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!  

5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays - Top 5 Memories of the 2015 Regular season

Well yesterday marked the end of the 2015 regular season!  162 games down and now we wait until Thursday October 8th for the ALDS where the Toronto Blue Jays will face off against the Texas Rangers in a best of 5 series!

Until then I'm sure there is going to be tons of speculation on the 25 man playoff roster, countless talk on Mark Buehrle's march towards 200 innings and a bunch of questioning of John Gibbons.

Instead of any of that I'm going to go over my Top 5 memories from the regular season that we just saw.  Should be fun I guess.....These aren't in any particular order, just my top 5 moments.

• Pillar's Spiderman Catch - In a year where we were treated to highlight real catch after highlight real catch from Kevin Pillar there really isn't one catch from him that stood out more than the Spiderman Catch to rob Tim Beckham of a Home Run on April 15th.  It was the 1st of many this year and I can't be convinced that there is one any better!

• Edwin's Hat Trick -  Truth be told, I didn't even see this game live.  I had a wedding that day, but because of the magic of technology I was able to watch the replay later that night.  What more can really be said...3 Home Runs in one day is otherworldly, but the fact this was in the midst of the longest Blue Jays hitting streak of the year and the Fans acted the way that they did with throwing all the hats onto the field made this game awesome!  Seriously who offers to sign all the hats and give them back to the fans that threw them onto the field. 

• Tulo Trade - I believe that most Blue Jays fans are aware that we were witness to one of the best Trade Deadlines ever by a General Manager.  What Alex Anthopoulos did over a week in July was something that I don't think will ever be seen again. For me personally nothing will stick out more from that week then when the word broke out that the Blue Jays traded for Troy Tulowitzki.  I was in utter shock!  I think a better word for it was "Giddy".  I actually couldn't sleep.  I stayed up for 3 hours after the trade broke at 12pm to find out as much detail on the deal as I could.  It was awesome.  I will admit the David Price deal was more important to the Blue Jays season, but the Tulo deal just caught me so off guard that it  left the biggest imprint on the season for me!

• JD Home Run on B-day - This year on my Birthday  my beautfiul wife treated me with the most amazing gift that I have ever got for my Birthday!  She surprised me a room at the Skydome Hotel to watch a Jays game!  It was an awesome day!  I bought a Josh Donaldson jersey, a bunch of buddies showed up to watch the game, the Jays won in Extra's on a Josh Donaldson walk off homer, and to top it all off I lucked my way into getting Josh Donaldson on my Fantasy team!   Long Story Short....Made a deal that I thought was stupid at the time that consisted of me Trading Miguel Cabrera for Josh Donaldson and Andrew Miller IF.....Josh Donaldson hit a walk off homer run to win the game on the 1st pitch he saw in the 10th inning.... I still can't believe it actually happened exactly how I said it needed to.

• Blue Jays Comeback in Boston - One thing that I will never forget about this season was a feeling of that no matter how many runs that the Blue Jays  may be down that they could come back and win! No other game was that feeling more present than on June 12th when the Blue Jays were down 8 -1 to the Red Sox and thanks to a 9 run inning were able to come back and humiliate the Red Sox for a 13-10 victory.  This team had a knack for coming back like no other Jays team that I've seen before and no other time was it more evident than this game!

Yeah I'm sure there are a bunch of other great moments that you may remember and probably think are more notable, so please feel free to leave your top 5 in the comments section!  Love to see what they are!.

Other notable -  Jose Bats Revenge Homer VS Garcia! 2nd win of the double header in Washington saving Gibbons Job! Russ Martin's 3run Homer VS the Yanks...... so much fun!

*Updated!  With the recent results from my latest poll question I've opened up the Top 5 memories piece of my Blog to my Wife so she can add in her top 5.  Here are her top 5 moments from the 2015 regular season......

• The best part of being a parent is experiencing the many “firsts” that come from your children – their first steps, their first words and – their first baseball stadium hotdog.

