Brownie19

I'm concerned you don't even understand the situations where people suggest "it's still early". The most common scenario is early in the season when the Jays lose a few games. Maybe someone in the bullpen blows the game, or a starter lays and egg or the offense is MIA. Some Jays fans are upset that they lost and these events happened and they suggest change is needed. Cut that player, bench him, trade that guy, change the lineup, fire the manager, etc. They often look at SSS results (which are wayyy more evident early in the season as hitting and pitching stats can be skewed early in the year) to defend their positions and argue the team should start making changes right now because every win matters and obviously the players with s***** results so far suck and should be replaced. If the same player goes into a slump in August, those same fans typically don't even notice it. Rational fans understand it's really stupid to make rash/significant changes based on a SSS and that you need to stay the course for a longer period. You don't want to start cutting/losing assets on your 40 man roster that you may need over the course of a 162 game schedule. That's where the "it's still early" argument comes from. I also don't understand how this is so difficult to understand. It literally has nothing to do with the importance of winning games in April/May - obviously everyone wants to get off to a good start and those games do matter, but you don't make wholesale changes if you start the year 7-12. That said - will you sometimes come upon the situation like we have with Manoah where removing the 2022 Cy Young finalist from the rotation after 4 starts would have actually been the right decision? Of course you do - and of course this happens more often with fringe players like Anthony Bass or Cimber and such. But this is very difficult to predict and often if you're talking about a player with a proven track record, the early season slump is often countered with a hot streak as they revert back to the career norm. I hope this helps.

I think most just doubt his production will translate at the ML level. Most of those comps you include had a higher slugging percentages in the minors. Shawn Casey hit .380/.446/.613 in 352 PA's in AA/AAA as a 22 year old. Grace skipped AAA and was starting in the majors at age 24. Keith Hernandez was in AAA at age 20/21 and in the majors full time by age 22. Lyle Overbay is probably your best comp and I suspect there are a lot of guys like Lyle Overbay who fail and never become anything.

Holy f***. So much stupid in here. Metafour hit the nail on the head.

You do understand this concept correct? It's moronic to make rash decisions in May, based on small samples sizes simply because the team isn't playing great. If you did that, this team would have cut Belt, Garcia, Biggio and Richards, would have pulled Kikuchi from the rotation and bench Danny Jansen I guess?

That's nice, but what a disappointing season it's been for him so far.

7 for his last 70. -3 wRC+ wRC+ on the season is all the way down to 113.

How crazy is it that Vlad is currently 11th on the team (offensively) in WAR, behind Davis Schneider & Varsho. Davis Schneider has played 5 games.

Man - if one of my sons made it to the majors, I'd be a crying mess for 9 straight innings. It wouldn't matter if he hit a home run or went 0-4. How can you not be romantic about baseball?

We can certainly hope he's for real.

Still just a 0.158 ISO heading into the game today. Not many slap hitting 1st basemen in the game today.

And it was a crazy good at bat. Fouled off like 6 pitches. One of the best at bats this year.

That's interesting. I wonder how many games it takes for those stats to stabilize? I think most thought the renovations would make it even better for hitters. Shorter distances to the fences, but perhaps the height evens it all out?

anyone know where the Rogers Centre ranks now following the renovations to the OF? Still a great hitters park?

Go have a look at how f***ing terrible Diaz was last night. He deserved to be mocked. He's s***. It probably took the rest of the crew a long time to come to his defense because they know how bad he is.

We'll see. A corner OFer with bad defense and a high K rate is pretty common these days. I guess Haniger got 3 years, but guys like Joc and Duvall only got 1 year deals this past offseason.

Ben Wagner - 22 minutes ago... Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said Tuesday in an interview with MLB Network that Bo Bichette (knee) was “moving around with very few symptoms, almost none at all” during a workout on Monday. Bichette has resumed baseball activities, but has yet to be cleared to start hitting again. The 25-year-old shortstop landed on the injured list last Wednesday with right knee patellar tendinitis, but isn’t expected to require a lengthy absence. Barring any setbacks, it’s possible he could return to Toronto’s lineup at some point in mid-August. It’ll be veteran trade acquisition Paul DeJong continuing to handle shortstop in his absence.

No, no - it's evidence we should fire the hitting coach of course.

Unfortunately, this is true. Also would be difficult to commit to KK for more than 1 or 2 years and I have to think someone will give him 3+ years.

Because he's a corner OF who's coming off a horrible season? Not to say some teams won't give him a 2 or 3 year offer, but it seems doubtful he's going to sign a 4-6 year deal. He's 100% a candidate to sign a 1 year pillow deal to try and rebuild himself to cash in on a bigger, long term deal.

Interesting. I was there 5 or 6 years ago now (Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cinny baseball/golf trip) and we really enjoyed Cleveland. I didn't think it was the shithole it had the reputation of being. 4th Street East area was amazing. Closed streets with all kinds of great restaurants, bars and patios. Progressive Field has a bar type area in the RF stands. Tons of craft beers, good food and standing room. Like the Corona Rooftop patio I guess. It was a great place to watch a game in which I didn't care who won.

He's still 15th in MLB in average velocity from a left handed pitcher. If he ever gets back to 98, he's top 3 in all of baseball from the left side.

Velocity aside, I've always thought Cabrera had an electric arm from the left side. He's just been far to erratic in his career to provide consistent results. FWIW, his fastball velocity is in the 80th percentile this year and was in the 97th percentile in 2021. Maybe I'm wrong? Regardless, he's similar to Fuji in that he was struggling mightily and about to be released and like the O's, the Jays came in and offered a bag of balls to take a chance that he could regain his effectiveness with some minor tweaks and a change of scenery - and so far, it's worked for both teams.

Instead he'll spend the offseason in the DR with his 'boys' who just tell him that he's great and (probably) mooch off his fame and fortune. He'll post some videos playing home run derby in the sandlot while crushing grandma's home cooking. Seems increasingly unlikely he will put in the work necessary to be the best player he can be and chase a HOF career. Sad, but teams can't force him to want to be good.

Stop trolling. Fujinami is just running a BABIP heater for the O's right now (0.167). His xFIP with the O's (and overall) isn't nearly as good as Hicks and he doesn't throw harder than Hicks (99.4 w O's v. 100.9 avg). That said, was Fujinami worth a shot? Sure he was, as he obviously has a huge arm. Very similar to the Jays grabbing Genesis Cabrera. I'd look at it like this - the following is the % chance that each pitcher comes in an provides Elite | Solid | Terrible results to their new teams: Hicks - 50% | 30% | 20% Fujinami - 10% | 20% | 70% Cabrera - 10% | 20% | 70% Are the O's some genius organization that "knew" they could tweek something on Fujinami and get elite results? Highly unlikely. Much like the Jays with Cabrera, they saw an opening in their 26 & 40 man rosters to take a shot on a guy with a huge arm. You're hoping a change of scenery helps or you just get some reliever magic. The Jays and O's both managed to throw something against the wall and make it stick this past month. Do they deserve some credit? Sure, but there has to be a lot of luck involved with that - just like there was a ton of luck for the Mets when they got solid results from Brad Hand after the Jays released him in 2021.

Have a day Cavan. Little doubt that he belongs on this team when Bo returns. Espinal to AAA