Smokey

Um.. No, they haven't. The pitching has been terrible as a whole and the offence has been shut down at some critical times. The run differential numbers are skewed by the fact that they've been able to run up the score some games when going up against weaker arms but usually come up flat against good pitchers. It's pretty clear at this point that you haven't watched many games and are just reaching for reasons as to why they've underachieved. The fact is however that they're just not a very good team right now.

I was referring to all those posts you made after the Marlines and the Mets deals defending the direction that the club was headed and calling guys like the Hurl and BTS overly cynical for having the foresight to see more than two feet ahead of them. Well, since then this team has done nothing but lose close games or run up the score when going up against weaker starters. Look back at last year or the year before and you'll see the same pattern. During the first year the excuse was all those "unlucky injuries" and now it's s*** luck because the result are not reflective of the run differential. Maybe luck has cost the team a win or two and maybe they're not really this bad, but at the end of the day this is a terribly constructed team that is 3 years into the all-in window and is so far from even thinking about a championship. s*** luck is the least of this organization's problem.

Sounds like after all the defending you've done of this FO that you don't even watch many games. s*** luck? No my friend, just terrible baseball. Going 3-12 in one run games has a lot more to do with poor execution than it's does with luck. A terrible BP and a continued failure to drive in a runner at third with less than 2 outs does that to a poorly constructed team.

"Goins being Goins" has little to do with overthinking and a lot to do him just being bad at handling the bat (although I admit he has made some improvements this year). I personally wouldn't take a chance with him making contact when you have the top of the order coming up after... Look, even the president of the Ryan Goins fan club disagrees with the decision... I'm not trying to blame Gibby for the loss or what's happening this season but his decision making in general has been far from ideal.

Are you f***ing retarded? I just wrote a paragraph explaining that Pillar should be the primary 4th outfielder and that they're only relying on guys like Portobello because they've decided that Pillar is suddenly a stud CFer. Is that a hard concept for you to comprehend sir??

That's not entirely true. They're Playing Pillar at CF everyday which has nothing to do with injuries. He would be a pretty decent 4th outfielder but because AA suddenly views him as "one of the best outfielders in baseball", he thinks it's a good idea to keep him there regularly. So as a result, the team is now reliant on replacements who have no business playing the OF and as we've seen the last couple of games, there's been several easy balls that were dropped that led to runs. This incompetent roster management is costing the team a lot more games than Reyes and his mental mistakes ever could. I don't particularly enjoy the thought of paying Reyes $22m but what other choice does the team have at this point? Eat his salary and replace him with Ryan f***ing Goins?

I'm just saying he took part in the amateur hour and does deserve some of the blame.

Maybe he wouldn't be as frustrated if he wasn't playing hit and run with Goins at the plate and Kawa at 1st (in the 8th inning I believe)....

Yesterdays lineup included 4 scrubs (at LF, CF, RF and 2B) who have no business playing everyday and some of you retards have a bigger issue with Reyes and want him replaced permanently with a replacement level player who has an extremely limited upside. Great f***ing idea!

Run differential doesn't tell you the whole story though. This team has a history of losing close games and that is not a coincidence. They might end up playing above .500 the rest of the way relying mostly on their offense during the hot days of summer but that's not a recipe for success in October.

I agree with your general sentiment that the season is far from over. Guys like Martin and Donaldson are game changers and can carry the team at times. I could definitely see the team go on a bit of a run and possibly sneak into the playoffs. The contradiction in the bolded lines and the general problem with this half-ass approach however is that you can't possibly like the team's chances in most close playoff games. The pitching is not nearly strong enough IMO and the offense isn't putting up 10 runs when going up against other teams frontline starters. They'll be behind the eight-ball from the start and it will essentially take small miracle for them to win it all. The last thing this arrogant FO needs is to get lucky and make the playoffs partly due to a weak division and declare the season a success and in turn expose us to many more years of mediocrity!

Thanks Captain Obvious! The problem is that he's on his 6th year on the job and has shown no inclination to learn from his past mistakes. But I guess he deserves another 6 years though because he's not the worst!

You are absolutely right! Who the f*** cares about the fact that our Ninja GM saw him as an elite pitcher who will allow us to put a "contending team together for an extended run". Who cares about any of that s***.. This is all on Dickey and his donkey looking face and his rosy pink cheeks! f*** him!

