Blue Jays Discussion: It's here! it's here! it's here! it's here! Baseball season begins!(WARNING:post 728)

[Edo]

It's counterproductive to have Sanchez in the bullpen and not starting. The offense is strong enough here where you won't need to have 4 great arms in the bull pen to close a game out. There won't be enough innings for everybody.

This insane overrating of bullpens needs to end already. Not really sure how you can rely on a guy that's had as many surgeries as Floyd to be able to put together anything more than 130-150 innings.

Once we get into October, we'll need Sanchez to start anyway. I guess it also doesn't really matter where he starts in April as long as he is starting in October.

 

[Brown Dog]

I hope they put him in the rotation. I don't think there's much of a downside. If it works, great you got a starter, if not, you know what he can do in the pen.

With the spring he's had, I don't see how he hasn't at least earned April to show his stuff in the regular season.

Good point. I still love the idea of a Sanchez-Cecil-Storen-Osuna bullpen though.

 

[Brown Dog]

Anybody know when they shuffle injured guys (ie, Travis) to the DL?

 

[ShaneFalco]

Good news regarding Tulo.

As for Sanchez, it shouldn't even be a debate at this point. He's been arguably the best starter in pre-season, and he is part of the nucleus of the future. Even if he and Floyd had comparable performances in Dunedin, you still give the edge to Sanchez for that reason.

Our pen is strong enough without him, and our starting rotation is much better with him. Floyd will get his chance at some point with the inevitable injuries to starters throughout the season.

This!

 

[Diamond Joe Quimby]

He has but keep him on a short leash. If he struggles with control a stint in the minors can do him good. He reminds me of Chris Archer early on. Such good stuff, little control. But I have faith in him.

Chris Archer is a tremendous example, and has been used around these parts in the past to defend Sanchez's possible future as a starter (in spite of his BB/9 and K/BB in the upper minors). Should be noted that when the light came on for Archer, he was 25 years old. The Dirty won't be 24 until July.

Also of note; do you know who drafted Chris Archer....Mark Shapiro.

 

[Kurtz]

It's counterproductive to have Sanchez in the bullpen and not starting. The offense is strong enough here where you won't need to have 4 great arms in the bull pen to close a game out. There won't be enough innings for everybody.

I don't get this point. Our offense has little to do with how many innings will be available for our pitchers. And given that our starting rotation is looking to be rather average, we should have ample innings available for our pen.

 

[Woodman19]

Not sure if there are anyone here who plays it. But I got OOTP 17 the other day and in my first blind Simulation for 2016 the Jays made it to the world series and lost to the Dodgers in 6 games.

 

[phillipmike]

Not sure if there are anyone here who plays it. But I got OOTP 17 the other day and in my first blind Simulation for 2016 the Jays made it to the world series and lost to the Dodgers in 6 games.

With AA giving Shapiro a Stone Cold Stunner in front of the crowd while downing some beers.

 

[phillipmike]

"Also from Nightengale’s piece, he notes that the Reds were willing to pay roughly $8MM of Jay Bruce’s $12.5MM salary as part of the abandoned three-team trade that would’ve sent Bruce to the Blue Jays, Michael Saunders to the Angels and prospects to Cincinnati. It was expected that the Reds would have to eat some money in any Bruce deal, given that the outfielder is coming off two consecutive subpar seasons. Saunders is making $2.9MM in 2016, so adding Bruce would’ve cost Toronto around $1.6MM in extra salary (not counting the $1MM buyout of Bruce’s $13MM club option for 2017)."

Makes a lot of sense now. I prefer to pay Bruce 4.5M than Saunders 2.9M. Or 5.5M if you buy him out (4.5M in 2016 and 1.0M in 2017) or pick up his option for 2017 at 13M... Good insurance with Bautista and Saunders as free agents.

Hopefully Saunders can stay healthy, if not i would definitely be interested in Bruce if Saunders starts sucking. Gives you insurance in 2017.

 

[Diamond Joe Quimby]

Jeff Blair was having some fun fear mongering this morning after the Tulo misreported death yesterday. His question: Who is the most irreplaceable Blue Jay in 2016? My answer...

Pitcher: 1. Stro-Show 2. The rest
Position Player: 1. Martin 2. Donaldson 3. Tulo

If Travis was healthy, then Tulo wouldn't be as close to those two. Martin may be the clear cut #1.

 

[phillipmike]

Jeff Blair was having some fun fear mongering this morning after the Tulo misreported death yesterday. His question: Who is the most irreplaceable Blue Jay in 2016? My answer...

Pitcher: 1. Stro-Show 2. The rest
Position Player: 1. Martin 2. Donaldson 3. Tulo

If Travis was healthy, then Tulo wouldn't be as close to those two. Martin may be the clear cut #1.

I agree with this 100%. Our three best two-way players, can be elite with the bat and glove when looking at their position's production. I got Stro-show and Sanchez for pitching - if they are good then we will be golden. I think we will get mediocre years out of Happ and Estrada which is fine - maybe some injury time from them. I think Dickey will go nuts this year in a contract yeah just to prove me wrong. Got over his injury and will get his guy Thole every start.

 

[Suntouchable13]

Martin by far is the most irreplaceable position player. If he gets hurt and misses significant time, then we have Thole catching every day? Yikes!

 

[Canada4Gold]

Makes a lot of sense now. I prefer to pay Bruce 4.5M than Saunders 2.9M. Or 5.5M if you buy him out (4.5M in 2016 and 1.0M in 2017) or pick up his option for 2017 at 13M... Good insurance with Bautista and Saunders as free agents.

