Marcus Stroman won't stop tweeting; 2019 Vlad Guerrero Jr/Blue Jays thread

Gold Glove for Vladdy. One of the games I saw this year was the one where he almost made three errors the first inning, so I think I got a rather distorted view...Urias in Baltimore must be great to have beaten Chapman.

Ya - my money was on Chapman here and not Vlad. He (Vlad) hasn’t been perfect; but he has looked surprisingly good this year!

yeah he pulled off all manner of impressive plays, I watched a lot of Jays this year and he always surprised me with his deftness out there. an uncanny ability to nab foul balls facing backwards, too

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/11/padres-have-jose-abreu-as-a-top-priority.html

I wonder if Abreu would accept full-time DH? Probably not...I know I'm living in the past, but I think about the Winfield and Molitor signings in '92 and '93. Abreu is so good, and so underpublicized. I realize he's 35, and I know we use the DH as a rotation spot, and I suppose he'd cost a lot, and this and that, and so on and so forth, but I'd sure love to have him for a couple of seasons.

If you can't make a big free-agent splash...

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/11/blue-jays-nearing-agreement-to-hire-don-mattingly-as-bench-coach.html

I wasn’t expecting that.

"The Blue Jays were engaged in talks with free agents and continued communicating with fellow major-league clubs, but ultimately remained quiet, having not completed any deals — no signings nor trades — as the third and final day of the meetings wrapped up Wednesday. However, as the front office prepared to end its time in Southern California and fly north, the feeling among the group was the three-day event had nonetheless been a success thanks to what the Blue Jays came away learning."

Not quite sure what that means, but the title of the 2023 Blue Jays thread has to be in there somewhere.

https://theathletic.com/3981259/2022/12/07/toronto-blue-jays-winter-meetings/

(Paywall, probably.)

Management was listening in.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/blue-jays-agree-to-deal-with-veteran-outfielder-kevin-kiermaier/

We've got Kevin Pillar back, more or less--on the downside, but probably good enough for our needs.

Ugh

Really? I'm okay with it, assuming Springer's still fragile. (Obviously I'd much rather have a healthy Springer.)

I’m more just annoyed that we traded Teo amd this is the best they’ve been able to do to fill the hole in our outfield. I realize there still time etc… just annoyed.

Definitely annoying if you look at this way.

I was curious about Pillar. He was with the Dodgers at some point last year (had no idea). Got to the plate 13 times; Baseball Reference lists his salary at $100,000. The year before that, 2021, he played 124 games with the Mets: 15 HR, .231/.277/.415. He's 33 and a free agent.

Kiermaier's 32, earned over $12M last year, played 63 games: 7 HR, .228/.281/.369.

Sounds like we could have gotten the other Kevin for a tiny fraction of the cost.

They must be looking at it from an advanced metrics standpoint. KK is averaging 5.6 bWAR per 162 for his career. His issue is health of course.

For sure I would take KK over KP. But this is still not filling the hole left by Teo’s departure. Also kind of think KK is an ass.

I'll be happy if we get the 5.6 Kiermaier, but he hasn't had an individual season that high since 2016 (mostly health-related, yes, but I don't know if that'll reverse itself six years later). I think Teoscar was on the decline, and it was good time to move him, and KK is an okay half-measure. But I share Thermo's general frustration in that they should have gotten more for Teoscar.

As a Cubs fan who has seen the Bryant/Rizzo/Baez/schwarber/Contreras team turned into…what were they turned into again? I need to research things. Anyway I understand.

love the Bassitt signing. thought he was gonna get like 24M for 4 years; so this is pretty fair.
then Murphy is traded and Vasquez signs, so if any team wants a bonafide starting C, the Jays are the only game in town now!

whoops

This thread will never die.

Closing in on Year 10 in the MLB. Nowhere near finished. All your predictions over time couldn’t have been more wrong. I find strength and calm in continuing to prove myself right each and every year. Criticism only comes from the smallest of minds. All my dreams into action! 🗣️

— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) February 14, 2023

The very epitome of strength and calm.

Was that in response to anything, or just…

Who knows with Stroman? Is this just auto-vengeance, forever doing battle with phantom critics and doubters?

