Ananas

Paying a fortune to be .500 and knee-cap the Mariners. As a bitter Jays fan I can get behind this.

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I could kind of understand if it happened the other way around because of LA and the genuine problem with gang colours at the ballpark, but this is pathetic. If the Jays were to do that they'd break the bank giving out free merch every time the Yankees come to town.

Clayton Kershaw through 8 scoreless innings (7k, 0bb, 3h), bats for himself to lead off the bottom of the 8th and breaks the scoreless deadlock with a solo shot to dead center. I missed you, baseball.

I know we all know it and it's just beating a redundant point, but since I've been deprived of him for the better part of 6 months it really warrants pointing out that Vin Scully is just the best.

All the bravado of a man who must surely think it's still the year 2000.

TMZ has come down off of their original story: They've gone from "death rites", to "medical coma" to "sleeping". They got played, and I hope they get raked over the coals for reporting what every other news agency had the decency to be suspicious of. Classic case of being first instead of being right.

It's not just that you lose the #11 pick though. If they're intending on spending to the cap (and the 5% leeway above they get without being punished with lost picks) they're also losing a lot of their spending pool by losing their top pick. So you lose your top pick, and then you can spend marginally less to sign picks beyond that. I just don't get it for a team highly unlikely to compete in the NL East for at least the next two years. I don't think Michael Bourn really puts them that close to being in the conversation.

They wouldn't necessarily have to have either/or. Fenway has both.

The BBWAA voted no one into the Hall of Fame this year. Safe to say enough "protest" blank ballots from brave writers who want to make themselves the story. Seriously, fuck off. It's so incredibly petty to not only decline to vote for someone you don't think deserving, but also submit a ballot to punish everyone. They want to punish Bonds and Clemens because they're all pious and they're willing to overlook the fact that they're two of the greatest baseball players of all time. So Piazza and Bagwell are not Hall of Famers basically because they're muscular? Ugh.

If it is half as thorough and addictive as OOTP, I am going to lose many, many hours to this game.

The sad thing is how the Braves really don't seem to understand why there's anything wrong with this.

Bodog has the Jays over/under for wins at 92.5 in 2013. I might just lay down some money on the under to guarantee myself a silver lining one way or another in early October.

The "prospects" in the deal are Nickeas from the Mets ("prospect") and Wuilmer Becerra (17 year old IFA signing from Venezuela, intriguing but a lottery ticket at this point). Dickey's deal is reported to be the 2/25 he was asking the Mets for, and there is an option for a 4th at 12m although we don't know at this point whether it's a player or team option (and I don't believe AA has ever given a player option so I would lean towards team). You look at the sum total of the deal and I'd say Mets "win" if it's about future value, it's an overpay if you include a major league ready prospect, a High-A high upside starter in Syndergaard and an interesting toolsy 17 year old OF in Becerra. But short term it's totally justifiable for the Blue Jays. You've just bumped Ricky Romero, a top 5 draft pick and 2011 All-Star, to the 5 spot in your rotation. You've got a rotation where 4 guys have been All-Stars and the only one who hasn't (Morrow) may end up being the best of the bunch. It's rotational depth, coupled with a balanced line-up that makes the Jays one of if not the on-paper favourites in the AL East. If only we played those pesky games on paper.

Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star reporting that the Blue Jays and R.A. Dickey have agreed to an extension, and pending a physical the final deal should be unveiled reasonably soon. The deal being reported is D'Arnaud, Syndergaard, Buck and a non-major prospect for Dickey, Thole and a non-major prospect. The Mets did well if true.

It's not 2 extra years, it's one year. Whether the Jays extend him immediately is immaterial, the Mets are trading one year of control. Travis D'Arnaud is an unproven prospect sure, he's also essentially major league ready as soon as they're confident he's completely healthy (and none of his injuries are in any way related). If you're doing probabilities, the likelihood of Travis D'Arnaud producing less value over the next 6 seasons than Dickey over the one year of control the Mets are giving up is fairly low. It's the kind of overpay that teams who think they have a chance to win a pennant can make (and the Jays would seemingly appear to consider themselves one of those teams), and I would agree that D'Arnaud for Dickey straight up is acceptable of you believe the Jays chances to be that good, but D'Arnaud for Dickey would be a very good return for the Mets.

I'm torn about a package including both Gose and D'Arnaud. It'd be depressing if the sum total of return for Roy Halladay was 1 year of control over Dickey (even if they extend him immediately, all they're acquiring is one year from the Mets). I don't have much hope for Drabek at this point, and those two are definitely the most exciting offensive prospects left in the system. I can talk myself into accepting D'Arnaud and a low-minors high upside guy like Roberto Osuna or Noah Syndergaard. I can even fathom throwing Rasmus in the deal and living with Gose's rawness for now while dreaming on the bat getting there. It would be tough to see both those kids in the deal without getting another upgrade (Ike Davis or Daniel Murphy being the most obvious fits). But whatever, YOLO and Flags Fly Forever and whatever such nonsense we tell ourselves to get over the prospect porn addiction.

Oh dear. It's gonna be one of those AA trades.

Honestly if JP Arencibia is an upgrade over Josh Thole it's pretty marginal. Gose is toolsy but still surprisingly raw for a Triple A player. It does seem light. Wouldn't be surprised if there was an arm in there too. Can't see D'Arnaud in the deal though. Too big league ready to move for 1 year of control.

Yep. Trout's at 1 year and 70 days of service time, so assuming he doesn't suddenly forget he's Mike Trout and needs 121 or more days in the minors over the next 5 seasons he and Hamilton will reach FA eligibility at the end of 2017. Of course based on recent trends every player in Major League Baseball will be playing in California by 2017 and it won't make a difference.

Or better yet they could just not be cheap shits and give Dickey what he's asking for which really isn't much to begin with.

I'd say "Your move, Texas", but how many moves are actually left? They struck out on Greinke, couldn't retain Napoli or Hamilton, got blown out of the water by the Royals for Shields, haven't been able to make any headway on Justin Upton. Do they overspend for Dickey? Surely not if the price is Profar.

Hey, a Kemp/Hamilton platoon would be Godly.

Are we all in agreement that next year's AL East will have the greatest single division assemblage of talent in modern baseball history? The Jays spent funny money to bring almost all of the good Marlins plus Melky, the Red Sox added Napoli and Victorino and seem to be aiming at adding pitching, the Orioles' decline is likely to be minor given a full season of Manny Machado and the inevitable starting debut of Dylan Bundy, the Rays just added the best power prospect in baseball who is MLB ready while picking up an above average shortstop and have the depth to replace Shields respectably, and the Yankees are still the Yankees. This division is nuckin futs.

The Rays have traded James Shields, Wade Davis and a PTBNL to the Royals for Wil Myers, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery and Humberto Arteaga. Holy shit that's a high price tag for Shields.