glory

That was the most Trop loss ever.

Probably because it took him 90 pitches to get through 3 innings before, but if he's trying to pitch to contact he'll get creamed. I see him as a RP long term, a multi inning type, and maybe that's where he'll shine. I don't think he's a starter, but no harm in giving him a chance.

Through 5 innings.... Kay: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 HR, 92 pitches Eh. Better than his first start.

I really want to see a new pitching coach on this team. Not saying a new one would turn these guys into stars or anything, but dammit I'm tired of Pete Walker not having anyone improve under his watch.

Thornton giving up some hard contact this inning.

Anyone else find it absurd that the Jays are using the DH spot to move guys around so that Freddy Galvis can play everyday? I know I can't put anything past Montoyost, but Smoak/Galvis should either be on other teams or used way more sparingly.

I think the philosophy is good but the trading is bad. Everything else, for the most part, has been fine. Drafting, int'l signings, roster management. The free agents are hit or miss (Morales being the main miss) but you'll have bad FA signings here and there. Smoak extension was good foresight, Grichuk extension remains to be seen. I'll give them a slight pass for the bad timing in trades since it could have been an ownership call, but the trade returns definitely pushed the potential timeline back a bit. Maybe not that far back, but still a setback. If they started selling at the 2017 deadline or even pre-2018 off season, that small window of time could have changed the level of talent significantly (ex. Flaherty instead of Merryweather, etc).

List of AA moves with big league implications.. 2018 Kemp (1.6 WAR) to LA for Culberson (1.0 WAR), Gonzalez (N/A), Kazmir (N/A), McCarthy (0.2 WAR) Signed Danny Santana (0.1) Traded for Preston Tucker (0.0 WAR) Signed Peter Bourjos (-0.1 WAR) Signed Ryan Flaherty (-0.4 WAR) Signed Jose Bautista (-0.1 WAR) Traded international bonus money for Jonny Venters (0.2 WAR) Traded for Adam Duvall (-0.5 WAR) Traded international bonus money for Brad Brach (0.3 WAR) Traded for Kevin Gausman (0.8 WAR, 10 starts) That was his entire contribution to the 2018 Braves playoff team that won 90 games. Shatkins (or ShaCava) did more to help the 2016 Jays make the playoffs from a pure value standpoint of players they acquired/signed. 2019 Signed Josh Donaldson (3.3 WAR) ---> good move Signed Brian McCann (1.0 WAR) Signed Nick Markakis (0.2 WAR) Signed Josh Tomlin (0.0 WAR, 59.1 IP) Traded for Anthony Swarszak (0.1 WAR, 24 IP) Signed Dallas Keuchel (0.4 WAR, 4.75 FIP, 56 IP) Then his trade deadline moves that only have a week of sample size If you prefer AA to Atkins, that is one thing. But if you say AA helped the Braves the last two years over practically anyone else who could have walked into that situation? Get the F out of here. I'll give you the extensions. Smart moves by AA, even though taking advantage of dirt poor kids trying to support their families is not something I'd be too cool with, but hey it's not my life.

I think the Rays have to be move, but I also question why Montreal is even a thing after how bad they were at drawing fans the last time, and baseball was a lot more mainstream popular back then.

I don’t think any AA move has worked for the Braves except signing JD. Dude inherited a gold mine.

No one is taking Grichuk's contract. The only time he might be movable is after year 2, assuming he bounces back next year, since they front loaded his deal. At this point I think putting Smoak through waivers is the right call. Either call Tellez up, or use 1B for some combination of Biggio, Drury, and whoever else. Smoak is not someone the team should re-sign and he is taking AB's away from players in a lost season. Cut bait.

If the Rays traded for Sogard, then that means he's legit. I hope the Jays got at least 2 intriguing lottery tickets, but the Rays are run so well I'm not optimistic.

Nate Pearson will be pitching to contact when he meets Pete Walker.

Going from Pete Walker to practically anyone else was going to end up being good for Sanchez. The fact that he went to the pitching factory known as the Astros is just icing on the cake for him.

