BlueRocky

Is that worst than Tulo collecting $20M/year sitting on his couch? It’s not as many years, but I really don’t remember the last game Tulo had meaningful contribution after 2016.

I like this move and hope it creates a more welcoming environment for new posters. There’s a ton of baseball fans lurking that don’t post, I encourage you guys to make an account and join the community. If you have stuff to share, go for it! If you guys have questions, just ask. And if you just wanna participate in the game day threads once the season gets rolling, that’s okay too. New posters are welcome!

Fans are going to be pleasantly surprised at Patrick Murphy’s electric stuff if he gets a chance to play. We have a couple guys that throw triple-digits, but Murphy does so in a starting role while keeping 96-98 velo deep into games and pairs it with a pretty sick breaking ball. It’s not a full 12-6 curve, but not really a slider either. Kinda a slurve and the spin rates suggest more slider (@2300rpm), but it’s got hard bite and tumbling action. If he doesn’t make it as a starter, that’s still a lights out bullpen arm with superior stuff to Jordan Romano. Murphy looked really uncomfortable changing his delivery though, it bothered him so much he was pulled out of games and spent the last months of the season reworking a new delivery.

BA graded Torkelson 60 hit / 80 power straight out of the draft. If we’re pegging him as the next Mark McGwire I really don’t think he’ll live up to the hype. He’s not better than Pete Alonso offensively in my opinion. Defensively, sure.

RIP Torkelson

Let’s just end this madness and have four shortstops in the lineup, three in the outfield. shortstop, left shortstop, center shortstop, and right shortstop.

I think Vlad will do great offensively, so which bag he stands next to won’t matter. He’s clearly put in the work to get into shape this offseason. I just hope he will stay healthy. The Blue Jays have traditionally been very strong at 1B. It’s probably our strongest position historically aside from RHP. Name / Career WAR John Olerud 58.1 rWAR Fred McGriff 52.6 rWAR Carlos Delgado 44.4 rWAR Edwin Encarnacion 36.0 rWAR Not even mentioning Upshaw, Lind, Overbay, or Smoak. We’ve always had a good first baseman in the middle of our lineup. Vladdy Jr has a chance to put himself in that upper category, which is really special.

That’s 5% of all the games we get this year.

I’ll keep that in mind, gifs are great.

I saw this the other day: The Blue Jays are the 4th team most benefited from schedule change 162 to 60 with 14.5% increased chance of playoffs. The Yankees are last with -31.2% chance of playoffs.

2500-2700 rpm FB is ridiculous. That 88-92 MPH plays up a lot when he mixes in slider, curveball, changeup, and cutter.

And if he’s as good as advertised, we’re more likely to pay him $$$$ than the Orioles or Marlins. Not to mention the two positions he’s good at (3B/CF) is pretty wide open long term.

I’m think Austin Martin and C.J. Van Eyk. The list looks like a lot of pitchers, but good chance teams will burn through their entire rotation and bullpen very quickly. Not just with doubleheaders and rescheduled games due to outbreaks, spring training is much too short to get the arms ready to go by July 23. BP usage and openers will be used often I think. They’re reaching down to Ty Tice, Wilmer Font, Brian Moran, Rafael Dolis, Hector Perez for the 60-pool signals that they’re preparing for this (and good opportunity for them). The names jumping on and off the covid list, 60 list, and taxi squads will likely be pitchers.

It all depends on what Nick Frasso signs for. If he signs full slot, there’s only a max @6.9 M for Austin Martin. There’s nothing they can do at that point. If Frasso signs slight underslot they could possibly offer 7.0-7.2 M, I have a hard time seeing Frasso sign for peanuts like Zach Britton, as he was seen close to a 1st round talent just a few months ago. If we fail to sign Frasso entirely, that pool money evaporates, which means Martin still only can get 6.9 M, which is @700K over-slot and almost #3 money. I don’t see him turning that down. Delaying a year of service time and arbitration to go back to college and get drafted by the Tigers/Orioles again is pretty detrimental in the big picture. Hitting free agency one year earlier for his 21-yr old client holds way more value to Boras Corp than any 100-300K extra you can throw in Martin’s direction. Don’t forget no matter how much his bonus is, he only gets 100K this year. 50% of the rest (3.4 M) in 2021, and the remaining in 2022.

Notable names from the farm system on the 60: (Taxi Squad candidates to start the season) INF Jordan Groshans Santiago Espinal Kevin Smith OF Jonathan Davis Forrest Wall C Alejandro Kirk Riley Adams P Nate Pearson Anthony Kay Alek Manoah Simeon Woods-Richardson Patrick Murphy Thomas Hatch Julian Merryweather Joey Murray Jacob Waguespack Hector Perez Elvis Luciano Travis Bergen 2 spots open..

