5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays - Winter Meetings Edition - (Insert Sad Trombone Sound!)

So it's the Friday after the winter meetings and I guess I should write something?......So conflicted as i'm not sure there's really anything to say since it was an extremely boring week at the 2016 winter meetings from a Blue Jays POV.

5 thoughts that I'm gonna have to stretch with....Here we go....

1. The Blue Jays signed former Blue Jay Darwin Barney to a 1 year 1.05M contract for 2016.  It's a nice little move for the Jays as it gives them a competent middle infielder to sit on the bench while they wait for Devon Travis to recover from off season surgery.  Ultimately you want your bench guy to have an extreme skill and Barney has that in his defense!  Nice deal!

2.  The Blue Jays also made another player acquisition, but this time it came in the 1st round of the Major League portion of the Rule 5 Player draft when they picked Joe Biagini from the Giants organization their 21st overall pick.  I won't pretend to know anything about Biagini outside of what I can see on Baseball Reference, but I guess the plan is to put him in the bullpen and hope that he gains s few MPH with only having to go a couple innings max and could be a replacement for Hendriks.  I don't know....Tough to see a guy who hasn't pitched any higher than AA stay the entire year on the 25 man roster, but maybe.

3. I guess it can be said that it's not really that surprising that the Blue Jays didn't end up signing any high priced relievers this past week. Truth is they don't have the $$$ left to do it.  They are going to have to settle on guys that are reclamation projects and simply hope for the best.. I little trial by error maybe!

I think it's time to realize that the team in 2016 will ultimately be a by product of "Going for it" in 2015.  Say what you will about the 2015 season, but the Jays parted with a number of pieces that may have actually slotted into the 2016 team and offered them alot of savings when it came to building their team.....So I ask this...If you could have Daniel Norris in your rotation right now and not JA Happ and then use his 12M and year to pay two relievers to shore up your bullpen would you give up having David Price for 2 months and most exciting time in Blue Jays baseball in 20 years? It's all hindsight now I guess...

4. I kinda felt bad for all the Sportsnet writers/reporters that they sent down to the Winter Meetings this year!  Good love it when they are trying to capitalize on the Blue Jays phenomenon and then they had nothing to talk about!  It got pretty bad when they were writing articles about bullpen arms that I have never heard of and how they may by a target for the Blue Jays!

5.  I found this picture of Ross Atkins the other day on the Internet.....It made me laugh...

5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays - New GM Edition - Intro of Mr. Ross Atkins

Well it was another busy couple days in Blue Jays land so that means that I am once again compelled to offer up my often misguided opinions on all those such goings on......Here there are....Like them or don't! Whatever....

5 Thougths!  Here they are....

1. So easily the biggest/most important news of the week, The Blue Jays announced that they have hired their new General Manager Ross Atkins!  I will not go overly in depth with the signing (if you really wanted some greater details on the hiring you can head over to sportsnet.ca for all the relative data that you may need on it), but my take is that I don't mind the hiring of Mr. Atkins as he is clearly entrenched in the player development side of Baseball and I've always been a firm believer that if you want to build a sustainable organization you need to make sure you are drafting and developing your own talent. If you can do that it opens up so many other doors that you can take advantage of.

What is also great with this hire is that Tony Lacava is still a part of the team.  Basically got two guys who are GM worthy working for the org still. ++++

2. Touching a little deeper on Player Development I think it was a great sign that Mr Atkins went out of his way to mention how good of a job the  staff had done previously in building up the Farm System.  Being able to send out 15 players in the matter of a week in order to drastically improve your team shows that your system has been able to draft and develop talent so well that it`s seen as valuable throughout the league.  I'm already curious to see how the team will attack the 2016 player draft!

If you ever want me to put you to sleep ask me to talk about Blue Jays philosophy regarding drafting for the past 6 years!  So good, but yet probably boring....

