With Arizona having two lefties in the pen, I wonder if Bochy will again split up Seager and Carter in the batting order. I imagine he will.

119th World Series.  In 1903 and from 1919 to 1921, the World Series was best-of-nine.  A return to that format might be appealing.

Sure.  Two eight team divisions in each league.  One league championship series best of seven and one World Series best of nine. 

While for determining a champion a best of 9 might be better - there is something for the insanity of a best of 1 too.

What I'd love is a round robin for each league involving the top 8 teams in each. The winner for each league goes to the WS and a best of 9 to decide the overall champion. The RR could be a series of 2 game sets, imagine the insanity as some teams would lose all their games, but keep pushing to get at least one win out of it. 14 games total for everyone, Sat/Sun, Mon/Tue, Thur/Fri - headache for setting a schedule to make it work but it'd be fun chaos. More home games for the top 4 teams, fewer for the bottom 4 - Maybe 3 home series for the bottom 4, 5 for the top 4. If 2 are tied at the end a one game winner goes to the WS game would happen. It'd be 7 2 game sets over 2 weeks - start on a Thur/Fri (every team gets Mon/Tue/Wed to recover, set rotation so the best can be used on the final game of the regular season without fear of losing them for round 1 like today). Final games are on a Mon/Tue then leaving open the ability for a 1 game winner take all on the Thursday, WS starts on a Saturday. The final few games might be anti-climatic due to it all being decided but then it becomes like the final games in September which are often meaningless (see all division winners this year outside of Houston) but for teams that haven't been to the playoffs it could still mean something. Not sure what, but I'm sure something could be set up as an incentive to keep pushing.

In my "get off my lawn" moment for the day - I'm with Mike on what I'd like to see. You probably would have had a Houston/Baltimore and an Atlanta/LAD set of League Championship series. The National League LCS would have been tasty. If the Diamondbacks win the WS then congratulations to them but they will in no way be the best team in baseball in 2023. Texas would at least have an argument.

Kiley McDaniel lists Moreno and Gurriel Jr. as the 11th- and 23rd-best players in the WS:

"11. Gabriel Moreno, C, Diamondbacks

Moreno was acquired in the winter from Toronto along with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in exchange for Daulton Varsho, a trade that's been solid for both teams, but I'd wager Arizona will win this deal in the long-term thanks to Moreno. He's an excellent hitter, defender and athlete, who also has strong at-bats and enough power to keep pitchers honest."

"23. Lourdes Gurriel Jr., LF, Diamondbacks

Gurriel is set to become a free agent this winter coming off of a career-high 2.1 WAR and 24 homers in the regular season, though he's been a bit worse than that in the postseason thus far."

Interestingly, in mid-2022 Kiley listed Orelvis as being a top 50 or so prospect (when many observers had all but written Orelvis off).

Las Vegas favours the Texas Rangers (-160) for game 1.  The over/under is 8.5 runs.  The last 5 games in a row went over for Texas.  Nathan Eovaldi has been a safe bet so far.  How do the Diamondbacks approach Adolis García?

Adolis Garcia is not who they need to worry about. I believe that Marcus Semien is going to wake up, and the 8-9-1-2-3 slots are where the locus of danger is going to be. It's funny-oddsmakers will tell you about minor injuries, but not about whether a newborn is sleeping through the night.

Arizona leads 5 - 3 into the 6th inning. D-backs running wild on the bases.

Letting Hedges bat there in such a crucial spot (after apparently a month without a plate appearance)…. seems like wishful thinking run wild. I imagine Garver could catch an inning or so if you need him to.

But hey. Extra innings are always fun, regardless of neutral rooting interests.

Extra-innings!

Let's see how my expectations fared when they met reality. Rangers score 6 runs in 11 innings- call that a shove. The Rangers ' bullpen outperformed Nathan Eovaldi- nope. The D-Backs needed to worry about Marcus Semien more than Adolis Garcia. Nope- guess the newborn isn't sleeping through the night yet.

As the wise man said, youneverknow.

There was a lot of talk in the game yesterday about how Ginkel and Sewald hadn't allowed a run in the post season. I was thinking that the WS usually reverses ongoing trends and, sure enough, both of them struggled in the game.

