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OT: The Toronto Blue Jays

Matz was a tire fire to start the year. Caught a heater to end it. I didn’t want him back at all. He didn’t seem reliable enough to count on in a playoff game.

I’d rather up the money and go for someone better/healthier/reliable.
 
Matz was a tire fire to start the year. Caught a heater to end it. I didn’t want him back at all. He didn’t seem reliable enough to count on in a playoff game.

I’d rather up the money and go for someone better/healthier/reliable.

Good for him , get paid

Had to wait to 30 to get financial security
 

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen called out Steven Matz's agent for "unprofessional behavior" in a tweet Wednesday morning, one day after the free-agent left-hander opted against rejoining his former team and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals.

"I'm not happy this morning," Cohen said in his post. "I've never seen such unprofessional behavior exhibited by a player's agent. I guess words and promises don't matter."

Cohen told the New York Post that Matz and his agent, Rob Martin, had reached out to the Mets about wanting to return and that they were his first choice.

Matz on Tuesday agreed to a four-year, $44 million deal with the Cardinals, sources told ESPN. He could earn up to $48 million in the deal and will receive a signing bonus, sources said.
 
Cricket playing countries fucked with cricket by creating a different format (T20) that didn't take 5 days (seriously, cricket Test matches are 6 hours per day over 5 days) and encouraged fast, exciting plays to attract the new generation. Purists still get their 5 day Test matches and families can catch a game with their kids without taking a weeks vacation.

Bit of different situation, but if England/Australia/South Africa/India etc. are willing to fuck with cricket, surely some tweaks can be made to baseball.
Yeah except that all the tweaks done to baseball haven't resulted in shorter games and you shouldn't need to do something as drastic as making games only last 7 innings in order to bring the durations of games down. If they're bound and determined to keep the DH then they shouldn't need pitching changes every 5 minutes. Crack down on the over-managing. Nobody who buys a ticket to a game wants to watch managers waddle out to the mound and swap pitchers every third at bat.
 
I used to LOVE baseball. I played baseball every year. I attended dedicated baseball camps.

As a high schooler I purchased the Toronto Star 81 game season pass for $81 (essentially season's tickets for those who remember).

I used to watch a TON of baseball.

I have not watched an entire baseball game from start to finish since I believe 2016...of course, part of that is due to shapkins/Rogers, part of that is due to me no longer being a university student, part of that is due to me ending my cable subscription, etc.

but, the salient point is this guy used to consume a ton of baseball annually and that has dropped substantially over the past few years and ain't trending in the right direction...
At least you had a team to watch if you wanted to. I've been without one since 2005 and while I watch occasionally it's hard to really get into it when I have no passion for any of the teams. I wind up rooting for teams that don't offend me or against teams I hate rather than pulling for a team I am committed to.
 
as long as they don't lose out on guys like ray and semien for anything other than a huge overpay by someone else.
My guess is they want one of Ray/Gausman/Rodon and to trade for someone like or better than Matz.

Semien is tougher, i dont think they are the most desperate there, and i suspect someone goes into the 6 year range. Then they look to replace him via trade ( Suarez, Chapman, or a home run for JRam) or a lesser FA like Seager the bad, or Escobar
 
At least you had a team to watch if you wanted to. I've been without one since 2005 and while I watch occasionally it's hard to really get into it when I have no passion for any of the teams. I wind up rooting for teams that don't offend me or against teams I hate rather than pulling for a team I am committed to.
this is technically true but Rogers makes it feel as though it is not
 

1. C Gabriel Moreno, Blue Jays​

“He’s a future superstar,” one scout said of Moreno. That billing seems appropriate, given that the 21-year-old Venezuelan ranked as Keith Law’s fifth-best prospect in July. Moreno certainly lived up to that hype in the fall. After destroying Double-A pitching for most of the season, the right-handed hitter batted .329/.410/.494 with 11 doubles in 100 plate appearances. He walked 13 times, matching his strikeout total. Just a little bit of offense from a catcher is a plus these days, but Moreno figures to be an actual good hitter, not just a good hitter for his position.

Scouts saw a good approach at the plate. He isn’t cowed by two-strike counts, shortening up a bit while maintaining strength with his wrists. He creates easy backspin when he barrels the ball, and though he managed just one homer in the fall, scouts are confident the power will come as Moreno learns when to turn on a pitch. Moreno did have some issues against sliders late in the fall season, perhaps getting a tad overaggressive as his Mesa Solar Sox team marched toward a championship.

He has more athleticism than his 5-foot-11 and (stingily listed) 160 pounds suggest, and he figures to stick behind the plate. He is quick on his feet and has a quick release when throwing to second. (He also played two games at third this fall.) There might be some things to clean up technically – he could tighten up his receiving a bit, and sometimes got too backhand-happy when he needed to be blocking pitches in the dirt – but that polish will come with time. “The game is so easy for him,” one scout said. Triple-A will be his next test.
 
The salient question is, is the bat good enough and the defense unremarkable enough to move him off Catcher to become an everyday player?
 
I think it makes more sense to keep him behind the plate. If the bat truly plays, then maybe you do something like play him 100 games behind the plate and like 40-ish at DH. That's still gotta be more valuable than shifting him to 3b.

The bigger deal is with him rushing up, what to do about the couple guys we have now? Kirk and Jansen are in weird spots where at some level they might have good trade value, but on the other hand, they might be down a little too, so I don't want to give them away.
 
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