ElNik2013

I pointed it out because I don't think either move was made for baseball reasons. I think it was also reported that JPR was forced by that tool Godfrey to sign Rios, but I'm not sure. And in AA's case, he not only acquired Escobar on the cheap, but extended him to the friendly contract. I have no reason to favour JPR or AA, I always look at the higher ups. Let's just hope that wacko Ed Rogers stays out of the picture and let's his 3rd choice as president run the show.

Yup. That's what I take from all of this. It's also dumb to leave Beeston and AA in charge for 1 more year and let them make the moves they made when it was clear they were in a lame duck situation. Pretty reckless. Thank god Reindorf loves Williams and Angelos is a maniac.

I look forward to Shapiro's moves. I think he will reshape team. I think he will trade EE to get some young talent back. Maybe move Bautista to DH and bet on Saunders and Pompey in OF. Probably save on Revere. We'll see what happens.

Godfrey forced JPR to let go of Rios. Just like Beeston told AA to get rid of Escobar. The issue was meddling. Anyway, let's celebrate Ed Rogers's luck in not getting Kenny Williams and instead getting Shapiro....phew!

I never said money hadn't influenced his tenure. But he did do some very good things. We don't know what one or the other would or wouldn't have done with more or less resources to build up the farm system. We do know that AA built the farm system once without draft spending limits and once with draft spending limits. As always, it starts at the very top and that's where people need to focus. In this area, and as much as it pains many of us to believe, gotta give some credit to Beeston for convincing ownership to spend on the minor league system. Let's all just be happy that Rogers is dumb, but lucky and got its 3rd choice for team president instead of its 1st one.

Biggest thing to take from this: Phew, Rogers is dumb, but lucky that their 3rd choice was the best choice...while their #1 guy (Kenny Williams) was the worst one!

I didn't say anyone insulted him. Ownership has every right to change its front office whether in structure or however it sees fit and that's what it started to do last off season. There are several organizations that are going with a team president that runs the baseball side of things but hire a GM who really acts like an assistant GM used to. Examples of this are The Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox with Dan Duquette and a few others. I can understand AA's perspective since he was used to a different structure and wasn't prepared to take what in effect was a demotion. We don't know what went on in the meetings, but you can let someone know you aren't happy with their work without actually saying it. The message was probably understood. Basically, without the Jays making the playoffs, AA would've likely been fired. For AA, he can capitalize on his recent success and try to continue his career elsewhere as the main guy in a front office instead of playing second fiddle to someone else. It's really not that hard to understand.

Not about quitting. AA had no contract and the organization had plenty of time to extend him. However, it had decided last off season that it would replace its team president with a guy with that had a track record as a GM which is why they pursued Kenny Williams and Dan Duquette. This ....anyway, I'm tired of correcting stupidity...

You can believe what you want to. It seems to me that to some, whatever good AA did was because he had lots of money to spend. When JP gave away Rios, it was because he was forced to do so while when AA gave away Escobar was because he is dumberer... I really couldn't care less about JPR or AA, I've just noticed a strong dislike/bias against AA for using the resources the f***ing team decided to make available to him whether to restock the minors or to spend on MLB. Money doesn't explain drafting Dalton Pompey, Kevin Pillar, Kendall Graveman, Sean Nolin, Matt Boyd. And let's not forget Marcus Stroman who shouldn't have been drafted by a scout-based organization. Who knows, maybe he was good at presenting his plan to his bosses and convinced them to invest in the minors more than in prior years.

I and many would agree with staying the course. However, that would likely have involved accepting that the team go into 2013 and likely 2014 expected to lose 90 games, maybe more. This would have resulted in lower attendance and tv ratings. Now, as it turned out, they didn't win much in 2013, but you can't say they weren't expected to be contenders and people were excited for the season to start. I've always thought that deciding to change course came from trying to push up the window to coincide with Beeston's retirement. This is not to say I don't hold AA accountable for negotiating the trades, but I just never understood the desperation with which they acted that off season. Also, would you really not have made the Donaldson trade?

