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Features Top Jays of the 2010's
As 2019 ends and 2020 begins who were the Jays of the 10's?


Lots of ways to look at it, but I'll use WAR and some basic stats here for just the 2010's.  Most are obvious choices.
  • CA: Russell Martin: 7.7 WAR, 225/336/399, 398 at CA, 32 at 3B, 3 at SS, 3 at 2B, 1 in LF, 10 at DH
  • 1B: Justin Smoak: 7.1 WAR, 237/338/459, 595 at 1B, 47 at DH, 1 as a PR (honest!)
  • 2B: Devon Travis: 6.6 WAR, 274/314/437, 312 at 2B, 3 at DH.  Just 1 for 12 in playoffs.
  • 3B: Josh Donaldson: 21.6 WAR, 281/383/548, 417 at 3B, 4 at SS, 1 at 1B, 43 at DH
  • SS: Yunel Escobar: 8.6 WAR, 272/335/373, 335 G at SS, 3 at DH.  Tulo is just 4.8 WAR, Reyes 6.2.
  • LF: Melky Cabrera: 3.4 WAR, 293/340/421 - kind of weak here for the past decade, 9 different guys were the 'regular' at it with only Cabrera getting that honour twice.
  • CF: Kevin Pillar: 14.3 WAR, 260/297/396, 83-27 SB-CS, 603 G in CF, 77 in LF, 11 in RF, 5 at DH
  • RF: Jose Bautista: 34.5 WAR, 255/376/516 272 HR, 52-20 SB-CS.  Plus 243/364/541 in playoffs.  911 G in RF, 77 at 3B, 23 at 1B, 92 as DH
  • DH: Edwin Encarnacion: 23.6 WAR, 269/357/526 231 HR even 36 SB vs 8 CS.  Games: 386 at 1B, 142 at 3B, 5 in LF, 425 at DH
  • Backup: Brett Lawrie 11.8 WAR, 265/323/426 (3.4 WAR after leaving), 332 at 3B, 38 at 1B, 1 at SS, 1 at DH.
  • Backup: Colby Rasmus: 6.7 WAR, 234/295/433 381 in CF, 14 at DH.
Some of these are surprises to me.  Didn't think Escobar had that much more WAR than Tulo and Reyes, or even that he had more.  Also didn't notice that LF was rotating that much, almost as much as a Spinal Tap drummer.
Some were all-time Jays, Donaldson, Bautista, Encarnacion all might be the record holders at their positions on the Jays all-time team.  However, LF might have been the weakest ever in Jays history (Otto Velez had 6.9 WAR while alternating between RF/LF in the 70's).  In 2017 for example 12 different players played in LF and none of them had 1 WAR on the season.  9 in 2016 with all sub 2 WAR, etc.  

Pitching....
  • Starters....
  • Marcus Stroman: 13.4 WAR, 47-45 3.76 ERA 789 2/3 IP 140 GS 6 GR 1 Save, 2.6 BB/9 7.4 K/9
  • J.A. Happ: 10.6 WAR, 59-41 3.88 ERA, 745 1/3 IP 135 GS 8 GR, 3.1 BB/9 8.3 K/9
  • Marco Estrada 10.1 WAR, 39-40 4.25 ERA 686 2/3 IP 118 GS 6 GR, 3.2 BB/9 7.5 K/9
  • Aaron Sanchez: 8.8 WAR, 32-33 3.98 ERA 589 2/3 IP 96 GS 54 GR
  • Ricky Romero: 7.8 WAR, 38-36 4.11 ERA 623 1/3 IP 98 GS 2 GR, 4.0 BB/9 6.9 K/9
  • R.A. Dickey: 7.3 WAR 49-52, 4.05 ERA 824 1/3 IP 130 GS 1 GR 2.9 BB/9 6.6 K/9
  • Mark Buehrle: 7.0 WAR 40-28 3.78 ERA 604 1/3 IP 97 GS 0 GR, 1.9 BB/9 5.2 K/9
  • Relievers....
  • Roberto Osuna: 5.8 WAR, 8-14 104 Saves, 2.75 ERA 245 GR 223 IP 1.6 BB/9 10.2 K/9
  • Brett Cecil: 7.3 WAR 34-38-11 Sv, 4.01 ERA 57 GS 255 GR 562 2/3 IP 3.0 BB/9 8.3 K/9
  • Casey Janssen: 5.7 WAR 19-7-83 Sv 2.99 ERA 160 GR 0 GS 286 1/3 IP 2.1 BB/9 8.2 K/9
  • Aaron Loup: 4.2 WAR 12-20-6 Sv 3.47 ERA 369 GR 0 GS 318 2/3 IP 2.8 BB/9 8.4 K/9
  • Ken Giles: 2.5 WAR 2-4-37 Sv 2.48 ERA 74 GR 72 2/3 IP 2.6 BB/9 13.0 K/9 (Listed due to doing it in just 1 1/2 seasons)
  • Many others also in the 1-3 range (such as Shawn Camp, Scott Downs, Jason Frasor, Darren Oliver, and others).  Doesn't take much to land there.  I'm sure I missed many favorites when digging.
Completely forgot Cecil and Janssen were both here as recently as 2014 (Cecil through 2016)

