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Spoken like the God Almighty of this forum as per usual. I expect this arrogant bs from you, it doesn't surprise me in the least. If you think there are dozens of middle age posters here who want some teenager to speak for them and who they respect well you are clueless. To be quite blunt, the same dozen or so people ( including you of course ) post negativity on here almost every day and try to intimidate others by trying to humiliate or degrade anyone who opposes your opinion. This is one person who cares NOTHING about your opinion, you sound ignorant to me on most occasions. I couldn't care less what you think, and I won't cower to your ideas I'll oppose them freely. What I don't really know is will this forum mainly be a private club for the dozen of you stats geeks to decree their take on baseball to the world, or is there more to this place then that. I'm starting to doubt this forum, any potential for it to be interesting is dissipating A LOT the last few weeks in particular. And why on earth is this called the "Blue Jays Message Board" ? There is more negativity about the Jays here then anywhere on the internet. I am constantly surprised that some of you don't realize that half of what you post is absolute s***. If you had less ego and took yourself less seriously, I could let it pass.

It's a good thing you are Mayor Ford have that solid gangland background to fall back on if things don't work out.

Do you really think I value your input ? So glad you needed to post this piece of trash. Seriously, you want to talk about a joke that's what this forum is degrading into. A cesspool of negativity. Go f*** yourself.

I made no statement about whether these deals were good or bad. It's the approach you take to analyzing moves, no objectivity at all. When you take it to extremes, it's absurd. Sure, the Rays might have got a "durable reliever". Durable sounds like a pretty positive description, it's the Rays right ?

One of the dumbest conclusions I've ever read on here. Let's see how this looks in a few years. Supply and demand factors in the market are being completely ignored as well.

Because he acquired a reliever ?

As opposed to Oakland and Tampa Bay acquiring expensive relievers ? Thought I'd bring this up because the selective approach people take to analyzing moves is getting way out of hand. Teams that are supposably "smart" get a free pass when they make moves counter to some of the overcooked theories on here. Those that are "failing" get deeply criticized for similar moves.

I don't even know what the f*** you are trying to say but it just sounds stupid as well. In case you haven't realized, they are kids and they are generally rude all the time on here. Just had a thought though. Maybe your this kid's mother and that would explain a lot.

Giving credit to the Jays isn't in the nature of the bee hive on here. They'd rather post how we will be dumping all our best prospects and we should give away our better bullpen parts for next to nothing.

So he made the trade and you think he doesn't realize what he did ? Do you know how utterly stupid you sound making that statement ? This is supposed to be a pro-Jays message board. If we make a helpful minor trade it's criticized. If we do nothing it's criticized. If we eventually pick up an expensive free agent ( perhaps at a slight overpay ) it will no doubt be roundly criticized. So much negativity, so much over posting about everything under the sun, almost no real insight from you kiddies on any give day.

Ok, all these repetitive themes are getting stupid. I'd have bet a significant amount of money that Stroman doesn't get traded this off season ( straight up ) and with the right odds ( maybe 10-1 ) that he starts for the Jays in week one in 2014. In fact, if I'm wrong and Stroman gets traded, I'd lose any remaining confidance in AA unless the Jays get a game changing player back in the deal ( note - Samardzija is nowhere near game changing for the Jays ).

Some hitters though would find Toronto attractive if they want to beef up their numbers. We used to sign a fair number of good offensive players and develop our pitchers in our system. Probably the best way to get it done in Toronto, but we got kind of handicapped in 2012 when some of our best starters went down to serious injury ( more luck then anything to do with our farm system in my opinion ). For similar reasons, I suspect the pitchers we do have are stronger then they appear on paper.

You know what would be funny is if you two turned out just to be stay at home nerds who don't compete well in any sports at all. I suspect this might even be true the absurd way you go on at times on this forum. If sports were just about stats and generalities there would be no point in them at all, I prefer competing myself but can relate well to team sports because I've played and coached them my whole life.

This "old man" is probably in better shape then you are, but I'm not typical of most 50 year olds. I don't know why you think you can make assumptions about Dickey at age 39. You know about as much about him as you do about me, yet I'm running 20+ miles most weeks and still competitive against 20 year olds in my chosen sports. But this is the point really, you make broad assumptions about people and activities you know very little about all the time. You are self absorbed in nature and seem entirely unaware of how little you know about life.

Wakefield was never great but he filled a role on some good Boston teams. The thing about Dickey is age is always a risk but its a calculated one because reliable front end starters are in short supply and the salaries to sign someone are getting pretty hefty unless its someone with current risks. On our team, its a necessary risk, durability is extremely important to our team. And the bonus is whomever pitches after Dickey gets an advantage that seems to be real according to the data.

You need to do better research. Knuckleballers last longer. Phil Neikro pitched effectively until age 47, and was 5th in Cy Young voting at age 43. Nolan Ryan depended on velocity. If you are going to start comparing people at least make some attempt to be relevant. Otherwise, you are just another complainer on here. So he's 4 years younger then Phil was on a great season. I suppose you need to look up Charlie Hough and Tim Wakefield too, I haven't looked to see how old they were when they hit the wall but that's where you need to start. Rickey Henderson ? What the heck does a base stealing outfielder have to do with a knuckleball pitcher ? I can see you when Phil Neikro was 39. "the man is 40 ... close to 40. You might get one ok year out of him now". Eight years later he's still a solid back of the rotation starter, four years later he was an ace on his team.

