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Varsho was nearly a 5 win player in 2022 while splitting time in right field and center field while running essentially a league average bat. I think he will likely come in around that mark again if he manages a 100 wRC+ for the season based on the massive step forward he's taken defensively in left field.

You can go ahead and tell me which teams had as many supplemental draft picks in the same timeframe and then we'll compare notes. Surely you can recognize that constantly having 3 or more extra first round draft picks every draft to throw at high school pitchers gave a remarkable boost to the chances to draft high ceiling high school arms into the system. On top of that I don't believe there was a hard slotting system either or a draft budget so the team could spend as much as it wanted on those supplemental picks greatly increasing the chances of getting them signed instead of going to college.

The hand injuries may be able to be mitigated with the new wrist and hand armor but Jansen has suffered at least one soft tissue injury in the last 3 seasons as well.

That's great in theory if you ignore the fact that Jansen's incredibly injury prone and starting more games likely opens the possibility to injury sooner.

I think it was fairly defensible that Kwan received a gold glove vs Varsho as Varsho's left field OAA metrics were just a shade above average last year on top of the fact that he split time between left and center field. I do wish that gold gloves were still awarded to the best 3 outfield defenders instead of one per position as Varsho likely should have won a few of them by now but has been denied at least partially due to splitting time between different outfield positions. I think Varsho has improved a great deal defensively and there should be far less of a chance of him not being rewarded again. If he keeps up the type of play he's featured so far a platinum glove may not be out of the discussion.

And when a shrewd free agent signing worked out for the team it was "luck", but then when something bad happened that was ultimately out of the front office's control it was obviously their fault instead of an unlucky break.

I don't think Varsho's 2023 season was necessarily disastrous. Despite the relative struggles with the bat he was still a league average position player by FWAR and nearly a 4 win player by BWAR.

As good as Berrios has been I think Kikuchi might actually have better numbers by the end of the season. Varsho has been a different hitter since he added the toe tap last season. As good as he was in left field last season he's also taken a massive step forward defensively this season so the sky is the limit for the dude.

Look in the mirror man. You are so full of s*** it's literally astounding. You are a massive hypocrite. You pretend to be some sort of rational paragon of virtue, and complaining about other posters ruining the discussion by name calling and other assorted bad behavior. And then you instantly proceed to call another poster names including calling him a narcissist, seemingly because he's willing to call you out for s*** posts when necessary.

You are one of the last posters who should be making accusations such as this one.

Are you going to give credit to AA for the development of pitching prospects that ultimately developed in other minor league systems? He had the not so insignificant benefit at the time of a wealth of extra draft picks due to gaming the free agency rules in order to garner extra picks. I suspect if the current regime were able to have 3 or 4 supplemental draft picks after the first round every season they would have hit on a lot more pitching related draft picks as well given so many more chances.

To start with the Astros, Yankees and Rays have needed a lot more depth to start with as they've suffered a massive amount of injuries compared to the Blue Jays pitching staff over the last few seasons. Those teams have largely been able to develop their own pitching depth as they have had more success in developing their own rotation members which is an area where the Blue Jays have struggled. It's not as though the current front office has never been able to acquire useful depth as they acquired Ross Stripling a few seasons ago and turned him into a full fledged member of the rotation, and it appears as though Rodriguez may be an even more successful acquisition this season. They had a bit of trouble last season early on as Alek struggled, but then Ryu essentially acted as a depth starter late in the season after returning from Tommy John surgery. It appears to me as though the plan was to allow Alek to battle for the 5th starter spot in the spring, and due to the shoulder issue he wasn't able to make the squad. I'm somewhat encouraged by his last few starts as he's only walked 1 hitter in his last 9 innings spanning two starts so the strike throwing ability appears to be returning. His velocity has also nearly returned to the levels seen in his 2022 season as well so hopefully these are signs of good things to come. I think far too many are writing him off completely while using a few tough rehab starts as a final nail in the coffin instead of allowing the process to continue and for Alek to build up towards a potential MLB return. I hope the team doesn't rush him back like they did last season as it appears as though a combination of Rodriguez and Francis should be able to hold down the fort until an eventual return if he makes it back.

What the f*** is "proven" pitching depth even supposed to mean? Do you think that proven MLB starters are lining up to throw innings in AAA or something? On top of that it seems as though "unproven" pitching depth option Yariel Rodriguez is showing to be an absolute home run signing so far.

The organization has one of MiLB's most stacked team's in AAA this season so the minor league system is actually not in nearly as bad of shape as you are implying.

They were certainly hitter friendly but Vlad was the only dude that laid waste to those parks in that fashion. He was legitimately locked in for 5 months of the season and his wOBA and xwOBA values were almost perfectly correlated so he earned every bit of the gaudy statistics by mashing the s*** out of the baseball. On top of that Sahlen Field and TD Ballpark weren't even the most hitter friendly parks in MLB as all of Great America Ballpark, Oriole Park, Coors Field and Fenway were more hitter friendly that season.

The team has played all of 20 games in the season so it feels a little premature to be making any sort of grand declaration about what the team's flaws will be over the course of the entire season. It's entirely possible that the team won't score enough to be a serious threat but once the RISP issues resolve they'll have a shot to score a pile of runs based on how many runners are making their way on base recently.

It was nice to see them cruise to a victory for once. My only quibble was using Romano with a 4 run lead given that Romano might not be available tomorrow if the need arises.

I've been really impressed by what we've seen from Rodriguez so far. This is huge given how so much of the prospective starting depth has already flamed out early this season.

I wouldn't go so far to say that AA developed much in the way of starting pitchers as his entire tenure basically consisted of Marcus Stroman and a single good season of Sanchez as home grown starters.

His overall numbers at Rogers Center were very good. He hit a 3 week slump when the club returned to Toronto but then cranked out a 190 wRC+ at home over the last 5 weeks of that season.

Vlad also mashed in the Rogers center over the last 5 weeks of the season after the team returned to Toronto.

I just found it to be an amusing ad.

Sweet I just got an ad on this website for "special massage" featuring a stacked blond in a tank top.

That was an awful play by Tatis Jr.

I heard from someone on here that Yimi should have been let go last season to avoid having his $6 million vesting option becoming active. If he keeps anything close to this up he's going to be a massive bargain.