wardhenke1

Dayton Moore started in 2006 and he really began the rebuild. All it needs is good management: we don't have it and haven't had since Pat Gillick left. Simples.

Kansas city lost the world series to a freak arm with a payroll of $92m and a team full of home grown talent and prospects developed from other organizations (Gordon, Butler, Perez, Moustakas, Holland, Hosmer etc.) Tell them rebuilding means s***; f*** you should know judging by your avatar.

Whoever we sign had better be willing to take a back-loaded contract or AA had better have a corresponding roster move ready. I hadn't realized just how back-loaded Martin's contract actually is; essentially we swapped Lind for Martin salary-wise this year and our overall payroll right now is at $109m.

So let's see, Lind, Rasmus, Dickey and Thole are all shite. Anyone else see a pattern here? http://edschultzmsnbc.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/al-sharpton-i-hate-white-people-this-much.jpg Bastards.

http://www.keepcalmandposters.com/posters/68860.png http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8wjxxqIC11qzs0iro1_500.gif

74-88 and 83-79 over the last 2 years says this core stinks.

• Could Rogers fund the Blue Jays for $250m right now if they chose to? Yes. • Would it make sense to given the current state of the team and the last two years 'accomplishments'? No. • Is hockey now a serious focus of the company in terms of sporting content? Yes. • Would it be fair to say given the expansion of content, budget and personnel that hockey has now supplanted the Blue Jays in the minds of many responsible Rogers executives? It's not an unreasonable speculation. • Could this mean that there is less focus in time, commitment and money available to the Blue Jays organization going forward? It's not impossible. Nobody would say that because Rogers spent a fortune on hockey coverage that somehow they're now 'broke' or unable to find the money to spend on the Jays; that is clearly ridiculous. The question is given the shift in focus to hockey, would Rogers really want to fork more over to the Jays? $5.232bn is a significant statement of intent for any company after all in terms of its priorities for the future.

According to various sources our payroll right now is about $102m. I still personally believe that after last year's high of $140m it's going to drop significantly to around $100-120m. Last year the pattern was pretty obvious: no-one of significance signed in the off-season, no-one of interest signed during the season and nobody picked up before the trade deadline. $138m was our absolute limit as set by Rogers and in fairness the money was not spent well. All the factors are against our splashing out the cash this off-season: 1) Rogers love of all things hockey 2) The presence of significant salary albatrosses for 2015 that no-one else will want without a large portion of their salary being eaten (Buehrle, Reyes, Dickey, Romero) 3) AA's dislike of long contracts (again to be fair I tend to agree with this one) 4) The total lack of achievement by this core group of players for 2 years suggests that a few 'tweaks' would not dramatically improve the situation. Why throw good money after bad? 5) The number of teams that are looking to reload and retool who actually have money to spend. It's not just the usual suspects (LAD, NYY, BOS etc.), but also the Royals, Orioles, Detroit, Rangers etc. who are potentially genuine contenders. 6) The general undesirability of the Toronto market for free agents, that can force overpay or lead to suspect trades as an alternative Not overly optimistic to be honest.

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/e3/e303635b39773300532476f6e4f13f598b407614eb45e78069596371f86afbb1.jpg

Does anybody believe we have the budget to land one or more big names in the free agent market without moving salary out first? The funny thing is, I don't know why Rogers spent such a shitload of money on hockey; honestly I was flicking through the TSN's and Sportsnet channels the other day and no word of a lie there were 4 or 5 games blacked out. What was the point of the $5 billion?

First Smoak, then Hendricks and now Dirks. Is there a new minor league division being created that we don't know about yet?

It is too early to tell what AA is contemplating for this off-season or what Rogers has decided the budgetary constraints will be. The additions (?) of Smoak and Hendricks seem to point in a certain direction and I have my own suspicions as to what is coming, but I may be (and hope to be) completely wrong about that. Let's give it a few months and then see when we are.

