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Except for the Rockies. They specifically stated that their goal was to add more power.

While it's nice to get out of the Grichuk contract I am seriously struggling to see how this makes the team better in any fashion. Grichuk could at least passably man center field and was legitimately good in right field. Tapia looks to be limited to left field and actually has a worse bat than Grichuk. Hopefully another move is incoming to bring in a better backup for center field.

Some key subtractions will really help the club out as well. Removed are the likes of professional hitter Joe Panik, Rowdy Tellez and pitching staff dumpster fires the likes of Zeuch, Hand and Roark. This group combined for -2.1 WAR. The depth will need to step up this season to avoid a repeat "performance".

I don't think sudden death would work at all since the home team could end up losing without getting their final turn at bat.

I think the extra innings rules could be better with a little tweaking. You could play something like an inning under regular rules, then an inning with a runner at first base instead of second, then finally switch to the runner on second from the 11th inning onwards. This still makes the game end in a more reasonable time frame, and possible to end under normal rules before switching to increasingly easy to score secenarios to further expedite the end of the game.

Can you point me to some polls showing that fans hate this so much? I've done a little bit of searching and came away pretty much empty handed.

I think if there's ever an offseason that it would make sense to lose a pick for a one year deal this is it. The club has several comp picks coming already so losing one wouldn't be as big of a loss. Plus the front office already showed they are willing to lose a draft pick for a one year deal as they were one of the clubs involved in the bidding for Syndergaard.

When did you become the ultimate arbiter for what is good for baseball? Marathon games aren't good for players, management or broadcasters, so what are we really losing if they cease to exist? What is so great about marathon extra innings games that they need to be preserved? Do you like watching position players pitch or something? Like it or not the game has been changing and it's becoming far more difficult for teams to cover the extra innings that these games entail. Management wouldn't like these games as it completely blows up a bullpen and it would be harder to work around due to the limit on player options. Players only end up with higher chance of injury due to fatigue and further disrupted sleep schedules. Nobody really stands to gain anything from marathon games so it makes sense to do something to attain a result in a more reasonable timeframe. I'll agree the ghost runner idea is a bit gimmicky but this is nowhere as bad as something like a shootout. The same basic rules of the game still apply, there are still the same number of fielders, the same battle between pitcher and batter occurs, there are 3 outs per side, home team bats last etc.

Get over yourself dude. The over the top dramatics are a bit much.

It seems like he has a very good chance as during fall instructionals he was sitting upper 90's with his fastball. It sounds like he still needs to work on developing a good secondary pitch.

If this guy can finally stay healthy he can be a massive difference maker at the back end of the bullpen.

Jays without a doubt. The two key players to their infield are young with many years of remaining control and still improving as major leaguers, whereas Boston's infield is at the age where it's unlikely they will improve to any degree. Each team has a good bounceback candidate with Chapman and Story. I think the biggest difference is each club's weakness, with the Jays having the potential for a nice platoon situation with Biggio and Espinal, where Boston has a giant pile of s*** for first base.

Conforto has a career WRC+ of 136 vs righties, so he would most likely receive a ton of playing time with some time at DH as well. Seeing as how the Jays currently would be receiving 5 picks within the first 3 rounds of the drafts I don't think giving up one of them would be much of a deal breaker.

Boston wasn't able to get Betts to sign an extension. I don't know whether they simply weren't able to line up on over term and dollars or whether Betts desired to move elsewhere.

Yeah that's a pretty awful ten year deal for a player that was on the type of run Chapman was experiencing at the time.

This roster should be close to Charlie proof as starting out there will hopefully be very little roster filler type players available to him. I exhaled a huge sigh of relief when Villar signed elsewhere as you just knew Charlie would be playing him 6 days a week.

It's only one metric but by Statcast OAA Bryant was actually better in left field than at third base. Doesn't change the fact that this is a batshit insane signing though.

Sure Biggio had more early success which isn't completely surprising given the fact that he's the oldest of the trio, but to make the claim that he was actually better than the other two based on some early MLB success is short sighted at best. Vlad and Bo each had several stops along the way in the minors where they produced WRC+ values exceeding 200, it was just a matter of time before they fully announced their presence in the majors.

I'm calling ******** on this statement. Vlad Jr. has potential hall of fame talent and Bichette has perennial all star levels of talent. Biggio's talent level likely maxes out more at above average regular with complete bounce back.

I had a strong feeling some team would be stupid enough to offer this type of deal to Bryant given the Boras representation. On a reasonable 4 or 5 year deal I could see some value, but for a guy who likely maxes out at 3-3.5 WAR per season this is insanity.

Hopefully this private pitching coach isn't just blowing smoke up his own ass and Borucki turns out to be as locked in as he claims.

Yeah I had Phelps in mind as well but left him off considering we simply don't know what he's going to be able to offer coming off of major surgery.

I would also place the end of season 2021 team in this conversation as well, that team was every bit as good as the 2015 or 2022 team as currently constructed. I would give the edge to the 2022 team as their window of contention is just opening vs the 2015 team which had a very limited window.

I really love this trade, it's huge that Atkins was able to pull this off without shipping out any of the top 3 prospects or anybody important off the expected major league roster. It's nice to think that since mid-season of 2021 the team has added Cimber, Richards, Garcia and Berrios, while also replacing Ray, Matz, and Semien with Gausman, Kikuchi, and Chapman. This team is seriously stacked, I think all that's left is another dependable leverage arm for the bullpen.

If you are worried that top prospects are effectively blocked by good major league players you can just as easily move the major league pieces out to make room for the youngsters as required. Groshans could most likely be moved to second base and would still be a great asset if he's ready during the time that Chapman is still with the club, and with the total lack of quality starting catchers in MLB it would be easy to move Jansen and/or Kirk out as well.