max silver

Gurriel and Bo are remarkably similar in that reaching both of their offensive ceilings will be predicated on a tangible improvement in their respective plate discipline. Bo offers a lot more in the field and on the bases so obviously he will come out ahead in any overall comparison.

Looks like the time away has broken your internet sarcasm detector.

At the time I didn't really love the potential signing as I thought Gurriel was likely to be just as good but much cheaper as well. That certainly didn't end up being the case when the dust settled as Gurriel has ultimately had a very disappointing season all things considered with the defensive regression and early sustained struggles at the plate.

I don't think Lindor has much to worry about given his 10 year $341 million contract. And to think that he's turned into such a classy statesman giving the middle finger to the fans. Real win all around for the Mets with this deal and contract. Jays dodged a real bullet from the looks of things not making the trade for Lindor.

The guy's baseball related posts are perfectly fine, but for some reason he prefers to show up on a message board with the intention of being a douchebag to the mods instead of actually talking baseball. That's some puzzling s***.

I want to get excited about this team and rest of the season but this just seems like such a fool's errand with how many times they've disappointed us already.

Oh great now you're comparing the board mods with Stalin. You have a real way of brightening things up around here. Oh how I missed the caustic banterings of the resident board malcontent.

Anderson, Roark and and Garcia were all terrible washed up pitchers by the time they pitched with the Jays. You can attempt to polish a turd but in the end up you are left with is a shiny turd. Matz is another recent success story as he has turned around his career nicely under the tutelage of Walker. You can't blame Walker for all of Yates, Merryweather and Phelps being hurt and missing most if not all of the season. Chatwood was absolutely dealing before the sticky stuff crackdown. Romano and Mayza have both been developed into great late inning pitchers under Walker. Most of the failed bullpen guys have been waiver wire retreads, not sure if the pitching coach is to blame when guys who failed under other pitching coaches and get passed around through waivers ended up failing again as Blue Jays.

You have to give Walker at least some credit for Ray's turnaround. He was a complete disaster in 2020 before going the Jays, and under Walker's tutelage he was able to turn things around to the point where he pitched well in the playoffs. Ray is having a career best season with a remarkable improvement in his ability to throw strikes, surely the pitching coach who he made this turnaround under deserves a lot of credit. There are several factors which seem to have led to Ray's awful 2020 season. He attempted to change his mechanics to more of a short arm motion and that failed miserably. One other thing I noticed was that his spin rates spiked up in 2020 compared to other years. Could this be as a result of the new mechanics or was he utilizing some sort of grip enhancing substance that season?

Hendriks ascent to elite reliever is a very cool story. I remember him saying that after he moved to the bullpen he eventually decided he should simply try to throw harder and as a result saw his velocity jump a ton. Given that he already had great control this made for a deadly reliever combination.

Bo and Vlad have basically played every day this season. I think with a little more time off it's possible they may be able to avoid becoming burned out in the future. Semien has much more experience with how to deal with playing every single day as he's been doing it for years.

This seems like a pretty honest mistake. I find Ray and Gausman are both interesting case studies in how to effectively turn your career around. If the Jays aren't able to bring Ray back I think Gausman would be my preferred second target as a relatively young starter who should provide close to ace level performance moving forward. I just wish they would have been a little more aggressive with their offer last offseason, he looked like a legit top of the rotation starter to me after his 2020 turnaround.

I think Orgfiller is referencing Ray's numbers this season and may be thinking you were saying Ray is due to regress due to having been lucky rather than having gone through a change of skill. I think that Gausman may be benefiting a bit from the deadened baseball this season, but that would be true of basically every pitcher in baseball so that shouldn't diminish the value of his contributions relative to his peers. His xERA is close to a full run higher than his actual, but even so an xERA of 3.3 and xFIP of 3.4 both indicate that Gausman is an excellent pitcher now and should continue this going forward. I think he may actually get paid more than Ray in free agency as he has been performing at this new higher level of performance since the 2020 season vs Ray who has only turned things around in 2021.

I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments here. I'm also the type to look for value in my purchases, but at the same time I'm willing to pay what I deem to be an appropriate amount in order to get the quality I'm after. Unless the Jays are expecting to compete for an even bigger fish like Correa I think that resigning Semien should be just as high of a priority as Ray this offseason. There is no guarantee that any of Groshans/Otto/Taylor will translate to MLB or be ready within the next year or two to fill the need for a 2B/3B replacement. Hopefully Smith will prove to be the ready made 3B replacement as the defense looks superb and he had put up good quality AB's so far. This offence has really struggled at times, and removing one of the key contributors will weaken the lineup a very large degree.

And appears like it's about to get worse

Nope. There is no denying that Biggio's injury plagued season would have to put a bit of a damper on his trade value. I think he should bounce back with better health.

After the season Biggio just had I would think he would be the third or fourth piece in a Ramirez deal.

Given your propensity to make posts that look like they've been run through google translate several times I don't really think you are in a good position to be the BJMB gatekeeper.

Hell no. Trading two inexpensive franchise players for one extremely high paid player with a massive contract and chronic shoulder issues is a terrible idea.

This criticism is all with the benefit of hindsight. Let's say Springer doesn't injure his knee and the team still continues rolling, and at this point is only a game out of a wildcard spot. That scenario isn't any less likely to have occurred. I think actually giving Ray and Semien and chance to play as Blue Jays in Toronto and appreciate the energy of the home crowd and proper facilities would help to retain each player. The trade deadline moves show that the club is serious about competing and not hoarding prospects any more and pinching pennies. Signalling to your own players and prospective off season free agent signings that you are serious about competing has to count for something. The Tampa Bay Rays are a very successful team but I sure as hell don't want the team I watch operating in the same kind of fashion the the Rays do.

I can think of no better way for the front office to have given a massive middle finger to the fans in Toronto attending the games than to have thrown in the towel at the trade deadline on a team that was well within striking distance . The team had been playing on the road for basically 2 years with a tremendous amount of excitement surrounding the team. This is ultimately an entertainment industry, and with some smart additions the team was poised to go on a run. Unfortunately that run seems to have ended with the Springer injury, but that was a circumstance that you wouldn't have necessarily expected unless you had a crystal ball available.

I'm sure Vladdy is as disappointed as anybody he didn't catch that throw, but if you are going to assign blame it's like 99.9% on Semien. It was a super routine throw that he botched.

Give this garbage a rest, it's seriously tiring. This team is a reliable bullpen away from being a true contender. They have gone through most of the year with only one or two reliable relief options, they have a dipshit manager with zero tactical acumen who has cost them several wins, have missed their star center fielder for most of the season, received next to no offence out of the catcher, third base and left field positions for much of the season, had only a few decent rotation options to start the year, and have one of MLB's youngest position player cores. Despite all of these disadvantages they are still within striking distance of a wildcard spot. This isn't an aging, past it's prime team, it's a young squad who is on the rise. Tearing the wind out of their sails at the trade deadline when they are still competing for a playoff spot would send a very poor message to cornerstone players like Vladdy Jr. and Bo Bichette when it comes to signing them long term. If you are going to whine and moan about the front office attempting to reinforce a highly talented team at the trade deadline then maybe you should find another sport. The time to hoard prospects has passed, this team is in it's contention phase now. Trading away Ray and Semien before they even have had a chance to play in Toronto as members of the home team would likely impact their chances of retaining either guy moving forward. The team as constructed is very strong in the position player core and starting rotation. Add some better bullpen options and this team would likely be battling for the division.

Short is a helluva good defender.

I guess it's preferable for the players to look stressed out and on edge all the time. Nothing leads to improved performance more than allowing pressure to get the best if you.