Brownie19

This was an incredibly risky signing by the Red Sox. He'd thrown 21 2/3 innings since 2019 and was coming off TJ surgery, following years of back injuries. This was 100% a lottery ticket that 'hit'. Certainly a risk that teams with deep pockets can take. If they weren't in contention, he would have also been a great trade chip at the deadline too.

Holy f*** man. I let you call him a 4th starter a couple times already, but enough is enough. So odd you'd choose FIP as the stat to prove your point. And yes I'm aware of his contract and that you have Mike Elias' beefy cock down your throat because he signed Gibson. I already addressed that here - https://www.bluejaysmessageboard.com/threads/10940-2023-Trade-Deadline?p=1725710#post1725710 Do I love Bassitt? No I don't. I was a bit skeptical of the signing at the time and would have preferred to go after Eovaldi. But - I understand the signing and why they chose to perhaps go the safer route instead of the high upside play like Eovaldi. He's gotten better every month he's been here and is an important part of this team. Sometimes players take time to adjust to a new environment/team. He isn't a 4th starter - stop suggesting he is. I knew this would set you off. Chill. You don't take criticism of your opinions well eh?

You need to stop calling Bassitt a #4 starter man. His WAR is like 60th overall for starters this year. That would make him a back end #2 starter. If you want to argue he's a #4 on a WS contending team, go ahead, but in all likelihood, he's a very solid #3 for a winning team. On Texas, he'd be their #3 starter (assuming you just replace DeGrom with Max). On the O's, he'd be their #3 starter. Same with the Brewers, Reds, Giants, Braves, etc.

Yep - reminds me a lot of Scott Rolen. I never viewed Rolen as this offensive powerhouse, but that combination of offensive production, solid base running and elite defense was pretty special at 3rd base.

Better start searching those 2022 Spring Training videos. Maybe someone hit Vlad on the head. I find it incredible how much more a concussion seems to affect baseball players v. football players. In the NFL, they seem to take 4 days off and there's no impact on their performance. In MLB - you're often f***ed. FWIW - Rizzo put himself in a bad position here - although I guess he expects Tatis to slide back in head first on a close play.

I mean you replaced Teo's 130 wRC+ bat with a 72 wRC+ bat. Nobody honestly believes the team that was the 2nd base offense in baseball last year came into this season and told all the players to make drastic changes.

For the 87th time - the team is flying in Vlad's uncles and other people in his posse because that's the only people he'll work with. There's a good chance he doesn't want to hear the truth and simply is surrounding himself with 'yes' men who make him feel good. Coaches can't work with people who don't want to learn. This is common in pro sports.

Interesting. But I mean Merrifield and KK have been great this year - so that seems to be working. I don't think Varsho is hitting a lot more ground balls, trying to leg it out, so I don't know how the rules have impacted any philosophy. I could see the Jays expecting the new shift rules would only help Varsho be more productive (obviously that isn't happening yet).

f*** do I ever like this new guy...

I enjoy the discussion actually. I'm curious what changes they would make based on the new rules? Wouldn't they want to pull the ball more now that there are restrictions to the shift? Surely the larger bases have no impact to the hitting strategy?

That's fine - but there's a very good chance you're just wrong. Why do you say it's year after year? The team has been great with RISP the past 2 years and has been a top 3 offense both seasons. This year we are 7th in baseball in wRC+. We knew the team made changes to improve the defense and pitching and we knew that was very likely to come at the expense of some offense. Most people agreed that gave us a better shot to win the playoffs. This notion that Guillermo introduced some 'new' philosophy this year that all players must adhere to is simply nonsense. That's not how it works.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZfF3...33896737.0.jpg That may not 100% be on draft day, but still...He was listed at 6'2" 180 lbs.

Average with RISP with Guillermo as the hitting coach... 2019 - .239 (28th overall) 2020 - .275 (7th overall) 2021 - .270 (2nd overall) 2022 - .258 (13th overall) 2023 - .238 (27th overall) He must be implementing a different hitting philosophy every year to get such varying results. What a moron! If you think the hitting coach has a such an influence on this - tell me who the best hitting coach in baseball is and we'll see how consistent his results are...(this may backfire on me - but I'm willing to bet it won't).

That's a good point. He must be giving him good advise like "swing at strikes" and "don't suck". I wish we had someone that advanced on our bench.

How the f*** do the O's get a Chris Colabello season out of Ryan O'Hearn? Career 90 wRC+ hitter posting a 136 wRC+ this year. How the f*** is a 30 year old 1st baseman with a sub 90 career wRC+ still get a shot in the majors?

I bet Guillermo's philosophy with RISP is this: - try way too hard, squeeze the f*** out of the bat - actively try not to hit the ball - if you accidently hit it, don't hit it hard Jays are executing it perfectly, just like their coach told them to.

I'm sure it's our hitting coach telling him that he should swing at more high pitches. /s Sometimes it takes the league a bit longer to adjust, find and expose a hitters holes.

Our first rounder last year was too. The Fat Farm can provide immediate results.

Interesting - I never knew that. Hope you're feeling better.

Perhaps? We'll never really know. Not sure why Varsho wouldn't be lumped in with the stubborn guys - or how we'd have any idea who's opening to learning and who isn't (outside of hearing the Jays are bringing in multiple guys to work with Vlad - clear evidence he won't work with team coaches). The only thing I ever really heard about Varsho was talks of him increasing his power. If you recall, he ripped a few balls very early in the year and there were comments about how those were some of the highest exit velo's he's ever produced. His max exit velo is up this year (81st percentile v. 66th last year), but his barrel % is way down. Are they telling him they want him to sell out and swing harder more often? Or did pitchers just make an adjustment on him (high fastball) that he hasn't adjusted to yet? Who knows. His xwOBA is almost identical to 2022 (0.298 v. 0.295), but his wOBA has dropped way off (.323 v. .276). The dude was a great hitter in the minors, so the pedigree is there. Hopefully he can get squared away and be a Harrison Bader / Trent Grisham type of CF for us over the next 3-4 years. I'm also not sure how the change in the shifts would impact any type of "philosophy". That would seem to let them go back to the "pull da ball" theories with more success. Can't image larger bases impact anything from a hitting perspective - except that if you're fast - getting base more will allow you to steal more (and getting on base more is a super standard philosophy for every team).

Maybe that's why the Jays dealt him!

what the f*** is wrong with Trea Turner? He must have absolutely destroyed anyone who took him in the first round this year (re-draft league).

oh yeah baby - I like that.

I'm sorry, but this isn't the NFL. We don't have an offensive coordinator coming in and implementing the west coast offense forcing Randel Cunningham to change his entire approach. This isn't Phil Jackson bringing in the triangle offense, forcing players to change their game to suit that system. I think this "philosophy" discussion is way overblown. This is probably just the coaches suggesting that with 2 strikes, you try and cut down the swing a bit to make contact because typically, the best teams, and the teams that win in the playoffs have lower K rates. Someone suggested the hitting philosophy needs to change throughout the entire organization? WTF. Good to see we're starting to see some evidence that the team is flying in Vlad's posse and that he probably isn't willing to accept the guidance he's being given. I fully expect that's the prime issue - and perhaps why Guillermo is still employed. Can't blame him if the diva's aren't willing to accept help.