Blue Jays Discussion: Winter Meetings: Because there's no more fitting time to talk baseball than December

[Habaneros]

Where did Hutch go? Did I miss something.

Do you expect him to be in the starting rotation opening day 2016?

 

[Fantomas]

Here is why i got a bad feeling .

David Price went 9-1 for the Jays....Mark Buehrle went 15-8.
Buehrle and Price combined went 24-9 for the Jays. Then throw in Hutchison at 13-5.
Those 3 all combined went 37W-14W

There all gone....


David Price (replacement) = Marcus Stroman
I love Stro but ,he has thrown only 157 total career innings in his short reg season career .
He could go 15-8 or 16 -8 this year and that likely means Jays miss the playoffs........

Happ and Chavez? will be lucky if those 2 together equal a 500 record
Does anyone here think Happ and Chavez combined will go 28W and 13L like Buehrle and Hutch did???

This is where the Jays are in trouble...Jays finished 6 ahead of the pack in a WEAKER than normal division.
Boston bolsters there roster for the farewell to Ortiz season .....The Jays with the current rotation will be lucky to fight for a wildcard...

This is an extremely bad post.

 

[Bad News Benning]

Well if we're arguing who's the better DH, I'd almost give the edge to Eddy but both are neck and neck when it comes to many offensive categories aside from walks which Jose had more of than strikeouts this year. Even though Jose has declined in the field, he can atleast play the position. Plus whatever weight you put into team dynamics, ie being one of the clear leaders here. It's a tough decision if you had to pick one of the two to carry on with in terms of an extension. I hope we go deep into the playoffs again this upcoming year so that coming back is an easier choice for them rather than cashing in big. As naive as that sounds. Either way I have no issue if either decides to walk even though it will suck from a fan perspective. They both took big time team discounts last time around. Unless we go all the way, I don't expect them to do the same again.

I simply see Jose's body standing up longer than Eddy. Eddy has had numerous issues over the past few years and doesn't seem as dedicated to his body as Jose is.

It's nice to think a player will want to play here and take less but the bottom line is that these guys will go wherever the money takes them.

I don't see both of them leaving because that would be a PR nightmare given what happened with Price. Jays will simply choose one of them, and find a cheaper alternative to replace the other (alford, tellez? or a cheaper left handed bat on the free agent/trade market)

 

[KuleminFan41]

It's the Wins record that gets you to the playoffs....

What the Jays lost and what they replaced it with the Jays are goona be on the outside looking in....and the scary part for me ?
If the Jays are 3-4 games out of a wildcard at the trade deadline ? (New management)There so bent on protecting the minor league talent and building the minors up,they won't part with anything at the deadline ....They likely trade both Eddie and Jose to bolster the farm up ....."For the years to come".....

That's not how it works at all. If pitcher A goes 9 innings only allowing 1 run, while his counter part pitcher B goes 6 innings giving up 0 runs and the game ends 1-0 , did pitcher A have a bad game? ERA is the more important stat. Felix Hernandez won a cy young award with 13 wins and 12 losses ERA of 2.27, he beat out David Price who had 19 wins and 6 losses ERA of 2.72

Starting pitchers give their team a chance at winning. Sometimes, pitchers get no decisions but the team ends up winning, thats part of their job. A pitcher cannot influence a win , thats on the offence

 

[Longshot]

Do you expect him to be in the starting rotation opening day 2016?

Right now Hutch is the 5th starter.

Everybody seems to forget last year was Hutch's second full season in the big leagues. He's under club control. He's 25. The Jays aren't going to run him out of town (barring a trade). They're going to give him a chance to work out his issues.

Right now, Chavez is a swingman/insurance policy.

 

[Habaneros]

W's are not what you judge pitchers by....but if you want to use W's...well Hutch won 13 games with a 5.50 ERA. Pitching to the tune of a 4.00 ERA should get you 15-20 wins with this offense.

Go look at the box scores from David Price starts and tell me which games he won us by himself? We really didn't need an ace in the majority of those games...we just needed quality starts which we will get from Happ, Estrada, Dickey, Chavez, etc.

If your offense scores 5 runs a game and you have a great defense you don't need elite pitching. The jays also happen to have the best base running team in baseball. Simply being average in pitching department will be good enough to get this team in the playoffs.

Jays won't take nobody by surprise this year at the plate...
Most teams now have a better understanding how to pitch the Jays..
So we can't expect to steamroll as easy as last season.

Hutch winning 13 with a 5.57 era was an anomaly....won't happen this year.

Being honest Chavez at best 9-9 (500)pitching ...Jays won't be anywhere close to a playoff spot.

 

[KuleminFan41]

Jays won't take nobody by surprise this year at the plate...
Most teams now have a better understanding how to pitch the Jays..
So we can't expect to steamroll as easy as last season.

Hutch winning 13 with a 5.57 era was an anomaly....won't happen this year.

