glory

Smoak is replacement level, and Bautista and Saunders are s*** fielders. Upton is probably just as good a hitter as Smoak but plays a solid OF, which means they can move Bats and MS to DH. Improves the defense tremendously and does nothing to the offense, maybe even improves it since at least Upton can run a bit. This would be an upgrade for 2016, no question. Depends what is given up though. Better not be a good prospect, and I suspect it won't be.

A 2 WAR OF has value, and that's pretty much what he is now. Not someone I'd pay $16M to, so depends how much SD is covering. Upgrade over Smoak in 2016, and OF depth for 2017 if/when JB and MS leave.

Upton in OF > Smoak at 1B. Depends on the cost and how much SD eats up. Better not be a real prospect. Maybe they are keeping Barnes in the minors for a reason.

His FB velocity is down 2 mph and he's getting hit harder than he ever has before. He might be able to turn things around but it's not like the Jays gave up on him because of his ERA. He's been pretty damn bad with some red flags around him. With that said, getting rid of him just to bring up Tepera is pointless. I'd rather have Storen with a velocity drop than Tepera fully healthy.

They took 2 over the weekend. Can't hate on them too much.

Cecil looking good today. Finally.

If they wanted to DFA Storen, that's one thing, but calling up someone who is even worse than present-day Storen isn't helping anyone.

He's getting hit harder than ever and his velocity is down. This is not all bad luck.

Heyman tweeted that the Jays and O's are the favorites to land Upton. Does this mean JB or Saunders will be at DH for the rest of the season while the new OF plays RF or LF? I'm down with that. Sorry Smoak.

Hey guys, did you hear? Baseball will be so much better with a shorter season, less time between pitches, etc. The s***** umps will remain, though.

Was Thole stopping on his own or did Rivera tell him to? Can't really blame him if the 3rd base coach put his hands up. Either way, yes, Thole does suck and Dickey ain't worth this hassle. Trade Dickey for a RP, move Chavez to the rotation, and get a real back-up catcher.

Man, just stretch out Jesse Chavez instead of trading for Cashner or really anyone rumored to be on the move. Mediocrity at its finest with some of the names rumored to be available.

Baseball just has to accept what it is. It's not a mainstream game (anymore). It's a regional game. Fans of baseball will watch their team's games, but "casual fans" will not regardless of arbitrary changes. MLB is better off trying to better market their stars, and even then, it probably won't mean much. It's f***ing stupid to think that shaving 8 games from the schedule, shortening each game by 20 minutes, limiting bullpen changes, etc, is going to mean a damn thing as far as getting more fans to watch. It's stupid and naive. How about replacing home plate umpires so that balls and strikes are called more accurately? How about putting the DH in the NL so we don't have to see .100 hitters batting in the 9th spot every game in one league, while the other league has an actual hitter in place of that? There are things that can make the quality of play better. That's what they should be focusing on. Not trying to make a intrinsically long/boring game shorter by a meaningless amount of minutes. Baseball makes money the way they are now. TV ratings are down for everything. Just embrace what you are. It will be a concern many years from now when the older demo dies out and they'll need to get new fans, but I think that will happen regardless. It won't lead to monster TV ratings, but it doesn't have to.

Manfred is a moron. Baseball is what it is. Cutting the time of games is not going to suddenly increase ratings or fan interest. Baseball is making money and fans are going to games. Stop f***ing the game up to get TV ratings when ratings across the board are down.

If the Twins win one game this weekend, it would be a success.

Happ, Estrada, Biagini, Barney, Grilli, and Floyd were all good moves. If Chavez was a starter I think that move would look better than it does. Only real bad moves were Storen and Morales, and I guess now Smoak but that's probably more questionable than it is bad.

Yep, Gibby will play him everyday at 1B the moment he gets back. Ugh. I'd rather have Lake platoon with Smoak than Mushroom. Lake's OF defense looks like Pillar's compared to Mushroom, and Lake's terrible.

Dickey with a replacement level or better catcher is fine. With Thole, it's probably worse than the Smoak deal, and I don't like the Smoak deal at all.

Is the team good? Yes. Good enough to win the division over similarly talented teams (Boston) or a team that seems to win 90+ games every other year regardless of talent level (Baltimore)? That's the main issue. Last year the East looked pretty winnable. Now the Jays legitimately have to be good just to stay within striking distance. I just hope they are either in a good spot or far enough out of it where they can trade vets by the deadline. The latter seems unlikely, but good god, I want to avoid the 83-79 area like this team has always seemed to be in. It's no fun.

You mean the guy who promoted 20-year old's from A+ to the Majors rather than letting them develop and went for broke in July when the team was .500 had no long-term intentions in mind? Crazy. I agree, AA was gone the moment Shapiro came on board, and probably before that as well. He knew it, Shapiro knew it, and everyone else did. Giving him credit for anything that happened after he left is ridiculous.

Nice, bring in a reliever who has given up nothing but hard contact all season into a game with a runner on base and no outs. What could go wrong?

Thole has made over $5m since 2013. All because of Dickey. If Dickey does treat him like a slave, it would be justified.

As far as Smoak, not a fan of this one. Could have waited until the off season, I'm sure an option as good as Smoak (or Smoak himself) would have been out there for similar dollars.

Lol, that's ridiculous.