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Blue Jays fail to meet lofty offseason expectations

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:43 pm
by LittleOzzy
It’s not entirely Alex Anthopoulos’ fault that the Blue Jays were supposed to be the “it” team of the 2011-12 offseason.

After all, team president Paul Beeston hinted last winter it might not be long before the franchise’s player payroll had doubled. And Rogers Communications was indeed flush with cash. And the Blue Jays did have 166 wins over the past two slogs through the AL East, which, incidentally, extended to four their run of consecutive fourth-place finishes, despite being six games over .500 in that time.

This wasn’t a bad winter for a team to be ready to make its move, either. Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, Yu Darvish and Jose Reyes were out there, and the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox weren’t going to be players. On the trade market, there was young pitching to be had in Oakland, Seattle, Chicago and San Diego.

By some sort of miracle, the Jays had relieved themselves of the bloated Vernon Wells and Alex Rios contracts. Painfully, they’d done the same with the Roy Halladay contract.

As the World Series wound down, rumors – OK, rumours – persisted that the Jays would be active, that Anthopoulos had set them up just right with his clever maneuvering, that the Jays were the winter’s sleeping giants.

Even Anthopoulos’ goals – obtain a frontline starter, a power bat, bullpen help and a backup catcher – fit the supply.

Well, he rebuilt the bullpen and he did get that backup catcher.

As Pujols, Fielder and Darvish flooded the American League, and as the Yankees added Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda, the Blue Jays would not or could not commit.


http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=t ... oll_013112

Re: Blue Jays fail to meet lofty offseason expectations

Posted: Wed Feb 1, 2012 12:51 am
by BobbyBoy
Like everyone already didn't know that. -_-'
Who cares now? We can't do anything about it. So why dont we just sattle up for the season and enjoy it!

Re: Blue Jays fail to meet lofty offseason expectations

Posted: Wed Feb 1, 2012 4:21 am
by BobbyBoy
END THIS FORUM

Re: Blue Jays fail to meet lofty offseason expectations

Posted: Wed Feb 1, 2012 1:30 pm
by LittleOzzy
BobbyBoy wrote:END THIS FORUM


:roll: :roll:

Re: Blue Jays fail to meet lofty offseason expectations

Posted: Wed Feb 1, 2012 3:44 pm
by J-Roc
Oz, you should stick "Yahoo" in the title to generate some traffic. Otherwise this just appears to be a fluff piece from a local paper.

Re: Blue Jays fail to meet lofty offseason expectations

Posted: Thu Feb 2, 2012 5:21 pm
by LittleOzzy
Excuses no longer work for Blue Jays

After hearing the same old, same old, from Toronto Blue Jays’ representatives in recent weeks, there’s little reason to expect much change in the team’s performance this season.

Except for the enthusiastic young players who staff the winter tours around Canada, Jays spokesmen sound very much like they’re all too ready to make excuses for another mediocre finish in the American League East.

It’s the same thing we’ve been hearing for years — the team is on the verge of becoming a contender. But it never takes that final plunge, and the excuses are getting old.

Let me say up front that the salaries and budgets in Major League Baseball are ridiculous. But the reality is, you have to spend to contend.

The Jays have fallen from that standard over the years and we’ve seen little evidence of an effort to climb back up. Last season, their payroll of roughly $62 million ranked 23rd of the 30 teams — down there with misers like Florida and Washington.

Older fans will remember the days when the Jays went toe to toe with the Yankees and Red Sox. That’s because, financially, the Blue Jays were winners from Day 1 in 1977.

In 1991, they became the first team in baseball history to surpass the four-million mark in attendance. They broke that record the next year on their way to winning the first of their back-to-back World Series titles.

Winning was a major part of the attraction.

In the five seasons from 1989 to 1993, the Jays finished first in the AL East four times and second once. They were the toast of Canadian sports, especially after winning the World Series in 1992 and 1993.

But the Jays haven’t flown as high since, finishing higher than third only once — in 2006 — when their 87-75 record left them 10 games behind the division winner.


http://thechronicleherald.ca/sports/580 ... -blue-jays

Re: Blue Jays fail to meet lofty offseason expectations

Posted: Thu Feb 2, 2012 8:16 pm
by BobbyBoy
HOLY CRAP! Their payroll was 62 mill last year. Our payroll bumped up like 20 mill from last year to this year?!?!?!

Re: Blue Jays fail to meet lofty offseason expectations

Posted: Sat Feb 4, 2012 12:32 am
by Secueritae
One thing I don't understand is how I can put up with the Raptors in not being able to sign free agents and rebuilding but not the Jays. Like I know the Raptors can't sign any max free agents because they don't want to come here, yet I'm content seeing guys like DeRozan or Bayless and see if they can get better.

For the Jays I can't stand the fact that there are so many good players available in the league via/trade or Free Agency, yet we decide to stay with our prospects, who might not even amount to anything in the Major League level. I feel really impatient especially with this long term rebuild that AA is putting together that might not even see a play-off berth until 2023. Maybe it's because of no salary-cap or the fact that we are not near as much as the other team's payrolls, but I just can't be patient enough with this team to put up with so many mediocre to garbage seasons.

Re: Blue Jays fail to meet lofty offseason expectations

Posted: Sat Feb 4, 2012 12:39 am
by BobbyBoy
Secueritae wrote:One thing I don't understand is how I can put up with the Raptors in not being able to sign free agents and rebuilding than the Jays. Like I know the Raptors can't sign any max free agents because they don't want to come here, yet I'm content seeing guys like DeRozan or Bayless and see if they can get better.

For the Jays I can't stand the fact that there are so many good players available in the league via/trade or Free Agency, yet we decide to stay with our prospects, who might not even amount to anything in the Major League level. I feel really impatient especially with this long term rebuild that AA is putting together that might not even see a play-off berth until 2023. Maybe it's because of no salary-cap or the fact that we are not near as much as the other team's payrolls, but I just can't be patient enough with this team to put up with so many mediocre to garbage seasons.

I agree on the part where we could trade prospects for good MLB talent.