Managers...
  • C.Gaston  round 2: 211-201 (85-77 in the 10's) - nearly pulled off a miracle in 2008 but it was too late (Took over on June 20th Jays 10 1/2 back of 1st, 8 1/2 from the playoffs.  If the season restarted the day Gaston started the Jays would've had the wild card, just 2 back of Tampa for the east crown)
  • J.Farrell: ugh.  154-170 over 2 years.  Then goes to Boston where he wanted to be all along and wins a WS.
  • J.Gibbons : Got his round 2 and made 2 playoffs (488-484, 10-10 in post season)
  • C.Montoyo:  67-95 in his one season so far, the 20's are his chance to shine or flop.
GM's...
  • Alex Anthopoulos (2010-2015) - 1 division title, 489-483, started strong (85 wins) dropped (73 in 2012) climbed again (93 in 2015).  Attendance went from 1,495,482 in 2010 (worst since 1982) to 2,794,891 in 2015
  • Ross Atkins (2016-present) - 1 wild card, 305-343, team got worse each year so far Attendance went from 3,392,099 in 2016 to 1,750,144 in 2019 (outside of 2010 the worst since 2002).
So will the Jays rebound under Atkins like they did under AA and reach new heights?  We will see, but for the 10's AA as GM and Gibbons as manger are clearly going to be remembered as the best combo since the Gaston/Gillick days.

Also of note:
  • The hitters average age was 27.8 to 31.0 from 2010-2018 before dropping like a stone last year to 25.9, the last time the team has an offense that young was 1981 (25.8).  Only 1980 and 81 were sub 26 for age of hitters.  Oldest in the AL in 2017, youngest in 2019.  From 2015-17 either the oldest or 2nd oldest, 4th in 2018. 
  • For pitchers nothing crazy for drop.  28.0 in 2010, 28.0 in 2019, always in the top 10 for oldest pitchers, but top 5 from 2013-2018 before dropping to 9th last year in the AL.   1983 was the last time the Jays had a staff younger than 27.
Fun going through the team over the past 10 years, lots of memories.  Be sure to post some favorite moments outside of the obvious (Bat flip which happened when I was at a hockey game for my daughter, EE's WC winning HR)

As a reminder of how things change, here is 2010-2012's Logo

Posted by John Northey on Tuesday, December 31 2019 @ 09:47 PM EST.
Top Jays of the 2010's | 43 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
ISLAND BOY - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 07:25 AM EST (#384608) #
Man, left field has really been a black hole. Developing home-grown quality outfielders seems to be an organization weakness.
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pooks137 - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 10:01 AM EST (#384609) #

Developing homegrown position players period was an organizational weakness for the decade and beyond until this year with Vlad, Bo and Cavan

It's telling that Pillar is the only player on this list that was drafted or signed with the Jays (Lawrie and Travis debuted with Toronto, but were acquired as finished products). Position players brought to the majors has essentially been Pillar, Adam Lind and Aaron Hill since the start of JPR's tenure

The pitching leaderboards tell a different tale, with Stroman, Sanchez, Romero, Osuna, Cecil, Janssen and Loup.

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bpoz - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 01:10 PM EST (#384612) #
Syndergaard was also a Jay's prospect. Then a few not so great pitchers like S Dyson. I expect the current crop of pitching prospects to produce many #2 and #3 SPs due to the sheer numbers.

We had the discussion about how much this FO values defense. Most of us decided that they don't value it much so far. Pillar in CF for 5 years or so did give defense.

