Ray

I'm also reasonably confident we will get an extension done with Berrios this offseason. With the amount of stress this front office puts on process, they had to have reached out to Berrios' agent to get a pulse on what his ballpark number is and had to have been comfortable with it. They're banking on him loving the city, the team, and working with Pete Walker. We usually have trouble getting free agents here, but not so much when its retaining players that are already here. More players love playing in Toronto more often than not.

Baseball fans have an unhealthy obsession with trying to categorize trades as binary. There has to be a winner and there has to be a loser, as if it's some zero sum game. Not always the case. The Twins front office isn't dumb. I'm sure they are aware of the warts in Martin and Woods-Richardson's games, but they're banking on their player development system patching up those holes. It was an opportunity to get access to two talents that would not have been accessible coming into the season. I still really like Martin and will root for him to succeed. His bat-to-ball skills are dynamic. He's been one of the better pure hitters from the collegiate ranks in years, but I also very much understand why we made that trade. Yes, the Blue Jays COULD be lower on Martin that they were when they drafted him, but that could still mean they like him a lot. Pretty sure in interviews that Shapiro/Atkins did post trade, they both did mention that they still really liked Austin Martin, but acknowledged it was just the cost of business.

The Royals suckkkkkkkk

It realllllllllly sucks how many games this bullpen blew early on in the season. Even if we end up finishing up strong and landing at 90 wins, there’s a chance we don’t make the playoffs. Which really is unfortunate, because this offense and rotation are championship level IMO. The bullpen is what it is, but you just need it to get hot for one month in October. Hoping for the best here, but it would be a heartbreaker to barely not make the playoffs with this offense and rotation firing on all cylinders. It a super special offensive group and I’ll put up a top 4 of Berrios-Ray-Ryu-Manoah against anyone. And you also aren’t guaranteed to have guys like Ray/Semien return next season. Hope we can squeak in. The Red Sox are faltering, but they have an easy schedule down the stretch. The Yankees are playing better. The Rays and A’s are showing no signs of slowing down. Even if we continue playing well, no guarantee other teams slow down.

Andrew Benintedi could be a good comp, albeit Benintendi is a pretty good defender. If all goes well and Martin taps into a little more power, maybe he could be Jonathan India lite? I remember evaluators being quite down on India after he was drafted high, and he’s turned out to be a fine player. I’m not still not really out on Martin as a valuable piece, but I think it’s clear he’s not in the Bregman/Rendon level of superstar level player that we all expected him to be.

Gotta give a shout-out to Sandy Rosario too who was hired as the head of international scouting in 2016. We’ve had great international classes since. The overall quality of our scouting, international or amateur has gone up since Shapiro/Atkins joined. Ditto with player development, which was archaic until they got here.

Andrew Tinnish has really done an excellent job with the international scouting the past couple years. Glad he stuck around. I was positive AA was going to poach him for the Braves.

That makes more sense.

There is a lot more pop in that swing than his stat line would indicate.

Well, hopefully we have better luck second time around the order.

I assure you that this isn’t the reason why Teoscar isn’t playing.

They already got to 7 games above .500 last night. They’ll be going for #8.

No Jose Ramirez or Myles Straw (minus on defense). Hopefully Stripling pitches well. Not really a dangerous lineup beyond Franmil Reyes.

Also, I know small sample and all that, but Joey Gallo has a .396 OPS for the Yankees so far. You love to see it.

Red Sox down 6-0 to the Tigers in the 6th. Their hitters have been ice cold recently, and their pitching is regressing hard. We're throwing our 4 best starters at them this weekend, with 2 games being a 7 inning doubleheader which naturally favours. A sweep isn't out of the question here, but 3 out of 4 will put us right back in the division conversation.

Kiley McDaniel's Top 50: https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/31958336/kiley-mcdaniel-midseason-top-50-mlb-prospects Blue Jays have 4 in the Top 50, with 2 more in the honourable mentions. 12. Alek Manoah, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays Manoah was another player like Alvarez for whom I just wanted to see a little more pro performance before I shot him up the list, and now he's a start away from losing his prospect eligibility with a 2.47 ERA in the majors and is only a little bit lucky. 22. Nate Pearson, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays Pearson is right there with Hunter Greene for the best raw stuff among starters in the minors. Pearson has been just OK in the big leagues and slowed this year by a sports hernia. 36. Gabriel Moreno, C, Toronto Blue Jays Moreno is a solid defender who is 21 years old and performing at a career-best level in Double-A this year, flashing above-average contact and power upside. 38. Orelvis Martinez, SS, Toronto Blue Jays Martinez is a teenager who just got promoted to high-A and already has 20 homers this year, with easy plus raw power that's really showing up in games. He'll likely slide over to third base down the line. Contact is a bit of a question, but the bat speed is elite. Honourable mentions: Alejandro Kirk, C, Toronto Blue Jays Jordan Groshans, SS, Toronto Blue Jays

Shohei Ohtani: 167 OPS+ (2nd in AL) 159 ERA+ (2nd in AL, if he qualified) Gotta be unanimous MVP if the season ended today. What a crazy season.

Espinal over Valera is such a weird hill to die on for some people on this board. The difference between the two is so negligible. And I quite like Espinal too. He might end up being a Miguel Rojas type and is a valuable guy to have, but we're not winning or losing games because of a lack of Espinal in the lineup everyday.

JC Mejia has a 1.040 OPS allowed against LHB and a .567 OPS allowed against RHP.

Longenhagen seems reasonably certain that Bowden Francis can stick in the back of the rotation. Hopefully he pans out. Brewers might have the pitching development system in the league.

Blurb on Orelvis Martinez by Jeff Passan: Link: https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/31949656/inside-one-wildest-trades-deadlines-mlb-history-where-season-goes-here

Manoah's instagram story is hilarious. Espinal, Vlad, Bo, Springer, Teo, and Lourdes are jamming out after turning their clubhouse into a disco lol Seems like a really tight team.

Orelvis hype increasing.... Next uber prospect?

The White Sox and Dodgers have a losing record against >.500 teams. Guess they must not be contenders.

A 4-game sweep would put us right in it for the division. Let’s get it.