2019 Blue Jays Season Thread

[JBR]

Great sports night for me. Flames win... flip the channel... Oilers lose... flip the channel... Yankees sign Cole.

They'll pay him less annually than the combo of Jacoby Ellsbury and the soon to be departed J. A. Happ.

Somewhere, The Boss is smiling.

[Samonadreau]

Originally Posted by fleury

If getting SP's is a priority, I wonder how difficult it'd be to move the fences back to eliminate the bullpens? At least it'd be a sweetener for pitchers considering signing here to pad their stats a little, while also putting more pressure on opposing teams to have better fielders. I dunno. Seems pretty simple to me.

Then bats won't want to sign here.

[Roof-Daddy]

Yikes

Cole
Paxton
Tanaka
Severino

Chapman
Britton
Kahnle
Ottavino

Judge
LeMahieu
Sanchez
Voit
Urshela
Torres
Stanton
Tauchman

Christ, the Yankees could win 110 games next season.

[Parallex]

C'mon do something

[Harry Lime]

RHP Hyun-Jin Ryu Last years salary was 17.9
RHP Chase Anderson
RHP Trent Thornton
LHP Taiguan Walker Option was not picked up at 12.5
RHP Matt Shoemaker
LHP Anthony Kay
LHP Ryan Borucki
RHP Jacob Waguespack

One second level pitcher (Ryu would likely cost somewhere around 20/5) and a third level pitcher (Walker around 2/10 with a 3rd team option) would really stabilize the roster.

The problem is that the FA class next year is pretty weak. Best to lock up Ryu now, as next year he would represent the best FA equivalent.

Then you hope that Kay, Thornton or Borucki takes that next step, with Pearson and Smith-Richardson waiting in the wings. They can't afford to wait for what they think is their window, and lose a year of control on the rest of the team.

[Jiri Hrdina]

It may be whiney but I find baseball frustrating because of how the Yankees, and other teams can just spend their way to contention every year. It does not seem like an even playing field. And MLB doesn't care because as long as the big markets are healthy - the league is healthy

[Harry Lime]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

It may be whiney but I find baseball frustrating because of how the Yankees, and other teams can just spend their way to contention every year. It does not seem like an even playing field. And MLB doesn't care because as long as the big markets are healthy - the league is healthy

The Blue Jays have the deepest pockets in the league. This year, they have a tonne of room under the cap. They could be the Evil Empire, the Other that is outside of America. It's a great marketing tool, if they were willing to use it.

A good front office would have realized that they have a great batting lineup at a super cheap price for the next four years, and went out and got Cole and Ryu and a couple of big bullpen pieces. They have the capital.

Rogers is just the worst.

[Flamenspiel]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

It may be whiney but I find baseball frustrating because of how the Yankees, and other teams can just spend their way to contention every year. It does not seem like an even playing field. And MLB doesn't care because as long as the big markets are healthy - the league is healthy

Of course it comes down to if you are a Yankee fan or not. If you are a fan it’s great, there is no right or wrong about it. That being said, you still need to build the team, and Cole is icing on the cake. The Yanks avoided some very high priced free agents the last couple of years and now add the perfect piece at the perfect time. As Cashman said, they are once again a “..fully operational Death Star”.

It’s good to be a Yankee fan(since the 70s) when your other team(Flames)unfortunately cannot do the same thing.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

The Blue Jays have the deepest pockets in the league. This year, they have a tonne of room under the cap. They could be the Evil Empire, the Other that is outside of America. It's a great marketing tool, if they were willing to use it.

A good front office would have realized that they have a great batting lineup at a super cheap price for the next four years, and went out and got Cole and Ryu and a couple of big bullpen pieces. They have the capital.

Rogers is just the worst.

C'mon man.

The Yankees just paid Cole $324 million. The richest contract for a pitcher in history. How much more do you think it would take to get Cole to pick Toronto over New York?

The guy got his money AND signed with a team that won 107 games last year and is poised to destroy MLB for the next 3 to 5 years.

The Jays will have to have their young core prove they can be the nucleus of a winning team before any big name free agents will be willing to sign with them.

Blaming Rogers or Shatkins won't change any that.

[Parallex]

C'mon Harry... comparing Toronto to New York is cra-cra. The NY Yankee's have a Forbes evaluation of 4.5 Billion dollars (3x as much as the Jays) and a similar advantage in annual revenue.

I don't think there is any amount of success or spending that will triple the Jays revenue and valuation.

Having said that... DO SOMETHING ALREADY!

I mean really... for a team entering what should be the late stage of a rebuild a rotation of Anderson, Shoemaker, Borucki, Kay, & Zeuch/Waguespack is just blah. I'm not even asking for an Ace just a couple of guys that can take the ball every 5 days and deliver a league average performance.

[flames_fan_down_under]

You have young core of hitters that are making league minimum. This is the time to spend. Spend.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

It may be whiney but I find baseball frustrating because of how the Yankees, and other teams can just spend their way to contention every year. It does not seem like an even playing field. And MLB doesn't care because as long as the big markets are healthy - the league is healthy

Other teams spending a lot is annoying but the Yankees have truly spent their money very well. They made a very shrewd move with LeMahieu, 2 years at 24 million is dirt cheap, wisely spent some international pool money on Gary Sanchez, got Gio Urshela for basically nothing and turned him into a 3 WAR player, somehow got Gleyber Torres for Chapman then got Chapman back, drafted Aaron Judge. They have deep pockets but they built their team pretty damn effectively. Then they can use those deep pockets to get guys like James Paxton, acquire Giancarlo Stantons contract, and sign Gerrit Cole. They're the opposite of the NY Mets who spend a lot of money extremely poorly.

