5 Thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays Offseason - AA Interview on PTS

So today we had the Introducery (Yep!  Made that word up) press conference of the newest member of the Toronto Blue Jays...Russell Martin.  Nothing out of the ordinary except for a whole lot of stuff En Francais!

Anyways I figured instead of trying to sort through all the things were said over the course of numerous media interview all day I would focus on an interview that Alex Anthopolous gave with Prime Time Sports on the Fan 590 in Toronto. i'm choosing to give 5 thoughts on this interview as it covers a great deal of different topics.  Give it a listen....It's good

http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/prime-time-sports/blue-jays-gm-alex-anthopoulos-on-prime-time-sports/

1.  AA mentions early on in the Interview that in their office that they track current Free Agents as well as the next year's Free Agents, which should actually put some additional perspective into why the Martin deal was made even with a capable starting catcher already on the team.  Navarro is a free agent next year and if the Jays didn't think that anyone who would be available next year would match up to Russell Martin, you might as well get the best available guy when you can.



2.  AA  goes onto mentioning that the Team has gone to great lengths to investigate the so called " high taxes" issue that may be one of the reasons for players not wanting to sign in Toronto.  Well long story short....because half of games are played in the US for some reason this actually works as a benefit to exempting players from some taxes and actually makes them fall in the middle of the pack for income tax deductions among major league teams!  Now.....AA said that they've paid companies to figure this all out and that's awesome, but NOW all they should be doing is sending this information to each and every agent that has a Major League Ball player on their roster.



3. During a part of the interview the topic switched to how this World Series showed the value of the bullpen, which was obvious, however one thing I found interesting was that AA  went on about how due to the weather change in the playoff season it was important to ensure that you have contact hitters on your team! Agreed....100%, but shouldn't automatically make you think that AA would really want to get Melky signed?  He was arguably their best contact hitter all last year and I don't know of that many other great contact hitters that are available on the market.........................Whatever we already know Aoki looks good in blue and white.



4.  Anthopolous talked about the trade market and gave the sense that it was still in the exploratory phase. Other Gm's asking more than the Jays are willing to give, since the Jays were always trying to get a better player nothing was going to happen right away. Yeah deep insight I know!  Anyways....Said he know which guys are available but unfortunately the deals all seemed to have to include a kicker that the Jays are not willing to give up, but they are still interested in negotiating.  Something tells me the Winter meetings are going to be a fun one.  Hopefully Sportsnet takes notice and sends down a few people to cover everything properly!



5. Here something to ponder.  AA mentions that before the interview started he has to cut a phone call short!  He said that he was on the phone with a player agent who was trying to see if there was an interest in his client!  Who was this Agent's player?  I am going to say that it was Jason Grilli's agent.  I listened to him give an interview on TSN radio last night and he was all but asking for a contract from the Jays!



Alright...Good talk!  Go Jays

5 Thoughts on the Blue Jays Offseason - Day After the Russell Martin Signing - Let Down Edition

Yeah, I'm not try to say I've got anything as interesting to say about the Blue Jays after the Russell Martin Signing yesterday, but I still got thoughts!

1.  Blue Jays signed Brock Jacoby as their hitting Coach! Brock was with Cincinnati for a whole bunch of year and comes with the same philosophy that all new age hitting coach's seem to have....  "Try to go up the middle, take what they give you and change your approach at 2 strikes".  Just hoping this guy sticks around for a while for consistency sake.  I'm still not convinced that it wouldn't be more important to have your best hitting coaches at the lower levels of your minor league systems! Seems to make sense...teach them young to have a have good tendencies and approaches....No....Whatever.




2. Saw somewhere that the Jays were looking ad Emilio Bonifacio.  Interesting I guess.  Weird that the Jays would want to bring in a guy who they basically gave away for nothing only a few years ago. I don't blame Emilio for being as bad defensively as he was when he was with the Jays, I blame the Jays.   How they don't have a better way to have new players become accustom to playing artificial turf is beyond me.   Spend time in TO working on fielding, have turf somewhere at your spring training facility, something!



3.  Would I like to see the Jays have Andrew Miller in their Bullpen in 2015?  Yes.  Would I give him 4 years at 8mil a year?  No....No No No.... I'm not going to pretend that I know how to put a Major League bullpen together, but I will pretend that I know that Bullpen Dominance is something that comes and goes year to year.  Look at the Jays Pen in 2013 vs 2014.  Not that different, but very different results.  I would rather see the Jays go with the some Younger guys in the system or maybe a few guys from the NL to build their pen with. Lack of knowledge of failed starters seem to be a measure of success for Bullpens.



