Rogers Sportsnet 590 The FAN: Toronto Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos interviewed on Prime Time Sports

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Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos joins Prime Time Sports to discuss his club’s current winning streak, the health of Edwin Encarnacion, and the rotation.

http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand-3 ... erview.mp3

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According to Shi Davidi of Rogers Sportsnet, the Blue Jays would love to add two relievers, a righty and a lefty, and if possible an outfielder, given the uncertainty about what type of workload Michael Saunders’ surgically repaired knee will allow once he returns.

A starter is a possibility, too, but they’d have to get someone significantly better than Aaron Sanchez in order to feel good about moving the young right-hander back to the bullpen. Otherwise, there’s little point in subtracting from one area to add to another.

Besides, the Blue Jays will be very reluctant to move premium trade chips like Daniel Norris and Jeff Hoffman, unless it’s for an elite player who comes with a significant amount of contractual control.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/anthopoulos-toronto-blue-jays-trade-rumours-phillies-jonathan-papelbon/

In an ideal world, the Blue Jays love to add two relievers, a righty and a lefty (although an audition for Phil Coke that begins Friday might take care of that), and if possible an outfielder, given the uncertainty about what type of workload Michael Saunders’ surgically repaired knee will allow once he returns.

A starter is a possibility, too, but they’d have to get someone significantly better than Aaron Sanchez in order to feel good about moving the young right-hander back to the bullpen. Otherwise, there’s little point in subtracting from one area to add to another.

Besides, the Blue Jays will be very reluctant to move premium trade chips like Daniel Norris and Jeff Hoffman, unless it’s for an elite player who comes with a significant amount of contractual control (like Josh Donaldson, R.A. Dickey, Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle all did). Another potential asset is Dioner Navarro, although the Blue Jays like him on the roster and would need value back to move him (coincidence or not, their winning streak began once he was activated from the DL).

Put all together, the reason for the Blue Jays’ caution is understandable; in all likelihood they have one, maybe two moves in them, so they can ill-afford a costly roll of the dice, which is why they were reluctant to take any fliers on reclamation projects during the off-season.

That’s also part of the reason they couldn’t match the pro-rated $4.1-million deal with a potential $4 million more in incentives Soriano got from the Cubs. Besides the fact that the right-hander has a history with manager Joe Maddon from their time together in Tampa Bay and share the same agent in Alan Nero, the Blue Jays would have had to outbid the $6-million-plus he can earn.

If Anthopoulos is to do all his spending in one place, would Soriano have been the right guy to do it on? Or, for that matter, is Papelbon? The GM can’t afford to flush away any money on a mistake.

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According to New York Post columnist Joel Sherman, the Blue Jays haven’t talked in a week with the Phillies about Jonathan Papelbon. The Toronto Blue Jays are concentrating on relievers right now and may be focusing on Oakland Athletics reliever Tyler Clippard.
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[North_of_Border]

Clippard is an FA after the season, so he should not cost anything significant..... though the downside is, he is a rental. Likely gonna get big money and leave after the season

still a good target.... beats Papelbon

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[tweet]https://twitter.com/jcrasnick/status/609744389821349888[/tweet]

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TSN 1050 Jays Reporter Scott MacArthur joins the program to talk about Paul Beeston and the possibility of the Blue Jays trading away one of their younger pieces to acquire the necessary players to contend.

http://iphone.tsn.ca/tsnpodcasts/BH_Mac ... June12.mp3

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[tweet]https://twitter.com/thebigm/status/610263512829571073[/tweet]

but to stick with the present, let's be clear what the jays did this week. They stomped all over a bad marlins team, getting three quality starts -- including a spot start from call-up scott copeland. Then they swept a red sox team with an even more pronounced rotation problem than their own, winning all three games despite giving up 19 runs while seeing drew hutchison, r.a. Dickey and marco estrada all get lit up in their starts against boston.

Seeing that from their rotation reinforces the big-picture question of whether the jays can reliably beat good pitching. That isn’t to say they can’t beat quality starters -- they took down washington's max scherzer to start the win streak, after all -- but when the next-best guy they've faced in that run was someone like dan haren or clay buchholz, you can't say their offense or team wasn't helped during the win streak. Facing two teams back-to-back who are as weak offensively as the marlins (23rd in run scoring) and the red sox (24th) helps, too.

