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Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:48 pm
by LittleOzzy
While driving through downtown Toronto earlier this week, Alex Anthopoulos was stopped at a traffic light. The Blue Jays general manager glanced out his car window and could not help but smile at what he saw.
"There was a panhandler there asking for change," Anthopoulos said during a recent phone interview. "She had a sign up asking for a donation, and at the bottom of her sign, she wrote, 'Go, Jays, Go!' I haven't seen that before.
"It makes you think, 'Wow, people are really getting excited about this team.'"
Compared to a year ago, there has been a noticeable increase in interest surrounding the Blue Jays in Toronto. Much of the buzz this season is due to the changes made on the field and behind the scenes by Anthopoulos and his retooled front office, a group that assumed the reigns in October.
One of Anthopoulos' goals when he took over for J.P. Ricciardi as general manager in October was to be transparent with the fan base in any move he made. Anthopoulos would make no promises of timelines for contention. Instead, he would relay his long-term vision and philosophies, explaining how each decision he made fell within his goal of building Toronto into a baseball powerhouse again.
So far, the Blue Jays have exceeded expectations at the Major League level. Many preseason forecasters had Toronto finishing last in the American League East. The Jays currently are in fourth place, but are six games above the break-even mark and boast a talented young pitching staff and baseball's most powerful offense.
The road back to the World Series, where the Blue Jays have not been since 1993, involves more than success on the big league stage, though. Anthopoulos knows that fans live and die with the club in Toronto, but the young general manager is quick to note that his vision includes stengthening the organization from the ground up.
In that sense, there is a lot more Anthopoulos wants to accomplish.
"I'm always looking ahead," Anthopoulos said. "Whether it's weeks, months, years ahead, I always feel like we have a lot of work to do. I think it's always going to feel that way until we get to the point where we make the playoffs, and then we win a championship.
"There's always something to do. There's always work to be done. There are always ways to improve. We're not close to where we need to be in every level of the organization, but we're moving in the right direction.
"I still have so many things I want to get done, so many. I just know I'm going to have to be patient, and it's going to take time. There are just so many things I want to tackle, and I know it takes years."
When he took over, Anthopoulos reorganized the front office, focusing on dramatically increasing the number of bodies in his scouting department. Over the past 10 months, Toronto has also become a force in the international marketplace, especially in terms of pursuing top talent from Latin America.
In these areas, the Blue Jays have flexed some financial muscle.
In July, the Jays signed Venezuelan right-hander Adonis Cardona with a $2.8 million bonus, the largest awarded to a Latin American amateur player in club history. Toronto also reeled in highly touted Cuban shortstop prospect Adeiny Hechavarria with a four-year, $10 million Major League contract in April.
Read more here:
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/ar ... p&c_id=tor
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 7:15 pm
by SargentBargs101
Interesting read. thx
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 9:10 pm
by TheMainEvent
Hmmm, it's probably not the same person, but I've seen a panhandler with a sign that says "Go, Jays, Go!" as well. I've also seen it written in a bathroom stall. Crazy fans.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 9:46 pm
by OldNo7
What's Anthopoulos' number? Because I wanna buy his jersey.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 9:53 pm
by evilRyu
Dam what a great read.. I haven't been so excited about the Jays in a loooooooong time.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 9:58 pm
by augustine
But honestly, if we were to spend some money this offseason on Dunn, Crawford and a Closer, we could be in contention next year. Is he/Rogers gonna fork out that much money? I doubt it. So, we are back to the same problem. I hope I am wrong. But the truth is, we have no 1B prospects or OF prospects coming down the pipes for years, so why not go big in free agency at those positions. The only other alternative is to be mediocre there for years, and that does not lead to championship teams. It will be interesting.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 1:17 am
by baulderdash77
augustine wrote:But honestly, if we were to spend some money this offseason on Dunn, Crawford and a Closer, we could be in contention next year. Is he/Rogers gonna fork out that much money? I doubt it. So, we are back to the same problem. I hope I am wrong. But the truth is, we have no 1B prospects or OF prospects coming down the pipes for years, so why not go big in free agency at those positions. The only other alternative is to be mediocre there for years, and that does not lead to championship teams. It will be interesting.
I more or less agree. If we picked up Crawford @ $15million per plus a DH and we could be the top offense in baseball or at least top 3.
Glenn can be very good if deployed properly (no back to back days) so we could be ok there.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 1:37 am
by TR50
baulderdash77 wrote:augustine wrote:But honestly, if we were to spend some money this offseason on Dunn, Crawford and a Closer, we could be in contention next year. Is he/Rogers gonna fork out that much money? I doubt it. So, we are back to the same problem. I hope I am wrong. But the truth is, we have no 1B prospects or OF prospects coming down the pipes for years, so why not go big in free agency at those positions. The only other alternative is to be mediocre there for years, and that does not lead to championship teams. It will be interesting.
