Dick_Pole

Well the Jays still had d'Arnaud at the time. Had Jays message board posters been privy to the Dickey deal beforehand, we would probably have pointed out that it's prudent to keep Yan Gomes as backup in case the .230 30 HR catcher became an even more one-dimensional dud. I hate it when people look at this stuff retroactively and out of context. We're outsiders and don't have looking glasses. Yan Gomes in November 2012 looked relatively expendable on this team. It's not our fault the dumbass GM decides to trade three of the top four catchers on this team in the span of 6 weeks.

Hey Moogy, complete this sentence: These actions sure sound like those of a typical Je_. The LA thing makes it an even funnier stereotype! Tell him Mel Gibson says hi.

I guess I have to change my avatar soon.

No they didn't. Earnings per share last year for the first 6 months was $1.69. This year it's down to $1.33. What you or I or anyone else on this board considers to be "a lot of money" is a very different definition of what Bay St, Wall St and the suits running Rogers will consider to be "a lot of money". I promise you that the market sentiment on Rogers is complete disdain. If it weren't for the good dividend return no one would want Rogers stock.

The scary part would be if internal talks have payroll staying flat or going down...regardless of the current situation for optioned, arbitration eligible and signed players.

I'd rather have a BP arm off of waivers during the playoffs when nothing else can be done than have one that was claimed off waivers just a few months before and AA trades a catcher just before a breakout year and needed MIF depth for him.

Maybe hitters are getting taller! Or wait...shorter....wait. Hitters are getting longer torsos, but are cursed with stubby little legs.

No they can't. Did you not read my thread about Rogers financial state? Or read their financials yourself? Or check out their stock price compared to the rest of the stock market over the past two years? Rogers stinks right now. No more money for baseball players. If Rogers had sucked financially in 2012 as much as they did in 2013 and 2014, AA/PB probably wouldn't have gotten permission to do those trades.

LOL the only way Hanley comes here is if another team signs him to a big contract and then immediately trades him to the Jays for Sanchez, Norris and Barreto.

Yes! YES!!!! THIS is what we need. We can replace Colby Rasmus with...another Colby Rasmus. That is what is going to lead the Jays to championships. I know some people are just making comments about this potentially being a "value" deal of sorts. But if an argument between this mediocre player and his boss and the remote possibility of him coming to Toronto versus 28 other MLB teams can illicit 4+ pages of commentary (gotta adjust for the Moogy OT argument crap) then AA has done his job of successfully lowering your expectations of this team. I don't want to have to hear or see or read about Michael Saunders and the Jays ever again and if this ends up being AA's top move for 2014-15 off-season then we are all going to the home opener and drinking the poison Kool-Aid like one of those crazy suicide cults...all 40K+ of us....to show AA what we think of his GM skills.

Hey but in 2008 it seemed like a great idea to take on all those FA contracts.

One season under .500 since 2000 Now that's what I call a rebuild. Anyone who says the Jays need to "blow it up" or do a Houston Astros type of thing can f*** off. They need to be run smartly that is all. For a good team, "rebuilding" years are the 75-85 win range and the good years are 90+. Playing the Cubs and Pirates lots of times helps too.

A new stadium is not happening for at least 25 years imo. The government has to pay off the Dome first. I can see a situation where the Rogers Centre gets torn down in favour of condos and the baseball park is built somewhere else. That would be a great business case for Rogers. No idea where the team would go to. Lots of usable land within city/GTA limits, but none near the downtown core that I can think of. Markham or Mississauga Blue Jays doesn't have the same ring to it. As for Joe Carter, I'd love a statue of him struggling to catch a routine fly ball in the stadium's "bright lights". Perhaps he is crouching and squinting with the glove just over his head trying to block the lights, and the ball is flying about a foot over his glove.

