Great Expectations - The Lost Blue Jays Season

C Court · Post #1 » by **C Court** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 1:24 am

Here are the first 22 pages of Great Expectations - The Lost Toronto Blue Jays Season by Shi Davidi and John Lott.

http://www.ecwpress.com/sites/default/f ... ations.pdf

The excerpt takes us through John Farrell's departure, the Marlins trade and the Melky signing. Good read so far.

The book comes out on Friday, November 1st. For $9.99, the Kindle version is worth picking up.

http://www.amazon.ca/Great-Expectations ... 1770411879

Michael Bradley · Post #2 » by **Michael Bradley** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 2:41 am

I can't believe I am saying this, but after reading the part about Farrell's last couple of months with the team, I can almost side with him in wanting to leave. It seemed like AA was souring on Farrell to begin with, and Farrell's gripes with the front office were mostly fair (lack of pitching, lack of moves to help short-term, etc). When you factor that Farrell recently took a shot at the Jays (over)emphasis on tools, and the fact that Farrell comes from a player development background, it didn't appear that the two sides had anything in common to begin with. It sucks that Farrell is about to win a World Series with the Red Sox, and I still don't care for him as a manager, but the parting of ways was the right move. Neither side seemed at all interested in continuing the relationship.

Interesting read. In hindsight, waiting on Sanchez and signing him would have been ideal over trading for Dickey, but then the Marlins trade would have never happened, so who knows what the off-season would have looked like if Sanchez had agreed to sign.

Randle McMurphy · Post #3 » by **Randle McMurphy** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 4:56 am

The last thing I'm going to read is a book about the 2013 Blue Jays season. I'd rather put it out of my mind.

C Court · Post #4 » by **C Court** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 12:33 pm

If the rest of the book is anything like the first few pages, it will allow us to see what happened behind the scenes during this disaster of a season.

I will definitely be reading it.

MikeM · Post #5 » by **MikeM** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 5:25 pm

“You mean to tell me we’re going to get back two pitchers, Reyes, one of my favourite players, and Bonifacio.
We’re going to have a track team. We’re selling entertainment, that’s what it’s all about.” -Beeston.

That quote stood out to me a bit as being really dumb.

Randle McMurphy · Post #6 » by **Randle McMurphy** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:11 pm

MikeM wrote:“You mean to tell me we’re going to get back two pitchers, Reyes, one of my favourite players, and Bonifacio.
We’re going to have a track team. We’re selling entertainment, that’s what it’s all about.” -Beeston.

That quote stood out to me a bit as being really dumb.

I still don't get what they saw in Bonifacio. Never will.

Michael Bradley · Post #7 » by **Michael Bradley** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 9:35 pm

MikeM wrote:“You mean to tell me we’re going to get back two pitchers, Reyes, one of my favourite players, and Bonifacio.
We’re going to have a track team. We’re selling entertainment, that’s what it’s all about.” -Beeston.

That quote stood out to me a bit as being really dumb.

Just confirms what many of us have thought about Beeston since 2009.

Skin Blues · Post #8 » by **Skin Blues** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:23 pm

Randle McMurphy wrote:I still don't get what they saw in Bonifacio. Never will.

Bonifacio was terrible with us, but in his 518 career games before and after his time with Toronto, he has a .341 OBP and 81% SB success rate. With Toronto those were .258 and 67%. He was god awful at 2B here for a stretch but over his career, both UZR and DRS have him as an average or better fielder at both 2B and OF. I don't think he was a bad utility guy to have around. Obviously it didn't work out, but it made sense to pick him up.

It's hard not to blame the GM when every single player acquisition turns out to be terrible. If it's bad coaching, he has to change the coaches, but ultimately he's accountable. It's impossible for us to tell what the real issues are from the outside.

MikeM · Post #9 » by **MikeM** » Thu Oct 31, 2013 12:30 am

In Bonifacio's case, he had basically a 9% BB rate before us and immediately after we traded him to KC while posting about half that rate with us.

That's really frustrating.

C Court · Post #10 » by **C Court** » Sun Nov 10, 2013 4:14 pm

Here is a short excerpt about Lawrie becoming a more mature player;

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2013/11/ ... -maturity/

BTW, I bought the Kindle version for $9 and will read it when I go away in a couple of weeks. Looks like a good read based on a quick skim.

C Court · Post #11 » by **C Court** » Wed Nov 27, 2013 3:48 am

Just got back from the Caribbean where I read the book. A very good read.

The title is somewhat deceiving. The book is far from just being a chronology of last season's events.

Instead it provides a ton of great insight into the background of all the key players including Alex A, Gibby, Farrell, Bautista, Reyes, Buerhle, Dickey, Janssen, DeRosa, Kawasaki, Rasmus, Encarnacion, Lawrie, Arencebia and others.

If you're a Jays fan, its worth the $9 on Amazon.

Randle McMurphy · Post #12 » by **Randle McMurphy** » Wed Nov 27, 2013 7:50 pm

I'm sure it's a insightful read, but you're not going to convince me on this.

If I could wipe the 2013 season from my memory like Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I totally would.

C Court · Post #13 » by **C Court** » Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:54 am

According to Davidi/Lott, after the Farrell fiasco, Alex spoke to a few MLB execs who told him he was nuts to hire a manager who he did not know. That started Alex's thought process to avoid the exhaustive search (like was done in hiring Farrell) and look at more familiar candidates.

When Gibby was in Toronto for his interview he tried to keep a low profile, but was recognized at the Inter Continental. So when asked why he was in Toronto he said "for a wedding' and the snoops left him alone.