glory

True, teams were not giving up top prospects at all, so can't entirely fault the FO for taking what they perceived to be the best offer they got. Still, out of all the deadline deals, the Happ trade was the one I had to convince myself to be ok with. I liked or really liked all the other moves (even the JD trade considering the circumstances), but the Happ deal was the one where I read it and was highly disappointed. Oh well. Drury is resting up so he can become the next Jays late bloomer next season, and McKinney has Justin Upton upside. Just have to hope one of them works out.

I wonder how much (and how many years) Cutch will command in free agency. Some will argue the Jays don't need to spend money on the OF, but with as many OF's as they have on the 40 man, there isn't a lot of starting caliber guys, at least not yet. I still like Alford, much to Todd's disappointment. Give him half of 2019 and i think he'll bounce back.

Given Borucki's history, I would have understood taking him out after 7. The game means nothing, and one of us could come out of the pen and put up 0's against the Orioles.

I'm probably late to the party here, but had no idea Miles Mikolas was having the type of year he's had. After tonight: 185.2 ip, 3.01 ERA, 3.36 FIP, and a WAR around ~4.0. One hell of a signing by the Cards.

Papa Buehrle conceived a child while he was here. Borucki making his dad proud.

The problem with trading Pillar is that aside from Alford (who had a bad year), no one can play CF. Well, Grichuk can, but he doesn't rate very well over there. He's more likely to be a 2-3 WAR player in RF. An OF with Grichuk at CF and Teoscar anywhere else is likely to be awful. Although if they can trade Pillar and move Morales, then putting Teoscar at DH, Grichuk at CF, and finding an above average defensive veteran to fill one of the corners (with McKinney on the other) might be doable. Lose some defensive value with Grichuk, but it's only temporary until Alford is (hopefully) ready mid season. The Jays will have a lot of OF's on the 40 man roster next year (Pillar, Grichuk, Teoscar, McKinney, Alford, Davis, Pompey, Smith Jr). They also may want to add Ramirez. Looks like Pompey is gone one way or another (wonder how long it takes Alex to bring him in?). There is going to have to be some movement there. THe Jays might be at the point where they have to make some Yankees types of trades (to clear 40 man clutter).

Just wait until Samad Taylor blows up next year. You'll be even more annoyed by how often I bring that up. (P.S. for all the s*** I got for suggesting the Jays trade Pillar for Profar, you damn right I'm going to bring it up.....)

I predicted he'd go Jean Segura on the league this year. While he hasn't hit as well as 2016 Segura, he will still end up with a 3-4 WAR and wRC+ around 110 (basically 2017-18 Segura), which is pretty darn good. Too bad it's for the Rangers.

That's what this front office covets. Hard hits, barrels, exit velocity, and all that jazz. The problem is they haven't been able to find hitters who have that profile plus ability to get on base. Once that happens, then we will see some results.

If the offers are good, then maybe, but he is controllable through 2020, so waiting until next July won't be a bad idea either.

Well yeah this was the worst case scenario playing out, but Shatkins didn't have much of a choice after JD got hurt and couldn't get healthy in time for the July deadline. Hell he wasn't even healthy for the August deadline. I don't think him accepting the QO would have been all that surprising. A guaranteed $19m or going on the market with a pick attached to you and having to find a better deal coming off a lost season seems like a no brainer decision. He's 33 next year. His time to make big money is dwindling. If he's going to settle for a pillow contract, then the guaranteed money that comes with the QO is probably as good as he would have gotten. The Jays either had to trade him or set aside close to $20m to put him at 3B in 2019. The comp pick is probably not even in the discussion.

If Hernandez is a DH only, then I'd probably try to trade him instead of put him at DH. Unless he's the next Khris Davis, the chances of him becoming a regular is low. A little bit of D combined with an above league average bat would have helped, but if he can't play a lick of D, then he has an uphill battle.

JD would have had to turn down the QO to get the comp pick, never mind the actual value of a pick in the 70’s or 80’s range. If Shatkins knew he was going to turn the QO down he may not have been traded. But there was a strong chance he would have accepted and I think Shatkins just wanted to move on entirely.

McHugh is another one who didn't get a shot until 27 and he's been very good ever since. Merryweather would be a much better prospect if he was 24 instead of turning 27, but that doesn't mean he can't become a productive big leaguer.

He'll be 27 for all of the 2019 season. That's how age is looked at in baseball. This was his age 26 season. Next year will be 27.

SRF now with two 10 K starts in his last three. Looks inconsistent as hell, but he's still young. Stuff is obviously there.

Merryweather's age 26 season was wiped out due to injury, otherwise he probably reaches the bigs this year (either for the Indians or another team). He will be 27 next year and at least half the season will probably be lost (and the other half will be spent rehabbing), but in a best case if he's ready to start in 2020, that covers age 28-33. Not young, but not ancient either.

I would root for the A's, but I think a Yankees/Red Sox ALDS is better for baseball. I know baseball is almost entirely regional now, but that is the one series that will get some mainstream publicity. I hate seeing MLB ignored.

Nice way to work out of the jam by Ten Straight Balls. 6 K's in 2 IP.

Manfred will rectify the s***** umpiring across the league by adding the runner on 2nd to start extra innings rule.

A team that’s under .500 against every team not in the AL Central (last time I checked) should not win it all. They basically have one Blue Jays and three Orioles in their division. I’d rather the Red Sox win than Cleveland, and I hate everything about Boston.

Well hindsight works both ways. If Merryweather ends up being really good then the same reaction to losing out on Flaherty should be used to praise Shatkins for getting Merryweather instead. At the time reasoning should be used in most cases as we don’t have the benefit of hindsight at the time something happens. Losing out on Flaherty hurts a lot more now that we see what he has become.

Yeah this deal looks worse in hindsight. I wanted Reyes at the time, but clearly Stl wasn't giving him up, and he's hurt again. I don't know if I would have been thrilled with Flaherty as the main piece at the time (I hate pitching prospects in general and Reyes is proving why) but in hindsight with Flaherty turning into something and Merryweather being what we ended up getting back, it def looks worse.

How many businesses who are raking in dough over a three year stretch would agree to take a short term financial hit with no guarantee that it would have any long term payoff?

Because he has a history in Cleveland of doing the exact opposite of what he did in 2018. Shapiro has made quotes before about win curves and things like that. I highly doubt it was his idea to keep this team together in 2018. It's the reason why he only brought players in short term. Those vets are easy to flip at the deadline and won't hurt financial flexibility for down the road. 2018 was essentially a shot in the dark at a 2nd wild card and if all that failed then it would be easy to change direction. It looks bad now because JD got hurt and Osuna beat his girl. It could have looked better if those two things didn't happen. I could see both sides of the argument really. Rogers doesn't give a s*** about baseball, so all they see is three straight high attendance years and do not want the optics nightmare of having to sell tickets after trading their best player(s). If I was running a business and had a small segment of that business being something that I didn't particularly care about, I'd only look at revenue/profit too. That's why I hate Rogers owning this team, but even then, it could be a lot worse.