Praxis

You misunderstand the irony of my statement. I was hinting that the money seems to be going more on hiring executives than on player personnel.

Well we may not be making any exciting/significant signings in terms of player personnel, but we are certainly sweling our executive ranks. Possibly they can all sit around and discuss the unfairness of the mysteriously dwindling budget?

I love Saunders too. Hell most of the people on this forum do. The problem is so do the surgeons and if Pompey is going to be counted on for 100+ games, we'd better not be done adding depth in the outfield.

http://memesvault.com/wp-content/uploads/Double-Facepalm-Gif-15.gif

Judging by the dumpster diving we're busily engaging in again I'm not sure we could afford 8/20m. 7/150m is not off the charts crazy, 8/200m is insanity; just ask Seattle who've been Cano'ed.

Apparently he's signed with the Royals along with Soria. Can't answer your initial question though. I would've taken Young on that deal. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/done-deals--mlb-winter-meetings-recap-news-signing-trade-145811378.html

Sorry, genuine question: which team? My recollection was that the Jays 2013 team was odds on favourite to win the World Series in Vegas.

From 93 to a projected 86 wins? Not good. I'd need some convincing about the Red Sox though; we proved in 2013/2014 that championships are not won on paper or in the offseason.

The problem here in my view is one of timing. Up until the All Star break of this year, AA had done a pretty mediocre job at best in terms of achievement on the field. We never finished higher than third, never had a realistic shot of making the playoffs even though our payroll had increased significantly since 2013. Then, seeing the writing on the wall and believing his team to be better than it had been showing, AA made a series of trades that gutted the farm system but catapulted us into our best run in over two decades. Rogers made a crap load of money, fan interest went through the roof and expectations for 2016 went into the stratosphere. Unfortunately by that point Rogers had pretty much decided that after 5½ years of treading water it was time to bring in Mark Shapiro, a man who saw it as his mission to rebuild the Jays from the farm up and run the club with greater pecuniary caution than Beeston. And, up until the post all star break run, most of us would probably have agreed with that philosophy, but now what is he (and Rogers) going to do with this team that came within 2 games of a world series? They have an opportunity here to become the dominant sports team in Toronto for the next several years, they have an incredible amount of fan goodwill that is translating into ticket and merchandise sales and it would be surprising if viewing figures at least initially did not remain at a two decade high after hitting 11.5 million in the postseason. But then AA leaves in a cloud, Price signs for the hated Red Sox (with nary a sniff of an offer from Shapiro) and practically every other free agent pitcher of note either signs elsewhere or is on the verge of going somewhere other than Toronto. You can almost hear the air going out of the balloon. I am not suggesting that the Happ and Estrada signings were a bad idea; on the contrary I support them. I am a little bemused at the re-signing of Justin Smoak as I had been holding out on some fantasy island that the Jays might actually be interested in signing Chris Davis, but there seems little chance of that now and the rumours making the rounds are that he is also headed to the Red Sox to join Price. Ugh. So I wait and hope and watch to see if this year was just a flash in the pan, a great moment of magic before another long winter of mind-numbing mediocrity or if Rogers and the Front Office are going to build on what just happened. I would not want to take bets on our odds of going to the World Series next year at this moment though.

I like the Happ and Estrada signings and the term/money for both of them is not exactly ludicrous. However our moves since losing the ALCS haven't really been all that inspiring either and I hope something bigger is around the corner.

Or perhaps given that this is a fan forum, this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpMvS1Q1sos

Let's not forget Nicolino, one of my favourites.

Every year or so the White Sox feel obliged to sign at least one overpaid fat pantload from the Jays. Rios, Cabrera, now Navarro. It's in their organizational manifesto or something.

Sorry bud but this article seems to say you're incorrect. I think the confusion may be that we were discussing things with Santana in 2013 but for the 2014 season? http://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2014/03/12/ervin_santana_passes_on_challenge_of_al_east_with_blue_jays_to_sign_with_braves_griffin.html

Did you even read my entire post? I said I had an initial emotional reaction after remembering the days of passing the hat around to try and sign Ervin Santana for 1 year last offseason, or failing to add a single player after leading the wild card by 3 games on July 31st last year. However I then calmed down and realized that this was actually a smart bit of business and I agreed with it. I still do, even after Price has signed with Boston for $4 billion over 89 years (roughly).

Is it true that we didn't even table an offer?

Watching Boyd and Norris potentially pitching effectively for years for a team playing 4 hours away. Y'know, kinda like Syndergaard.

Agreed. We'd been waiting 22 years to see the playoffs and it was brilliant. Unfortunately losing in 6 in the ALCS may ultimately not be enough to dim the pain.

He's only 24; I wouldn't write him off just yet. And Norris is just 22.

This doesn't hurt; wouldn't pay this much for Price period. But watching Boyd and Norris pitch for Detroit? That's going to hurt.

My first reaction after hearing about this signing was disappointment, anger and some resentment. Emotionally I felt that we had hired a GM/President with a small market mentality making second rate moves that would be welcomed by parsiminious owners who had let down the fans again. After calming down and giving it some thought however, I'm really pretty pleased with the signing. It has cost us nothing but money in compensation, it has made me feel a bit better about the Michael Saunders fiasco and most importantly Happ can be a significant part of a starting lineup that everyone was worried about when the season ended. We have gone from Stroman and Dickey to who-the-bloody-hell-knows, to Stroman, Dickey, Happ and Estrada and who-the-bloody-hell-knows with some flexibility remaining on the payroll. That's good business by anybody's standards.

Wow, what a s*** show in Miami. Unbelievable. Good luck to AA working with the lowest payroll in baseball, especially with that organization!

Appreciate the info; I haven't been able to find the situation as clearly explained anywhere else other than this board!

Ah, thanks. Makes sense now.