metafour

Sem Robberse was promoted to Vancouver.

It's coerced demoralization. Once a person is demoralized, the facts mean nothing to them - they are unable to comprehend anything other than what they have been programmed to believe. This "story" is the perfect example of this in action. Not ONE part of this story supports the theory of the fan yelling the n-word, but alas reality itself isn't convincing enough. Worse yet, if you read the comments, you literally see morons using the programming itself ("white people are inherently racist") as explanation to a basic logical conclusion: if this guy was yelling the n-word repeatedly as loud as he could, how come literally nobody in the vicinity is reacting at all out of shock or anger? "Well, white people are racist so of course no one is thrown off by it, they probably scream the n-word too!". Literally f***ing disgusting, and this is where society has been dragged to. I love how the guy is apparently screaming the n-word, but Lewis Brinson is just standing there and not reacting AT ALL? Yeah, that makes sense....

If you remember, he actually did leave for a split second with AA, but then appeared to change his mind and came back. He's been very very good in his role. On that front, they're in line to sign BA's #11 guy and #1 ranked catcher in next year's IFA class. Should be pretty excited given that whoever the hell has been scouting catchers over there has seemingly been freakishly good.

No idea what source this guy is reporting from, but this news makes sense given that Frasso came out throwing high 90's and then disappeared off the map quickly:

Manuel Beltre in August so far (4 games played): .538/.700/.923 2 2B, 1 HR 7 BB, 1 K 3 SB, 1 CS

Lots of guys are making their Pro debuts now. This morning in the FCL (formerly GCL): OF Jaden Rudd (7th round pick this year - 18 years old): 1 for 3, HR, 2 K's OF Garrett Spain (15th round pick this year - 20 years old): 1 for 3 OF J.C. Masson (26th round pick in 2019 as a super young Canadian HS'er - turns 19 in 15 days): 2 for 3, 2 2B's, K C Juan Gonzalez (19th round pick this year - 20 years old): 1 for 1 coming on as a substitute

How come no one has noticed that recently drafted Riley Tirotta is playing in his 3rd game for Dunedin? He's 1 for 2 with a 2B, BB, and K today and is hitting .625 early. He also already has 2 stolen bases. This is a big tools guy. I've seen reports state that he has a plus arm, plus speed, AND plus power. I think it was even plus-plus on the arm or the speed, can't remember which.

Keith Law with the gas on Kevin Smith:

Austin Martin in his first game for AA Wichita: 1 for 3 ("soft line drive" for a single), HBP (he's been hit an absurd amount of times this year) 2 errors at SS (throwing, fielding)

Manuel Beltre yesterday: 2 for 4, 2 BB, 1 SB Manuel Beltre today: 2 for 3, HR, 2B, 2 BB, 1 SB He had a big first game and then disappeared. Hopefully he's back on track now.

Fangraphs' ranking of prospects that were traded at the deadline. Has SWR #4 and Martin #5 (although I'm not sure how Nick Madrigal still qualifies as a "prospect"): https://blogs.fangraphs.com/ranking-the-prospects-traded-during-the-2021-deadline/

Yeah, thats a big miss to me. Are they still doing organizational chats? I'm sure that question will be prevalent. Doesn't really make sense because he has actual tools and performance at the highest level in the minors. Meanwhile they have Kloffenstein holding steady despite the fact that he's been a mess in High A. So it seems like if they're "confused" about Smith's AA struggles, why wouldn't they be equally "confused" about Kloffenstein?

BA just released the Jays' Midseason Top 30 update. Who can post it, please?

This has to be one of the worst misses by an ump....right?

He actually looks good this game. Pounding the strike-zone and he's putting guys away with legitimate pitches. Kind of the worst game imaginable where Ray looks completely ordinary, and this guy looks overpowering like Ray normally does.

I don't think that would have made any difference. Under that scenario all they'd need to offer him is 40% of the slot, and there's no way that Boras would accept that - especially seeing that he's apparently not even injured to the point of surgery being required.

Teoscar needs to pull his head out of his ass. His plate appearances of late have been pathetic, and WTF was that throw?

