metafour

The problem is that you really have no idea what you are talking about. You are trying to argue against common established knowledge. The amount of money that a drafted player is actually paid is ultimately the tell as to what the talent level is of that player from the drafting team's perspective. Where they were selected is almost irrelevant. I say almost because obviously in most cases players are drafted in a general order according to their perceived ability/potential, because most picks are taken at or near slot value, so the guy who got drafted #25 overall is in most cases universally regarded to be a better prospect than the guy who was drafted #60 overall. However, when a top rated HS kid "falls" to lets pretend round #5 but then ultimately still signs for 1st or 2nd round money, that is almost always a clear case of the drafting team reaching an agreement with that player earlier or prior to the draft and then the player and their agent effectively taking themselves off of every other team's board to make sure that they fall to the planned pick. This isn't hard to do at all: every team is shoring up signability BEFORE making their picks, so even if some other team expresses interest in drafting the same player in lets pretend round #2, the agent will just tell them that they won't sign, in which case why would that other team select them? Even if the pick is protected and you get it back next year for failing to sign the player, you're not benefitting because you are losing a year of development time and also a year where that drafted player can be used as value in a potential trade. In the case of Will Brick, I'll repeat again: I would expect that his bonus from the Blue Jays will be at least $2 million. That is almost 4x the slot value at the pick that he was drafted at. This would mean that the Blue Jays obviously value him as a 2nd round or better talent, because they are paying him the equivalent of the value of a pick in that range, If they didn't perceive him to be a 2nd round or better talent, then they wouldn't have committed that much of their overall bonus pool to him. But the fact that he "fell" to the 4th round doesn't also indicate that every other team didn't perceive him to be a 2nd round or better talent. Why? Because the nature of the current bonus pool system is that there simply isn't enough money to pay every top prospect what they are theoretically worth, particularly on the HS side. This is exactly why players and agents are incentivized to SECURE deals if they truly want to go Pro. Once the Blue Jays reach a deal with someone like Brick for a premium amount of money (which $2M+ absolutely is), its not like every other team now has that much bonus space available which is unallocated to start counter-offering. Every other team is executing their own draft strategy: some teams are playing the draft straight up and simply don't have the money left over to pay $2M+ to a HS catcher even if they do believe he's worth that, and the other teams who are "saving" money along the way are zoning in on their own over-slot players (ie: they may simple prefer to spend that $2M+ on a HS pitcher instead). And the strategy here is common knowledge and clear as day. Its already been learned that all of the Jays' college senior draft picks from rounds #5-10 are basically signing for nothing. They are getting ~$1,000-$5,000 dollars. Why? Because the combined money that they are saving on those guys who aren't actually "5th-10th round" talents are going to go to pay Will Brick WELL above 4th round money. The Atlanta Braves are paying their 3rd round pick $4 million. That is literally the slot value in between the #22 and #23 picks in the 1st round. The fact that he allegedly "FELL" to the 3rd round means nothing. His case is even more extreme/obvious: he "FELL" because once he got $4 million secured from Atlanta, his agent shut it down.

Actually, an exciting prospect should have exciting underlying data. It is 2026, nobody in baseball gives much of a s*** if a prospect hits .300/.400/.500 with poor underlying metrics (average EV's, average contact rates, etc). It is for that reason why Jojo Parker is still evaluated as a top hitting prospect despite "only" hitting .242 on the season. Why? Because he produces consistently hard contact at an elite rate, and he shows well above average plate discipline and chase rates. His regular slash line would actually be better if he were more aggressive at the plate. By the way, here is Parker's writeup on Fangraphs from the Futures Game. Notice how positive the writeup is?: JoJo Parker, 3B, Toronto Blue Jays Parker turned around a 101-mph fastball at the knees and lined it off the top of the right field wall in the seventh. It was the most impressive moment a hitter had all day and, as much as any single at-bat or pitch can, strengthened my conviction that he can hit. He also had a couple good takes on fastballs just off the plate and stayed back on a slider on another occasion, all of which made for a good day at the plate. Defensively, he looks destined for third; that’s not just my opinion either, as two scouts I spoke with also have him shifting away from short in the long run.

That's not what it means at all, genius. This is what is called "floating" a player to you. Brick and the Blue Jays agreed on an amount prior to or during the draft, and his agent subsequently told other teams that he was going to school which takes him off their draft board (and ensures that he can be selected by the team he agreed to a deal with). Its a completely planned event, and it has nothing to do with Austin Martin LOL. Teams are constantly talking to players and their agents during the draft and trying to strike deals, they aren't just randomly drafting players and hoping that they will sign. Will Brick will ultimately sign for what I expect to be at least $2M, which is obviously MUCH more than 4th round draft money. The slot value at his draft pick is roughly ~$560K. The Red Sox drafted a HS kid in the 9th round under the exact same pretenses (Martin Shelar). He is a ~top 2-3 round talent, and he didn't "fall" to the 9th round pick because every other team thinks he sucks. He "fell" because Boston deliberately took an under-slot kid in the 1st round, and gamed the draft so that they can pay Shelar what will likely be ~2nd round money. By the way, when the Jays drafted Blaine Bullard in the 12th round last year and paid him $1.7M, it was the exact same strategy. Why would they pay a 12th rounder $1.7M? Could it be because the player wasn't actually a "12th round talent"? This is rudimentary draft knowledge.

