pickoff22

They made it very clear that they would ease Travis back. He has played 5 games in a row and it's a afternoon game after a night game. People act as though players can just automatically play every day - I sure as hell don't want them overplaying a guy coming off of injury. I was surprised they played him so much right away, it's the right call to give him a day off

Games that Navarro has been in since he's been back - Jays are 9-8. Games that Navarro has started since he's been back - Jays are 8-5. It's fine to not like the guy but don't skew the facts.

This is the perfect lineup to mash against Eduardo Rodriguez again. Should be fun to watch

not till 2017

Goins has had success against Bucholz, so I think they found a way to put him in the lineup for that reason. They aren't gonna sit Travis or Reyes, and obviously Goins isn't going to be slotted in as the DH.

Colabello is out-projecting Smoak at this point, so I'd rather have him at first. Carrera absolutely butchered that play in left yesterday.....looked outright lazy on it.....I have no problem with benching him over that. Plus it will be fun to watch Goins somehow turn a double play from LF.

What exactly is he defending this time? Navarro's not playing today but you've found something else to complain about. Is it because Goins is in left? Wait.....you want Smoak instead of Collabello?

I didn't see anything mentioned about Navarro in the article, I assume it's in the actual interview. Personally I don't really care what he says about Navarro, he's not going to put down his own player who he would potentially like to trade. Navarro has been just fine this past month. He's not as bad as most people on here make him out to be. Bad enough that no one will trade for him at 5 million though.

What did he say that makes him a moron? He's right, we could use an upgrade to the BP or rotation.

And it's been like this for an extended period of time. I like him in certain situations, but unlike many on this board I don't get all worked up when Navarro's in instead of him. They are both relatively unexciting players.

Smoak is nowhere near as good as EE, it's not even close. They would certainly be sacrificing something on the offensive end. I have never understood why so many people were bullish on Smoak, to me he isn't anyone to get overly excited about.

Hamels is 6th in WAR from 2011-now, 7th from 2012-now. He's on pace for another 4 WAR season. He would be a fantastic pickup and would require less of a time commitment and likely less dollars than Shark. Kazmir isn't in the same conversation - he's a good pitcher and sure I would love him on my team, but he doesn't have the track record that Hamels has. And he's the same age.

At the end of the day there will always be two camps when it comes to a trade like this - those who belief it's worth overpaying to "win now" and those who don't want to get rid of up and coming potential talent. Whoever gets Hamels is going to give up a lot. It will likely be an overpay. I don't remember the last time a star pitcher with so many years of control left was available. You're getting a stud pitcher that is underpaid in terms of current market value and has only 3 1/2 years of commitment left. It's a fantastic contract to take on for a team that is looking to take it to the next level. The contract would fit perfectly in Toronto. It lines up with when JD is a free agent and gives our FO to bring in a top of the rotation pitcher without having to worry about their 5 year policy or struggling with the fact that some FAs just don't put Toronto high on their wish list of teams they want to play for. And this isn't just a trade that would help us compete this year obviously. It will cost a lot and some people will bitch about what we gave up, but it sure would be exciting. The buzz that has picked up around the Jays after their recent success is awesome - just imagine what the playoffs would feel like in Toronto. This would be a "go for it" move that could have a real chance of moving us from contenders in the AL east to favourites, especially if Paps was also involved. It just so happens that Hamels contract lines up with when JD won't be under team control any longer

Yes yes yes but again if we use logic and reasoning then how are we going to be able to needlessly bash Gibby?

I get that. But lower his walk rate by as much Archer did while holding everything else constant, and you've got yourself a good pitcher.

Not sure I would put all of Archer's minor league stats as worse than all of Sanchez', but it is an interesting comp in the sense that Sanchez has always been criticized for his walk rate and Archer's was horrendous. Combine that with the fact that Archer has improved it (while Sanchez hasn't had as much time to do so yet) and it certainly does show that it's possible for Sanchez to silence the critics in the longrun.

But if you use logic and reasoning it makes it harder to blame Gibby for anything and everything

That's actually an interesting comparison.

Totally, this offense has been absolutely brutal this year

Wowsa

It's Andy MacPhail's hiring I'm sure. Hopefully first order of business is to fire Amaro.

This board doesn't account for the fanbase. The trade was raved about by both casual and die-hard fans. Just because some people on a message board didn't love it doesn't make is A) a bad trade or mean that it wasn't an overwhelmingly applauded trade.

They were the 3% then. And the "poor value" is debatable, even when you have the benefit of hindsight. There's a reason why ticket sales soared through the roof and the Marlins were heavily criticized for the trade. As much as the Jays have under-performed, that trade helped bring more people to the stadium and increased viewership. It created excitement for this team that wasn't felt for over a decade (outside of die hard fans). Why? Because people thought it made the team relevant again and a true contender. Heck even Vegas had the Jays as the favourite to win it all. I don't think for a second that AA was forced to make this trade. Of course it was a different move than we were used to - the whole idea of building up the farm system was not only to have potential young talent but to also have assets to use in this exact sort of trade. He saw a way to make a "win now" move and had the dollars to do it. It gave AA a way to bring on above average and potential superstar talent that fit within the 5 year contract policy and didn't force him to try to convince FAs to come to Toronto. There's nothing that points to is as being orchestrated from above.

I don't see why anyone would question whether the Marlins trade was either AA or PB's baby - I'm sure they were both excited. Just like 97% of Jays fans were. Fans were creaming themselves over it and there were some people within the game calling for the commissioners office to disallow it. No matter what the end results have been, I'm never going to criticize AA for that trade.

100%. Mets would never do that though, even if they are desperate for a bat.