Blue Jays GDT: 2018 v4| And we're done | Blue Jays finish season 73-89 | See you in 2019!

[Suntouchable13]

I don't get the Yanks and Red Sox beef with the JD trade. They don't like that he was allowed to be on waivers, but he was on waivers. So one of them should have put a claim on him blocking other teams from potentially getting him. Their beef is dumb, to be honest. They have no case.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Nice double play

 

[Anthrax442]

Why are all the old guys out there.

 

[Suntouchable13]

Diaz is our starting 3rd baseman opening day next year? Until Vlad comes up in May.

 

[The Nemesis]

I always kind of love the talk about hitting it through the shift. If guys could hit to the areas the D has shifted away from that easily, they'd have different spray charts that wouldn't lend themselves to such dramatic shifts in the first place.

 

[Anthrax442]

Sweet base running

 

[The Nemesis]

Diaz is our starting 3rd baseman opening day next year? Until Vlad comes up in May.

It makes sense, but I don't think it's guaranteed. The team has a lot of infield pieces to sift through and find places for. Hell, maybe they decide that the kids deserve some run behind the plate and Martin becomes a semi-permanent utility man, logging innings at 3rd.

 

[canucksfan]

Borucki looks excellent.

 

[aingefan]

It makes sense, but I don't think it's guaranteed. The team has a lot of infield pieces to sift through and find places for. Hell, maybe they decide that the kids deserve some run behind the plate and Martin becomes a semi-permanent utility man, logging innings at 3rd.

And there’s Drury and maybe Solarte for 3B, and just Gurriel at SS really.
Lots of mix and match options.

 

[The Nemesis]

And there’s Drury and maybe Solarte for 3B, and just Gurriel at SS really.
Lots of mix and match options.

Reasonably in the mix for next season on the infield (pre-Vladdy):

Diaz
Drury
Gurriel
Martin
Solarte
Travis
Tulowitzki
Urena

2B: TRAVIS, Gurriel, Diaz, Drury, Urena, Solarte (Martin)
SS: GURRIEL, Tulowitzki, Urena, Diaz (Drury, Solarte, Martin)
3B: DIAZ, Drury, Solarte, Martin (Gurriel)

Each position is more or less sorted by what I figure is role suitability/likelihood. CAPS name is the guy who I think has the best shot at the opening day gig. (parentheses) are guys who are more like emergency deployments at that position, not likely to get real consideration for regular innings at the position.

they basically have 3 starting spots and a bench spot to give to 8 guys, and then it only gets tougher when Guerrero forces his way up and you take away that primary 3B spot.

I think my ideal setup to begin would be Travis at 2nd, Gurriel at short, Diaz at 3rd, Drury as the utility IF and Martin on the bench as a super-sub infielder/3rd catcher/mentor type. Trade Solarte, start Urena in the minors at short as the primary call-up guy, and find any way possible to tell Tulo he's too broken to play. When Guerrero comes up then you can make a decision on whether or not Travis is flunking his chance to be the everyday 2nd baseman. If he has, you move Diaz over there and slide Guerrero in. If he returns to form, then you've got some decisions to make on Diaz/Drury/Martin.

EDIT: aww hell, I don't know how to do tables on nuHF. GImme a minute to rejigger this.

EDIT 2: It's not as visual as I wanted, but this will have to do.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Thanks Tepera

 

[MS]

The team got what they deserved there for pulling Borucki on ~80 pitches when he allowed his first hard-hit ball all night.

This game means nothing. Let the rookie work through it.

 

[Maplebeasts]

I don't get the Yanks and Red Sox beef with the JD trade. They don't like that he was allowed to be on waivers, but he was on waivers. So one of them should have put a claim on him blocking other teams from potentially getting him. Their beef is dumb, to be honest. They have no case.

Exactly. They could have beat the offer. They didn't and therefore have no grounds to complain.