Hopefully Saunders can stay healthy, if not i would definitely be interested in Bruce if Saunders starts sucking. Gives you insurance in 2017.

I wouldn't. Saunders has been really good this spring and Bruce is nowhere near the played he used to be. He's been a replacement level played the past 2 years, when Saunders has been playing he's been much better. Bruce hits a few homeruns and does pretty much nothing else... well that's unfair for me to say, he does strikeout a lot, that's something.

And there was reported that we were sending a prospect somewhere too, might not have been a good prospect but who knows.

And before you say you'd prefer to have some durability out there we have Pompey as an option should Saunders get hurt and I'd prefer him to Bruce as well, so it's not like it's Saunders or nothing vs. Bruce. Like I said Bruce has been a replacement level player, that means he can quite easily be replaced. So having to find someone to replace Saunders if he gets hurt isn't all that worse than Bruce considering replacement level players are readily available, and we have 1 young one down in the minors itching to get another shot, sure they won't hit 25 homeruns but they will be able to do other stuff that make them just as valuable as a HR or K Jay Bruce.

and a replacement level player isn't insurance for anything. Unless all you care about is homeruns.

I mean sure the deal is better with Bruce at 4.5, but I'm still glad it didn't go through.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Hopefully Edwin is fine by the time the season starts but if not I would love for Burns to get a shot.

 

[TootooTrain]

Good news

 

[Canada4Gold]

= good news

edit: beaten to it

 

[King Mapes]

Martin by far is the most irreplaceable position player. If he gets hurt and misses significant time, then we have Thole catching every day? Yikes!

Almost every team worries about their starting catcher being injured. Most backups are not very good.

 

[Diamond Joe Quimby]

Hopefully Edwin is fine by the time the season starts but if not I would love for Burns to get a shot.

C) Martin
1b) Smoaker
2b) GoGo
3b) Donaldson
SS) Tulo
LF) Saunders
CF) Pillar
RF) Bautista
DH) Bello

C) Thole
IF) Barney
OF) Lake\Cecilliani\#Zeke\Doodoo Brown
U) Burns

Makes sense. Edwin comes back, Burns goes down. DeVo comes back, I guess Barney goes down. That's of course, if all else remains equal (which literally never happens).

 

[Diamond Joe Quimby]

How I'd manage the staff.

SP) Stro-Show
SP) The Rugged Man
SP) Happ
SP) Floyd
SP) The Dirty

LR) Jesse's girl
MR) Leon
MR) Venditte
MR) Tepara\Delabar
SU) Cecil
SU) Osuna Matata
CL) Storen

Hutch to triple-A. Extended spring training for Estrada. When he's ready, I imagine Floyd's elbow would have exploded or Dickey would have succumbed to old age. In all seriousness, I would consider a six man rotation to aid in limiting innings for each of the starters early. If injuries do indeed occur, then shuffle accordingly with Chavez spot starting or Hutch coming up. By the end of the year, I predict the rotation will be Stroman, Sanchez, Happ, Marco, Hutch based on performance.

 

[dredeye]

Man did we ever dodge a bullet not re upping Jansen. Released of his minor league deal and bought out buy the nats

 

[Woodman19]

Man did we ever dodge a bullet not re upping Jansen. Released of his minor league deal and bought out buy the nats

Shocking how those of us saw his velocity vanish could predict this.

 

[TootooTrain]

Man did we ever dodge a bullet not re upping Jansen. Released of his minor league deal and bought out buy the nats

I was very very wrong about him. Although he did have a good start with the Nats, everything declined for him. Issues with his shoulder again. This might be it for him. Either way I enjoyed his tenure with the jays.

Shocking how those of us saw his velocity vanish could predict this.

He actually saw an uptick in his velocity when he joined the nats. ~83 to ~85mph. Still far away from his career norm though of 88-90.

 

[Suntouchable13]

Almost every team worries about their starting catcher being injured. Most backups are not very good.

But the thing is that Thole is especially terrible. His only use to us is to catch the knuckleball. Other teams I think have adequate backups. Thole is not one.

 

[Mach85]

Jeff Blair was having some fun fear mongering this morning after the Tulo misreported death yesterday. His question: Who is the most irreplaceable Blue Jay in 2016? My answer...

Pitcher: 1. Stro-Show 2. The rest
Position Player: 1. Martin 2. Donaldson 3. Tulo

If Travis was healthy, then Tulo wouldn't be as close to those two. Martin may be the clear cut #1.

I agree. Stroman by a mile, then Martin. One has to not only consider internal options, but scarcity and cost of going outside the organization to replace that asset. A top of the rotation pitcher is the hardest to replace, bar none. And this staff lacks high end talent as is. Starting catchers are also quite limited in number inherently, and those with Martin's overall value to a team even more so.

 

[jcollins]

How I'd manage the staff.

SP) Stro-Show
SP) The Rugged Man
SP) Happ
SP) Floyd
SP) The Dirty

LR) Jesse's girl
MR) Leon
MR) Venditte
MR) Tepara\Delabar
SU) Cecil
SU) Osuna Matata
CL) Storen

Hutch to triple-A. Extended spring training for Estrada. When he's ready, I imagine Floyd's elbow would have exploded or Dickey would have succumbed to old age. In all seriousness, I would consider a six man rotation to aid in limiting innings for each of the starters early. If injuries do indeed occur, then shuffle accordingly with Chavez spot starting or Hutch coming up. By the end of the year, I predict the rotation will be Stroman, Sanchez, Happ, Marco, Hutch based on performance.

I'd really like to see biagini in the pen somehow

Otherwise I like what you've got.