Read your posts, you keep suggesting the Jays will make absurd moves for some reason in a desperate attempt to compete. I see no evidence the Jays feel desperate or even that they'll make many moves at all. They are content to give Stroman a job until he loses it, let Goins play defence, play Bautista on his great contract until its done, and MAYBE ( we'll see ) they'll sign a big free agent or two to improve the team but only if the right guy says yes. The need to move top prospects, the budget constraints, the attraction to pretty average National League pitchers is all general pumped up hysteria on this forum. So far the Jays did NOTHING. Most years the Jays are not prolific at all, they make a big splash every few years then very little. And baseball being what it is, the players that we added last year have enough talent that there is no way in hell you can know for sure what their ceiling is next season. You might think you know, but you don't. Nobody does. Teams can have huge changes in success in one year, and the reasons are often not clear ( luck is a part ). I do think the Jays likely can't compete well without one big addition. It doesn't have to be a pitcher. Still guys out there.

How many times does this have to be explained to you ? It's kind of funny how sure you are about things and you have followed baseball for almost no time at all. The chances that Stroman get traded are almost zero, it would have to be an incredible deal to happen, the guy may be ready to make the big team already. Sanchez isn't as good ( yet ? ) so I could see some chance he got moved but again, I have my doubts the team will do so given how many prospects they traded before last season. But come April we'll revisit this, and you can post a few more dozen times for AA to "do something".

This is just overanalysis with very little reality to it. In fact, except for the two trades before 2013, the Jays tend to do less moves then is required not more. The Jays are far better then you think, its highly unlikely they trade their stud pitching prospects. The free agent market isn't great for pitching but its ok for hitters, so even if the Jays only add one good hitter ( and do nothing else ), they are a much better team next season. Money is not a factor we are well below the luxury tax. Basically we lost a really bad Josh Johnson, a really bad Bonofocio, and JPA at a minimum loses his starting job. We add the potential for Reyes and Lawrie playing more this year, Stroman looks ready to pitch in the majors now, and if Hutch/Morrow/Happ contrbute anything its an improvement. Dickey is likely better in 2014. Note that all these points require NO players to be added, anything we can do to improve our club is in addition to these points. So, to be quite blunt, I can't see any way the Jays will be worse next year. They'll either be the same or more likely much better. How much better depends on several things. But the idea that AA will make some absurdly stupid trades because people on this forum have talked our players value down is kind of like a drug induced delusion from spending too much time overanalyzing the team.

This is just not logical thinking, it's based purely on emotion. Dickey is a proven quality pitcher and history shows clearly that knuckeleballers can be extremely good at a much older age then most pitchers ( see Phil Neikro, Tim Wakefield, ... ). Samardzija has done NOTHING so far to show he can be a quality pitcher with a higher ceiling. There is no evidance that Dickey has arm issues or health issues that could indicate he's nearing the end of his career yet. I'd bet you straight up that Dickey is better then Samardzija in 2014. Possibly by a wide margin. And your idea that Dickey can't compete in the AL East is ignoring the fact that even in his "bad year" he competed well in the last half of the season. Samardzija might be ok, or he might simply be like many average looking National League pitchers who come over to the American League and get absolutely shelled. Josh Johnson for example had a lot of troubles, Matt Garza seemed ineffective in Texas last year. Ryan Dempster started ok but is that a good season ? And those pitchers had more credibility coming into the American League then Samardzija has at this point, none would have necessarily be classified as average. Anybody who claims Samardzija is better then average is projecting a hope he will improve next season, and with any such projection comes big risk in our park and division. I'd much rather have Dickey for 2014 and 2015, with the idea that after that I'm ok if he's worth zero after that.

Again, Curling is not "fringe stuff" in Canada. The networks fight for the broadcast rights and the advertisers love the audiences.

Yes, have you no idea how popular Curling is in Canada ? Brier final got 1.56 million in 2012. Round robin games ( and there are a lot of them ) averaged 685k. Even the women's event drew 1.17 million viewers for their final. So round robin games seem to draw around the same audience as a Jays game and much more then a Raptors game. Finals are some of the biggest TV audiences of the year any sport.

Curling gets huge ratings its a big sport in Canada.

This post is so bad you must be a high school student. You lack accuracy, relevancy, and creativity. You'd get an F grade from anyone grading what you've said here. Try harder.

So we can quote you on this then at the end of this season. The Leafs have a deeper roster now then they had last season, and last season deeper then the preceding year. It's only common sense that a deeper team is better situated then others for a longer season. There is nothing REAL about this team that suggests a longer schedule is a problem. In fact, they have TWO respected goalies not ONE, and while it may be argued that we lack some quality on defence ( debatable ) we certainly have more depth ( Liles can't crack the team, we often have a pro sitting out every game from the defence ). I would suggest to you that after the Olympics, we may have a full lineup. We'll revisit this at that time, how they are supposably caving in while other much older teams will supposably be better then ever.