Tuesday Bantering: Golden At-Bat?

MLB is discussing the idea of a Golden At-Bat.

As dumb as it sounds, this is the idea:

....the basic concept is that a team could choose one at-bat in every game to use its best hitter regardless of where they are in the lineup. So if, say the New York Yankees had the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, they could bring Aaron Judge to the plate even if it wasn’t his turn in the order. It would be a one-time replacement, not a substitution like a pinch hitter.

The good news is we’d see Vlad bat many more times.

I really hate ideas that make baseball a different sport, but this is how things seem to be going with Rob Manfred at the helm.

There isn’t much for Jays' news out there. The team has hired Lou Iannotti as an assistant hitting coach. He was the Dodgers minor league hitting coordinator. David Popkins will be the hitting coach, with Iannotti and Hunter Mense working as assistants.

There were a couple of free-agent signings by other teams:

The Cubs signed former Jays prospect Matthew Boyd to a two-year, $29 million contract. That seems like a lot of money for a guy who has thrown 263 innings over the past five seasons. But good for him. Boyd will be 34 in February.

The Mets signed Frankie Montas to a two-year, $34 million contract. Montas had a 4.84 ERA in 150.2 innings last year and will be 32 before the start of next season.

The Rangers signed catcher Kyle Higashio to a two-year (plus a mutual option) for $13.5 million (guaranteed). He turns 34 in April and hit .220/.263/.476 last year, with 17 home runs (not all of them against the Jays, despite how it seems).

And there is a report that the cost of the potential A’s park in Vegas has jumped $250 million since the last time a cost estimate was suggested. I have serious doubts that the A’s will end up in Vegas. But Sacramento seems like a terrible place to play baseball.

I wish we had some real Blue Jays news. I’m out this afternoon, so if there is news, it will happen then.

I was playing tennis particularly poorly (even for me) last week. During a break, I noticed an email from the club pro asking if I wanted a lesson, which made me think he was watching me. He wasn’t. He just had a free hour of lesson time and wanted to fill it, but it did have me looking around to see where he might be watching me from.

So he has an hour this afternoon to fix my tennis game. It should be easy for him: “Everything you are doing, do differently.”

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