glory

He also had a thing on YouTube called "Bauer Bytes", where he sat in a table with 3-4 other players/ex players/personalities and would just shoot the breeze. Great way to display personality and hear from the players in a casual setting. He definitely did a lot to help the game from a marketing standpoint, and his ability to play the heel with crowds added a level of excitement to the games. I know people hate the "brand builders" on social media since it comes off as douchey (see the complaints about Stroman) but hopefully another player can pick up the baton and follow what Bauer was doing on social media before the explosion happened. It was helping the sport.

Exactly. AA's done well with supplementing the core guys with vets (Donaldson, Ozuna, Morton, all his trade deadline moves this year), but he inherited great young talent and a top farm system. It was almost impossible to f*** that up. If he stayed after 2015, he would have had to build from scratch after having to see the remnants of the 2015-16 teams go away. No chance I would have trusted him with that process after what we saw him do in 2010-15. He definitely learned and got better after his stint with the Dodgers, though. Working with Friedman was the right call for his career.

Scherzer not starting Game 6. Huge blow to the Dodgers.

That's why I wonder if Ray's success is going to change that. He came here after completely s***ing the bed in 2020, and put up a Cy Young season with a pitching coach who seems to be able to help pitchers improve. No doubt the Jays will still have to offer the most money (like they probably did with Ray), but I'm curious if pitchers might view the Jays differently when Ray turns 1/8 into $100m+ a year later.

Aren't the Rockies going to qualify Gray? Maybe I'm misremembering, but that seemed to be their logic when they didn't trade any of their vets at the deadline, although maybe that was just meant for Story. I think Syndergaard takes a pillow contract due to his age, but Verlander is probably going to need at least a two year guarantee to choose Toronto over many of the other contenders that will be after him on a one year deal. I wonder if Toronto looks more appealing for FA's now after the success of Semien and Ray. Players looking for one year deals, especially pitchers, may have avoided Toronto in the past, but hopefully that is changing.

No, I’m using that term correctly. Using that logic, Grichuk at his best is an all star. That doesn’t mean it’s a realistic expectation over a full season. Matz has had two really good seasons in his career, and he’s been around the same type of pitcher (from a value standpoint) both years. That’s probably a best case for what he is. Now, if the team thinks 2nd half Matz is sustainable, then it would make more sense to try to get him on a longer term deal for less AAV.

I'm surprised that some people are on board with giving Matz the QO. I know a one year deal is a no risk kind of contract, but that would still be $18m of the team's available payroll being spent on a guy who had a 4.83 ERA/4.92 FIP (411 IP) in the NL from 2017-2020. As mentioned, that's the same money the team gave Semien who had MVP candidate upside based on his 2019 season and how he finished 2020. Matz at his absolute best is a sub-3 WAR SP with a spotty track record. I'd rather try to find the next Matz who another team wants to give up on rather than pay the real one $18m over a season. If the team is going throw $18m AAV's out there, then go for the bigger fish.

This post season is really showing how important rotation depth is. Having openers/bullpen games in playoff games, especially for a team like the Dodgers, is just awful. The Jays probably were nicely set up for a playoff run as they legit had 4 SPs they could have counted on.

The only reason for a FA to turn down the QO is if he knows he's going to get significantly more in free agency. Semien will turn it down. Ray will turn it down. Matz will accept 1/18 before Atkins even spits the offer out of his mouth. The question becomes, do the Jays want Matz taking up $18m of 2022 payroll? My guess is no. If the team wants to offer a big one year deal, then just go $20-25m on Syndergaard over a year and see if he bites. Aim as high as possible.

The Dodgers deserve this for bringing Urias in as a RP in game 2.

I will always know Laz Diaz because of Game 1 of the ALCS in 2016. The Upton called K in particular always stuck with me.

You could tell Masai was aiming to do this after the championship. He practically made no effort to improve the club after Kawhi left, and kind of just let core players leave (Green, Ibaka, Gasol) without adequately replacing them. Stanley Johnson, Chris Boucher, Patrick McCaw, Matt Thomas, Aron Baynes, etc, are not players you sign expecting to keep the team competitive. It was a very slick tank job, which didn't work in 2020 since they were still really good with Ibaka and Gasol still in the front court, but definitely worked after that with those two leaving and being replaced by Baynes. This issue with the current team is half court offense. They'll have trouble scoring most nights, especially with Siakam out. Defense will probably be excellent, but they lack a go-to scoring option. Another high lotto pick would be nice. The East is probably still bad enough in the bottom end for the team to have a real shot at a play-in game, but it really depends on whether they can score enough in the half court to be competitive. Defensively and effort-wise, they will be.

