Blue Bird Banter

Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images Part 3: The Cautious Scenario Last week, I gave an overview of the Blue Jays’ roster and sketched out their financial and trade capital. Today, I want to discuss extensions, and also a scenario in which they decline to go all in for 2025, instead prepping to set up a longer window opening in 2026. The Extensions Vladimir Guerrero … [Read more...] about Thinking Through the Blue Jays Off-Season

Photo by A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images It is Pat Hentgen’s 56th birthday today. Pat will always be one of my favourite Blue Jays. He was the Cy Young winner (the first Jay to win the award) in 1996, going 20-10 with a 3.22 ERA and pitching an outstanding 265.2 innings. He won the award on this day in 1996, a terrific birthday present. Wouldn’t having a starter throw 250 … [Read more...] about Happy Birthday Pat Hentgen and Santiago Espinal

Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images We have used this idea for the last couple of years. The idea is to go through some of the top free agents, use the contract FanGraphs suggests they will get and have a poll asking if we would like to sign him for that amount. Number seven on Law’s list and number six on Clemens’ list is Blake Snell. He’s a lefty starting pitcher who turns … [Read more...] about Free Agent Poll: Blake Snell

Homer Bush turns 52 today. Bush came to us from the Yankees, along with David Wells and Graeme Lloyd for Roger Clemens. Clemens wanted out of Toronto after winning two Cy Youngs in a row for a poor Blue Jays team (we finished 5th in 1997, then moved up to third in 1998 (we finished third for six straight seasons from 1998 to 2003)) in February of 1999. For a Gord Ash trade, it … [Read more...] about Happy Birthday Homer Bush

Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images Yariel Rodríguez was a free-agent signing last off-season. He signed for five seasons for a total of $32 million. Yariel was born in Cuba and has played in Japan for the last three years. He played for Cuba in the World Baseball Classic. We were told he was a hard thrower, getting his fastball up to the high 90s. We didn’t know how he … [Read more...] about The Season That Was: Yariel Rodriguez