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WTF now slap hitter Whit Merrifield is somehow an alpha player in your view? JFC.

IKF reported that there was actually a ton of competition for his services, so in essence the Blue Jays paid market rate for this specific player based on market conditions at the time. If they didn't give him the type of contract he received there were plenty of other teams lined up to sign him other than just the Blue Jays.

I don't think Jansen is going to be playing every day though. The team is likely to run Turner as the primary DH option most of the time, and Jansen will be splitting catching duties with Kirk as well so that limits his overall availability. And that's assuming he actually manages to avoid spending a bunch of time on the injured list in the first place.

Step away from the ledge man. You act like the team is the Colorado Rockies instead of a good team that's been unable to take the next step to become a great team. FFS.

This dude is possibly the biggest crybaby in the history of the forum.

I've simply been busy with other s*** lately. I'm not sure when I ever said I was particularly happy with how this offseason has unfolded but unlike you I don't spend 24 hours of every day bitching and moaning and generally acting like a teenage girl.

LMAO that's super rich from the dude who announced his permanent board departure only to come crawling back shortly afterwards. What a f***ing joke.

Varho's center field metrics took a dramatic leap forward in 2022 so I don't think the previous numbers are terribly informative of his present abilities. His OAA rates are very similar in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, and it stands to reason that he was still learning to play the position based on how little time he spent in the outfield prior to 2022 (only 155 innings in 2020 and only 338 innings in 2021.) Varsho's last two seasons in center field show the following: 841 innings 23 DRS 18 OAA. Extrapolate this to 981 innings and you are left with 27 DRS and 21 OAA. So not double of Kiermaier but still 50% higher in DRS and 62% higher in OAA. It stands to reason that the team is deferring to the more experienced player to man center field which very well could be a key to getting Kiermaier to sign with them in the first place. The left field OAA is a puzzling phenomenon and could very well be a single year statistical anomaly. Varsho himself mentioned that left field was the hardest outfield position for him and he could very well still have been adjusting to the position for the bulk of the season. I don't recall ever seeing this dramatic of a gap between DRS and OAA so it will be fascinating to follow his metrics as the season unfolds.

I guess that would be true if they were 3 day benders.

The advanced metrics suggest that Varsho is a much better center fielder than Kiermaier as he accumulates both DRS and OAA at approximately twice the rate. The only reason there's any doubt remaining is because Varsho hasn't played a full season in center field yet so we are left needing to extrapolate his numbers to a full season to compare.

Why do I do what exactly? Turner was really solid for most of the season. I share the same concern as everyone else about his age as he'll drop off eventually but that hasn't happened yet. Check out his monthly splits. April 101 wRC+ May 111 wRC+ June 128 wRC+ July 161 wRC+ August 139 wRC+ September 56 wRC+ He played through a good chunk of the second half with a deep bone bruise in his heel and he reportedly could barely walk towards the end. I suspect this is largely to blame for the swoon at the end of the season as Turner refused to shut things down early. He had a bit of a slow start to the season as he was reportedly hit in the head in spring training which may or may not have factored into the slow start. Once he heated up he had a terrific 5 month stretch where he produced a 128 wRC+ over a 532 PA sample of playing time. If he remains healthy I think this is the type of offensive ceiling he possesses.

What exactly is wrong with Turner? He produced a 139 wRC+ with men on base last season. This improved to 150 wRC+ with men on base. It's not like that's an isolated performance from last season either as he's produced similar clutch numbers over his entire career. This feels an awful lot like complaining just for the sake of complaining.

Maybe it's a good thing that Tiedemann wasn't traded for Soto after all. There aren't a lot of silver linings to the lousy spring debut but at least the velocity was up a bit compared to last spring's first start. The velo numbers are right in line with his numbers from the 2022 regular season. Of course none of that will matter if he doesn't get the command squared away. 2023 First Spring Start Sinker Max 93.6 Ave 92.1 Slider Max 82.6 Ave 81.1 4 Seam Max 94.4 Ave 93.1 2024 First Spring Start Sinker Max 94.4 Ave 93.1 Slider Max 83.4 Ave 81.5 4 Seam Max 95.5 Ave 93.7 2022 Regular Season Sinker 93.3 Ave Slider 81.5 Ave 4 Seam 93.9 Ave

I quickly looked into this and according to various articles Atkins said that the team would miss all of Chapman, Merrifield and Kiermaier but he later clarified that the team was interested in potentially bringing these guys back. He left the door open for all of these guys to return and Kiermaier came back despite this so called concrete statement that he would be missed. It seems to be a bit of a long shot at this point that Chapman is brought back but he still makes a lot of sense for the team to push IKF into more of a utility role.

A key point to remember is that Matt Chapman was dealing with a mangled finger for much of the second half.

Yeah that's something I can't say. It was only a 2 month sample size as well so who even knows.

It was a murderers row lineup of talented hitters so that's far more of a factor than the park in my view. The entire team was en fuego in September despite Rogers Center playing in a pitcher friendly Roger's Center.

Rogers Center was actually a pitcher friendly park that season.

Yeah you can really see the added mass to his legs in particular. His fat photos from last spring showed a ton of added mass in his lower half but it was largely obscured by the extra chunk.

The extent of the improvements to the results very well may be an unrepeatable fluke. His underlying numbers more support something in the 110-115 wRC+ range so he needs to prove he can repeat the 2023 numbers.

That's why it's likely best for Bellinger to take a short term deal to prove that he's developed into one of these Statcast beaters and not the beneficiary of a single fluke season.

I've said repeatedly that IKF will most likely continue to be a below average bat but simply pointed out there is actually some potential upside. He managed to post a .750 OPS over a nearly 4 month sample last season and this was easily the longest stretch of sustained success of his entire career. He hit a stretch where he didn't appear in any games for a 10 day stretch. I haven't been able to determine if this was injury related or he was simply benched. Around this timeframe in Mid August the wheels completely came off as his strikeout rate experienced a dramatic upwards spike and his numbers completely cratered the rest of the way over a small sample of at bats.

You could maybe at least wait and see how this year's team performs before planning a full of revolt. Just because the team doesn't want to pay completely exorbitant asking prices from premiere ripoff artist Scott Boras doesn't mean the team doesn't want to win.

He better watch what he says given how the Orioles completely muzzled their broadcasters.

Pitching prospects are certainly prone to flaming out but I still place a ton of value on those prospects with legitimate top of the rotation potential given their relative rarity. I don't personally place Tiedemann in the completely untouchable category but it's close to that level for me personally. I'd move him out for a cost controlled player like Luis Robert but not for any rental player no matter how good that player is. I guess we just differ in how we value a single season of Soto. I fully agree he's one of baseball's best hitters but he is so bad defensively that he actually provided the same defensive value as full time DH Shohei Ohtani. I think the Yankees paid an exorbitant price for Soto personally and even that type of deal would have been one I wasn't willing to make.