The reason this is important is because you have to ask yourself what happens to this team when it stops averaging eight runs per game for weeks at a time. They're still short of the starting pitching that can win without that kind of run support. Can they do something to change that?

In prospects such as aaron sanchez and daniel norris, toronto has the high-upside pitching talents that might grow up to be top-shelf starters. The problem is that the jays' moment of need is now, and neither of them is guaranteed to be that guy between now and september. (whether he has to be dealt or he delivers, sanchez's move to the dl with a lat strain on sunday couldn't be more inconveniently timed.) and outside of a good group of high-upside, high-risk dominican imports far from the majors, the norris/sanchez tandem are the jays' best stock in trade if they're going to turn this good run into a shot at winning a few short series in october. Can the jays afford to deal away either of their futures?

Jays gm alex anthopoulos might be able to throw a big enough bundle of the lower-level guys at cincinnati to land johnny cueto to rent the reds' ace for the remainder of the season before he departs for free agency, but that requires cinci’s walt jocketty to take a serious shine to richard urena, miguel castro or jairo labourt. But if anthopoulos is going to chase after lefty cole hamels of the phillies, you’d expect that sanchez or norris would have to be in the package.

Does anthopoulos go for it? Between now and the end of july trade deadline, there might not be a more interesting question.

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FOX Sports MLB insider Jon Morosi believes that Toronto should focus on solidifying its bullpen, as the prospect of getting Cole Hamels from the Phillies is "an unrealistic option at this point in time."

http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand-3/Jon-Morosi-with-Joey-Vendetta-jb-20150615-Interview.mp3

[Wo1verine]

I wouldn't be trading for expensive bullpen parts when we have limited funds to spend on upgrades.

Staring pitching (Cueto, Kazmir) is an absolute must should we still be in the race near deadline.

[LLJ]

Part of me is very skeptical that a big move would be made. I can't even recall the last time the Jays made a major move midseason as part of a playoff push.

Nonetheless, in order for the Jays to have a chance, they need to do it. I think they *could* just squeak into the playoffs with this team if almost everything went their way the rest of the way (as far as 'everything going our way' goes in Jays land), but you really don't want to gamble with this current pitching staff imo.

[Michael Bradley]

I think you have to look at Oakland at this point. They have an "unsexy" but good SP option in Kazmir, a closer in Clippard (albeit with scary ratios), and a versatile player in Zobrist that are all free agents and likely available. They have a GM that values floor just as much as ceiling, so it's possible that players like Boyd will interest him. That's the team to go after if you want to acquire talent without giving up Norris or Hoffman.

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Part of me is very skeptical that a big move would be made. I can't even recall the last time the Jays made a major move midseason as part of a playoff push.

Nonetheless, in order for the Jays to have a chance, they need to do it. I think they *could* just squeak into the playoffs with this team if almost everything went their way the rest of the way (as far as 'everything going our way' goes in Jays land), but you really don't want to gamble with this current pitching staff imo.

Just to have a chance is not good enough for me to give up any prime assets. If you fall short, and the talent you acquire walks at the end of the season, you have sentenced the team to years of added mediocrity. At some point, you look at what the Astros and Cubs have done, and realize that a proper rebuild performed by a competent management should result in sustained success, not just grabbing at straws. If AA can improve the team with deals that don't seriously compromise the future, I'm willing to entertain that, but nothing like a Dickey hail Mary, please.

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Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports joins Prime Time Sports to discuss potential trading partners for the Toronto Blue Jays.

http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand-3/Jon-Paul-Morosi-with-Bob-McCown-and-Ken-Reid-pts-20150617-Interview.mp3

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Toronto Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos is looking to upgrade the rotation.

You can listen to Alex Anthopoulos' interview on TSN 1050 Toronto radio at the following link:

http://iphone.tsn.ca/tsnpodcasts/Anthopoulos_Drive_June18.mp3