Bobthe4th

The beer toss guy from the 2016 playoffs ended up with community service: Deadspin article

Yeah to even consider it Masai would surely demand complete control to do whatever he wants.

Mike D'Antoni teams normally are! At first I thought why would he ever consider joining such a dysfunctional organisation. Thinking about it though, rebuilding a historic franchise does have its appeal I guess. Maybe he could turn them around in time to coincide with LeBron's retirement.

The Rockets have traded for Chris Paul (instead of signing him as a free agent, so they could send salary back to the Clippers) and are apparently trying to get Paul George too. I think quite a few teams are going to look very different next season.

True that.

Minor league deal would be fine. Anything more = no thanks.

Bit surprising that Sparkman wasn't called up - it must be getting close to where they have to make a decision about him.

Normally the all star starters have at least a few WTF selections, but the current leaders in the NL are all who I'd vote for except for 1B, and even then Zimmerman's bounce back season makes for a good story that it's fair to reward.

Yeah him coming back and proving fitness is vital for the Orioles if they sell at the deadline (which they should, as unlike us they don't have as many exciting prospects).

Who knows if Osuna would even want to do it.

Yeah they'll surely attempt to trade for Joe Smith or if the can afford it Britton (if either are made available), or failing that Robertson.

.300 average and name recognition. A lot of fans that don't follow anything other than their own team won't really know who Justin Smoak is.

A month ago I'd have said Pillar, Estrada or Stroman would be the only blue jay. Now I'm leaning JD as a reserve - he's obv been our best player if you pro-rata it, but he might have missed too many games. Smoak probably isn't going to beat Hosmer in the fan vote and Miggy has a chance of being the Tigers sole representative as a reserve simply because of who he is.

Vogt was claimed by the Brewers.

Boom, that woke me up. Was falling asleep on my sofa until then haha.

Nice hustle Martin

The next series with the Orioles is pivotal to the direction the FO goes with before the deadline. Would be real nice to go into it on the back of a solid win.

Anxiety especially when it's linked to more severe causes like manic depression is a f***er. It's also incredibly hard to deal with because there is often no real trigger for it. I know people who can have a "episode" who can be crippled by anxiety attacks and literally can't leave the house. And on other days they'll be 100% fine. A lot of sportsmen suffer from mental illnesses not just because of the pressure, but being on the road so much and often away from families and loved ones. Being young, male, and competitive can cause a lot of them to try to hide it. Hopefully Roberto can get the therapy he needs because the last thing he should do is try to battle through if he's not feeling right.

Reading through this GDT was 10x worse than if I'd seen the game.

You're conveniently ignoring the offense being worse than anticipated last year, it's not like the starters being better than expected meant it was a shock to make the playoffs. Nothing is guaranteed of course, but we had a good chance of making the playoffs. Any Jays fan who watched that game will remember the bat flip for the rest of their life. I know I will! Yes it was short term, yes it was a gamble, yes it would never have happened if AA's contract wasn't expiring. But it worked. We did make the playoffs 2 years in a row. We've still got a team that could contend to make the playoffs in the next 2 to 3 years (including this one) before Vlad, Bo etc make it here, without having to completely blow up the side. Even if you think we're not going to compete this year or next, we've got the assets to retool not rebuild. Again, if the trades didn't happen we've have missed the playoffs, Shapiro and Atkins would almost certainly have gone full rebuild, and we'd be in the middle of a second 90-100 loss season in a row, and likely years away from competing, without any of those great memories from 2 playoff runs. It was a big gamble under unique circumstances, that shouldn't be repeated, but it worked and to complain about it now is ignoring all the benefits we're still seeing now IMO.

As a defensive specialist he's got a chance to contribute straight away - which is all you can really ask for with a mid 20's pick.

JD was pulled out of the lineup due to "left knee soreness"

Almost certainly not. Absolutely worth it, fantastic moments we'd not have experienced otherwise. And with no playoffs we'd be well on our way to 90-100 losses this year as a full rebuild would be underway.