V Wells type CF is aiming high. A young Pillar, Reed Johnston and S Stewart should be easier to get or develop.

We recently have produced CFs J Marisnick and J Davis who have the necessary defense for CF and seem healthy.

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Shoeless Joe - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 04:28 PM EST (#384617) #
Baseball America ranked the drafts during the 2010s and the Jays landed at #4 on the strength of the 2010-2013 periods for AA. The rest of the AL East came in as Orioles #8, Red Sox #9, Rays #19 and the Yanks #28. Two thirds from the Yanks total war came from Aaron Judge and the rest of their drafts coming up very poor.

The other interesting thing was that some teams drafting at the top for
Much of the decade like the Reds and Phillies are near the bottom on draft results. It takes more than just high picks to have a good draft.
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Mike Green - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 05:16 PM EST (#384619) #
Rays 19th? It doesn't make sense to me, so I'll check.
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Shoeless Joe - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 06:00 PM EST (#384623) #
19. Rays

WAR: 52.5

Top picks: Blake Snell, Kevin Kiermaier, Derek Dietrich

The Rays drafted exceedingly poorly outside of a few big hits (Snell, Kiermaier), but they remained competitive on the strength of the previous decade’s drafts and savvy trades. Their most recent classes could represent a significant improvement, however. Brendan McKay, Brandon Lowe and Nate Lowe were all drafted in the second half of the decade and have already reached the majors, while Matthew Liberatore headlines a particularly promising 2018 draft class.
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whiterasta80 - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 06:15 PM EST (#384624) #
Did we get credit for Bryant and NOLA in that lost? I dont think we should.
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Mike Green - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 06:17 PM EST (#384625) #
Fair enough. It really amounts to a review of the 2010-15 drafts. The Rays were indeed fair during this period.
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hypobole - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 06:34 PM EST (#384626) #
Remember the 2011 draft where AA wheeled-and-dealed for 5 of the top 60 picks? Rays had 10 of the top 60. They ended up with Snell, but none of their other 9 picks has even reached 1 career bWAR.
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Shoeless Joe - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 06:36 PM EST (#384627) #
Only players who signed counted:

4. Blue Jays

WAR: 95.1

Top picks: Noah Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman, Kevin Pillar

The Blue Jays’ draft successes come almost exclusively from the start of the decade, when they drafted Syndergaard, Stroman, Pillar, Aaron Sanchez, Joe Musgrove, Matthew Boyd, Anthony DeSclafani, Daniel Norris and Sam Dyson between 2010 and 2013. It’s been slimmer pickings since, but the 2016 class that brought them Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio holds immense promise, as do 2017 first-rounder Nate Pearson and 2018 first-rounder Jordan Groshans.
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bpoz - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 06:52 PM EST (#384628) #
Thanks Shoeless Joe. Also Kendel Graveman.



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John Northey - Wednesday, January 01 2020 @ 08:12 PM EST (#384629) #
Drafts are fun to dig into as well.  I think we've had them done a few times here in the past.  The problem is it takes at least a decade to know if a draft had any hits or not for certain.  (5 years to develop in minors, 5 more in majors or flip flopping). 

Fast check using years ending in 9...
Right away you can see Gillick had his issues with the draft early on but near the end hit a few home runs (Olerud & Kent in one draft is sweet).  The 2009 draft set up backups for the 10's teams with Louop, Goins, Tepera, Jenkins, and Hutch who looked like he'd be a lot more than he was in the end but he got the Jays Francisco Liriano, Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez in one trade. (which led to the future trade of Lirano for Nori Aoki and Teoscar Hernandez so one could say Hutch's 0.1 still helps the Jays today via Hernandez & McGuire, not bad for a 15th round pick).
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pooks137 - Thursday, January 02 2020 @ 02:41 AM EST (#384633) #

It's incredible and very sad that two members of the 2009 Jays draft class are now deceased.

Jake Eliopoulos, the Jays 2nd round pick and one of the top three picks along with James Paxton and Jake Barrett who didn't sign, lost his battle with depression 4 years later.

Daniel Webb, 18th round pick that same year, was signed to a way overslot deal at $450,000 similar to Drew Hutchison, since the Jays had monies left over from not signing the above three picks. He was later traded to the White Sox to bring Jason Frasor back for a second stint. Webb tragically passed away in an ATV accident on his farm just a few weeks after his wedding in 2017.