I more or less agree. If we picked up Crawford @ $15million per plus a DH and we could be the top offense in baseball or at least top 3.
Glenn can be very good if deployed properly (no back to back days) so we could be ok there.
Altogether though, a great read. Blue Jays baseball really is taking a nice turn. Hopefully we'll be able to sustain such positive notes.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 2:07 am
by Attonitus
augustine wrote:But honestly, if we were to spend some money this offseason on Dunn, Crawford and a Closer, we could be in contention next year. Is he/Rogers gonna fork out that much money? I doubt it. So, we are back to the same problem. I hope I am wrong. But the truth is, we have no 1B prospects or OF prospects coming down the pipes for years, so why not go big in free agency at those positions. The only other alternative is to be mediocre there for years, and that does not lead to championship teams. It will be interesting.
It's like you didn't read the article at all. Overpaying for free agents during a rebuild is only going to bring us back to the JP era. AA has a long term plan and if he sticks to it we could have a dominant team in a few years. I would rather wait until we are a true contender before we go after any big name FA's.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 2:44 am
by evilRyu
Yeah, plus they probably have in the back of their minds the off-season when they picked up BJ Ryan, AJ Burnett, Lyle Overbay, and Troy Glaus.....
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 2:49 am
by CapeCrusader
Good read,
Yeah even though I would love to sign top tier FA, were not ready for it.
We have to take the Rays approach and develop from within the farm system and see how that pans out within the next year or two before looking to sign a top tier FA. No point in throwing money around when were not competing yet.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:02 am
by OldNo7
Attonitus wrote:augustine wrote:But honestly, if we were to spend some money this offseason on Dunn, Crawford and a Closer, we could be in contention next year. Is he/Rogers gonna fork out that much money? I doubt it. So, we are back to the same problem. I hope I am wrong. But the truth is, we have no 1B prospects or OF prospects coming down the pipes for years, so why not go big in free agency at those positions. The only other alternative is to be mediocre there for years, and that does not lead to championship teams. It will be interesting.
It's like you didn't read the article at all. Overpaying for free agents during a rebuild is only going to bring us back to the JP era. AA has a long term plan and if he sticks to it we could have a dominant team in a few years. I would rather wait until we are a true contender before we go after any big name FA's.
+1
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 4:53 am
by U_Mad
OldNo7 wrote:Attonitus wrote:augustine wrote:But honestly, if we were to spend some money this offseason on Dunn, Crawford and a Closer, we could be in contention next year. Is he/Rogers gonna fork out that much money? I doubt it. So, we are back to the same problem. I hope I am wrong. But the truth is, we have no 1B prospects or OF prospects coming down the pipes for years, so why not go big in free agency at those positions. The only other alternative is to be mediocre there for years, and that does not lead to championship teams. It will be interesting.
It's like you didn't read the article at all. Overpaying for free agents during a rebuild is only going to bring us back to the JP era. AA has a long term plan and if he sticks to it we could have a dominant team in a few years. I would rather wait until we are a true contender before we go after any big name FA's.
+1
and i believe we can move Mcgowan into the closer spot when he returns...
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:58 am
by r_gill
augustine wrote:But honestly, if we were to spend some money this offseason on Dunn, Crawford and a Closer, we could be in contention next year. Is he/Rogers gonna fork out that much money? I doubt it. So, we are back to the same problem. I hope I am wrong. But the truth is, we have no 1B prospects or OF prospects coming down the pipes for years, so why not go big in free agency at those positions. The only other alternative is to be mediocre there for years, and that does not lead to championship teams. It will be interesting.
Look I like Carl Crawford but he is just going to get too much money in free agency. He is going to be worth 6+ WAR this year but he is having a career year in a contract year. We got a LF his name is Travis Snider and he is going to make a fraction of what Crawford is going to make for the next 5 years. The Blue Jays can't be committing a ten figure contract to contract for God knows how many years to a LF when Vernon Wells makes 24 mil a year for the next 4 years and is only still in CF because of that contract. If Crawford declines to his pre-2009 levels or worse than the Blue Jays would be totally screwed.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 11:44 am
by luvtheteam
Forget Crawford...we don't need outfielders. Travis Synder can't even get into games as it is.
Key to success next year is the Bullpen. We need to keep Downs and add at least one other high quality arm.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:35 pm
by augustine
Attonitus wrote:augustine wrote:But honestly, if we were to spend some money this offseason on Dunn, Crawford and a Closer, we could be in contention next year. Is he/Rogers gonna fork out that much money? I doubt it. So, we are back to the same problem. I hope I am wrong. But the truth is, we have no 1B prospects or OF prospects coming down the pipes for years, so why not go big in free agency at those positions. The only other alternative is to be mediocre there for years, and that does not lead to championship teams. It will be interesting.
It's like you didn't read the article at all. Overpaying for free agents during a rebuild is only going to bring us back to the JP era. AA has a long term plan and if he sticks to it we could have a dominant team in a few years. I would rather wait until we are a true contender before we go after any big name FA's.