On the other hand, Adolis Garcia, MVP of the ALCS stayed hot.

Corey Seager was MVP of the 2020 WS. Could he do it again?

The AFL so far is SSS. 50-70 ABs. So 1 month. Using Orelvis as an example 1 month of ABs in lets say June, he turned the corner and continued for the rest of the season in AA/AAA to be on the brink of a ML callup. I give him the credit for improving his strike zone judgement. So it does not matter which level he achieved that IMO. Maybe some AFL prospects could do the same. Our 3 hitters did play a full season with Palmegiani continuing a very successful season. Robertson turned the corner July, Aug & Sept. His bb/k in the AFL is good. Brown is doing well going from A+.

I am still trying to figure out the mindset for rule 5 selections. It seems mainly relievers get selected. They are worth a look in ST.

Let's see how my expectations fared when they met reality.

History was always against Semien. Two years ago when I reviewed all the World Series MVPs I noticed that there had been more guys who had won multiple MVPs (Koufax, Gibson, Reggie) than MVPs who played second base (Richardson.)

I did some checking to see if the Dick Williams Second Basemen bias applied to WSMVP. Joe Morgan and Jackie Robinson did not hit well in the post-season. Bobby Grich never played in a World Series. Joe Gordon would have been a good choice for MVP in 1938 and 1941, but they weren't giving out the award then. Chuck Knoblauch was a plausible WSMVP candidate in both 1998 and 1999, although Brosius and Rivera were equally plausible.

Nah. Semien might win one. But not this year. As much as I like babies, it is bad karma for a ballplayer to have a fourth child (in the midst of a climate crisis) in October yet. Al Gore has been keeping his baby up.

I think in the rule 5 teams take relievers because a guy with 1 good pitch can be solid in a 1-2 inning role with limited exposure. You need a mop up guy in the pen to each the innings when everything goes wrong, especially for teams near the bottom. A rule 5 guy can do that, if you feel he has a good enough arm for the future. If he is wild, so what? If he gives up home runs so what? He is a kid who is pitching in games you are already behind by 5+ runs in a season you are going to lose 100+ in. If he does well he can get more pressure situations as the year progresses and if you get super lucky he becomes Johan Santana (80 ERA+ as rookie, 96 next, 150 the 3rd cracking 100 innings). For the Jays Joe Biagini did well - in 2016 he was given 3 low leverage games, 0 runs, given some pressure and gave up a run each time, low again for a bit, and slowly grew into a solid middle man in a playoff year.

Hitters are tougher though - Dewayne Wise was the last one taken by the Jays in 2000 (age 22) and flopped as a backup OF (-11 OPS+) but did get a decent career (played in the majors on and off to the age of 35 but had barely over 6 years service time). But the best picks were hitters - Manuel Lee, Kelly Gruber, George Bell, and Willie Upshaw. The best pitchers were Jim Acker, and Jim Gott with Joe Biagini also there as was Aquilino Lopez (did well in 2003 as a rookie, was doing poor as the whole team was in 2004 then dumped after the season).

Seems after the 80's when Gillick took full advantage of the rule 5 the Jays haven't done much with it. Just a few relievers here and there but over 20 years since taking a hitter, over 30 since getting a decent everyday player. Teams are far more careful than in the past - in the early 80's Wade Boggs went unprotected one winter and Gillick said he nearly took him but backed off at the last moment (defensive issues gave him pause iirc). In 2006 they changed the rules adding an extra year before players were eligible for the draft which probably affected this a lot. The most recent name I recognize instantly from the draft is Ji-Man Choi (taken by the Angels from O's after the O's signed him as a minor league free agent) - he was one of many Rays who have hurt the Jays over the years.

It is good to be careful with the draft, but in truth it is rare anyone of quality is taken. By the time a guy is qualified for it the Jays should know if he will be any good or not.

yahoo sports: " Rob Manfred says MLB might look to further limit the number of pitchers teams can carry "

“I think the most direct way to get at it is numbers, limiting numbers on the roster,” he said. “We went to 13. I don't think it's had the desired effect. There are a few numbers smaller than 13. Twelve would be next.”

