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He's been awfully fortunate in terms of batted ball luck but I can't get on board with the idea that he's been some sort of disaster. He had a rough week and a half where he allowed 11 of the 19 earned runs he allowed all season, but aside from that the Blue Jays can be very happy with the on field results he's produced this season.

If you believe that Bassitt is as bad as the BWAR value suggests then it seems awfully unlikely other teams would be offering anything worthwhile in return. The Blue Jays would more than likely have to kick in extra money to move him or take a bad deal back so the upside likely isn't there. I think even as he declines Bassitt has value as a starter who has been very healthy, soaks up a ton of innings and can act as a bit of a pitching coach to young up and coming starters (I'd wager he's been a valuable sounding board for Francis in particular given their relative similarities).

Bassitt's 2.2 FWAR this season paint a different picture. I have no issues with simply letting him finish his contract out and trading him at the deadline if the team struggles yet again next year.

I didn't realize he was such a solid defender at second base. No big deal losing a guy like this ultimately as the team already has too many second base options as it is moving forward. I don't think he was really in direct competition with Biggio as he would have been fighting for playing time with the likes of Espinal and Clement. I largely blame Otto's 65 wRC+ over a full season of AAA plate appearances as being the primary reason the team cut bait with him as he simply didn't earn himself an extended look in the majors.

That's not really true. I've been plenty critical of the moves that I disagreed with.

The way this season has unfolded it would feel like the ultimate nut punch for the Blue Jays to completely lose the lottery and drop to 10th overall.

It was already apparent in recent seasons that Kirk had morphed into an elite defender behind the plate, but I didn't expect him to develop into one of the elite throwing catchers in the sport seemingly overnight. He's ranked second overall in MLB in throwing runs by DRS and 4th by OAA.

Literally nobody on here ever said this trade was a slam dunk win for the Blue Jays. There's no need to make s*** up like this to support your argument in bad faith. The Diamondbacks always had a very good shot to come ahead in overall WAR value due to the extra years of control, but the Blue Jays received the best player at the time of trade, and after a tough 2023 season at the plate for Varsho he's returned to once again being the best player involved in the trade in 2024. Just as the much maligned GM stated after the 2023 it's far too early to judge a trade of long term assets after a single season, this trade is looking to be a win/win type of trade for both sides as each club received a player that directly filled one of their needs. I don't know why you keep saying Varsho is like 2015 Kevin Pillar and acting like that's some sort of slight against him. That version of Kevin Pillar was a really valuable contributor to his team, but that version of him only showed up once in his career. Varsho has produced wins at a similar rate in 3 of his 4 seasons as a major league regular and returned to this type of production in the 2024 season.

If the guy the Blue Jays traded starts producing 5+ win seasons you'll have a great point.

AA has a long and storied history of trading away the wrong catchers.

How would Bo or the team benefit from faking a broken finger?

Any time I go out to eat I generally have my wife and daughter with me, and I'm hard pressed to avoid ordering a few tasty adult beverages to go with the meal. It's hard to get out of a restaurant spending less than $75 even if it's a less expensive place like Denny's.

With a burger press and round parchment papers to avoid sticking it's a total breeze to get nice consistent patties.

I make burgers a ton at home on my grill. I have a nice recipe that I perfected over time, and the Mrs. makes homemade buns as well a good amount of the time and that just can't be beat. There is a middle ground that's still fast and higher quality available with the various delivery services that are available now, as well as alternatively popping into the restaurant for pickup of the order on the way home. Unless someone is so pressed for time that they literally can't get out of the car for a few minutes to go pick up an order there's very little advantage to eating s***** fast food anymore.

The price of fast food has increased to the point where I'd infinitely rather just get a burger from a proper full service restaurant.

You're welcome.

He would certainly be burning a lot less calories through activity in the several months of downtime.

I think Ernie rushes his damn throws too much at times. Nearly all of the errors I've seen him make at third base are a direct result of rushing his throws instead of setting his feet and getting more on the throw. He tends to bounce a lot of throws in this nature.

I'd guess that it would difficult to perform much cardio when you are sitting around resting up a leg injury.

I've seen reports that suggest Roden is an average or even better than average defender in a corner outfield spot so I it's possible that Horwitz isn't a good comparison in the field.

I'd infinitely prefer Walker over Alonso as he's a far more balanced player who offers similar overall offensive output except with an elite glove at first base.

Buck Martinez was carrying on and on about how important pitcher wins were and that Jose Berrios contract was a total bargain. It's not like he's stuck in the past or anything of the sort. I still generally like Buck as a color guy but he can be extremely grating at times when he's complaining about catchers catching with a knee down, or griping about pitch framing being overrated, or bitching about how bad strikeouts are for hitters/whining about how overrated strikeouts are for pitchers and how much better it is to pitch to contact (pick a lane dude, strikeouts are bad for hitters and also bad for pitchers to emphasize) etc.

I'm not particularly worried about Green moving forward. He's not as good as the miniscule ERA he ran for most of the season would suggest given the reduced strikeout rate and substandard quality of contact allowed but he's nowhere near as bad as the recent struggles would suggest either. His stuff and command metrics are both very solid and I fully expect the recent struggles will be more of a speedbump than a sign of things to come.

Berrios has been getting by recently largely on the strength of improved command and increased stuff on the slurve. I tracked his Stuff+ results over his recent string of effective starts and the various fastballs are all still below career norms in terms of stuff but he's been locating a lot more effectively. He has rediscovered the effectiveness of his slurve recently so hopefully this will allow him to continue outperforming his FIP values if the strikeouts don't return.

I also fully expect that some of the surplus of MLB ready prospects will be utilized as currency for relief help. I still expect the team will need to spend some money in free agency for leverage help.