Key22

Grichuk is a fine signing if in 2022 he is the number 8 or 9 hitter. Pillar is a fine player if he is your 9 hitter. Problem is this is if you have a playoff baseball team. When these guys are anywhere in the top 6 it's a sign of a bad baseball team. If Stroman and Sanchez are 4 and 5 in the rotation that's pretty good. When they are 1, 2 again weak baseball team. Shatkins have until 2022. If they are not a playoff team by then...they have failed. That's 4 years including this year. If they can't fix it by then pink slips should go out.

I am wondering how much revenue they actually take in from daily ticket sales and restaurant parking revenue? I mean if you have 10,000 people show up with a team payroll of $65 million - is having 40,000 people show up with a team payroll of $165 million going to be net positive to the bottom line? Is 30,000 extra people per game x 81 home games really going to generate the $100million gap($130CAD)? I seriously doubt that it will. $30,000 extra people spending maybe an average of $60 a head with even a $30US (pure after cost profit - employees, capital expenses to the stadium/field etc etc And this seems high) per head X 30,000 x 81 is around $73 million. Sure they get a percentage of the gate playing away but they get that with a low payroll team and maybe even revenue sharing if they are near bottom of the league in attendance. They are rolling the dice on their prospects becoming stars like the Astros - but the Astros HIT on their stars. The Jays need to basically develop 4 all-star caliber position players, 2 aces and 2 number 2 starters. And that will just be able to keep up with the division rivals. So far we have none of that.

Well He's not exactly looking like a can't miss future hall of famer better than his dad with an 80/80 bat. He should be moved to the 8 or 9 hole or he needs to bat second so he has Smoak and Grichuk as some sort of protection to perhaps get him to receive more pitches in the strike zone - assuming he can even hit those. I am haunted by Travis Snider - the first round pick - can't miss all-star bat that was ranked in the top 8 in all of baseball - going to be a .300 hitting 40 homer bat - STAR PLAYER. And he was in terrific shape. He did produce a +4.4 WAR over 8 seasons. Super Star I tell ya.

I live overseas and miss the games and only catch the highlights so I am wondering how Vlad is looking at the plate - his numbers suck but is that because he is looking completely over-matched or is he making some decent contact and hitting the ball right at people. He was red hot in the minors but seeing 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts kind of thing in the box scores. And not like he is facing particularly strong pitching. As an aside I will be heading to my first Blue Jays game in July - last time I was in Toronto was when there was a hole in the ground ready to build Skydome. I have seen the jays many times in Seattle but first home game - probably the Cleveland series. Any suggestions on seats.

Dwight Smith Junior. Oops. Maybe we had a hitting OF prospect after all. But we kept Pompey instead. Let's see how that shakes out.

Perhaps part of it is about not embarrassing him. I mean we could keep him but Alford deserves to make the team given his spring so what do you do with Pillar - keep playing him on a team that is going nowhere and wind up benching him similar to Martin? Playing Pillar in the 4th outfield role. I think if Pillar has more opportunity to play regularly in San Fransisco you give him the opportunity to have some sort of career as a major league regular. And with only 10,000 fans in the seats - the fan base is not coming out to see Pillar. The fan support is in the toilet so I suppose now makes the most sense. And perhaps the Jays have evaluated one of those prospects considerably higher than San Francisco rates them.

It makes sense - you can't have all stars at every position - the team has little in the way of outfield prospects - in the supposed contending years he's cost controlled at 9 million and IF he can truly play respectable CF defense to above average RF defense with potential 30 homer pop with speed with a 3 war (and has some upside) then you have a solid player not costing a ton of money keeping the payroll flexibility in tact. If the Jays develop the boatload of middle infielders such that they do not need to sign an infielder and they can develop 2 top of the rotation starters - then when the time comes to put themselves over the top they just need to sign 1-2 bats and 1-2 pitchers which is pretty doable in 2021 when they have under $30 million in payroll commitments but $170million to spend.

There is nothing Wrong with Kevin Pillar IF Pillar is your number 9 hitter and you are a winning baseball team. You can live with a no bat good defensive CF. I mean getting anything out of a nine hitter is pretty good and Pillar at least had some power and some speed so in the 9-hole he'd be a respectable bat. The problem is when you have such a crappy baseball team that Pillar ends up leading off or batting second, fifth and sixth his bat looks truly awful. And the reality is - they have other players who can play CF and offer the same sort of bat and defense for league minimum rather than nearly $6million. For the next two years they'll be experimenting. I'm a bit surprised they committed to Grichuk who doesn't exactly scream all-star but if the plan is for him to play center he does seem to be an above average bat for the position. And the Jays do not appear to have much in the way of OF prospects. So perhaps locking down 1 spot in the OF makes some sense. The Jays have a lot of payroll flexibility and they may be able to speed up the playoff drive if they don't have to acquire too many free agents fill the holes. It seems like they have done more just today than they have done in the last three months.

