ElNik2013

Bingo. As much as some posters refuse to accept this, it's the truth. The guy is just not well regarded around MLB.

You're right again. If the Jays had released him, they would've had to pay for what remained on his contract to play somewhere else so they probably discounted this amount from Reyes's contract since it was money they were saving, just the way I see it.

I know some have said it's tough to get excited about a guy like Barreto because he's like 3 years away. However, I'd contend that he's been worthy of a promotion to Lansing this year and with a good showing there, could've started 2015 at Dunedin or been a good start away from being promoted there early next year. Anyway, I understand he's got a lot to work on, just saying that he's 18 and killing it against older competition and a strong case could be made that he deserved to be promoted to a higher level...at 18 years old!!

I've seen this said quite a bit, but it's not what I remember people saying in the off season. The Rays won 92 games in 2013 and I can't see how they got worse coming into the season. In fact some here were salivating at their acquisition of Ryan Hanigan and Logan Forsythe. The Yankees were busy picking up Ellsbury, Tanaka, McCann and Beltran. Several of the same posters thought their lineup looked way better than the Jays'. The Red Sox were the defending champions and while some thought they had been a bit lucky in 2013, they all thought having Peavy for a full season plus Bogaerts would keep them in contention. The only teams people were really down on were the Jays and O's, but I could be misremembering. It's certainly easier now to say the division was weak coming into the year, but I think that's because the O's and Jays are 1-2.

Jays just need to win and get back to 10 games over .500 and only then look up and see where that puts them in terms of the WC race.

I hope AA is willing to explore doing something like this, if a deal is out there. We'll see what happens.

Agreed again. He does some things well and the farm team is on the verge of being rebuilt after so many claimed it would be impossible because he had gamed the compensatory system (another positive for him) to build it to where it was prior to the trades in 2012. However, he's proven incapable of rounding out a roster.

Again, I agree. I just think it's important to understand the context in which things occur. Same with the Escobar thing. People claim that AA should've gotten "assets" for him. So I ask, when has Escobar fetched much in the 2 or 3 times he's been traded? Let alone in the middle of a P.R. s*** storm that probably killed any leverage the Jays may have had in trading him. The Jays let go of Rios for P.R. reasons as well. My guess is AA was told to release Escobar and he asked for some time to try and find a way not to have to eat his salary so I suspect they discounted what was owed to him from Reyes's deal or the Miami trade over all. Admittedly, this is a guess.

It's easier said with the benefit of hindsight. I am/was against the change of direction, especially after how the 2012 season turned out. However, without any moves, the 2013 team would've likely lost at least 90, if not 100 games. My point is that their goal was to avoid going into 2013 expected to lose 90-100 games because that would've meant lower attendance and lower ratings on tv. If the owners of this franchise thought the Miami trade was so bad, then why is AA still the GM? I keep saying, franchises are built from the top on down. With corporate ownership, it probably starts with the president, but the owners still hire the team president who then hires the baseball operations people.

I totally agree with you. However, reports indicate that Sanchez told them he wasn't ready to sign and the Jays wanted to move quickly, which indicates they didn't want to strike out in improving the team as I suspect. So basically, they weren't willing to risk waiting him out only to strike out. Again, I'm not saying it was a great trade, just saying that the franchise is run a certain way and this reports would confirm that the owners of the franchise think AA's doing just fine.

Clearly, they were trying to trade him. There were reports of his being put on waivers after the homophobic slur. Fair or not, Escobar has a reputation around MLB and I doubt any GM was offering any "assets" for him. It's not like AA gave up much to get him in the first place. And it's also not as if the Marlins got much for him either. I don't know how Dietrich (SP?) is doing, but he wouldn't qualify as "assets".

It's turned out even worse in hindsight with JJ's implosion. However, this franchise is run in such a way that striking out in improving the team that off season may not have been acceptable given that going into 2013 expected to lose 90-100 games would've meant lower attendance and most importantly, lower ratings. Just saying that a lot of times this franchise bases its baseball decisions on other factors...

Escobar was dumped for P.R. reasons, don't know when you're gonna get it through your head. In fact, I'm pretty sure the Jays discounted what they would've had to pay Escobar to play somewhere else off Reyes's contract, but I could be wrong. Not saying it was a great trade by any means, but gotta understand how this franchise is run and take this into consideration.

The bigger issue is that the owner of your favourite team embraces it. Jays under AA have 3 .500 or better seasons out of 5, assuming they end up at .500 or better this year. That seems to have been enough for ownership. On the other hand, Simmons is usually wrong so AA may still get fired at season's end.

So if this report is true, what does it tell you about ownership? It tells me that its main goal is to have a team good enough to provide watchable content for their sports channels and not necessarily to have the best-run baseball team in MLB. As long as attendance and viewership are at acceptable levels, they're satisfied. Been saying this for awhile which is why I stopped worrying about AA or the job he's doing. If he was doing such a bad job in the owner's eyes, he would've been fired already or would be fired at season's end. I've suspected for a while that the trades in 2012 were intended at trying to avoid going into 2013 expected to lose 90-100 games which would've meant lower attendance and more importantly, lower ratings. This is not to say he shouldn't be held accountable for negotiating the trades, but I think there was some level of understanding that while they weren't getting the best bang for their buck, by a mile, they didn't want to risk striking out in FA and going into 2013 with a depleted rotation. Anyway...I don't own the team so...

You're right that Bautista's deal is great, but there's nothing wrong with seeing what you could get in return for him in a trade. I would certainly rather move Buehrle and/or Reyes, but it's doubtful any team would give you much in return and you'd probably have to send some $ the other way to make it work. We'll have to wait and see what happens...

Higher draft pick.

I'm fine with this. Some people forget that unless Beeston goes, it's likely he would hire a worse GM.

Barreto: 2-5, 2-2B. Lietz: 6-IP, 5-H, 2-ER, 1-BB, 6-K.

I didn't want the below to be my first ever thread, so I thought I'd post it here: http://www.torontosun.com/2014/08/16/blue-jays-gm-alex-anthopoulos-set-to-return-next-year Not from a great source, but I've been saying I don't see AA being let go, let alone Beeston so maybe the AA bashers should whine for one last time and then deal with it.

Team will need to be at least 10 games over .500. It's not out of the question, but every time they've gotten to that level, they've crashed back to around 5 games over.

Moving Bautista is an idea along the lines of trying to get 2 or more players back. Remember, he'll be 34 at season's end and his value will only go down. Just saying the team needs to get creative and this may entail trading one of the team's core players.

You're right. I shouldn't have lumped Hutchison in the post about creating payroll room. I had brought up his name earlier as a possible trade candidate to see what kind of package he'd fetch. When I'm wrong, I admit it.

Good for Seattle and KC to prove doubters run. Good to see their "win now" moves help their teams contend. Quite a few posters are looking like fools, again, for laughing at them...

It could be Hutchison or Bautista, along with Buehrle/Dickey/Reyes. The general idea is that I think the team needs to create payroll room to plug the holes it has. I like Hutchison a lot, don't get me wrong, it's just an idea although he's probably not at his peak value. At the end of the day, I don't expect much to happen since AA has prove he can't address his team's glaring holes and I don't expect him to get fired. And even if AA was fired, Beeston would probably hire Cito Gaston to replace him.