BB17

A lot of downtowns are becoming over run with homeless people. Funny because all 3 of the finalists in Toronto, SD and LA have big homeless issues. I think San Diego started a program where they basically ship them all to an open field somewhere outside of the city, basically like a camp. As bad as it sounds at the human level it’s not a bad solution. These crackheads are complete lunatics and danger civilians around them. I find in the US a lot of downtowns are more of the least desirable areas in the city. Downtown LA is a shithole and no one from LA would ever live there. San Fran is the same, in SD Carlsbad or Oceanside are way nicer than downtown. Nashville and Austin have pretty nice downtowns of cities I’ve been to so maybe it’s a California thing lol.

Jays players all get on a bus at Rogers Centre to go to the airport anyways as they travel after the games. I forgot Nylander resigned in Toronto because of the TTC access.

No Jays player is taking the UP express to the airport lol like c'mon lets get real now. I know we are all kind of blind with what his motives are but some of the stuff getting floated around is beyond ridiculous lol.

I'm sorry but this is ridiculous lol. No way he isn't choosing LA or San Diego because of a Tsunami 14 years ago. And if it somehow was a factor well he wouldn't have them in the top 3 to begin with lol.

He really should announce it in the next day or so. He's had basically all this time to decide on a team and with today being the IFA opening you're only hurting everyone involved the longer you wait.

Yeah I was surprised to see that. I mean ZIPS has him having the lowest FIP on the team of any pitcher. Very limited sample but he does have pretty big platoon splits and walks a lot of LHB so I think you do have to be careful employing him in certain matchups. Just looking at ZIPS projected splits for their relievers the one thing that does jump out is the Garcia/Burr/Swanson/Green all are elite vs RHH and not quite as good vs LHH. So I think the Jays definitely need another LHP in the pen

I can't see Pop making the team out of ST unless he really looks good in the Spring. Probably just depth in AAA. If someone picks him up off waivers and wants to pay him 750K so be it. Burr looks like a pretty good ROOGY and should have a spot on the team.

I think I'd still take Ohtani. Maybe Sasaki is the most cost effective but if Ohtani is putting up 50-50 8 WAR type seasons that's something that you'll remember for the rest of time and would be so fun to watch.

I’ve lived in Toronto for 8 years but travel to the US quite a bit and I’d put San Diego at the top of my list of fav cities. But living there as upper middle class and wealthy are even 2 completely different lifestyles I’d imagine. One thing I haven’t heard much about is he going to be living alone? He’s 23 which is pretty young so not sure if he has a girlfriend/wife or not but I feel like the city would matter way more to them than the actual player. The schedule is set up in a way where they get like 7 home days off, so I really don’t think the city matters all that much to a young player. Their routine is going home after a game at midnight and the getting to the ballpark at noon the next day so they really don’t see much of the city at all. And as soon as the season is over they all leave as soon as possible for tax purposes. If I had to guess I bet the actual city itself would factor into less than 10% of his decision.

If he wants not much media attention I feel like the Dodgers might actually be the best situation of the 3 ironically enough. Sure it’s LA but Ohtani and Yam would take a lot of it, not to mention the stars on the position side of it. Feels like it’s 45% LAD/40% SD/5% TOR at moment.

I agree. I think it probably takes more than on offseason for a lot of players too. The good ones are able to make adjustments and continue to progress where as a lot will revert back to who they were before when high stress is involved. I'm a believer for young players/prospects they should just go to the Dunedin complex and get into those labs without even seeing game action before they master it.

Hmm interesting to hear about this new system. I feel like bat path would be more predictive to success than bat speed. Obviously they work in tandem but in Varsho's case if his bat path was better he wouldn't pop up so much/swing underneath elevated fastballs. Varsho is kind of similar to Schneider in terms of pulled flyballs but I feel Schneider knows his limitations and wouldn't even swing at certain pitches even if they were strikes because he knew he couldn't hit them. Thing is the league adjusts so as soon as you show any weakness everyone is going to try to exploit it.

The other side of it could be if he cared all that much about $ he would have just waited 2 years to come over. Once he does sign I'd be interested to hear why he had the Jays in his top 3.

Looking at his numbers he never was all that good offensively. Sure he had 27 HR in 22 but he had a .298 xWOBA. 2021 was his best year at .323 xwOBA and it was 315 PA. I'm surprised he's projected to be above leave average honestly. I guess pulling balls in the air you could outperform the batted ball data.

As long as the pursuit of him doesn't cause the Jays IFA to sign with other teams its fine. The worst that would come out of this is Sasaki signs with LAD/SD and the IFA the Jays were going to sign find better deals elsewhere. Apparently the Dodgers had a couple of their guys plucked. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2025-international-prospect-rankings-and-scouting-reports/

Bonus points for the pun

Wasn't even throwing off the mound, it was in the outfield. Pretty sure they keep the mound covered all offseason anyways. I mean pitching in San Diego with Merrill and Tatis in the OF is going to suppress offence way more than Toronto with Varsho/Giminez. I really don't think any players on defense really is a factor for a FA anyways. Varsho could be gone in 2 years and players come and go. Has he he visited Dunedin yet? As far as I know he hasn't, but yeah that certainly would be a strong selling point. I would think if he was actually going to sign in Toronto he would check it out before signing. I agree the flight isn't that much longer but for whatever reason it seems like Japanese players prefer the West Coast. You would think the difference of a 12 hour or 14 hour flight would me minuscule though. Its always brought up with the Yankees too. San Diego hasn't had any fires and has the perfect weather where you don't even need a dome. I doubt the fires have any impact whatsoever on the Dodgers chances either.

Yeah he was throwing at the Rogers Centre too. Not really sure why honestly, cuz he's going to get paid the most he can regardless of what they saw in a bullpen lol. Him going to SD for a second meeting with players is probably the bigger story there.

Yeah I agree I think San Diego would be the best fit for him. I honestly have no idea how the Jays are in the top 3. Just from a winning perspective their future outlook is pretty bleak not to mention the division they play in.

That’s too obvious of a way to circumvent the CBA and I feel like there must already be something about that in place.

Kind of wonder if you could promise the guy some sort of “guaranteed” marketing/sponsorship deals. While he’s capped at what he can earn from the Jays, who’s to say TD or one of the bigger Jays sponsors doesn’t sign him for a lot of $ to do commercials. And then the Jays in return give those sponsors a ton of extras. A private jet company would be another smart deal so you could give his family flights from Japan.

It’s going to be really hard for him to make any adjustments given he’s coming off a major shoulder surgery and by all accounts likely won’t even be ready for opening day. It’s tough to make an adjustment that you can stick to in one offseason let alone trying to do that in season. Even last year he came into the year with slightly different swing only to have the bad habits come back and revert to what he was. I hope I’m wrong but I don’t see him having a good year at the plate.

Padres does make a lot of sense. Better pitchers park/division, team is well positioned for the next 5 years with Tatis, Merill. And they’ve been pretty good lately developing pitchers. And then add in San Diego has maybe the best weather of any MLB city and it’s close to Japan and you can see why it wound be an easy choice.

Zero chance... The fires are way closer to the north/west part anyways. Not like Canada and Toronto aren't without their own issues lol.

Lol I don't think Jays fans are getting their hopes up, they've been down this road before.