3. Hey we resigned Justin Smoak to a 1 year 3.8M contract!  I guess that`s ok.....Dude is never gonna light up the world but plays a mean 1st base, is a switch hitter and has a boat load of power. I think this move is more about having another left handed bat in such a right handed heavy lineup.  After the postseason that Chris Collabello had I`m curious to see how many at bats Smoak is actually going to get to start the year!

4. Josh Thole also resigned with the Jays a day after getting non tendered.  I called this one!  He doesnt have an option outside of the Blue Jays and in no way is he worth the actual 1.7M he was projected to get in arbitration, so this really makes alot of sense for everyone involved.  What I like about him only getting paid 800K is that if the Blue Jays do end up trading RA Dickey, Thole is basically thrown in a no cost to his new team!

5. David Price is a Red Sox so he can go blow himself!

Next week we get the annual winter meetings! Another great part of the Baseball off-season! Hopefully we get tons of great Blue Jays news!

5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays - Hey It's November and stuff has happened edition

Hey!  How's it going?  Good....So.....The Blue Jays have pretty much been the busiest team so far in Major League Baseball in terms of actually getting things done!  Nice to see that they are keeping with the philosophy of not letting other teams dictate their off-season path.

5 thoughts on things so far!

1.  The Blue Jays signed JA (Don't call me Jay) Happ to a 3 year 36M contract on Friday night!  Lots going on with this signing as it undoubtedly has a whole bunch of ramifications behind it.  Yes it is alot of Money for JA Happ, but all mediocre pitchers get more money than they actually are probably due. If you're really angry about it, your just mad that this means that the Jays are not going to resign David Price and that's ok, but the Blue Jays were never going to resign David Price anyways....so get over it.

2.  The Blue Jays made a trade with the Oaklands where they sent Liam Hendriks to the A's for one time Blue Jays Jesse Chavez!  This is one of those trades that make you go hmmmmm, but the Blue Jays were in desperate need of some SP depth and this in one way give them an extra arm that has been able to throw innings with some kind of regularity over the past 2 years. That being said he was doing it in Oakland which isn't exactly the same as doing it in the AL East.  If the Jays are able to make another deal to add to their starting rotation and that moves Chavez to the Bullpen in a long relief role where he can be used as insurance for other SP during the year I think this deal ends up giving the Jays the depth that they will need to make it through the year!

3. On another note the Jays were quick to resign 2015 breakout star Marco Estrada to a 2 year 26M contract!   I don't think there's really any negative to this contract as it stands right now!  Dude got a nice raise and a bit of security and if he is even 75% of what he was last year the Blue Jays will end up with a nice deal in this one!  Yay team!

4.  With the way the team stands right now I wouldn't be surprised to see the Blue Jays turn their attention to cleaning up the Bullpen for 2016.  Right now we won't have Hendriks, Hawkins or Lowe back so that leaves some fairly big holes to fill and who knows they still may want to push one of either Sanchez or Osuna to the rotation.  The question on how to build the Bullpen in the offseason is always the tricky one!  I'm not a fan of throwing muliple years and big money to bullpen arms since they tend to flame out way too often, but If they Jays plan on going into a season where they'll be competitive they better make sure they get some lock down arms back there!  +1 for bringing back Mark Lowe!

5.  Rumblings are starting to come out that the Blue Jays are close to signing their new GM in the next week or so!  Very exciting times indeed.  I won't pretend to really know any of the front runners outside of Lacava, but the I will say that I hope either Lacava or Ross Atkins are the guys to get it.  I think Lacava more from a consistency stand point and he's proven to be competent so far in his handlings, but on the Mr. Atkins front, I want someone who is going to be comfortable in his new surroundings and the connection with Shapiro will definitely help there and I also like that he is routed in a player development!  Let's face it.  this GM role will be remarkably different than the GM role that AA had and I think if we can get a guy who is about scouting an development of players it's a good thing!