"There are a few numbers lower than 13"

The Analytics departments are hard at work figuring out what those numbers might be.

Commissioner Manfred has gone off the deep end.

Heh. Love the way they put that. Back in the 80's when I was a teenager (yeah yeah, dinosaurs roamed the Earth, no internet, no cell phones as we know them today just those giant things that cost an arm and leg to use) teams went with 4 or 5 starters and 5 or 6 in the pen, a 10 man staff was the practical limit. But teams also had 1-3 starters go 250+ innings a season quite often, but not always. In 1983 the Jays had Stieb get 278 IP (at age 25), with Clancy & Leal both cracking 200 but sub 230. #4 was Gott with 176, and only Alexander cracked 100 otherwise on the staff. 14 pitchers used in total, the other 9 saw 2 relievers crack 90 innings (one started 5 games), 3 others between 50 and 65 IP, 1 at 45, the rest 11 IP or less. The closer was 10-3-6 for Sv-BlS-Hld (Randy Moffitt - brother of Billie Jean King) but another guy used in that role went 9-11-2 (ugh) Joey McLaughlin whose name gives shivers to many older fans. Roy Lee Jackson also had a shot and went 7-6-9. Overall they were 32-26-27 - that pen stunk but they won 89 anyways (being 3rd in runs scored, 2nd in complete games helped).

Push the pitching staffs to 12 for a few years, then down to 11 and you'll see changes happen - pitchers stretched out more in the minors, more value put on guys who can throw 200+ IP a year vs today where Jacob deGrom got a 5 years mega deal last winter despite last throwing 100 IP in a season in 2019.

I suspect the Jays are paying attention, as are other teams. Guys like Bassitt will be more valued who can throw 150+ without falling apart. The 4+ pitch pitcher will be more valuable (able to go through the order 3 times), such as Ryu and Bassitt. While the guys like Kikuchi who can do it twice through max will drop in value significantly. Last year 5 guys threw 80+ innings in relief, the most was 84 1/3 by Jake Bird and Tyler Holton - guys like them will need to emerge for everyone. In 2010 just 5 guys cracked 80 IP in the pen, in 2000 23 guys did (including ex-Jays Tim Crabtree, Jose Mesa, Paul Quantrill to give you an idea of the guys who did it). In 2000 Scott Sullivan threw 106 IP in the pen. Wow. Go back to 1990 and you get 5 guys cracking 100 IP (Duane Ward #1 with 127 2/3 IP in relief - he had 3 more years like that before his arm fell off), and 38 cracking 80 IP in relief. In 1980 you get a much different view (pre-LOOGY's) with 17 cracking 100 IP, and 54 cracking 80.

From 1980 to now just 1 reliever qualified for the ERA title (Bob Stanley in 1982 for Boston), one other cracked 150 IP (Mark Eichhorn for the Jays in 1986 - if Jimy Williams gave him 5 more IP he'd have won the ERA title). Over that time frame 184 relievers threw 100 IP in a season, but since 1990 just 40, 2000+ just 7, only 1 after 2006 (Ryan Yarbrough in 2018 for the Rays - acting as a 'main attraction' instead of starting (32 games, 118 2/3 IP). So really the last true reliever to do it was Scott Proctor in 2006 for the Yankees (83 games, 102 1/3 IP). Pretty easy to see how the A's under LaRussa screwed up baseball by going with Loogy's/Roogy's and hypercharged by the Rays who really used the shuttle to expand their pen from 9 guys to lord knows how many (34 relievers this year alone but were over 30 in 2019). Not checking everyone this year but using the Lahman database I see the highest was 39 relievers by the 2021 O's with Tampa cracking 30 in 2019-2021-2022.

So in summary: First time 30+ relievers used: 2002 San Diego, then 2014 Texas, 2015 Atlanta, 2017 Seattle, 2018 Atlanta & Toronto, then 2019 saw 7 teams, 2020 0, 2021 14 teams, 2022 5. So from 1871 to 2020 there were 13 teams using 30 man bullpens, 2021 had 14 before dropping again in 2022 to match 1871 through 2018. I'm sure if I took the time to check all 30 teams this year I'd find 5+ with 30+ relievers used again. Jays only used 20 relievers but we knew they had a good staff. Texas used 31 pitchers, 26 relievers. Oakland used 41 pitchers, just 5 were starters only so 36 relievers. You get the idea. Limiting staffs to 12 should force changes. Also see more guys who can't go 2+ disappearing to AAA or needing to learn a 2nd solid pitch.