AAA depth or Lind's replacement?

To me the Jays choosing to raise ticket prices is largely irrelevant. The product over the last 20+ years has been poor, there is no denying that. Finishing above 3rd once in the division, let alone never making the playoffs, is old LA Clippers poor and while the payroll has increased during the last 2 years the results/standings have not improved. Logically then what should happen? Payroll could either be increased in a Yankees/Dodgers attempt to buy a championship or (more realistically) the payroll should be reduced, ticket prices raised and changes made to the core of the team. Why pay $140m for a loser?

I cannot foresee any circumstances where the payroll goes above what is was the last 2 years, especially as this group of players has achieved absolutely nothing. According to Cotts our salary obligations in 2015 at this stage are $96.2m, so my guess then is a lower payroll of between $100-120m, possibly nearer the lower end of that range. Rogers: Hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey....................... (*Sigh* if only I liked the f***ing sport)

I'm actually a bit shocked that Kansas City's payroll is that high and Baltimore's is that low. It also seems to prove the adage that spending big on payroll does not guarantee the playoffs, but it certainly helps. Of course we have a decent payroll, but two years with the same core has yielded us a stellar record of 157-167.

There's laid back and then there's comatose. If I listen closely enough (and I rarely do) they make at least 5 mistakes a night either with the score, players names, the pitch count, what happened in previous innings and so on. They're just not professional enough for my tastes quite honestly. I miss so desperately the halcyon era of Howarth and Cheek. They were simply the gold standard for baseball commentating in this market, although of course Jerry is still excellent.

My expectations for the off-season are lower if anything than what happened this year. According to Cott's our payroll is dropping to $96.2m and I would expect management to either stick to this or see it cut even further. Truthfully I would support this however; the current core has shown no signs whatsoever of being a consistent contender for the playoffs and we would have to go 5-0 in our remaining games just to match AA's best year (his first) at 85-77. We managed that on $78.9m.

1) The spine of the team was a problem all season long (a catcher who is a defensive nightmare, no second baseman of any note and not addressed in 2 years and a poor centre field) 2) The almost total lack of moves from winter to the trade deadline despite gaping holes in the bullpen, on the field and in the starting rotation. 3) Crippling the future of the franchise on 2 trades with Miami and the Mets that have not worked out at all. We have been nowhere near the playoffs with this core in 2 years.

Wait, Jo-Jo Reyes? You're comparing Lind to Jo-Jo Reyes? I might just change my signature again. Lind = $7m this year, option next so no. Just....no. I could also go on about Lind being one of the very few original Jays left, his usefulness to the team in his current role and so on, but why bother?

Changed my signature and am now voting to trade everyone but the magnificent six and Adam Lind. Amazing how one player can sum it up so perfectly.

Ah yes, Brandon Morrow: created just to mock statisticians and drive fans to the demon drink.....

You can't go into next year with this core of players unless you make some dramatic improvements via trade/free agency and increase the budget significantly. Even then you are looking at a new season in which the Yankees and Red Sox have had time to retool in the off-season and the Rays will be back on the upswing. It's a complete waste of f***ing time IMO. I have three suggestions: a) Call the RCAF and have them strafe bomb the Front Office building. No-one will be in it mind, as they will all have been given their pink slips earlier. Roll the biggest f***ing hand grenade possible into the clubhouse and wipe the slate clean. At this point I could list maybe 6 players who are pretty much untouchable (Sanchez, Pompey, Nolin, EE, Lawrie and Stroman). The rest, well I'll take what I can get. c) Set dynamite around the rogers centre and blow the pitch the f*** up. Enough of the s***** artificial surface already. Oust the Argos early if you have to. That should just about do it......... [addendum: only some of this is tongue-in-cheek]

Yep. 20+ years of utter shite.

When this season is finally over it will be time to pass judgement on this collection of players assembled at great cost to our future, and there will be no greater indictment of the FO than our record. 140-153 and counting....