The organization decided it would replace the front office last off season which is why they pursued baseball ops guys like Kenny Williams and Dan Duquette to replace Beeston instead of looking for a guy to just run the business side of things. If I'm the GM in that position, I think I would get the message loud and clear. When the team when on its 2nd half run, the organization had started negotiations with another baseball ops guy in Shapiro, who was said to be looking to get back to into running the everyday baseball ops of a team. Shapiro will be running the Jays like Friedman, Epstein, Dombrowski and a few others who have the title of team president, but are really the ones running the shows for their respective teams and have a GM who's basically acting like an assistant GM. I can see AA not wanting to go back to an assistant GM and with the playoff appearance, I can see why he would decide to move on. It was also reported that the initial offer was for 1 year plus an option. Anyway, it's really hard for me to understand why so many posters want to get into the blaming game or feel the need to take sides. What I will take from this is that it's better to be lucky than good because Rogers's first choice was Kenny Williams (another guy who's a team president, but is probably running his team), yet ended up with its 3rd choice, who's clearly the best man for the job, at least out of the 3 that they pursued...lol.

I agree. I was just saying that it didn't make sense that he would just change course.

f***ing agree with you!

This guy looks at 5 strategic turning points of AA's tenure: http://www.bluebirdbanter.com/2015/10/30/9637240/five-strategic-turning-points-of-alex-anthopoulos-tenure-as-blue-jays

This guy is talking about how the GM job title isn't what it used to be: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/alex-anthopoulos-and-title-inflation/ It's certainly true that Jed Hoyer is not the guy you think of when you think of what the Cubs are doing, it's Theo Epstein. Same with Friedman / Zaidi. What GM jobs are out there anyway? Anyway...

Team will be awful in 2017 bro, just like it would be awful in 2015 after the Marlins trade. You know, that "franchise-crippling" trade they made in the 2012-13 off season. Not that I agreed with that trade, but things happen. Shapiro needs to do some f***ing work, what's so hard about that. Yes AA made some awful trades, but he made some good ones too. And without drafting well enough, he wouldn't have been able to trade for a guy like Donaldson. Anyway.

Yup, everything JPR did wrong was the fault of the team president/owner...lol.

If Shapiro is looking to move Tulowitzki, he will probably bet on him bouncing back from the 2.5 fWAR he put up last year and closer to the 5 fWAR he pusted in each of 2013 and 2014.

I disagree with the bit about how he should have communicated this with ownership. This falls under the team president's responsibilities, not the GM. Hopefully, ownership lets Shapiro do his thing. I'm excited for the possibility of an efficiently run team that could afford some risks.

Cashman is praised for winning with a huge budget. JPR was mandated to have a s***** farm system and to draft college players by ownership/Godfrey. AA did a good job his first 3 years of building up the farm system and adding undervalued guys like Morrow, Rasmus and Escobar then loses all patience and gives up on the long-term plan and it has nothing to do with ownership/team president...seems biased to me. I've been saying it for years, a lot of this all goes back to ownership/team presidents. I look forward to seeing the vision that Shapiro will lay out, but I remain suspicious with ownership since their first choice was Kenny Williams.

Could someone compare the state of the franchise under JPR when he took over vs when AA took it over? This plays a role since the more pieces you need to add to the team, the more difficult the task will be. I know they had Delgado, Wells, Cruz Jr and Halladay

Team president has to take the blame for not getting enough payroll for his GM to work with either to restock farm system or to spend on MLB roster. Beeston did a good job of getting funds for his GM to work with while a guy like Godfrey didn't. Imagine if AA had spent a bunch of money on a closer to get savez, man he'd be dumberer than he is.

Give JPR the support Epstein had in Boston and he would've won much more than him.

And a year ago, the team was looking even worse. Team can make trades to improve itself and/or sign FA instead of trading prospects to acquire MLB talent which many thingk was AA's preference. Time to draft some more Nolins, Gravemans and Boyds, but keep them this time and sign FA instead.

At least Rogers got lucky and hired Shapiro instead of Kenny Williams.