Kendall is still very far away, I personally haven’t watched him pitch so I only know about his reports. If he gets up to Vancouver or Lansing we’ll learn more about his progress. That said the Jays are very high on him, as they should. He’s really tall at 6-6 and has been working on building his frame. He came from an elite program at IMG Academy, impressed at PG Nationals, and was a Vanderbilt commit. That itself should say something about the caliber of talent. There’s five pitches in his arsenal already: 4sfb, 2sfb, CB, SL, CU. He’s got a good curveball, but he’s been working on the slider and changeup. In his own opinion he thinks his changeup is his best secondary and comfortable throwing it at any count. Developing the slider has been a focus since we drafted him. Fastball has touched 96, typically sits lower 90s. FB spin rate is about average. CB is documented @ 2500rpm. Velo not fully peaked, stuff is still raw, he’s been working on strength and building more velo. The tools are there to become a premium pitcher, it’s too far to tell if he can reach that potential until we see him in full season, larger samples, and against better hitters.

This was a weird year and historically the weirdest draft in baseball history, despite the strong draft class. With only 5 rounds, a few teams were thinking the whole picture. Teams don’t always make decision based on best player available (even though they should), there’s many examples of this in past drafts and even other sports. Orioles had a pre-draft agreement with Kjerstad and wanted Bitsko at 30 (TB took him), Marlins pre-draft deal with Meyer. Royals drafted best pitcher available (and fits need for LHP), and Blue Jays took best position player available. Scott Boras might have a little to do with it. I heard Martin wanted full-slot or over to sign with Baltimore, which didn’t please the Orioles front office. There were murmurs of the O’s inquiring about under-slot deals a month leading up to the draft. If the Marlins took Lacy as expected, Royals would’ve took Martin. If the Blue Jays took Zac Veen, Seattle would’ve took Martin. By every baseball publication and ranking available, Austin Martin is a top 2 player in this draft. I personally prefer him over Spencer Torkelson.

Simeon is a good head taller than Pardinho, if not more and he’s got an athletic build, the frames are entirely different. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Simeon touch upper-90 velo as he moves up the minors, he’s already touched 97 on his 4-seamer. The stuff is more electric. It’s difficult to judge Pardinho, he was the youngest pitcher in MWL last season while pitching with a strained elbow ligament and also had lower back issues end of the year. He went for elbow surgery back in Feb and it’ll be interesting to see how his stuff plays when he returns. The velocity wasn’t there when he pitched for Lansing, often sat 88-91 as opposed to the 91-95 people saw in the past. But his breaking balls were very polished. He flashed a filthy changeup along with a slider and curveball with depth that he can pitch in any count. His pitchability is real, not just a “giddy up” curveball or a “show me” slider, he commands all pitches for strikes and can get guys out with any pitch. He’ll be extremely effective if his velo ticks back up when healthy. Pardinho is poised on the mound pitching against much older competition and shows advanced feel for pitching. Watching him play with Gabriel Moreno last season was a blast. I’m higher on him than most people and hope he’ll return guns blazing in the minors next year. Guys I cannot emphasize enough. DO NOT SLEEP on Adam Kloffenstein. If he went to college and was draft eligible 2021-2022, he’d easily be a top 20 pick in my opinion, based on his growth physically and on the mound while pitching for the Canadians last season.

One guy I forgot to include is Brendan McKay. 2017, 4th overall. That’s one guy that could break the trend, we shall see.

This is fair, and he’s probably a meh. I wasn’t looking too deep into it, but my point was that list is pretty awful. The historical return on hyped college LHP has not been a good investment. The HS LHP crops has some hits though like Kershaw. It just show how wild the drafts can be. I was really hoping for a position player this draft and we somehow got the best case scenario. No complains here.

I never really understood the Asa Lacy hype, picking a college lefty that high while talent like Austin Martin was on the table didn’t make sense to me. Highly picked college lefties (1-10) have historically not reached their hype from the draft. David Price was the one exception but he was the first overall pick and a generational talent. Year / #overall pick 2019: #7 Nick Lodolo - meh 2016: #6 A.J. Puk - undetermined 2015: #6 Tyler Jay - bust 2014: #3 Carlos Rodon - nope, not near the hype 2014: #8 Kyle Freeland - good 2012: #9 Andrew Heaney - bad 2011: #2 Danny Hultzen - bust 2010: #5 Drew Pomeranz - meh 2009: #7 Mike Minor - mostly bust, recently OK at age 31 2008: #4 Brian Matusz - bust 2007: #1 David Price - GOOD 2007: #4 Daniel Moskos - bust 2007: #6 Ross Detweiler - bust