I'd really like to see some major changes on the conditioning fronts. They clearly need better trainers, better programs and better off-season conditioning regimes.

This goes for all Toronto sports teams btw.

Sell off pieces in good deals if you can make the team better next year

I think 3 things. a) The team was hot last year (ie, many guys having career-high years) and cold this year (ie, many guys having below-average years of theirs); b) Vladdy didn't prepare properly in the offseason and I think this is a lost season for him; c) Maybe Bassitt and Bo were relatively important locker room presences

If true

Ewwwwwwww

Sportsnet did play commercials for me last year. both ad breaks and inset ads during game play. not to mention the terrible overlay ads on the mound and stadium

MyBrainHurts The AL East consists of the Blue Jays, who even on years where they have not been competitive in the division have been potentially good enough to win other divisions, the Yankees and Redsox, two very old teams from major US markets with shit tons of money, the Rays, who are possibly the most efficient team in all of professional sports when it comes to Wins/Dollar, and Baltimore, who are also sometimes a problem.

Most years, if you were to spread those teams out around the league, 4 out of 5 of them would make the playoffs. Meanwhile, there are divisions in baseball that if their leaders were in the AL East, they'd be in the basement.

It's an absolutely crazy alignment.

When it comes to actually winning in the post season, differences between teams matters. That's really where the good vs bad teams really stand out. During the course of the season, though? There are 162 game. Getting into the playoffs is very often just about being marginally better than whoever you're playing all season long, not about being crazy dominant powerhouses.

Unless you're the current Dodgers team, which has like a half-billion dollar payroll. They truly are juggernauts.

Thanks for this, makes sense! It's very strange adjusting to this fluidity coming from hockey where a lot of teams stay good for years and some teams just exist to break my heart glares at the Canucks.

Had no idea about the difficulty of the division even but looking at the standings from last year, that is wild!

Appreciate the explanation and thoughts!

Baseball is a wack sport for trying to say someone's a bad team. Sure there's the odd year where a team literally stinks, like last year for the Rockies, but it's not really a sure thing every year that a given team will be that bad. Let's not get carried away either, every team that's in the majors is pretty good. They might have a rough spot in the lineup, like with Toronto it's historically been the bullpen, and the odd year it was quiet bats in the deeper part of the lineup. But is a weaker team just as a whole weaker? Not always. It's usually situational. Injuries for instance can totally fuck things up.

Look at last Saturdays game for instance, the A's were in it, but the Jays were holding them back, playing good defence ball. Got the reliever in, Fluharty, everything's gravy, then buddy gets wacked in the knee with a bouncing ball. Walks it off, next pitch boom, same spot, and he ain't walking that one off. So now you have to go to a cold reliever, and then next thing you know it's like 7-3 Athletics, because they capitalize on a situation.

That's damn heads up ball. The A's, even though they got swept, looked pretty damn good, and they were in all three of those games. Toronto is just next level though, but they have to stay healthy. And that's been their kryptonite in the recent era. Thankfully our 2B/SS isnt made of glass anymore (have fun with that Mets), and even guys like Vlad, like they look good, they are clearly working out, and hopefully we can hold it.

When you lose to a team like the Rockies, and they looked good too mind you, I think they might have an OK year ahead of them, but it's not really all that important yet. The focus before the all-star break, is keeping above .500, and staying healthy. Nothing more. So am I curious about coming matchups? I'm always wanting to see the first wave of divisional matchups go well, more than anything. Because the blue jays play in one of the most unfair and poorly distributed divisions in professional sports.

Pitching looks great though, I'd like to see the bats come a little earlier, they like to keep us biting our nails, but I'll take it. They are a team that can get it done when it matters. Let's run 10 above .500 to the all-star.

It's hard to say. Especially for the really bad teams, it doesn't necessarily take that much to make them significantly better. A couple of years ago, the White Sox were on track to be the worst team of all time. The next year, they were a reasonably OK team, with the biggest differences in rosters being a couple of players coming back from injuries.

This year, the Rockies seem like they're a much better team than last year. Last year, they were a clown show. This year, they at least seem to be a baseball team.

The Yankees are a real contender, and the Tampa Bay Rays are a perennial threat as well. Very different teams, both usually good measure. The Orioles are supposed to be much improved this year, and should be a solid team, too. The Athletics are pretty bad, and the Marlins are usually a reliable example of a go-nowhere team, too. Oh, and the Angels -- they have a few really good players, but they consistently wildly underperform as a team.

Give me an I. Then a P. Then a T. Then a V.

And don't ask people to recommend one, because it's a well searched topic by powerful interests looking to shut it down. There's an app called Tivi + mate, it works with chromecasts and apple TVs and whatever else, and it's not rocket science to all figure out. If you are on here reading this, you can figure it all out.

Agreed, fully Canada's team. I'm in Vancouver and our bars were packed for Jays playoff games.

It's ok, the whole league sees them as "that team from Canada", so that's how I choose to see them, too. At least, until they return the Expos.

I havent been on sportsnet for a good while, but when I used it, there would usually be no ads. They would put up a screen saying something like "Commercial Break". I think i may have seen an ad or two but that's probably bad input from SN+.

That being said, I stopped using SN for the same reason as op: constant buffering. Its like these guys have never done a streaming service before.

I'm also on the hunt. Does Sportsnet play commercials? i.e. is there an "ad free" tier

How’s that war coming along again?

Canada loses 4-3. Next game is Tuesday, 7pm ET, vs host country Puerto Rico

Multiple rain delays in the same game is wild :P

Nice win for Canada, 8-2!!

Owen Caissie puts Canada on the board with a 2-run HR, 2-0 after 2 innings!

Soroka's struggling to locate the outside corner, hopefully he finds it. That Naylor (1B) - Naylor (C) put out was nice 😎

Fair but I don't think Bo's that unique in that regard. I think it's a fair rule of thumb that players usually go for long-term deals and then usually go for high AAV if/when they don't get the long-term offer they're looking for

Bo was looking for a long term contract, and long term contracts usually have lower AAV. We know that the Phillies offered $200M for 7 years, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the Jays offered similar. This is what Bo had told people he was looking for.

He then turned around and signed a 3 year high AAV deal. He just decided to pivot and play a totally different game than the one he'd told everyone, without telling the other teams he'd engaged with. I don't think we can blame anyone for not making better offers when he seems to have made a very sudden change in his decision making process.

Either Rogers is being cheap and/or Bo's mediocre defense and/or a pretty full infield roster already (Vladdy, Okamoto, Clement, Barger, Gimenez). There was talk Bo would be moved from SS within years. I believe the Mets have already say he'll start at 3B

I was wondering about this. Why do you think the Jays didn't make a better offer?

the amount of merch they moved over this playoff run probably pays for Cease outright.

i'm doing my part!