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Things change, teams that develop well or not can change, sometimes luck plays a big part as well. The Rays have some major obstacles now that are quite objectively worse then anything the Jays face moving forward. Their roster lacks offensive depth, their attendance is bad, their stadium is ill suited to success, and every recent report I've seen says their farm system is weak now. Baseball is cyclical and the Rays good cycle is more likely then not ending either in 2014 or 2015. It's up to management if they want to ride out Price's contract and "go all in" for 2015, or start moving pieces this season and rebuild. Remember, the Rays have their highest payroll ever this year, and they are in last place in a competitive division. Things could go sour overnight, I doubt they can buy themselves out of any issues and I'm not sure if their fan base will support a 70-75 game winner for three years.

I wonder if when you are older if you'll ever realize just how much of a little turd you were at your age. Something definitely wrong with how you are being raised.

This idea seems absurd, but you posted it. Wow. You literally wanted to destroy this team for the sake of one draft pick.

Boxcar checklist : Post some piss poor hatchet job post trying to impress people. Repeat. f*** you're predictably stupid. You did take a post off to declare that Rob Ford seems like a decent guy, just like you spent a little time supporting steroid cheaters before. Every sign points to you being an immoral *******. I don't really care what you think.

No need to bring up the Tampa Bay Rays on here. Yes, they do have some serious hurdles to address and likely need to consider a huge rebuild or a relocation.

Actually, if almost any team is around .500 end of June and acquires 1 or 2 players to address their weaknesses, they have a chance to contend. The problem with the Jays is they never think they have a chance unless they are like 8 or 10 games above .500 ( which is kind of like this forum in some regards, everyone downgrades whatever they do ). So most of the last 20 years, the Jays don't add meaningful players mid season, even when lower ranked teams do. It would be interesting to list the Jays adds/drops of meaningful players mid season the last 10 years versus other teams in their division, and compare.

God, what a stupid post. You aren't a baseball scout or someone with his team. You don't know how he'll turn out. Roy Halladay had inconsistent minor league stats, arrived on the team, was good briefly, then totally crashed and burned. He changed his approach and became one of the best starters in Jays history. At various points in that process, people could have posted he was a huge disappointment and would never be any good, or that he's almost a lock to be a star. Yet you think Sanchez, a guy that REAL major league scouts rank as a strong prospect, isn't good enough based on an extremely limited run in minor league ball. And let's be real here, his stats aren't that bad, I can remember some good major league pitchers having horrible minor league stats. To say Sanchez at his age has "no value" is absurd. In fact, when people are drooling over Stroman or Syndegaard, the truth is Sanchez at this point could end up being better then either one of them, and no one knows at this point. He's an asset because of his potential.

Given that you are mostly just a cynic on here, and not someone who actually watches the games, your opinion is not surprising. You'd be the last to know when they turned the corner. This season is definitely different, they are better then most years so the probability of contending is higher. The window of contention remains this year and next, with 2015 being their best chance because there is no doubt in my mind we have young pitching on the team at that point contributing ( be it Stroman, Sanchez, Hutch, Nolin; hard to say who but chances of them all crashing and burning seems small ). In fact, if several of these pitchers turn out, our window of potential success may extend beyond 2015. But it's a huge stretch to predict anything on that at this point. This team probably has the best offence in the AL, possibly all of baseball. We have more pitching depth, certainly weak on consistent quality but this is baseball, and just having Buehrle and Hutch going strong is a major step up on last season. It's not as long a shot to contend as many people think on here. The idea that everything has to go exactly right is a fallacy. We are in the race now and got almost nothing out of Reyes, Encarnacian, Rasmus, half our bullpen, Janssen, our DH spot, our 2B spot. Until around a little over a week ago, when our new bench/replacement players performed well, our starting staff put up numerous good starts, and some of those hitters I mentioned woke up. One would think given the Raptors season that people would be more open to the idea sports is unpredictable. Half the season, some of the cynics on here were posting the Raptors should aim for last place in the entire league. By the time they realized that gig was up, the Raptors were pretty much guaranteed a playoff spot easily and on their way to better things.

Actually, players at the deadline are usually cheaper, and the Jays usually don't do much of anything at the deadline. Garza went for what last year ? Soriano ? Feldman ? Everyone went fairly cheap except maybe the Red Sox trade but then they won it all. Jays might actually start contending more if they actually participated in mid season moves. What on earth have they ever done ? They got Rasmus one year, traded Kent for David Cone a hell of a long time ago. Pretty rare they do anything of note. Yankees, Red Sox, pretty rare when they don't do something.

If I had to pick any guy in the system to turn into a star in the majors, he's the guy. Like any such projection, it's impossible to know, and far easier to guess a guy will fail because most do. Look at Halliday's early career if you want to see how hard it is to rate young pitchers.

