glory

Mario T ain't wasting his time to watch Goins. He knows what's up.

Goins BABIP will be .380 next season.

If Trollosi is the only one mentioning this then I doubt it has any validity. If it does, then I'd be fine with a minor league deal, or a very minor big league deal (think Gavin Floyd 2016). Otherwise, pass.

Agreed on Garcia. Don't really care who the reliever(s) are. There are a bunch that would be worth cheap one year deals. As long as they don't burn millions on loogy's anymore.

Not only did Atkins say the org likes him more than the industry does, but basically everything they liked about Smoak applies to Grichuk if you look at their batted ball profiles. Doesn't mean it will lead to the same type of breakout, but Grichuk could actually run and play defence so the offensive improvement doesn't have to be that dramatic.

2 in the top 10 is awesome. Pearson already in the top 100 after a couple of months as a pro as well. Looking good.

I said if he sees an improvement in his performance like Bruce saw after 2015 that combined with his D and base running, that would be a damn good player (whereas Bruce can't run or play D so it's not as valuable).

I think they expect more Jay Bruce post-2015 rather than Smoak, but since Grichuk can actually run and play D, that's a pretty damn good player.

Good power potential, but yeah, could use some OBP. Travis and Tulo bouncing back, at least the half season they actually spend on the field, would be helpful.

Yep, this is probably the position player roster: CA Martin 1B Smoak 2B Travis SS Tulo 3B Donaldson RF Grichuk CF Pillar LF Granderson DH Morales BN Pearce BN Solarte BN Zeke BN Maile AAA: Hernandez, Alford, Pompey, Smith Jr, Jansen, Diaz, Gift, Tellez

Garcia would look nice in the bottom of the rotation. Add him and maybe one or two relievers on the cheap, and we should be good. Add minor league deals to Hutch and Liriano for good measure.

Pillar's been awesome value the past three years but he's the type of player that can go from good to replacement level in a hurry. The longer the Jays keep him, the more they are tempting fate.

I'd be a SJW for a day if it meant I never had to see Pillar swing a bat for the Jays again, but I think that's long forgotten now. I do hope this is his last season with the Jays, though. Grichuk in RF, Alford in CF, and Teoscar in LF for 2019 would be fine with me.

Can you imagine Stro's twitter meltdown if the Jays traded Pillar? Unfortunately it's not going to happen. At least not yet.

Sign me up for Garcia. Projected 2 WAR, heavy GB pitcher, and should be reasonably priced.

Batted ball profile and hard contact strikes again. This front office has a type. Hopefully some high performance magic turns him into 2017 Smoak offensively.

Yeah, Shatkins acquired Grilli and Benoit when both guys were striking guys out but couldn't find the plate. They were fixed almost instantly after being acquired. Not saying all pitchers will work out like that, but the logic is sound. If you can miss bats, then harnessing control over a SSS is doable.

Sure he can do that. I don't necessarily have an issue with a pitch clock (as long as it doesn't affect pitcher health) or instant intentional walk, but I just don't see it making much of a difference. Shaving 10 minutes off a game seems like a rather pointless exercise when the issue is a lot bigger than that. The NBA is at peak popularity despite having no parity and the games being between two and a half to three hours long with timeouts, reviews, etc. No one is asking them to lower the length of time outs and things like that to make the games shorter. Juicing the balls is a tangible difference maker. 100% behind that move. The playoffs this year in particular got a ton of mainstream attention because of the long balls and comebacks. That will help the game. Pace of play might just have to be a thing they have to live with. I don't think it will make a real difference on how the game is perceived.

They also traded for Jay Bruce before his offensive recovery, so they saw that coming as well. I'd trust their judgment. THey won't be right on everything but it's not like they signed Morales because his HR/RBI will make fans forget about Edwin. There were underlying reasons to like him, especially as he went to a more hitter friendly park. He was 9th in avg exit velocity in 2017 so he's still hitting the ball hard. I'm not even sure what to predict for his performance in 2018. It seems like maybe a tweak to his swing can make him a better hitter but he might be too old to listen to that.

See, I don't mind Manfred making changes. As much as I love baseball the way it is, in reality, the sport is very close to becoming regional and out of the mainstream eye due to how old its fanbase is, so in that sense I get why Manfred is trying to do things to appeal to millennials. The amount of times I have watched baseball with my wife (who is not a fan) and having her lose interest in between pitches is pretty damn common. I get it. My issue is the actual changes he is making. Are fans really going to care whether there is a 20 second clock? Is that going to bring young kids or women or any other demo they want to reach to the ball park? Will these changes makes black athletes choose baseball over other sports? Will this help market the game more? If the answer to all of those questions is no, then who cares? This is window dressing to avoid the real issues. I guarantee if the games were 4 hours but Mike Trout was as big a celebrity as LeBron James, none of this pace of play stuff would even be relevant. I actually think juicing the ball was a great idea. Home runs will excite kids, and it's easier to market Aaron Judge than it is to market a boring ass pitcher who just gets outs without any personality. Eventually, I do think Manfred is going to mess something up completely. Whether it be adding more playoff teams or doing that stupid extra innings thing where there is a runner on 2nd to start the inning, etc. He seems like someone who understands the issue but has no idea how to fix it, so he throws s*** at a wall.

If I were a GM trading with Alex, I'd ask for Acuna + others as well.

The Jays have pretty good depth across the board from the position player side. A major difference over the past two seasons is that a lot of the depth are actual prospects, which at least adds a bit of upside, to go along with the more established performance of someone like Solarte. A lot will depend on how good their starting position players are. Where they lack depth is in the rotation, and that's going to hurt a lot if they insist on starting the season with Biagini as the 5th starter. They need to add at least one SP option, even if it's Brett Anderson or some rec project like Chris Tillman. Build up as much depth as possible.

Jays have signed Al Alburquerque to a minor league deal.

I actually don't mind Biagini as a starter, but not as a the #5 to start the season. Let him be one of the depth guys to start with, and then let him replace someone when a need arises. If the Jays are going to allocate most of their remaining funds to an outfielder, then I guess we are looking at Gomez or CarGo. Can't see them signing Cain, and everyone else available is going to get significantly less. Gomez and CarGo are likely looking at deals at or around $8-10M, unless the market really craps out.

I fully expect them to circle back to Brett Anderson. He will probably sign for cheap, and his arm will explode within a month or two, so Biagini can start from there.