• For my husband’s 35^th birthday, we rented a suite at the hotel attached to the Jays stadium to watch a game with some friends.  The experience was incredible!  I think however, the most memorable part was seeing the Rogers center set up and being used well into the next morning.  There was a tournament going on with some adults and we watched game after game being played until around 1am.  I loved how I could wake up, look out my window and there – in front of my eyes, was a beautiful stadium with people busy either playing or setting up for the jays 1pm game. 

•  My kids are coming into the age where they actually CARE about sports.  Seeing my kids connect to baseball this season has been amazing.  They now ASK to watch baseball (Instead of the terrible Caillou brat),  they know the players, they recognize the Jays emblem, they throw the 6’s into the air like Donaldson when excited and they even ask me to sing “Take me out to the ball game” as a bedtime song.

• During the hotel suite game, Adam made the deal with my cousin to trade Miguel Cabrera for Josh Donaldson. He was devastated when it happened due to he circumstances that the deal came under,  but is now dancing! 

• The best part of this season hands down is seeing Toronto #cometogether.  I know some people get annoyed with people jumping on the bandwagon when things start going well – not me!  Positive energy is positive energy! It’s amazing how many kids/teens/adults are wearing Jays gear and talking about the games.  If even one person becomes a true fan out of this amazing season, that’s incredible 

5 thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays and the Night they Clinched the AL EAST in 2015

Well there you have it!  The Blue Jays are the 2015 AL East Champions!  WOW!  Such a great year and the best part, is that it's really just getting starting.

5 thoughts on the Blue Jays clinching the AL East! Go!!!!


1. I've said this before and I know there are a bunch of people that are out there that don't like the guy, but I was so Happy for John Gibbons last night when the Jays won!  Hopefully this now means that he'll finally get some of the respect that the other two Managers who brought Blue Jays teams to the Playoffs.  Let's be honest....of all the Major sports Coaches out there the Baseball Team Manager has the least amount of effect on a games outcome than any other sport, and the decisions that they do make aren't really all that hard to figure out if you have any kind of concept of the game of baseball!  With that being said... John Gibbons makes those correct decisions and now he finally has the players to execute...Just like Cito did.   Congrats John!  You deserve it.

I  also wanted to point out 3 instances last night that also showed how much Gibbons is actually in touch with his team and why I think they really do appreciate it.

• He had LaTroy Hawkins finish out the game!  What a great way to show some respect to the oldest player in the game with giving him the opportunity to close out the clinching game in his final season.  

• He and the Coaches didn't run out to the mound with the rest of the team when the Jays won.  They stayed by the side and let the players enjoy the moment.

•  In the 2nd game of the double header he took RA Dickey out after the 5th inning!  The trained eye probably noticed that he took RAD out after he got his ERA under 4 for the year and since the game was still tied it allowed him to finish with a .500 record for the year! 

2. I`ll say it now...It`s kinda weird watching grown men run around hugging each other and spraying each other with booze for 3 hours!  BUT....It was must see TV for me last night!   The Interviews are bad, and confusing, but they are surprisingly engaging and it`s great to see guys celebrate after they just did something great!

3. Top Three Blue Jays that I was happiest for last night! 1.  Brett Cecil, 2. Jose Bautista 3. Edwin Encarnacion.

I think I was happiest for Cecil only cause he's had such an up and down career and it's great that he's been such a big part of this 2015 run.

4. I loved the Alex Anthopoulos and his staff were at the game sitting with the fans!  I think this was the 1st time that we saw the real Alex.  The emotion and joy that you could see on his face was like a little kid at Christmas!  I don`t think there are any fans out there that would have watched the game and not liked Alex more after all the celebrations than they did before.

5. Blue Jays fans  invaded Camden Yards in Baltimore yesterday and showed once again why they are the best traveling fans in all of the MLB.  Seriously how great is it that the Blue Jays fans in attendance cheered for their GM aloud in the middle of the home teams stadium?  How many times this year when watching an away game this year did you hear `Let`s Go Blue Jays`and `MVP`chants over the course of a game?  It's really quite impressive when you think of it!  A bunch of brash Canadians storming a rivals Park and cheering louder than the home team!  AWESOME!