Brownie19

If he gets sent to the minors - do we still owe him $3M? or do we pay him a prorated amount - only for the days he's in the big leagues?

100% it looks like balls ripped down the line (while hooking) will end up in the jut out area in kind of no-mans land. LF, SS and 3rd may all have to chase balls in that area.

If Espinal is back to providing excellent defense, then I think he can be a valuable bench piece. If he plays defense like he did last year, I think he's useless. If he has options and can be sent to AAA - then we don't need to punt him into the sun, but I also think we have internal options like Clement and Leo Jimenez, who can simply replace what he provides.

Leafs land Edmundson for a 3rd and 5th round pick.

Looks pretty good to me. Turning the seats in foul territory between 3rd base and the foul pole is going to make a HUGE difference. Those were some of the shittiest seats every. Surely every seat will have a cup holder now too. Now we just need to add the LV sphere screens to the inside of the roof and the place will look awesome.

What about Duval? Steamers projects him to be turrrible, but he's coming off a 116 wRC+ season and he's a .200+ ISO guy. He'd add some much needed pop if you could land him for <$5M and dump Espinal. We have Jimenez to replace Espinal anyway.

That career 125 wRC+ v. RHP is pretty sexy though.

Is Dave Stewart their GM now? It's truly bizarre how inept that organization is.

I just saw this headline "According to El Extrabase’s Daniel Álvarez-Montes, the Nationals signed OF Eddie Rosario to a split contract in which he could earn up to $4 million with incentives." I've never heard of a "split contract" before. I assume that's just a minor league deal, with an invite to camp and if he makes the team, his $4M is guaranteed? Just some semantics?

I think they probably needed Montgomery or Snell to compete - BEFORE the Giolito injury. They were at a 25% chance of making the playoffs before the injury. 6th lowest in the AL.

I wonder how much of a change in arm slot you need to change your IVB. I could be wrong, but I think you can make minor adjustments to arm slots in an offseason (but I could totally be wrong). There must be something to this though. It's not like all these pitchers were in the same lab all winter long working on these changes under the supervision of Blue Jays staff. Some may have been, some may also just have been in labs that are pushing this (maybe all labs are). Is there any other explanation? I suspect sticky stuff can help improve IVB? Maybe the Jays invested in a black market company to develop some unique sticky stuff for them (that somehow isn't detectable)!

Is IVB something they can teach?

I suspect he knows it won't improve in SF. But it seems he backed himself into quite a corner and took what he could get - from a team near his hometown/comfort zone.

ouch.

You didn't need to explain it bud. This wasn't the Phillies paying Schwarber $20M a year for his offense. The Reds must have higher internal projections for Candelario (or they're really stupid) - but he's obviously not some proven offensive star. Same can be said for Gurriel, who's been just a hair over league average with the bat for 3 years now. I'd be curious to know how many other teams were even in on Candelario or Gurriel anywhere near the 3 years / $45M range. While I do generally agree that teams pay more for offense. Defense does seems to be somewhat undervalued. Maybe there are good reasons for this, maybe teams just don't trust defensive stats/projections. That said, teams aren't exactly lining up for pure Schwarber type offense. JDM is still unsigned, Garver only got $24M for 2 years, Teo only gets a 1 year deal, etc. I think teams are a lot less willing to give out long/large deals to pure offense, no defense guys. Doubtful that guys like Nick Castellanos get 5 years $100M anymore.

I just ask your mom to fill in while I type. Never seen anyone gobble up a shaft like that before. Mighty find cock sucking genes you have in the family.

Yeah - JD Davis still interests me. If you could get him for Espy, I'd do that in a heartbeat. The more options we have of guys who could have "good" offensive seasons the better. He very well could run into a 120 wRC+ season. That said, I wouldn't be eager to move Garcia for him.

If this happens, we may need to organize a BJMB Falafel Dinner night like we did the one year with the pizza night...

wambulance! Fantastic stuff.

Except Candelario projects to be a 101 wRC+ bat. The Reds didn't exactly pay a premium for offense.

He was pretty emphatic that the Dodgers do NOT want Belly.

I'm aware that Heyward was great last year - after initially wanting to retire after 2 horrendous years in 2021 and 2022. It was cool to see him have so much success. But, he only projects for 0.8 WAR this year and has a history of following up a good/great year with an absolute stinker. At 34, his baserunning and defense are declining (which was how he provided value when his bat went to s***). If the Jays should have waited out Chapman and not signed IKF/Turner so early, then it's fair to say the Dodgers should have done the same with Teo and Heyward. $32M for guys that project to give them 2.5 WAR isn't very sexy. Point is - even good GM's / Organizations are never going to be perfect in reading the market and optimizing value. CD will come tell me that 100% the Dodgers didn't want Belly. Not sure how he knows that, but maybe it's true, just like it may be true that Chapman told the Jays he wasn't re-signing with them early in the FA period, which explains why Atkins shifted gears. There are all kinds of factors involved in decisions, trades, signings, etc. that we aren't privy to. I choose to be optimistic that Atkins is making good decisions with the information he has at his finger tips. We'll be playoff contenders for the 5th straight season and have been favored to win in the matchups we've had more often than not, so I think he's earned some respect. Of course others believe the GM has a lot of control over who wins in the playoffs, so they'll suggest he hasn't, because 0 playoff wins.

Yes - I'm aware. I just said there's a possibility of it, which is true - although I acknowledge it's pretty damn low.

I'll add to this. IKF projects at 1.1 WAR this year. Jeimer Candelario also projects for 1.1 WAR and he got 3 years $45M. LGJ projects at 1.2 WAR and he got 3 years $42M. Now those are overpays...

My memory isn't great these days, but I don't recall suggesting that $$$ wouldn't be an issue. I did suggest there's a possibility they get approval to exceed the next luxury tax threshold. I do remember agreeing with BTS/Laika (one of them) that suggested the $7.5M IKF is getting is going to be the primary reason we can't afford Belly or Chapman. I try not to speak in absolutes (although I did just say the Dodgers would 100% prefer Belly to Teo - my bad). I just strongly disagree with the suggesting Atkins must have mis-read the market because he didn't sign Chapman instead of IKF and Turner. I think there's a good probability that isn't true - and even if it where, I don't think it's fair to suggest a GM ought to read the market perfectly on a yearly basis (or at all?). Are there GM's who correctly read the market correctly year after year after year? How much luck involved? It's all probabilities IMO.