The Toronto Blue Jays/MLB Thread.

[Demographic Shift]

Well we will get baseball this summer.

If the season which is set to kick off in July gets up and going and teams are playing out of their own facilities after the virus revved up a bit in Arizona and Florida reports are that Vlad and Bo and Cavan and hopefully Nate Pearsonit would likely not be playing home games in Toronto. Buffalo got mentioned as a potential site or maybe they play in Dunedin with incredibly strict protocols for the players.

Just don't think things settle down on cross border air travel till the fall.

[Demographic Shift]

Here we go....

[slaw]

Here we go....

LOL. Brutal.

[Demographic Shift]

LOL. Brutal.

Yes sir.

Even with Baltimore in there for 10 games the kids are going to find out what it takes to win in the majors.

• The Yankees are loaded.
• The Red Sox are out of pitching and let Betts go so they won't be as good as last year but they are still a good club.
• The Rays are going to be good. Again. With guys we never heard of. But Tampa is like a college program. Every year the seniors leave but they seem to find another couple of gems. Scouting must be top drawer.
• The Phillies are supposed to push the Nats and ...
• Baseball gods must not like us as get the Series Champs Nationals as well as NL East champs the Braves.

Lets see what the kids got because they will need all of it.
Young team on the rise.

[Joey]

Bichette is a future MVP. Dude is absolute stud.

[Demographic Shift]

Bichette is a future MVP. Dude is absolute stud.

Well to quote Dickens "It was the best of times and the worst of times"

Going to sit out the obligatory self punishment sessions after the Raps drop game 1 of a 7 game series.
I hope that everyone who wasn't cut or traded didn't get fired.

Now how about those Toronto Blue Jays !!!
I did not see this coming.
They are competitive. Looks like they are going to get into the expanded post season and why the hell not !!.

That Bichette kid is gold. A real live Dustin Pedroia type player. He can play the field at MLB average and can he hit a shit ton. And ... we got his clone in the draft this year in Auston Martin.

Finalllllly after some panic Vladdy Jr. is starting to hit. He has stung the ball for a couple weeks now. If he is finding his groove.. Yeah Baby !
They fixed the starting rotation with Walker. They have a legit 1-2 and Pearson is their 3 or 4 this year when hes ready again. After that its by committtee. and the Jay should find 1 good start out of the pool of guys they have...

1/2 game behind the Yankees for 3rd and tonight the Yankees get to play Tampa... we can only win when 1 of them loses.
We get Baltimore again tonight. We do to the Orioles what Tampa does to us. Seem to win every game. Then a run of 7 games in 6 days with the sagging Marlins and the .. gasp... last place RedSox. Who still have no pitching. They seem to know it. But just don't care and are mailing it in. Boston is already looking to next year.

If they can go 5 of 7 they are going to be right in it for 2nd place and depending on how things roll a punchers chance for 1st.

Excited for these guys. They deserve it. They are entertaining.
But I still hate the robot approach of the Shatbot.

[Joey]

3 game cushion on the Yanks! We could actually do this!

[Bendit]

Well done Jays!

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[Joey]

So huge for these young guys. Love this new playoff format .. would love to see MLB keep it.

[Demographic Shift]

Jays seem to be looking to add to the team.

They made a run at Kevin Gausman and he signed the QO ... personally I am glad they lost out on Gausman who was horrible for the Orioles in his time there and he would be horrible here given his innate ability to give up the long ball . Nothing but small parks in the AL East.

They seem determined to add an OF with a bat.
Rumours on Micheal Brantley. George Springer.
Good gets.
Four real outfielders in there and you can hedge against an injury.

The big jewel is Francisco Lindor.
This is Robbie Alomar.
I know both he and Bichette play SS.. but damn we can find a place for BIchette to play if they can swing Lindor.

They need more pitching. Everybody needs more pitching. Just like you can never be too thin... have too much money.. or have too much beer ... you can never have too much pitching in MLB and the AL East.

They could use a catcher. Danny Jansen isn't the answer so far. The other idiot was caught spanking it in a parking lot. Kirk is a rookie but has promise.
If they can upgrade on Jansen then I am all for it. Alejandro Kirk remains the backup. He can hit which makes up for his handling of pitchers.

So....

SP we have Ryu, Ray, Pearson, and three spots to fill. Maybe Manoah gets the call this year from Double AA.
BP is solid... Romano, Dolis, Kay, Cole , Boruki (who can start and is a lefty)
C is Jansen/Upgrade and Kirk
1B is Rowdy/Vladdy.
2B is Bichette/Biggio
SS is Lindor(my dream) / Bichette
3B is Vladdy / Travis Shaw / Biggio.....Could use a bat here if its better than Shaws or just play Biggio at the hot corner to improve infield defense. We sucked last year at this team stat.
Corner OF - Teoscar and Guriel
CF - Grichuk / Springer or Brantley or ?

Utility INF Espinal

Its getting there... Excited for Spring Training.

[planetmars]

Heard this Springer guy is pretty good. Big get for the Jays. Hope it works out for them.

[Mack North]

Heard this Springer guy is pretty good. Big get for the Jays. Hope it works out for them.

And now Michael Brantley... just need 1 more SP and we're on our way!

[Demographic Shift]

So Brantley’s agent, bless his heart , shopped the Jays deal back to Houston who either matched or raised their offer. He’s proud to be an Astro.
2yrs / 32m$.
the Deandre Jordan shuffle.

still apparently in the hunt for Trevor Bauer and the catcher Realmutto.

[Demographic Shift]

Heard this Springer guy is pretty good. Big get for the Jays. Hope it works out for them.

He is really good.
He can go get it in CF and he can hit for average and power.
We have 4 OF now and that’s great cuz someone is going to get hurt during the year.

I wonder if they are even going to give Vladdy a chance at 3rd or just move him to first with Telez and play them as interchangeable DH and 1st. Vladdy is manos de piedra in the field.

If that’s the case then maybe they try to get Kris Bryant via trade from the Cubs to play third.
He is coming off a mixed year.


Pitching is the question mark.
All the mid rotation guys are gone and it sounds like the price tag on Bauer is 35M$ and probably 5 years minimum.
Pretty steep. These deals rarely work well for the signing teams.

Lots of good players to fit into the roster. We haven’t seen that since the days of the bat flip.
Excited to see the final product In spring training in about a month give or take.

[Demographic Shift]

Two seasons ago fly balls to the outfield were an adventure.
With the signing of Springer that problem has been addressed.
Springer will turn doubles into outs and shorten innings where we gave up crooked numbers.

We picked up a flyer in reliever Kirby Yates who was lights out a couple years back before surgery. If he is over that (last year he stunk) then our bullpen is gets deeper and we will need that if we don't get another SP.

Just like you can't be rich enough or thin enough or have enough beer for the boys weekend at the lake you can not have enough pitching.
Right now we have Ryu , Robbie Ray, The Phenom Nate Pearson, Tanner Rourke and Ross Stripling.
We signed Tyler Chatwood who is the 6th starter. Next up might be ALex Manoah who we drafted two years ago and has had success in the minors.
Unfortunately its not enough.
Trevor Bauer is likely out of our snack bracket but there are a few other mid rotation players still out there like Jake Oddirizi and the Canadian James Paxson who can add depth ... if we miss out.... then our bullpen is going to get a workout and a half.

Still excited to see these guys in April. They are going to be good.