Starbucks misspells his name and dude just goes off for like 24 hours.

stroman would not be the first pro athlete to fire himself up by concentrating on his doubters; no doubt just as well he won't get a chance to do a michael jordan-style hall of fame speech

i myself think he's corny as hell, but i have to say that your fixation on this one particular black guy who hasn't pitched for your team in years is not a great look. he's just a grandiose self-promoter; it's not like he has (to my knowledge, anyway) abused any of his partners or children

Fixation? He used to pitch for our team and we find him funny. Except when he's abusing dogs. Continue to monitor this situation, though.

rule 1: any mlb content remains acceptable on blue jays thread
rule 2: no running jokes
rule 3: height in NO WAY measures heart, and if you are caught measuring (metrically or otherwise), you are subject to a ban from Canadian baseball and probably hockey

Not clear why his race needed brining up.

I actually respect the guy greatly (though completely intolerant of animal abuse). Genuinely curious about the race comment as well.

To me, Stroman and Donaldson (and various others) are interchangeable, and it's got zero to do with race. They're players who you love when they're on your team--although the opening dog-related post made me rethink Stroman--and then they leave, and all the antics that used to fire you up in a good way look a lot more contrived.

I love the guy he is on the field. It’s hard to describe his enthusiasm without plunging into a mess of cliches - but I started following him on social media early on because of it.
But then I had to stop. His wealth flaunting and going apeshit over little things like arb hearings quickly became intolerable. This was before even the dog mutilation.
Tho i was def on his side when he went after eckersly.

The only on-field issue I had with Stroman was his habit of arguing balls and strikes in the second or third inning (of meaningless games, often)--I don't think that helped him or the team much as the game progressed. Otherwise, yeah, he was a lot of fun to watch as a Jay. I was even open to him returning in 2021 (or was it 2022 when he was lobbying to come back?).

habit of arguing balls and strikes

one of my big pet peeves, with batters at least. matt carpenter used to drive me _crazy_ with his bickering about called strikes that were clearly out of the zone. i can see how with pitchers it's different because their ongoing argument with the umpire is potentially a part of every PA for the rest of the game, depending on how much of a grudge the umpire is capable of holding

I've read different accounts of whether arguing helps or hurts. With a certain kind of old-school ump, to question them is suicidal. Lots of famous anecdotes to that effect..."Tell Mr. _________ that it's in his best interest to be swinging from here on out." And, to me, if a pitcher or batter shows you up, human nature is to push back. On the other hand, you'll hear that arguing something in the third inning gets you a close call in the seventh inning. I guess, ultimately, it depends on how you argue and depends on the ump.

for sure. yeah, i think one of the intangible values that a catcher provides, sometimes, is playing that game with the umpire, depending on who it is. i'm sure some catchers don't talk to the umpire at all. some catchers, though, have ongoing dialogue with some umpires throughout the game. i'm sure that some catchers, the ones that are skilled with reading that kind of game within a game with the umpires, have helped out their pitchers over the course of games and even seasons/careers by manipulating the umpires in certain ways.

(note: i am basing this only on my reading of ron luciano's books about 20 years ago)

I love variations of these stories (no idea how true they are):

Catcher: "Well, was it a strike or not?"
Umpire: "I don't know--let's ask Mr. Williams."

To me, Stroman and Donaldson (and various others) are interchangeable

ctrl-f STROMAN 40 hits (admittedly some of those are mine! and also, for some reason, the thread is named after him!)
ctrl-f DONALDSON, who won an mvp in toronto, 3 hits

none of which involve donaldson calling tim anderson 'jackie' last year. the most relevant post, from another thread, is

I realize Donaldson can be an asshole - but if Anderson was comparing himself to Robinson, it kind of opens himself up to some ribbing.

― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Sunday, May 22, 2022 12:44 PM

yous can do what you want, of course. but also i can find it a bit ugly

No Blue Jay hat (or any hat) for Fred at the induction. Which is not a surprise--more surprised that he's not going in as a Brave.

Dude. We have a new jays thread. You even started it!

I honestly feel like this thread took a gross turn (maybe not as gross as the animal mutilation that kicked it off, tho some don’t seem bothered by it), so let’s move on.

Oops--that detour threw me and it slipped my mind. Back to brilliantly titled To What Extent Does Your Life Revolve Around Alejandro Kirk? (The 2023 Blue Jays Thread)