Brownie19

yeah - 100% agree brother.

Yeah I hate all this in-game betting bullsh*t. I suspect the $$$ is great, but it introduces WAY more potential for corruption/game fixing (which we're now seeing a lot more) and I think it's just bad for society.

Sorry - I understand how polymarket works. I'm curious if there are any numbers to back up your observation that games are more volatile now than they used to be. My gut tells me they aren't. I'd guess that steroid era baseball was more volatile. Offense was insane and bullpens weren't full of quality options throwing 97+. In the 6th/7th you were often either facing a non elite starter for the 3rd time while he was tiring - or you were facing some middle reliver throwing 91 MPH poo.

That's an interesting observation. I can't say I share it, although I don't have time to pay attention as much during the busy summer months as I'm on the diamond with my boys. Are there any numbers to support this?

I still think Gausman could command a good return. He's a been a horse for the Jays and I'll be sad to see him go (and happy to have him back on a 2 year deal in the offseason).

Nobody talking about the draft still, but I think there's a possibility that Jays consider Elliot Lascelles at 39. He was just named Prep Baseball Canadian Player of the Year. Young shortstop who's committed to Yale. He's expected to go Top 50.

Yeah - I think that's stupid. Name the people you think deserve to be an All-Star. If they are unavailable to play due to schedule/injury, than they can back out, or just go an enjoy the weekend.

Adrian Beltre hit 48 HRs with a 161 wRC+ at age 25 and followed it up with 19 HRs and a 90 wRC+. He also had just 8 HRs in 477 PAs with a 81 wRC+ at age 30. He's in the HOF

MLB ⚾ (@mlb) • Instagram photos and videos WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM 52K likes, 2,555 comments - mlb on June 25, 2026: "The biggest issue baseball fans want solved to strengthen the... Some updates on the negotiations...some positive and interesting proposals here.

Does anyone understand why the Rockies haven't called up Charlie Condon and Zac Veen yet? Both are tearing up AAA.

What a f*cking dumpster fire the Mets are. They are the NL version of the Jays. Bo - 92 wRC+ Robert Jr. - 91 wRC+ and hurt (shocker) Lindor - 88 wRC+ Vientos - 76 wRC+ (remember when he was going to be the cornerstone of a Vlad trade?) Baty - 73 wRC+ (bust) Semien - 71 wRC+ (he's done) Polanco - 51 wRC+ Peralta - 4.68 ERA Peterson - 6.09 ERA Devin Williams - 4.85 ERA Senga - 8.66 ERA (bust) Just horrendous stuff.

I do believe I was the one telling everyone in the 2024 offseason to "wake me up in 2032 (or something like that) when we'll be good again". Maybe I was right after all. Thank god we were gifted 2025. It was truly magical.

Aw yes, how quickly my memory is eroding. Points still hold - I did feel signing him long term was the right call at the time based on his strong 2024 (not Playoff Vlad). It will be fascinating to see what Vlad does following this utterly embarrassing season. Will he head back home to fatten up on grandma's cooking while flipping a few tires and participating in home run derby's for social media purposes? Or will he stay in Dunedin, enter the lab and get to work like a man? I think most shared the concern that he'd turn into a lazy, fat bum once he got his bag of money. We're about to find out! Luckily, I think fans will turn on him and it's going to be a long, sad career if he's a 1.5 WAR overpaid bum who fans boooo every time he comes to the plate for the next 14 years. I do think Vlad genuinely wants Toronto and their fans to love him and thus I think there's a decent chance he gets to work in the offseason to do what he can to turn this around.

It's amazing that we've gone from Playoff Vlad, who dominated and gave us some of the most amazing baseball memories some of us will ever have, to a mass panic because he might be the worst contract in sports history - all in the span of 9 months. This truly goes to show how unpredictable baseball can be (Skenes is throwing 94 MPH now too - nobody had that on their bingo card). Personally, I've always been frustrated by Vlad. Outside of 2021, it's felt like he's underperforming and unable to consistency achieve the results his abilities suggest are possible. But, even I fell victim to Playoff Vlad and believed there was a real possibility he'd figured something out and could find that consistency as he matured and entered his prime. It felt like there was simply too much talent, pedigree and underlying metrics for him to completely fail - unless his weight ballooned (real concern), or he became injury prone (which has never been an issue). I was on board with signing him long term and felt we couldn't just let him go for nothing. I liked the possibility he'd retire a Blue Jay and head into the HOF with a Jays cap on. This season must be a <5% percentile result. It's an utter disaster that has almost single handedly sunk this season. Nobody in their right mind saw this happening - not to this extent. I think it's encouraging we don't (yet) have a mass of people claiming this is Atkins fault and calling for him to be canned. You can suggest the contract was too player friendly, or that we overpaid if you want, but locking him up was the right call, coming off a WS appearance. Even if we extended him for 10 years, $350M - this situation would still suck. That said, I don't think it's as dire as people may be making it (it never is). This season is a lost cause, but I'd be shocked if Vlad is unable to at least return to the levels we saw in 2022 and 2025 (135ish wRC+, 3.5 WAR) through his age 28-32 seasons. He's rebounded before from subpar seasons (2023). My youngest loves Vlad (as A LOT of kids in Ontario do) and it pains me to watch him become more and more disappointed in how sh*tty he's been. Baseball is an incredibly frustrating game - I've lived it my whole life. Who's fault is it that Vlad sucks now? Manager? GM? hitting coach? nutrition? physical? mental? WHO KNOWS - nobody does. I think that's why I'm often defensive when people lay blame on certain individuals - because we should know that there are often SEVERAL factors in play and sometimes it's just unexplainable. This timing sucks goats thought. The Jays had built a great team, with great chemistry that players actually wanted to a part of! Will that continue this offseason after a miserable season? Seems doubtful. This game is so fickle - things change on a dime. It's brutal.

