The Toronto Blue Jays/MLB Thread.

[Demographic Shift]

That Fowler deal was crazy, though. I like him but not at that price tag.

Who knows? Maybe Joey Bats is back by default. Sure doesn't seem to be a huge market for him. Wonder if he stays unsigned until spring when the pick compensation goes away.

Yeah that 5th year .. think the Cardinals regret that .. but to get one of the better looking FA you usually make a bit of an overplay of your hand....

I think the CBA changes next year so to avoid the loss of the draft pick would have to sign Joey Bats in June/July...We can sign him earlier of course with no draft pick implications... but thats an awful lot of pride to swallow for Bautisa to come back for considerably less than the qualifying offer...

Still.. pride goeth before a fall....and theres at bats for him between 1st base... RF and DH...

Still hoping Atkins/Shapiro can find a that corner guy for money instead of a trade before February...

[Demographic Shift]

Even though Shappy pretty much said "don't slam it on the way out" to one of the most loved players in the last decade you still held out a flicker of hope the parrot would be in Dunedin in the spring...All the best to EE in his new gig and while he was likely "just following orders" coal and lemons to Shappy this Christmas.

For me...the two best Edwin moments were

A) The walk off against Baltimore in the Wild Card game and the stunned look he put on on the self proclaimed smartest man in baseball in the Orioles dugout.

B) The hat trick home run day where he wondered why all the hats came on the field and then the happy smile when he was told why.

[slaw]

Rogers isn't going to pay to re-sign EE or JB. They are both gone. Just enjoy it while it lasts and hopefully they get a ring out of it.

I'm just going to re-post this here....

EDIT: And say this: thank the gods Rogers isn't in control of MLSE.

[Demographic Shift]

I'm just going to re-post this here....

EDIT: And say this: thank the gods Rogers isn't in control of MLSE.

Last year come June the Jays saw attendance jump by about ten or fifteen thousand a game with the walk up crowd...pretty young group with a thirst for ice cold beer to boot. If the Jays are scuffling this summer Rogers is going to miss that...then I fear the total dismantling begins with the goal being a cheap and cheerful farm system to replace it....

Small market thinking at its finest.

[Machine]

I dont have much faith in this front office

[DanH]

I'm just going to re-post this here....

EDIT: And say this: thank the gods Rogers isn't in control of MLSE.

To be fair, the Jays offered Edwin more than he got from anyone else (4/80). He just dickered around so long hunting a bigger deal that the front office moved on with other options.

[MACK11]

Yeah great options like Pearce and Morales. Rogers is a joke.

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[DanH]

Yeah great options like Pearce and Morales. Rogers is a joke.

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Pearce is very solid, I really liked that pickup. And Morales should be a fine DH, though I disagree with the notion of having an everyday DH.

Edwin had the offer and decided to go look elsewhere for a while. What are the Jays supposed to do? Sit on their hands all winter waiting on him? I'd have liked it if he came back too, but if he actually wanted to he had every chance to.

Jays still have a good chance of a solid off-season if they can find a good corner OF and fill in the bullpen with cheap short term deals.

[slaw]

Last year come June the Jays saw attendance jump by about ten or fifteen thousand a game with the walk up crowd...pretty young group with a thirst for ice cold beer to boot. If the Jays are scuffling this summer Rogers is going to miss that...then I fear the total dismantling begins with the goal being a cheap and cheerful farm system to replace it....

Small market thinking at its finest.

Donaldson and Tulo will be the next guys out the door. They'll keep Martin cause the pitchers like him and he's Canadian. Otherwise, the dismantling has begun. When you hire a CEO, you hire a guy to do what he did before, not to do something different than he did before. Rogers wants this team run on the cheap so they hired a guy good at running teams on the cheap. If they wanted a guy to run a big budget team, then they would have hired a guy who was good at running big budget teams.

Personally, I'm not all that mad that JB and EE won't be back. It's more about the "we need to get younger and more athletic' and then signing Morales and Pearce that makes me shake my head.

In terms of what they offered EE or a Fowler, here's the thing: I can say I'm interested in all sorts of stuff and I have a value on it and I won't go above that. That's great. Problem is that if you're interested in a new Ferrari but only at $150,000, then you're not really interested in a Ferrari. I won't say that the EE offer wasn't bona fide but they knew, or should have known, that he was going to want to test the market before re-signing, so, you either really want him back and you take the risk someone signs Morales in the interim or, you don't really care either way, so you sign Morales. In which case, yeah, you made a bona fide offer but it was in form over substance.

[DanH]

Meh. The Jays sat on the EE offer for two weeks before signing Morales. Basically all of the NBA wraps up free agency in like 10 days. I know MLB is a different animal, but if EE really wanted to stay with the Jays he could get a feel for what is out there in a matter of days. EE was waiting out the market hoping bigger offers would come that weren't there yet.

[Demographic Shift]

Joey Bats may be back in the fold....
A one year deal .. could be good for both him and the Jays...
Still.. looking for that everyday corner OF and something to soothe the nerves in the pen from the left side...right now its Loup...

[DanH]

Joey Bats may be back in the fold....
A one year deal .. could be good for both him and the Jays...
Still.. looking for that everyday corner OF and something to soothe the nerves in the pen from the left side...right now its Loup...

Would be pretty solid if they got Bautista and signed Moss. Bridge to Alford, Pompey. Run a Bautista, Pillar, Moss outfield with Pearce able to rotate out and Upton to platoon/defensive sub.

Probably need another arm from each side for the bullpen, but bullpen success is voodoo and it's probably best to just invite a bunch of cheap guys and see who sticks.

[Demographic Shift]

Would be pretty solid if they got Bautista and signed Moss. Bridge to Alford, Pompey. Run a Bautista, Pillar, Moss outfield with Pearce able to rotate out and Upton to platoon/defensive sub.

Probably need another arm from each side for the bullpen, but bullpen success is voodoo and it's probably best to just invite a bunch of cheap guys and see who sticks.

Yeah that's the formula for almost every pen save for the Yanks and Dodgers who threw money at their relievers this year.

Funny how things become ingrained in sports...Baseball says you never spend anything on the bullpen and hockey wisdom is that you don't draft goalies in the first round..There are exceptions of course but by and large those things haven't changed for decades.

Wonder who blinks first with the Jays and Joey Bats...Jays are looking at a rapidly dwindling pool of Corner OF'ers and no one has made an offer to Jose that is near what he wants.

~6 weeks till pitchers and catchers report...it may take till then for Jays and Jose to agree to a 1 year 17M$ deal.

Shapiro is one cheap operator....

[Demographic Shift]

Well Edwin signed and did the presser from Cleveland this morning... Sad to see one of the really nice guys leave the Jays. Pretty sure he gets the well deserved ovation and recognition the first time the Indians visit the Skydome.

I know Shatkins has a job to do. However Rogers really effed this one up. Its only a ball player but he is a one of kind guy. EE was a throw in on the Rowlen deal but gave it his all and played the field even though it was as elegant as stain on your tie. He got cut and went to purgatory in Oakland but was put on waivers there and we got him back. Then he turned it around and became EdWing. All with a smile and not a hint of whinning and bitching. Those guys are hard to find.

So yeah understand the business side of it.. but Teds kid.. who runs the Jays .. has once again proved that the only thing keeping him in the business is that his last name is the same as the one on the building.

[slaw]

So yeah understand the business side of it.. but Teds kid.. who runs the Jays .. has once again proved that the only thing keeping him in the business is that his last name is the same as the one on the building.

There are reasons why MLB doesn't want any new public corporations owning teams and Rogers is one of the biggest.