Brownie19

If you ever gave up on him pitching, you'd immediately insert him into RF and watch him become a GG stud out there putz.

Trading Kikuchi to then sign Junis isn't adding starting pitching depth unless you were able to trade Kikucci for a SPer in AA/AAA who could also be part of your SPing depth - that would be ideal I guess. Not sure what you'd actually get for him. Affordable starter coming off a really good year? Maybe that would work. Weakening the #4/#5 spot "may" give you the ability to attract a couple of those fringe guys like Junis and Velasquez (which adds just 1 more piece of depth), but then you need to open up space in the bullpen for the other guy as he won't go to AAA. Not sure you're actually going to save any money though. Most of Kikucci's 2024 salary is probably needed to sign Junis/Velasquez. I think you'd have to be REALLY confident that Manoah was going to rebound and at least give you 160 IP, 4.00 ERA season to go for this approach. These types of scenarios may looks great on paper, but when you factor in that you have to compete against all the other teams for the FA's and such, it's really difficult to pull it all off unfortunately. You can't just hand pick a bunch of individual signings and say "the Jays should have done this".

I thought that was obvious. I wasn't suggesting he thought we'd sign all of them. All I'm saying is that unless you have a legit spot available in your rotation, it's hard to "sign" SP depth guys that will be your #6 through #10. Nobody wants to sign to pitch in AAA or the pen when another team will put them right into the rotation.

Where are you going to put those guys? In the bullpen? AAA? You typically can't just sign quality SP depth and stash it in AAA. The solid guys will sign with teams that need them at the ML level right now... Ricky, Francis, White, Thompson, Macko - those types of guys are going to be your #6 thru #10 starters next year more than likely.

Counsel is hired to manage the Cubs. David Ross fired. Wowsers.

Maybe, but probably not. In my unprofessional opinion, the offense became too stagnant the last couple of years. Too much iso with Siakam holding the ball. I'd love to see them get back to the offense we had in 2017-2019. Ball moving a lot more - unselfish basketball. Now of course Siakam was extremely efficient and effective in that system - but he wasn't "the guy" in those offenses. We might be seeing a transition where they don't want him playing iso basketball anymore and he's re-learning how to be effective in that type of role. Instead of Siakam being a 24 ppg player, perhaps they'll be a better team if he's a 18 ppg player, but the ball movement improves? That's just a guess.

Or a realization that there isn't much on the FA market this year...

Beautiful start to the season for Barnes. 3rd year breakout appears to be happening (although that might be at the expense of Siakam). 22 ppg, 10 rpg, 6 apg, 1 spg and 2 bpg with 50%/40%/75% shooting is pretty damn sexy.

I don't have any issue with the new courts. It's only for this in-season tournament thing. I don't fully understand the in-season tournament thing though. Just trying to make teams care more about winning in the regular season?

I just don't think it's necessary. I love that we have a couple of players stealing 60 or 70 bases a year, and lots more in the 30-50 range. More pick off attempts 'may' reduce this, which I don't want. I also don't enjoy it when the home team attempts a lazy pickoff. It's mostly just a stall tactic. If we start seeing 10-15 players stealing 70+ bases, then sure, add another disengagement and see if it helps slow down base stealing a bit. I think the return of stolen bases is one of the best things to happen to baseball in the past 20 years.

I made the mistake of opening up the Facebook comments on a post about his final game. There were literally 138 straight comments about how he'll love coming to the US, where he'll be pulled after the 5th innings and 73 pitches. There is a massive % of the population (mostly between the ages of 40-60 I assume, as that's who uses Facebook) who is not adapting or understanding any of the logic/strategy behind when to pull starting pitchers.

How many DH spots do you think we have?

Could Ha-Seong Kim have won a GG at 2nd base and the utility position?

All the more reason to keep Chad Green.

https://theathletic.com/5026352/2023/11/02/capitals-oshie-neck-guard-islanders/ Looks like a few others are also. Man does Oshie look like a loser /s

I think you're way off. Whit 100% would love to have a 1 year $18M deal. Nobody is going to give him anywhere near that in AAV. Will he get a 2 year $20M deal? Maybe, but obviously he'd rather take $18M this year and bet that next offseason he can get more than $2M.

I don't know guys. I'm not sure multiple pick offs adds much value to the game. I'm be curious to know whether it actually decreases the runners lead or not or has a tangible impact on the success rate of the SB attempt. Maybe it does? But I think there's a chance it doesn't. For the past 100 years, fans have told MLB directly what they think about pickoff moves. I'm cool with the 2 disengagements. The more you allow, the more pitchers will use them to manipulate the pitch clock and slow down the game.

I'll never understand people like this. Not a fan enough to even bother watching. Sourcing opinions from horrendous places like Facebook, yet still compelled to spend time spreading those opinions to others.

someone clean up that title please...

Bobby Witt Jr. swung his big fat cock around in the 2nd half. 138 wRC+ on his way to a 30 hr, 49 sb, 5.7 WAR season. I think he's right up there with Carroll, Acuna, Julio and Adley as the new young superstars of baseball. Betts, Freeman and Olson were some old vets who had big seasons. That said - the big thing this year was undoubtedly the rule changes. MLB hit a home run with them. The return of SB's to baseball was amazing, as was the pitch clock. Just like the takeout slide, those were against the new rules seemingly disappeared and were never heard of again after the first month. Was there even a violation in the playoffs? I don't think so and I don't recall one single moment where the 15 or 20 second clock stole the moment away from fans (or any of that s*** people thought would happen).

Jomboy Media (@jomboymedia) • Instagram reel WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM 190K likes, 1,588 comments - jomboymedia on November 2, 2023: "The most legendary dad quote of all-time (via krutzfield / Twitter)". I love seeing stuff like this. Quote of the year from this Dad.

Silver Slugger nominees are out. Only 1 Blue Jays was nominated and it was Whit Merrifield as a utility player. That pretty much sums up the Blue Jays season right there.

Eric Nadel's radio call of the final out. Apparently he's been the radio broadcaster for the Rangers since 1979. Super happy for this guy. I can only imagine how special this is for him. At 72 years old, I'm sure he was worried he'd never see the Rangers win the WS.

And I think this is exactly what MLB wants. This encourages more teams to be buyers and to try and field strong, competitive teams. It wasn't so long ago that like half the teams in the league started the season with no intent on contending for the playoffs. That's no longer the case thankfully.

Baseball (@mlbelites_) • Instagram photo WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM 54K likes, 1,436 comments - mlbelites_ on October 31, 2023: "The 2023 World Series is on pace to be the least-watched of all time 👀 (via: @frontofficesports)". Ratings over the past years...