glory

Atkins being really good with FA signings over the last 3-4 years is the reason why the KK, Turner, and IKF off season was so disappointing.

Wow, read his name a bunch of times over the years and always read it as Horowitz. Just put his name on Fangraphs and it doesn't even look the same. Learned something new.

Seriously, he was a beast in 2021 but couldn't stay healthy. Now he's replacement level at best, but could play 162 if asked to.

Wonder if we will see a lineup with all of Horowitz, Barger, Martinez, and DS in it in the next week. Probably not enough vetrin presents to make that work, but give us something to watch, dammit.

Hopefully Orelvis gets some PA's before Bichette is back. Power is very intriguing, and something this team really lacks.

Yeah, there's a good chance it is the Yankees coaching/development, at least on pitching side. They legit develop no name RP's every season, and have had success on the SP side as well (King who they traded, Gil, Schmidt, Cortes, etc). Not sure about their track record on the hitting side, certainly Judge is a huge success, but there's been some busts (Sanchez, Bird). I think Volpe is going to be good (though overrated), and Dominguez probably will be really good.

It's an organization with no plan or direction. Between how they've handled prospects this season, to how they've handled injuries (Gausman, Romano, Swanson), to how they've handled playing time (ex. Springer will get 600 PA even if he never gets another extra base hit for the rest of the season), to how they've handled payroll, to how they handled the off-season....it's been about as bad all around as I can remember. Like this is the same FO that talked about waves of talent and sustainable contention, yet they hate their prospects and built an old tax paying team almost entirely through free agency. Nothing makes sense. The 2021-22 teams and the 2023-24 teams feel like they were built by two different FO's.

This is what bothers me more than the "could have signed/traded for X instead" arguments. If the FA market sucked, and the trade market couldn't lead to anything useful, then why spend $40m on IKF, Turner, KK, and Vogelbach? Those signings were a big reason why they are a tax paying team this season (barring a trade deadline sell off). Like, the Yankees are spending more than ownership wants, but a big part of that is bringing Judge back, signing Rodon, trading for Soto, etc. They are spending big because they aimed as high as possible. What Atkins did was borderline irresponsible given the penalties that come with going over the CBT. He could have started the season with Barger/Clement at 3B, Horowitz (+ platoon buddy) at DH, and Tommy Pham or equivalent in LF, and the team would be no better or worse off, except younger and well below the tax. That's not hindsight. KK is 34 coming off an offensive season he wasn't going to duplicate, and Turner is 100 coming off a season that had red flags all over it. IKF is what he is. Vogelbach probably helped the Toronto food industry in the 2 months he was around, but a fat DH who can't do anything except hit RHP being used as a once a week bench player made no sense.

Mayza, Cabrera, Little, the other lefty, Pop….theres just too much quality in the pen right now. Seriously, between not playing the young guys enough in the bigs to moving prospects at a snail’s pace, it feels like Atkins is intentionally messing with us this season. Give us something to look forward to man. Even if Pardinho stinks, I’d rather watch him pitch than Pop.

Before the off season began I would have bet on the Jays being the ones to trade for O’Neill. Pre-2023 Atkins would have. Post 2023 Atkins thinks anyone with a K% over 20 is bad so probably didn’t even consider it.

The 2017 Jays started horribly but in June got to within 1 game of .500 multiple times. The last time they were a game under .500 that year was June 21. Their record: 35-36. They went on a tail spin from there. The similarities to 2017 are scary.

The Red Sox have hit more home runs in the RC tonight than the Jays have since the start of 2023.

Damn that dude was starting over DS in the playoffs last season. Still not over that.

Over a larger sample it seems LHB's do better against him than RHB. Springer and Turner have good career numbers against him, but those are kinda meaningless when one at age 34 looks like 1997 Joe Carter and the other at age 39 can't hit RHP to save his life anymore. Whatever, vetrins gonna get priority on this team. Kinda wish Rogers cut payroll after the 2023 season. The team probably would have been better off.

Tonight's lineup against a RHP has Springer, Turner, and KK in it. No Horowitz and no Barger. Forget the Buffalo boys, just sign Abreu and call Votto up. Team Washed gonna lead us to the playoffs.

