I've been following the Jays for a long time now as many of you have. I'm not that old but I jumped on the bandwagon in the late 90s when Green and Delgado were an entertaining duo. This is the first time in a while where I feel like I am watching a baseball club that has been left out to dry and it makes me sick. Since the offseason, I get the sense that this is a team and business venture that the higher-ups couldn't care less about. Yes, they made an honest bid for a World Series contender last year and after that experiment failed miserably, they've pretty much thrown in the towel. AA is MIA in the media a lot more now compared to when he first started as GM. He's bought into the Jays culture of not feeling accountable for questionable decision-making. A lot of the decisions these days come across as pulling at straws with zero logic. The frustrating aspect in all of this is that there is no impetus for Rogers to improve this ball club: they are the only Canadian team, their season in large part does not overlap with other competing interests (NBA, NHL), and they have complete control of the media outlets. This complacency is contagious throughout the organization and at some point spreads to the players. It also doesn't help when there is a secondary source of complacency in direct contact with the players - that being Gibbons. Altogether, this culture - among other factors such as the deadly AL East - makes it difficult to attract quality players through free agency (Ervin Santana - case in point).
Everyone who is not sipping on the Jays Kool-Aid understands where the deficiencies are. The one person who does seem to get it but has fallen out of favour with a lot of fans is Greg Zaun. He made these comments at the beginning of April in the Globe and Mail:
"As far as the team not always playing the game the way it should be played, can you give an example of the Jays playing the wrong way?
The fact that a guy like Anthony Gose can’t [use his speed to hit] .300 speaks volumes to me about what’s going on in the minor leagues. The fact that he doesn’t spend an hour a day in the batting cage with a coach, whether it’s by his design or whether they have to grab him by his shirt collar. The Jays don’t draft well and they don’t develop players well. There’s a lack of accountability in this organization, from the top to the bottom."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/gregg-zaun-isnt-afraid-of-ruffling-a-few-feathers/article17823445/
He hits the nail on the head with his last point there and I'm glad he's not reluctant to say that. As far as I'm concerned, Paul Beeston is not someone who has evolved with the game. AA is someone who has a lot of baseball sense but is restricted by those higher up the totem pole. John Gibbons is ultimately a scapegoat who is apparently comfortable with that role.
Ultimately, there is a lot of wasted talent on this team. If players could sort themselves out - a philosophy that AA and Gibby preach all the time - guys like Bobby Cox, Tony LaRussa, and Joe Torre would not have their places in baseball history. Guys like Rios and Hill are evidence that this organization can't foster and continue to develop talent. Hell, Ricky Romero under the right mentorship would probably have been in a few Cy Young discussions by now.
This is obviously just one perspective on the Jays state of affairs, but at the end of the day, I hope to see a culture change soon.