To make smaller staffs work you need to increase balls in play. To do that you need a few changes....

1. A bigger strike zone, especially lower. With roboumps coming that should be easy to do. It'll make it so more ground balls happen due to hitters swinging at lower pitches which increases double plays and makes infield defense more important. Cutting back on high strikes would give less of a bonus to 100+ MPH guys (who live up there it seems) and reduce homers and pop ups.
2. Deader ball - a slightly heavier ball would change a lot - make it harder to hit it far, harder to throw 100 MPH, and harder to throw out base stealers - all things MLB wants to happen as it'd make the game more enjoyable.
3. Some incentive to keep starters in longer - smaller staffs do some of that, the challenge is how to get teams to build up guys more in the minors so they can go 8/9 innings once up in the majors without blowing arms out. Nolan Ryan famously used to walk 5+ and K 10+ in a game (1973 at age 26 he did that 14 times, peak being an 11 IP complete game with 7 BB 16 K's, 49 batters faced = minimum of 102 pitches but it is safe to say he rarely got a K without 1 or 2 balls thrown and few 4 pitch walks or 1 pitch AB's otherwise. 200+ pitches is very possible in that game.

FYI: Nolan Ryan's highest known pitch count was 235 done in 1974. Tim Wakefield holds the fully recorded record of 172 (full data from 1988 to now) set in 1993. He was so drained he only went 8 innings his next start and could only play until age 44.

Safe to say pitchers could go 7+ still if given a chance, they just need to adjust the mindset from going all-out for 5 with their best 2 pitches to adjusting speeds more and trying to conserve energy where possible so they could go for complete games again.

Wow, quiet here for game 2 - Arizona tying it up in a crazy 9-1 game - Moreno his 4th HR of the post season, Gurriel 2 for 3 scoring and driving in a run, Semien 1 for 4, Grossman who many here wanted the Jays to sign was 0-1 as a PH (308 OPS in the playoffs), Alek Thomas who I thought the Jays would go for as I didn't think Varsho was available was 2 for 5 and has a 871 OPS in the playoffs.

Arizona is really stepping it up here - weird for an 84 win team to have a real shot at it but that's baseball. In 1973 the Mets made it to the WS with a 82-79 record, losing in 7 to a powerhouse A's team (3 straight WS wins over which they had fewer fans show up than the Jays had in just 2023 - 2.768 million vs 3.022 million - in playoffs averaged about 30k for ALCS, 49k for WS games very much like the Rays of today except with a few WS wins then total collapse, made the ALCS in '75, 2nd in '76, fell apart after that as Finley traded away everyone he could).

Makes us realize that anyone can win. Lucky and hot in the postseason.

Arizona was building their young core last off season. So adding Moreno was a valuable piece to their building of their young core. The young core is Carroll, Moreno and a maybe 3 others that have yet to prove themselves fully.

Marte and Gurriel are 30 year olds and FAs soon I expect.

They are probably not going to make the playoffs next year as is Miami IMO. But the fans and players have tasted success. Maybe a WS. Good manager in Tory Lovullo. They should have a great farm system. So this team will be interesting.

The Blue Jays are hiring for multiple entry-level baseball operations positions.   

When they instituted the roster limit of 13 pitchers, there was talk it could be lowered in the future. I wouldn't mind it at about 11. You have a 5 man rotation, 6 man bullpen, and you'll see the game get back more to what people want - starters go a bit deeper, and you slow down the reliever carousel a bit.

13 pitchers (+1 September call-up) seems reasonable. 12 would be manageable. 11 might be too low.

I did a quick check on relief pitching.

In 2015 Randy Choate set the record for fewest outs per game pitched at 0.38 IP per game - barely over 1 out per appearance. 27 1/3 IP over 71 games - the ultimate LOOGY season. In his career he had 2 years out of 15 where he had as many innings as games pitched. One year he had 2 appearances but didn't get any of the 3 batters he faced out.

