Brownie19

What are your expectations for GM's "reading the market" correctly? Should they do it correctly every year? 50% of the time? Knowing what each team/GM is willing to do each year can't be easy. Mis-reading the market and ending up empty handed has to be a lot worse than mis-reading the market and ending up with slightly inferior players. Didn't the Dodgers mis-read the market by signing Teo instead of Belly?

English is difficult eh?

The best teams win more often than not eh? And I meant the FO has control over who wins in the playoffs.

This always comes down to whether or not you think teams have much control over whether they win in the playoffs or not. Lots on here believe they do. Others don't.

Playoffs in 3 of the last 4 years (while missing 4 for 4 by 1 win) while being in a good position to make it again this year is likely considered by most within the organization to be good results. Hence why the boss hasn't fired him and continues to support him.

I feel bad for you. What's happened in your life to make you the way you are? Is your life so bad that bitching about everything the Blue Jays do is actually what you choose to do in your free time? Why would you choose to be so negative? If you can't be even slightly optimistic about your favourite team in Spring Training - then what are you doing? I'm sorry if you have some physical or mental scars that make you this way. It must be a tough way to live.

If I join you all as armchair GM's - then I fully agree. Atkins should have done absolutely nothing - waited it all out and signed both Belly and Chapman to the deals they ultimately signed. f*** KK, IKF, Green, Rodriquez. Trust guys like Cooke, Jimenez, Dallas, etc. to set in and contribute. Springer - RF Bo - SS Vlad - 1st Belly - LF Chapman - 3rd Jansen/Kirk - C Varsho - CF Schneider/Biggio - 2nd Horwitz/Schneider/Orelvis/Barger - DH Our depth would be really thin (but who cares or thinks about that?), but our lineup would be great. Did Belly or Chapman want to play in Toronto? Would they have signed for the same deals? Who knows - easier to just ignore that. Is it fair to expect the GM to read the market perfectly? Obviously some of you believe the answer is 100% yes - good GM's always read the market correctly. I'm not so sure that's fair. Are the Reds pissed their GM signed Candelario so early when they could have had Chapman? Are there 10 other teams out there kicking themselves because they didn't KNOW that Belly and Chapman would sign these deals? Probably. What if this happens. Let's pretend Atkins knew the markets for Chapman and Belly would sink like they did. He declines Green, he doesn't sign anyone else because he KNOWS these 2 guys will be available on reasonable deals. He waits it out like a BOSS - only to find out that Chapman really doesn't want to play in TO again and is using them as leverage and SF is always going to have last right of refusal and they ultimately land Chapman. Jays read the market perfectly, yet still don't get him. Is anyone happy with that outcome? Even if you read the market perfectly, there's a risk you don't get the guy and are a left with very limited options. That all said - I do wish we moved Varsho to CF and added power in the corners and I don't like the IKF signing. I don't know if he's good value, but I love Green and think haters would be all over Atkins if the pen struggled or guys like Pearson and Cooke couldn't step up. I don't love the Turner signing, but I don't hate it. I hope he has something left in the tank. I like the Rodriquez signing. We needed SPing depth and he's an upside play. It's not a great offseason, but there are lot of factors involved in where we are today. Easy to sit back and rip on it when you know very little about those factors.

I can't wait for another long season of you complaining about absolutely everything. Back to the ignore list I guess.

Just asking as I'm not much of an NHL fan. Now that I've stopped playing fantasy sports, I don't know the marginal players very well at all (not that this guy would ever have been considered for fantasy hockey anyway).

Buds got him. Is he good?

The pen also has some intriguing in-house options this year. Something we haven't really had in years.

Really? People think it's a Jays thing? Is this because of the Berrios BS? Jays starters threw like the 3rd most innings in baseball last year.

Obviously. This is true for almost every team in pro sports man. Stop listening to them (and/or expecting something besides common media BS).

I think every team would say the same thing. Every team has a few pitchers with options who are going to ride the buses and go between AAA and the majors all year alone (which is how they replicate having 14 or 15 pitching spots available to them).

Why do you say this? The Jays have one of the best rotation in the majors, full of pitchers who are equipped to go deeper into games. If this rule was in place this year, it would only benefit them. That said, I think most teams currently appreciate having extra space in their bullpen for an extra arm. It's a f***ton easier to find another flame throwing RP right now than it is to find starters who can go through a lineup a 3rd time.

