Toronto Blue Jays - Let the off season begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With the Red Sox winning the World Series this past week I can finally put what i'm calling "The Worst Season in Blue Jays Baseball History" to an end.  I can switch my focus to the off season and getting myself excited for what I hope is a return to glory for the Blue Jays in 2014. 

I've said this before, but I find the off season in baseball to be the more exciting off seasons in all professional sports.   Much like the baseball season it's off season is somewhat of a marathon than a sprint.  It starts out with a lot of house cleaning for teams and as the months wear on organizations do do their best to put the next World Series Champion together. 

Here's a quick look at what the Jays did this past week. 

- The Blue Jays hired new hitting Coach in Kevin Seitzer.   Seitzer comes in to replace the fired Chad Mattola.  I am not well aware of Mr. Seitzer's past work, but from what i've read/heard he was hard nosed hitter who is looking for guys to use all fields and come out with a different approach with 2 strikes.  I like it.  However I think there is obviously some guys on the team that may not thrive under this philosophy.  One of them being Colby Rasmus.  This past year was a revelation for Colby and if I remember correctly Mottola made things simple for Colby and I think with a guy like Colby his new found approach may be the best thing for him.  I hope Sietzer is a guy who can read guys and figure out what works best for them. 

- The Jays exercised the options on Casey Janssen, Adam Lind and Mark Derosa.  Janssen and Derosa all seemed like no brainers.  Janssen`s 2013 was pretty remarkable and as a Bench/Veteran role player Mark Derosa was exactly what the Jays were expecting to get from him.  The 7 million option on Adam Lind  of the three options is the only one that had a possibility of not being picked up.  Although Adam's 2013 was decent he still struggled with LHP and went through a couple long stretches where he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat.   The bright side of picking up Adam's option is "if" he's able to sustain some consistency over 2014, 7 Million isn't all that much.

-  The Blue Jays declined to pick up the 1 million dollar option for Munenori Kawaski.  Yeah I liked Kawasaki and what he brought to the Team, but if he's on the team in any other role than a back up infielder we aren't going to be any closer t the playoffs than we were this year.  If they can re-sign him to a minor league contract I think all Jays fans should be happy with that.  One thing for sure.  Kawasaki will always have a place in the hearts of many Jays fans. 

- The Jays are also reportedly in deep thought on whether or not if they will be offering Josh Johnson a qualifying 14.1 Million offer for 2014.  If they don't qualify him the Jays will get nothing for the year they spent with Johnson and if they do and he chooses to reject it they will compensation from the team that ultimately signs him.  I'm for signing him to the qualifying offer.  1. It't not my $ and 2.  I think he's going to come back next year and have a big year.  Yeah you'd be overpaying for him, but that's what we have to do it seems in order to bring elite talent to Toronto.   The Jays have until 5 pm on Monday to make their decision. 

- Already in this off season we are are well on our way to hearing the Blue Jays linked to numerous different trade and free agent options.  ie Gordon Beckham.  If we've learned anything over the past few years we need to remember that if we hear the Blue Jays are interested in someone we should probably scratch that guy off the list.   

Not really on the Jays 2014 off season front....

-  The new book by Shi Davidi and John Lott "Great Expectations" came out this week and I i was lucky enough to read the 1st 13 pages as they were put out on the web.  If the rest of the book is anything like the first little expert was like I'm really going to be looking forward reading the whole book.  My question however is this....From what I've read both Davidi and Lott seem to have some extra information that is new to Jays fans from the mess that was last year.  so that being said.  Does that mean that they would have been withholding info from the daily beat of the Jays world that could have effected the way the fans were looking at the team during the off season and spring training or was this info for the book gathered after the fact?  Just curious as if they knew the info about Farrell being at ods with AA back in the day were they told to exclude if from daily beat or were they holding info in order to write the book? Either way i'm sure that they idea of the book was meant to have a much different ending than it ended up with.

Anyways... The off season is now upon us and let's sit back and enjoy!

2014 Toronto Blue Jays - You got 20Mil Extra....What do you do?

Alright it's hypothetical question time....Let's say you at the Toronto Blue Jays GM and you just got out of your end f the season meeting with the suits at Rogers and they have given you the green light to spend another 20 Million over the 127 Million that they paid for Player salaries in 2013.