When Chris Sale comes into town it will be an easy 27 up 27 strikeouts.

Vlad is a tubbo. Basically, Prince Fielder 2.0. Big bat first baseman. That's okay and all but he better mash at a 1.000 OPS or meh.

We will wait and see - personally I could give a crap about defense from a Vlad who is likely going to wind up a first baseman as soon as ext year when Smoak is traded. If he plays a decent first base and hits like Pujols in his prime - I will be very happy with that. I have seen people touting him to be a can't miss hall of fame talent - but jeez that's a lot of hype to live up to. But at first base, to be considered an elite talent - you simply must mash. I am sort of expecting to see an 1.100 OPS kind of bat if he is going to live up to the massive hype. .850 OPS first baseman - meh - dime a dozen. If he can actually play a league average third base - that would be cool.

A lot of things to look at but Halladay was the best pitcher over the time he pitched and he did it mostly for a bloody AWFUL baseball team. Stieb was on one of the best teams in the league. There was a Stieb versus Jack Morris comparison done on the net a long while back that made a very good case that Stieb was the better pitcher - so if Jack is in Stieb should be in. But the HoF isn't exactly great at all this stuff. I'm not sure how Larkin gets dumped in the first year but Mike Mussina makes the hall. I have not looked too closely but apparently Mussina scores out similar to David Wells. Mussina I always perceived as a number 2. A very good number 2 but he never won a Cy Young either. Still Mussina did it for longer - Steib basically had 8 good years. If he could have maybe 3 more solid seasons of his good years he'd be in. He would have probably hit the 70+ WAR. But if Halladay been on those good Yankee teams instead of the JP dreadful years - it would have been interesting.

When Estrada came here didn't he have a great groundball rate and huge home run given up rate. Lightning in a bottle 2.0?

Trade talks may start here and expand to other players. For instance the Jays also have Giles and Smoak. Not sure of what San Diego needs but we have several pieces we can move that may make the Padres consider higher level prospects. Also, these 2 are cheap. So if they are going for it then perhaps they look at other players. Could you get 2 of their top 3 prospects if you included Giles or Smoak along with Stroman?

Well let's trust in the Shatkins - they have done a good job overall in my view - my major change would have been to move Donaldson last offseason given what we now know we would have received from the Cardinals - and it should have been quite obvious the team was not remotely good enough to compete with the big two in the division. But you never know how much ownership gets involved in terms of PR. Everyone whines over Morales but it seems to me tough to generate a lot of WAR from a DH and his offensive numbers in terms of OPS and OPS+ a 0.8 WAR given his atrocious start is at least not a black hole and his contract just wasn't big enough to whinge about. Martin and Tulo are on AA. The payroll in 2021 with all these guys off the books and with a top 6 or better farm system and huge payroll reserves "should" put us in an really nice position. Sign Vlad to a 16 year $224 million contract now -

I may be wrong but what i think Wamco is driving at is that had we released Tulo in October then we could have protected 1 extra player - Romano or Bergen - and thus we would have an extra player. Obviously other teams valued these guys so they must have "trade value" at the very least. By keeping Tulo we lost one protection slot - and we wind up releasing him anyway but then we lost one of these two players on top. I think this is what he means by poor asset management - that we lost a guy when we didn't need to lose a guy. Ditto for Solarte. And he makes the other point that with a team like Toronto that is in such dire need of pitching - it's tough to give up pitchers who may in fact find something- that third pitch or whatever - and raise their game enough to be an effective loogy or something. Plus - if I were the GM why risk looking stupid? If one of those two guys has a Biagini first year and guys on our roster stink it up then people will question your GM skills. And if you have decided that 2019 is a complete write-off and you have no chance to win - and you take Luciano - then wouldn't it make sense to keep Bergen and Romano and trade Giles and Tepera while you can get a haul of prospects for them. Release Morales and Trade Martin - create more Rule 5 space on top. I say this a lot but if you are going to do a rebuild do it all the way - don't do BS half measures because you want to finish 3rd or 4th with 75 wins. If you are going to lose and you're going to be 15 games+ out of a playoff spot - then trade everyone over the age of 28 and finish last - I would far rather the first or second overall draft pick than 13-18. I will be very sad to see Smoak, Pillar, Morales, Martin, on the opening day roster.

Here's the thing about spending $20 million a year on a possible already over the hill pitcher thinking he will be around in 2 years for the next Jay's window. If you do that it makes more sense to spend an extra $10 million a year for Harper, dump Pillar's 5 million and actually get a star player who will be good for 8 of the 10 years. A guy who will also be around for the next window. Or Machado. Both 26. Happ or Corbin if you really thing the rotation is a priority.