Being honest Happ could go 13-8 and Chavez at best 9-9 (500)pitching ...Jays won't be anywhere close to a playoff spot.

Do you think this was the first year, Bautista, Encarnacion and Donaldson had that were good years? Neither of those 3 will have their production be cut in half just because

 

[tml19]

Jays won't take nobody by surprise this year at the plate...
Most teams now have a better understanding how to pitch the Jays..
So we can't expect to steamroll as easy as last season.

I don't expect the Jays to avg 5 a game.....and certainly Hutch winning 13 with a 5.57 era was an anomaly....won't happen this year.

Being honest Happ could go 13-8 and Chavez at best 9-9 (500)pitching ...Jays won't be anywhere close to a playoff spot.

When you have an MVP, the best SS in baseball, 3 players top 3 in their positions and above average bats in 3/4 of the remaining positions I think they will adapt just fine.

 

[Bad News Benning]

Jays won't take nobody by surprise this year at the plate...
Most teams now have a better understanding how to pitch the Jays..
So we can't expect to steamroll as easy as last season.

I don't expect the Jays to avg 5 a game.....and certainly Hutch winning 13 with a 5.57 era was an anomaly....won't happen this year.

Being honest Happ could go 13-8 and Chavez at best 9-9 (500)pitching ...Jays won't be anywhere close to a playoff spot.

by surprise at the plate? lol......the jays lineup is full of veterans that have being producing for years....if pitchers could stop them don't you think they would've already??

I wouldn't be shocked if the Jays offense is even better next year with a full year of Revere and Tulo.

Hutch having a 5.57 era is an anomaly indeed and won't happen this year. He will pitch much better next season and should pitch somewhere in the 4's.

 

[Discoverer]

Jays won't take nobody by surprise this year at the plate...
Most teams now have a better understanding how to pitch the Jays..
So we can't expect to steamroll as easy as last season.

I don't expect the Jays to avg 5 a game.....and certainly Hutch winning 13 with a 5.57 era was an anomaly....won't happen this year.

Being honest Happ could go 13-8 and Chavez at best 9-9 (500)pitching ...Jays won't be anywhere close to a playoff spot.

Take a look at these monthly OPS's for the Jays

April - .741
May - .790
June - .779
July - .785
August - .832
Sept/Oct - .836
Playoffs - .797

For the record, .797 is also the exact OPS number the Jays put up over the course of the entire season. No one figured out ****.

 

[TF97]

Wade Miley to the Mariners. I'm going to miss the Blue Jays destroying that piece of ****.

 

[Ciao]

Don't see any reason for the jays to give him a lot of money if he can't field a position. I'm guessing his contract demands will probably be crazy when he sees what Davis and Heyward get. Jays will keep Bautista since he can slid into the DH role in a few years when Alford is ready.

Encarnacion will either be dealt this winter for a young arm or the jays will hold on to him and collect the comp pick next winter. Really don't see a mid season trade as I expect the jays to be in contention.

Beautiful hitter with a wonky back. I keep JB as DH and trade EE or let him go.

 

[Eyedea]

Miley has 2+1 cheap years of control left. Not sure why the Red Sox would push out their 3rd best pitcher.

Ah, Carson Smith is a good get.

 

[Longshot]

by surprise at the plate? lol......the jays lineup is full of veterans that have being producing for years....if pitchers could stop them don't you think they would've already??

I wouldn't be shocked if the Jays offense is even better next year with a full year of Revere and Tulo.

Hutch having a 5.57 era is an anomaly indeed and won't happen this year. He will pitch much better next season and should pitch somewhere in the 4's.

Also have to think Martin will be a more consistent offensive player with the burden of catching Dickey gone. If Travis can stay healthy, he looks like a dynamic offensive player and hopefully Pillar can show some improvement at the plate. Even the way Goins was performing offensively late last year when he was a full-time starter gives me hope that he might become a better offensive player than we all initially believed.

I'm somewhat astonished by all the doom and gloom I'm reading. The team that won the division and was two wins short of the World Series is largely still together and in position for another run.

This is the best I've felt about the Jays during an off season in years.

Just think back to last winter. They still had Reyes booting the ball around at short. Nobody knew who would play second. Centrefield was a question mark with Pompey and maybe Pillar. The rotation was thin and the bullpen was a disaster.

With the exception of a couple of pieces in the bullpen, this team is well constructed and ready to go.

 

[GoonieFace]

Beautiful hitter with a wonky back. I keep JB as DH and trade EE or let him go.

The only question is does Jose Bautista want to be a DH after this season. I highly doubt it and im not sure I would pay big money for him to play RF. I would take my chances on EE and let him full time DH, ala Ortiz.

 

[hockeywiz542]

Jeff Blair of Rogers Sportsnet reports on what you can expect from the Toronto Blue Jays at the winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/what-to-expect-from-blue-jays-at-winter-meetings/

St. Louis Cardinals

They thought they had Price; he thought he’d be going there. With John Lackey gone, the Cardinals are looking for a veteran capable of giving them 200 innings. R.A. Dickey would look good here, no? Re-signing Heyward would seem like a no-brainer.

