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I can't understand this line of thinking either. It's like a lot of posters simply don't care about protecting the health of the starters in the slightest given the constant complaining about not pushing them further. Despite this constant complaining the team is actually near the top of MLB in innings pitched by the starters, only 7 innings behind first place Tampa Bay heading into today's game. I really don't see why Schneider takes so much heat over his management of the pitching staff. The starters have been kept remarkably healthy this season, and it stands to reason that not constantly pushing them to 100+ pitches every start has been a big part of this. The team is in a stretch where they have a lot of off days in order to rest the pen as needed, the pen is extremely deep with effective middle and leverage relievers, and the team has one of baseball's best bullpens as well.

Jesus don't encourage the guy. Every time he gets even the tiniest bit of positive feedback for his lame trolling attempts he kicks into overdrive.

I want full ABS instead of a challenge system. Early chatter I've heard suggests each team would only have the ability to challenge three calls for an entire game which isn't nearly high enough. If going the challenge system route I'd probably give at least a challenge for each team's at bat/inning, if not going further and allowing each player one challenge per at bat.

I know you aren't nearly as dumb as you are making yourself out to be right now. Nobody here is saying Biggio is the best thing since sliced bread, but he's hot right now and has been going back nearly 3 months or half a season. The team is struggling immensely to score runs so they are rightly riding the hot hand in Biggio who has earned himself more playing time with his offensive contributions. Maybe he's figured something out that allows him to have more success moving forward and maybe it's just an unsustainable hot streak but time will ultimately tell. If he reverts back to the weak offensive player of past years then he will accordingly see his playing time reduced. If he continues to produce like he is right now he will find his name pencilled into the lineup with regularity. A normal fan of a team would be happy when a player takes a step forward and helps his team, I really don't know what's wrong with your head to so actively cheer against a player on your team finding success.

Just take the loss and move on man. Your stubborn refusal to simply admit when your trolling attempts are going off of the rails just ends up making you look even more foolish.

I think Vlad might be playing through injury this season. He simply hasn't been the same guy at the plate since suffering the wrist issue cropped up in mid May, and I also have suspicions that he may be hampered by a knee issue as well that's affecting his mobility in the field at first base. He suffered from knee issues in the spring and early in the season as well so he's likely not 100% healed from this. His defensive numbers have really cratered which could certainly be due to a knee issue causing a loss of mobility. His sprint speed is down a touch compared to the last few seasons but nowhere close to the super out of shape covid season values so I don't think he's in terrible shape this season.

Nobody is forcing you to respond.

At least DeJong and Espinal will be on the bench instead of starting games so that's an improvement.

Both of them would be playing if it were up to me, but obviously I have no say in the matter. Schneider seemingly isn't going to get many starts right now against right handed pitching despite showing reverse splits in the minors so unfortunately he's the odd man out at the moment. I have a hard time imagining his third base defense is so bad that it warrants having Espinal and DeJong in the lineup at the same time but c'est la vie.

The quality of contact is much better during this stretch compared to his career values so the BABIP may be earned/sustainable.

I think the guy has been performing with the stick long enough that he deserves to be in the lineup most of the time. It's increasingly looking like he figured something out in May that's allowed him to have more success at the plate. He's quietly been the team's second most productive player in that time by WRC+ at 134 over a nearly 3 month span and he's hot in August with a 133 WRC+. For a team as starved for offense he's a guy that should at least be starting against right handed pitching. I don't agree with sitting Schneider so frequently for sure over the likes of Espinal but that's a separate discussion.

If that means you'll stop looking to pick fights at every possible opportunity then thank you very much. You aren't looking for reasonable conversation, you are obviously looking to post a bunch of "gotcha" hindsight posts attempting to pump your own tires. If anyone dares to disagree with your points then you instantly start with the name calling. I'd be happy to have a reasonable conversation but it's apparent that's not what you are looking for.

Come on man, I'm sure you can understand the difference between supplementing your own team with free agents vs spending real prospect capital on trading for expensive veterans on the second year of their free agent contracts. When you sign a free agent there is an expected decline in production over the course of the deal. The Blue Jays did not get to enjoy this first year as it had already passed but they still had the privilege of paying full freight for the rest of these years. The organisational depth at the moment is dramatically better than what was left after AA decided to move on.

