glory

From Bo(o)b Nigtengale's most recent column: There were supposed to be at least two or three teams who made larger offers to Burnes before he decided to stay home and sign with the Diamondbacks. Well, as it turns out, no one made a higher offer to Burnes. The Orioles stopped at $180 million. The Blue Jays offer was not only low, but was 75% deferred, which Burnes never took seriously. The San Francisco Giants’ pursuit of Burnes stopped before it really got started. “This," Burnes says, “was by far the best offer that we had.” Seems like their interest in Soto and Alonso was legitimate, but interest in Burnes and Bregman was fabricated, at least based on Nigtengale's report.

Yeah it's clear 2023 is this FO's ideal type of team, for better or worse, so we just have to hope this boring/frustrating vision pays off.

Once again a first place team hitting nothing but singles.

Barnes coming in next inning. That's reassuring.

Franchise crippling might be an hyperbolic, but that Vlad contract is going to hurt really badly.

The 2015 Royals without the elite bullpen and base running. I mean, maybe it will work, but it makes for some really unwatchable baseball. Unless you enjoy singles.

Low baseball IQ, worst baserunning in the league, bad defender at the easiest position in the sport. Ed Rogers lost his damn mind.

Tony Taters, finally.

Yeah there's no perfect answer in house. You can at least dream a little bit on Barger's exit velocity, hard hit rate, barrel rate, etc. The upside on Wagner in particular seems very low with a medium sized floor due to lack of position, and Roden will depend on how much power he can eventually generate, but either way they are too similar in profile. Adding a bit more volatility (lower floor) but with power you can dream on a bit seems like a better solution for this lineup. Ultimately the chances of something better than a 2 WAR player in any of those scenarios is probably small.

I like how Santander gets an ovation and a tip of the cap, while Sportsnet is busy showing a replay of Vlad running to 1B while this is going on.

I think the team might have been better off with Barger over one of those 2. Barger has a skillset that the org does not like (high K's) but it's what the team actually needs more of (power, high exit velo). The Jays have a whole bunch of players who hit line drives and make contact, but it's not optimal if 90% of the lineup has that skillset. You need more diversity. That's why when they rested Vlad that day, you pretty much had to hope for a Tony HR, otherwise it was "pray for enough singles to get runs across". Varsho might be an average-ish hitter, but he's a much needed piece to this lineup just for the off chance he can pull one out of the park.

I'm rooting for Nimmala but he's 19 in A+ with a lot of swing and miss in his profile. He's far from a sure thing, though he does have a high ceiling if he pans out. I don't think he'd even be a consideration in any discussions about whether to bring Bo back or not. If he was in AA or AAA, then that would be different as you could see a reasonable path for him to reach the bigs in 2026, but at his current rate/age he's probably a 2027-28 candidate depending on how he handles each level. I tend to agree that whoever signs Bo, the Jays or otherwise, is going to regret it. Vlad at least has a superstar offensive ceiling. Bo is closer to a 3-4 WAR talent, which is very good, but not someone I'd want to commit 10/300 to, especially with his offensive profile. Then again I didn't think Vlad should have gotten anywhere near $500M and here we are, so it's clearly not up to my tastes.

Constant reminder that baseball in April kinda sucks. Bad weather, bad attendance, quality of play not as good due to the weather conditions, etc. Oh well. Extra day of rest for the pen at least, and having what turns out to be an off day during a 13 games in a row stretch against teams predicted to be playoff contenders before the season is probably a good thing.

Wells, Delgado, and Catalanotto on that list, and it's in team order from the looks of it, so likely from 2003 or 2004. McGwire retired in 2001 so that's probably why he's not on the list. Disappointing if Delgado was using PEDs, though I guess it shouldn't be surprising given what era he was in. Adrian Beltre stands out as well, and in his 2004 season he suddenly had 48 HR's and 161 wRC+ out of nowhere before falling off again the following year until 2010-18 when he became a stud. I wouldn't expect Heyman to add any context to that list, assuming it's legitimate.

The pitching matchups look solid for the Jays but their approach of nothing but taking pitches and hitting singles gives me zero confidence that they could actually take advantage of it. Hopefully this is the series that wakes up Vladdy and Tony.

Aside from the Vlad connection, I think the odds of Bo staying in Toronto are higher now mainly because I don't see his market being that big. All the big market teams except the Dodgers are set at SS, and the Dodgers don't seem like the type of team that would value Bo at $250-300M. You would think if they were going to give a SS that type of money then it would have been Seager. On top of that, there is talk now of the owners insisting on a salary cap, which means a guaranteed lockout after 2026 and who knows what for 2027, so I don't think too many teams are going to be spending absurd amounts of money for FA's other than Tucker and the top of the SP market (Gallen, Cease, etc). Bo's kinda in the middle range of being a very good player but not a superstar. In a market where teams are spending big, he likely would have made out well, but I'm not sure this coming winter will be that type of market. The Jays will have the need at SS, they will have the desire to contend, and they obviously have the financial resources to give Bo what he wants, especially if Ed Rogers is involved and gets into the fetal position as soon as he meets with Bo and his agent like he did for Vlad. The caveat being if the Jays are sellers in July and move Bo mid season, but even then the Jays could easily just get under the lux tax and sign Bo as a FA even under those circumstances. I guess it depends on how badly Rogers wants to keep him.

I’m not saying this as a bitter Jays fan, but as a baseball fan. This umpire should be investigated for gambling. An ump who is so blatantly one sided, especially with what we know about gambling now, raises a huge red flag. Angel Hernandez was bad but he was bad both ways. This was the most obvious one sided umpiring I can remember watching. Of course nothing will be done about it, and of course Schneider complains about it behind a desk post game rather than in real time (John Gibbons would have thrown hands by the 6th inning), so have to take this on the chin and move on.

Might have been the most blatant one sided umpiring I've seen in a while. Usually an ump is awful on both sides, but he was very specific on which team was going to get calls. Not that anything is going to come out of it, and the limp dick offense is more to blame than the umpire, but ABS can't come soon enough.

The umpire was ass, but when the entire offense is chasing walks and singles, it's not going to work most nights. Brutal game on so many levels. I'm tired of the cold excuse. It's cold and rainy everywhere. Hit some GD home runs already.

Not looking good.

Unfortunately the best one available might be Ke'Bryan Hayes. I don't see anyone else that is realistically available.

Surprised they pitched to Springer rather than put him on and pitch to Wagner.

Agreed. Third base is a massive hole, and I don't know how they fix it short term, but they will need to.

Gimenez had no shot in that at bat.

Will Wagner at 3B killed this inning.