• 1955 was the first season where a guy with 20+ appearances averaged under an inning a game.
• 1986 the first year with 5+ guys doing it.
• 1991 the first year with 10 guys doing that.
• 1992 saw 26 do it
• 1993 38
• 1995 52 (1994 was the strike year)
• 2004 75 was reached for the first time
• 2007 100 was cracked
• 2012 150 pitchers did it
• 2015 set the record at 164 pitchers, before finally dropping to 128 in 2022. Not sure for 2023 (I used the Lahman database to put this together which doesn't have 2023 stats yet as it isn't updated until well after the World Series)

The 128 last year was the lowest since 2009 (119) and I suspect it'll keep inching down as LOOGY's vanish and managers want guys who can go 1+ inning every time. I wouldn't mind if they adjusted the 3 batter rule a bit more - you have to give up a run, get hurt (automatic IL after the game), pitch a full inning+, or finish an inning to be pulled. You could put a hard penalty in place - if a guy is pulled before any of those conditions are met (manager comes out a second time or something) he is automatically on the IL and the manager is suspended for 3 games or something.

For the Jays the lowest (minimum 20 games) was 1998 Steve Sinclair with 15 IP over 24 games (just under 2 outs per appearance). Also in the sub 2 outs per appearance are Dan Plesac 1998 and Doug Creek 2003, with Trever Miller 2003 barely over 2 outs per game. The most IP per game is Roger Clemens in 1997 at 7.76 IP per game with 3 of the next 4 being Dave Stieb seasons (1983-1984-1982) with Pat Hentgen's Cy season mixed in (1996). For guys with 0 starts the record is held by Mark Eichhorn with 2.28 outs per game in 1986 (157 IP) with Tom Buskey 1980 and Jerry Johnson 1977 also over 2 IP per game. 2019 was the highest in this century Sam Gaviglio 52 games 95 2/3 IP but just 3 ML innings since. Of note: 1989 Frank Wills had just 4 starts vs 20 relief games and averaged 2.97 IP per game (highest of anyone with 20 relief games in a season and under 10 starts for the Jays). Kind of fun to dig into.

Also, I'd LOVE to see restrictions on starters - they can't be pulled until 1) 6 innings are done or 2) 3 runs given up or 3) 100 pitches thrown or 4) injured (automatic IL status post game). That'd get rid of those bloody openers once and for all.

I don't see them reducing the 13 pitcher limits.
There is currently a restriction on position players pitching.
Somebody has to throw those pitches when the starter is out early.
They could extend the 15 day IL further or limit the number of times a players can be optioned.

Some teams win 100 games and they can't have the top  3 or 4 relievers pitch in all those games.
This year, Yimi Garcia leads with 73 appearances, Mayza and Swanson both have 69 and the Jays only won 89 games.
Same for teams that lose 100 games. The closer for the Royals has only 38 appearances. The top 3 relievers have 67, 58 and 45. Lots of guys in the 20s.

A guy can be a candidate for 2 or 3 innings but if he can't complete the first inning, than what? 

In 2020, the Jays top relievers were Bass, Dolis, Cole, Borucki and Wilmer Font.
Thankfully, they was no reliever limits back then.

Game 3: Max Scherzer vs. Brandon Pfaadt.

Corey Seager is a notorious first pitch swinger. So it seems odd that he has homered twice in this series off the first pitch to him. The DBacks should throw him a ball on first pitch.

Very erratic strike zone tonight.  Clear balls called strikes; clear strikes called balls.  It drives everyone nuts- pitchers and batters on both clubs.  They all deserve credit for not blowing up. 

Buckle up for A. Chapman.

Texas are running out of players, three injured tonight. Scherzer has back tightness, Adolis Garcia looked like an oblique, I am not sure what's the issue with Josh Sborz.

If Garcia has an oblique injury he could be out of the series.

MLB.com described Adolis Garcia's throw to the plate as "highlight reel".  What was the mph difference between that throw and one of Jesse's lasers?  5 mph?  10 mph?  15 mph?  It was definitely a right-lane throw. 

