Dick_Pole

I agree. The man is 31 years old. Not exactly protecting Strasburg here. Give him an 80 pitch count and however far he goes with that he goes. If he still looks strong after 80, keep him in.

Nothing wrong with being a PR GM imo as long as your market can support it. Toronto and Philly are mid-to-large markets and having guys like Utley, Dickey, Lee and Reyes around to keep the iron hot and the casual fans interested might take precedence over good long-term baseball decisions. The casual fans are ultimately the ones who pay the bills. The hardcores who might know otherwise are mostly going to be around no matter what. It wasn't that long ago in the Pre-Rogers days where the Jays were mentioned in the same breath as the Expos by US commentators as targets for contraction/relocation to bring all 30/28 teams back to one country. That's definitely not the case anymore. As long as the Jays (and for that matter the Phillies) can keep interest up, they can keep a high payroll and with a high payroll comes a significantly higher margin for error when putting a competitive team together compared to the A's or Rays. I believe Lawrie will be his first true test in that regards to a "franchise player" contract.

I think it's more ignorance with Morrow more than anything. The man's been on the DL every year he's been here. No reason to think any different and Marcum would have been a great stand-by (assuming he'd sign knowing he's 6-7 on the depth chart with a great shot at #5 by May). I think they were well prepared to have Happ take over for Romero if necessary and I would have been fine with that. Just getting beaned in the head wasn't in the plans. AA needs to thank his lucky stars that Rogers has worked out so far and Kawasaki is so damn popular and somewhat useful because that Aviles for Rogers trade just went from confusing and pointless to one of the smarter things he's done lately.

Miggy...back-to-back triple crown, bros, soon to be back-to-back MVP

Then I take it back. In fact all clubs should trade their star players around like used needles at a heroin party. Wait a couple of weeks until fans load up on their new star's jerseys, then send them packing to the next team for another top player. $$$$$$.

This would be the most realistic trade imo and won't cost much to get done. Should have signed him in the first place but I guess AA still had the working assumption that Romero wasn't the next Dontrelle Willis.

Marketing? Protecting the brand by keeping your franchise players? Utley is the Phillies version of Ripken or Jeter so I can completely understand them being reluctant in parting with him. Believe it or not, there's more to it to being a GM than trying to hoard B- prospects at every opportunity. Utley sells a lot more jerseys than some jobber at AA that might give you 5 WAR over his MLB career when he's ready in 2 years. This is nothing more than finding a reason to hate on the guy so you can feel included in the Anti-Amaro club on this board. If Friedman came out and said he wants Longoria to retire in a Rays uniform and is the face of the franchise for the rest of this decade no one would say a peep about it, unless it was something positive.

Ah you guys and Amaro. Come on certainly there's a greater market for Cecil than you think. Just last year an ineffective starter turned lights-out reliever named Lincoln netted the Pirates a failed power hitting OF prospect who's ceiling has been reduced to a Matt Stairs type of career, if he's lucky. That's a pretty decent haul.

What about trading some of the excess bullpen arms to get that needed SP? Peavy for Cecil and a low-level prospect wouldn't seem unfathomable if you can convince the White Sox Cecil can be flipped for a decent haul to some team that doesn't know him too well.

Holy s*** dude, well what would you do given the situation they were in? Trade a prospect for Joe Saunders or something? It's really easy to criticize but I don't see you offering up better scenarios. Jenkins did just fine and Romero is supposed to be an established SP so take those 5 starts off.

When you look at any of the players under the age of 23 that the Jays have had in the last 5 years, can anyone honestly say that any of them had the upside of David Price or Even Longoria? Even at the height of Travis Snider worship the consensus was 30+ HR power but his BA would be around .250. People bemoan the Dickey, Happ and Marlins trades yet in those three trades I can't say that one prospect they gave up was elite. They gave up a lot of depth, but a lot of depth of ok to good prospects wins you minor league titles. It doesn't win you World Series titles. At no point in time were they ever the Rays, and I ask why does anyone want to be the Rays? Their first wave of prospects came from being awful for a decade so they consistently got top picks, more than half of which was blown on garbage and that includes Hamilton because he was a lost cause at the time. They can't keep their own players. They can't put it together as they have only one World Series appearance, three playoff appearances and two seasons with more than 92 wins. A ton of prospects and potential and that's about it. They sit somewhere in between the Jays of the 80's and the post-strike Expos as a franchise when the end result for a successful team should be the Jays of the early 90's. The Jays should just poach a few of their scouts and player development people then people can shut up about whacking off the Rays' ego over what a model team they are. Yeah sure, if you're an accountant or are trying to win a salary cap keeper fantasy league, the Rays model is a good one to follow. If you want to win at actual MLB consistently, a Yankees or Cardinals model is something you'll need.

But if he was 28, they'd have to add in Gose and Sanchez to get him.

