max silver

The MLB pipeline write-up for Martinez praises his defensive actions, body control, and throwing arm, so the raw tools sound encouraging in the field. Apparently he may slow down over time limiting his range at short stop, hence the potential move to third base. It sounds like he would likely make a great defender over there, so combine that with the thunder in his bat and you are left with a very exciting prospect.

Is throwing in any way included in Statcast outs above average? Everything I've seen seems to point to it only taking catches/non-catches into account. Teoscar certainly has the physical tools to play a great center field, but his instincts are seemingly lacking so much that this affects his ability to get goods reads off the bat and run good routes accordingly.

Upper body looks like right handed to me, but entire lower body just screams left handed. His knees would have to be able to bend backwards for the lower body to come from a righty.

Definitely not the ex-Brewer player if that's who you are thinking about. https://buffalonews.com/2018/07/18/inside-the-bisons-hitting-coach-corey-hart-talks-about-success-at-the-plate/

I recall full speed batting practice was something the Jays were looking to increase, hence the batting practice pitcher hire. Obviously you aren't going to be able to hire guys who can actually get MLB hitters out, but if they can at least throw semi hard that's better than traditional BP.

Here's another nice Blue Jays related prospect write-up. This one lists a whopping 56 Jays positional prospects on it. It's has more of a stat based analytical slant to it rather than scouting information, but provides some interesting tidbits such as minor league advanced fielding statistics in the write-ups. http://jaysfromthecouch.com/2020/01/20/my-non-ranking-ranking-of-56-blue-jays-prospects-the-position-players/

Are plate discipline and pitch recognition skills that can be taught, or does success in these areas more rely on things like eye-sight and reaction times? What methods work best for working to improve pitch recognition for young hitters?

Good thing hes team president and not president of the internet grammar club. (yes its intentional)

You can't help but wonder whether he simply isn't viewed very favorable by the baseball world at large. Those of us who got to see how he operated on a regular basis were able to gain an appreciation of how savvy of a manager Gibbons is despite the "aw shucks" personality, but the fact that he has never been able to obtain another MLB managing gig outside of Toronto is very telling.

With Senzel I wonder how much his labrum surgery serves to depress his trade value? I see it was on his throwing shoulder, so who knows how his arm strength bounces back afterwards.

Seems a little high for a guy with all of 17 innings of pro experience.

Seems pretty short sighted in my view, but Reds are obviously serious about winning now and not worrying too much about the future.

It seems very odd for the Reds to move on from such a seemingly high end talent so quickly, it makes me wonder if they see him as having a more limited ceiling than the prospect evaluations would lead you to believe.

Yeah my post was more in jest than anything given Kirk's ultrimate man physique. Some scouts apparently question his ability to remain at catcher due to his terrible build, but he actually made improvements to his physique in the offseason recently, and has a great throwing arm and decent catching skills already.

For this question we are going to need an additional answer selections. Here are some suggestions; Yes, I've seen this personally Please wash my eyes with acid I have no idea, but I don't know if I'm willing to go to the depths required to definitely prove this one way or the other.

Maybe there is hope for ultra beefcake catcher Alejandro Kirk to remain at the position. If all he needs to do is be agile enough to flop to his knees to block the odd pitch (should be easy with his ample girth) then on the field sexy time with Captain Kirk is coming soon.

That seems to be the general consensus from the articles I've read on the subject. Between the pitching coach taking over game calling, and the likely future implementation of an electronic strike zone, the catching position is going to become far less demanding. Framing will essentially become a useless skill at that point, and much of the implementation of strategy will be removed from the catcher as well.

Something like that could work nicely. My only concern with the catcher wearing a device is the high likelihood of it being destroyed by foul tips eventually. I guess they would need to have backup devices available in that case.

Totally agree here, Groshans is the type of guy who should be close to untouchable. Perhaps a swap for an elite outfield prospect or young outfielder with control could make sense given the lack of impact outfielders in the organization, but Groshans looks like a future star so there needs to be elite talent coming back in any trade with him involved.

The only comparable level of prospect that has been traded away that immediately comes to mind is Noah Synergaard. One guy that ended up having a fantastic career Jeff Kent was traded away years ago, but I have no idea how highly he was thought of as a prospect at the time of the trade.

Atkins himself has suggested that the farm system may be used to improve the major league squad, and potentially to add impact players. https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/atkins-blue-jays-farm-system-keeps-trade-options-open-front-office/

A few days back The Athletic ran a piece with John Lott interviewing Jays bench coach Dave Hudgens about his thoughts on the Astros cheating scandal. As you would expect Hudgens offered very little in the way of opinions during the interview, other than to state that he thinks that using technology in game to steal signs is wrong. The general consensus among commenters for the story seems to be that since Hudgens was the hitting coach for the Astros during this scandal, that he should be dismissed from his job with the Blue Jays. What are thoughts on this from others here on BJMB? My view is that Hudgens was essentially exonerated by MLB, in that he received no sanctions or suspension from MLB after their investigation. I think if Hudgens would have been found to have played any kind of role in implementing the sign stealing and relaying scheme he would have received the same suspension that Luhnow and Hinch received. This was mostly a player driven scheme, and aside from Cora, the players were the main driving force behind this mess. It seems pointless to me for the Jays to dismiss Hudgens from his current position based on assumptions that he must be guilty as he was the hitting coach.

I think at the very least if the qualifying offer system is going to stay in place, the deadline for accepting it should be extended to a more reasonable time frame. Like say something such as the player needing to decide by the winter meetings instead of only getting in the neighborhood of a week to decide. I bet Jake Odorizzi could have found himself a nice multi-year offer with the way this years market ended up developing if he actually had some time to play the market before having to decide on whether to take the qualifying offer. Another possible improvement would be a tier system of compensation for both the team losing the free agent and the team signing one. I don't see why the punishment for signing a qualified free agent reliever should be the same as signing somebody like Bryce Harper or Gerrit Cole. Maybe both the compensation and penalties could be based on total contract value handed out. And the way the compensation system is set up so that compensation picks being based on the size of the market should be completely eliminated. Why should a team lose a higher draft pick for signing a free agent because they are in a larger market? That never made any sense to me.

For the privilege of only one season of Mookie Betts the Red Sox are asking for two top prospects on top of the acquiring team taking on nearly all of David Price's remaining salary. Hopefully this leads to the Red Sox getting nothing more than a comp pick after 2020, on top of having the keep paying Price for the next several years afterwards as well.

The only way I can see McGuire having any real trade value is if you believe the bat that he's shown at the major league level is legit. His extensive minor league history suggests that his small sample size of major league results isn't sustainable, but if it proves not to be a fluke then all of a sudden the Jays might just have a monster catching tandem on their hands. It appears he has been massively lucky up to this point, he doesn't hit the ball particularly hard, and has experienced a massive gulf between xwoba and woba both years he has been called up.