baubau

Gibby plays with the hands he's dealt and I think he certainly recognizes the ability and shortcomings of each player. I am sure he's aware of Navvy's poor framing and stuck Kratz with Stroman, Hutch and Happ early on. Can't fault him for AA sending Kratz up/down and moving him. He has also benched Franny full time since getting Valencia. Pretty sure he knew he was never a real solution out in 1st and 3rd base. Again, cannot fault him for being in a position where he had to play him as he had no one else. He's also be very blunt on expectations for Rasmus as King mentioned which is good. I am sure Gibby would have loved to have certain players up and others down, however he only manages the roster. AA is the one that fields it for him. Changing Gibbons won't change the .500 ball club this team is.

How would replacing Gibby make this a better team? Replacing AA/Beaston would but Gibby? He's certainly made a questionable moves but he is not the reason we have a .500 club on the field.

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140507180254/vampirediaries/images/9/9a/Dean-Wtf....gif

July 17th? Doh.. I'm being dumb. Should've checked this thread before posting. Thanks King.

Unfortunately I am unable to pull up the stats, but Bautista was still playing pretty well with Edwin down. He certainly wasn't getting the pitches for sure and I don't think he hit more than a handful of HRs while Edwin was away but overall he still maintained his hitting / once in a while good defensive plays. I would say Lawrie was the bigger loss mostly due to his defense and the result of the Franskio/Tholleson/Kawasaki/Goins combo at 2nd/3rd base. Regardless injuries are never a excuse as every team faces them. AA's inability to make a deal (i.e. Frany for Headley) and acquire depth before the preseason started is what hurt the team the most in my mind. Though the framing/inconsistent pitching is certainly another leading issue for the season.

Yikes. Good to see he's up and smiling. Hopefully he won't have any hesitation when coming back. Couldn't imagine what that would be like. Such a stud player.

Anyone have a ESPN subscription to Keith Law's top 50? http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11223667/mlb-keith-law-top-50-mlb-prospects

Its the Blue Ja.. No, sorry, its the Toronto way!

Also, I have to admit that I was "Ok" with AA passing on trading Juan for Headley. Now I am just f***ing pissed. Not only would Headley have helped out defensively but he has also hit 2, 3? game winning runs for the NYY. Not saying that someone else on the NYY roster may have not been able to win those games but keeping him away from the Yanks would have been helpful in this race to get into the playoffs. Oh and Headley > Juan... no matter how much power he may have.. Sign. Darn you hindsight..

There is a lot of blame to be thrown around this game, but when the "closer" comes into the game, the same guy who bitched about not doing anything at the deadline, has a 2 run lead... he should be able to f***ing "close" the game. He hasn't. With that being said Reyes is still a sack of s*** defensively.

Both. Sign Paxton and opt the pick on Sanchez for Syndergaard.

I do not believe this is posted, but Norris, Graveman made first team all-star and Pompey second team. http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/minor-league-star-team-2014/#.VAcpP1qIMlA I wish Kris Bryant had signed with us when we drafted him. ....and Paxton.

I am with you. Sometimes I wonder if AA intentionally botched that pick so he could get another pick in this year's draft. It is yet to be seen if it works or not. Hoffman/Pentecost could falter for us and Bickfod becomes the next Jared Weaver but I am happy with how things turned out.

Oh man, the Rays are now just a game behind the Jays. How the hell do you go from having a 6 game lead in the division, 14 wins above .500 to being 1 game back of 4th place? I mean sure, this team wasn't as good as its hot streak but this collapse is pretty epic bad.

I am going with, left handed Roy Halladay.

Exactly. Gordon is like the Mike Trout of LF.

I know hindsight is 20/20 but man if the Jays drafted one of Gallo, Seager, Wacha, Berrios instead. *fap* *fap* Same in 2013 if we got Peterson or Crawford instead of Bickford. I know we wouldn't have one of Hoffman/Pentcost. Heck if we kept Yan Gomes we could have drafted Hoffman still. Darn you hindsight!

Going by last year's signing: Garza - 2.2 WAR / 3.82 ERA / 3.73 xFIP Nolasco - 3.1 WAR / 3.70 ERA / 3.58 xFIP Jimenez - 3.3 WAR / 3.30 ERA / 3.62 xFIP Garza/Jimenez got 50M over 4 years and Nolasco 49M over 4 years... Averaging around $12.5M per year. Last year: RA Dickey - 2.1 WAR / 4.21 ERA / 4.23 xFIP, last year This year: RA Dickey - 1.6 WAR / 3.95 ERA / 4.07 xFIP I cannot see RA making more than or equal to the guys mentioned above. I'd suspect in the open market he'd get around $10M at most. Add his knuckle ball uncertainty and how he pitches based on the park plus his age... you may even see offers less than $10M.

7 mil a year for 2 years? It wouldn't surprise me to see a team like the Tigers offer that. Not saying he is worth that but teams desperate for a bullpen arm/reliever in the past have shown to overpay. I am not sure where Sanchez's future lies. I wouldn't be surprised if he made it as a starter not would I be surprised if he ends up being a closer/bullpen guy. He is all over the map. Though I would be shocked to see the Jays not give Sanchez a shot as a starter if nothing more than just PR/marketing reasons. I am sure they'll work him out as a starter first and if he gets destroyed will be pulled into the pen with the speil about taking pressure away from him for now, get him more comfortable and moving him back to starter down the road, etc. Though he isn't walking as many as I had expected, there are still command issues that I've been noticing. He leaves the pitch hanging quite often and other times high. He had nearly 3 pitches in a row above the zone a few nights ago where Navarro was signing him to "keep it low". I suspect once the league adjusts to him and not chase some of his stuff, the walks will come.

Yes, but does that take away from the fact that AA has built up pretty decent arms? In either case, was just pointing out that the final comment isn't as ridiculous as the rest.

Yeah, don't get me wrong by no means am I advocating keeping AA. I think he's failed in many aspects specifically with the Happ trade, Rogers trade and Mets trade. Not to mention that he hasn't built a competitive team despite having 10th highest payroll in baseball. He never addressed the bench, 2B and starting pitchers to start the season. Unfortunately, the Jays have a system of "rinse and repeat" while Beaston is around. He is the main person you'd want to get rid of otherwise we'll just have AA's assistant become the next GM.

To be fair, the last comment isn't that far off. AA is stockpiling/stockpiled some pretty decent arms in the farm. Hutch, Stroman, Norris, Osuna, Hoffman, Synder.. er, um.. ignore this, Sanchez were all under his tenure no? By no means is he building a rotation of the Braves circa early 1990s, but he's built up a pretty decent arm farm. E: Actually should AA be given credit for drafting these players or more so our scouts or a specific scout?

Also to note, I did like Hutch's composure after giving up 6ER in the 1st. By no means was it a great outing but I like that level of composure to forget about the bad play and keep on going. Hopefully next season he can be more aggressive and consistent. I am sure that coming off TJS/missing a year of play is impacting him right now.

Well s***, I retract that comment. Man do I look like a dumbass.