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Hopefully videos of broccoli, protein shakes and quinoa.

Yeah Devers is absolutely the test case for best case scenario for Vladdy defensively. Although if he isn't able to make some refinement to his swing to gain more loft I'm fearful he may not even hit the expected offensive peak that has been projected for him. Sure it's great to hit the ball hard, but if you are killing worms in China with your grounders then that negates so much of the potential damage.

It should be interesting to see how Vlad's commitment to fitness instead of fatness pays off defensively. By Statcast he was 10 outs below average on balls where he had to move in, which lines up with what the eye test showed up as well. He seemed to have a hard time getting his big frame moving, and then had even more trouble slowing down afterward. I remember a play where Vladdy cut in front of the shortstop where he had to run almost to first base to get himself slowed down.

A pre-free agency extension would certainly entail a certain amount of risk for both sides to make it happen, and you very well may be correct in asserting that it simply doesn't make sense for either side at this point. The club carries the risk of Giles being hurt going forward and not providing the necessary value for the deal to work out, and Giles is potentially leaving money on the table by taking less money before free agency. But for Giles he gains long term security, and loses the risk of having to take a 1 year pillow contract in free agency. Given the front office has shown very little inclination to even offer extensions to their star players up to this point the whole argument is likely moot anyway. Both Stroman and Donaldson are on record stating that they were never offered any type of extension. It simply boggles the mind that of all the players on the roster, Randal Grichuk is the guy they decided to lock up long term. A 1-2 win player with several years of control remaining doesn't scream extension priority in any way.l

For me the Jays related content is well worth the cost. They recently added Nick Ashbourne who appears will add some nice analytical analysis. I'm no more of a fan of Keith Law as anyone else as he is a pretentious ******* who has a habit of making completely untrue statements, getting proven wrong, and then doubling down. Thankfully his articles aren't beamed directly to me eyes so I'm in no way forced to read his crap.

I agree that offering up Giles up a full value free agent contract isn't necessary at this point, you can simply resign him at season's end if you feel that he is a good addition going forward. I just can't help but wonder if the Jays have an opportunity to lock up a valuable asset at a little below market value at this point. They get first crack at doing so, once he hits free agency that opportunity is gone for good.

I don't get this whole asset with no value term that gets lumped on every player that signs a contract extension. For elite players that simply isn't true. If their health and/or performance craters then sure they have no trade value, but elite players in their prime for teams actually trying to win have plenty of value. If you sign Giles for a reasonable somewhat team friendly extension (which may be possible due to his stated desire to stay in Toronto) and the team ends up being terrible in the first half, then there is no reason you can't move him to a different team at the trade deadline, he will still have plenty of trade value. Sure if his arm falls off then you have a dead asset, there is always this risk in any kind of long term contract with a reliever. This isn't the same situation as it was with Stroman at this point. Stroman had far more trade value as a starter with 1.5 years of control than Giles does as a reliever with only 1 year of control going forward. Stroman returned 2 top 100'ish prospects, with so little control remaining with Giles by the trade deadline you might struggle to get back even 1 top 100 player. You almost certainly wouldn't want to offer a qualifying offer to Giles in case he decided to take it. If you could have moved Giles at the trade deadline for a good return then that would have been the prime opportunity to do so. I do wonder what the Yankees offer looked like at the time, given that Giles was having issues pitching on back to back days. The team has potentially added upwards of 10+ wins in free agency to a team that was close to .500 since Bichette was called up. This isn't the same team that was trending towards the franchise's worst ever record in the first half, it is now a team that showed enough forward momentum that the front office felt the time was right to start improving the 25 man roster, and not simply collecting assets. At some point keeping your best players to provide present value makes more sense than worrying about future value. If the return for Giles isn't a clear win vs. the value he provides on the field for the Jays, then I would argue it is better to hang onto him.

