I have no doubt Vlad Jr. can speak English. As long as he can hit who gives a s*** though lol.
This USA team has so many guys on the cusp. This World team has a ton of Class A pitching.
I wonder if they take advantage of his "good hitting" and trade him while he has some value.
This game should be the game everyone recognize as the one to blow it up lol.
Justin Hamilton can be flipped now or at the deadline apart of another trade. He is an expiring he's irrelevant. Not a bad thing to have though.
Moving Carroll had to happen though. I thought adding the second which is likely to range from 30-35 was a bit overkill but at least they got protection on the first if things go to s*** this season which is unlikely but still nice to have protection.
This allows the Raptors to resign Norman Powell next season. Gives the Raptors flexibility to do something this off-season. Aka add a 3 point which we desperately need. I think they have another trade lined up that involves Cory Joseph. Maybe even brings back a first. They can look at trading Jonas as well because they seem to want to move Ibaka to the 5.
We went to having league minimum options to a variety of options. But it sucks Carroll was signed to that atrocious contract to begin with. At least we don't have to watch him anymore. That's a victory in itself.
If they go in the direction of a rebuild. I hope they look to trade Smoak. Obviously he's a different player across the board. But it is only one season and before this season everyone was convinced he was a sunk cost. He has that cheap option attached to him which just makes him more attractive on the trade market.
Trade Candidates:
Marco Estarada
J.A. Happ
Francisco Liriano
Joe Smith
Miguel Montero
Darwin Barney
Josh Donaldson
Justin Smoak
Ezequiel Carrera
I don't think they will trade Bautista especially considering he has complete control of where he can go. I wish they could trade Morales. But you look at all those guys who could bring in quality prospects who are either expiring or have one year of control beyond this season. On top of what we have we could position ourselves with one of the top farm systems in Baseball with s*** loads of money to spend in key free agent classes.
They could go in many directions but I would disappointed if this wasn't the route they took. Resigning Donaldson at 33 for the likely 5+ years he will command is just not likely to happen. So lets say we are slightly competitive with a retool for 2018 gunning for a wild card spot and miss. We lose Donaldson for nothing when we could land 3 premium prospects right now at the minimum. Fans can f*** off for a year. When we win again they will come back.
Well that's kind of the point of the high performance program. They wanted to preach fitness and nutrition throughout the organization. Getting the most of its players. It might take a few years to see the fruit of that labour. But its only going to get better when they finally renovate Dunedin and Shapiro's vision starts to take shape. It would be nice to see Vlady Jr. take full advantage. It will only help his case to stay at third base. Hes noticeably leaner than where he was when he first signed. Maybe he's finally trimming the baby fat. I would like to see take the next step physically and I'm sure that's the plan.
Well yes of course that would be more impressive. That would take years. Unless you're talking about someone who was skinny fat. And they virtually had no muscle mass.
Losing weight is easy. Losing fat and keeping it off is hard.
He didn't just lose weight he noticeably transformed his body. He's in peak condition now. He was always known for having a "different body type" for a point guard. It took ridiculous work and nutrition to get him in that shape. Vlady can do the same.
The research and information they have now is incredible.