Brownie19

This could get interesting. Naylor's already got 2 hits. Based loaded, nobody out. Let's make this a game! Gutsy call to leave Cole in. We'll see if this pays off.

You absolutely can. Land Development in Ontario has TANKED this year due to several factors - most of which are outside of the developers hands. You think CEO's are getting fired because they didn't hit targets this year? Like f*** they are. Are agricultural CEO's fired when it's a dry summer, or a really wet fall and they get s***** yields? In every industry, you have to understand the factors that are in your control, which ones aren't and which ones have a ton of variance in them. Some jobs have ton, some less. I'm not saying "everything is just totally random" - but there is a f***ton of randomness in sports. Teams spend millions of dollars to try and gain small advantages. They are always trying to increase the probability of success. Sometimes they can do a ton of things right and get s*** results - that's baseball, but over time, you will see good/bad trends develop. I accept that it's easy for fans to just look at results and form judgement...But I do believe: - The playoffs has a f***ton more randomness than the 162 game season. Just get there as often as you can. - The draft has always been full of luck. Everyone sucks at it. Some may suck a hair less than others, but nobody is good at it consistently, year after year. - Being "clutch" and a hitters BA with RISP is often quite random. Very few do it well consistently.

This game is getting away from the Guardians already. Luckily Wells has a massive hole on high heat.

Man, I know you hate this idea, but randomness does play a huge component. Just because you may not understand it, or want to believe it, doesn't mean it's wrong. Here's a good one. Over the last 10 years, the A's have the 7th highest total WAR from 1st round draft picks with 29.6. Their "top" 1st round pick over the span is Matt Chapman, who has a combined 31.2 WAR. Only 5 of their 15 1st round picks in the last 10 years have reached the majors. The other 4 have combined for -1.6 WAR. The Giants combined WAR from their 1st round picks over the last 10 years is -0.1. Teams invest millions and millions of dollars in scouting annually and year after year it's proven how inconsistent the results are. Billy told us this in Moneyball. Scouts don't know - they say they know, but they don't. 24 teams passed on the best talent of our generation. Now some organizations or individuals might have a slight edge over their competitors, but that takes them from "really s*****" to "s*****".

I was just curious and didn't expect you to memorize it. My point was that if 14 teams only had 1 and the Jays had 0, then I'd suggest that's irrelevant. If there was only 2 teams with 1 and there were 14 teams with 5+, then that's obviously a different story. I just read an article from 2019 that says of the 1200 players drafted each year, less than 10% of them will ever accumulate 0.1 WAR in their career. That number looks worse because there are simply too many players drafted every year, but it's still really small. The # of players drafted who accumulate even 10 career WAR must be <3% - possibly less? Teams average 1 person per draft who has even 10 career WAR - which is considered what, an "OK MLB career"? That's someone who might be a "starter" for 2 seasons at their peak? It's not uncommon for teams to land 0 for a few years in a row, then land 3 in the next draft. That's unfortunately how random it can be. There are drafts that only produced 1 quality MLB player in the entire 1st round. The reality is teams ALL generally suck at scouting, drafting and developing. It's a f***ton of throwing s*** against the wall and hoping it sticks isn't it? Some are just slightly better than others.

That's awesome. Great for the game.

How many had 1 player?