Hi Attonitus,
The problem is that once our prospects are ready, the 'core' we have now will be gone. If our rebuild plan is for three/four years away, Bautista may be gone as a FA, Well will be over the hill, Lind/Hill will be at the tail end of their prime, our star pitchers will be entering free agent years, etc... Thus, we are perpetually rebuilding, or hoping all our prospects come on line at the same time (which, if you look at the farm system, is unlikely at the moment).
On the contrary, we could be like Boston/New York, who spend tonnes of money on international free agents and overslot picks, plus go for the big free agents. In this way, we can rebuild our farm system while simultaneously acknowledging that we are only a couple pieces away right now. I am not suggesting we abandon the rebuild model, but do it in tandem with a competitive team, ala, Yankees/Red Sox. Rogers has loads of money, probably even more than the owners of the Yankees and Red Sox combined (not sure though), so this could be done easily. We in Toronto, however, have forgotten that during the glory days we had the highest payroll, we had the fullest stadiums, we signed all the top free agents (Molitor, Winfield, Cone, etc...). Rogers has the money to become this again.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:55 pm
by augustine
To add to one point:
Combined worth of the owners of the Red Sox/Yankees:
George Steinbrenner and estate: 1.1.5 billion
John Henry: 1.1 billion
Rogers:
worth: 20.01 billion
profits: 1.41 billion (1st quarter of 2010 alone)
Thus Rogers made more money in one quarter than either of the owners of the Yankees or Red Sox is worth in their entirety. It is wise to think about that for a while, when considering who the 'big spenders' of the AL East should be.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 5:36 pm
by Lateral Quicks
Outfield isn't the problem next year, assuming Snider gets the full-time nod and Bautista returns and isn't moved to 3rd. I think the club would want to keep Bautista in right to maximize use of his cannon.
Defensively, that's a decent outfield. Offensively, it is fairly uncertain. Can Bautista continue his offensive prowess? Can Snider hit consistently like many think he can? Can Wells put up his 25HR/85RBI numbers again? I would prefer having that group back to paying a Crawford type $15M per year.
The club's needs are 3rd and 1B. I don't expect Encarnacion to be back. They could give Hoffpauir or Emaus a shot there, but I doubt it. Or they could move Bautista to 3rd, as getting outfield help is easier than getting 3B help. Not sure how much they'll spend on that help, though.
At 1B (or DH, if they mvoe Lind to 1B), I expect them to spend liberally for a big bat, which should be a nice jolt to the line-up.
This team really needs Aaron HIll to return to form next year. Many scouts thought this guy would be a .300 hitter throughout his career, but it certainly isn't happening now. The team needs more high .OBP guys; we have enough mashers at it is.
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 5:42 pm
by Lateral Quicks
augustine wrote:To add to one point:
Combined worth of the owners of the Red Sox/Yankees:
George Steinbrenner and estate: 1.1.5 billion
John Henry: 1.1 billion
Rogers:
worth: 20.01 billion
profits: 1.41 billion (1st quarter of 2010 alone)
Thus Rogers made more money in one quarter than either of the owners of the Yankees or Red Sox is worth in their entirety. It is wise to think about that for a while, when considering who the 'big spenders' of the AL East should be.
This is besides the point. Rogers doesn't make $1.41 billion from their baseball operations alone, not even close. From a strictly financial point of view, they will only subsidize their baseball operations if it yields sufficient returns in their complementary operations (e.g. Sportsnet).
That said, we have heard numerous times that the money is there for AA when he wants to spend it. I think AA's approach is to lock up home-grown players like Romero though, rather than making huge splashes in free agency. I do expect though this off-season he will sign Bautista to a reasonable extension and probably add an established 1B/DH type. This won't up the payroll too much, and won't hurt the development of any of our younger players that are major-league ready. So, if you can improve the club - hopefully to the point of real competition - without breaking the bank and ruining the long term plan, why not do it?
Re: Anthopoulos intent on returning Jays to glory
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:04 pm
by augustine
Lateral Quicks wrote:[
That said, we have heard numerous times that the money is there for AA when he wants to spend it.
This is essentially my point. We have heard the money is there. But is it? My point is that we can spend 50 million this offseason without jeopardizing our rebuilding: we have no 1b/DH prospects that is coming down the pipes, so why not spend big on one for a couple years. We have no OF prospect ready to go next year, so why not get one? The only prospects who are ready next year are Drabek, Arencibia and maybe Emaus. So, I agree, we don't sign a big FA pitcher, or FA catcher, or FA 3B. Rather, we replace Overbay/Lewis with a Crawford/Dunn type. How does this mess up the rebuilding plan over the next two years? If Snider tanks, Bautista plays RF. If Emaus tanks, Bautista plays 3B. If both excel, that is a good problem, especially since Bautista is a FA after the year.