metafour

Whit Merrifield had a better offensive season with the Jays this past season than he did in either of his two previous seasons. The guy has also been a below-average hitter for three straight seasons now. So no part of his "criticism" seems rooted in reality, because not only did this allegedly flawed Jays' approach seem to actually improve his offensive output, but even if it didn't - the guy simply isn't a productive enough hitter to be doling out "expert advice". Where does constantly running into absurd outs at third base factor into Whit Merrifield's run-creation philosophy? Did he comment on that at all? Because it happened quite a few times last season.

Exactly. Trout is 230+ pounds, extremely explosive, and has been playing a physically demanding position (CF) for a decade. The guy's body is clearly breaking down. It's incredibly unlikely to carry that much weight with the force he is able to produce and maintain that into your mid to late 30's. Would not surprise me at all if his career trajectory mirrors a guy like Ken Griffey Jr., who was very similar from a physical/athletic perspective. He's really not worth much with his contract and declining health.

Exactly. That was one of the biggest reports yesterday from a "TRUSTED" insider, and yet it's nowhere in his article. But he sure spends a lot of time pointing out how silly it was for anyone to believe an opera singer. Morosi's colossal blunder isn't mentioned at all because he appears on Sportsnet. Davidi's entire article is framed as some sort of "educational piece" on being careful what you should believe, but it's underlying point is to help out his buddies in the industry who were obviously instrumental in fanning the flames.

I read the article. It reads as after-the-fact "holier than thou" damage control for his industry. Notice how he has no problem throwing some random Dodgers writer under the bus, but nowhere in his timeline of events does he name Jon Morosi literally reporting that Ohtani was flying to Toronto? Wasn't that a significant event yesterday? He paints the timeline as some crazy series of wild suggestions that you'd have to be stupid to believe as true (the opera singer storyline), but conveniently omits his own colleagues being balls-deep in the events. Read the article a bit more carefully, Max. Notice this little gem? "Ohtani is thought to be nearing a decision and the Blue Jays very much remain in play, but nothing is set as of yet, an industry source told me and Ben Nicholson-Smith." But wait, Ben Nicholson-Smith was literally active on Twitter yesterday liking and retweeting suggestions of Ohtani's flight to Toronto. So he was in fact at least partly in the group that Davidi is lecturing for "believing silly rumors", but yet here he is now being depicted after the fact as being part of the team that "confirmed through industry sources" that the whole thing wasn't trued at all. No, Shi - neither you nor Ben Nicholson-Smith confirmed anything. Their statements came after Bob Nightengale and others made statements. But again, his colleague got led along, so now Shi is rewriting events to make it sound like it was just some rando Dodgers writers and "cRaZy fAn drIvEn conSpirAcY thEorIes" that created this entire story. It's a spineless article from someone who has zero sources whatsoever. He did nothing to "confirm" anything yesterday, and today he wants to play the journalistic hero by teaching us all not to believe silly rumors - all the while cleverly insulating his journalistic friends who f***ed up. Thanks, Shi.

How cute of Mr. Davidi to play the "voice of reason" after the fact. If he holds such wisdom and journalistic integrity, why didn't he stop some of his colleagues at his own network from partaking yesterday? He's just being spineless and trying to deflect from the s***-show that his colleagues in the industry started and helped enflame yesterday. He's being a good little boy. But he's actually correct, the general public should NOT trust anything that any corporate journalist reports. That includes himself.

These are all weak counters. Anthopolous started in the mailroom, but he didn't jump over any rungs. Go look at his actual resume. He held basically every position up the ladder from the scouting side. This woman has never even been a Manager in the minor leagues, nor has she held an on-field or bench coaching role at the MLB level. So what qualifies her to be one of the few that gets the serious opportunity to interview for literally the biggest role in the profession, at an age that is absurdly below the norm for the position we are talking about? That would be like Anthopolous getting promoted from regional scout to GM - it didn't happen and it doesn't happen. What's funny is that the Giants were below average league wide in base running this past season. So not only does she clearly not possess the qualifications when compared to her peers who normally interview for MLB Manager jobs, but also her primary coaching involvement wasn't even noteworthy. If the Jays were to fire Schneider tomorrow, do you think that nameless Asian guy who's always on the phone in the dugout would get a crack at interviewing for the job? You are trying to come up with a rational answer, but you inherently know what the true motivation is. It's San Francisco, after all. Also, not trying to snarky, but LMAO at the idea of a 33 year old former softball player being the "best communicator" to handle what will be a roster with like 50%+ Latin American players. Did you type that with a straight face?