Problem is a certain segment will call the video itself fake news LOL

I get frustrated reading boards always talking up prospects because yes we have some good prospects but it seems the Yankees and Boston with lower picks have more studs coming up and actually helping the team in a major way. So they seem to draft and develop better than we do AND they outspend us in free agency. So they get much better players on the open market AND they draft and develop better than we do. You can't win this way. If we had the entire Tampa staff for the last 20 years with our $150 million payroll we'd probably have carved Boston and NY up. I alluded to Machado and Harper before - the reason they are attractive free agents is because of their age and that in theory they would be here in our contending years. I get that Atkins doesn't want to make those commitments because he wants to be SURE Vlad and Bo etc live up to the hype. Then add to these guys later. Fair enough. But I am sure many others are growing impatient. 1992/1993. I have the tapes. LOL. Tulo, Martin, Morales, Pillar, Travis, Sanchez, Stroman, Hernandez. Groan. It's going to be a loooong season.

Why would anyone judge Trump based on the economy, unemployment and wages - things that the sitting president (any of them including democrats) has little to do with - at least in the short term. The first year of Obama was Bush's budget and the first year of Trump is the last year of Obama's budget. Under Obama for his entire term the stock market was setting a new record high per month - and that continued under Trump. The Obama administration (which includes Republican congress) enacted actual POLICY to raise wages for minorities - and unemployment dropped in a downward trend and wages increased. The Trump administration simply didn't overturn that policy. So yes it is improving because the Trump administration has not reversed the prior policy. I am sick of both sides of government taking credit for things prior governments did. I am referring to when Steinbrenner hired and fired liked half a dozen managers in a year and made stupid trades and a personality of a tantrum throwing 5 year old. Trump, even if you are the biggest Trump fan on earth should not have to go and take a basic logic 101 course at a university to see that Trump said that he "knows all the BEST people" and he will "hire" all the best people. And then hires someone only to fire them within the month. Logic = if you hire the BEST that means there is NO BETTER Human capable of doing X job. So if you then fire and hire and fire and hire and fire and hire over and over and over and you are setting an all time record for these hires going to jail and being indicted (by Republicans no less) then you are in fact NOT hiring the BEST people. Basic logic. And just for fun Why not look at criminal activity as an arbiter? Criminal Indictments, Criminal Convictions, Prison Sentences. 8 years of Obama: 0, 0, 0 1.8 years of Trump: 89, 24, 2 And this with a Republican Held Congress AND Senate AND Supreme Court -LOL just wow. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/9/18/1796668/-UPDATED-Comparing-Presidential-Administrations-by-felony-arrests-and-convictions-as-of-9-17-2018

As an aside. The Yankees seem to have a very well run front office and player development on top of money. They usually have low draft pucks but come up with guys like Aaron Judge while we come up with guys who are decent but usually say ... wow we should have drafted X. They make these trades for Didi or Paxton and the guys going the other way seem to be meh players. Plus, they can outspend and get guys like Stanton. I miss George Steinbrenner. The Donald Trump of baseball. Then we had a chance.

Corbin grew up a Yankee's fan and is said to really want to sign there. He will likely take a home town discount as well. The Phillies will probably need to overpay in years and dollars to get Corbin away from New York. Plus, he gets to play for a perpetual winner and a team that always spends money to improve. If I were a player who can make millions anywhere I'd far rather play for a team always out to get the elite players that AAAA scrubs always hoping that I get 8 minor leaguers to become stars. Ahem Toronto.

Perhaps with all the high paid professionals and scouts and analytics guys the Jays have on staff, they see something in Thornton that some others have missed. Kind of like signing Smoak to a contract that everyone said was stupid. Or like when they signed Happ and everyone said that was an awful AWFUL signing. They don't all work out but I will give them the benefit of the doubt - I am sure they talked Diaz with every MLB team before taking Thornton.

If the Jays are worried about 40 man roster spots why not give Tulo his outright release - pay him out - he no longer has a bat and didn't have a bat in his Jay's tenure. Awful hitter at the end. He's now older with heel problems and his defense was no longer great. He won't be here when the team attempts to contend and he has zero trade value (because he is terrible). And there is a good chance he doesn't play next year because he will probably sneeze in the shower and break his back. Release him. Save a prospect from being taken who winds up being the next Yan Gomes. Trade Pillar for some single A lottery tickets and move Grichuk into Center. Trade Martin and $16 million and Morales and $10 million for same said single A lottery tickets. This is four 40 man roster spots opened up. None of whom are needed on a 2019 team likely to finish 4th. Keeping them around because you have money committed is dumb if in the process you lose guys who COULD wind up being very good players. I'd also try and move Smoak since he could probably net us something useful and again - not going to be here in our contending years. Most of this has probably been said before but time is running out. I also wonder about Diaz - all star in 2016 and yet the Cardinals dump him the next season for a nothing prospect. Then the Jays have him in 2018 and puts up good numbers and they trade him. Something might be up with this guy. Serial killer vibes or something?