You clearly have it all wrong... All Beeston really wants to do is to fulfill his promise and since it's not looking like we'll be making the playoffs this year, he's willing to make the sacrifice neccassary to assure that it happens next year... or possibly even the year after. All I know is that it's great to have such a devoted president. http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/sports/baseball/2009/10/27/blue_jays_president_paul_beeston_sticking_around/paulbeeston.jpeg

Just the ASG? You're clearly underestimating AA's incompetence... Pillar is here to stay!

Of course the players traded had a lot of value and I've already acknowledged the loss in the same sentence you edited out. What I was trying to say is that the players given up, although quite valuable as a whole, didn't have a tremendously high upside individually and the club could actually afford to trade them at the time. It obviously hasn't worked out and I'm in no way trying to defend the move but I could at least live with what was given up as long as the club had the financial resources to further improve itself. Having to spend over 30% of your budget on Reyes and Buehrle and then crying about being broke is more unacceptable than the loss in value, at least IMO.

I don't disagree... In terms of value those trades have cost the organization a lot more but very few people expected much out of Gomes and the financial commitment was more of an issue with the Miami deal rather than the players/prospects going the other way. I could at least see the rationale for why a desperate GM who is having a hard time recruiting FA's would want to trade some of his raw assets for proven big leaguers. But to trade some of your top prospects to overpay for a 40+ year old junk baller with the belief that he's the last missing piece of the puzzle was completely irrational and premature IMO.

But you have a habit of putting lip stick on a pig and deceiving yourself into believing that you "could have done worse". The reality, however, is that this trade was huge miscalculation by this FO and is arguably AA's worse move to date. He himself claimed that this trade will be defined by how they evaluate Dickey and that they see him as a frontline starter who will help them contend for an extended period. They basically thought they're buying a ferrari and ended up with a Honda and you're like 'at least we didn't get stuck with a Kia'.

Weaker than your Donaldson trade proposal, Jimmy boy?

lol Straight from the horses mouth... http://www.bluejaysmessageboard.com/threads/1496-2013-less-productive-players?p=132010&viewfull=1#post132010

And JPA is not a horrible player, he could have been a lot worse.

"It comes down to how you evaluate R.A. and that is going to define the results of this trade. We see him as a front-of-the-rotation starter," said Anthopoulos. "He's won the Cy Young and he's pitched like one the past three years." "There's just so much overwhelming evidence and data that points to him continuing to have this success. He's gotten better every single year... he's had ERAs below three two of the last three years." "Right now we feel we're so close to contention that this was a deal we needed to make because it's not just about one season. This allows us to put a contending team together for an extended run." http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img853/698/rvcl.gif

SMH You're soft Jimmy.

Then don't speculate and make excuses (and act like it's a fact) for the f*** ups that have put the team in this position in the first place. What? What do I want him to say? I don't want him to say s***, I want him to take some action! The team was all in FFS and they had plenty of time to improve the catching spot in 2013 and 2B spot in 2013 and 2014. His incompetence to fill those voids had nothing to do with "bridges" and everything to do with incompetence! But keep making those excuses if it makes you feel better... Yet, when AA f***s up, it must be someone else's fault. I don't want to make it sound like AA is the only problem, but he's been hired by the same clown that put a lot of this cluster f*** together in the first place. It's pretty foolish to dismiss the results of this FO's moves and simply assume that AA not a part of the problem.

"We have the best house on the nicest block in the best part of town," Anthopoulos said metaphorically about the franchise he has been entrusted to operate. Ownership has given the president complete autonomy, and Paul Beeston has given me complete autonomy. I don't know of another franchise in baseball that operates this way." These unsubstantiated speculations and excuses are just your sad attempt at holding on to the false belief that the GM you have so much faith in isn't a complete f***ing goof. Well, this is the same guy that viewed JPA as the catcher of the future and Ryan Goins as a potential "star" who was worthy of being handed the full time 2B job. He also had no problem labelling Dickey the "ace" of his staff... so who's to say he wasn't directly responsible? He might be doing something's right but putting a winning roster together clearly isn't one Of them. The guy is on his 6th year on the job and the third year since declaring the team "all in" and has managed to assemble a roster that has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. If you're content with that, then keep rolling with the false rationalizations I guess, but sooner or later you'll have to face up to the reality...