While there's no doubt the lack of development has hurt the Jays over the past couple of season, I do wonder how typical it is for organizations to have a few "down years". It wasn't that long ago that this team was packed full of young, good talent that the FO either drafted, traded for (when they were young) and/or developed. In 2022 we had: Vlad Bo Teo Kirk Moreno Jansen Espinal (all-star) LGJ Manoah Romano Mayza Plus the prospects we dealt to add players like Berrios, Chapman, etc. To be fair - that's a pretty impressive list and nobody was complaining about our lack of development in 2022. But s*** does change quickly doesn't it? The lack of pitching has been painful. We were able to turn around a guy like Robbie Ray and make him a Cy Young winner, yet seemingly everyone else in the org has s*** the bed, including Manoah, who looked like a top of the rotation starter in 2022. I wonder how common it is for org's to go through lulls like this where nothing seems to go right. Even Cleveland right now. Bibee looks like their new stud, but Triston McKenzie fell off the face of the earth (after being great in 2022 like Manoah), Gavin Williams struggled this year, as did Logan Allen. The team who's been known for churning out great pitcher after great pitcher over the past decade is stuck starting the ghost of Alex Cobb in the ALCS (and Matt Boyd - but he's actually good). It happens to even the best (lucky for them, their pen is still incredible), as I do think things like injuries and some of the development side of things are somewhat out of their control, which can lead to peaks and valleys. The key is to avoid a long valley and unfortunately, the Jays are staring one right in the face. They are going to need to hit on some of the guys drafted over the past couple of years. Luckily, prospects/development can change pretty quickly.

Jets add Devante Adams. They are going "all in" with a pair of 7's. Then again, the AFC East looks awful with Tua hurt. The Bills are there, but they don't look great either.

https://champsorchumps.us/records/most-mlb-wins-since-2020 Since 2020, we have the 10th best winning percentage in MLB and only 6 teams have made the playoffs more often. bOTtOM 5 FRanChIsE

Dude has been unreal in the playoffs.

My good friend. The argument was often that the playoffs are a crapshoot and thus the results of the playoffs shouldn't play a major role in fans opinion and judgement of the team or GM. We went to the playoffs in 3 of 4 years and the one year we didn't - it was probably our best team and we missed out by 1 game. Yet - that's viewed as a MASSIVE failure - primarily because they didn't win playoff games. The Tigers didn't add offense at the deadline (in fact they dealt their #2 SPer) - but they aren't a failure, simply because they beat the Astros twice in a little 3 game series. That's dumb. Ultimately, the Atkins era is probably coming to and end - not because of the team results, but because of their inability to draft and develop players. That's what has sewered our ability to maintain the success. But a few more coinflips in our favor between 2020 and 2023 and there would probably be a whole new perception on the Atkins era - when in reality - he had very little control over what happens once the playoffs start.

And immediately makes a beauty catch.

Kike getting hot in the playoffs for Dodgers again is just such a cool, yet random thing to happen. If he stays hot, he becomes somewhat of an LA playoff legend.

Oh man - he's just dying out there. Guttin' it out - true Canadian boy. The guy is so awesome. HOFer.

Jack Flaherty is dealin'

I certainly would.

Congrats to the Dodgers. That was a f***ing great series to watch. Kudos to the Padres - they are a fun, good team. But karma for Machado - guy is a loser.

Yeah - a shorter STing would be nice too. I'd certainly like to see the DS increased to 7 games. They could also just reduce the number of off days in each series. I shouldn't say I don't like the grueling NHL playoffs - it's that they extend into July that gets me.

Yeah - they need a solution to this IMO. I really do hate how long the MLB and NHL playoffs drag out. There are a lot of pros and cons to the current setup, where it's a crapshoot more than ever before. I haven't seen the stats recently, but suspect homefield advantage is still somewhat of an actual advantage. If you wanted to reward teams for regular season records more, and reduce how much of a crapshoot things are, you could give them more home games as has been suggested. I'd be curious if that's actually a concern for MLB. Perhaps the OMG Mets and a shitbag Tigers team that sold their #2 starter at the deadline, winning in the playoffs is good for baseball? Everyone loves an underdog story, so maybe they like it this way.

SSS, but his best season was actually 2020 when he had Yan Gomez protecting him in the lineup. Judge just had one of the best seasons of all time with 116 wRC+, double play magnet, Giancarlo Stanton "protecting" him.

100% Volpe trying to de-escalate the situation. Jazz runs over trying to pour gas on it like a moron.

You're a lot better at this than I am. You must be a Wordle master!

Fry with a huge pinch hit HR. Unreal. Give me Game 5 all day long.

That's very true. Beats me.