Moogy there is something f***ing wrong with you. You need a psychiatrist or something. You supposedly have this family with young children and I presume the responsibilities that come with that like having a job and keeping your home from falling apart. Yet you choose to spend hours a day on this site arguing nonsense and depriving your kids of your time. s*** that doesn't even matter on a board with other people who share a common interest of leisure (fan of a sports team). Not even debating something worthwhile like politics or science or something. Although I have this feeling you spend even more time arguing s*** like that on various other forums. Who cares what some random guy's job is or how he does it. Do you even have a clue what a correctional officer's job entails or what is considered a "good job"? I don't either but from years of watching Oz and Orange Is The New Black I'll take a guess. Yelling at criminals to behave, staring at a lot of hairy bare *******s for drugs and occasionally depriving a pedophile's basic human rights for kicks. There's nothing out of that list that implies one has to go above and beyond the call of duty. Just avoid getting AIDS from too close contact with the junkies and make sure any prospective escapees are shot down before they get to the public roads.

I agree, regressed or non-regressed or whatever, the Jays probably have the "RH platoon DH position" covered, which shouldn't very high up on the priority list of holes to fill anyways.

Is he also bribing us with $50?

The Pittsburgh scenario...then AA and PB can claim self-vindication over the way they built this team and half this board will get a heart attack.

LOL...f***ing NHL reporter is in his version of training camp I guess.

I think we can all agree that neither JPR nor AA have been up to the task (nor Ash). 21 years and counting.

I have a different perspective on this. JPR thought of these trades, but for one reason or another couldn't get the job done. AA had that Kinsler rumour and for some reason or another couldn't get the job done. That doesn't excuse the fact that he failed to get a 2B thereafter. People say Godfrey stifled the Wells trade. I could flip that around and say that JPR didn't do a good enough job in convincing Godfrey this is the right move. After all, JPR just came off the Quantrill for Propopek, Stewart for Kielty, Mondesi for Wiggins and Gonzalez for Heredia trades. Dumping some of those guys ended up being the smart move but the return back to Toronto was terrible. In addition to Delgado and that Carpenter and Escobar were on their way out. So in that context we can see why a higher up suit would be keen on keeping Wells, because we have to keep SOMEONE from our homegrown talent. Part of that is Ricciardi being forced to cut salary, the other part of it is him digging his own grave because he didn't do a great job of it from a PR perspective and the crappy return back from the trades. Canadian baseball fans were sensitive to what was going on with the Expos, and what the Jays were doing in the first couple years under JPR's reign really looked like Expo policies of the mid-90's.

Then there's also the debate of Godfrey vs Beeston...who is the bigger noose around the GM's neck.

I dunno, I think JPR was given some leeway too by the fans given how the Delgado situation was handled and how those trades involving shipping out popular players like Gonzalez and Quantrill didn't pan out with the players coming to the Jays. He rode the Yankees payroll excuse for a long time while in Toronto, up until he had some money to spend on Burnett, Ryan and Thomas.

I optimistically say it stays the same. They're not spending more money on baseball players with these crappy financials. http://www.bluejaysmessageboard.com/threads/3959-Rogers-is-not-going-to-spend-any-more-money-on-baseball-players The best we can hope for imo is it stays the same. And if Buehrle gets dumped we'll know there is pressure to decrease it. No other team around the league gets scrutinized with financials displayed four times a year for everyone to see with a stock price riding on that. This is the life of being owned by a publicly reporting and trading corporation...one whose business is struggling for growth. As far as there being lies about the payroll (not sure if the liar term is meant for AA/PB or Rogers itself), Rogers in 2012 was a lot different than Rogers now. New management, complete halt on all revenue growth and 18 months of a non-performing stock price does these things. No one "lied" per se, Rogers is just in the process of desperately changing direction. There's probably lots of people in Rogers who were "lied" to about their jobs being safe in late 2012. Being lied to about salary flexibility for baseball players is going to be the same.

Well yes, I was not arguing that this guy is great, but going against the Ricciardi love fest that's somewhat brewing on here. But I don't agree with your statement that AA's been given more time than JPR to build a young core. JPR was given plenty of time and how many young busts did we have to deal with?

Poor Roy Hartsfield, RIP. That piece of crap manager led the Jays to three straight 100+ loss seasons. He must have been the worst manager ever, deserving of his body being exhumed just so the members of this board can tar and feather the remaining skeleton. I mean if Gibbons is that bad, this guy must have been 10x worse leading a team to nearly 500 games of twice as many losses as wins...like, seriously, who does that? Twice as many losses as wins. Disgraceful.