Statcast had the throw at 94.6 mph. There are a couple Barfield throws on the MLB video page, and they are all superior to Garcia's throw, but no statcast information for them.

Barfield, Bo Jackson, Cory Snider all it is safe to say threw at 100 mph from the OF back in the 80's - their arms were scary good but never measured. Barfield had the accuracy which made his the deadliest. I know they've recorded a few up there in recent years. Tatis Jr is recorded over 100 mph but watch the video and you can see his accuracy isn't in Barfield's league - do yourself a favor and watch the beauty of his arm.

Adolis García had an MRI on his left side.

Game 4: Travis Jankowski substitutes for Adolis García in right-field.

Jankowski bats 9th. Bochy rightly figures that if Mantiply goes 9 batters in, that probably is a good thing for the Rangers.

It's interesting that he didn't hit Heim 4th and Carter 5th. Heim hits LHP very well, and Carter has mostly been platooned. Heim is cold and Carter hot, and managers do prefer the hot hand. Never mind the evidence in the Book.

Pitchers adapted almost immediately to being told to throw their best 2 pitches 15 times, 2-3 times a week. They can go back though. If you limitde pitching staffs to 11 next year, teams would figure it out. Pitchers would too. Most, if not all, of them were throwing 6-9 innings in high school, and ask any pitcher and they will tell you they have another pitch or two. They'll manage at 95% effort, somehow.

K rates would only drop a bit (hitter strategy plays a huge role). Also noted an article at theringer this week and the growing realization there is a huge 'reliever familiarity' penalty, especially pronounced in the playoffs. Mlb hitters are absurdly good...seeing a predictable pitch just a few times gets them to another level. Look for some more blown leads in this series, none of the relievers strike me as overwhelming.

Semien lines a ball off Castro and Gurriel Jr. fumbles it.  Blue Jays represent. 

Texas in the driver's seat.

Corey Seager, World Series MVP for the second time?

I guess the newborn slept through the night.

Scherzer and García removed from the WS roster.

Better overall offense, postseason 2023 Rangers (with Garcia) or postseason 2015 Jays? Probably 2023 Rangers…their lineup is that good.

November baseball.

If there is a reliever familiarity penalty makes all the more impressive what Mariano Rivera did so consistently for so long for the Yankees in not just the regular season but even more so in the playoffs. A post season WHIP of 0.759 and ERA of 0.70 across 141 IP in his post season career. Not that his regular season career 1.00 WHIP and 2.21 ERA was that bad either for the career ERA+ of 205. And with unbalanced schedules and good teams tending to play each other in playoffs more frequently and with familiarity, he still thrived.

When was the last time 3 Blue Jays racked up 11 RBIs between them, as 3 ex-Jays did last night? Add in the 3 runs allowed & a fielding fumble and it was an all-star Jays night.

Well, way back in September of 1977, the Jays beat the Yankees19-3. Roy Howell drove in 9, so 11 between 3 is a fait accompli. And they gave up 3 runs, so that works, too! Alas, they weren't 'credited' with any errors, and I was only 7 at the time so didn't watch the game (it may not have been on TV, given that it was a Saturday game and I recall CFTO generally only showing Sunday & Wednesday games back then) and cannot attest to the quality of the Jays' gloves. The Yankees made 4 errors, however, so maybe we can slide one of those to the Toronto side of the ledger...

Wasn't Fergie Olver on the broadcast then?
Which, in 20-20 hindsight, might have been an error.

Don Chevrier.

Chevrier and Olver?

And perhaps Tony Kubek!

Of course. For those of us a decade older or more, Kubek is remembered for his work on the Game of the Week with Gowdy and Garagiola (mostly).

Wonder if on Texas blogs they are going nuts right now over how will the bullpen blow a 3-1 lead in the series? And how painful would that be. Heck, they almost blew a 10-0 lead last night.

This is very good from Jay Jaffe.  Like Jaffe, I admire Bochy and Chris Young for their decisiveness in addressing the Garcia and Scherzer injuries.  One of the things that annoys me about the Atkins/Schneider regime is waiting 3-4 days after a "minor" injury to put a player on the IL. 