One last thing.....I get that people are a little angry with Rogers/Shapiro right now about the state of the SP rotation/budget going into 2016, but please remember that this is a direct result of "Going for it" in 2015.  The Jays had to tear down the Farm system in order to do that and regardless of how you want to think the Blue Jays are to be run, they still need to be a club that drafts and develops it's players and signing middle of the road starters for 2-3 years is a matter of giving the team time to build back up their farm system!

Peace Out!

5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays - Shapiro said some stuff edition!

Mark Shapiro was introduced today to the media as the President and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club and he said some stuff!

Yesterday I went over a few things that I was hoping we were going to hear about in Shapiro's 1st public appearance as the leader of the Jays, so today i'll give 5 quick thoughts on some of the things that he talked about on this 1st day on the job!

1. As he pretty much had to Shapiro started out the press conference speaking about Alex Anthopoulos and had to deal with about half of the questions thereafter being ones about AA and how things went down. For me in both of these insistence's I think he did a great job of talking to the topic and providing enough detail/respect to the topic that I expected.  I really think we all should just move on.  AA isn't coming back and it does nobody any good to keep dwelling on it.

2. I think it's very safe to say that the organization is in for a big change!  Shapiro remarked for the need of structure, process and collaboration.  I can't comment on whether or not these things were present or not in the previous admin, but I can't see why you would comment on it rather vigorously if your assessment of the team that it was something that was noticeably missing to the point to comment on the need for it. 

3.  One interesting comment I took form the the press conference was when he mentioned that the organization's direction is determined by the resources that they have access to.  It's interesting to me as Shapiro has had to use the draft as their main focus in building their team in Cleveland since they wouldn't have the same financial commitments that would be available to Shaprio and the Jays in Toronto.  This tells me that Shapiro clearly knows that he will now be able to spend some $$, but still needs to respect the need for the team to develop it's own players.  Should be fun to see how he goes about it since it's not something he's been able to oversee before.

4.  Great to hear that John Gibbons is going to be back in 2015 and it's just as great that Tony LaCava will be the interim GM for the Org.  In a time that we will probably be seeing a bunch of change within the organization it's going to be very important to ensure that there is some sort of consistency.  Knowing what you have and how you've done it is just as important as knowing where your going!

5. I'm not sure if it was actually mentioned in the Press Conference or not, but I know it was mentioned in an interview there after, but Shapiro mentioned that his Family would be moving up to Toronto and his kids would be transferring to school in the area at the end of the school year!  I know this may seem like a non issue since there has been tons of Toronto Sports executives who have chosen not to live in Toronto but I think it should be taken note of since it's actually very telling on how Shapiro plans on making this a LONG standing job for him and he is going all in.

Huge Props to Shapiro for rocking the Poppy today!

Oh BTW, I think Shapiro did a great job in his opening Press Conference!  Really appreciated his approach and hope that people give him a chance to work without a net so to speak!

5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays - The Mark Shapiro Era Begins....Day 1

As of today Sunday November 1st, the Toronto Blue Jays are now officially in a new era! It's going to be an interesting time to say the least  over the course of the next few weeks as we start to get an idea of where Mark Shapiro plans on bringing this franchise.

Now I'm not sure, but I imagine that we are going to get a news conference on Monday with Shapiro and to be honest I unfortunately think that because of the nature of what happened with AA in the last week we aren't going to get as much of an outline of where this club may be heading simply due to the media choosing to shift questions towards the AA situation rather than where the club is going!

Here are 5 things I actually hope we cover in some way in this possible news conference!

