aren't getting thrown out at 1st on singles, then no one is. Especially when you consider how much faster the ball is reaching of their bats compared to what it would be off of ours. That being said, there could be some pretty creative shifts that might drop the BABIP's to .100 or less when teams know there's no chance of the ball being squared up for power.

"You want to sit next to Donaldson on the airplane. Sit next to him on the bench. Just rub him off, cause he is smoking hot right now." - Buck Martinez

Definitely a move in the right direction, but lineup construction doesn't mean a whole lot as far as scoring goes. The Jays are tied at 22nd with a 92 wRC+. Doesn't matter what order they hit in if they're not going to produce as a unit.

Pretty good article. Donaldson comes across as being the absolute man, and Gibby the filthy fun loving casual. Not sure if there's any data to back this up, but part of what Gibby says seems to hold true, about guys hitting better in certain spots. I wonder if Smoak moved up, would he get pitched to differently, or do worse for another reason? It seemed like every time Travis got moved up, he would do much worse. McCutchen has been raking since he got moved to 6th. I'd like to see some kind of Pitch F/X sort of thing that shows what pitches are typically thrown and where to each spot in the batting order.