What do you do?  Where do you start?  How do you identify your most pressing needs?

Everything in my head tells me they already have their entire off-season laid out on paper dependent on how a number of different scenario's this off-season may play out. So roughly it looks like the Jays already have roughly 124M committed (That's with the Jays picking up options and a rough idea on where player arbitration could play out) to their payroll for 2014, which means in my make believe scenario the Jays would end up around 147 million for 2014.  Giving you 23 Million to spend.

I think the questions that are around at 2nd base and LF are able to work themselves out.  You still have viable options within your team to help fill these voids.  With a healthy infield of Encarnacion, Reyes and Lawrie you may be able to give a little away with your bat at 2nd base and allow for a defensive gem in Goins come in and shore up your infield.  In left field I see Cabrera back, with 8 Million still being owed I think the Jays are willing to see if removal of the tumor will allow him to return to the Cabrera of old.

That said I would be putting that extra $ into the starting pitching and the catching position.

My catcher wish is A.J Pierzynski.  I think you could probably get him for around 7.5M for a year or two.  Given that I think Thole is a guy who will play 2 or 3 days a week with A.J's, bringing him in would give us  a guy who can control a game still produce a little and maybe even be a good mentor for a guy like Jimenez in the future



The starting rotation is the other obvious area that needs to be re-tooled and from a FA list the one guy I think the Jays need would be Matt Garza.  His track record in the AL East and his power stuff make him a good fit for this Jays line-up.  We are probably looking at something around 5 years around 16 - 17 per year.



So there.... all my money is gone, but room for trading is open!  The depth that they team has developed in the bullpen + some of the young arms still in the minors if the Jays are looking to trade for a pitcher I think they would be able to do that.

What would you do in AA's shoes if you had the extra cash?

The 2013 Toronto Blue Jays! A year to forget....moving on.....

Back again after another long absence and if there is still anyone out there that is reading my dribble I apologize for going all Josh Johnson!



So where to begin?  I would hope that after a season like this past one that I could say it's one i'll forget, but I won't because it just had my hopes up so high..  This year sucked....I pretty much even stopped watching the Jays for the last 3 weeks of the season.  It hurt too much to even watch the prospects get a chance to prove themselves.

I only made my way down to 2 games and one of them was at the start of the season about 2 weeks into this whole debacle and looking back at it i'm glad I didn't end up opening my wallet anymore than normal for the Jays.

The questions surrounding this team are staggering for 2014!

Who are your 5 starting pitchers in April?

Who is your starting 2nd baseman?

Who is in LF?

Who is your starting catcher?

How do you fill out your bench?

Will a new Hitting Coach be able to fix problems?

Who won't be on the team come Spring Training?

Does the Minor League system have enough in it to make a splash through trades? If not does that mean some bigger pieces could move?

Will the Bullpen loose any arms thought trade?

What will happen if the team doesn't come out of the gates guns blazzin?

Will Rogers put more $ into the team if they are close come the All-Star break?

Will Anthony Gose be on the team come April?

I could go on, but now i'm depressed again! 

Rather than keep going on how depressed I was and how much of a fool I feel like for being so ridiculously wrong about the Blue Jays I'm going to turn the other cheek and try to be positive about 2014.

I would like to think that Rogers Communications saw some positive from this mess and realized that Toronto can be a real baseball town.  The attendance over the first 3/4 of the season were very impressive and showed that fans in Toronto were looking to fall in love with the Jays.  We wanted a winner and if you showed us that you were on the right track we would follow.   That being said Rogers must know that if they want fans to come back and keep watching on TV in 2014 they are going to have to keep the $$ coming.

I almost find the off-season in Baseball more exciting than the regular season.  The chess game that GM's get to play has always intrigued me!    Is there a lot of work to do?  Yes there is, but I still have confidence in AA and his team to work tirelessly to make this team better.  I like that we have a GM that isn't scared to make moves (Hopefully...Let's hope last year didn't make him skiddish going forward) and this obviously what we need since we are committed right now to making a run at it.

