TwistedLogic

So basically, McCown is throwing away any credibility we thought he had, and making everything in this article less and less likely to be true.

Bruce has always been a good player, but he was trash in every facet of the game last year. Im usually high on buy-low candidates in situations like that, but at his price tag, there's no room for error there. It's not a guy going through arb like Escobar and Rasmus were, he costs $12.5M, too much for a reclamation project. And I think it's crazy to offer Sanchez for him. Not because I have any great attachment to Sanchez, but I feel like if you're going to deal him, you can probably get something better than a guy coming off a -1 win season with a price tag that high. Besides, factoring in the payroll differences between Sanchez and Bruce, I wouldn't be surprised if Sanchez is more valuable than Bruce next year, even out of the pen.

Based on this mentality, the Jays should have traded Bautista and Edwin after their breakout years too. Selective memory only goes so far to make a point. Some breakout players stay good, some go back to being bad. The jays have both lost out and benefited from these cases, just like any and every other team.

*33 year old.

Don't mind him, I don't think he had any real interest in the actual discussion in this thread. If you look at his profile, you'll quickly notice that every single one of his posts over the last two days (outside of a random Putin picture) have been directed at me, despite the fact that I never actually respond to him. I don't remember ever having interacted with him before in any way (other than to tell him that I don't remember ever talking to him), but for whatever reason, he's got some creepy obsession with me, where he spends the entirety of his time on this forum quoting my posts and trying far too hard to troll me. I've never seen someone try so hard to get a rise out of someone and fail so completely by being met with such indifference. There must be something in the water (...pixels?) on this forum that makes so many of the people here so creepy and intense. I don't know why they're like that, but realizing how rare it must be for weirdos like this to exist, and then realizing the abundance of them that we have on this forum, it's really sort of marvellous when you think about it.

Care to explain why what? I'm not sure if you misread my post, but if you don't think that Hunter is the right fit, then you're in agreement with me. I'd also ask the question of why the Jays are interested in him, because I don't have the answer to that.

Based on the TSN interview, Dickey isn't going anywhere, and AA didn't dismiss the Hunter rumors off the bat like he did the Sandoval ones, so it seems there might be some legitimacy there. I personally hate Hunter, so that's probably one of the very few players that I'll be genuinely unhappy if we acquire. Hoping the turf scares him away.

Exactly. Darvish will forever be the most accurate portrayal of the Jays' fan base's relationship with Alex Anthopoulos. A situation driven completely by media hype, and the guy got absolutely roasted for something he absolutely never committed to. "You went to Japan. Which means you scouted Darvish. Which means the Jays had interest in Darvish. Which got our hopes up. Which lead to a bunch of ******** media fluff. Which meant the Jays were now front runners for Darvish. Which meant that it was pretty much a done deal. YOU PROMISED US THAT YOU WOULD SIGN DARVISH AND NOW---- we will patiently wait for a full MLB season to actually evaluate whether Darvish is a valuable pla--- WE WILL FLIP THE f*** OUT AT YOU, YOU SCHEMING, CONNIVING, DECEITFUL DEMON OF A FAT GREEK MAN."

This is true to a certain extent, but every time AA tries to get people to chill out by saying they probably won't go crazy, or that they don't have a wide open payroll, people write it off as AA keeping his cards close to his chest, and continue buying into the industry rumors. Then, after it turns out that the Jays didn't make any major moves, or that it was true that payroll was limited, people turn back onto AA as if he lied to them and beat their children. All I'm saying is that take everything with a grain of salt. Sure AA is probably not gonna tell you the whole truth, but a lot of what we're reading in the news is also probably over-dressed garbage. It's probably/hopefully somewhere in the middle.

There's already a thread for AA's interview on 590, and now this one for his interview on MLB Network, so I'm not going to make a third thread and I'll just post his TSN interview here as well: http://www.tsn.ca/radio/anthopoulos-talks-martin-sandoval-and-torii-hunter-1.140243 Haven't heard it yet, listening to it now. He can only do as much as ownership lets him do.

Based on AA's MLB Network interview, I wouldn't be surprised if they're pretty much done for the offseason in terms of major names. This forum probably won't handle that news well, lol.

