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OT: The Toronto Blue Jays

MyNameIsJonas said:
The k-rate is alarming, really really alarming.

The power is real, but he's going to miss a lot of pitches and swing at a lot of garbage.

It's eerie how similar he profiles to Grichuk, minus the plus D.

That's not to say he can't figure it out and drop the K-rate to a more suitable number 25% maybe, for a power hitter, but until he shows it i have to assume he hasn't done it, and having a guy k 40% of the time is not very ideal, regardless of the power.
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Part of it is that he is what he is. Like, we shouldn't expect him to be an all-star, but if he can play as a serviceable OF, I'll take it.
 
I was looking at a number of stats splits today - this year, last year, last 2yrs, last calendar year, etc - and got to asking myself what would be my starting lineup right now, today, if everyone was 100% healthy.

After going back and forth a bunch of times I settled on this:

(I'll use their "Last 2 calendar years" stats for display purposes only - wrc+ and war650)

1.LF Granderson - 115 / +3.2
2.3B Donaldson -- 151 / +6.6
3.1B Smoak ------ 120 / +2.6
4.DH Pearce ----- 119 / +2.3
5.RF Hernandez -- 115 / +1.8
6.SS Diaz ------- 108 / +2.3
7.2B Solarte ---- 106 / +2.5
8.C Martin ------ 103 / +2.9
9.CF Pillar ----- 86 / +2.4

UT Travis 95 / +2.4
OF Grichuk 93 / +2.1
IF Tulowitzki 98 / +2.6
C Maile 40 / -0.2

X Morales 105 / 0.2


Now before overreacting to that lineup, note that that bench is ridiculously awesome. It's no insult to them to be on the bench for TODAY.

Also note that best lineup for TODAY is different than best lineup for THIS SEASON. E.g. i'm not sure that teoscar will always be the best option, but i think he definitely is right now.

Also note that most of the starters there aren't guys you can or should want to be playing every day, so bench duty here isn't exactly bench duty.

Not to mention that a truly healthy travis and tulo are probably much better than their recent stats suggest....but even then, Diaz and Solarte on the bench would be pretty awesome too. If it turns out that teoscar can't hit breaking balls either, then he and grichuk could be in a tight battle going forward....and another interesting possibility would be grichuk in CF if his and pillar's hitting regresses back to normal.

The funny thing is, even with a longterm injury to Tulo, i still don't think there's a spot for Kendrys. Only happens if we think Solarte can legit back up SS - otherwise a ngoepe/espinosa has to be on the roster instead. Though if Solarte can handle SS even a bit, then i would rather have morales on the bench than those guys.

Also, Jansen coming up midseason or sooner seems inevitable.


And the last thing to note is that, damn, that is a pretty good looking offensive team right there.
 
I think you'd still run a healthy Tulo/Travis ahead of Diaz/Solarte, but I can understand how they're all virtually interchangeable parts. As are Grichuk/Teoscar. But yeah, it really goes to show how bad Morales really is. I don't mind having Morales in against lefties, but you can't keep a guy on your bench who can only hit against lefties and can't field or run if their life counted on it.

But yeah, the cool part of the lineup is that it's full of ~2.5ish WAR guys, plus JD (and Smoak is looking real again this year, so his current true talent is probably more of a 3.5 WAR guy like he was last year), which really isn't a bad thing to run out there. Especially if we are kind of the same for starting rotation (a bunch of average guys with 1-2 guys with legit star upside). It's not the sexy lineup full of power hitters, but also nice to not have too many black holes in the lineup on an average game.

The real flaw is with the "stars and scrubs" model is that, like now, when JD is missing, the lineup really doesn't impress you. We still can use another stick in the lineup - would have been nice if Grichuk could have come with some offense to play him the occasional game in CF to give Pillar some more time off.
 
I don't expect Diaz to hit. Outside of the power he's done very little so far this season. A .256OPB (.290 last season) doesn't cut it for me when you play below average defense.

