Your memory plays you false! But just a little.

I like to think I waver between brilliance and total brain fog. It’s kept me going for many years. Of course, that’s the brain fog speaking.

Tend to agree with dalimon, there must be a bigger fish out there.  Mind you, as John N. has illustrated, the marketplace is slim pickings.

Thinking outside the box, Toronto could flex some muscle and throw around $50 M cash-in-lieu of players / prospects in a trade.

The rumours have reached Shakespearean levels.  It's like being back in high school. Such drama.

I sincerely don't get the toxicity that this fanbase continuously engenders. To a certain subset of people, everything bad that happened to our players is real and permanent, and anything good an illusion that'll burn off like fog on a cool Spring Training morning. Opponents have all improved, with their overperformances a new permanent state, and all their acquisitions are the fruit of opposition management's genius. Our management is obviously incompetent, or worse, actively trying to sabotage, and all evidence to the contrary are exceptions, red herrings that distract everyone from the terrible truth.

I don't get it because the whole point of this endeavour is to entertain us. To paraphrase the great Sam Miller, we follow this sport to distract ourselves as we slowly die in front of each other; we like watching baseball because we're all on the slog to rigor mortis.

Toxic negativity isn't entertaining to me, and I'd bet it's not entertaining to the toxically negative, either, but it's somehow inescapable. I wish someone could give me an explanation that's not "social media has ruined discourse."

Turner collected a $6.7 M buyout from Boston.

1. RF: Springer 111
2. SS: Bo 121
3. 1B: Vlad 133
4. DH: Turner 115
5. LF: Varsho 107
6. C: Kirk 110 / Jansen 119
7. 2B: Schneider 112
8. 3B: Biggio 98 / IKF 78
9. CF: KK 89

• Spots 1-4 Delgado (2000-2003) 143-179 wRC+
• #5 is Adam Lind 2009 at 140
• #6 Brandon Belt 2023 at 138
• 130+ also are Matt Stairs 2007, Adam Lind 2013, Colby Rasmus 2013
• 120's are Carlos Delgado 2004, Lyle Overbay 2006, and Eric Hinske 2002

• John Olerud 1993 at 179
• 150's Fred McGriff 1988-1989-1990 (156 or 157 each year - dang talk about consistent)
• 140's Delgado 1998, Shawn Green 1999
• 130's Upshaw 1983, Moseby 1983, Delgado 1999
• 120's Roy Howell 1977, Mulliniks 1985 & 1983, Olerud 1990/1992/1994, Al Woods 1980, Moseby 1984, Delgado 1997, Mayberry 1979

but could they give Chapman a backloaded contract, or one with some deferred money, to avoid that problem?

I understand if you're speaking on behalf of the cabal or whatever you guys call yourselves these days and say please keep this stuff to yourself; that's fine. I'll do that starting right after this post.

Your response was pretty offensive. My toxic negativity is the result of a deep emotional investment, and your facetious description of my fandom feels like an attempt to trivialize or discredit how I am feeling.

Your response is actually an answer to my question, in short: "Where is this coming from?"

Upon a bit of self-reflection, I think that what I'm feeling is actually a version of what you're feeling, only directed differently. I've placed emotional investment in finding an informed community to talk baseball in a friendly, constructive way, and when confronted with a fanbase (not just Batter's Box) that went so negative just as the team also started feeling like it was stagnating, it was like two sources of joy in my life (baseball, and talking about baseball) turned into pits of (at best) beige pablum, and at worst dark, red fury. That change had an effect on me, of course, and it's come out in various places, most recently right here.

I'm not asking you to shut up, or to be unflinchingly positive, or even to be constructive. There's a lot of ways to be a fan. I just need to work on accepting that myself.

• 2020-now: Jays: 0, Rays: 1, NYY: 1, Red Sox: 0, O's: 3
• 2016-2019: Jays: 23, Rays: 20, NYY: 20, Red Sox: 13, O's: 15

• Jays: Alek Manoah 7.8 2019; Bo Bichette 17.7 2016; Marcus Stroman 21.7 2012; Orlando Hudson 30.9 1997; Roy Halladay 64.2 (best ever)
• NYY: Garrett Whitlock 5.0 2017; Jordan Montgomery 12.5 2014; Aaron Judge 41.5 2013; (2006 4 10's, 2005 2 20+'s, then to the mid 90's for more 10's); Derek Jeter 1992 71.3 (best draft pick the Yankees made)
• Rays: Shane McClanahan 8.6 2018; Brandon Lowe 13.7 2015; Blake Snell 21.1 2011; Kevin Kiermaier 35.5 2010; David Price 40.3 2007; Evan Longoria 58.6 2006 (best ever for them)
• O's: Adley Rutschman 9.6 & Gunnar Henderson 7.1 2019; Cedric Mullins 12.2 2015; Kevin Gausman 23.0 2012; Manny Machado 54.9 2010; Mike Mussina 82.8 1990; Cal Ripken Jr. 95.9 1978 (Best obviously)
• Red Sox: Tanner Houck 5.8 2017; Andrew Benintendi 16.1 2015; Mookie Betts 64.5 2011 (last 20+ other than Betts was Anthony Rizzo in 2007); Jeff Bagwell 79.9 1989 (tons of excellent guys in the 90s); Roger Clemens 139.2 1983 (8th best WAR all time but the Jays took Matt Stark instead before him - 18 players drafted before Clemens only 1 had more than 3.1 WAR and he [Tim Belcher] didn't sign)

Only just now getting the memo? I induced a WTF eyeroll from my adult son when discussing Genesis, my favourite band. I told him that I wasn't a fan of the late stuff, after they had moved from prog rock to pop. When was that, dad? Oh, the late 70s and early 80s.

Old age just sneaks up on you. Any low scores I get in Grid are only because my long term memory is the only memory that halfway works for me. I am ready for Washington second basemen. My brain will shoot right to Ron Brand.

The instrumental passages in Cinema Show and Firth of Fifth are their very best ever. Hard to believe the lads were just 22 or 23 at the time.

In the past year, L-C built a collection of vintage SNES titles. It's been a fun challenge to search the city for retro video game stores.

Kiermaier, like Chapman, got off to a hot start last year and then was mediocre over the last 4+ months of the season.

Not sure why PHing for Kiermaier and Varsho with a lefty is that radical. They were both bad hitters for most of the '23 season.

Varsho, though, has an established history of hitting better than KK, with 2023 being the clear outlier. If you think that an 80 wRC+ is Varsho's new normal going forward, that's your prerogative, but ZiPS doesn't agree, and his history of performance in the minors and majors makes me agree with the projections until proven otherwise. For that reason, it'd have to be a clear upgrade for me to be OK with a Varsho pinch hitting situation: one of the other regulars is sitting for some reason, or maybe Turner didn't start the game. In most other situations I'd ride with Varsho.

Yeah, you'd think Vladdy would say, 'heck, it's less than $2M, I had a disappointing year, I can earn it back with a monster season.'

Ben Shulman would seem the most likely.

A grade of D is a bit low, if C is considered average.