I'm not going to voice an opinion about who's better defensively in CF - but will point out there's a possibility the Jays would leave KK in CF, even if they think Varsho is better (at this point, it's probably marginally, or "a bit" and there is a breaking point) simply out of respect and b/c Varsho has more experience in the corners. KK is literally one of the best defensive CFers of all-time. He's going to want to play CF until he says he's done playing it.

With all the snowbirds in Florida, I think the Jays are one of the top teams that draw out the fans.

O's sign Kolton Wong to a minor league deal. Nice lottery ticket for them. He's 1 year removed from B2B 2.5 WAR seasons. That said, he doesn't project well and is entering age 33 season. Most 2nd basemen fall off the cliff in their early 30's, so he's probably done.

Same! I think "great 2 way centers who were incredible leaders"

I just came back from Spring Training (video evidence available). I've been going for years and we've learned to just buy "berm" seats to games. They've all increased in price, but we paid $118.75 USD for 5 berms seats and parking at the ATL @ TB game in Port Charlotte. So $160 CAD for my family of 5 to go ($32/person). We did sit on the berm a bit (which gave access to autographs and balls to be thrown from outfielders, etc.), but there is always open seats so once we got too hot, we just moved to some open seats. We often cruise around and check out different parts of the park as the game goes on (go stand near the bullpens for a bit, move to bar areas, etc.). It's so laid back, if you miss an inning or 2, it's no big deal. That's the cheapest way to watch a TB spring training game. The game in North Port (Atlanta Braves home) was MUCH more expensive. My parents and brother came to this one and they're old, so we got them seats in the upper deck, under shade for $45 each USD. Berm tickets were $20 each. I got 4 seats and 4 berm tickets and it was $313.20 USD ($424 CAD) for 8 of us to go ($53/person). It's a brand new park and it was gorgeous - but not as affordable as one might think (especially when you add in a few beers and hot dogs).

While I agree that you need to take ST results with a grain of salt, you can't compare Kirby to Manoah. Kirby is an established stud, coming off a great season. Manoah is trying to resurrect his career. Manoah's STing results matter more IMO.

Spring training is also great for baseball IMO. It provides an opportunity for fans to get better access to the players and it acts as a 'build up' to the upcoming season. It's great for the economy in the various City's that host ML teams too. It also gives prospects time to interact with the big leaguers, learn from them and become more comfortable in that environment. Finally, there is an element of players being able to showcase themselves and to "make the team" as well. I'm not truly sure how often that happens anymore (likely did happen a lot more back in the '80's and '90's), but that would be lost if spring training was only a few weeks long.

This made me look at this all-time list. The name that stood out to me was Mark Recchi. 14th all time in total points? I never even considered him a star player! I knew he put up some big seasons early on, but I thought it was because he played on lines with some true star players. He only exceeded a point per game in 6 full seasons? I certainly thought of Joe Sakic as being a f***ing stud.

Well that's hilarious. But yes - that form is so clean. Nice flat back, fields it out in front. Textbook. I had the sleeves and shorts all pulled up, hat off - trying to get some f***ing sun at the game (which was successful). That's my oldest boy in the Acuna jersey. He just came back from getting Chick-Fil-A. Ball hit off his foot and rolled right to me. You're going to pay for this one John

I took the family to BAL @ ATL today at the new CoolToday Park in North Port. The park is spectacular. The best I've ever been to (I think we've been to 8 now). My only complaints are there's a pile of stairs as soon as you enter, there is netting from foul pole to foul pole (which really limits the player/fan interaction and signature opportunities) and they don't let you bring in backpack, which is ridiculous (8 of us went today and they won't let us bring in 1 medium sized backpack that's full of sunscreen, blanket for sitting on the berm, baseballs for signatures, etc.). Anyway - the game was a bit of a dud. The Braves had their opening day starting lineup (except D'Arnaud was catching instead of Murphy), which was awesome to see, but they didn't hit much. Acuna popped out and grounded out (breaking his bat both times). Jackson Holliday started at 2nd for the O's. He never put the ball in play. 2 K's and a walk. He took some absolutely massive hacks, but came up empty. Looks like he was overswinging. My boys ended up with 3 game balls though. Kelenic threw us a ball in LF, the bullpen catcher threw us another and then the highlight of the day was we caught the Jordan Westburg home run ball! It hit off the railing, off my son's foot and rolled right to me. That's the first fair or foul ball I've ever ended up with at a baseball game. Kids had a blast overall - but it's back to Ontario tomorrow. I really could see myself spending the winters in Florida during retirement. Maybe even volunteering at a spring training stadium. It's such a special time of year.