burlingtonbandit

If players got to pick the teams they go to I'd agree more. A player gets drafted and has no choice of which org. he goes to. If you get drafted to a s*** team like Baltimore or Miami then there is good change you aren't going to reach the same potential if you had been developed by an org. like the Cubs, Yankees etc..

The reason players are upset is because their entire careers they've been underpaid and haven't had a choice as to where they play. So when they finally get to FA and team aren't offering the $ that they think they are worth they're going to be mad. Jd Martinez has been paid $22M in his career while he's been worth $108M of value in his career. I mean look at Donaldson who's been worth $285M in his career yet only been paid around $55M and won't get a huge contract because of his age. Obviously the value per win would go down if players are getting paid more pre FA but I think that's what needs to change. Especially for pitchers because a lot of them get hurt before they're ever able to become FA and don't get paid for the value they provide.

The players should blame the PA who f***ed them on the last CBA. Not saying owners are villans but players should get compensated what they are worth. And its clear that isn't happening.

Biggest change that needs to happen is the arbitration model and league minimum salary for the first 3 years of control. If you're going to keep the draft/IFA spending restrictions in place players need to be compensated when they are productive. So you can either change the years of control from 6 down to 4 or 5(Can't see owners agreeing to that) OR you raise the minimum salary/change the salary structure so players are getting paid more based on what they are worth. The Arbitration model needs to be changed no matter what anyway given how it rewards players for wins, saves etc..

Its not about Eric Hosmer but the other FA who are all waiting to get signed. Its pretty evident that the structure needs to be changed as owners are just keeping all this extra $. Plus wouldn't you rather the money go to the players than these rich owners who don't give a s***.

If anyone who missed out on Othani is still looking for a SP I'll dangle one of Kershaw/Strasburg/Kluber. Also looking for an elite hitter.. doesn't have to be the same trade as above. Most of my prospects are available but I'm really high on Senzel so he'd be tough to move.

At The Letters is a pretty good one. Arden Zwelling and Ben Nicholson Smith are two of the best Toronto baseball journalists imo.

I would think its too complicated. They already have a hard time as is with the hitting mechanics in the game lol.

I wonder if the Jays have those Virtual Reality goggles that lets you basically see the pitcher you are facing that day as though you were standing at the plate. I know the Cubs use it.

Its like $3/month why don't you just pay for it? lol

Apparently Kawai wants out of SA.

Only thing left for him to do is generate more flyballs with his swing which will lead to more Homers.

The hype on Vlad Jr. is out of this world.

That's not what he said. “I stopped trying to hit home runs,” Smoak explained to FanGraphs late last month, “which is crazy because I’ve hit the most I’ve hit.” That does sound crazy because his previous single season, career best home run total was 20 set back in 2013. He is not, and does not profess to be, part of the air-ball revolution. He has a fly-ball rate of 41.7% for his career and 41.3% this season. Smoak said for so long in his career he was trying to generate power and what he has discovered is that he did not need to. “I felt like once I got to the big leagues, I tried to be a power guy. I tried to create power. I already had it. I didn’t need to create it,” Smoak said. “I used to get real big at times and try to create [power], taking the same swing on every pitch. You can’t really do that. … It finally got to a point where I felt like I needed competitive at bats. … Someone throws you a changeup you have to be able to get out there and touch it. I felt I had a lot of holes in my swing because I was taking the same swing on every pitch.”

Sacrificing power for contact with 2 strikes isn't that stupid.

If Grichuk can make a Smoak adjustment and just make a lot more contact with 2 strikes he'll improve greatly. The FG article by Jeff Sullivan was pretty good saying with the balls being juiced you don't really need to swing as hard anymore because a Homer going 390 is just as good as a Homer going 425 feet.

Lol the interviewer did a better job than most of the Toronto sports media. Going from Beeston to Shapiro is so underrated. Bigger improvement there then any single player transaction the club could have done.

Lol why do people hate Pillar? He's actually one of the more humble players and always gives great effort. Sure he isn't a great hitter but he's still a pretty useful player.

Why does everyone assume Pillar is going to get traded for a good Pitcher? If a team wants a CF they'll just sign Cain or Dyson lol.

Traded his friend Connor Greene...

Someone asked me this and although it would never happen I thought it was pretty interesting. If the Cavs were to trade Lebron and he was guaranteed to go to FA after the year what would you give up for him?

Yeah that's the thing. In this Division you need to have Stars to build around to get those 90-95 Win teams to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. The Red Sox might fall down a little bit in a few years but the Yankees are going to be a beast. If Vlad, Bo and Alford can turn into 3-5 Win true talent players that will give the team 3 cheap impact position players to build around. If you can't get star talent you're basically left with teams like the Cardinals last year, which isn't going to cut it in the AL.

Why do so many people seem to hate the Blue Jays on social media lol. Seems every move they make you get people so mad with the org. Even happened during the AA era... I know fans are stupid but its honestly ridiculous.

I think the Wildcard is Connor Greene. His numbers in the minors were s*** as a SP but he throws high 90s. If he turns into a good reliever and Grichuk remains around a 2 win player then STL is likely ahead.

Legit might be a better OF than the Jays had in 2017.