O's trade International Signing Bonus Slots to Blue Jays for OF Dwight Smith Jr

[mdbdotcom]

25 minutes ago, Number5 said:

Don Buford?

In his best years Buford finished 15th, 20th, 25th and 27th in MVP voting. If Smith can come anywhere close to that, he'll be very valuable.

[Rene88]

On 3/8/2019 at 6:19 PM, Legend_Of_Joey said:

Not sure I see the point of him? Is he better or more useful than atleast 5 of the outfielders right now? 

Yep:)

[OFFNY]

o

 

Notes on Karns, Rickard, Smith, Wright, and Rodriguez

(By Roch Kubatko)

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2019/04/notes-on-karns-rickard-smith-wright-and-rodriguez.html

 

 

Dwight Smith Jr. made one start in center field with the Blue Jays in 2017, and played the position for 114 games in the Minors, but Hyde likes him in leftfield, where he made a leaping catch at the fence last night to rob Adam Engel of a home run.

“I’m so comfortable with him in left field,” Hyde said. “I think he’s playing so good in left that I’d rather him just stay there, to be frank with you.”

 

o

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

On 4/3/2019 at 7:44 PM, mdbdotcom said:

In his best years Buford finished 15th, 20th, 25th and 27th in MVP voting. If Smith can come anywhere close to that, he'll be very valuable.

Or the .385 OBP Buford had while he was an Oriole.

[Frobby]

On 4/3/2019 at 7:44 PM, mdbdotcom said:

In his best years Buford finished 15th, 20th, 25th and 27th in MVP voting. If Smith can come anywhere close to that, he'll be very valuable.

I doubt Smith will be half as valuable as Buford, who was worth 36.3 rWAR in his career and had six seasons (four with us) over 4 WAR.    I’d be thrilled to get a couple of 2 WAR seasons out of Smith.    (He’s on pace for a 3 WAR season right now.)

[MouncastleandMcCormick]

41 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Or the .385 OBP Buford had while he was an Oriole.

Mike Devereaux had a .307 OBP with the O's.  After watching Smith hook a homer down the line a couple of weeks ago, I keep thinking of Devo as an unlikely but imaginable ceiling.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

19 minutes ago, MouncastleandMcCormick said:

Mike Devereaux had a .307 OBP with the O's.  After watching Smith hook a homer down the line a couple of weeks ago, I keep thinking of Devo as an unlikely but imaginable ceiling.

Offensively that is probably a good comp for Smith Jr. Hope it is more the Devereaux of 1992 when he was at his peak as a player.

[Just Regular]

He got asked about on ESPN's fantasy podcast today and the analysts mostly had cold water, citing 87.4 exit velocity with just 31.5% hard hit rate, and 4.1 barrel %.  I think he was probably reading off the Statcast - Batting section of his Baseball Savant page.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/dwight-smith-jr-596105?stats=career-r-hitting-mlb

[Ruzious]

4 hours ago, MouncastleandMcCormick said:

Mike Devereaux had a .307 OBP with the O's.  After watching Smith hook a homer down the line a couple of weeks ago, I keep thinking of Devo as an unlikely but imaginable ceiling.

That's exactly who I was thinking of as the best comp for Dwight - which doesn't mean it was a smart thought of yours.  Devo used to make a lot of high-flying catches to rob XBH's, but overall - I thought he was just a decent defensive OFer who wasn't quite as good as his reputation.  

[LA2]

On 4/3/2019 at 8:22 PM, Aglets said:

He was actually hitting quite well in Toronto.  .824 OPS in the major leagues last year there.

To my eye it appears that the Jays shopped guys like him and Pillar in the interest of trying to get worse for this year.  I think we may be legitimately "competing" with them for last place at this point.

I wonder what the fan reaction up there to that was or would be.

To reinforce you point about his Jays performance: the guy hit 10 doubles and 2 bombs and drew 8 walks in only 104 PAs over two seasons. But it may not have been a deliberate "dump"--he just may not have been projectible based on his minor-league stats: in his AA and AAA seasons (1,849 total PAs) Smith Jr.'s OPSs ranged from .711 to .771, which is not close to the .844 of his 202 MLB PAs, but also, again, a SSS.

I remember DeAza, Delmon, and Seth Smith--let's see what happens over the course of at least a few months.

[DrungoHazewood]

On 4/3/2019 at 7:22 AM, Aglets said:

He was actually hitting quite well in Toronto.  .824 OPS in the major leagues last year there.

To my eye it appears that the Jays shopped guys like him and Pillar in the interest of trying to get worse for this year.  I think we may be legitimately "competing" with them for last place at this point.

Or maybe they have:

- Teoscar Hernandez, who is the same age as Smith but had a .771 OPS in the majors last year
- Randal Grichuk, who is a year older but had an .803 in the majors 
- Billy McKinney, who is just 24, has been on top-100 prospect lists, and has an .823 in 500 PAs of AAA
- Anthony Alford, who has been all over top-100 lists for the past three years
- Cavan Biggio, who can play some OF, has a .797 OPS in the minors, .887 last year in AA
- Socrates Brito, who OPS'd .923 in the PCL last year

The Jays won 73 games and have at least six MLB-ready outfielders in their mid-20s after they shopped Pillar and got rid of Smith.

[bobmc]

On 4/25/2019 at 12:41 PM, Frobby said:

I doubt Smith will be half as valuable as Buford, who was worth 36.3 rWAR in his career and had six seasons (four with us) over 4 WAR.    I’d be thrilled to get a couple of 2 WAR seasons out of Smith.    (He’s on pace for a 3 WAR season right now.)

Smith and Ruiz ( @interloper's boy) were chatting outside the batting cage:  

 

[OFFNY]

o

 

(MAY 4th)

 

Smith, Jr. is having quite a season with his new team.

 

o

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, OFFNY said:

o

 

(MAY 4th)

 

Smith, Jr. is having quite a season with his new team.

 

o

His offensive numbers are in line with what he did with Toronto.

[OFFNY]

5 minutes ago, OFFNY said:

o

 

(MAY 4th)

 

Smith, Jr. is having quite a season with his new team.

 

o

 

 

2 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

 

His offensive numbers are in line with what he did with Toronto.

 

o

 

Good.

We need him more than they do.

And if they do need him, they can't have him back.

 

o