jays76

Seriously the answer is Zobrist. The guy takes care of 2nd but can also play practically anywhere if the need arises in a depth situation. He's a lefty too which is huge and only has a year left on his contract so he's the perfect stop gap until Travis is ready. Why don't we flip Navarro & Izturis along with a prospect to get him, the A's need a C and Izzy replaces Zorilla at 2B for them. Everybody's on a 1yr contract and it matches up perfect financially (Zobrist is $7.5M, Navarro is $5M and Izturis is $3M). Maybe even give Billy 2 mid tier prospects if that's what it takes to ice it. Now you still have $10M to work with (Ichiro & 2 Relievers). Tell me we wouldn't be a solid team with depth and ready to contend. All the while without breaking the bank which of course is priority one for Rogers..

Probably because he's well respected for his professionalism and might be a good influence in the clubhouse. Also defensively he's got adequate speed still and like I said can work a count, slap some timely singles, and steal a base occasionally along with being a lefty which we need more of. I mean who would you rather have up at the plate in a pressure situation late in the game, him or some greenhorn? I'll go with the guy who's been there a million times. He's not a big difference maker at this point in his career but I don't see what the problem is if he comes relatively cheap. Pillar has options for the minors and chances are we'll need them both at some point In the season knowing our luck. The more depth the better I say..

EY would be amazing. I'd take Ichiro for depth and vet presence on the cheap, I'm sure he can still work a decent PC and slap a few singles.

How would Reddick feel if Beane flips Zobrist to us for Navarro and a prospect? Please let that dream come true!

I sure wish we could have landed the Zorilla.

Well it's in context, the post I was replying to from @glory stated he was comfortable with almost a dozen potential options so it was relative to that. Also out of my comfortable 6 Jenkins might not be around full time because of his 2 way flexibility with Buffalo and also he's redundant with Redmond & Estrada as the long men. Sanchez could also be gone if he lands that 5th spot in the rotation so basically I think we need 2 solid pickups this offseason, set up man & closer.

Our Bullpen's a crapshoot (although technically I guess every bullpen is a crapshoot). At this point however I only feel comfortable with Redmond, Jenkins, Estrada, Loup, Cecil, and Sanchez (if he isn't the 5th starter). If we could catch lightening in a bottle from one or more of the remaining ragtags that'd be amazing but ideally they need to use the remaining $10M and additional $5M from Navarro to pick up 2 decent arms (hard throwing righty & a closer) and also a 2B or OF depth before the season begins. On top of this they also need to drop another $5-$10M at the trade deadline when we're competing for the playoffs. If management does both of these things they will fully have earned my trust that they're not penny pinching and actually trying to attain another WS title.

If we're going in that direction what about Zobrist..

If they both exceed expectations that would be awesome because I'm a little nervous when it comes to our depth situation.

Here's my assessment of our holes in order of priority: RP: We need a quality righty and a closer stat!! OF: I think our depth is a concern, if Saunders misses time and/or Pompey underforms Kevin Pillar is the only option. I'm not sure how far that will take us.. 2B: I'm actually surprisingly ok with Goins starting the year as a stopgap until Travis is ready. His bat is brutal but his defense is immeasurable to the pitchers and getting the team off the field. SP- As I mentioned I'm totally ok with Sanchez or Norris getting a crack at the 5th spot to start the year but I'm not really keen on Estrada being anywhere but the pen. However if the Jays went balls deep with Shields I'd be ecstatic as our starting rotation is going to have some uncertainty and question marks.

As much as I love the idea of getting Big Game James I think a realistic priority for us is RP, we'd be paper thin in the pen after signing Shields. I think shoring up the pen makes us more well balanced overall and allows us some flexibility with Sanchez & Norris competing for the 5th spot.

Clippard would be sweet!

I would've been over the moon with either McCarthy or Liriano to be honest.

We were at $135M last year and Beeston claimed it would be going up, even in Davidi's corporate Sportsnet article above and amongst many other reports (corporate or otherwise) over the last few mths it's speculated at $140M. I would think that should be accurate or reasonably close..

That's been an interesting debate topic for a while, check out this post I stumbled upon detailing the Blue Jays payroll exchange rate and then check out the first comment below it: I tend to agree with first commenters line of thought, you need to spend more to make more and not in a way where Rogers or AA should have carte blanche or be reckless with expenditure but if you've already spent x amount of dollars and you are now inches away from the playoffs why not make a calculated risk to increase profits via playoff tv ratings, revenue, and merchandising along with the surplus of selling out games and merchandising in the months prior to the playoffs while being in the playoff seeding and hunt. They failed enormously in that regard last season by stupidly turning their backs on the cries from the city, fans, players, (and even some of their own media) to bring in reinforcements at the trade deadline when we were up 3 games for a wildcard position. The increased payroll would've meant spending potentially another $5M for the remainder of the season to bring in moderate help but they stood pat and it blew up in their face when we flamed out. Nobody knows which way it would've turned out otherwise but it was a bad decision to do absolutely nothing and not bolster your odds of hitting a playoff jackpot. Let alone the PR damage by the city being outraged at Rogers and the cries of cheapskates echoing around every pub and living room..

