ST: Birds (41-47) vs Kittehs (39-48) in Detroit, July 14-16

[dagger]

Zaun came pretty close in the post game talk today to saying this team sucks. I cheer for them to win each and every game. It's not like the NBA of NHL where an extra loss or two can make a big difference in the quality of who you get to draft. But there is no point to pretending to still compete except for fooling the casual fan into spending money or tuning in to thus nothing burger. The rational team building strategy is to evaluate all assets and decide on the best way to optimize them. For example, a number of teams are enquiring about Happ. Trade him now or this winter? But don't pretend that the team will be a serious contender next season so he has to stay. This old team is only going to struggle even more next season, and the reason Happ is in demand seems to be the dearth of good free agent pitching this winter. That sounds like an asset to maximize, not waste.


Sent from my iPad using RealGM Forums

[JaysRule15]

If this teams gonna lose I'd rather see it with young guys. Blow it up man.

The problem is, there aren't many young guys advanced enough in the system to risk their development. Tellez isn't hitting well enough yet at AAA, and he plays Smoak's position. Beyond that, Buffalo is a terrible team, NH has a couple of prospects who might warrant a promotion by next season, certainly in 2019, same for the real cream which now starts at Dunedin.

I'd rather they bring up the guys from the terrible Buffalo team and lose enough to land a top 1-5 pick and big slot money. Rather than this over the hill veteran team that won't be good enough to make the playoffs, but will stay close enough to .500 where we'll be lucky to draft even in the Top 10. This kind of "treadmilling" is exactly why the JPR era was so bad.

Problem is that a fire sale followed by running out AAA lineups will chase the fans away, and that's what Shapiro is looking like he doesn't have the guts to do. Although, to be fair, it's certainly possible that Rogers has tied his hands.

[Schad]

Yep, and Happ's no spring chicken. Next year will almost certainly be his last as a Jay, and owing to circumstance and his contract status, his value will never be as high as it is right now.

(By the way, one prospect that the Brewers can dangle? Phil Bickford, the guy we took in the 1st round who wouldn't sign, and who was erratic yet posted excellent numbers last year in A ball, before getting suspended for testing positive for a recreational drug. He then had his hand broken by a come-backer, and hasn't pitched a competitive inning all season. None of this is in any way relevant, but this has been your bi-annual Remember Some Guys Who Didn't Sign).

[So_Fresh]

What a mess this team is in right now. I wouldn't want to be Rogers, Shapiro or Atkins.

We need to get younger and we need to do it fast. Like Schad noted, Happ has good value right now. Trade who you can, and get something back. Suffer for a couple of years with attendance and interest, and work on developing players and making smart FA signings.

I think we can stay competitive along the way if we did this, and with that 2nd wild card we can at least hope to compete and make it to the playoffs. I'm not interested in watching a losing team for the next several years. I had plans to go to a few games this summer, but I backed away.

Oh and yeah, please don't trade Stroman, Sanchez, or Osuna. Build around these young players, and hope they stay healthy and they have long careers.

[polo007]

Read on Twitter

BUFFALO—It wasn’t just one or two things that J.P. Howell was struggling with when the left-handed reliever landed on the disabled list in early June, yet to return to the big leagues level six weeks later.

The velocity on his sinker — which he used more than 60 per cent of the time in 8 2/3 innings out of the ’pen for the Blue Jays this year — was in the low-80s rather than his career average of 87 miles per hour. His sharpness wasn’t there. He wasn’t locating his pitches. He was falling off the mound. There was shoulder tightness.

A consistent major-leaguer for a handful of years — his last DL stint heading into this season came in 2010, his last trip to the minors in 2011 — Howell had developed enough vices on the mound that they started to add up. The 34-year-old’s ERA ballooned to 8.31 ERA and he stopped getting the call from the bullpen.

“I felt lost,” Howell, who signed a one-year deal with Toronto in January, said this past week. “You just feel like you don’t know what you’re doing and you’ve done it your whole life. It’s just tough. It’s really hard.”

“I was throwing from my heel as opposed to my toe. I don’t know how that even started, you know what I mean? It’s like, ‘Why did that happen?’ You pitch through injuries over a 12-year career, you’re going to sometimes have bad habits and you need to channel them back. Coming here was the best thing for me.”

“They’ve been as professional as you can be,” Howell said of the Blue Jays, his fourth big-league organization. “They could’ve just flat out told me to go home. They can do whatever they want. But they chose to put me here, set me up with a throwing program. They never showed disappointment. They were just excited about the process and results are coming. They don’t have to be this patient with me and they have been.”

[polo007]

Read on Twitter

[So_Fresh]

so in other words what Gibby is saying is that this team sucks.

[johanliebert]

Estrada is clearly playing through an injury.

I heard on winners show teammates wee ignoring Sanchez in the dug out this true?

[polo007]

Read on Twitter

[Lateral Quicks]

Read on Twitter

Thank goodness. Hopefully Bolsinger is next.