glory

So one s*** year (2013), one middling year (2014), two great months and a playoff appearance (2015), and one good season that looks like it may lead to a WC game at best with the way the team is currently playing (2016). Hey, then we get to start the whole f***ing process all over again when the team loses two of their best players next season and get to watch Tulo and Martin decline even further while making $40M combined into their mid-30's! And that farm system that's so easy to fix has exactly one prospect above AA that looks like he can contribute in 2017, and that player had a .083 ISO in AAA this season. Dude, I know you're an AA apologist and all, but come on. Unless you're on your f***ing deathbed, how can you possibly justify a year and a half of competitive ball and then what might be either a massive retool (if they make the playoffs) or possibly a quasi-rebuild (if they collapse the rest of the way)? AA was supposed to turn this team into a consistent, long-term, sustainable winner, remember? All the s*** we heard when he tried to justify trading Halladay for magic beans? Shapiro and Atkins can fix this org. I have faith in them. But the attendance spike will cease to exist if the team falters again, and when you build for one year, that's all you're going to get most of the time.

Agreed.

Were they also forced to trade Escobar for Reyes? No one forced AA to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on players who provided an incremental improvement at best.

The only reason people were having an outcry is because the Marlins were selling a year after they signed all those guys. Most people knew the Marlins were going to benefit from that trade eventually. Any time you trade expensive vets in their 30's with backloaded deals, it's usually going to work out in the end. The Jays and their fanbase were tricked by big names. Seriously, they traded a SS making $5m a year and another young SS prospect with six years of control left just so they could pay Jose Reyes $100m until he was 35. It doesn't take a genius to see the flawed logic there. It would be like the Jays trading Martin after this season (when he has 3/60 left on his deal) and getting two catchers making peanuts, one of whom with history of 3 WAR seasons. It would be a fleecing for the Jays. AA's delusional team building got better in 2015 since he seemed to smarten up about player value, but that 2013 off season killed the long-term future of this team, and only doubling down 2 years later was able to save it temporarily.

Career numbers vs. Buchholz. Gibby gon Gibby.

After this weekend, 50% of the Tigers remaining games are against Minnesota and Atlanta. They are getting one of the WC spots. Let them beat up on Baltimore.

Offense is still s*** but a win is a win. Now end the weekend tied for 1st in the East please.

Stupid base running by Travis regardless.

They will overturn this. Because Toronto.

Fox is still way better than listening to Buck and Pat.

They should have signed DeRosa again just for the team only meeting. Wasn't he a 1.0 WAR motivator? Jays need that right now.

The 2015 nostalgia will be strong as hell, especially if the Jays happen to miss the playoffs this season, so Revere > Upton just by the fact that he was on the 2015 roster.

Side note: why does the roof have to be opened at all, whether it is a nice day out or not? Is there any real benefit from a fan standpoint? Or a baseball standpoint for that matter to be playing with the sun in your eyes despite being on concrete and fake grass? Just never made sense to me. I've only been to games with the roof closed and there was never an issue from a fan standpoint.

One game ahead of Baltimore and Detroit for WC1 and the Yankees 2 back. The Jays picked the wrong f'n time to fold.

No one is going to care about that bat flip in 2020 if there are no playoff appearances in 2016, 17, 18, and 19. That's the thing about short term moves. If it works, then great. If it doesn't, then you have the current Jays. A team with one more good left in them (2016) and then a s*** show afterwards.

So that beautiful roster that AA put together and left high and dry so he didn't have to deal with the aftermath: this is it. They look old and tired compared to the Red Sox.

You're never as good as your hot streaks or as bad as your bad streaks, but man this feels like a slow collapse.

Yeah, JD is not winning the MVP this year. Betts and his mean mug is going to get it.

I thought Navarro's lazy ass defense and s*** framing was supposed to help Estrada? I was lied to.

Man if Feldman can't pitch in this spot, I'm not sure why he was acquired.

Fatty is the worst hitter on the team yet batting 6th. Gibbons can't quit that fat man.

What was the point was getting Scott Feldman if you're not going to use him in this spot?

Yeah other than Vladdy, I don't see a superstar prospect in the system. Maybe some players who turn out to be good or solid, maybe even one that shocks and becomes a lot better than they project to be, but Vladdy is probably the best hitting prospect the Jays have had since Delgado (unless I'm forgetting someone).

One of Sanchez, Stroman, Estrada, or Happ. Whoever's turn it is. I'm not even worried about setting up Sanchez or Stroman to start that game. Jays have to win the division, or settle for the WC. They'll need all their good pitchers starting until the last game of the season most likely. After that, just leave it up to the randomness of a one game playoff.

13 of 16 games against the East are at home (3 vs Boston, 3 vs Tampa, 4 vs Yankees, 3 vs Baltimore), with the only road games against the ALE being the final 3 games of the year at Fenway. The non-ALE road games are in LA and Seattle. The West coast trip is always scary for the Jays, but that's a shitload of home games against the East. No one to blame but themselves if they mess that up.