Moving it to the main board section would help. Nobody goes in the other ones, which is why we created (or moved?) the minor league discussion to the main board as well...

Little to no discussion on the upcoming draft eh? I guess because the Jays first pick is at 39? That's too bad, I love draft talk!

Off The Bat (@offthebatmedia) • Instagram reel WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM 3,261 likes, 79 comments - offthebatmedia on July 2, 2026: "Is Paul Skenes bad now??? #PaulSkenes... This is kinda sad. Hope he figures it out.

Right now, humans are the most advanced species to have ever lived on earth. Statistically, we're all some of the most advanced and dominant creatures in history and yet I remain amazed at how truly stupid we remain as a society.

For all we know, the did shop him around in the 2017 offseason, after realizing an extension wasn't happening and they didn't like what they were offered, so they took the risk of trading him in-season, only for him to get hurt and barely play. A healthy JD might have commanded a fortune at the deadline in competitive market. Can't fault the org for not knowing he'd get hurt. Or maybe Ownership pushed them to remain "competitive" in 2018 and thus keeping JD to the deadline aligned with the Owners requests. Lots of potential reasons for it and we don't really have enough info to create that judgement IMO. I do agree that it's fine for JD to feel like he should be paid for what he did in the past, but it really does show his ignorance as to how the business of baseball is run (which I said originally). IMO, he ought to have taken the position that while he understands his future contract will be based on his projections, he would like there to be some sort of acknowledgement for the strength and results he brought to the organization in previous years. I suspect organizations would be receptive to that - adding an extra year or 2, or increasing the AAV by 5-10% to find mutual ground. But when the player shuts down any conversation on what the projections for him look like - it's becomes a non-starter, and frankly, it makes him look like a dumb jock (which he probably is).

That's crazy talk G.

I'd support this. I like having another thread for all the major sports and I'm sure there are lots of regulars who would like to talk about what's happening in other leagues (especially when the Jays suck). I also share the same frustrations about the clock in soccer, as someone who essentially only watches during the World Cup. I also think it's wild they only have 1 ref.

1000% it is, but this board spent 2 years blaming Guillermo Martinez and Donny Baseball for the offensive struggles, then 1 year gagging on Popkins' dong for fixing everything. I continue to believe the hitting coach has little impact.

We really don't know how it was presented and such, but I don't think it's unreasonable for a GM to say "let's sit down together and look at what we project for you". Baseball has been run by projection systems for quite awhile now. Suggesting that they should be looking at his MVP votes in previous seasons illustrates how clueless players can be. I'd read that as Atkins saying "this is what the numbers are showing me for what I can offer you. Let's see if we're in the same ballpark or not so we don't waste each others time". I guess it's fair for JD to get butt hurt that Atkins (correctly) didn't want to extend him for 8 years, but wouldn't JD prefer that Atkins was upfront and told him that instead of dragging it out? Unless I'm missing something, I don't get how Atkins botched that situation so much. They had this convo, they learned that an extension wasn't going to happen and he traded him that season. The issue was that JD got hurt, which killed his value. It's not like Atkins would have known that was going to happen. Should he have signed JD to an extension the previous year when his value was sky high? That would have been a disaster - especially when the writing was on the wall that the Jays wouldn't be competing much beyond 2016.

It's interesting to see how a player like JD views all of this. He said he told Ross he wanted to retire a Blue Jay after the 2017 season and seems upset that Ross suggested a 3 year extension (claiming he was going to play a lot longer than that). The Jays clearly needed to rebuild, so logically, signing JD to some long extension entering his age 32 season didn't make a ton of sense - a 3 year extension may have helped his trade value. Of interest, JD actually played 5 more years, with the last 2 being pretty poor, so the 3 year extension would have been a good call. JD seems upset that Ross offered to show him how the Jays project him moving forward. He declined (sounding like he's offended by that suggestion) and cites all his MVP votes and what he'd done in the past - seemingly suggesting that he should be paid based on what he's done, not what he's going to do moving forward. I wonder if a lot of players feel that way? Maybe they do when they feel they've been underpaid (based on their performance) during their previous contract? But no good GM does this - nor should they. He seemed upset that Rogers didn't care if they resigned JD. Again, 2018 Jays were rebuilding and lowering payroll for obvious reasons. I wonder how many players care whether the Owner (who typically know nothing about baseball) "wants them there" or not. He goes on to claim he told Ross "I just want you to be straight up with me", which I suspect is exactly what he would have done when reviewing the projections - but JD refuses to see them. Then he's so butt hurt about all of this, he just tells Ross he won't talk contracts anymore, then claims he thinks Ross approach it like this on purpose because he didn't want him to come back? Based on this video, it seems JD doesn't really understand how the business of baseball works (even if he says he does in the video). This doesn't really surprise me - I think a lot of baseball players and fans are clueless. That said, I suspect it's difficult for a star player to ignore the "feelings" - even if it's just business. I get the impression that's part of it. You dominate and give the teams some amazing memories and you never want that to end - but sometimes it has to. I can't say I blame him for that. Thanks for posting the video.