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John Northey - Thursday, January 02 2020 @ 02:11 PM EST (#384647) #
That is sad pooks137.  Can't seem to find an easy source for birth/death by team by player.  Used to use the database put together by Sean Lahman but it hasn't been updated since the end of 2017. 
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baagcur - Thursday, January 02 2020 @ 07:18 PM EST (#384658) #
The Lahman database is also a package in R and is maintained - although the next version for 2019 season will not appear until May, probably

It does not appear to have draft data but, if I have coded it correctly, 22 of the 782 players pre-2019, who have actually played in the MLB, for Toronto were deceased up until the end of the 2018 season. Since then, Ron Fairly, for one, has died and the oldest survivor is 80 year old Rico Carty
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John Northey - Thursday, January 02 2020 @ 08:31 PM EST (#384660) #
I asked Sean via email and he says it should be updated in the next few weeks (yay for us database freaks who find BR too limited, but dang nice anyways).
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Thomas - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 06:31 AM EST (#384666) #
If you had asked me to name the top 5 Jays starters of the decade, I think I could have gotten number one through four correct right away.

However, it would have taken me a lot of guesses to get the fifth, as I always associate Romero with the 2000's (even though he was drafted in the mid-2000's and still needed a few years in the minors).
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lexomatic - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 07:05 AM EST (#384667) #
Sanchez is probably really helped by relief performance. The real answer is likely Dickey. .
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lexomatic - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 07:12 AM EST (#384668) #
Also fangraphs has massively different totals - only looked at pitching so far.Strom an 15, Happ 11, Morrow 8.6, Buehrle 7.9, estrada 7.6 (forgot to edit out rp numbers but still close). Sanchez diem au 8th with 5.I retesting
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BlueJayWay - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 07:52 AM EST (#384669) #
As a reminder of how things change, here is 2010-2012's Logo


Of all the things that happened with the Jays last decade, I think we shouldn't underrate the importance of the rebrand.
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scottt - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 08:57 AM EST (#384671) #
The team had Vernon Wells in center, Alex Rios in Right, Adam Lind in left, Travis snider, Eric Thames.

Bautista claimed right  field and that was that.

Why bother with Rajai Davis in left field? Mostly because he was cheap I suppose, or you can say he was  an early version of Derek Fisher. He did have some productive years, but later with other teams. They could have put Pompey in left and he would have been better than most of the guys they had there like Carrera and Cola.

Saunders' precipitous fall was weird. For a while he made it looked like left field was taken care of.

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Mike Green - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 09:16 AM EST (#384672) #
However, it would have taken me a lot of guesses to get the fifth, as I always associate Romero with the 2000's (even though he was drafted in the mid-2000's and still needed a few years in the minors).

It gets worse, Thomas.  I have very few markers for 2009-11.  Romero was a collegian drafted in 2005- easy to remember because the Blue Jays had a high pick after the Year from Hell and chose Romero over Tulo (and Maybin).  But, whether he had his best years in 2008-09, 09-10 or 10-11 (it was the latter), I really would have no clue.  The same holds true for music.  If you ask me to make up my best of decade music, I have to check whether music made in the 08-12 period was actually made in the teens. 
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uglyone - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 10:12 AM EST (#384673) #
Great stuff, John.

Using Fangraphs WAR for another spin - shoving the top total war guys into a fake lineup as best I can:


1. SS Reyes 1385pa, 105wrc+, 7.7war, 3.6war650
2. 3B Donaldson 2066pa, 150wrc+, 22.2war, 7.0war650
3. RF Bautista 4807pa, 142wrc+, 34.4war, 4.7war650
4. DH Encarnacion 4030pa, 139wrc+, 23.1war, 3.7war650
5. 1B Smoak 2400pa, 114wrc+, 6.3war, 1.7war650
6. 2B Lawrie 1431pa, 105wrc+, 7.7war, 3.5war650
7. C Martin 1759pa, 103wrc+, 11.3war, 4.2war650
8. LF Rasmus 1599pa, 97wrc+, 6.0war, 2.4war650
9. CF Pillar 2635pa, 86wrc+, 10.1war, 2.5war650

UT Travis 1245pa, 102wrc+, 4.8war, 2.5war650
OF Wells 646pa, 126wrc+, 3.7war, 3.7war650
IF Escobar 1464pa, 94wrc+, 5.8war, 2.6war650
C Molina 374pa, 96wrc+, 4.9war, 8.5war650

XUT Tulowitzki 987pa, 95wrc+, 4.3war, 2.8war650
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Mike Green - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 10:26 AM EST (#384674) #
The four leading players of the decade for the Blue Jays were Bautista, Donaldson, Encarnacion and Pillar.  In 2009, they had done the following:
Bautista (28)- .235/.349/.408 (2.9 WAR)
Donaldson (23)- .270/.379/.415 (AA)
Encarnacion (26)- .225/.320/.410 (0.0 WAR)
Pillar in college- was a 32nd round pick in the 2011 draft.

