bluejaysinternNo5

Even if he’s replacement level in 2024 again I can’t see him being cut - he’s become a mascot for the Jays.

Just keep a revolving door of veterans like Belt. They'll out perform Vlad anyway.

It's almost impossible to have any reasonable discourse about Vlad nowadays. Any time you mention his performance all you get is "He's 24" (so are lot's of other players that are much much better), "He's an all star" (not deserved), "He plays gold glove defense at first base!!" (he does not), "If not for Ohtani he would be MVP!!!" (a year he can't repeat now that he can't play in minor league parks anymore), etc etc. He's basically become a mascot for the blue jays the way the media sucks him off. I'd love for him to succeed but I can't say I'll miss him when he's gone. Give me healthy physical specimens and non-nepo babies next time thanks.

Why not get our old pal Brandon Drury back and move Whit to LF

Then make your own formula and prove its correctness my guy.

Nobodies defensive contributions at 1b is disregarded. It’s just players who play at 1b start with a defensive handicap, since if they were any better they would play literally any other position. Theoretically, if a player at 1b were so good at 1b that they completely overcame that handicap, they would be moved to another position such as third base, because it easier to find a player to play 1b than 3b, and the player has shown the ability to play 3b. This is why we let Vlad fail at 3b for a whole year - because if he could play an average 3b, then we could just keep signing Brandon Belts to cheap one year deals instead of having to keep trading prospects or spending 20M+ a year in free agency to acquire Matt Chapmans. It’s an economics thing.

omg

Lives in the hands of LTBF is the scariest thing I’ve read all week.

damn I thought tangotiger was going to tell us Vlad actually had 3 WAR and not 0.4

Unrelated to the current discussion, but are there any unexplored areas of baseball statistics, analytics, or simulation that have your interest?

Absolutely. Glad we can all agree that Vlad kind of sucks this season after all those pages of discourse 😉

Trump is a Jays fan??

I don’t see how it’s stupid that a player who can play shortstop is more valuable than a brick who stands at first place and catches ball but ok.

Yeah I thought feasting off Oakland pitching would have done him a bigger favour.

The roster is mostly set as it is. There’s no big black hole anywhere where it’s obvious you need to upgrade. As mentioned before it’s really up to guys to start playing better. Here’s what I would do if I woke up as Ross Atkins on July 31: 1) Get a new hitting coach. Time for a change. I don’t care if he deserves it or not. 2) Another bullpen arm. Could be anybody. Doesn’t have to be a big name but a guy with intriguing potential that we can rotate in and out of the bullpen with some guys getting injured, sent down, etc. If things work out this is a guy who could see leverage in the playoffs. 3) Get a prototypical power hitting, poor defence outfielder / 1b / dh. Another guy with intriguing potential but somebody who’s on the fringe of another teams roster. Again give him a look and see what happens. I’m also not opposed to a big shakeup and the Goldschmidt suggestion earlier would have been really interesting if is contract ended this season and he was a rental. Then I could see us rotating Vlad, Belt, and Goldschmidt around depending on matchups. Plus, going out of the organization to get more production at 1b has the added bonus of bruising Vlad’s ego and hopefully lighting a fire under his ass.

Manoah needs to get back to looking like this.

Exactly. Even if an 18 year old kid with little professional experience knew exactly what was coming a Cy Young finalist should not get hit this badly.

Manoah gained 50+ pounds from college to now in just a few years. That’s going to mess with your ability no matter what. He was a top prospect and mostly complete pitcher 50 pounds ago and until he realizes that I wouldn’t hold out hope.

Why care about the quality of your work when you are genuinely unfireable? Pete Walker can’t even be canned after a DUI. Rivera has been here since the year 1854. A job on the Blue Jays coaching staff is the cushiest job on this planet. Insane job security.

Something that should have been sorted out in spring training honestly.

In 1-2 weeks he will be replacement level.

No I’m just theorizing that the hot desert air would help vladdy slim down and perform like last year in an alternate universe where he gets traded to Arizona

We traded away Lourdes and Teoscar but imagine if we sold high on the mayor of the barrio himself. Would the Dbacks have parted with Carrol for Guerrero? Probably not but just imagine him leading off for this team while Vlad sweats off the weight in Arizona and has a respectable repeat of his 2022 season.

Is this still the biggest home run of his career? Look at how cool and svelte he used to be. He could have stayed a lean mean baseball killing machine but alas it appears it was not to be.

118 wRC+ and 0.4 WAR 71 games into the season. On pace for 20 home runs. How the mighty have fallen.