1. Draft & Player Development! - I am a firm believer that teams that build through the draft and are able to cultivate their own players are organizations that are successful.  DUH.  The Blue Jays started out as an organization that did this and was successful through player development, but there were a number of dark times (COUGH JP RICCARDI ERA) that things looked bleak.   When Paul Beeston took over and AA was brought onto be the GM the team refocused on building up the farm and really put this team in a place that not only would they have home grown players on their major league roster, but still have enough prospect currency to make moves when it counted to bring in established veterans to compliment cheaper home grown players. Not only did they do this through the MLB player draft, but they also had a huge focus in Latin America.  I hope that we will see Shapiro keep a player development focus and continue to have the Blue Jays organization as one of the organizations with the most Scouts in the Majors and continue to ensure that they bring in Coaches to their farm systems that can help develop players.

2.  The organization has made huge strides during the latest Beeston era in expanding the Blue Jays brand in Canada but also in places like Buffalo!  The relationship in Buffalo may seem like an obvious partner, but it takes a smart leader to understand the tangible benefits of having your AAA club so close to it's Major League Ball club and how you can expand the growth opportunity by utilizing a fairly large market to it's advantage. I still think the push to get the Vancouver Canadians as a Jays affiliate was very underrated move on the Org's part. I hope Shapiro is smart enough to make mention of these ventures and ensuring that they are going to be expanded on going forward. 

3.  I think the 1st thing most fans who read up on the Shapiro hire found out that he has overseen Stadium renovations in Cleveland and we all should know that the Roger's Centre is in need of a bunch of reno's to bring it up speed with the rest of the facilities in the MLB.  I imagine things like Natural Grass and new seats may be covered, but I am hoping we get some real details on what plans are coming for the concrete jungle!

4. If you've ever been to the Blue Jays spring training facility you know why there is need for an upgrade....holed up..upgrade is too mild.....The Blue Jays facility in Dunedin needs a complete overhaul!  There are many reasons why Beeston was trying to get a new deal with the Town of Dunedin before he left office. Whatever the plans for the Spring Training facility are i hope we are able to get an idea of where they may be heading with it. 

5. This is a given and is only really a discussion point since last Thursday Alex Anthopoulos decided that he didn't want to be the Blue Jays GM any longer, but I hope we get some direction on who will be the acting General Manager of the Blue Jays (Tony Lacava) and whether or not Mr. John Gibbons will be back at the helm of the Blue Jays next year (who knows with the way Gibbons contract is structured).  

Sure Mark Shapiro's 1st press conference is going to be interesting, but i'm hoping that there will actually be some time to figure out the plans for the organization going forward. 

5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays - Alex Anthopoulos HE GONE!

Today started out with a simple text from a buddy of mine that read simply..."Fuck"  Which was quickly followed up with "That sucks"  Needless to say they immediately peak my curiosity and prompted me to check twitter to learn the hard truth of something Jays fans may have secretly been fearing! Alex Anthopoulos was not going to be back as the General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016 and beyond!

5 thoughts on the situation with Alex Anthopoulos and him not being the Jays GM!  Here we go! 

1. Kinda weird to start out this with talking about Mark Shaprio given that the post is about AA and him no being the GM any longer, but I don't hold Mark Shapiro responsible for this playing out the way it did.  Shaprio was hired by Roger's Communication to run the Toronto Blue Jays organization and he was given autonomy by his bosses to run that organization the way he sees fit.  If that means that he wants to have say in how the Baseball operations play out or the overall philosophy is  that is up to him to decide. 

2. I know!  I'm looking to far ahead, but Who's gonna take over as GM of this team?  I think it is safe to say that Shapiro is going to be the ultimate decision maker, but he's still going to need a Foot Solider who is going to do all the day to day workings of a GM.  It is safe to say that i'm sure we will see someone come in who has ties to the Cleveland Indians Organization.  Interestingly enough Tony LaCava one of the current AGM's for AA worked for the Indians before he came to the Blue Jays.  It would definitely be nice to have some type of holdover an organization that could look very different when pitchers and catchers report in February. 