A pretty unlikely group if you ask me.  In 2009, the Blue Jays had a 27 year old Aaron Hill putting up a 5.6 WAR season at second base, a 21 year old Travis Snider (who had hit .337/.431/.663 in triple A and had made a decent major league debut), and a couple of young pitchers (Romero and Cecil) who seemed like better bets. 
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uglyone - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 10:41 AM EST (#384676) #
Pitching (averaging out FIPwar and RA9war):

1. RH Stroman 129gs, 87era-, 14.6war, 3.6war32
2. LH Happ 127gs, 93era-, 11.3war, 2.9war32
3. LH Buehrle 97gs, 94era-, 8.4war, 2.8war32
4. RH Estrada 118gs, 101era-, 8.4war, 2.3war32
5. RH Dickey 130gs, 100era-, 7.9war, 1.9war32
X. LH Romero 98gs, 98era-, 7.5war, 2.5war32


CL RH Osuna 223.0ip, 68era-, 6.2war, 1.8war65
SU RH Jansen 286.1ip, 73era-, 4.7war, 1.1war65
SU LH Cecil 216.0ip, 75era-, 3.9war, 1.2war65
MR LH Loup 318.2ip, 84era-, 3.1war, 0.6war65
MR RH Giles 72.2ip, 56era-, 2.1war, 1.8war65
MR RH Leone 70.1ip, 59era-, 1.7war, 1.6war65
MR RH Sanchez 59.1ip, 42era-, 1.6war, 1.7war65
XR LH Oliver 105.2ip, 70era-, 1.6war, 1.0war65

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greenfrog - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 11:46 AM EST (#384681) #
Luis Robert has signed a six-year, $50m extension with two club options for $20m per year.

Basically, the White Sox have locked him up for the remainder of his 20s. If he ends up as an above-average to star-calibre center fielder, this will be a very good deal for the Pale Hose.

https://www.mlb.com/news/luis-robert-extension-with-white-sox

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/white-sox-and-luis-robert-agree-on-50-million-extension/
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Chuck - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 01:23 PM EST (#384687) #
The four leading players of the decade for the Blue Jays were [...] A pretty unlikely group if you ask me.

That is definitely one inauspicious foursome. A reminder of Joaquin Andujar's catchphrase, often echoed by Magpie, youneverknow.

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Jevant - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 01:35 PM EST (#384688) #
Does this mean that Dickey started more games for the Jays than anyone else in the 2010s?

That's incredible. Not sure if "good incredible" or "bad incredible". But it's remarkable to me.
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bpoz - Friday, January 03 2020 @ 01:35 PM EST (#384689) #
Youneverknow until you throw it at the wall and see what sticks.
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John Northey - Saturday, January 04 2020 @ 03:02 PM EST (#384707) #
Jevant - hadn't thought about that.

R.A. Dickey: #11 all time for games started as a Blue Jay with 130, Stieb leads with 408, Clancy 345, Halladay 287, Key 250, Hentgen 238, Guzman 195, Stottlemyre 175, Leal 151, Wells 138, Carpenter 135, Stroman 129. 

So by trading Stroman Dickey leads for games started in the 2010's by 1.  Happ & Romero are at 127 each, Estrada 118, Cerutti 108, Alexander 103, Escobar 101 and that covers everyone with 100+ starts as a Jay.

You just need 33 to make the Jays all-time top 50 starters.  So a player could make the top 50 in just one season. 

For Innings Dickey drops to 12th behind Escobar (who was used as a closer for quite a bit) and Stroman is 34 2/3 IP behind him.  Stieb/Clancy/Halladay the only 2000+ IP guys.