Huff may be a moron and a s***** person, but is he wrong about this being a "motivated" interview? She is 33 years old and when she was hired as an intern it was in some nutrition role. As best as I can tell, her current role as an assistant coach involves "base running and outfield defense". That's it? That's the resume of an alleged MLB managerial candidate? Fun fact, but she is 4 years younger than Carlos Marmol who is the youngest Manager in the league today. Take a look at Marmol's resume compared to hers. For her to be a candidate at her age would imply that she is some sort of unprecedented prospect, but yet, her actual resume doesn't indicate that at all. So what's going on, and why is it THIS base running assistant that's jumping past multiple rungs on the ladder at an incredibly young age to get this interview opportunity? Do other teams' random 30 year old assistants get to interview for the biggest coaching role in the profession? Is that normal? I'm sure you know the answers to those questions.

The worst is all the pathetic idiots who celebrated his punishment under grounds that "he's an *******" and he openly supports the political team that they don't like. Those people are enemies to the general population because they possess subhuman ethics and morality. They will gladly ruin your life if you don't follow their dogma. Bauer should sue the MLB for ruining his career. Meanwhile Ozuna who choked his wife in front of police and Chapman who fired a f***ing gun at his girlfriend are suiting up for playoff teams LMAO.

White privilege, that's how. Another shining example that EVERY institution is carefully designed around it

MLB Pipeline just released their 2024 Top 50 IFA list. Kennew Blanco ranks at #9 overall and is now listed as 6'2 160 pounds. Scouting grades: Hit: 55 | Power: 50 | Run: 55 | Arm: 50 | Field: 55 | Overall: 55

1.9 BB% and .391 BABIP for Clement. Dude was just hacking away at every pitch and blooping hits like Merrifield was at his peak during this season (when everything he made contact with in play was falling for a hit). It's very hard to conclude that he's a "better hitter" over what seemed like an unsustainable fluke streak.

Are you f***ling kidding me?

Watch Tiedemann now! He's having a great start, with Jackson Holliday being on the opposing team: https://www.mlb.com/bluejays/news/watch-minor-league-baseball-games-for-free?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

Sweeping the Red Sox right before they play Texas is big because they will 100% be awake for this series. They're one inning away from taking game 1.

I don't know if we've talked about this yet, but word has circulated the past day or so about the Jays signing Venezuelan SS Kennew Blanco in the January IFA window. There was apparently some confusion as to whether he was a 2024 or 2025 guy, but it looks like he's been confirmed for 2024. Kiley McDaniel named his as one of the Top 3 IFA kids and among the best 2007 DOB players identified in this article from May. MLB Pipeline just released a scouting video two days ago: https://www.mlb.com/video/top-int-l-prospects-blanco-ss?t=mlb-pipeline

Good call, that's right.

There was already a guy on 1st with no outs. You're going to walk him and set up men on 1st and 2nd with zero outs in a tie game LOL?

His fastball averaged 95.1 mph and hit 96.8 mph yesterday. He had 15 whiffs and an elite 38% CSW%. This isn't "smoke and mirrors". He's throwing harder than Nick Frasso in AAA.

WOOOOW we SUCK! Anyone know if AA has a fat cousin that can take over??

I f***ing hate watching Romano. Every outing is like this.

So then what was preventing a younger version of him to hit at 110+ wRC+?? Yes man, at mid 30's he's just becoming a better hitter. Happens ALL the time!

Varsho was a better hitter last season and the year prior to that they were basically even. So your justification is that you think that Kiermier has magically become a MUCH better hitter in his mid 30's than he was for 5 straight seasons prior to that? You are stuck on recency bias. Look at Kiermier's hitting history over a long term sample. A few months ago guys like you were arguing that we need to bring Merriweather back. There is a very significant chance that Kiermier is back to ~80 wRC+ hitting next year with declined speed and defense.

"The superior player": Kiermier is 34 next year and these are his wRC+ the past SIX seasons: 79 79 94 101 90 110 (this season) It's called a fluke on both ends. Varsho won't be as bad as he has been this season and Kiermier at 34 years old isn't likely to repeat this 110 wRC+ hitting. He is also at the age where CF defense tends to start falling off a cliff rapidly.

Lmfao.

Clement has zero plate approach. Just swings at everything. He'll be crap once the BABIP luck runs out like Merrifield.