3. Say what you will about AA through all of this, but you have to have mad respect for a guy who stands by his convictions and won't be bullied into taking a roll in the organization that he is bigger than.  Without it being written in his contract I think AA pretty much had full autonomy over the Baseball operations as it stood under the Beeston regime and he simply knew that it wasn't going to be that way with Shapiro and he made a decision that he knew he could live with.

4. So there's the rumor out there that in Shapiro and AA's first meeting Shaprio scolded AA and his team for the trading of almost all of their prospects at the trade deadline!  I didn't think it was true at 1st, but the more and more I thinkt of it I don't really doubt it happened.  I know if I was Shapiro I would be pissed if the Farm system I was inheriting was gutted just before I got there.  Scolded may be a harsh word to describe the encounter, but i'm sure it may have actually happened.

5. One thing I've been trying to wrap my head around is why would Roger's allow Beeston/AA with a sub .500 team to make all those trades at the deadline if they were planning on hiring a new President with the intent of overhauling the entire Baseball operations?  Surely they must have played it out in their heads that if the Team did in fact make the playoffs it could lead to some issues down the road.

Well I think it's pretty safe to say that this off season is going to be a pretty exciting one!  I'm really looking forward to Mark Shapiro's 1st press conference at the President of the Blue Jays.  Hopefully it provides some insight on where the organization is headed. 

Let's remember the good times!

5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays - Off Season Edition

Ok, So I'm only really getting this down on screen right now so I can get it done before Alex Anthopoulos's end of year press conference which is scheduled for Monday morning at 10am.

Anyway here are my 5 thoughts that are going to come about for the Toronto Blue Jays in the offseason ahead of us!

1. The Toronto Blue Jays won't resign Alex Anthopoulos?   If you would have asked me 2 months ago is the Blue Jays would resign Anthopoulos I would have said most definitely.  Now I don't think they do!  If you have ever been through a situation where a new Boss comes into a work environment then you probably know that most of the time the new boss wants to put their own stamp on things and I think that with Shapiro coming into the organization it's going to lead to a complicated situation between him and AA that I think both parties may just deem it easier to part ways then trying to make things work in something that may be too complicated for both to work through.

2.  The Roger's Centre is going to be a much different place next year!  I think we are going to see a big step forward in renovations at the RC next year.  All signs are pointing to a renewed experience at the Dome and that should only mean good things for the fans!

3.  Pitching will be the focus in FA!  Regardless of who is putting this team together you have to know that 100% of the off season on the player personnel side of things will be spent on pitching!  BULLPEN BEITH THEY SAVIOUR

4.  Roger's and the Blue Jays will take a hit from the Fans!  I can't help but think that Roger's will not spend a lot of money this off season and the true blue fans will let them know of it and it will be heard!

5.  We won't see any trades this off season! It's pretty easy to see that the Jays don't have much available to them in the way of currency in order to make any decent trades this off season outside unless they decide to trade one of their big bats, and I can't see them deciding to do that.  It would be much easier for them to simply spend some $$ and do any real big pick ups in the FA market.

5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays. The seasons over edition

Well it's over!  The light has dimmed on the Toronto Blue Jays 2015 season and I can't say that I'm over it yet.

I worked this weekend in at a trade show in Ottawa and when I was leaving my Hotel on Saturday I shared the elevator with some dude who decided to make a comment on my Jays sweater and how it was ok for me to not wear it anymore cause they lost!  Not gonna say I said something overly rude to him back, but I doubt he tries to start a conversation with a stranger in an elevator anytime soon!

5 Thoughts....here they are

1.  So I will say this only once cause I hate looking into things in hindsight in Baseball, but I still can't get over that Ryan Goins didn't bunt on the 1st pitch in the 5th inning when the Jays have runners on 1st and 2nd with none out.  Yes I understand that Ventura wasn't throwing strikes and all that Bullshit, but the Jays needed that run!  I would much rather they take two cracks at moving the runners over in that scenario then taking 1 pitch and then laying all their hopes to move the run over on one bunting chance!