I do have 1 wish for the Blue Jays going forward!   I want this team to have some consistency from the top right down to the lowest A ball teams.  I want our prospects to have the same teachings, fundamentals and expectations from as soon as they enter the organization up until the time the step out on the fake grass of the Rogers Centre.  We need to know why we are Toronto Blue Jays,  Why our way is better than the rest,  how we are expected to handle baseball situations and how to handle being a Toronto Blue Jays.  This has to come from the Top and without it we don't stand a chance of having any type of lasting success in the MLB.

Here's to a fun off season!

Toronto Blue Jays Round Up - Quick Hits and Misses

The Jays have headed out on a 10 game road trip after a utterly horrible 10 game home stand to lead off the unofficial 2nd half of the baseball season.  This road trip sees them take on the Athletics from Oakland, the LA Angels and the Seattle Mariners.  Should be another run of increasingly frustrating games, but that doesn't mean there's not stuff to talk about!

 - The Trade Deadline is Wednesday at 4:00pm!  What can we expect from the Jays? I don't think we should expect much. Maybe a few minor moves here or there, but I think this team is going to look fairly similar next April.  Maybe Janssen, Oliver & Davis will get shipped out.  Nothing that should kill the team going forward. Oh yeah and if it's not obvious I don't think JJ is moving anywhere.

-  Is Buck Martinez the worse play by play announce in Jays history?  I thought so but I started to do some research on old announcers and I found one who I wouldn't listen to unless I was forced to.  Worse ever!  Rod Black.....Stick to figure skating Rob.  Let me say this...I don't not like Buck.  I just think he was much better as a Color Commentator.

 - Edwin Encarnacion won AL player of the week today!  Well that's good, he put up a great week and became only the 2nd player in Jays history to hit two home runs in one inning.

 - Jose Bautista was thrown out of the game on Sunday against the Astro's for arguing balls and strikes.  This was the 4th time this year that he's been thrown out the game.  I was glad to hear Joey Bats talk about his temper after the game, but he really has to get a handle on his emotions as you can see it start to leak into younger players attitudes on the ball club.

- Rajai Davis stole 5 bases on Saturday. becoming the 4th Jay to steal 4 bases in a game.  I would have to think Davis would fit in great with a team looking to make the playoffs.  I mean who doesn't need a pinch hitter who can pretty much take 2 bags at any time?

 - Both Drew Hutchison and Kyle Drabek are well into their re-hab assignments and have been very impressive so far.  I'm still left to wonder where these two guys will fit into the rotation for 2014.  Could this year have been saved if we had these two guys in the minor's when our pitch went to the shitter?  Would we even have made any trades for starting pitching if they both didn't get hurt?

- I'm not sure what I'm going to think of this team in 2014 if they tell me that Macier Izturis is our everyday 2nd baseman.

 - How far are we really away from real grass in the Dome?  I don't think it's going to happen even in 5 years.  I would like to think Beeston is telling us the truth, but I can't see the team walking away from all the extra revenue that comes with having a multi purpose stadium.

 - What I've heard is that the renovation on Windows restaurant (Which has been a huge success) is a 3 year process.  I wonder what surprises they have for us in year two and three?

 - Anyone else remember what AA said about International signings after we lost out on Chapman?  Yeah me too.  Glad to see Gonzalez end up in Philly.

 - I was happy to hear that JP quit twitter last week.  I really don't know why any professional athlete would ever want to be on twitter.  Sure these guys are trying to build their brand and make themselves a niche in their market, but there are just too many dumb internet tough guys who think what they have to say is actually worth while.  I hope him moving on from the SM outlet allows him to concentrate more on the team and his personal performance.

- Can you really say that Buehrle's been a disappointment?  I don't think so.  I wasn't expecting the Mark Buehrle from 2005 by any means, but he's had his bad and good games and has been the one guy we've been able to count on more than anyone else.  He is a work horse.  Plain and simple

- I don't know why I get so worked up with people saying that Gibbons should be hired, but it just gets my blood boiling.  Yes I get that the team is not playing well and that most of the time the Manager is the one to blame, but I just wished that people would actually look at what's going on in game rather than just going with the lazy excuse of firing the manager as a way to solve all problems.  If they did, they would notice that the team is just bad right now and the issue's are mainly from the starting pitchers.  It's not like Gibby can tell the pitcher to throw more strikes or the hitters to hit the ball better, those things are up to the players, Gibbons job is then to manage the in-game match ups and put the line-ups together, and he does that very well.

