Wednesday Bantering: Dreams of Violence Against Your Left Fielder

There’s not a lot of important Jays news. A few little items of interest:

• David Singh at SportsNet has a good profile on Anthony Santander, who everyone raves about as a teammate and competitor. He seems like a great guy, albeit one John Schneier has apparently spent years wanting to punch in the face.
• Baseball America had three of their prospect writers draft a lineup of players outside their top 100 who they expect to break out this season. Arjun Nimmala unsurprisingly features prominently, with a note that he’s looked excellent this spring, with Alan Roden, Jake Bloss, and Trey Yesavage also being mentioned. Only Ricky Tiedemann made their most recent list, at 100.
• Speaking of, Gregory Strong from the Canadian Press has an update on his rehab. There’s not a ton to say yet, as he’s a ways away from throwing. He doesn’t rule out getting back on a mound this year (which would be on the quick end given a late July surgery).
• You know it’s grim for George Springer when he’s getting the “I’m not worried” profile and the dreaded manager’s vote of confidence a week before the season even starts. I wouldn’t sweat emptying those last moving boxes in the apartment in Buffalo if I were Alan Roden.
• A cute story about how Rangers first baseman Jake Burger’s mom taught Max Scherzer 6th grade social studies.
• This brings a patriotic tear to my eye:

From around the league:

• Andrew Marchand at The Athletic has some quotes from Jimmy Pitaro, the chairman of ESPN, about the future of the league’s interest in baseball in the context of the breadown between of negotiations between the network and the league. The gist is that ESPN insists they’re still interested in baseball but I do not believe him. After 2026, ESPN’s rights will likely wind up split: the Home Run Derby will probably wind up on Fox (it was always bizarre that they owned the All Star Game but not the Derby), Sunday Night Baseball will likely end up with NBC at least in the May-August period between their Sunday nigh basketball and football flagships, and (ugh) the wildcard rounds will likely end up on streaming. At some point, probably next off season, I’m going to put on my day job hat as an economist (*every single reader closes their browser tab with prejudice*) and dig into what the death of cable and the fragmentation of sports means for baseball. I think the league is in for a pretty bumpy decade, and the looming lockout in 2027 is just the start.
• Perhaps related, the Giants sold a 10% stake to a private equity firm, which is always a good sign of a business that’s doing well and will continue to supply a quality product to its valued customers.
• Fangraphs continues their positional power ranking series. The Catchers were posted on Monday, which I missed at the time. In spite of the question marks behind Alejandro Kirk, the Jays still come in fourth. Today they released the shortstops. The Jays land only 12th in what is a ludicrously deep position right now. The Astros, who rank 19th at the position, project to get more WAR out of shortstop than the Rays project to get out of first base, where they rank 4th.
• Also at the Athletic, this piece by Tyler Kepner in which Mike Elias attempts to explain why, in spite of a loaded and cheap lineup, the Orioles are going into the season with a rotation composed of Grayson Rodriguez, maybe washed 35 year old former NPB star Tomoyuki Sugano, and sundry Deans and Charlies. It’s a reminder that we’re not the only fanbase that had a weird and frustrating off season. Plus it links to this picture of Tyler O’Neill’s dad: