The 2015 Winter Meetings (Dec 7-10)

[tpurewal97]

2009 Yankees, off the top of my head.

 

It's usually bad teams that win the offseason , last year the whitesox , padres , 2013 the Jays. That being said this team could contend for the world series , they are just a couple of pieces away, that so far they have not addressed.

[Governator]

How is that smart?

 

We should bid on any FA the team wants/needs. Period. If that player gets too pricey, we pull out. Who gives a f*** if the FO gets a little egg of their collective face for being turned down. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

If the agent says "my client won't consider any offer under 200million", and you are not willing to commit that much, you don't waste dozens of hours of FO time putting it together. You move on to what can be accompliahed in the meantime unless something changes from their camp.

[GreekFatAss]

There is no reason an agent nor a team should be disclosing any details of a negotiation. This is very fishy to me and I think Beeston needs to go retire with dignity rather then slinging mud through your friends.

[souvlaki]

How is $140M too constraining. Like, how? That's definitely a top 10 payroll. Especially with a weak ass dollar.

 

We rolled the dice at the trade deadline for a Win Now mode. Why are we cheaping out now???

Why are we only a top 10 payroll when we just proved to ownership that 'if they build it we will come'? In a league where only 8 teams make it to the post-season i'd rather have a top 3-5 payroll and stay competitive with the 'big' players. Sorry.

[TheHurl]

2009 Yankees, off the top of my head.

 

yeah that was a solid one. So much given away with one trade the next off season (Kennedy, Coke and Jackson for Granderson...could have left Detroit out and just got Scherzer from Zona)

[TheHurl]

We rolled the dice at the trade deadline for a Win Now mode. Why are we cheaping out now???

 

Because they rolled the dice at the deadline.

 

You can't keep throwing money at a team to fill holes. If all free agents were accepting one year contracts, then fans would have loads of reasons for ripping on the team for not being active.

[crmr]

We rolled the dice at the trade deadline for a Win Now mode. Why are we cheaping out now???

Why are we only a top 10 payroll when we just proved to ownership that 'if they build it we will come'? In a league where only 8 teams make it to the post-season i'd rather have a top 3-5 payroll and stay competitive with the 'big' players. Sorry.

 

We do have different management now.

 

Having a high payroll doesn't mean being competitive, something Rogers probably knows. You also dont know their value assessment, fans finally showing up this year could easily be what they had been expecting in the past years, and so want to see longer term fan commitment. The ownership has actually been pretty solid for a few years now and fans only finally showed up when they're winning, it's not like the other big markets where the fans are supporting them no matter what.

[Atothe]

We rolled the dice at the trade deadline for a Win Now mode. Why are we cheaping out now???

Why are we only a top 10 payroll when we just proved to ownership that 'if they build it we will come'? In a league where only 8 teams make it to the post-season i'd rather have a top 3-5 payroll and stay competitive with the 'big' players. Sorry.

 

You're saying nothing of value. Top 3-5 is not feasible. Jays don't make nearly the same revenue as those teams.

[baubau]

You're saying nothing of value. Top 3-5 is not feasible. Jays don't make nearly the same revenue as those teams.

 

But but but... We have Canada. All of Canada.

[crmr]

But but but... We have Canada. All of Canada.

 

Which isn't enough to support a team full of big contracts perfoming poorly like the other big markets

[Stangstag]

2009 Yankees, off the top of my head.

 

Yankees had 89 million dollars in payroll that came off the books that offseason. That gave them A LOT of money to throw around.

[burlingtonbandit]

Payroll is up almost 100% from 2011 and still people whine. The lesson to Rogers here should be: why have a competitive payroll?

 

When you compare payroll to the team's market size its still relatively small. Toronto is a top 5 market.

[BTS]

When you compare payroll to the team's market size its still relatively small. Toronto is a top 5 market.

 

Owned by a publicly traded company in a country who's dollar is worth 25% less than the American dollar.

[CJ-Freeway]

When has "going for it" ever worked out? Name a team that had a crazy offseason and won the WS the following season.

 

Dunno if the 2004 Red Sox qualify, but they did get Schilling in the 03-04 Offseason.

[wamco]

Payroll is up almost 100% from 2011 and still people whine. The lesson to Rogers here should be: why have a competitive payroll?

 

-and 2011 was down 30 percent from 2008.. All while the team is valued at 120m in 2000 and 870m in 2015, new draft process saves teams millions, and the tv contracts are huge .

[King]

Ken Rosenthal ‏@Ken_Rosenthal 1m1 minute ago

Sources: #Rockies remain “open-minded” on trading outfielders, including CarGo and Blackmon.