This is funny/awkward, because I just posted a thread where Bob McCown speculated that the Jays had the means and the willingness to go a lot further than Martin in the free agent market, but now straight from the horse's mouth, it seems there's no truth to those rumors. Here's the link for AA's interview with MLB Network from today: https://soundcloud.com/mlbnetworkradio/alex-anthopoulos-tor-gm-discusses-whats-next-this-off-season-on-mlb-network-radio-on-siriusxm Based on what he says, the Jays haven't had any activity in the free agent market the past few days due to the Martin signing (occupied with marketing/celebrations?) and they'll be diving back into it tomorrow. The bullpen seems to be a priority, and he seems satisfied with the rotation. Mentions the Orioles getting to the playoffs without an ace, but four solid under-4 ERA guys, thinks they've got something similar. There's 0 truth to the Sandoval rumors, and when asked how much payroll they have to work with, he basically contradicts every rumor out there, implying that they do have some space, but probably not nearly as much as people think they do. ("I've read some things that we're going to go crazy and spend all kinds of money, if that was the case then you would have seen Martin's deal spread out as an even number with the AAV"). Mentions the dreaded word "creative" in how they'll need to approach the remaining payroll. The 5-year policy seems to still be firmly in place, says they wouldn't be opposed to going higher on the AAV to avoid more years. This should probably temper the wildfire that is the expectations of Jays fans right now, and goes back to what I said earlier today; the baseball media blows up a hunk of s*** about the Jays every offseason, whether by drawing up random ******** narratives about their payroll, or about their seemingly miserable clubhouse, or how they're in on every free agent in the market, and the Martin signing has only enabled those people further. Relax your expectations, keep your hopes where you can see them and if something happens, it happens, and if it doesn't, then it was never going to.

I made a post about this yesterday: http://www.bluejaysmessageboard.com/threads/4083-Jays-sign-Martin-So-what-s-next-priority?p=456306&viewfull=1#post456306 That doesn't even count the fact that you can probably get relief guys in trade (which is what AA has always been known for) that will also cost a fraction of what Miller will set you back.

Miller's going to cost far too much, and there's several other relievers on the market that are basically as good as he is.

This idiotic f***ing Boras narrative is so irritating to hear about every year. They need to grow a set of nuts and let bygones be. There's no room for these ******** grudges and ******** egos in a front office. Not in this sport.

That's the closest two in my opinion. I only lean towards Shields because apparently he's going to be cheaper (by a not insignificant amount), and that money can be used to get some of the other guys. Like I said though; keeping the draft pick and signing the guy that's two years younger in Lester wouldn't be something I'd complain about. I'm just not that high on getting one of these starters in the first place. The contract terms and dollars both seem so much heavier than an actual need for a pitcher. I'd rather go for McCarthy or possibly even Harang. We don't need some superstar pitcher on a long term deal, the guys that are on a tier or two below and would only be tied up for a few seasons at most make a lot more sense to me.

Yeah, I've read that garbage (on basically every news outlet that can feature it). My question is still the same. How is he a clubhouse cancer? Keeping to himself (that too according to Evil Jerry Howarth) is cancerous? So Roy Halladay was a clubhouse cancer?

How the hell is Dickey a clubhouse cancer? http://i.imgur.com/py2PxcN.gif

I agree with you, but I have Hochevar #1 on my list for long relief/swingman. I'm looking at the other three for the late inning role. In the ideal scenario they sign both Hochevar and one of the others.

I basically have a different preference to almost every name in the news right now. I prefer Headley to Sandoval, Saunders to Melky, Aoki to Hunter, Neshek, Crain and maybe even Badenhop to Miller, and Shields to Lester. That being said, if they get any of those guys (outside of Hunter, I f***ing hate him), I won't be all that upset. If the team truly does have money, it's something to be stoked about. The cynic in me still thinks that this is just the media taking advantage of the Russell signing to go a little more wild on Jays rumors than we're used to. I won't be much surprised if Russell is the biggest thing the Jays do this off-season by a wide margin. Still, there's reason to be optimistic for once.

To further hammer this rumor into the ground: http://i.gyazo.com/5c0735d2a2ba2258782d383004d67efb.png

RAJ will probably ask for Stroman, Norris, Pompey, Lawrie, Andrew Tinnish, Howarth, the Man in White, the marketing rights to Alomar, and a full salary dump for Ryan Howard.

Hilariously, "fingerprint'esque unique" is the same kind of douchebag jargon someone who uses terms like "rubbishes" or "serial ********-monger" would use. You're trying too hard, Stoeten.

I still like Shields more than the other two. Like Lester, he's got a long track record in the East and he's going to be cheaper. I do see the appeal for Lester, however, since he's two years younger and won't cost a draft pick (which I don't think should be as much of a deterrent as it usually is, since they've already ditched the first rounder for Martin).

This is why my ears perk up when McCown, Blair and even Zaun say something. They seem to have an ear to AA's door, so it's always worth at least taking a note on.