Also, I would give Grichuk one more week or so of full playing time. At the 20-25 game mark you can evaluate. An issue with Grichuk is that he has no options and he's a Shatkins guy. He will have a long leash likely.

On another note -- the rain-outs are happening at the perfect time. Less actual games missed by JD.

Not to be an alarmist, but Smoak has looked like shit lately.
 
Alarmist would be putting it mild.

Finding a way to complain about Diaz is astounding.

I like OBP too, but you can be an effective ball player without it.

He was brought in to be a Goins/BArney upgrade and he's looked exactly that in spades.

LOL at the 25 game mark too.

They say don't look at standings until the end of May, really should apply to a player as well.
 
All of the new guys seem to be responding to a manager who brings out the best in most players. I guess Shatkins know what they have in Gibby and try and find players that haven't gotten a proper opportunity or are being eased out in other orgs. All I know is that so far, and yeah, its way early, Solarte, both Diaz's, and Grunderson have been stunning surprises.

Just wait till Travis starts hitting, wheeeee.
 
MyNameIsJonas said:
Alarmist would be putting it mild.

Finding a way to complain about Diaz is astounding.

I like OBP too, but you can be an effective ball player without it.

He was brought in to be a Goins/BArney upgrade and he's looked exactly that in spades.

LOL at the 25 game mark too.

They say don't look at standings until the end of May, really should apply to a player as well.
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"Astounding" eh. That's pretty dramatic dude. Also, no reason to "LOL". Esp. at your age. You should be beyond that acronym by now.

Outside of the power he's been bad. If JD is hurt for a long period, you'll start to feel the need for more offence from the infield.

Here is a link to his stats. If you removed the slugging, he's been shit. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/diazal02.shtml

He needs to be better defensively if he's not gonna hit.
 
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I'll take a 136 wRC+ from an average-ish defensive SS any day. No, he's not going to keep hitting 28% of his FB out of the park, but he'll also presumably someday draw a walk, and won't keep running a .179 BABIP.
 
UWHabs said:
I'll take a 136 wRC+ from an average-ish defensive SS any day. No, he's not going to keep hitting 28% of his FB out of the park, but he'll also presumably someday draw a walk, and won't keep running a .179 BABIP.
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It's a better bet that his good numbers will come down, while his bad numbers stay the same or just increase slightly.

This guy was shit all of last season at the dish.

Debating about Diaz is silly, but he's not a good hitter. Let's not pretend that he is. If JD is hurt long-term, we will need more offence from the infield.

Lets not start loving Diaz like everyone online loved Goins the last 2 years. They are both shit.
 
CaptainBolduke said:
It's a better bet that his good numbers will come down, while his bad numbers stay the same or just increase slightly.

This guy was shit all of last season at the dish.

Debating about Diaz is silly, but he's not a good hitter. Let's not pretend that he is. If JD is hurt long-term, we will need more offence from the infield.

Lets not start loving Diaz like everyone online loved Goins the last 2 years. They are both shit.
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did Diaz sleep with your sister?
 
Game might be cancelled tonight due to an issue with ice and the roof.

These cancelled games are happening at a very optimal time. It would be great if Donaldson only misses 4-6 actual games.
 
CaptainBolduke said:
Game might be cancelled tonight due to an issue with ice and the roof.

These cancelled games are happening at a very optimal time. It would be great if Donaldson only misses 4-6 actual games.
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If they cancel the game today, they'll just schedule a double-header for tomorrow or Wednesday, given that KC isn't back in TO this year. So this one won't help him, but yeah, losing the weekend games isn't that bad to save a couple days of his DL stint.
 
UWHabs said:
If they cancel the game today, they'll just schedule a double-header for tomorrow or Wednesday, given that KC isn't back in TO this year. So this one won't help him, but yeah, losing the weekend games isn't that bad to save a couple days of his DL stint.
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Maybe tomorrow's get cancelled too! We can hope.
 
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