 - That being said I do believe the team has a cultural issue that needs to be fixed.  We need more consistency in the minors and the organization to ensure that we have the message to be the same no matter if we have players in the minors or the majors.  I didn't think it was going to be an issue at the start of the year, but bringing in a bunch of new players to team looks to have effected the team in the long run.  Hopefully over the next 3 year the Jays can use this time to replenish the minors and build a culture of winning.  We need players to come to Toronto and understand that they will need to play Toronto Blue Jays Baseball.

That's enough for now.  Enjoy the late games on the West Coast.

Go Jays Go!

Long range plans at 2nd base for the Toronto Blue Jays.

This past off-season the Jays basically told Kelly Johnson that he wasn't good enough to be their 2nd baseman and decided to go in another direction at 2nd base. Looking back at it now, that may have been one of the larger mistakes made during the 2012 off season.  The Jays then went out and gave Macier Izturis a 3 year (+ an option) contract with the intent that he would be the 2nd baseman for at least the 2013 season.  The Jays then made their big trade with the Miami Marlins and picked up Emilio Bonifacio a guy with much of the same skill set (just not the bat, or eye at the plate) as a Jose Reyes to split time with Macier at 2nd base.  As another depth move the Jays also picked up Mark Derosa a guy who can fill in every now and then at 2nd.

Personally I was pretty much convinced that Emilio was going  to be the guy at 2nd.  Given his previous offensive output and his speed, I convinced myself he was going to be the guy at 2nd and pretty much put Izturis into the super utility role.  Well I was wrong...Emilio has been a big disappointment, but that being said Izturis hasn't been that much better himself.

Right off the bat both guys had a hard time getting used to playing 2nd base on artificial turf (side track....Why doesn't the Jays organization make an effort to bring new players who haven't played on artificial turf  to get used to the surface before the season starts?  Could they not make one of the practice facilities in Dunedin on a turf field?  Could they not fly some of the infielders into Toronto during the off-season to take drills on the surface?) and both bats were cold up until very recently to boot.

The play of both these guys has made me ask what other options do we have?  Internally we don't have much. Jim Negrych in Buffalo has had a great year, but has cooled off considerably in the last 2 months. If the Jays weren't going to call him up when he was hitting over .400, I really don't think the Jays are prepared to make him their 2nd baseman going forward.  Going deeper into the minor league depths, it doesn't look pretty as most of the 2nd baseman in the minor's are more long shots than real prospects.

The Jays have also toy'd with the option of making Brett Lawrie their new 2nd baseman, although the experiment has come to a crashing halt with the Jays saying publicly that Brett will spend the rest of the year at 3rd,  could we see him moved their eventually?  I don't think the team is going to make that move, but to be honest (even though it's not the popular stance) I like him better at 2nd.  I find his bat could end up being a + at 2nd rather than an average one at 3rd.  Sure his defense is unlike many in the league at 3rd, but with time I think Lawrie could bring that same + defence to 2nd plus a bat that plays better at 2nd.

So if the Jays don't choose to either stay with one of the two guys playing 2nd right now or look to someone else from the organization, we would end up looking at another short term fix either through trade or FA. Some of the trade options that have been rumored are interesting.  Gordon Beckham could be a good fit, but the question would be the price that the Jays would have to pay in order to get him and do the Jays have the pieces to make something like that happen? Chase Utley sounds like he may end up re-singing in Philly,  but  it's probably best for the Jays to steer clear of Utley.  Nothing good could come from Chase Utley playing on turf.  Could the Jays Sign Robinson Cano?  Could you imagine?  Well stop imagining cause that ain't happening.

With another busy off-season around the corner for Alex Anthopoulos I really think that he is going to focus some time around finding an 2nd baseman and eliminating a 2nd base by committee.  It's not the popular choice, but I think that the Jays 2nd Baseman is already on the team.