Varland has pitched seemingly every game for a month now. Always the first guy out of the bullpen. All of these batters have seen him. I don't understand why you wouldn't use a fresh reliever who hasn't been seen yet. There's no way that worn-out Varland is better than someone like fresh Fischer.

No man, Bassitt is categorized as a "long man" and therefore you can NOT use him in the 8th/9th innings. Because he is a long man, you are only allowed to use him from innings ~3 to 6. This is in the MLB rule-book.

He is talking out of his ass. 1) He has used Varland in like every game all postseason. So apparently he doesn't mind how many looks he's giving up there. 2) If you want to make sure Seattle isn't getting repeated looks on your closer, maybe don't pitch him the night before in a game that you are winning by 6 runs? And that's the whole lunacy of it all. In a low-leverage situation he throws out his closer, and then in the highest leverage situation of the entire series a day later he throws out his most volatile reliever while simultaneously flipping Raleigh and Polanco to their stronger sides at the plate.

What chicken-s*** logic. They needed to get 6 outs to win and they brought in their most volatile and COLDEST reliever to face the opponent's best hitters. There is zero defense of this. Don't tell me that someone else could have also blown it so it doesn't matter anyway. As the Manager, all you can do is play your best players in the correct matchups when they need to be played. There is no scenario where Brendan Little was the correct choice. Like I posted earlier: they could have NOT used Hoffman last night in a 6-run blowout and instead brought him into the 8th inning tonight against the heart of the lineup which is what any Manager with a brain would do. You can then use Dominguez or Fisher in the 9th inning against Seattle's lesser hitters, or have Hoffman pitch as long as he can if he is shoving (which incidentally, he did last night). Just so you guys are aware: Hoffman has surrendered just 1 HR and 2 runs since August 31st. He has NOT been bad lately. And he is quite clearly much better than Little. This isn't even a decision.

This guy is either brain-dead, or trolling. Apparently you are not allowed to use your "closer" in any inning but the 9th. Apparently you can't use Lauer or Bassitt because they are "long men", so I assume their arms would fall off if they only pitched one inning? Apparently Bassitt has never seen a high-leverage situation. Its not like he hasn't been a successful starter for like ~7 seasons now, and therefore has obviously pithed tons of high-pressure innings. I'm fairly certain that he has pitched into the 8th inning before, by the way.

Jeff Hoffman has given up 2 runs in his last ~14 outings. He tore through the top of Seattle's lineup just last night. Here is a big-brained idea: don't use him in a 6 run blowout yesterday which was low leverage, and then you can correctly use him in the 8th inning tonight in a 1-run game.

So in a 1-run game, the only way to blow it is if you give up a HR? There is no other possible way for the opposing team to score on a pitcher who was running a ~6.00 ERA in his last 21 appearances?

You are too stupid to speak with seriously. wHo wAs goInG tO cLose? The 8th inning there was the most high leverage situation of the game. THAT IS WHERE YOU USE YOUR CLOSER. You figure out the 9th inning when you get there. What you DONT do is throw in a trash-can who hasn't thrown a strike in 3 straight months to face Seattle's best hitters. Little literally looked like he was going to cry before he even threw a single pitch. He also blew Game 1 in case you forgot. He is rattled and has been rattled all playoffs.

You go with your best available pitcher. Which is NOT Brendan Little and hasn't been for 2+ straight months now. Are you guys being serious? Every detail about that decision was atrocious: 1) Little has been empirically terrible recently. 2) Right handed hitters have been crushing Little recently. 3) Bringing him in flipped two switch-hitters to the to bat righty, both of whom are BETTER hitters as righties. So not only has Little been terrible against RHB as of late, but you also got the more dangerous versions of both Raleigh and Polanco.

What a load of crap. Little can not throw strikes. He has not been effective for several months now, because hitters have realized that they don't need to swing. His walk rate is astronomical. Who gives a s*** if he doesn't give up HR's? If he comes in and walks the bases you are still surrendering the run. In case you missed it, he walked the next two guys after giving up the HR. A guy who walks 7+ batters per 9 can NOT be a high leverage reliever. This is Little League baseball knowledge.

There is no analytics which suggest putting Little in there in that moment. None.

I mean, he was always a guy with a very extreme batted-ball profile (typically leading to low BABIP and low BA's) and higher strikeouts, and now his power has evaporated post PED suspension. That obviously isn't a good sign, as it definitely suggests that his one true tool (power) was inflated by PED's. He also has no defensive value. Unless he can somehow completely retool his swing/hitting profile, I don't see him as much of a prospect at this point.