Alex Anthopoulos Departing

[HERPDERP]

Arden Zwelling ‏@ArdenZwelling 3m3 minutes ago

AA on report Shapiro "scolded" him over trades: "The choice of words is very interesting. ... There's some ridiculous reports out there."

 

 

sooo you're not denying it

[KingKat]

Did that frenchie just ask him if he was planning on being the GM of a new Montreal Expo franchise? lol

 

Yeah basically. AA said it would be fun but the important thing is getting the franchise in the first place.

[Nafro]

Just named Sporting News Executive of the year...

[cusstown]

Well I don't say this too often, but we need Bob Elliott on this one.

[fatcowxlive]

Did that frenchie just ask him if he was planning on being the GM of a new Montreal Expo franchise? lol

 

lmfao

[King]

Gideon Turk ‏@GideonTurk 14s14 seconds ago

Crazy to think that an entire era of the Blue Jays just ended with that final beep of the conference call. Just one beep.

[Nafro]

Well I don't say this too often, but we need Bob Elliott on this one.

 

The last thing I need is that idiot's opinion and fabrication of events that occurred. What we need is to figure out who's in charge of baseball operations, who's being retained, and making plans for 2016.

[Jonn]

Rays will be in Montreal soon. Groundwork being laid as we speak.

[fatcowxlive]

lol Gibbons has a rolling contract apparently unless he's fired he's always guaranteed the next season and an option the season after

[HERPDERP]

This shall be known as the AA Curse.

[admin]

Rays will be in Montreal soon. Groundwork being laid as we speak.

 

Everyone take it to twitter. Let's gets this rumor some legs!

[burlingtonbandit]

If he quit over loyalty to Gibbons, he's a dummy.

 

If that were even close to being true it would of been reported by now.

[Nafro]

AA heading to the Dodgers or the A's?

[fatcowxlive]

AA heading to the Dodgers or the A's?

 

According to Jeff Blair, Friedman already offered him a role at the Dodgers FO

[Slugger]

Lol at Wilners hair.

[G-Snarls]

Guys, it's f'n simple

 

He really misses the heating and ventilation business

 

Please hire him when he gets that rolling again

[glory]

AA heading to the Dodgers or the A's?

 

The Mets would probably hire him simply as a thank you for his generosity.

[jaysfan2014]

Rays will be in Montreal soon. Groundwork being laid as we speak.

 

Uh.. the Rays are locked in at Tropicana Field until 2027. Unless there's something you know about what's going on in that organization and MLB..

[KingKat]

If that were even close to being true it would of been reported by now.

 

Well everyone's just grasping at straws at this point. I like Hurl's story about the Yan Gomes joke. I'm as comfortable with that as any other explanation really.

[KingKat]

Uh.. the Rays are locked in at Tropicana Field until 2027. Unless there's something you know about what's going on in that organization and MLB..

 

Breaking that lease just to swap out terrible stadium situations makes no sense.

[burlingtonbandit]

Don't like the report how Shapiro disliked the prospects being traded. The Tulo trade was a huge win in surplus value and in hindsight I, as well as many other people would do the David Price trade over and over again. Ben revere was traded for 2 relievers in A ball.

 

Unless you go back to Miami and Mets trades the trades made have been fantastic for the blue jays.

[Jonn]

Breaking that lease just to swap out terrible stadium situations makes no sense.

 

Well they are going to need to break the lease eventually because they are being pushed to build a new stadium. It was just announced earlier in the week that the organization had gained permission to view other parts of Florida for a new stadium location. It won't be long until its other markets completely. Obviously the one way Montreal gets a team if there is a promise of a new stadium. I think its going to happen and sooner rather than later.

[Laika]

Don't like the report how Shapiro disliked the prospects being traded. The Tulo trade was a huge win in surplus value and in hindsight I, as well as many other people would do the David Price trade over and over again. Ben revere was traded for 2 relievers in A ball.

 

Unless you go back to Miami and Mets trades the trades made have been fantastic for the blue jays.

 

That report is almost certainly ********. From some random TSN guy who said in his article that the Blue Jays don't have dynamic ticket pricing...

[Jonn]

Don't like the report how Shapiro disliked the prospects being traded. The Tulo trade was a huge win in surplus value and in hindsight I, as well as many other people would do the David Price trade over and over again. Ben revere was traded for 2 relievers in A ball.

 

Unless you go back to Miami and Mets trades the trades made have been fantastic for the blue jays.

 

 

I thought the Mark Lowe trade was pretty bad especially how sparingly he was used.

[Laika]

This Griffin article could have been written by Grant:

 

He's Canadian, he speaks French, his wife and two children love the city and he had become a cult figure among Blue Jays fans. Alex Anthopoulos didn't demand more money than any normal raise, since his car and his house are paid for. His Jays team rushed down the stretch after he made major deadline moves for the best shortstop in the National League and one of the top 10 six starters in the AL that even shocked the Yankees. He didn't want to leave his job, yet six days after his team made it within two wins of going to the World Series, Anthopoulos is on the outside looking in.