It's revisionist history to place all of the blame on the Edwin fiasco on the Blue Jays as his agent is easily as much to blame if not more so. Edwin turned down the best offer he ended up seeing in free agency at the behest of his agent. I don't see where the rush to sign Morales in his place came from but that doesn't change the fact that Edwin's decision to turn down the offer ultimately led to him switching organizations. The 2017 team had enough issues that keeping Edwin wouldn't have been nearly enough to extend the window of contention. Tulo predictably broke for good, Baustista literally became old overnight, Sanchez's career was ruined by blisters, Donaldson started breaking down, Martin was beginning his decline phase etc. The team didn't have a lot of resources left in the minor leagues to trade, there were no young prospects ready to take over for aging veterans, and the payroll was already maxed out so adding more dollars through free agency wasn't much of an option either. The writing was on the wall and the team should have been dismantled then and there.

Sarcasm? Aside from selling his soul to the devil I don't think there's much more AA could have done when it comes to pushing in chips at the trade deadline.

Why would you even give half a f*** about this?

I don't raise pitchforks or become irrational when someone criticizes the front office with legitimate criticism, that's just nonsense and you know it. I challenge you to find a single post I've made to prove this is true. I've called out posters who post over the top ******** about this being the worst team in baseball, Shatkins should be fired etc. as this does nothing to contribute to baseball discussion and is nearly 100% trolls attempting to stir s*** up. I am a supporter of the front office and don't deny it, but I fail to see why you feel the need to constantly criticize me about this. I'd hope you could do better than the rinse and repeat homer/apologist commentary but given how completely you've fallen off the rails and subjected the board to a constant stream of troll and bait posts I kind of doubt it. I think the front office has been very solid in their history of trades and free agent signings since the team hit their competitive phase with a few duds here and there, no different than any other front office. The organization needs to make strides in their amateur acquisition and development if they are to reach the stated goal of sustained contention, but in the mean time they've built a solid major league squad which needs to eventually get over the hump in order to have success in the post season. Give the cherry picking nonsense a rest, I don't hide when I use statistics to show trends, who's hot/who's not etc. Sometimes I like to think a little outside the box as well and use statistics to support my argument, is this really such a problem for you? I'm more than happy to sling mud with you if you want to continue to call me out every time somebody disagrees with you on this forum, but at the same time I'd be perfectly fine with you leaving me out of arguments with other posters instead of wasting both of our time with stupid arguments.

I guess I'll take that as a compliment and it's nice to see I've made a lasting impact on you since you keep bringing me up in discussions I'm not involved with. You should consider developing some new material though, the constant "DUH you're a HOMER!" schtick is really stale. It shouldn't be a crime to support moves that the front office made instead of trying to be edgy or whatever assorted trolling techniques you are utilizing.

I had a bone bruise on my kneecap and it took months to get rid of. Hopefully with the advanced treatments Ryu will have available to him this won't be something that bothers him for the rest of the season.

Yeah it's almost a given Green is being retained past this season. He's put up great results in his rehab stint so far so hopefully that continues once he's activated. It just remains to be seen how many years of control the team retains over Green given the complexity of the contract.

The dude needs to figure out how to get off to a better start in the first month of the season. He's rocking a horrendous 43 WRC+ for his career in Mar/Apr. This season he put up a 16 WRC+ in April, but then proceeded to produce 130 for May, 114 for June and 107 for July. He got off to an even worse start last season, with a -6 WRC+ in Mar/Apr, 108 in May, 172 in June, 77 in July, 108 in Aug then slowing to a 67 in September. He might not have a spot on next year's squad depending on Barger's timeline but for now he's a nice contributor on the bench in his limited role against RHP.

I'd be all for bringing Merrifield back but certainly not at the price of $18 million. He's had a nice bounceback season but I'm not sold on him being able to recreate his 2023 success.

Hey at least there's a potential silver lining that Severino can stay in the rotation.

Yeah it would definitely represent a pretty decent upgrade. The team recently gave Luplow the boot so upgrading to Laureano wouldn't hurt. How would acquiring him actually work though? I assume he'd have to first pass through waivers unclaimed, does he become a free agent at that point?

He'd be a good pickup, although I do wonder how much playing time would be available to him. Merrifield has been spending a ton of time in left field and has been hot with the bat lately. Schneider deserves an extended look at second base to find out what he can do at the big league level so that limits how much time Merrifield would play at second base. The team seems to like to run with one of Kiermaier/Varsho in center field at all times so I don't think they would use Laureano there much. I suppose Laureano could spend a bit of time in right field and left field with occasional pinch hit duties sprinkled in to spell Springer occasionally.