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OT: The Toronto Blue Jays

Jon Morosi
While Troy Tulowitzki has been officially ruled out for Opening Day, #BlueJays believe he could return before April is over. @MLBNetwork @MLB
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So, I'm guessing June-ish is when he gets back on the field?
 
At least some good news:
Buster Olney

Hearing repeated 5-star reviews from evaluators about the spring work of the Jays' Aaron Sanchez, who has shown no signs of the blister issue that plagued him last year.
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I am not a baseball expert but Morales seemed to produce somewhat. Why the large hate. I loved and adored Encarnacion, is it just the irreplaceable hole, he left?
 
Iknowenuff said:
I am not a baseball expert but Morales seemed to produce somewhat. Why the large hate. I loved and adored Encarnacion, is it just the irreplaceable hole, he left?
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The Morales hate has a few causes. First, Morales sucks. Using WAR, he is barely replacement level. I think when we signed him he had exactly one season where he had a WAR over 1.0. So he's just not that good at baseball, relative to your average major leaguer. Second, it was an idiotic contract where Shatkins grossly misread the market. They signed him super early on in FA, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there were countless players of a similar skill-set who were available for much cheaper. Third, he was the replacement for EE, which leaves more sour grapes. Fourth, signing him was just idiotic asset management because he cannot play in the field. Managers are getting smart and moving away from full-time DHes with few, obvious exceptions (someone like Papi in Boston). So not only can Morales not play in the field, but our team of old, run down veterans are no longer able to have days where they play as DH, so we keep their bats in the line up but reduce the strain on their body. And given our roster composition, lots of old folks and a bunch of platoons, it was exceedingly stupid to remove that flexibility from Gibby. Fifth, the value for money is really atrocious. There are a handful of other contracts awarded in the same offseason to corner IF/DHs, where they got paid a lot less, over less term, and produced the same or better results. So it is more or less a failure on all fronts. At least if you're going to miss, miss on a one year contract.

Points five and two may be the same, but I think that captures the gist of it
 
Wayward DP said:
The Morales hate has a few causes. First, Morales sucks. Using WAR, he is barely replacement level. I think when we signed him he had exactly one season where he had a WAR over 1.0. So he's just not that good at baseball, relative to your average major leaguer. Second, it was an idiotic contract where Shatkins grossly misread the market. They signed him super early on in FA, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there were countless players of a similar skill-set who were available for much cheaper. Third, he was the replacement for EE, which leaves more sour grapes. Fourth, signing him was just idiotic asset management because he cannot play in the field. Managers are getting smart and moving away from full-time DHes with few, obvious exceptions (someone like Papi in Boston). So not only can Morales not play in the field, but our team of old, run down veterans are no longer able to have days where they play as DH, so we keep their bats in the line up but reduce the strain on their body. And given our roster composition, lots of old folks and a bunch of platoons, it was exceedingly stupid to remove that flexibility from Gibby. Fifth, the value for money is really atrocious. There are a handful of other contracts awarded in the same offseason to corner IF/DHs, where they got paid a lot less, over less term, and produced the same or better results. So it is more or less a failure on all fronts. At least if you're going to miss, miss on a one year contract.

Points five and two may be the same, but I think that captures the gist of it
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good summary

one thing to emphasis that if he could hit like big papi (or even edwing) it might be not quite as bad
as a straight DH you better be one of the best hitters in baseball...morales is not
 
Jonas Jays Predictions

1) Either via trade or injury, Anthony Alford steals the CF job from Kevin Pillar by mid June
2) Either via trade or injury, Teoscar Hernandez steals the Granderson platoon partner job from Steve Pearce
3) John Axford and Tyler Clippard claim the 2 pen spots out of camp
4) Axford pitches well, but Clippards reverse splits don't pan out so good and the Jays feel the need for a 2nd lefty which leads to
a) Aaron Loup being overworked
b) Jaime Garcia losing his job in the rotation to someone pitching really well in AAA ( McGuire, Bouricki, Biagini, Pannone, Guerrei) and becoming the 2nd lefty in the pen down the stretch
5) 3/5 Jays SP will have DL stints
6) Kendrys Morales has a better season but is still kinda bad overall, and fans clamour for.....
7) Rowdy Tellez who, due to it being his 2nd season in AAA and potentially seeing a lot more fastballs in a stacked lineup, has a re-surgent year and is back on the map as a prospect
8) Morales loses many DH PA to Solarte, who also fills in at 3B, 2B, SS, LF, RF over the course of the season, and enters a ton of games as a replacement he doesn't start in.
9) Gift Ngeope becomes a favourite of John Gibbons and ends up leading the Jays in SS appearances, because Tulo is broken, and Diaz doesn't hit enough to pass on Gift's glove and speed.
10) Devon Travis is reasonably healthy and has a nice season
11) Randal Grichuk is basically a really good version of Rasmus. More power, better baserunning, and better glove, but K's too much and struggles to get on base.
12) Luke Maile is not as bad as last year and is fine as a backup C, but if he's replaced or if Martin goes on the DL, Reese McGuire passes Danny Jansen as the callup because of his defence.
13) Joe Biagini struggles as a SP in AAA and is converted back as a RP
14) Danny Barnes and Ryan Tepera potentially struggle as they ate alot of IP last season, but Axford and Oh are quite good.
15) Jays win 84 games and are in the second wild card mix with LAA, MIN and OAK, don't sell, but also don't buy.

Non Jays related

1) Surprise teams in each league are Oakland and Cincinatti, both teams can rake, and I think their pitching improves internally. Neither make the playoffs but both finish in and around 500
2) The White Sox and Rays aren't as bad as you think they are
3) The Royals, Tigers, Orioles and Marlins sure are.
4) Philly and Atlanta make strides but prove to be a year away
5) Texas, San Fransisco, Seattle and St Louis all underperform and by seasons end all fire their managers
 
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