Submit your questions for an All-Star week mail bag!
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The Blue Jays have one more series to get through before most of the team gets four full days off for the All-Star break. It’s been an up-and-down first half of the season, but clearly the seeds are something special are there, and the team is already working the trade market to try to get better.
Where the rest of this month will take us is pretty fascinating, and with that as the backdrop I’d like to know what’s on your mind. So, for the first time in far too long, early next week I’ll be opening up the ol’ mail bag. Please submit your questions for me in the comments below!
Of course, as always, that the ability to post comments around here is for paid subscribers only. So if you want to ask a question, you’ll have to subscribe or upgrade.
Yes, this is a way to hopefully entice as many folks as possible to upgrade to a paid subscription, and yes, I’m sorry, but your boy’s gotta eat!
Anyway, you know the drill!
How useful is 2015 as a comparison? It’s easy to see a stacked offensive team that’s significantly underperforming its run differential, just waiting to be unlocked by a few aggressive roster upgrades. But it’s also easy to want every year to be 2015.
Also, in retrospect, who won the argument (such as it was) between AA and Shapiro about Alex cleaning out the farm system at the deadline in 2015? I realize process and outcome are to some extent separate issues, but looking at the 2015 Blue Jays Transactions page on BBRef, I think the only guys they gave up who accumulated more than one WAR in the intervening half-decade are Matt Boyd (8.2), Daniel Norris (5.2), and Miguel Castro (3.1). Besides those guys, it seems like everyone else who got shipped out has been a bit of a bust: Jeff Hoffman (-1.4), Dawel Lugo (-1.1), Jairo Labourt (0.1), Nick Wells and Alberto Tirado (neither made the majors), Jimmy Cordero (0.2, and he apparently pitched 1.1 innings for the Jays in 2019), Jesus Tinoco (0.4), Rob Rasmussen (-1.1), etc. Jake Brentz finally made the majors this season and has been worth 0.9 WAR already, so I’m not sure how to count him. It also may bear noting that for everything that went out of the farm system, that was the year they signed Vladdy, which certainly goes some way towards evening out the ledger.
Hi Andrew, Hatch being in BUF is a bit confusing especially before the two bullpen trades. Do you think that they are keeping him stretched out as a SP because: 1) Manoah may need a break due to his innings and Hatch could slide in nicely 2) As an SP he's a more valuable trade chip 3) They truly see him as a SP in 2022 and beyond or 4) maybe a combination of all those or other reasons? Thanks Jeff