4.  Saw the tweet in the link below from Peter Gammons that is a quote from AA about the Martin Signings. Seems very odd for an AA comment.  I'm surprised that it's so open about the plan for the rest of the off-season. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN ALEX!   

https://twitter.com/pgammo/status/534451050292740096



5. For the longest time I was not a Bob McCowan fan, but over time that's changed! PTS is the highlight of the Drive home.  One thing I've learned over time living in Toronto and listening to the Fan is that Bob is very well connected within the Blue Jays organization.  He doesn't go out on the limb and mention stuff very often unless he's pretty sure of himself!  That being said his tweet last night saying that Jays budget would not be the issue in signing John Lester is very interesting.  Does it mean that the Jays will sign Lester probably not, but it does say to me anyway that the Jays are for real this off-season!

https://twitter.com/FadooBobcat/status/534896237624193024

5 thoughts on the Blue Jays signing Russell Martin

Funny! I left the house today on my way to work thinking it was going to be a quiet week ahead in Blue Jays land!  Yeah......

5 thoughts on the Russell Martin signing



1.  Honestly.  Like most out there I didn't see this coming.  I was pretty sure the Jays were simply doing their normal asking about everyone and simply going by the wayside when it came down to crunch time.  Well I am happy to say I was wrong.  It's fair to say that I'm jacked about the Blue Jays signing Russell Martin



2. I'm not worried about the term or the $$ that the Jays are giving to Martin!  The position has been pretty much a black hole for God knows how long now, and it's going to be great to have some stability in such a crucial position and possibly a great mentor for a guy like Max Pentecost once he starts getting close to being Major League ready!  



3. I wonder if Russell Martin will be in any of the advertising for the two Exhibition games that are going to be played in Montreal?  #thingsthatmakeyousaymmmmmm



4.  I can't remember the last time we had a full time starter that was referred to as a good defensive catcher! Yeah the two Molina Bros were great, but they were hardly everyday players.  I'm really looking forward to see how a catcher of Martin's caliber can help alter the course of the game for the betterment of the Jays!



5.  So as it stands as of right now we have 3 catchers on the roster.  Martin, Navarro & Thole!  I can't for the life of me think that they will leave spring training with all 3 on the 25 man roster.  So basically there seems to be three options. 1.  Trade Navarro!  What you get?  I don't know, but I would imagine on his own you get maybe a bullpen arm. Packaged with someone else...maybe you something better that may allow you to fill a hole adequately.  2.  Release Thole and hope RA can work with Navarro.....Ha. yeah that ain't happening... 3. Trade Josh Thole and RA Dickey. This would give the Jays some extra $$, give the Jays some flexibility on their bench as your backup C could also DH from time to time, gets ride of a terrible hitter, leaves room in the rotation for a young arm, and trading RA would actually bring you back a tangible asset.  I may have gone too far there to think that the Jays will trade a Guy with 14 wins and 215 inning pitched in order to not have 3 catchers, but hey that's why these are my thoughts...can't say there all good ones!



Hey the Jays also signed a Hitting Coach!

Blue Jays Thoughts - Blah Blah Blah

Is there any better time of year for Baseball talk then the off-season?   The answer is no..  More thoughts on the Blue Jays

1. I get that he had a terrible year, but if the Jays miss out on some of the high end FA why not look at Kendrys Morales?  Guy has hit over the course of his career (I realize he didn't last year), he could benefit alot from a hitters ballpark, is a switch hitter, and he would be cheap.   Just a thought.



2. Word on the internet machine is that Russell Martin is the Jays main priority this off-season.  Let's say everything works out and they get him. Does that mean that RA Dickey is going to be traded?  Hear me out here?  If they pick up Martin that would make 3 catchers on the 25 man roster.  You ain't going to move Navarro and you can't justify holding a bench spot for Thole so in the effort of making a long thought process short if the Jays move Dickey and Thole it give them versatility on the bench, in the line-up and also some financial flexibility as they could probably move a SP anyways.



3.  Jays traded Anthony Gose! Don't think I ever remember seeing a guy look worse striking out than Anthony Gose.



4. So the Roger's Centre is getting new Astro Turf this year, which is nice! I still don't know what this means for the players?  I would assume it would help reduce injuries, slow down the ball through the infield and the possibly have some seam issues.



5.  Rumor from Bob Elliott is that the Jays offered Mekly 39M/3 Years.  I'm embarrassed for the Jays is this is true.  I get the art of negotiation, and there's a good chance the Melky camp is just pushing this info out to get some leverage, but what Melky brings to the team is worth more than 13M a year.  If the Jays don't end up with Melky, I can't wait to see what their plans are then especially given they got ride of Lind to give them more Financial Flexibility.

5 thoughts on the Blue Jays Devon Travis/Anthony Gose Trade

So yesterday the Blue Jays and the Tigers made a trade. Devon Travis for Anthony Gose.  Young Outfielder for Young Infielder.  Here are 5 thoughts on the trade!

1. Jays end up with the Top Prospect from the Tigers organization and he immediately ranks 9th on the Jays prospect list.  Two ways too look at this....  The Jays system is deeper than most of us probably think and The Tigers have really gone all in over the past few years and depleted their system to utter ruins.



2.  Dalton Pompey will be in CF for the Jays in April!  He has much more upside than a guy like Pillar and if AA and Beeston expect the Jays to be contention they are going to need some decent contribution out of the CF position and Pompey's potential could provide more than Pillar's.



