glory

Bregman gets $100m guaranteed and then hits the market at age 30. Probably a good move on his part. 100 mil is 100 mil.

Yeah Morales should be DFA but they want to keep him so benching him would be the best solution. He won't have any value besides being a pinch hitter and occasional DH/1B, but at least in a back up role he would be able to provide whatever vetrin presents the team seems to think he can give while letting the younger guys get the PT. Pompey is probably s***, but I'd still prefer to roster him over Morales.

They seem to want to keep Morales around for his presents, but they might as well make him a bench guy and go with Hernandez at DH while platooning McKinney and Pompey in left. At least the right players will be getting AB's. We really don't need to see Morales playing everyday.

CA Jansen, Maile IF Smoak, Gurriel, Galvis, Drury, Urena/Sogard OF Grichuk, Pillar, McKinney, Hernandez, Pompey DH Morales DL Travis SP Stroman, Sanchez, Shoemaker, Borucki, Richard RP Giles, Tepera, Mayza, Biagini, Norris, Luciano, Gaviglio DL Buchholz, Phelps Of course things will get dicey when Vlad needs to come up and when injured players get healthy, but that's probably what we are looking at to begin the season.

So $430m on top of the $78m he's already made (according to BBREF). Over $500m. He did pretty well at this baseball thing.

Is the $430m counting the two years he has remaining or 12 years/$430m on top of what he has left? If it's $430m on top of what he is already owed, then he's going to end up with over $570m in total earnings not counting any endorsements he has or whatever his signing bonus was. That's insane.

Boras waits an eternity so he can beat Stanton's contract, and then a few weeks later Trout gets $100 million more. Love it.

Looks like things are going to change for the better.

Sucks because he was so good his first two years and seems like a really good guy but yeah his career might be winding down. At least he made a couple million in that span.

Awesome.

I can't believe they haven't done that yet, especially since they need to win in the next two years while Trout is on the roster. Insanity.

Pillar has already declined defensively so unless his bat takes a step forward the Jays are holding on to a declining asset. Shatkins has done a really good job so far but if there’s one complaint with them it’s that they hold on to players for so long that by the time they trade them it’s almost pointless to do so. Pillar will likely end up being a similar case.

Severino signing that extension makes a lot of sense now.

My suggestions: DH to the NL has to happen. Pitchers hitting is stupid and pointless. Marketing the game better also needs to happen. As mentioned encourage players to be themselves and as over the top as they can be. That's what sells today. Harper is the closest thing to a mainstream star baseball has. They need more. I remember Bautista's bat flip led off practically every ESPN show the day after, and ESPN has been slowly phasing baseball out for years now. Give fans a reason to care. Make the league minimum $1m (year 1 is $1m, year 2 is $1.5m....something like that). Players become arb eligible after year 2, and players receive a buyout (say, $750k) if they are non tendered, since I'm pretty sure teams will go on non tender sprees if arb starts earlier. It's not the perfect solution, but will improve the players 0-6 years earnings, and won't be too big of a hit to the owners either. I'm on board with the 3 batter minimum. I know some hate it, but pitching changes suck, and a RP having to face 3 batters means they actually have to be somewhat good, rather than a specialist. The less mediocre pitchers we have to watch, the better.

This is why I like having Dombrowski in the AL East. He builds really good teams but eventually kills them as well. Our timetable fits nicely with this.

I haven't read the whole story, but if it was Paulino being lazy or feeling entitled, then Giles did the right thing.

I like all these changes. The HR derby isn’t what it used to be but it can be a tool to market the game so a $1m incentive would give players a reason to participate and try to win. Less reliever changes also works for me. I hate one batter relievers. Those types were being pushed aside anyway but this will speed things up. More importantly, the sides seem open to talk, which is good to avoid any potential work stoppage.

So I guess Stroman for Martes+ at the deadline? Atkins hasn't made a deal with the Astros in a couple of months. Bound to happen.

The sad thing is, if you start arb earlier, which I think they should, then all we will see is a bunch of mediocre players get non tendered once they start to make real money. Like, if Pillar was a free agent, would he get 1/5 from someone? Maybe, but those types of players have no value in today's market. Imagine if Pillar was arb eligible after 2016. He would have easily been non tendered by now, and who knows what his salary would be. It would help the elite and really good talent, but may not do much for the others. I'm curious to see how the league fixes this. Teams will always find a loophole.

Bud's making the team. That contract looks like a formality. The Jays will put him on the roster the moment they can 60 day DL someone to open up a spot. Norris signing with a team that plays in a country other than 'Merica, has a Latin manager, and whose best player (even though he has no big league experience) is a Latin ROOKIE seems to imply that maybe he realizes he F'ed up in the past. Either that or no other team wanted to go anywhere near him. Maybe both.

People on social media saying the Jays are probably happy that Vlad got hurt to avoid any service time issues don't make any sense. The Jays were going to keep Vlad down until late April regardless. They don't give a damn about optics (which is a good thing in this city). I'd rather Vlad be healthy and be kept down for service time reasons than to suffer another injury (after missing time last year). Even if it may not be considered serious, the guy is 20 with weight issues. I'm not going to celebrate a damn injury.

Pillar has survived a homophobic slur controversy in the middle of SJW society. He will outlast everyone on the team.

Yeah the results are meaningless but he was a top 50 prospect prior to 2018 when he was recovering for a hamate bone injury (which can take a while to recover from). Defensively and on the base paths he will likely already be positive value, it’s just his bat that needs to follow. Worst case he’s probably Pillar, best case a lot better. I know Shatkins is probably waiting for value to come back before trading KP but this is what rebuilding teams hope for; young high upside prospects to break the door down. Don’t demote Alford if he keeps performing like this.

The last great mainstream boom for baseball was when Sosa; McGwire, and Bonds were juiced out of their minds hitting home runs. Fans don’t want to see strike outs, certainly not the fans Manfred needs to attract to the game. MLB’s audience is old. They need to attract young people. That’s why I think Aaron Judge breaking out in New York is perfect for the game. Players like him in big markets will attract fans. Same with Harper in Philly. I’m completely on board with banning excessive shifts and finding a way to limit K’s.

I might be off base but isn’t that a pretty big amount of intl money for a fringe big league outfielder who doesn’t really do anything well? Unless I’m underrating Smith Jr. Either way good move. Gaining a 40 man spot plus international dough is sweet.