If they don't trade Bo, but somehow go on a magical run with something like this: CA Jansen 1B Vlad 2B Horowitz SS Bichette 3B Martinez RF Barger CF Varsho LF DS DH Turner/Springer ...then yeah, Atkins would look way better. That's a lineup with 7 homegrown guys, plus Varsho who they traded Moreno for. Seems like a very unrealistic expectation, but would be a fun ride if it happened.

I think this is the biggest issue. Even if you truly believe in the Buffalo boys to lead the team on a 2nd half run, how likely is it that they even get a chance to play over KK, Springer, and Turner? Atkins and JS genuflect in front of any vetrin with 6+ years of service time. It's not going to be easy to see a lineup of young guys with the vets on their last legs riding pine. I actually don't think it's necessary to cut bait on Turner and KK, just use them more to their strengths. Turner can still hit LHP. Platoon him. KK can still play defense and run, so make him a pinch runner and defensive replacement who occasionally starts depending on the matchup. Springer is a lot harder to figure out as he doesn't specialize in anything. Either way, the org would have to accept the vets on lesser roles, and I don't think they do that. Maybe desperation can change behavior, though.

If the playoff run comes on the back of the Buffalo guys (DS, Horowitz, Barger, Martinez, etc), and they simultaneously traded Bichette to add multiple long term pieces, then it would certainly bump the FO up a bit. It would show some semblance of success with player development and for once a proactive approach to asset management (trading Bo now instead of waiting a year). That seems very unlikely to happen, though. The Buffalo group might be decent MLB players eventually but they aren’t the Orioles prospects. DS was found money. Not sure we can expect that with other prospects, although I think Horowitz has a good chance to be what he’s shown so far (which plays much better at 2B than 1B/DH). Also I’d be shocked if they traded Bichette if they still had a chance at the WC.

With Yimi throwing 100 or damn close to it, I kinda figured this would happen at some point. Hopefully it's not serious.

Springer has a 32 wRC+ in June (49 PA), after having an 83 wRC+ in Mar-May (216 PA), but shockingly has started all but 1 game in June so far. DS was Barry Bonds for a month and a half, and then went 0-fer in his next 8 games, and that was enough for them to bench him permanently last season, including the playoffs where you kinda need home runs and he was one of the few HR hitters on the team. It's like they want any excuse to play him less. If Biggio wasn't a complete turd at the plate this season, then we'd probably still be seeing DS in a platoon role right now.

Almost feels like this season is an intentional sabotage to force a rebuild but the president and GM only have 1-2 years left on their deals respectively so they have no incentive to do that. Sadly this might be what they feel will help them win games, which is terrifying if this FO is going to stick around long term.

Unfortunately yes. They won’t be perma benching KK so it will be KK/Varsho in the OF against RHP, and JS would rather take a bullet to the chest than bench a vetrin, so Springer and Turner likely won’t be sacrificed either. Hard to see this team actually playing all the young guys at once very often. Probably will cycle the playing time around with vets getting the preferred treatment.

Yeah I’ve said before being a SP on this team has to be infuriating sometimes. You have to be near perfect to even have a chance of winning. Absolutely unwatchable offense.

I don’t think Atkins views the farm system as a mirage as much as he doesn’t want to be in a position where there is a rash of injuries and they have to sign Billy McKinney types to fill holes. In his mind he wants AAA to be well stocked so that if injuries happen they can have prospects fill in. That’s my guess at least. The problem with that is that he chose Turner, KK, IKF, and Vogelbach as his big league signings. Holding prospects back in favor of the most marginal big league talent you can spend $40m on is an issue. I don’t think even Horowitz, Barger, etc, are the answer. They are just better than 39 year old Turner, Vogelbach, etc, and you’re better off giving them a shot hoping one pulls a DS than the alternative. If the prospects fail, and some/most probably will, then no harm done. It’s better than watching an old bad (expensive) team. DS was literally the reason they made the wild card round last year and he didn’t sniff a playoff PA because they loved Biggio too much. Then he began April as a platoon player despite hitting righties better than lefties last season. They actually had a prospect pan out and they did everything they could to marginalize him until they had no choice. Like I said I’m not even sure what the plan is at this point, except that I hope moving forward they just roll with the Buffalo guys.

Is Varsho hurt or did JS actually pinch hit Kirk for Varsho on purpose?