glory

Anyone who calls out and humiliates Keith Law is good in my book.

If the returns for him and Stro are s***, then keep them and try to work out extensions. Trading for the sake of trading is not going to help this team. But a rebuilding team that looks years away probably would benefit more by trading a closer than extending him. Stroman is a different story since 3-4 WAR starters are harder to find.

McKinney doing that in front of Justin Upton was not a coincidence.

LOL. Ump is s***.

Giles is filthy as hell.

Atkins wanting to tank hard this year and hiring Buntoyo to pull it off makes perfect sense.

I don't even need to see his whole face to know "creepy Asian" is a douche. Let the man eat. Toronto fans are thirsty as hell.

I wonder if there is a trade out there where Stroman can be dealt for a P already in the bigs, similar to the Rays trading Archer and getting Glasnow. It would have to be buying low on a P who is struggling or in the pen since a team is not going to worsen their rotation to add Stroman. Only pitcher I can think of is Josh James, but no idea if Houston would move him or not (plus add prospects on top of that).

Rays need to move anywhere. Tampa Bay is a dump and they literally have no fanbase. Montreal can't be any worse.

I wouldn't non tender him but would definitely move him to the pen. I could picture a scenario where the Jays trade Giles, move Sanchez to the closer role, and he becomes an asset next summer as a rental RP. If he's not going to be moved to the pen, then man, that's going to be a big problem. Maybe trade him to the Braves for the 30th ranked prospect or something. AA probably still loves him.

Bo coming up this year would mean that all of Vlad, Bo, and Biggio will be free agents at the same time (after 2025). Hope some extensions are worked out well before that, but there's still a lot of time for that.

Kepler had a 11.6 BB% and 15.7 K% last year with 20 home runs. He just had a really low BABIP (.236). I'll take someone with that profile (high walk, low/medium K, developing power) any day of the week over a 5 BB% and 30 K% like Grichuk normally has. If Grichuk breaks out any time within the next 4 years it will be because he got the walks up and K's down. Either that or they keep him in RF all season and maybe his defensive value can compensate for his average bat (this might be more realistic).

Alford 3-3 with a double and a SB through six innings. Time to give him a shot.

Trade Giles, Sanchez closer. Trade him next summer as a rental closer. That's the only hope to extract value for him.

BABIP over .400 over that span, but still a huge improvement over his miserable April. Really hope he comes up and stays up. Trade Smoak, move Teoscar to DH, and put Alford in CF. If he sucks, he sucks, but this is the year to give players a shot.

Someone show that to Montoyo.

You just made my argument for me. The players you mentioned (and I have a few more) signed short term deals, or even one year deals, because of how 1-2 WAR players are valued in the current market place. No one is questioning Grichuk making $5m this year and whatever he would have made in arb next year. It's the fact that they felt the need to sign him for 5 years, which lead to $50+ mil in commitment when players like him are simply not valued anymore. Jarrod Dyson put up a 5 WAR over a two year stretch in 2016-17 and got 2/7.5. Jose Iglesias coming off a 2.5 WAR at age 28 got a minor league deal. Now you can nitpick age, whether WAR is derived from D or offence, and all that, which is fine, but fact is players better than Grichuk in value are not getting long term big money deals in free agency. Give me a choice between Schoop and Grichuk at the same price and I'll take Schoop easily, but when one costs 1/8 and the other 5/53? They are the same freakin' age and one plays the infield! Come on. Don't know what to say, put me on ignore if I mention Grichuk too much. I honestly have no idea how you think I post about him every week or whatever. Spoiler: I'm going to mention him and his s***** contract again some time between now and the next 4 years, so it won't stop. You chose to focus on that part rather than the Stroman/Giles part. That's on you. I literally mentioned him in one line to compare it to the lack of extension with Stroman and Giles. I'm not obsessed with it as you seem to think.

My fear is players that walk as infrequently as he does are less likely to maintain good offensive performance over a long period of time with his K%. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I don't think Grichuk is one of them. He's been pretty much a 100 wRC+ player from 2016-present, and unless he's killing it on defence, that's not a very good player overall. Solid/good player, sure, but not someone I'd prioritize for $50m. I'm sure he'll go on his summer hot streak and people will rejoice but between this and Morales, those are the longest contracts Atkins has given anyone in the bigs to this point (Happ was LaCava). That's a pretty bad track record, albeit in a small sample size. The good news about the contract is it is front loaded, so the final 3 years I believe is $28m total. If he's still a 2 win player by year 3 of the deal then it won't be terrible.

Stroman's also very outspoken, and has been publicly critical of Shatkins, so that might rub them the wrong way as well. I just don't see them coming to an agreement. I hope they do, as I don't think we will get nearly as much back for him as some people seem to think, but I have already prepared for him to be moved. It's only a matter of time.

About what, Stroman or Grichuk? I've been pretty consistent with both opinions. Do you truly believe that bringing up Grichuk's deal is irrelevant to this discussion? The front office somehow overpaid a 2 win player in an era of baseball where no one gets overpaid anymore, and yet I can't compare that to them not having success (or possibly interest) in extending better players on the team? I can understand being tired of hearing how bad of a contract it is (and it is!), but it's not like I brought it up for no reason. It's pretty relevant when talking about other players who the team can extend in a similar fashion.

The sad thing is, overpaying Stroman on a 5 year deal is probably more reasonable than giving Grichuk 5/53. Stro is going to be close to a 4 win player this season, and he's routinely above a 3 WAR any time he's been healthy. Why in the world they prioritized Grichuk at a non bargain price and not players like Stro and Giles is baffling to me. They better be able to develop SPs like Cleveland did/does, otherwise this is just going to get a lot uglier before it gets better.

I'm in the same boat, as I think Stro is exactly the type of arm and personality this team needs, but it ain't happening.

Jackson is helping the tank but not eating enough innings. He’s got to be terrible for 5 innings. Richard is probably our tank commander.

One thing with Atkins is he goes after players who other teams don't want to protect on their 40 man roster. Just last trade deadline we saw Paulino, Perez, Wall, Waguespack, Merryweather, McKinney, etc, who other teams gave up either to take off the existing 40 man or to not have to make a decision on that winter. Then this winter we saw it with Thornton who the Astros had to protect prior to the rule 5 or risk losing him. Unfortunately that may be where we have to start as we try to guess the returns on certain players. One would hope that Stro and Giles would be able to net real prospects regardless of 40 man roster implications, but we have to set ourselves up for reality.

Fisher would be a huge letdown but unfortunately I could see that. My guess is Atkins will try to get as much pitching as possible, so if we are talking Astros then probably Bukauskas/Abreu types. Actually, I don't think Atkins has made a bad deal with the Astros (Liriano/Hernandez, Osuna/Giles-Paulino-Perez, and Diaz/Thornton), so dealing with the Astros doesn't scare me as much as if he were talking to Brian Cashman again.