Blue Jays
Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 8:57 am
http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/01/ ... -patience/
The team now bears little resemblance to the team then. Free agents have been signed and turned into draft picks so as to accelerate the asset base, prospects have been acquired and flipped and moved around, veterans have been jettisoned, and the Angels were convinced to take the vast majority of the US$86-million left on the Vernon Wells contract, along with Vernon Wells himself. Baseball people are now debating where in the top three they should rank Toronto’s farm system, and the payroll is unencumbered by dead weight. That doesn’t matter now, but it might matter later.
As well, sources indicate the Jays have doubled spending on scouting and front-office operations under Anthopoulos, and have greatly increased their spending on draft picks. Things are better. And he’s been on the job for two whole years.
None of this, of course, has produced a meaningful baseball game, which means impatience is not invalid. It’s just that the frustration is being pointed in the wrong direction.
And the Jays are nibbling. They traded for closer Sergio Santos, and signed ancient left-handed reliever Darren Oliver, and repatriated reliever Jason Frasor. Nice moves, but not game-changers. The speculation on Darvish was largely vapour, according to sources familiar with the team’s thinking — it was never a real possibility, though the organization’s policy of silence allowed the resulting chatter to raise fans’ expectations too high. That was a mistake, in terms of public relations, and that’s a part of the whole impatience narrative that has been built.
But if you want to be impatient, here’s what you need to be impatient with. Rogers Communications, the Jays owner, has clearly given this team specific payroll parameters, and they won’t move much until the revenues move first, and Anthopoulos can’t do much to control either one. All he can do is this: he can scrimp and save and wheedle his way to a team so good that when he goes to his bosses and asks for the money to make a good team a contender, he has pushed the parameters of what Rogers will give. That’s it.
And that’s the job. You want to show your impatience, write Rogers a letter telling them that their star GM deserves to exhibit the same discipline and tradecraft he has demonstrated so far, but with a bigger budget. While you’re at it, tell Anthopoulos that when he eventually asks for money, he should swing from his heels.
But don’t expect Prince Fielder, or pine over Yu Darvish. That’s not the game right now. Rogers is a big business, and while Rogers may consider baseball fans chickens, the fans — rightly, it says here — consider themselves eggs. It’s a standoff, and Alex Anthopoulos is caught in the middle of it, farming as fast as he can.