glory

DSJ being a better outfielder than anyone currently on the roster aside from Grichuk is not a far fetched outcome. That might say more about how bad the Jays are than DSJ, but it's true. Even if he's league average, that unfortunately might be better than Teoscar, McKinney, Drury (now that he's playing OF), Gurriel, etc.

Thank god.

At some point if Shatkins is to be trusted from a player development side, they'll need to turn some of these guesses into hits. Smoak definitely helps, but that's it in 3+ years. If you asked to name all the players the Rays fixed over that same span, the list would be a lot longer. Hell, the Yankees list would be a lot longer. That's who were are competing with.

Rebuilding in the shadows and rebuilding are two different things. Or at least two different strategies. In no way were the Jays rebuilding in 2017 and 2018. In the background, sure, they made sure the farm system was being taken care of, but in the forefront they held on to players they should have moved and let big league assets depreciate in value before trading them. My example of rebuilding in 2018 would have been trading Donaldson to the Cardinals in the winter and then starting Solarte at third. In hindsight Solarte sucked, but you could have at least projected a 1-2 WAR out of him, while maximizing the return on JD. That's the type of off season the Jays should have had here. They are obviously salivating to trade Stroman, Sanchez, Giles, etc, but wanted their values to increase, but what stopped them from signing good vets instead of spoon feeding playing time to Hernandez, Drury, McKinney, Brito, Hanson, etc? Why sign Galvis then, should have just went with Gurriel and Urena and lived with the consequences. The Jays partially rebuilt in 2017 and 2018 (and even 2016 when they were adding to a playoff team), but no way were they really rebuilding. There was more value wasted in those three seasons than anything else. This team took a huge hit by waiting to trade certain players.

Rogers will force them to win either in 2020 or 2021. No way they let the attendance decline even further. I'm with BTS. I was all for letting the young kids play, but as the off season played out, we saw good players get traded for nothing, free agents who wanted more than the damn minimum sitting out, etc. The Jays could have easily improved the big league roster with cheap vets without sacrificing the farm system. Maybe you don't give 500 plate appearances to Tesocar, Drury, McKinney, etc, in that scenario, but boo freakin hoo. I'm also in the minority who thinks the extension to Grichuk was too soon, and he's not good enough to warrant it, but I was proven wrong with Smoak so hopefully that ends up being the case here as well. I'll let them try to win with Vlad. By the end of 2025, this team better than at least 2 playoff appearances, if not more.

They weren't rebuilding in 2017 and 2018. They kept everyone, let their value depreciate, and then traded them at lesser value. In 2019, they could have signed a Michael Brantley type (for example), still got rid of Tulo, Martin, etc, and not had it affect the rebuild. I and many others were screaming for them to trade for Yandy Diaz since the Indians didn't seem to give two shits about him, and of course the damn Rays get him. There were ways to rebuild and try to improve the big league team at the same time, and that Jays didn't do that.

AA rebuilt in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Then after a horrid 2012 season, the payroll suddenly shot up due to short sighted trades/signings. JP rebuilt in 2002, 2003, and 2004, and then after a horrid 2004, Rogers announced a huge 3 year payroll hike which caused a short term window. In other words, Rogers could come out this winter and force Shapiro to win, and it wouldn't surprise me.

It's a combination of baseball as a whole not being popular (everywhere not just Toronto), Shatkins willing to tank for at least a year if not more, and Toronto being a bandwagon baseball town. Baseball is practically irrelevant in the mainstream. It's completely regional now, and when there is no hype even in your own city, then it's going to spell disaster for attendance. Shatkins could have rebuilt while still trying to field at least a palatable roster. They chose not to. Maybe it will be the right move in the end, but it's going to hurt short term.

Gaviglio again? Damn how often is he being used?

Grichuk believes in his manager so much that he swung as hard as he could to hit the ball a few feet off home plate. A swinging bunt. Play for one run, you get more, dammit.

Buntoyo is the manager we don't deserve.

Tepera is in so this game is over.

Don't draw a walk Vlad, he'll take you out of the game!

Carlos Garcia 1997 is the worst that I remember.

Don't forget the pinch running in the 9th, and giving him a day off less than a week into his debut. No other org would treat a generational talent like that.

Nurse has been a big problem with rotations. Last night he played Lowry/FVV/Norm together in two critical spots and the Sixers killed that lineup. He pretty much cannot have more than 2 bench players in the lineup at one time, so he has to stagger the minutes/rest a lot better.

Good lord, trade him to Atlanta to be reunited with AA and be done with this dude. One good season in his entire pro life and he thinks he can mouth off like this. That quote is worse than anything Stroman has said.

The A's messing up the plans.

Pissed yes, but realistic. The Magic winning game 1 was a fluke. I can accept that and knew the ship would be righted. But I see no optimism here. It's a really bad matchup for the Raptors.

Call up Jonathan Davis. He's actually doing well in AAA and has a useful skill set (plays D, speed, can hit lefties). I know Atkins is tanking but this is really bad. Hanson and Brito will pass through waivers so quickly no one will even notice.

What adjustment can they make, though? The bench is unplayable and only two players on the starting 5 can consistently create offense. Lowry is what he is now; a washed up version of what was already a playoff choker. Without a 3rd option or a capable bench player, I can't think of one damn thing the Raptors could do to turn things around, aside from Kawhi and Siakam playing like MJ and Scottie for 3 of the next 4 games like they did in game 1. I knew after game 1 of the Cavs series last year that a sweep was coming. You just have those feelings after a demoralizing loss. Felt the same thing after game 2 of this series. I think this is over in 6 with the Sixers winning, but I hope I'm wrong.

It's not the refs fault. Other than Kawhi and Siakam, no one else on the team can create for themselves now that Kyle is a combination of past his prime and "Playoff Lowry". I think if the Raptors win game 4 then they'll win the series, but it's not looking good right now. I really wish Masai could have traded Lowry either after he traded DeMar or at the trade deadline. If they lose this series and Kawhi leaves, he'll have wasted the team's best shot at making the finals by riding with Lowry too long. If Siakam didn't develop this year the Raptors would have been swept in this series. They lucked out.

I've never seen a team/front office be gifted a generational talent and not want him to play. Between intentionally postponing his debut, to pinch running for him multiple times, and now benching him for a game despite an off day Monday. Gibby 2.0 would have played him every game and batted him 2nd.

I like how open Felipe is about sleeping with his sister and no one cares. Not even hiding in plain sight.

Jays need to solely focus on players who had dad's in the big leagues. They made a huge mistake letting DSJ go for the name alone.