 

To say Anthopoulos rejected an extension is ridiculous. The new offer from ownership and incoming president Mark Shapiro would take away the final say on player personnel moves, handing them to the new guy who had discovered in his role as a business-only Indians president, that he missed his role as a trade/free-agent power broker like an alcoholic misses Jaeger bombs. The insulting responsibility offer to Anthopoulos was akin to the man who built a business being asked to come back as an executive assistant. Loyalty with the Blue Jays is not a two-way street, it's a cul-de-sac.

 

Baseball is such a copycat game in terms of trying to put together a team and even a front office, especially when your ownership's expertise is in every other area but baseball. They looked at the Cubs hiring Theo Epstein as president, then handing the GM title to basically a figurehead assistant. They would look at the same thing with the Dodgers and president Andrew Friedman, former GM of the Rays. “Hey this is the way to go. Let's copy that formula and replace Paul Beeston, because his contract is up on Oct. 31.” Then when the Red Sox did the same thing with Dave Dombrowski, taking him from the Tigers after he traded David Price to the Jays, Rogers new-prez resolve was unbreakable.

 

The unfortunate thing for the Jays' ownership image is that all the while they were planning a new direction, their own man, Alex Anthopoulos was learning his business – and very well. If the Jays had made the new-president move in December, when their well-guarded intentions to harpoon Beeston were first revealed, calling White Sox executive V-P Kenny Williams on his office phone and O's V-P and GM Dan Duquette without going through MLB protocol, that could be construed as just awkward and clumsy. But in the ensuing 11 months since that time, as the ever-maturing Anthopoulos put together a post-season threat and made outrageous deals for third-baseman Josh Donaldson and catcher Russell Martin, plus under-the-radar deals for pitcher Marco Estrada and second baseman Devon Travis, what had been awkward and clumsy by Rogers became just plain dumb.

 

Maybe the responsibility-bone they had to throw Shapiro to get him to defect from the Indians was final say on player-personnel moves. But if that was it, then by the time the deal came to fruition at the end of August, Rogers should have just said no and amended the offer. They could already see what Anthopoulos had wrought by that time and they could see the difference and confidence he had gained in his management style in six years as GM -- but one guesses they were too busy counting the outrageous, unexpected profits that were pouring in because of the Jays' August to October run.

 

This team will not fall apart under Shapiro. They may even repeat the run for a full season with all of the position bats coming back. Shapiro is a good baseball man. But Rogers is proving they are bad baseball people.

 

To explain the humanity Anthopoulos possesses, which has now being forced out, when he saw and sensed the approaching firestorm last December, the GM spent the next few months negotiating extensions for his own staff, his entourage of baseball men, Tony LaCava, Perry Minasian, Dana Brown, Andrew Tinnish and others, that was finally approved early in the season. His assistants are signed through 2016, while the boss is out of work. More parachutes than Normandy.

 

At one time I thought I might apply for the GM position when Anthopoulos left, but now after Beeston and Double-A and with John Gibbons squarely in the crosshairs, I'm not sure I trust them.

[BTS]

Don't like the report how Shapiro disliked the prospects being traded. The Tulo trade was a huge win in surplus value and in hindsight I, as well as many other people would do the David Price trade over and over again. Ben revere was traded for 2 relievers in A ball.

 

Unless you go back to Miami and Mets trades the trades made have been fantastic for the blue jays.

 

That deal is far from guaranteed to have any surplus value at all.

[jaysfan2014]

Breaking that lease just to swap out terrible stadium situations makes no sense.

 

Well, MLB is going to have to do something.. owners would probably prefer a team in Montreal right now over Tampa, because the Rays are a money pit basically propped up by revenue sharing, with a stadium that is so unsuitable for MLB, it makes Le Stade Olympique look better (though it's a dump too.) The Trop was supposed to be replaced by now.. but the city of St. Pete has refused to pay for a new stadium due to a poor economy and poor support for the Rays.

[TheHurl]

Don't like the report how Shapiro disliked the prospects being traded. The Tulo trade was a huge win in surplus value and in hindsight I, as well as many other people would do the David Price trade over and over again. Ben revere was traded for 2 relievers in A ball.

 

Unless you go back to Miami and Mets trades the trades made have been fantastic for the blue jays.

 

how good are you projecting Tulo to be at 35? I project Tulo to be negative value starting around 2017...and probably even next year.

[jaysfan2014]

Well they are going to need to break the lease eventually because they are being pushed to build a new stadium. It was just announced earlier in the week that the organization had gained permission to view other parts of Florida for a new stadium location. It won't be long until its other markets completely. Obviously the one way Montreal gets a team if there is a promise of a new stadium. I think its going to happen and sooner rather than later.

 

Basically, similar to the Nationals. That's what is likely to happen.. MLB is not going to wait forever, especially with a new CBA looming, which 29 other owners may cut off the Rays and relocate them as a new stadium is nowhere in sight.

[TheHurl]

This Griffin article could have been written by Grant:

 

No Grant wouldn't have wrote this

At one time I thought I might apply for the GM position when Anthopoulos left, but now after Beeston and Double-A and with John Gibbons squarely in the crosshairs, I'm not sure I trust them.