Looking at the top lists for the Jays I saw a surprise - BB/9 all-time is led by the amazing....Josh Towers and by a lot 1.628 vs 2nd and the only other sub 2 guy Mark Buehrle1.936.  Halladay is 3rd at 2.001.   Stroman is 8th at 2.519, Dicky 11th at 2.937 (amazing for a knuckleball pitcher). 
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lexomatic - Saturday, January 04 2020 @ 07:41 PM EST (#384713) #
Dickey 's bb/9 is also impressive considering what felt like bias against him and getting way more walks than in the NL (could just be NYY/BOS, but this is all gut, no fact).
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ISLAND BOY - Sunday, January 05 2020 @ 12:11 PM EST (#384715) #
John Cerutti was a name in the list of most games as a Blue Jay and one that I hadn't seen or thought of in a long time. He is one of the Jays that has passed away as he died from heart arrhythmia at age 44. He was a broadcaster for Sportsnet and when he didn't show up for a pregame meeting prior to the last game of the 2004 season, police were sent to break into his hotel room where he was found with no vital signs. He had the first win at the new Skydome.
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scottt - Monday, January 06 2020 @ 07:13 AM EST (#384720) #
The Jays gave Guerrero 8M. Luis Robert got 26M from the White Sox--plus another 26M in taxes--just before limitations were raised. Everybody expect him to do very well, however, he suffered from ankle, knee and thumb injuries during his short minor league career. So the key for him might be to stay healthy.

MLB pipeline has Roberts are the #3 prospect behind Wander Franco and Gavin Lux, names you might already be familiar with.

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bpoz - Monday, January 06 2020 @ 09:12 AM EST (#384721) #
I thought that Vlad signed for a little under $5 mil. They also paid Y Diaz maybe $1.5 mil that year.
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John Northey - Monday, January 06 2020 @ 02:56 PM EST (#384726) #
Actually Vlad just got a $3.9 million bonus due to the strong limits put on bonus' recently by MLB. No one gets an $8 million bonus now except the top pick or two in the draft.
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scottt - Monday, January 06 2020 @ 05:25 PM EST (#384729) #
Right. 3.9M for Guerrero in 2015 with some penalties with respect to 2016 signings. I think.
26M for Robert in 2017 with an extra 26M in penalty. Not clear if there were other restrictions.

I believe the new program was that Cuban baseball would receive the same as the players but  Trump canceled the that.

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greenfrog - Tuesday, January 07 2020 @ 11:58 AM EST (#384745) #
Fangraphs on Cal Stevenson (from the recently-posted Astros Top 40 Prospects):

39. Cal Stevenson, CF
Drafted: 10th Round, 2018 from Arizona (TOR)
Age 23.3 Height 5′ 10″ Weight 175 Bat / Thr L / L FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
50/60 40/40 30/30 60/60 40/40 40/40

Stevenson is relatively positionless but he has great contact and on base skills. His numbers are likely inflated due to his age relative to level, but the industry undervalued him during his draft year because of injury, so it’s possible we’re seeing something closer to the real Stevenson now. He’s a fourth outfielder type of prospect if this is real.
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Mike Green - Tuesday, January 07 2020 @ 12:20 PM EST (#384747) #
"relatively positionless" and "40/40 Fielding" for Stevenson are matters of opinion where there is pretty significant disagreement.  He's a centerfielder who runs well.  Some say he's a very good fielder, but I haven't read anywhere (aside from Fangraphs) that he is below average.  Maybe he's the second coming of Teoscar Hernandez (who Fangraphs thought was above average, by the way), but maybe he's as good defensively as Kevin Pillar.  Personally, I'd bet that he is closer to Pillar than to Hernandez but more likely he is somewhere in the middle of those two. 
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greenfrog - Tuesday, January 07 2020 @ 12:32 PM EST (#384748) #
If the Jays' evaluation of Stevenson aligns with the Fangraphs summary (i.e., fourth outfielder), then the Fisher trade makes more sense from the perspective of the Jays front office. That is, a minor salary dump (Sanchez and Biagini) plus a low-ceiling prospect (Stevenson) in exchange for a prospect with some issues but perceived higher upside (Fisher).

