glory
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Everything posted by glory
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With Gibbons, yes. With Anthopoulos, a little less so but certainly enough to be noticeable. However, I like the Shapiro hire, and if you read the Donaldson trade thread I was practically s***ing myself I was so happy. I just didn't like the way AA built this team from 2013-15, and the fact that people are making him out to be a hero while s***ing all over a very intelligent baseball guy like Shapiro is very disappointing. Hence why I'm speaking out against it. I think people are so happy to finally make the playoffs that some can't see the forest for the trees anymore.
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AA replenished the system the first time because he (smartly) took advantage of the system by hoarding draft picks. It worked. He can't do the same thing now because the new CBA greatly restricts that type of team building. Replenishing the system in 2010 was a lot easier than it will be now. I think some of the guys in the lower minors will eventually be players for this team. However, that might take many years, and we're talking about keeping the team competitive short-term. It's going to be difficult.
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It's not a mess in terms of flexibility, it's a mess in terms of trying to keep them as a 90 win team beyond 2016. If Bautista and EE leave, then it will be damn difficult to replace them. If they re-sign both, then it's getting into Ruben Amaro territory of keeping guys way too long and paying them for past performance. I'm honestly not sure what the "fix" is to keep this team competitive beyond 2016, but let's be real here, AA built a very small window. Not impossible to keep it going, but it will be very hard.
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I'm not a casual fan. I'm in this for the long run. I want to see a consistent winner. AA went for the short-term fix. Shapiro is probably taking over at the right time because at least it gives him a year to see if he can retool a bit to get the team back on the right track. However, to suggest that I think it's going to crash and burn is ridiculous. I've seen a lot of baseball in my life. Teams built this way have a short shelf-life. That's just reality. I'm not going to pretend to wear a blind fold because of one entertaining season. I want them to produce many of these types of seasons, and I believe Shapiro is far more likely to produce them than Anthopoulos.
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Shapiro, contrary to what many want to believe, is inheriting what will look like a mess after 2016. Bautista and Edwin will be free agents after next season, and the team will be paying $60M to Martin and $80M to Tulo in their mid-30's over the next 3-4 years. The farm system, at least the upper minors portion, is bone dry other than Pompey. AA might have bounced on purpose. He gets all the accolades for ending the playoff drought and doesn't have to deal with the consequences of his short-term decision making. That's one smart fat man.
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The Mets would probably hire him simply as a thank you for his generosity.
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Is a free agent. Leaves on a high note without having to clean up the impending mess he created for post 2016. Can go somewhere else down the road and get full control of baseball ops. It's a smart play by him.
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Maybe AA pulled off a Pat Gillick exit. Knew a rebuild was imminent (after 2016) and left before he had to clean up the mess.
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AA's drafting before the new CBA was great. Honest question, since the draft pool/slot system was implemented, has his drafting been anything special? The CBA change was huge as every advantage AA had with drafting and signing international talent basically vanished.
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Shapiro with a top 10 payroll vs. Shapiro with a bottom 10 payroll might yield completely different results. At least we know his philosophy is sound. Just need to execute it properly. I guess those who hate Sanchez will get their wish. Can't see a saber friendly team valuing him at all.
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Godfrey refused to go overslot (one of the few good things Beeston's arrival did). JP had no choice but to draft cheaper players, but that's not excuse for his failures though. He could have drafted better players, or hired better scouts. But if you expected him to do what AA was allowed to do (overslot, spend big internationally, etc), it was simply a different landscape at the time.
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If AA had to deal with one wild card and two super teams in his division, then he would have been fired a long time ago. JP won 86 games in 2008 and finished a distant 4th in the East. Apples and oranges compared to today. He couldn't draft for s*** but he was a good GM.
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AA left Shapiro with an old team with a one year window to win before s*** hits the fan. I'd be pretty pissed too.
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No not every player has to be on great value contracts but having a combination of a strong MLB team and a strong farm system is certainly possible. AA sacrificed one for the other. You can't do that and expect to build a sustainable winner. Play for 2015-16 and that's all you're going to get. Shapiro has to change that.
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Or you can rebuild the farm system and field a winning team at the same time.
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AA should have been "scolded" for that. Now his successor will be left with a barren upper minors and a team whose core is in their 30's. A change needed to be made.
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AA either didn't want to work for a president who would have baseball input, or there was a philosophy clash between the two. Or maybe both.
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You realize you're responding to a post that ended with "Shapiro hasn't been a GM in years", right? The rival GM thing was about Duquette last year.
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Pardon my giddiness, but is it too early to think of manager candidates? Gibby can't possibly survive without AA, right? Don't let me down, Shapiro.
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Definitely stupid on Rogers' part, but I kind of got the feeling that they wanted to wash their hands of Beeston, and by extension AA, a year ago. Shapiro gave them an out to do it. I don't think AA was as good as people here claim, but can't comment until we find out who is taking over. Regardless, I think Shapiro's philosophy will help the organization. Whether the execution of that philosophy is successful remains to be seen. The Jays obviously have intelligent people working under AA since he went from "ERA/AVG/SB" to WAR/framing in one off-season, so maybe an internal promotion for someone would work out.
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Trying to bring in a rival GM to take over as president wasn't fishy to you? Do you honestly think AA would have been fine with that? Hell, Shapiro hasn't been a GM for years and AA bounced.
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Rogers was willing to tamper in order to get Dan Duquette last season. They clearly wanted AA gone a long time ago. I'm not sure what to expect from Shapiro until more moves are made but I could see Tinnish or LaCava being promoted with Shapiro still having final say on direction and moves. I said everything I wanted to say on AA in the previous thread but yeah, not hurt by this move at all. Thanks AA for ending the drought but it's time for someone else to extend the window and create a more long term sustainable product.
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Yep, and that deal subsequently lead to the Dickey trade (a trade that likely would not have happened if the Marlins trade didn't set the wheels in motion). If there was ever a franchise changing off-season, that was it. To AA's credit, he got something out of this group by having a better off-season in 2015, but man did he sacrifice a bunch of long-term value in the process.
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Agreed. Then the question becomes, is AA the GM who can pull that off? That's where I disagree with those who defend him. AA is a GM who doesn't quite understand or care about the concept of options and service time (as witnessed by the roster to begin the season), and that's a very important part of building the type of team we all want. Instead of Osuna being in Double-A or AAA right now with a starter's workload and options remaining, they burned a year of his service clock and his options for 70+ big league innings out of the pen. It helped the team in 2015, but what about 2016-beyond? That's just one example. I don't know. I just wouldn't be heartbroken if AA left. I like his "think big" mentality, but unless he fixes some of his glaring weaknesses, I think it's bound to catch up to him sooner than later. Maybe working with Shapiro will help him.
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The five best players on the team this past season were guys in their or very close to their 30's except for Pillar. The top 4 pitchers using WAR were Price (free agent), Buehrle (free agent/possibly retiring), Dickey (old as hell), and Estrada (free agent). All in their 30's or in Dickey's case 40's. No doubt the team has some good young pieces. Travis put up a 2.3 WAR in half a season, and we got a few starts out of Stroman due to injury, so there are some pieces there that will help long-term. I just want to be like the Cardinals where if the Jays somehow lose someone, they can fill that spot either internally or have the pieces to trade for a replacement. Right now I see a team that should have a chance to do something good in 2016, but beyond that is a huge question mark. I want them to be a contender every single year to the point where if they don't make it one year it will be a minor setback rather than the start of another long drought.