- I don’t know if former GM Alex Anthopoulos would have given Price a contract offer matching that of the Red Sox’s – or, more importantly, been able to get ownership to sign off on it – but I can corroborate that the topic of Price signing with the Jays before hitting the market was broached some time around the Blue Jays’ road trip to Anaheim in August. There was no exchange of parameters by either the Blue Jays or Price’s agent, Bo McKinnis, but the door for further talks was very much open. I’m led to believe that even back-channel discussions stopped at the end of the month, around about the time that Mark Shapiro was named president and CEO of the team.

- I’m willing to give Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins all the time they need, but somebody really needs to whisper in their ears that name-dropping John Farrell, whatever they may think of the work he did for them in Cleveland and whatever they think of him personally, doesn’t endear them to anybody in this city. On the flip side, hearing Atkins mention Marco Scutaro as an influence earns a massive thumbs up from me.

- It was interesting to hear Atkins talk about the importance of being in position to be a “sustainable winner,†but I wonder how close or far away he thinks this organization is from being in that position – or, if in fact it’s already there. That’s the nut of this whole thing, isn’t it?

- Hearing Atkins and Shapiro talking about “complementary†pieces doesn’t exactly scream blind ambition, does it? My guess is unless there’s a deal in the works that will see one part of Toronto’s aging core dealt away for a younger (read: cost-effective) pitcher or player ready to help at the major league level, this is pretty much the team the Blue Jays will take with them to spring training. When Atkins spoke about the “15 players†the Blue Jays needed to make last year’s moves, I was left with the idea that replenishing the farm system is going to be a priority effective immediately.

 

[Habaneros]

When you have an MVP, the best SS in baseball, 3 players top 3 in their positions and above average bats in 3/4 of the remaining positions I think they will adapt just fine.

We can't deny the Royals neutered the Jays.The numbers show it.
It wasn't by "fluke" either they had a legit plan ,that actually worked.So if it worked in 2015...does it work in 2016?

How did the Royals staff limit the Jays, who led the majors in runs scored and home runs, to six homers, 26 runs, a .240 average and a .190 mark with men in scoring position?http://www.torontosun.com/2015/10/26/royals-scouts-had-inside-scoop-on-blue-jays-batting

Lots of copycats in sports,and most serious ball teams took notes of how KC took down the Jays...Again the Jays won't be as "surprising" this year....which will expose more flaws in pitching.

A Happ that is a few games over 500 ,and that's likely what we get too,and a Chavez that's a 500 pitcher (might be a big stretch)...Jays are still well back of the playoff spot.

If the Jays wouldn't pony up an offer for Price,what's the free market ready to offer Jose and Eddie?
Likely way too rich for the Jays to be honest.....


Jays fighting for a wildcard ,and dealing away Jose and Eddie to build for the future...
My prediction for 2016...

 

[hockeywiz542]

 

[Muston Atthews]

I wonder if the Jays will be in on Jansen if LAD gets Chapman

 

[Eyedea]

We can't deny the Royals neutered the Jays ..the numbers show it.




Lots of copycats in sports,and most serious ball teams took notes of how KC took down the Jays...Again the Jays won't be as "surprising" this year....which will expose more flaws in pitching.

I'm willing to bet that the Jays will score more than 4.3 runs per game this season.

The only numbers that show the Royals "neutering" the Jays is the bullpen ERAs.

 

[Glenn Isildur Healy]

I wonder if the Jays will be in on Jansen if LAD gets Chapman

No chance
We have nothing to give for him plus we have Osuna as a closer already. I doubt LAD traded for Chapman to trade away Jansen.

 

[Damisoph]

Jays won't take nobody by surprise this year at the plate...
Most teams now have a better understanding how to pitch the Jays..
So we can't expect to steamroll as easy as last season.

Hutch winning 13 with a 5.57 era was an anomaly....won't happen this year.

Being honest Chavez at best 9-9 (500)pitching ...Jays won't be anywhere close to a playoff spot.

Just stop.

 

[Longshot]

Anybody see the tweet from Howard Berger saying the Jays are talking to Chris Davis?

I don't quite understand how Davis would fit with the Jays - considering where the payroll is right now.

He will be looking for a multi-year deal at $20 million+.

And, Howard Berger? Is he even a reporter anymore?

 

[Woodman19]

Anybody see the tweet from Howard Berger saying the Jays are talking to Chris Davis?

I don't quite understand how Davis would fit with the Jays - considering where the payroll is right now.

He will be looking for a multi-year deal at $20 million+.

And, Howard Berger? Is he even a reporter anymore?

Wilner shot it down quickly

 

[Joel Ward]

Apparently the Chapman deal isn't even complete and other teams are still involved...