There is no way they'll renew Morrow unless something incredible happens later this year. We actually have some pitchers coming through our system now, and I suspect our focus in the off season will shift to OF and 2B. Look, I loved Morrow in the past, he was truly elite before he got hurt in 2012. But he's a risky guy now and this team needs guys who can either make a guaranteed splash in 2015 or be a longer term asset from 2016-2018 at a reasonable cost. I don't think he's either at that pay rate. I'd rather go with Sanchez ( for example ) in 2015 and plow the money into the offence. This option also keeps open the chance to do an easy retool moving forward, the Jays are in great shape to do whatever they want from mid-2015 forward. $10 million contracts to often injured veteran pitchers decreases your flexibility. If all the young pitchers strike out, but our team finishes well this year, then try to spend the money on an impact starter. I'm guessing though that one or more of these young guys will be a reliable starter by next season.

Kid, you don't have a f***ing clue what you are talking about. The real world just confirmed this to you.

Like hell they were. I guarantee you that Casey is a more respected coach at this point then Kidd is. In fact, Kidd barely registered in coach of the year ballots. But what is there to be expected when this thread spent most of a 48 win season berating the coach, berating Demar and his jump shots, and getting on everyone's case when the bench players were on the court ( regardless of the energy level or foul situation of the starters ).

Rios makes $12.5M a year and was on that fairly hefty contract with the Jays. He was no bargain, so dropping him was hardly a black mark on any GM's resume. I have a feeling Napoli might have been a budget related move too, they were paring dollars.

I recommended we trade him on April 12th. Ends up I called his maximum trade value to the day.

Not to start 2014 he's not. Did he pitch against the Rays a few times ?

Scary to think we agree 100% on this . Redmond has been nothing but decent since they called him up last year. McGowan is a feel good story who has only been good in mostly inconsequential one inning stints where he can just throw hard. I think the Jays really messed up not making Redmond the 5th starter out of ST. By now, we'd know if he's an asset to our starting staff or not, and probably neutral to good impact on the Jays W/L record. Stroman should get a shot now anyways, with Redmond ready to come in on any Stroman/Morrow start until things are clearer.

Like the last two quality starter's versus the Jays ? Seriously, our offence is starting to hit high gear. Francisco was mostly a dud these games too. Get Lind back and EE showing signs of recovering, this line up will rock and roll most games. Bautista is hitting like an elite player again. Reyes will get better. Lawrie's confidence is growing. Put it this way, the Royals starter yesterday was having a great season and we still scored 7 runs. The fact our bullpen imploded has kind of hidden the emergence of our offence. Tonight, yet another strong starter, so let's see. If we put another 5+ runs on the board that tells a story.

You seem to have no real experience playing ball. But let's clear this up. What type of baseball/softball do you play and at what level ? I ask this because I just can't see someone who plays ball making the absurd statements you do. But I can see an overeager stats guy who makes mistakes in their analysis doing so. What exactly is your experience in sports ? Give me an idea, how many games/hours do you play in an average week ?

JFaS lacks common sense, an over belief in what stats can tell him, and is stubborn as hell. This is a problem. His stated theories are crossing over into the absurd more frequently now. Santos has an era almost 9, and lacks control. But he thinks he's just "unlucky".

Again, you lack common sense. Pitches made have a direct impact on how hard balls are hit. Period. Claiming otherwise is stupid.

I suggested signing Santana and got berated by the hive. Basically, people said he was a s***** pitcher not worth signing ( some said at any price or duration ). Many of the same posters were annoyed we didn't spend $14M on Josh Johnson. Here's the reality, people always want to find some bounce back all star and say they were right after the fact, ignoring things like injury risk, recent performance, and consistency. Signing a lower ceiling guy to get you innings who is likely a winning pitcher on a good hitting team isn't the sexy choice is it ? If Santana were a hitter, he might be Stephen Drew. Strangely, people want him on an expensive, long term deal. He's inconsistent and a lower ceiling then true star players, but wants all star type money. Not unlike Santana, until he settled on a one year deal. I wouldn't want Drew longer then 2014-2015, I have a bad feeling that he's the kind of "almost star" that looks like a very bad contract by age 32-33. Maybe I'm wrong on this, I just wouldn't be chasing Drew with a significant portion of payroll when our main need next season and beyond will be OFs ( and the usual league wide shortage of pitching, but there is hope in that regard for the Jays ).

He's not awesome, his defence isn't all that good for a guy that's supposedly on a team for defence. 2B they can maybe get away with it, but he's a mediocre short stop and someone has to back up Reyes. I'm sure that aspect is one of the main reasons that Diaz and Goins were still in the mix.

Baseball was very popular from 1985 forward ( maybe 1983 forward, can't remember ), but Exhibition Stadium was in a bad location and a crappy place to be in bad weather. We don't need the '93 lineup to attract fans. Even in 1983 they were in a pennant race until the bullpen imploded. 1990-1993 was crazy popular though, sold out well in advance most games, if you were lucky you could get back ten rows in the 500 section. I remember sitting two rows from the top on one of the worst sections and the slant on those stairs was absurd. At some point you couldn't even get those seats, a month in advance you could book buffet at Windows restaurant that's it.

Aaron Hill's HR totals starting at age 23 : 3, 6, 17, 2 ( only 200 abs ), 36, 26. Not sure why you think young players can be accurately forecast.