Man - I watched so many of those Game of the Week broadcasts. Just seeing the reference to Joe Garagiola sent me down a pleasant memory lane.

Strange decision to hold Carter at third on Garver's single.  He was going to score standing up, with the throw likely being cut.    He was past third when the ball got to Thomas, and Carter can fly. 

Big World Series for ex-Blue Jays.

Just discovered one more ex-Blue Jay in the WS.

For a few innings, I was listening to the radio broadcast on the MLB app (Phoenix station.) Colour was by Tom Candiotti.

Speaking of colour analysts, I've never learned who's doing the international TV broadcast. Start of B9, Arizona down 5-0, he came up with this:

"Diamondbacks need to score a run."

Pretty dull world series with terrible ratings but at least the good team beat the average team. The pitch clock was a massive step forward for the game IMO but th expanded playoffs are just brutal not only because they allow mediocre teams to win but because it has totally deincentivized teams from trying to be very good. Look at the dodgers. Second best team in AL with some big holes and their moves at deadline were picking up backend starters and utility infielders.

I would argue the opposite, that it weeds out the worse teams. If you're a batter team over a longer period that doesnt make you the best team imho. It's the World Series not the Presidents trophy. Teams seem to be built for the season or the playoffs but usually not both.

LAD lost one of their best pitchers Nd had other issues. They didnt deserve to be there. Baltimore lost their best pitcher and had no ace. They had no business winning. Atl got best by a better team. TB got beat by a better team. Houston got beat by a better team. So one team (ARZ) beat another team that they shouldn't have (PHI). What dod the Phillies closer do in that series? They didnt have a good enough closer...

The best team won and besides Philly every other "legit" team was defeated by a better one.

Just over 100 days until pitchers & catchers report to Spring Training.

Rangers in 5 turned out to be right, but it could easily have gone 6 or 7.

Getting Bochy to come out of retirement was smart. He's a great manager, with an excellent handle on the technical and human sides of the game. Like an un-Shameless Billy Martin. It wouldn't work in New York, but he's a great fit for Texas.

I forgot that Torey Lovullo was a first base coach for the Jays back under John Farrell. He even was a fill in manager for a few games when Farrell had an operation.

Off-season speculation. I'm going hard for Soto. Not giving up everything, but with news that SD had to borrow $ for payroll and league didn't let them take all offered they have cashflow issues and MUST move players.
That probably means too many teams in the mix and too rich a price, but maybe there's other players available, or that might take some players out of FA.

Whit the only Silver Slugger nominee from the Jays.

Thank goodness its the offseason. Not looking forward to the inevitable Ohtani to Toronto posts. But am looking forward to see whether a few guys (I can think of three of them) can get in shape this offseason (that would provide a big boost internally), and what they do with 3B and LF.

I would be happy if we can sign a FA similar to Belt.

Ernie Whitt?

Someone nominated Whit Merrifield as a Silver Slugger. Seriously? There weren't many regular second basemen in the American League. Semien, Drury and Torres were way better, Gimenez was noticeably better, and McKinstry was a lot worse. And that's it for the qualified second basemen in the AL.

Merrifield was nominated as a utility player.

For silver slugger, Bichette was a bit unlucky to not be nominated. I mean it is clear Seager is going to be the deserving winner, but there are 3 nominees and Bo is pretty close to the other two (but I can see thinking he's 4th in this list, but it is quite close):

Seager 119G 526(AB+BB) 327/390/623 1.013 OPS
Crawford 145G 628(AB+BB) 266/380/438 0.818 OPS
Witt Jr 158G 681(AB+BB) 276/319/495 0.814 OPS

Bo 135G 598(AB+BB) 306/339/475 0.814 OPS

Normally with equal OPS you'd go with the higher OBP as being more valuable (so Bo over Witt), but Witt has more games, 30 HR, and 49 SB/15 CS compared to the 20 HR and 5 SB/3 CS for Bo.

But yeah, no other player for the Jays is really close (Merrifield for utility is a bit of stretch).

John Gibbons was on the radio this week and said that Bruce Bochy doesn't hang out in the club house with his players. He just shows up at game time and gives directions, then manages the game. Most managers are like "frat brothers."