Couldn't have said it better myself. The main blinders with people who are prospect/young player friendly is that they far overvalue their worth. KC gave up way more to get Shields and Davis and we're already seeing a taste of what Myers can do right now. I recall people had no issue with Snider giving handshakes in the dugout when everyone assumed he was being traded for Garza. Then it turned out to be Lincoln and there's been constant crying about how the Jays gave up on him. People didn't have a problem with the idea of giving up on Snider, they had a problem with AA not waving a magic wand and getting a king's ransom with horse manure. The market dictated that all he was worth was Lincoln. Nothing more. And he continues to prove that point while with the Pirates. If you look at the Dickey trade in the context of the Shields trade or other veteran-for-prospect type of trades within the past decade like Josh Beckett or Bartolo Colon, the Jays did just fine. The only reference I see the Dickey trade being specifically referred to as bad is how they missed out on Latos with a similar package. First, we'll never know the full story on that one so much of it is hearsay, and second if this was their runner-up trade, getting the previous year's NL Cy Young is a pretty good consolation prize. Latos is a free agent in 2016 while Dickey is signed to a relatively team friendly contract through then. There's a good chance that the Jays get Dickey for longer than the Reds will have Latos, unless they sign him to some expensive long term contract. The biggest negative factor is age, but with a knuckleballer that becomes a huge wildcard where age might not be a factor at all. I think the prospect love-in by the board is a product of a couple of big time posters who are in love with the way TB does things and that spreads among the younger crowd who are too easily influenced by what they read. You don't just turn every pitching prospect you have into David Price, and if you do, it's a mix between great luck and very good player development. If we examine that TB "success" more closely, 2013 is essentially their version of the 1992 Blue Jays as they are 21 years younger. And the 2013 Rays are nowhere near the talent of the 1992 Blue Jays, nor anywhere near the success. What the Jays did in the 1980's pisses all over what the Rays have done so far (even with the one WS appearance) since 2008. What the Rays are is a team that has done pretty well for their small budget. For some reason people care more about that than winning at all costs (the Yankees model) as if they are in the accounting department for Rogers.

Thanks...I think it's just Bautista being typical Bautista..."I'm not officially complaining, but I'm just simply mentioning it in the media, so you know, everybody knows my potential concern that I'm potentially not being the best potential baseball player I could be under this current situation". Same crap he pulls whenever the topic of him playing 3b comes up. If he is really insistent that he has a different mindset or approach to the game that doesn't maximize his skill set because he's hitting #2 versus #3, then all the Jays need to do is book a couple of electro-shock therapy sessions for him and that'll fix him right up

Unless they plan on giving Roberto Alomar a pill to make him 20 years younger and put him in the two-spot, the line-up is fine as it is. They don't have a true "Number 2" hitter unless Cabrera comes back healthy. Having Davis at 9 essentially gives you the lineup configuration as Gsnarls described above for most of the game. Don't people remember previous times Davis has been put at top? It's been a disaster. The man's mind is fragile. When you put him in the bottom of the order in a platoon situation and give him PH/PR opportunities late in games when he is on the bench, he produces like an all-star. If you treat him like he's Kenny Lofton, he turns into a turd. If there was an all-star slot for "bench player", he would be it.

When the Yankees stink, they really stink. Unfortunately they don't stink for very long. I remember those early 90's years fondly for them. Don Mattingly and the rest was a pure shitshow. Andy Hawkins throws a no-hitter and loses 4-0 lol. It would be nice to see the Yankees go on a Pirates-like run of futility though it'll never happen, they'll find a way to buy themselves out of it.

Yup, everyone loves that likable Pedroia!

You sure? Took us back to the good old days of 1979

When I first read this I thought you meant you missed how negative their differential once was, like how it was a month ago.

...and bringing up Cerutti reminds me of that time when him and three other former Jays players died within weeks of each other. That was a tough off-season.

I would guess random heart failure, similar to John Cerutti or Joe Kennedy.

Unless Beeston can convince Rogers to throw another $50M+ on this team. Then they can take a shot at McCann, Garza and maybe a few other players in the offseason and things hopefully will be better for next year. One thing that I can give AA credit for...all those added contracts and despite the destruction of the farm, the team can wipe the slate clean relatively easily because none of the contracts are all that long. As long as Rogers ponies up a reasonable amount of money in the foreseeable future and the Jays can attract free agents (or take on salary dumps), they have a shot to be consistently competitive. People talk about Syndergaard and d'Arnaud and how much the Jays will miss them. I'm under the assumption that between now and 2016 there's gonna be like a dozen acquisitions that will make people forget both of those guys rather quickly.

There's a lot of Rajai Davis fairweather fans here. I remember people were s***ing all over him last year when he spent most of the year batting .230 and was badly mismanaged. Now the consensus is that he's a useful contributor to the club and everyone loves him because he's actually being used most often in the situations he excels in. Whether he does something boneheaded or spectacular I enjoy watching him. He makes the game interesting. His pure fearlessness on the basepaths is a throwback to the 1980's, except he's not high on cocaine (presumably).

It wouldn't be the first time Rajai Davis was responsible for winning a game with either a key hit or dominant base running late in a close game.

Well at least one of us is going to get roasted tonight for posting our bets on this board. Unless the Jays win something like 10-0. I can live with hitting 2 of my 3 over bets on the game. Although you're already getting roasted anyways so you might as well take one for the team and deal with a 7 ER 3 IP day from Rogers