Here's a list of articles discussing the Jays remaining payroll, it's stated in most of these articles the Jays current payroll is $119M with the target area being around $140M. Some of them state the Jays have $20M on top of an additional $5M with the pending Navarro trade left to use, while company men Davidi/Chisholm claim it could be as low as $5M-$10M after a myriad of reasons and obligated transactions (I heard Mike Wilner chimed in somewhere that it's a definitive $5M). I know you can bash any of these articles and I'm not completely on board with the ones from the Vancouver/Toronto Sun criticizing front office and their stinginess (although I agree with some of their points) however I'm also not completely buying what corporate shills Davidi & Chisholm are selling with their plethora of reasons why AA is tapped out now and woe is AA/Rogers, etc.. I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Assuming there's around $10M left plus the Navarro trade ($5M) I'm wondering what sleeper targets you guys would go after to fill the remaining holes (potentially a SP, 2 RP's, 2B, and some outfield depth) through free agency or via trade? http://sports.nationalpost.com/2014/12/07/should-the-toronto-blue-jays-spend-more-to-win-more/ http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/12/16/blue-jays-payroll-limit-has-become-an-issue-once-again-as-management-goes-quiet/ http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/toronto-blue-jays-shifting-focus-in-new-direction/ http://m.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article/103750812/toronto-blue-jays-looking-to-trade-market-to-bolster-bullpen http://www.torontosun.com/2014/11/19/if-blue-jays-signing-of-russell-martin-means-they-cant-sign-melky-cabrera-they-arent-serious-about-winning *Here's an article or guilty pleasure for all the conspiracy theorists out there titled The Blue Jays Payroll Deception: http://www.bluejaysplus.com/blue-jays-payroll-deception/#sthash.J7WnbYkd.dpbs

Any Vikings fans here? I'm a sucker for period pieces- Rome, John Adams, Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire. I'd throw Spartacus in there too but the writing doesn't compare to the others.

Larry David is a genius, you can see how much of an influence he was during Seinfeld. Curb is absolute dynamite!.. Kind of over South Park these days, looking forward to Archer though.

In regards to Jaime & Tyrion I'd say it's extremely blurred as they can both be extremely evil and self absorbed at times. I mean Jaime's banging his own sister and pushed a little boy out of a tower to try to conceal it, along with committing a sacrificial murder while imprisoned to create a distraction. Tyrion murdered his lover and father because they hurt and betrayed him plus he's constantly plotting and self obsessing. They aren't exactly honorable or what you could say are good guys..

I agree both shows (GoT & TD) are as far apart from each other as can be but they are both uniquely magnificent. With TD I loved the complexity and depth of McConaughy's character, the frequent flashback sequences, the dark foreboding mood and brilliant writing however [spoiler Alert]: I did find the ending of season 1 a little anti climactic as I was hoping they were dealing with someone a little more clever and sinister than the inbred hick family led by Lennie a la Of Mice and Men. All in all though a pretty outstanding series! Game of Thrones is full of gratuitous violence and nudity similar to Spartacus but I agree with you the killings do serve more of a purpose here. It's not overly insightful or brimming full of depth that will blow your mind but it is definitely well written and clever. To have that many storylines tied together over such a broad scope is a feat in itself. The political power moves and alliances-betrayals that take place along with the definite character blurring as they flip flop between good and evil make it pretty intriguing. The fantasy element, extreme violence, and nudity just adds a bonus layer to it. The storyline sometimes changes at breakneck speed due to the multitude of characters which can be annoying but overall it's a great series and highly enjoyable! For my money Breaking Bad has been the best series over the last few years. Great mix of drama, comedy, violence, and absurdness. Brilliantly written as well with the complexity of the characters and also utilizing flashbacks a lot but I love how it got better and better each season, it honestly couldn't have ended any better than it did with the 2 part series finale that were 1.5hrs each. Everything came full circle and it didn't leave you with too many loose ends however you still wanted more. Perfection!

Huge fan of most ensemble comedies that are single camera and don't use laugh tracks- Arrested Development, Community, Parks & Recreation, 30 Rock, The Office. Gave Bob's Burgers a go but wasn't blown away. Haven't tried Archer yet. Loved Eastbound & Down but haven't got around to The League (big Nick Kroll fan though). On the drama side just got into Boardwalk Empire and DYING for the new seasons of Game of Thrones and Vikings.

Lol those responses were killer but other than his opening blunder he brought up some good points. We need depth at 2B/CF and a SP along with 2 RP's for the pen. Ideally in a perfect world the Jays would drop $25mil and plug those holes and we'd all be doing backflips but I think realistically at this point most of us are expecting Navarro to get flipped for a RP and perhaps a few other minor transactions to acquire more help in the pen. Don't get me wrong though I would love for the Jays to blow me away again before the season started or perhaps at the deadline if we're competitive. Personally my biggest fear with such a young core (Stro, Hutch, Sanchez, Norris) is even if two of the four perform but one of either Buehrle or Dickey significantly regress how far ahead are we really? Toss an injury into that equation and things get pretty scary. Same for in the field, 2B/CF are unknowns and if Reyes or Saunders (who are both injury prone) go down we are up s***'s creek in the depth department. Heaven forbid one of Bautista, Encarnacion, Donaldson miss any significant time.. Lot's of time left and I'm trying to be optimistic but in regards to Rogers, last year kind of left a bad taste in my mouth at the trade deadline.

Thx

I keep hearing between $130mil & $140mil but I was wondering how their current salary is looking right now after all of the off season transactions and returning salaries.

I'm sure this has been brought up many times already but does anyone know what the Jays budget is exactly at as of today and how much salary they have left to spend? I keep hearing different figures.