2. I think it's more than safe to say that Jose Bautista has used these 2015 Playoffs to put him in a place with the All Time Toronto Blue Jays!  I really can't wait until the day comes when I get to take my kids to a game when we can look at the picture below immortalized in statue format outside the Dome!

3.  I hate the Royals! Like hate them.

and I am not very fond of this guy!

4.  0 -12 with runners in scoring position! For a team that was clutch with runners in scoring position all year it's very disappointing that in their final game of the season they get shut out with guys in scoring position.   You live by the home run, you die by the home run!  It's too bad that some people will choose to blame Coaches/Managers for players not actually coming through when it matters.

How don't you score with runners on 2nd and 3rd with no out? 

5.  I am so not ready for Hockey to be talked about 24/7 in sports talk radio!

I will say this to finish!  I am beyond dissapointed with how the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays season ended, but......2015 was the best season of Toronto Blue Jays baseball that I can ever remember!

5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays - Game 5 Playoff Edition - HOLY MOLY

HOLY BALLSHITS!  Words (outside of HOLY BALLSHITS obviously) are probably going to be rather difficult for me to come up with to describe what happened tonight, but I'll do my best.  I went by myself (Yeah you don't need to tell me I'm a loser...I already know) to game 2 back on Friday and that was the most fun that I ever had at a game and that was NOTHING like tonight's game!

I think I lost 20 LBS, my voice, bent my wedding ring and went through a roller coaster ride of emotions that would make a teenage girl jealous!

5 thoughts on Game 5.....Here we go!

1. Jose Bautista is a God Damn Rock Star!  For Real.....not for fake.  I know this is gonna sound cheesy, but the Home Run he hit tonight is the greatest thing I've ever seen live in my life! As soon as it left the bat I think everyone in the building knew that he hit it out and we had just seen and been a part of something special.

I have been home now for 4 hours and have done nothing but what re runs of Jays in 30 and I just caught myself throwing my hands up in the air again as the replay showed the ball going out!

2. The Rangers gave that game away!  The Bautista home run doesn't even happen if the Rangers make 1 of 3 routine plays in that 7th inning that lead to Bautista coming up.  With that being said the Jays took advantage of the mistakes and that's what you need to do when someone leaves the door open.

3. Maybe now Gibby will get some credit from Joe Average Blue Jays fan!  Leading up to the game 5 all the talk around Toronto primarily surrounded Gibby and how he handled David Price in game 4 and how things were going to shape up with the bullpen in game 5.  Well now it looks pretty clear that Gibby had a plan, he executed it and it worked.  I'm not sure if most people will even acknowledge it, but with using Price in game 4 it allows him to be the Game 2 starter, if he would have been used in game 5 tonight it would have been game 3  or 4 before we saw him start.   What do I know really....this could have all be different if Aaron Loup was available!

4. Roberto Osuna was DIRTY!  Striking 4 out of 5 and blowing away most of them with heat, K'ing the two guys he inherited in the 8th and keeping his cool through it all was impressive as all sin!  Over the course of the year I was open to the idea of Osuna being transitioned back into the starters role for 2016, but I want Osuna to be the closer for the next forever!

5. Chris Colabello and Kevin Pillar aren't going to get the credit probably as much as they should for their contribution in this series, but both guys played unreal!  Great defense and their bats were arguably the two most reliable ones over the course of the 5 games.

Honorable Thought!

The crowd at the Roger's Centre tonight was UNREAL!  YES it was Unreal.  Yeah I know about the mess that happend in the top of the 7th.....I was there and it was embarrassing, but the actions of a few in that inning aren't going to skew my view of the fans at the game and how special things were.  The crowd was loud and into every pitch!  Now I know we are Canadian and we have trouble catching baseballs that may have been hit into the crowd, but we are Passionate and we love our Baseball and I think we showed it in game 5.

Me and 50,000 of my closest friends on Front St. after the Jays Game!