Smokey

So what??? Him saying he'd use prospects as currency somehow justifies him overpaying for a bunch of vets when the team was coming off of a 74 win season??? Does it change the fact that the year before, after an 81 win season, he completely failed to improve the team and then illogically shifted gears the year after??? How about the fact that after all those moves we're now positioned to finish at or near the bottom of the ALE this season without much financial flexibility or prospects to work with???

The thing is though, even if we assume that he was pressured into making some of the recent moves, what assurance is there that he will have the autonomy needed to succeed in the future? Besides, he made some glaring mistakes last offseason in neglecting the team's depth and defense which are purely on his shoulders IMO.

Although I find your s*** somewhat entertaining, I find it kinda sad that a 30 year old's idea of fun is trolling a baseball message board. Trying to be the badass version of the dogg is not something anyone should strive for.

First of all, any logical person by now has realized that AA has made more than just one "ill-advised" trade over the last year and a half and you're either being dishonest or you have your head too far in the clouds if you actually think that. Secondly, saying he did "exactly what he said he would do the whole time" is nothing but horseshit! He talked about building a team that will be competing on a sustainable basis. Forget sustainable, this team has been an embarrassment to watch over the last couple years and there's no excuse for it. Besides, did you forget about all the talks of trying to emulate the Rays franchise but with a bigger budget? This team is now essentially the opposite of the Rays... They're old, inefficiently built with a very limited pool of young controllable talent ready to step in. This team won 81 games in the 2011 season and AA proceeded to sit on his hands during that offseason and declared the team "not ready". A year later after winning 73 games all the sudden he decides to go all-in. If you have a logical explanation for this, I would love to hear it. He also completely neglected the importance of depth and shipped both Escobar and Hech away and left an often injured Reyes as the only above average middle infielder in the whole system. Lets not forget about the rotation that was forced to rely on guys like Chien-Ming Wang, Aaron Laffey, Ramón Ortiz, Todd Redmond and Ricky Romero. So ya, in your simplistic mind he's kept his word and if "the trade did what many thought it would" everything would have been peaches and cream. Unfortunately, that's far from reality and the incompetence experienced over the past two years can't be sugar coated like your failed attempt.

<---- Because of him!

In case you've forgotten, the ultimate goal is to win at the major league level. A top 10 system would be great and could definitely help achieve that goal but what we've seen over the past couple of years is that AA isn't capable of putting it all together.

Wait a sec, you actually thought theblujay was "gifted"?!?!?!?! Lmfao

Oil based roids like deca durabolin stay in your system much longer meaning you deflate much slower. But you're right, the fall back is annoying and is usually what make people get addicted.

Bro, you must have this place confused with ChristianMingle or some s*** with all the narcissistic BS you talk. I know you've mentioned being fat in the past and that explains a lot but we're not here to listen to you stroking yourself... So please, give it a rest!

That wont be necessary, according to our insider there's no need to worry... AA is just "waiting for the price to drop". LMAO

Yes of course. Because if other teams are giving him a $4 million base, we'd obviously have to pay $52 million. Say hi to our nursing home insider everyone.

Most annoying poster: ^ This piece of s*** ^

It might not be a big deal but the lottery is basically an extra tax on the poor idiots. It might not cost you much but it's generally a poor investment. When AA took over he preached about how important power pitching was to success in the AL East and now a few years later we're setting up a knuckleball clinique and paying MB almost 20 mil to be crafty.

Ban this f***ing retard already ffs.

Not really and I'm pretty sure he was referring to Gose.

You guys are all a bunch of negative nellies. Targeting overpriced former Cy Young award winners is clearly the new market inefficiency... Alex is doing his job.

He's gonna miss hitting at Yankee stadium.

I agree. It almost seemed like he couldn't differentiate between K's and BB's. Apparently no one told him that laying off some of those outside pitches will earn him more pitches to hit in the future and increase his productivity as a whole. Same thing could be said about him throwing from his knees, although that changed a bit when they finally got him a catching coach (at the end of the season ). I don't mind not ever watching JPA in a Jays uni again but having this organization continuously mismanage its talents is getting tiresome to say the least.

So the Jays acquire a catcher coming off a career high and the Rays acquire one (although via trade) who's udervalued and coming off a down year... SMH Hopefully we'll see an end to this trend when the sockless puppet-master finally croaks.

But it was "the perfect storm", remember? Seriously though, I do agree that AA was pushed into some of the moves but his complete incompetence in evaluating talent, as well as failing to give the team the much needed push the previous offseason are all on his shoulders.

I don't know about you but I'm totally shocked to see an elite defender playing elite defense.

A scrub should never look like an all-star unless you're completely lacking perspective.

Anyone who supports and employs JPA for years and then goes on to blame defense for the teams short coming should be handed a pink slip and a donut and asked to GTFO.

lol I must subliminally want to see him going so I don't have to read some of the nonsense in this thread.

That's not saying much...