Brownie19

jesus christ.

David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, and Jimmy Rollins are among the first-time eligible players on the 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. The other first-time eligible players include Carl Crawford, Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard, Tim Lincecum, Justin Morneau, Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon, Jake Peavy, A.J. Pierzynski, and Mark Teixeira. Ortiz is most likely among this group to actually get in on the first ballot. With the holdovers, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Curt Schilling are all eligible for the 10th and final time while Scott Rolen and Billy Wagner will hope to pick up some momentum. Hall of Fame ballots from BBWAA writers are due Dec. 31 with an announcement to follow on Jan. 25. ----------------------- This is going to be a pretty interesting year for the HOF voting. Last year for Barry, Roger and Curt - Rolen and Wagner are inching closer and how you add in a slew of solid new candidates. Curious to see what voters do with Papi and A-Rod.

You might be trapped in 2006. One knee and starting the glove low and working 'up' to the ball is how it's taught these days for 'reasons'.

Let's get Buck to talk about prospects. That will go over well.

Just like Anthony Alford!

and he was coming off a horrible year in A+ ball (30% K%, 103 wRC+)

Based on my 5 seconds of stat scouting - I think FG is out to lunch. This guy was awful in A ball as a 22 year old. Unless he's Yadi defensively, I can see why the Rays left him unprotected.

I think they need to keep Pearson around as one of their depth starters...whether he's pitching 2-3 innings per outing out of the pen, or is starting in AAA. They need to have 8-9 starters available and I don't think they have enough options in the upper minors right now. Stripling and Pearson as their 6th and 7th starters is a pretty good start. I guess Hatch may be an option also?

Seems odd they would add Leo and not Samad.

How was Hill after the spider tack crackdown? I assumed that was one of the reasons he was able to turn his career around in the first place. Dick Mountain is a great guy, but I'm not sure he has much left.

Um....internal improvement? We're young team with several core pieces who should all maintain or improve. Healthy Biggio, full season of Manoah, full seasons from Jansen/Kirk, arrival of Moreno and it's likely we haven't seen the peak for Vlad, Bo, Teo, Gurriel, Biggio, Romano, Pearson, Manoah, etc.

Add Jon Gray to this list. Gray and Kikuchi are 2 of the best 'upside' plays available (who won't cost $20M AAV). I wouldn't be upset if we signed both to fill out the rotation. I like Lorenzen as a pen arm also.

Gausman's essentially a 2 pitch pitcher too....

I assumed he was being facetious as some of these proposed signings are getting a little out of hand (like landing Scherzer and Verlander)

Probably for a good 4-5 years (how much better is up for debate) - but tough to say how A-Rod's defense would have been at SS into his mid to late 30's

I don't really disagree, but his legacy was built on consistency, longevity, leadership and winning - and I'm OK with that. He had a flair for the dramatic and performed when the bright lights were on. He was really good at everything, but never THE BEST at anything. My 11 year old son was asking me last night if I thought Bo or Vlad, or both would be 'lifetime Jays' and I told him I thought there was a good chance both could - but for different reasons. I told him we might have the honor of watching Vlad become one of the best hitters of all time, while Bo is a different type of player. He's not going to be the best hitter in the league, or the best shortstop or the best defender or the best base stealer - but he's going to do all those things very well and there's a possibility he chases 3,000 hits. When you factor in his marketability and swag - he might end up being our version of Derek Jeter. He may not end up with 5 rings, but I'm hopeful for a few. Bo strikes me as someone who's going to give the Jays franchise some very memorable moments over this career. I think 15 years from now, we'll each have a couple moments etched in our brains forever (like the Jose HR) and I think Bo will provide at least 1 of them. I think he has a similar flair for the dramatics that Jeter did.

On a minor league deal with an invite to camp? Sure.

Sorry - I'm just responding to the notion that there was no way the club would even consider giving Matz a QO and that it was a complete no brainer. I suspect the evaluation was closer than some believe. I also don't think Thor's deal is any indication. I'll let it go.

I highly doubt the evaluation of whether to offer Matz a QO or not was as basic as you suggest and the Thor signing really doesn't impact that. I suspect there was a very real discussion and evaluation on whether or not to offer Matz a QO. Matz is VERY likely to get a multi year deal in this market. We all expected Thor would get a 1 year pillow deal to rebuild value and we all know that Thor has way more upside than Matz (and it's Thor @ $21M + 2nd rounder in your comparison). If Matz signs for 3 year $50M, or 4 years $60M or something like that, then there's probably an argument we should have offered him a QO so get the 2nd round compensation. If that's the market for him, then I don't think it's a guarantee he would have accepted the QO. If guys like DeSclafani, Gray and Wood start signing 1 year $10M or 2 year $20M deals, then sure, offering Matz a QO would have been a bad idea - if they sign 1 year $16M or 2 years $30M, then a QO for Matz was probably perfectly fine (as there's value in securing someone and not missing out) but it's yet to be seen how this will all play out. I trust this FO has done their due diligence and determined the market won't be hot enough this year to justify the risk/reward of a QO to Matz. That's good news for the Jays who look to be big players as they push to become elite. Now I'm almost certain that when Matz signs, you'll come back and say "see - I told you guys the QO for Matz was stupid - why would anyone suggest it was worth evaluating" - which just means the FO read the market correctly and made the right choice. It doesn't mean the evaluation wasn't worthwhile and necessary. I'd say there's probably a 25% chance the FO is wrong (if I were to guess).

Plus if he left for a multi-year deal, you get some compensation. This isn't a black or white situation, I'm sure there was a lot to evaluate before the Jays chose not to qualify him.

This is a HUGE piece of our offseason. This deal had to get done and they've done it nice and early in the offseason. Well done.

He was the 18th most valuable pitcher in baseball last year and has been the 13th most valuable pitcher in baseball since 2018. Please do not refer to him as a #3 pitcher.

Good news is Dillon is perfectly capable of carrying the load while he's out. Lots of questions about that draft pick, but the big horse is proving his worth (if only they didn't throw away their 1st and 3rd round picks that year - dumb asses).

I love that idea (although it probably means we're going into the year with Biggio/Espy at 3rd again). I think it's 'likely' the Martes out WAR the Seagers in 2022.

I don't know. Matz has averaged 2.2 WAR/year over the past 2 full seasons (I'll leave out 2020), while E-Rod has averaged 3.75 WAR/year. E-Rod is significantly better and 2 years younger. Based on this signing, I'd suggest Matz is more of a 2 year $20M guy - someone might dangle a 3rd year OR $12M AAV to get the deal done.