I think the key point on whether to extend Giles or not depends on the state of his elbow. Supposedly the elbow problems stemmed from a fall he sustained on the field in Chicago earlier in the season. Subsequent imaging tests only showed inflammation and no structural damage. It appears Giles has turned a corner with the prior behavioural issues, and he has typically been an elite reliever throughout his career. He has stated publically he has loved his time with the organization and is willing to stay long term. If the two sides can line up on a reasonable extension to keep him around longer term then why not get it done? The team is transitioning to contention in the near future, nothing wrong with having an elite closer on the roster.

I think he has room to improve as well. Take away a few starts where he likely got pounded because he was tipping pitches and suddenly the results look a lot better. I recall he tweaked his slider or cutter grip later on in the season and was able to go on a nice run in September. Quite a few of those appearances were as a bulk pitcher behind an opener though, so it's not truly indicative of improvement as a starter going forward.

I'm not so sure you can say Trent Thornton has exactly failed as a starting prospect though. Sure he won't be fronting a rotation any time soon, but as a back of the rotation guy he's perfectly serviceable. Although I'm not certain we are speaking about the same guy, who exactly is this Trent Thoron you speak of?

Interesting news coming out today that Travis Shaw made some swing changes after the 2018 season that ended up backfiring completely. Remarkably similar story to Kevin Smith and his ill-fated swing changes as well, both guys had disastrous 2019 seasons. This makes me very hopeful that Shaw can turn things around and be a massive infield upgrade for the Jays.

I wonder if Mookie Betts is a good MLB comparable?

One more year at $10 million.

If Hudson gets paid like a world series hero then you have to pass, but if he gets paid like the fungible bullpen dude who was picked up from the scrap heap in spring training then why the hell not.

Suzuki sounds like he's likely a better defender than Soto as he's won Japanese gold gloves in right field. Add that to the premium offense and this looks like a dude that is going to get PAID.

Lowrie has had an interesting career to say the least, he's alternated from stud to dud and back to stud seemingly at random. Then you throw in the completely variable health status from season to season and who knows what player you are going to end up with. Only one year left on his current deal though, so even if he busts completely then no big overall impact on team finances.

It looks like the only position Jed Lowrie can play with any level of decency is second base, he likely wouldn't be a very good backup shortstop since he's only played 3 innings there since 2015. I wonder if the Jays front office is interested in taking on dead money for prospects at this point in the rebuild? Smith looks like a nice long term building block for first base.

I don't think the front office will be afraid to continue to do what they've been doing in their recent drafts, which is to draft the best player available regardless of whether it's a college player or high school player. They've hit home runs with both types of selections recently, no reason to suddenly get scared and go safe. The scouting director is just a cog in the front office wheel, the new scouting director will have plenty of time to get up to speed before the draft.

With Fernandez you can at least make the argument that he approached a hall of fame peak at his best.

Guys that vote for Omar Vizquel to get into the hall of fame should have their votes removed. This is a guy with a career WAR of only 42.5, and he only produced an above average WRC+ twice in a very lengthy career. Sure he was flashy with the glove, but you would hope it would take more than that to gain entry into such a historically difficult hall of fame to get voted into.

I don't think people would necessarily have an issue with the on-field performance given the economical contract he was signed for. But combine the general contempt caused by the original acquisition cost, and the fact that he was frustrating to actually watch pitch and you end up with a pitcher that was kind of hard to cheer for.

WPA is the best stat to illustrate what a disaster Caudill was in 1985, he put up -1.69. Fluking your way into a low ERA/RA9 isn't necessarily indicative of a successful season as a reliever.

Last I heard Boston was actually expecting to receive legitimate prospects in a Price deal, which is ludicrous considering his contract is a negative value contract going forward. I don't think the Jays will trade for Price, but have suspicions if Boston comes to their senses and snaps back to reality somebody will take Price off of their hands.

After his terrible start to the season in April the rest of his numbers for the year are much better. No way to know if the defense is good enough for MLB if he's never given any rope to start. The organization seems intent to give playing time to low ceiling guys like McKinney and Davis instead, might as well see what Alford can do before cutting bait with him completely.

Yeah good point no big loss whatsoever if Rowdy is odd man out. Santana looks to offer next to nothing in the outfield based on his metrics, so hopefully his outfield work would be minimal.