Sanchez 4 innings, 0 hits, 1 walk, 4 strike outs. Fisher leaves game after fly ball lands on his face. Not a good start to this trade.

Pipeline scouting report makes it sound like he's a reliever long term. Numbers in AA as a SP not that great. Might as well see what he has in a multi inning role for the rest of the year since he's on the 40 man anyway.

I'm actually surprised Diaz, Murphy, and Perez have been in AA for so long considering they are on the 40 man. They haven't been dominating AA, that's probably why, but I figured they'd promote them quicker to have some added depth. I guess AA to MLB is one way.

Espinal is Rule 5 eligible this winter. Same with Wall. Will be interesting to see what the Jays do. I expect to see some 40 man roster clean up.

I like Stroman as a player and competitor. I don’t even mind his social media persona because that’s what sells with youth nowadays and lord knows MLB could use some younger fans. But him endorsing Keith Law’s vendetta and race baiting is not cool. I think there is a lot of systematic racism still alive in sports today but a white douchebag like Law has no business being the one to try to bring attention to it, especially when he’s basing it off a quote where he doesn’t know the source and is assuming the context. Stroman should have known better.

Yeah I'm surprised they held on to him. He's playing for a contract next year so benching him like they did Martin would hurt him. Best bet might be to DFA him and hope a team picks him up for the final month or two. I just don't see any reason for the Jays keeping him, even for vetrin presents.

That's a point in his favor. Jays like them thicc.

If you're arguing that Cashman is on a different planet compared to Atkins, you won't get an argument for me. Atkins isn't qualified to shine Cashman's shoes as an executive. The Yankees have a track record of developing talent better than practically everyone. If Cashman traded for Derek Fisher, we'd be wondering when, not if, he'll turn into a star. The Jays don't have that credibility with taking flawed talent and fixing them. If they did, this rebuild would sure as hell be a lot better.

I agree that Atkins sold low in almost every situation, it is one of my major gripes with him, but that goes back to my earlier point. They spent 1.5 years pretending to contend. They never made a real attempt at going for it, nor did they trade anyone at peak value. They rebuilt in the background. That's why the farm is so good primarily due to drafting and international signings. They didn't trade prospects for big league help, they plastered the team with cheap vet plug ins they signed for little in free agency. They didn't trade vets at peak value, they held on to them to try to stumble into a WC spot hoping the weak AL stayed weak (then the Yankees got good overnight, and the rest is history). It was the most risk averse and hedge conscious a team could possibly be, likely do to ownership seeing $$$$ and not wanting to derail that money stream before they had to. Rebuilding teams are not all built the same. Some teams make great trades. The Jays don't. Some teams draft and sign international talent at a high level. That's where the Jays are. My point and your point are the same I think, the team would be in a much better spot if Atkins was a better trader combined with the drafting. Unfortunately he isn't, but luckily he hasn't been stupid in areas besides trading, so it mitigated a lot of the damage. The Jays are in a decent spot because of it. The one thing that hurt the Jays is that once they embraced rebuilding, it was too late to not only get value for their existing vets, but also get value in the trade market period. For some reason, maybe it was the CBA agreement shortly before the 2017 season, teams began to value prospects differently than they did previously. You can't trade for top prospects anymore. I don't think Atkins is clever enough to fleece a GM anyway, but having vets to trade nowadays is almost a disadvantage unless they come with many years of affordable control.

The rebuild began in 2016, it was just done behind the veil of "wanting to contend" to sell tickets and capitalize off the ALCS success. Shatkins to their credit never touched the prospect base and continually tried to add to it even when they were contending (the first Liriano trade), that's why the team is in such good shape despite not doing a true rebuild until a year ago. The only real negative is that we should be even better than we are now if JD/Happ was traded sooner, Osuna didn't have the legal issues, etc, etc. Some of it bad timing, some of it bad luck, but regardless still a pretty decent spot to be in all things considered.

Yeah seriously now that the young kids are up, I want to win as much as possible. We're going to lose a ton of games anyway with the AL East and our s*** pitching staff, but I'll take the W's when they are there.