 

[TheMadHatTrick]

Borucki's new slider looks legit. Much harder, with much more dive to it. This will really help him going forward.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Nice throw by Teoscar ... Bad bounce

 

[Talks to Goalposts]

Reasonably in the mix for next season on the infield (pre-Vladdy):

Diaz
Drury
Gurriel
Martin
Solarte
Travis
Tulowitzki
Urena

2B: TRAVIS, Gurriel, Diaz, Drury, Urena, Solarte (Martin)
SS: GURRIEL, Tulowitzki, Urena, Diaz (Drury, Solarte, Martin)
3B: DIAZ, Drury, Solarte, Martin (Gurriel)

Each position is more or less sorted by what I figure is role suitability/likelihood. CAPS name is the guy who I think has the best shot at the opening day gig. (parentheses) are guys who are more like emergency deployments at that position, not likely to get real consideration for regular innings at the position.

they basically have 3 starting spots and a bench spot to give to 8 guys, and then it only gets tougher when Guerrero forces his way up and you take away that primary 3B spot.

I think my ideal setup to begin would be Travis at 2nd, Gurriel at short, Diaz at 3rd, Drury as the utility IF and Martin on the bench as a super-sub infielder/3rd catcher/mentor type. Trade Solarte, start Urena in the minors at short as the primary call-up guy, and find any way possible to tell Tulo he's too broken to play. When Guerrero comes up then you can make a decision on whether or not Travis is flunking his chance to be the everyday 2nd baseman. If he has, you move Diaz over there and slide Guerrero in. If he returns to form, then you've got some decisions to make on Diaz/Drury/Martin.

EDIT: aww hell, I don't know how to do tables on nuHF. GImme a minute to rejigger this.

EDIT 2: It's not as visual as I wanted, but this will have to do.

The way I see it, there are essential 3 players of similar age and current projected ability/role competing for spots in Gurriel, Diaz and Drury. Each might take on a regular role if or may end up being used regularly as a utility man depending on how things fall out.

The obvious questions for next year being whether Travis can establish himself as a full time 2B or not, whether Vlad's defense ends up being acceptable at 3B in the majors and whether Tulo manages to Pheonix himself back into a player again. These effect where the more flexible infielders will be given opportunites to play, and whether there will be room on the 25 man roster for just one or up to all three of them.

I believe both Drury and Gurriel still have option years, so they can also be sent down to the AAA temporarily and brought back up when there are inevitable injuries.

Add in Martin as backup catcher/backup infielder, Toronto is in a pretty strong position to have an average or near average player in each infield position during 2019. Plus have strong extended depth in AAA.

 

[canucksfan]

I thought he was safe for sure

 

[The Nemesis]

No, Buck. Nobody 'out there' is thinking "Why aren't they bunting."

Except maybe Tabler.

 

[Suntouchable13]

I still take Teo over Smith against Kimbrel. Come on, wtf?

 

[The Nemesis]

I still take Teo over Smith against Kimbrel. Come on, wtf?

Uber small sample size but Smith has been better this year vs RHP than Hernandez, and Teoscar's been pretty awful through July and August (with a small sample resurgence in September)

Not saying it makes sense, just saying there might be a case. Or Gibby might just be saying "**** it" and giving the kids as many opportunities as he can in games that are pretty much worthless in terms of end result.

 

[Anthrax442]

No ROwdy tonite?

 

[The Nemesis]

Sorry, I didn't update the thread title til now. I was... otherwise occupied this afternoon.

 

[The Nemesis]

Buck thinks we have 9 catching prospects with viable major league consideration?

I know he said "in the minors" but let's assume that he's Buck Martinez and actually includes Jansen and McGuire in that figure.

So...


Jansen
McGuire
Adams
Pentecost?
Kirk
Danner
Moreno
Uh.....?

I'm only at 7, already feel like I'm stretching it, and not sure who else to even consider.

 

[The Kessel Run]

So we've seen enough of Gaviglio, right?

 

[The Nemesis]

So we've seen enough of Gaviglio, right?

Not sure quite what you mean by "Seen enough". If you mean enough to know what he is, then yeah. He's an OK #5. If you mean that it's clear he shouldn't be around, I disagree. He's been decent enough (and after starting out super strong and outperforming expectations, his later cold streak has pretty much left him underperforming vs his peripherals.)

I'm not expecting him to break out and anchor a rotation, but the team could certainly do worse than having him as the 5th starter next season. He strikes out an OK # of guys, doesn't walk too many and is mostly an acceptable low-end pitch-to-contact type guy whose bad ERA is in part due to some crappy BABIP luck and in part due to a tendency to have a clunker of a game every 3 or 4 starts. It's not flashy and he's not stealing you games, but it's not entirely his fault that he's had such a hard time collecting wins over the last couple months.