3. I'm not familiar at all with Devon Travis, I have never seen him play or even heard of him prior to yesterday, but what has me excited about him (after reading a bit about him today) is that he seems to be a guy who get's by on hard work and could be refereed to as a "Grinder", things the Jays haven't really been known for developing.

4.  I think the Jays lost most of their hope for Gose last year and it primarily came from his reluctance to use his time in Buffalo to help himself get better. Guy never hit better than .250 in AAA and had an on base of just over .300.  For a guy who needs to rely on his legs to make him a star he needed to work as much as possible on getting on base.



5. I'm going to assume that Travis starts in Buffalo in April.  This makes me Happy as i'll get to see him play on my annual trip to a Bisons Game!  If you live in Southern Ontario and haven't been to Buffalo for a Bisons you are doing yourself a disservice.



*** Bonus Thought!  I am so glad I won't have to look at the horrible full of holes swing that Anthony brought to the plate!

More thoughts on the Toronto Blue Jays Off Season!

Hey Look....  Two posts in two days!

5 Thoughts on the Blue Jays.....Here you go!

1.  Why haven't I heard anything about the Blue Jays signing Nelson Cruz?  He's another big bat that could help the line-up, he can still play the outfield, over the course of his career he has killed it hitting in the Roger's Centre and he's also hit well in almost every other AL East park! What am I missing here?



2.  Here's something that I'm reading too much into!  The Jays have sent twice the amount of staff to this year's GM meetings.  Last time they did that that they traded for all the overpriced talent in Miami.  #thingsthatmakeyousayummmm



3. Rumors came out last week the the Owner of the Tampa Bay Rays has started talking about the possibility of moving the team to Montreal if they can't get a new stadium deal soon.  To be honest I see this nothing more than a posturing move by the club to put pressure on the city to get something done, but if it's not and they would move to Montreal how great would it be if both the Jays and the new Montreal team would be in the AL East.  Instant Rivals....The Jays haven't had something like that since they were taken out of the same division as the Tigers.  This would be great for Baseball in Canada. Plain and Simple.



4.  I think I may be repeating myself here, but I have no expectation that the Blue Jays are going to sign any of the high end FA that they all seemed to be rumored into being interested in.  Why aren't they?  Because AA is obsessed with Value contracts, and Value & FA contracts are two things that inherently don't go together.  It may happen, but i'm not holding my breath on Panda, VMart or Russell Martin playing SS for the Jays anytime soon.



5. So this week we have the GM meetings, which is just the fluffer for the Winter Meetings that will take in about a month in San Diego.  Don't get me wrong I love all the baseball chatter that we get around the GM Meetings, but i'm the feeling more and more its really just a bunch of Agents talking to reporters trying to use the media to build a market for their player.  It's almost getting too obvious.  That being said I'm already jacked for the Winter Meetings so we can actually see some stuff come together.

5 Thoughts on the Blue Jays Off-season

I have been over neglectful of this page over the past few months, but please don't misinterpret the neglect as a lack of passion for the Toronto Blue Jays!  To be honest I think I've found myself to have gone through a number of different of emotions with the Jays since July and  i'm as confused as hell on what the direction is for the team heading into this off-season!

Here are some thoughts on what i'm thinking about.....HA

1. Either Mark Buehrle or RA Dickey will be traded!  I've been saying this for the past few months and yes I do realize that most Toronto Baseball media has been saying this for a while now, but I assure you that I`ve been on this bandwagon for a while now.  Anyways I would trade Dickey of the two.  I think you would get more in return and I think having a Veteran pitcher like Buehrle that younger pitchers could relate to alot more than a trick pitcher is much more valuable to their development.



2. I hate that all I`ve been hearing that the Jays are meeting with most position player Free Agents already.  See I`ve gotten to the point where I have no expectation that the Jays are going ever sign any high profile Free Agents.  I am simply not going to get myself invested only to be let down again! FYI....I really want the Jays to sign Panda and Melky...Like really want them too.



3. I really want the Jays to find a way to get Pat Hentgen back as the Bullpen coach.  I realize that there are some health issues in his family that are more important than baseball, but I think he had alot to do with the amount of success that the Bullpen had in 2013.  Also I think the Jays are going to go more in house solutions for the Bullpen,  year to year things change so much in the bullpen and I don`t think you can put the $$ that the Jays have for FA into something so up in the air as a bullpen pitcher.



4. Is there anyway in hell that the Jays actually pay $ to Juan Francisco?  There is no way..Plain and Simple... Arbitration comes...he goes! AA did a decent job of adding some interesting pieces on the waiver wire that are upgrades over some of the schlock they had on the team this year.  It's going to be interesting to see what they do with Valencia..



5.  I'm not sure if i'm actually going to miss Adam Lind or not!  Guy was kinda boring, started to sound like a bit of a cry baby over the past few years and was turning into a band-aid!  I am however excited to see how the Jays are going to try to fill his spot on the roster.