How so? Next year's draft projects to be at least as good, if not better than this year's. There should be an "equally advanced" college pitcher or hitter available to them at #11, one that hypothetically wouldn't be carrying a looming injury hanging over their head. And really, the "big deal" with these medical disagreements is that they often involve micro-tears or subjective damage. So what often ends up happening is that there's slight damage or concern, but not enough to warrant surgery. So the player is healthy enough to pitch, but they just end up inevitably blowing out their arm anyway in short order. So with Rocker I'm sure the fear was that if they sign him, he makes a handful of starts in the minors next year and completely tears his elbow (thus confirming their pre-draft physical)...and then he's sitting out till potentially 2024. In many ways its entirely preferable to draft someone like Hoglund: he had the surgery and now you get to recover him in an MLB rehabilitation program, as opposed to getting a pitcher who's waffling in between healthy and injured and just waiting to hear a pop in the elbow.

Apparently he's not planning on going back to Vanderbilt. This is worse for him than it is for the Mets. Remember that he turned down 1st round money out of HS and now he's left unsigned again. It sucks that it worked out this way for him, but he's slipping into dangerous territory.

I don't think people realize how significant his season has been. He is absolutely torching through AAA, and he has a much better defensive outlook than Austin Martin. I think he legitimately has ~3 WAR upside with his power and defense, on top of significant improvement in his plate discipline. He has doubled his walk rate, has brought the strikeout rate back down, and he's actually hitting for even more power than he did in his big breakout season in Dunedin.

Who's talking themselves into anything? This isn't Blue Jays fans talking themselves into a narrative; it's literally being collaborated by outside baseball writers who are cycling reports/information from other teams' evaluator's as well as in-person evaluations. These people have absolutely no reason to "cover" for the Blue Jays. Both players we traded have empirically been moved down prospect lists; with Martin dropping all the way to #59 on Fangraphs' rankings. Of course Blue Jays fans were initially "shocked" and mad, but that's because as fans we generally Stan for our prospects and look at things in the most optimal light possible. I don't think anyone here is arguing that Austin Martin has no chance of correcting his flaws, but the general stance that we'll naturally take as fans is to gloss them over while they're here. To me the scary part with him is that the two things that literally popped up as critiques pre-draft, which is what caused him to drop to us, actually look to not only be legitimate - but they appear even worse than initially hoped. Fangraphs says that he's not even getting good reviews defensively in CF with a below-average arm and average range due to his lack of speed, and he's obviously not a SS or 3B. So what is he now, a 2B and/or rotational piece between CF/2B/LF? At the plate he appears to require a swing change. This isn't an impossibility and he's obviously talented enough to make it work, but a current slap hitter with no defensive position where he projects as more than average is a profile that can go downhill really really quickly. I also found it very interesting that Fangraphs noted that evaluators were pointing out that he wasn't swinging at enough pitches and that he was playing himself into too many poor hitters counts. With Simeon Woods-Richardson, I've always felt that he was a guy who we tried to hype into more than he was. He was a mid-rotation upside when we traded for him with non-elite stuff, and he's since then declined. His age is nice, but he's physically maxed out and he apparently still can't spin a breaking ball that projects as more than average to fring above-average. The lack of control he's shown this season is confusing and worrying, because this was actually his only true standout "tool", as are reports that his velocity and stuff in general have backed up. So really, they traded two guys from an elite farm system that have bigger question marks today than they did coming into the season. Of course there was an initial "shock" of trading a guy we just drafted 5th overall and outrage surrounding that, but the reason why you've seen a change in attitude is because we've had time for information to come in which suggests that this really isn't a "shocking" a package as we initially thought.

But it's not "two elite prospects". It's at best ONE elite prospect. And that one prospect is currently hitting with a .102 ISO and .383 SLG with serious defensive question marks, so his own status as an "elite" prospect is teetering on dangerous territory. We actually traded away two prospects who's tools/status have declined this season. They both fell on our own organizational rankings. This is EXACTLY what you want to see a team with a stacked minor league system do: you protect your most promising prospects and deal from the guys who you are less certain about.

They did? Last time I checked, Keibert Ruiz ranks higher than Austin Martin on both BA's and Fangraphs' updated rankings. He's also absolutely dominating in AAA this season, unlike the two guys we traded. Max Scherzer also had a full NTC and obviously controlled the suitors that Washington could engage.