Stevenson has a track record of overachieving, which does make him easier to root for. And, of course, demonstrated performance often trumps tools when it comes to predicting future success.
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scottt - Tuesday, January 07 2020 @ 06:19 PM EST (#384755) #
His numbers are likely inflated due to his age relative to level

That must be related to his 2018 rookie year.
In his age appropriate A+ year (2019)  he had an OPS of .772.
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Michael - Wednesday, January 08 2020 @ 07:23 AM EST (#384761) #
An alternate way of doing the decade team is to say if we could pick one year for each Jay player and make the best team of the decade mixing and matching the players across the decade (but not repeating any player) how good of a team can we make? No out of position except a couple of SP for long relievers/swing players, mainly chosen by WAR to reward health/full season over half season rate stats. Consider this roster (every year but 2018 represented):

1. SS Escobar 2011 4.8 WAR 290/369/413/782 112 OPS+ 11 HR
2. 3B Donaldson 2015 8.5 WAR 297/371/568/939 151 OPS+ 41 HR
3. RF Bautista 2011 8.3 WAR 302/447/608/1.056 182 OPS+ 43 HR
4. DH Encarnacion 2012 5.0 WAR 280/384/557/941 153 OPS+ 42 HR
5. 1B Smoark 2017 3.5 WAR 270/355/529/883 131 OPS+ 38 HR
6. CF Rasmus 2013 4.9 WAR 276/338/501/840 127 OPS+ 22 HR
7. LF Cabrera 2014 3.3 WAR 301/351/458/808 128 OPS+ 16 HR
8. C Martin 2015 3.0 WAR 240/329/458/787 112 OPS+ 23 HR
9. 2B Travis 2016 3.0 WAR 300/332/454/785 108 OPS+ 11 HR

Bench
CF/OF Pillar 2015 4.9 WAR 278/314/399/713 93 OPS+ 12 HR
3B/if Lawrie 2012 4.5 WAR 293/373/580/953 153 OPS+ 9 HR
SS/if Gonzalez 2010 3.5 WAR 259/296/497/793 110 OPS+ 17 HR
2B/if Biggio 2019 2.8 WAR 234/364/429/793 113 OPS+ 16 HR
C Navarro 2014 2.6 WAR 274/317/395/712 101 OPS+ 12 HR

Pitchers
SP1 Romero 2011 6.4 WAR 32 gs, 225 IP, 1.138 WHIP, 2.92 ERA, 178 K
SP2 Stroman 2017 5.5 WAR 33 gs, 201 IP, 1.308 WHIP, 3.09 ERA, 164 K
SP3 Sanchez 2016 5.0 WAR 30 gs, 192 IP, 1.167 WHIP, 3.00 ERA, 161 K
SP4 Happ 2016 4.8 WAR 32 gs, 195 IP, 1.169 WHIP, 3.18 ERA, 163 K
SP5 Marcum 2010 4.2 WAR 31 gs, 195.1 IP, 1.147 WHIP, 3.64 ERA, 165 K

Bullpen
RP/Swing Estrada 2015 4.0 WAR 28 GS, 181 IP, 1.044 WHIP, 3.13 ERA, 131 K
RP/Swing Buehrle 2014 3.5 WAR 32 GS, 202 IP, 1.356 WHIP, 3.39 ERA, 119 K
Closer Giles 2019 2.4 WAR 53 G, 53 IP, 1.000 WHIP, 1.87 ERA, 83 K
Setup Osuna 2016 2.1 WAR 72 G, 74 IP, 0.932 WHIP, 2.68 ERA, 82 K
RP Leone 2017 2.1 WAR 65 G, 70.1 IP, 1.052 WHIP, 2.56 ERA, 81 K
RP Oliver 2012 1.9 WAR 62 G, 56.2 IP, 1.024 WHIP, 2.06 ERA, 52 K
[ Reply to This ]
Parker - Wednesday, January 08 2020 @ 09:58 AM EST (#384764) #
That's one heck of a team, holy cow.

I'm nitpicking here, but it does kind of feel like cheating to have Marcum, Lawrie, and Donaldson all on the same team.

"Smoark". Hehe.
[ Reply to This ]
John Northey - Wednesday, January 08 2020 @ 10:35 PM EST (#384779) #
Nice team, but I'm sure it'd be slaughtered by the 90's or 80's team.

1990's
  Pitching
Didn't feel up to doing the 80's (best relief year was 1986 for Mark Eichhorn with 7.3 WAR in 157 IP, yes all in relief and his arm didn't fall off) but that was fun digging through the 90's.  Borders was better than I remembered, surprised to see 3 guys with 3 WAR seasons in the pen.
[ Reply to This ]
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