Brownie19

Jays had to go extra years and money to get Ryu and Springer too...Ryu had durability concerns. I'm not sure a lot has changed. Perhaps you could argue our new training facility gives us a bit more advantage than we had in 2006?

Hey JP, welcome to the board. Why was it harder to get players to sign in Toronto in 2007 than it is today? He literally signed AJ and BJ in 2006...

Barf. Not interested in giving that up for Benintendi. Especially considering he would have been a backup player on this team.

Seems really aggressive given he wasn't pitching all that well in AA (5.06 FIP, 4.35 xFIP)

Again - Benintendi f***ing sucks. Yanks get him for nothing obviously.

f*** sakes! This is terrible news for baseball. Just awful. Reminds me of David Wright, who was one of my favourites.

Yeah - Groshans' bat looks gross. I can't imagine he's worth much in a trade these days.

That's a really good one. Was Ramirez ever considered a top prospect?

I hope you're right. 13 XBH's in 238 PA's is f***ing gross. Is there a comp or someone who we've seen develop in a similar manner over the past 5-10 years? Someone with a sub .100 ISO in AAA who actually becomes a stud hitter at the ML level?

Makes sense. Carroll continues to absolutely destroy baseballs with big power and a great eye while Moreno showed off his pool noodle bat at the ML level.

That's fair I guess. And for clarification, I just quoted the original BA list that someone posted. I left the bolds in from that original post. I know he's a bit old for A/A+, but we just drafted him last year and all he's done is hit the cover off the ball since drafted.

Help me understand this. Do you mean can we stop listing him as a prospect or talking about him as someone who could help the team at some point? Or like you want him cut from the team? I can understand fan's frustrations that they expected this Top 10 prospect to be contributing by now and the multitude of injuries is hard to watch, but he's only 25. There's obviously not reason to give up on him.

I came from another message board that died. I can't even remember the name if it now - but I do remember it had a message board for each individual team...I stumbled across this site shortly thereafter and love it here.

Wow - that write up on Kasevich is sexy.... Kasevich’s batted-ball data and swing-decision metrics are better than almost every college bat in this class, but his bat path has limited his upside. It’s a similar narrative to Jordan Westburg in 2020. Sure feels like Toronto can unlock more game power and turn Kasevich into a potential average defensive shortstop or above average third baseman with 25-homer upside. He’s a ways away from that profile right now. Still, the floor right now could be a .270 hitter with a sub 20-percent K-rate. I will admit I didn't have time to really research this draft. Brandon Barriera was ranked high and I like what I've read about him, but HS pitchers are really risky. This write up on Drew Gilbert sounds like a player with big upside who would have filled a big hole in this organization. Wonder if we'll regret passing on him. The Astros develop talent better than just about every organization in baseball and Gilbert is a premium talent. It’s plus raw power that he’s not quite tapping into yet. He will. Gilbert is an above average runner with plus instincts on the field, though his impact on the bases were thwarted a bit due to a balky hamstring this spring. He adds stellar defense in centerfield and a big throwing arm too. This is better pure ability than Miles Straw and Chas McCormick. Gilbert will play in All-Star games.

Why doesn't Palmegianni get any love?

That's all fair and the top guy on your list is atop my list as well. If they expect to get a 'closer' return for Robertson and Bard, then they can f*** off. Do you think there's any truth in targeting pitchers who are succeeding in high leverage situations if you're adding them to a team in a playoff race? (instead of guys with better numbers who aren't pitching in high leverage situations as often)

Oddly enough I heard someone argue tonight that the Jays should be looking for relivers who have pitched in a lot of high leverage situations this year (instead of targeting setup men on non-contending teams). Romano leads the league in high leverage situations, while Bard and Robertson are both in the Top 5. No idea if I agree with that position, but I thought it was ironic after reading your position on those 2 earlier today.

I don't disagree - I was just helping you remember that it happened recently

If Espinal was Nico Hoerner or Nick Madrigal (1st round draft picks that were expected to be part of the teams' core) then perhaps they would look at this situation and move Bo to 2nd Base. But that's not the position we're in. We had Espy come out of nowhere last year to produce enough offensively to play regularly. But there were obviously still huge question marks as to whether he could repeat and remain a starter...the high risk that he'd turn back into a pumpkin is the reason the Jays wouldn't make that switch this year. If Espy turns into a pumpkin, then you'd have to move Bo back to SS, after you just hampered his defensive development (and perhaps hurt your relationship with him) by making him learn and then play 2nd base. Is Espy a starter over the next 3 years? I honestly don't know. He might turn into a really good platoon partner and utility infielder on a contending club. Defensive development at premium positions like SS, C and CF are incredibly different than development in LF.

Apparently the Tigers are willing to move Tarik Skubal prior to the trade deadline. Skubal and Jimenez would be a sexy (but expensive) package for the Jays.

My point is the Nats didn't go out and build a lock down bullpen. Doolittle was awful in 2019 (4.25 FIP, 5.08 xFIP), as was Rainey (7.08 BB/9!!!). That bullpen was way shittier than the Jays current pen. It just so happened that those 2, along with Hudson got hot at the right time and when combined with Corbin pitching from the pen and Stras & Max going deep into games, they were able to win with a different formula than the common formula you see these days were starters go 4-5 and then the pen locks down the 5-9th inning. The Nats did go into it with a completely different strategy and were aided by some of their best bullpen arms peaking at the right time. Of course this also destroyed Stras and Corbin...I seemingly forgot that Stras is essentially dead now. Man did he get paid just in the nick of time!

um...Washington in 2019?

Joe Jimenez would be a great target. We'd have him for this year and next. He comes with risk as his track record is sketchy, but something certainly seems to have clicked this year. Add Joe Jimenez and Raisel Iglesias and the bullpen would be set without gutting the farm.

I've been following baseball long enough thanks. Long enough to know we aren't going to trade for 4 relivers at the deadline. A Luis Castillo trade would be incredible and I have no trouble adding some type of swing man or a marginal starter with options that we can stash in AAA to add depth to the rotation, but after that, it's an elite bullpen arm we need. It's not depth.

Man - that's an interesting question. $14.5M AAV and you own him until 2025. He's 32 this year, so we have him through his age 35 season. He's certainly fill an immediate need for us and wouldn't cost much in terms of prospect capital. Lots of risk though. I'd vote yes.