Brownie19

I agree with this 100%. In a perfect world, they would have SP depth in the minors in the form of real prospects they could draw upon to fill in the rotation if Francis/Yariel fail (or there are injuries) - and that would be a reasonable approach to take (albeit there is concern that Gausman/Berrios don't offer the talent you want at #1/#2 anymore, which complicates things). Having young, cheap SPing is a massive benefit to teams and it would be ideal to find that with both Francis and Yariel. The challenge is you're going to need a reasonable backup plan. Ricky T is f***ing us over in this regard as we "should" have Ricky T and Bloss as the main depth pieces in AAA that we could call upon when needed. The lack of depth in the upper minors makes this approach more risky. Perhaps there's a trade to be had this offseason that helps fill that void?

The FO has some options in which approach they take, but I think it's pretty obvious they don't have the money or the assets place to fill all the holes. This is likely going to lead to more frustration from Jays fans and this board. Go with Approach #1 as you suggested above and the rotation may be too thin. If we do suffer some injuries, we could be in trouble. Declines from the big 3 guys may also leave us without the talent we need at the top of the rotation. Go with Approach #2, which would be 1 big bat, 1 SPer and Bullpen and they run the risk of failing to address the lack of power and offense for a 3rd straight season. Relying on guys like Bo, Kirk, Springer - and some key Buffalo players to produce more offensively. Each approach will come with it's own probability of failure. I suspect the FO will have their preferred approach, but will keep both open and have to do their best to read the market and take the approach that gives us the most bang for our buck.

I love it. It will help make him more affordable to resign this offseason!

That's true - but literally every single RP prospect s*** the bed. It's like the opposite of volatile - it's consistency. Blue Jays RP'ing prospects go to AAA and they all die on a consistent basis.

It's hard not to get a little excited with the raw tools that Barger has. I've thought he looks fine defensively at 3rd and his arm is like 4th best in the majors or something. His bat has come around nicely, although it would be nice to see him being more patient and taking walks (which he did do in the minors). Seems unlikely he ever hits LHP, but you could see him become a solid strong side platoon starter moving forward. Age is still on his side too.

Yeah - who knows. I never really understand the Giants. The only angle I can see is this is the Giants telling the league and it's players "we're committed to winning and will pay top dollar, as required to achieve that". Do you overpay Chapman in hopes that other stars think "those guys will spend what's required to get top players" and thus it makes them more attractive to free agents? That's the best I can come up with.

Well it seems all the interesting RP prospects we have go to AAA to die...How on earth is Connor Cooke not on this team and contributing already?

Just wait until he gets to AAA and starts walking 10 per 9...Pardinho is the latest victim. It must be f***ing painful watching the late innings of a Bison's game.

Well that made me look up who Lou Boudreau was. Quite a good player. It's so amazing to look at stats from that era and see a guy who had a 14.5% BB rate and a 1.3% K rate. Such a different time.

That isn't a good sign for the Jays as we near the offseason. That's a big bag of money for a guy entering his age 32 season. That said, he's been really, really good this year. Good for Chappy, but there's a ton of risk in that for the Giants. Giants are an interesting team. Fitzgerald, Bailey and Ramos are nice young players, but overall, this team stinks and I don't see that changing anytime soon unless they spend a f***ton more in the offseason. Not much on the farm system to get excited about, yet they always seem to be trying to shove and buy big names.

Yes - players are underpaid early in their careers. That's a separate argument altogether. For those who make it there, they are often extremely overpaid later in their careers too. The system rewards those with longevity. But that really has nothing to do with my point. Vlad isn't in the same class as Soto, Ohtani or Betts at this point in his career. Yes, the bat is, but baserunning and defense are part of baseball. There's little to no way Vlad should be paid as much as those guys at the same point in his career. He hasn't earned it unless you "just" look at old school counting stats like it's 1997. I can't imagine Vlad's agent presenting his case to the arbitrator, presenting a chart showing how many RBI's Vlad's had over the past 5 years - comparing it to Betts (a leadoff hitter) and going "see - Vlad has more RBI's, therefore he deserves as much as Mookie got". It must take a lot of acting to pretend like you believe s*** like RBI's are an impactful way to judge value in your player. It would be even hard trying to argue your pitching client deserves a big raise because they had 16 "wins" last year. It's bizarre.

100% I suspect he's coming out now after 89 pitches thru 6 innings. He continues to impress. Gotta love it.

That's just so f***ing stupid that these massive amounts of money are handed out based on archaic ways to measure value, by people who know very little about baseball. Tony Batista would have cleaned up in today's world where empty counting stats reign supreme... How on earth can't MLB fix this? Is it because Owners benefit by this system just as often as they get f***ed over and thus it isn't felt to be an issue? I'd still think the MLBPA would be bitching about it - trying to help those who get f***ed over (all while ignoring guys like Vlad who get overpaid).

I can't tell from that video...does the ump say anything to Skenes? All I can see from that video is the ump talking to Derek Shelton. I originally assumed Shelton barked at the ump and that was his response, but perhaps the ump did bark out at Skenes to not show him up? Hard to tell because the commentators were talking. Either way - it wasn't a strike - it wasn't even that close and certainly not a pitch you'd start walking off the mound, assuming it's a strike. It's really stupid to show up the ump like that in the 1st inning whether you're a rookie or a vet. I'm also not sure the one Langford at bat is evidence that umpires give rookies a harder time like they did back in 1995. Angel shouldn't be used as any example of how the typical umpire works these days. Angel Hernandez is a disgrace to the game.

I tend to agree that he'll get close to $30M - but why should he if Soto got $31.5M last year and Betts got $27M in 2020? Soto and Betts had been significantly better than Vlad through the same point of their careers. He's also not Ohtani, who was coming off an 8 and 9.2 WAR seasons. He's simply not in the same class with Soto, Betts or Ohtani. Why isn't there are argument that $25M is plenty fair?

Bo is dead to me. He's the new VC in Toronto - f*** him. Is Clement good enough defensively to play SS fulltime?

Yeah - the Jays should be able to bring in a highlight collage of his defense and baserunning to keep that number south of $30M. Soto had 28.3 career WAR heading into arbitration last year, Vlad will only have 17.3 +/-. If Soto got $31.5M, then Vlad should be closer to $25M

Leo is playing at lot of 2nd lately....Jays seem to prefer Clement at 3rd. That's a bit disappointing as Leo's bat has been pretty solid so far and I expect things like BB% and K% will normalize closer to what he put up in the minors as he gains experience. I always thought he was supposed to be above average defensively at SS, which would have given him some solid upside. His bat at 2nd base isn't nearly as appealing.

Hey Vlad - you were horrendous at 1st base yesterday. Grab that smaller glove and try the other side of the diamond.

Who's winning the AL and NL ROY races? Will Skenes pitch enough innings to catch Merrill and/or Chourio? Fitzgerald may have won it if he was called up earlier. Cowser or Wells in the AL? Gil or Mason Miller could enter the conversation.

To be fair - it wasn't a strike...wasn't really that close either. At least it isn't 1995 still where rookies get shafted on calls because of unwritten rules about earning respect and ******** like that.

What works for Bassitt may not work at all for Gausman for obvious reasons.

His arm is useless if he doesn't catch the ball. He's botched 3 plays that most (all?) major league 1st basemen make tonight. He should just DH.

It's hard to fathom we are having real conversations about putting Vlad at 3rd extensively (or even for 50 games). He's essentially useless at 1st base defensively.

Yes, I don't like Bassitt.