Yeah if the Raptors finish around .500, that would be a major accomplishment. A big reason for the team's regular season success in year's past was Lowry. Now the team is without him, plus have to deal with an injury to Siakam on top of that. It's going to be a growing year, most likely. The East is probably still bad enough for the Raps to be in the play-in games, but anything beyond that would require a lot of things going right (OG taking the next step, ROY Barnes, etc).

Kirk is 22, at catcher, with an excellent offensive profile. I don't think the Jays would have trouble getting value for him. It's not about shopping him necessarily, it's that he's probably the one catcher on the 40 man who is both expendable + should (in theory) have high value in a trade. The team is not going to get much value for either Jansen or McGuire, and there's a chance that Jansen still might be decent (we will have to get more sample size after his strong end to the season). They'll get a ton of value for Moreno, but he's not being moved. That leaves Kirk as the most logical piece to move in a deal. The one team that jumps out to me is the Marlins. They have SP's up the wazoo and badly need MLB level offense. There's probably some deal there with the 2 teams that could be worked out.

The Yankees have re-signed Aaron Boone to a 3 year deal, and Yankees fans on social media are acting like Jays fans will act when Montoyo gets his extension.

It wouldn't surprise me if he gets traded this winter. Montoyo is staying, possibly long-term/forever, and down the stretch he was playing McGuire over Kirk in the team's most important games of the season. The team will need to keep DH open for Springer (over 30, lower body injuries), Vlad, etc, as a rotating position to rest guys periodically, so Kirk doesn't really help in that area. His trade value likely exceeds the value he's going to give to the team at this rate, especially if Moreno is seen as the real deal.

The more I look at the Jays payroll situation, now and down the road, the more I think they pass on Semien/Ray due to price and focus on finding the 2022 versions of those two players. Basically try to do what AA did in Atlanta. Just keep trying to find the best short term value every year (JD, Ozuna, Morton, etc) to supplement the existing young core.

I was rooting for the Dodgers in this series, but the way they have used their pitching staff is turning me off. No reason to use Urias in that spot. I know they have injuries, but damn.

He's a good bounce back candidate given how bad he was this season, but even if he was bad again in 2022, the final year of his deal is an option. Just decline the option. They'll have to pay him $8m for that, but Grichuk at $9+m isn't any better. It would be a pick your poison scenario. JBJ is a much better fit for this roster, although the risk would be Buntoyo playing him a lot regardless of performance. Charlie loves vetrins.

Trade Grichuk for JBJ. The salaries are about equal (JBJ: $9.5m in 2022/$8.0m buyout in 2023, Grichuk $9.33m in 2022+2023). JBJ is coming off an awful season, but he's LH, can play CF, and would be a better 4th OF option on a team with so many RH outfielders. No idea whether the Brewers would be interested in a deal like that, but trying to be realistic, and let me dream about a roster without Grichuk dammit.

Correa is actually likable to me, although I like players who can heel it up and embrace their douchiness (JD, Stroman, Bautista, as recent Jays examples).

I want a Dodgers/Astros 2017 rematch. Closest thing to a real rivalry left between the four teams.

A great game by two great teams and the story is going to be about an umpire. Sounds about right. Umpires seems to have gotten worse this season, and that’s saying something. The sad thing is, this wouldn’t have been prevented by robo umps since it wasn’t even the HP umpire’s blown call.

If he were to describe Vick the same way he described Ozuna, then it would have been something like "lost Vick due to dog fighting investigation", which would have also been fine. Nothing Passan said came close to mentioning or marginalizing the victim as much as "disobedient dog" would have. It's apples and oranges.

Disagree completely. I don't even think it was poorly worded or easily misinterpreted. He stated a fact. It was an incident of alleged domestic violence. He didn't condone or make light of it. He didn't minimize it. He just said it happened and it was the reason for Ozuna's absence. I'm not surprised people called him out for it. That's what Twitter does. It's a small minority, but it has the loudest voice. Passan did what he had to do to appease the bullies and it's done now while accomplishing nothing.