Krylian

Shrek is love

Merry Christmas.

'Was' Greek?

Long term would be the accurate term.

The reason Toronto doesn't have a team is because of TV. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Ya. I don't think I expressed what I really meant very well. I think tanking in basketball can work...hockey to a lesser degree. Baseball, not really. What I really mean is that your core should be home grown. That takes time. That takes smart drafting and a strong philosophy on development. In other sports, high picks get drafted and they're in the show the very next season. In baseball, it's years. When AA took over after 2009, the cupboard was dry. The system was a mess. The organization drafted well...added some really nice talent...and when it was getting close, a bunch of it was moved after 2012 for immediate help. Then again...a couple of good drafts and again, deadline at 2015, a whack of it gets moved for immediate help. What would this team look going into 2016 had they kept their young talent? That's really what I mean by not having the stomach to kind of just sit and wait for your core to develop and be ready. Once you get there, that doesn't mean the good drafting and development stops. The Cards model is to keep the machine pumping out young talent. I'm hoping Shapiro and Atkins believe in building your core (not other team's cores) through the draft and IFA. As much as I liked AA, I wouldn't have made the deadline moves had I known that Rogers wasn't going to support keeping the momentum going by upping payroll enough to do better than Happ, Chavez, Penny, et al. I think a lot of us suspected it...but it's still disappointing to see.

And that's why the Dickey and Florida deals were made. Fans don't have the stomach for a couple of 60 win seasons while the farm system is reloaded... And then wait to develop. For me, I'd take three 60 win seasons over three 80 win seasons any day. With a 60 win season, not only are you likely picking in the top 3, where you're going to land a premium talent, your cap will be significant, meaning you can be creative and add all sorts of wonderful talent in that draft (applies to IFA cap and talent too). That's a huge boost to your core talent. What do you get out of being 81-81. You get to be a .500 team. You get to draft in the middle of the pack... You don't get a robust cap for either the draft or the IFA market. But you get to feel better about yourself cause you won some regular season games and still finished 12 games back.

I agree with keeping your prospects... But only if you're gonna go further into free agency to augment your roster. Otherwise, what else is there other than wait for years for them to develop... That's the decision that should've been made in 2013, before the Dickey and Florida deals.

You were a Ricciardi fan weren't you...

I had Greene 2 and SRF 3 but it's a coin flip. SRF's K rates are very sexy, but he has his warts. Greene doesn't K as many as you'd ideally like to see but his stuff took a major step forward and his command is superior to SRF's. This year will show us a lot.

Someone poop in your soup?

What is?

I was joking.

Cecil Fielder?

You should of said that in the first place.

Say what?

Useless point. This was a loss for the taking.

Bernier!!! You beauty!

Babcock needs to get pneumonia or something...something to get him away from the team for a while.

Think about how many specs were dealt at the deadline... Didn't we lose something like 9 lefties alone? This list would've liked a hell of a lot different had we done this 5 months ago.

We're the experts of our own farm system. BA should be reading this forum and figuring out if they got it right.

I thought they won the Darvish sweepstakes. Isn't that what we were promised?

Hoping that this is the guy that the Jays will finally bid on is insane. They will continue to do the same thing, and the result will be the same.

I still think one at a time is the way to go. Generates more discussion... #15 - Player X "Wow...I had him in my Top 10"... Or... "Damn...I had him 25th". Besides... It's the off-season... What else are we gonna talk about for the next 2 months.

I know, dad. You've told me that before.