What does it mean to be a Toronto Blue Jay?

I posed this question the other day and I didn't seem to get much of a response back with a definitive answer.  Given it  is a tough question to answer, but looking at the Jays line-up these days i'm stuck with the feeling that we don't have much of a legacy within the current roster.

Let me explain what I'm saying here.  Just a little while ago Carlos Delgado was honored with one of the greatest accomplishments a former Toronto Blue Jay could receive by having his name put among the great Jays of the past on the "Level of Excellence".  Carlos is from the last bunch of Blue Jays who have seemed to be a home grown talent to excel in the minors right up until blossoming into a true bonafide All-Star (Others from that relative era being Shawn Green, Roy Halladay & Vernon Wells.  Since Halladay & Vernon left the primary Jays "Stars" that have been players that have come from other organizations and haven't really come up through the organization from bottom to top.  

Given Alex Anthopoulos has been one of the key people in bringing in this new talent to the organization from other clubs, the main reason for the lack of current home grown talent can pretty much be put on the JP Ricciardi era.  

The lack of focus and constant change in direction during this era put the team's future in constant question. 

Now i'm not going to go into a really deep dive into all the draft picks during JP's time as the Jays GM, but below is a quick look at all the 1st round picks made between 2002 - 2009.  During this time we had 14 1st round picks and only 2 of them are still with the Toronto Blue Jays, given one was an All-Star this year, but leading up to his role change, both Brett Cecil and JP Arencibia have been good players, but are not guys that can have championship teams built around them. 

2002	Russ Adams	Shortstop	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)	14	[39]
2003	Aaron Hill	Shortstop	Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)	13	[40]
2004	David Purcey	Left-handed pitcher	University of Oklahoma (Norman, Oklahoma)	16	[41]
2004	Zach Jackson	Left-handed pitcher	Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas)	32§[o]	[41]
2005	Ricky Romero	Left-handed pitcher	California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, California)	6	[42]
2006	Travis Snider	Outfielder	Henry M. Jackson High School (Everett, Washington)	14	[43]
2007	Kevin Ahrens	Shortstop	Memorial High School (Houston, Texas)	16[p]	[44]
2007	J. P. Arencibia	Catcher	University of Tennessee (Knoxville, Tennessee)	21	[44]
2007	Brett Cecil	Left-handed pitcher	University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, Maryland)	38§[q]	[44]
2007	Justin Jackson	Shortstop	Roberson High School (Asheville, North Carolina)	45§[r]	[44]
2007	Trystan Magnuson	Right-handed pitcher	University of Louisville (Louisville, Kentucky)	56§[s]	[44]
2008	David Cooper	First baseman	University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, California)	17	[45]
2009	Chad Jenkins	Right-handed pitcher	Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw, Georgia)	20	[46]
2009	James Paxton*	Left-handed pitcher	University of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky)	37§[t]	[4

That being said currently on the Jays current 25 man roster there is a total of 6 players who were drafted by the Blue Jays.  

As I said before this isn't really knock at what the current organization has done with the team, since they have been forced to fill holes in the organization due to the lack of talent that has been brought into the organization over the past 10 + years, but in doing adding these new elements, the Jays have again been forced to trade away a lot of their younger talent in the hopes of providing a winning team to the Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays . 

My worry now is that with a team that is forced to come together made up from a group of players that have grown up within other organizations the window to field a competitive team may end up closing before they can win and the organization will once again be forced to bring up/in talent that won't be able to compete in the AL East once the current talent is gone.

With all that being said I go back to my original question.  What does it mean to be a Toronto Blue Jay?  Right now I don't think we really know.....My hope is that the current team can turn the fortunes of the next few years around and carve our an identity that resembles what it was back in the 80's and 90's. Playing good fundamental baseball focused on winning.

Given I am not an expert by any means (just a guy with internet access, an opinion and a laptop), but I think this is something that comes from stability within the organization.  The organization needs to breed a culture from the ground up and ensure the same message and philosophies that is being preached in minors are the same all the way up to the Majors. Whatever that culture is, we need it to be bought into by all those who put on the Jays uniform.

Go Jays Go!