[Roof-Daddy]

lol, I feel like a broken record here guys.

How can they spend if none of the big names will sign with them?

You want them to give out terrible contracts just to say they've spent some money and done something?

I want them to improve as well, but I don't want them to hamstring themselves with terrible contracts so when an actual good opportunity comes up they can't do it without giving up assets to shed the bad contracts.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

lol, I feel like a broken record here guys.

How can they spend if none of the big names will sign with them?

You want them to give out terrible contracts just to say they've spent some money and done something?

I want them to improve as well, but I don't want them to hamstring themselves with terrible contracts so when an actual good opportunity comes up they can't do it without giving up assets to shed the bad contracts.

Right of course. Then don't head into the winter meetings literally saying they are after top tier pitching free agents and say that you have the flexibility to land high end players. Atkins said those things. So in my opinion, do it.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

Right of course. Then don't head into the winter meetings literally saying they are after top tier pitching free agents and say that you have the flexibility to land high end players. Atkins said those things. So in my opinion, do it.

Well yeah, but all they can do is make an offer, they can't force the player to accept it.

Just because they haven't signed any high priced top tier free agent starting pitchers doesn't mean they haven't tried to.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Well yeah, but all they can do is make an offer, they can't force the player to accept it.

Just because they haven't signed any high priced top tier free agent starting pitchers doesn't mean they haven't tried to.

You're right, Shapiro, Atkins and Montoyo are trying but it's not bearing any fruit.

Unfortunately from my perspective this front office needs a win.

If I am a season ticket holder who was paying $645 in 2014 to now paying $1813 for the same tickets; after just the seeing them put up 67 wins and the 5th worst record in the league, trot out a 50-60 million dollar team, with a spare parts pitching staff and Derek Fisher in the outfield I would likely be spending my money elsewhere.

Signing or acquiring good players who are known commodities with fans makes people want to go see games.

Despite the Philies not making the playoffs last year and Bryce Harper only being less than great their attendance went up 26%, simply because they signed Harper.

[Harry Lime]

Ok, ok, fair enough. Cole and Strasberg might be off the table from the beginning, but they can still go out and overpay Keuchel and Ryu by a couple million each. Keuchel has a massive chip on his shoulder, and international players actually like Toronto.

All I'm really saying is that they do not have to act like they are a budget team. They arn't. Be smart with your money, yes. Don't pay for position players that arn't homegrown, but it's a reality that you do have to pull in pitchers from trade or free agency. There are not enough high end pitchers to go around the league.

Be inventive. If the Red Sox weren't in the division, go after Price at half salary. He's not a top of the rotation guy anymore, but he can hold down a three spot, and is a good rebound candidate.

Do something.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

You're right, Shapiro, Atkins and Montoyo are trying but it's not bearing any fruit.

Unfortunately from my perspective this front office needs a win.

If I am a season ticket holder who was paying $645 in 2014 to now paying $1813 for the same tickets; after just the seeing them put up 67 wins and the 5th worst record in the league, trot out a 50-60 million dollar team, with a spare parts pitching staff and Derek Fisher in the outfield I would likely be spending my money elsewhere.

Signing or acquiring good players who are known commodities with fans makes people want to go see games.

Despite the Philies not making the playoffs last year and Bryce Harper only being less than great their attendance went up 26%, simply because they signed Harper.

That's probably why after they continue to whiff on all the big names we end up seeing some combination of Smoak, Edwin, Happ (trade) and Price (trade) brought in.

Name recognition from the playoff teams for the fan base to snuggle up to, while at the same time actually adding wins to the roster for a fair price. (That's assuming they don't take on full salaries in trades for those pitchers and also don't give up anything of value).

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

You have young core of hitters that are making league minimum. This is the time to spend. Spend.

Well... Strasberg & Cole were never gonna sign with Toronto (I'd have liked Wheeler thou). But I think the most appropriate time to spend a big stack on a free agent pitcher is (hopefully) after Pearson arrives so not next season but the season after. I think you get a home grown #1 and then blow a stack signing a 2nd #1 level pitcher. In the meantime I think the Jays should make a pitch to Vlad Jr. on a extension. Lock him up for the rest of his pre-arb/arbitration eligible years and a few free agent years thereafter (and hopefully do the same for Bo next offseason). It's a bit of a risk but if they do that now they can have some extra payroll and hopefully extend the next window for a few years longer.

I just want them to sign some shorter term guys now so we can have some more competitive baseball in the interim.

[Jason14h]

Jays are 3 year from needing an ace in FA

Realistically they need to finish bottom 3 for another 2 years

This issue is there are a lot of other bad teams. Sign a bunch of bullpen guys to overpriced 1 year deals and trade them at the deadline

I wish they had taken in Cozart and got a top prospect like SF did

We are no where near competing