max silver

I think this year is indicative of the direction the front office is headed in with regards to pitching development. There are a number of really high profile success stories happening in the low minors, and I suspect this may be a sign of things to come in the future as well. I recall somebody from the front office stating recently that their draft methodology has changed and that they are going to start targeting more potentially high ceiling arms. I think the player development complex will soon start bearing fruit as well in regards to coaxing the best velocity and pitch design out of their young pitchers.

Yeah Orelvis is starting to lose his shine quite a bit. His hit tool looks like it's being exposed quite a bit in AA this season. The biggest saving grace that he is still very young for the level.

I'd maybe consider trading for a Montas/Castillo type, but only if one of the top 3 members of the rotation were to get hurt and end up missing the remainder of the season.

Those are my thoughts as well. Tiedemanm is close to approaching the same status as Moreno where I would only send him out in trade for an elite player with control.

Oh for f***s sakes. This s***** bullpen is about to get even worse.

I still think the team is going to have a preference to which catcher(s) they want to keep long term. The Alomar/Carter trade was actually pretty similar to the current catcher scenario in that the team had replacements for Fernandez and McGriff already available to take over.

I don't agree with Jim's take that you don't pick which catcher(s) you want to keep based on value to the MLB team instead of what's coming back in trade, but I do see his point in a way as the team has 3 MLB capable starting catchers on the roster. The front office has a ton of flexibility in determining how they want to shape the roster with 3 assets such as this, where they don't have nearly that same type of flexibility elsewhere. You can't just trade Vlad or Bo in the same way as there aren't equivalent replacements available, but with Moreno, Kirk and Jansen you could choose any one of the 3 as your MLB starter and receive very good production out of the position.

It's odd that Kikuchi is so fearful as prior to yesterday's game he had actually pitched very well against the Yankees this season.

Yeah I don't think it sounds crazy at all. I think it's far crazier to concoct conspiracy theories when the information that's been presented to you is perfectly reasonable.

Great post man. The front office and coaching staff have repeated as nauseam that Kikuchi is going to be a bit of a long term project to fully unlock. If Kikuchi can start to command his fastball a bit better he has the opportunity to be a very effective starter, and this should allow him to also utilize his splitter more often as this has potential to be a true swing and miss offering. Just last season Matz was sitting at a 4.58 ERA/4.02 FIP on August 1st before going on a very nice run to end the season. I think Kikuchi has more potential than Matz and he's locked up for a few more seasons after 2022. Definitively stating a 3 year deal is a failure based on less than 3 inconsistent months into the first season just seems premature.

I see Pearson had an appearance where he only threw 3 pitches before exiting. Anybody know if he suffered yet another injury?

There wasn't really $5 million saved because the Jays sent almost $10 million cash to the Rockies in this deal. To me it looks more like using cash to get an interesting prospect back in return.

That sounds an awful lot like that JuniorFelix moron that used to frequent here.

What's this "slobbing Cavan's knob" garbage supposed to mean? This constant bashing is making you look like a dumbass. The guy has produced a 158 WRC+ since returning from AAA and it largely looks to have been earned as he's been barreling baseballs, hitting a ton of line drives and walking at a 20.8% clip. This is a really nice player to have batting at the bottom of the lineup, and if it weren't for the fact that the entire team is on a heater it would be very easy to justify hitting him higher in the lineup.

Whoa why so angry here? You might just be tearing a new ******* for the wrong poster in that particular conversation.

You live in a fantasy land if you expect the baseball team you follow to constantly go on extended 10-15 winning streaks simply because they are playing teams that are below them in the standings. Since the Jays offence came to life they have a 14-5 record, that is a 119 win pace over an entire season. Are you going to continue throwing a temper tantrum like a 4 year old over a team with a win record of this nature? Sometimes s*** happens and the other team ends up winning, typically the best teams in MLB still end up losing 60 games or so. Like it or not most MLB players simply aren't going to play 162 games anymore. Maybe Espinal picks up a hit or two or maybe he goes 0 for 4 as well, you can't simply assume that a player who is resting for the day is going to have a better game than the player that filled in that day.

Pearson has to first show the ability to actually remain on the field before the team can get to fixing him. Kikuchi's command struggles have nothing to do with Pearson coming back as a starter, it's strictly health and workload related. If the team really wanted Pearson to work as a starter this season they have the perfect guy in Stripling to go back to the swingman role, so if they thought Pearson could handle a starters workload it would be a no brainer decision.

Kikuchi was expected to be a bit of a long term project and there is still 2/3 of the season left right now. There is still plenty of time to get him on track and with 2-2/3 years remaining on his contract he'll be given ample opportunity to do so.

Gee if only teams were able to make trades in season to pick up rotation depth. We better start panicking now because there isn't great depth stashed away at AAA already. This isn't the end of the world, Atkins has shown ability to pick up rotation help mid season when needed.

Gage has a 40% whiff rate so far in his limited appearances. In AAA this season he was striking out 11.34 batters per 9 innings. It doesn't appear as though missing bats has been an issue for him. The team might as well continue to throw him out there in lower leverage spots to see if he continues to have success as he's fully earned his chance.

I'm just guessing but maybe he's referencing how much of a dick you look like when you cheer for a player on the team you follow to have a potential career ending injury. On top of that it leads to the team getting almost no value out of nearly $40 million in salary. That's just fantastic news all around, we should all be dancing in the streets.

I wouldn't trade Groshans straight up for a single relief arm but I'd have no qualms including him as part of a package deal with multiple players coming back. I really don't see Groshans being a great fit for this team long term unless he starts showing some sort of power potential as he's a slap hitter right now. The only near term opening in the Jays infield is likely to be third base, and with the bat Groshans is displaying right now he likely maxes out as a utility player. I think Orelvis Martinez displays a much higher ceiling than Groshans and that Groshans is the far likelier player of the two to be shipped out.

I think that Biggio isn't a guy that you would necessarily want to keep long term as he may not be good enough to be a "core" player, but during his recent stretch of play he's shown how his skillset can help the major league team win games. In a perfect world he would be able to cover the left side of the infield, but he still offers plenty of versatility as he can cover the right side of the infield as well as the corner outfield spots. The team is much better with him healthy and playing up to his capabilities as it helps to limit the amount of at bats being given to Tapia as Biggio can cover Tapia's primary positions. It's still a pretty small sample of at bats but he's producing the best expected stats of his career up to this point of the season. He'll likely never hit for much of a batting average but he has the capability to provide some nice offence at the bottom of the lineup, and the ability to get on base for the top of the lineup with regularity is a big plus. I am not terribly high on Groshans right now as I'm starting to become concerned over the lack of power he has displayed in AAA. In 33 games of play he has produced all of 5 extra base hits with only 1 home run and 4 doubles. For a player largely touted for his bat a 111 WRC+ in AAA really isn't very inspiring. In my view he is increasingly becoming a guy who the front office should trade while he still has a relatively high trade value, as his stock is dwindling ala Austin Martin who also has failed to produce any power as a professional.

I have zero concern about this myself, it's just a long term possibility. I certainly would be wary of any kind of extension with Kirk given his body type, he's such an anomaly it's hard to tell how he'll hold up physically.

I don't get the feeling that the front office is remotely interested in trading Moreno, if they were Jose Ramirez would likely be a Blue Jay.