[Laika]

It's funny that Ed Rogers acquired the Toronto Blue Jays for like 1/2 of the $$$ that David Price just got paid to play for the Red Sox.

[BTS]

3-year deal for Kuma. Probably 45M?

[Laika]

Ken Rosenthal ‏@Ken_Rosenthal 1m1 minute ago

Sources: #Rockies remain “open-minded” on trading outfielders, including CarGo and Blackmon.

 

The Rockies seem to never sell high on hitters. They probably should start making a habit of it...

[crmr]

3-year deal for Kuma. Probably 45M?

 

Should be the deal that lets us truly evaluate Happ's

[Praxis]

The problem here in my view is one of timing. Up until the All Star break of this year, AA had done a pretty mediocre job at best in terms of achievement on the field. We never finished higher than third, never had a realistic shot of making the playoffs even though our payroll had increased significantly since 2013. Then, seeing the writing on the wall and believing his team to be better than it had been showing, AA made a series of trades that gutted the farm system but catapulted us into our best run in over two decades. Rogers made a crap load of money, fan interest went through the roof and expectations for 2016 went into the stratosphere.

 

Unfortunately by that point Rogers had pretty much decided that after 5½ years of treading water it was time to bring in Mark Shapiro, a man who saw it as his mission to rebuild the Jays from the farm up and run the club with greater pecuniary caution than Beeston. And, up until the post all star break run, most of us would probably have agreed with that philosophy, but now what is he (and Rogers) going to do with this team that came within 2 games of a world series? They have an opportunity here to become the dominant sports team in Toronto for the next several years, they have an incredible amount of fan goodwill that is translating into ticket and merchandise sales and it would be surprising if viewing figures at least initially did not remain at a two decade high after hitting 11.5 million in the postseason.

 

But then AA leaves in a cloud, Price signs for the hated Red Sox (with nary a sniff of an offer from Shapiro) and practically every other free agent pitcher of note either signs elsewhere or is on the verge of going somewhere other than Toronto. You can almost hear the air going out of the balloon.

 

I am not suggesting that the Happ and Estrada signings were a bad idea; on the contrary I support them. I am a little bemused at the re-signing of Justin Smoak as I had been holding out on some fantasy island that the Jays might actually be interested in signing Chris Davis, but there seems little chance of that now and the rumours making the rounds are that he is also headed to the Red Sox to join Price. Ugh.

 

So I wait and hope and watch to see if this year was just a flash in the pan, a great moment of magic before another long winter of mind-numbing mediocrity or if Rogers and the Front Office are going to build on what just happened. I would not want to take bets on our odds of going to the World Series next year at this moment though.

[burlingtonbandit]

Owned by a publicly traded company in a country who's dollar is worth 25% less than the American dollar.

 

When the Canadian Dollar was 10% higher than the USD the Jays payroll wasn't any higher. Such a large company would hedge anyway. Now if the dollar stays like this for 3+ years it'll make a big difference for sure.

[King]

Ken Rosenthal ‏@Ken_Rosenthal 2m2 minutes ago

Sources: Zobrist visited #SFGiants today. #Mets, #Nationals closer to his home in Nashville. #Braves behind. Priority is to join contender.

[BTS]

When the Canadian Dollar was 10% higher than the USD the Jays payroll wasn't any higher. Such a large company would hedge anyway. Now if the dollar stays like this for 3+ years it'll make a big difference for sure.

 

Are you expecting the dollar to make dramatic gains in 2016?

[BTS]

Ken Rosenthal ‏@Ken_Rosenthal 2m2 minutes ago

Sources: Zobrist visited #SFGiants today. #Mets, #Nationals closer to his home in Nashville. #Braves behind. Priority is to join contender.

 

What the hell are the Braves doing? Zobrist makes about as much sense as Markakis.

[TheHurl]

If the Yankees could get CC back on the sauce would they be able to get him off the payroll and get under the luxury tax?

[burlingtonbandit]

Are you expecting the dollar to make dramatic gains in 2016?

 

I think the forecasters say it will get down to 70 cents in the new year before rebounding to the 85 cent mark. But obviously no one knows otherwise we would all be rich.

[43211234]

3-year deal for Kuma. Probably 45M?

Seems a bit low. I'll say $56M.

[HERPDERP]

mark lowe to tiggies

[King]

mark lowe to tiggies

 

Jerry Crasnick ‏@jcrasnick 2m2 minutes ago

Reliever Mark Lowe is closing in on a 2-year deal with #Tigers, source says. Setup man for K-Rod.