OT: Rogers Considering Sale of Blue Jays

[icoholic]

I can't imagine Shapiro is too happy here. Rogers has completely tied his hands.

In what way has Rogers tied Shapiro's hands?

They aren't letting him rebuild right now.

What? That's exactly what they're doing. Shapiro's message from day 1 is he was going to replenish the farm system after AA gave most of it away. They have a bunch of bad contracts that they can't get rid of so they're trying to stay competitive while they rebuild. Baseball isn't the NBA where a couple of stud first rounders can make you a contender.

[MavCarter]

I can't imagine Shapiro is too happy here. Rogers has completely tied his hands.

In what way has Rogers tied Shapiro's hands?

They aren't letting him rebuild right now.

You don't necessarily have to blow it up and tank to rebuild in baseball. If you draft well, do well with international signings and make good trades you'll be fine. The yankees have one of the best young cores in baseball and they haven't finished with an under .500 record since 1992

[Patman]

In what way has Rogers tied Shapiro's hands?

They aren't letting him rebuild right now.

You don't necessarily have to blow it up and tank to rebuild in baseball. If you draft well, do well with international signings and make good trades you'll be fine. The yankees have one of the best young cores in baseball and they haven't finished with an under .500 record since 1992

The Yankees also have a much bigger budget than we do. And I'm not just talking about the big league payroll. They really pour money into scouting as well.

It takes a lot more resources to have a successful scouting system in baseball than it does in basketball. In basketball, the majority of the top prospects play in a concentrated area (the top NCAA conferences), and play on national and regional television. In baseball, prospects are all over the place, get very little media coverage, and there is not nearly as much tape or (trustworthy) stats on them.

Plus it's also much harder to scout over a small sample size in baseball. You can probably get a good feel for a basketball player watching them over a course of a few games. You'll need to see a baseball player at least a dozen times to get any sort of accurate read on them.

[Raps in 4]

In what way has Rogers tied Shapiro's hands?

They aren't letting him rebuild right now.

You don't necessarily have to blow it up and tank to rebuild in baseball. If you draft well, do well with international signings and make good trades you'll be fine. The yankees have one of the best young cores in baseball and they haven't finished with an under .500 record since 1992

You need to accumulate picks and prospects to rebuild in baseball. Our time to trade away our stars and rebuild is now, before they expire and all we get are comp picks.

[JaysRule15]

In what way has Rogers tied Shapiro's hands?

They aren't letting him rebuild right now.

What? That's exactly what they're doing. Shapiro's message from day 1 is he was going to replenish the farm system after AA gave most of it away. They have a bunch of bad contracts that they can't get rid of so they're trying to stay competitive while they rebuild. Baseball isn't the NBA where a couple of stud first rounders can make you a contender.

In baseball, most bad contracts can be moved for prospects if you're willing to eat the money. Jays should've pulled the plug on the team this offseason. This team is too old and the Red Sox and Yankees look like contenders for years to come, especially if the rumors about the Yankees being close to landing Stanton are true.

With Bautista already gone, this was the time to trade Donaldson (who is a free agent next season and will cost too much to re-sign, plus be too old to play with the next wave of talent), Happ, Pillar, Smoak and maybe even Osuna. They should've then eaten the contracts of Tulo, Morales and Martin and moved them for prospects. Next couple of years should've been dedicated to getting younger and waiting for the next wave headed by Vladdy Jr. to arrive.

As it is right now, we're too close to Rogers' set salary budget to make any significant off-season additions, too old to count on natural improvement, and don't have any elite prospects in the upper minors who could come up and be difference makers next year. At best, this team projects to be slightly better than a .500 team next season, and that's if no one gets hurt.

Based on Shapiro's MO in Cleveland, he's an expert in doing rebuilds and was the perfect man for this job. Unfortunately, Rogers has tied his hands and is not letting him commit to a proper rebuild. Why? Because this team saw a strong attendance spike the last couple of seasons along with high TV ratings and merchandise sales. Rogers wants to maintain that fan turnout. In fact, Jays GM Ross Atkins has come out and actually said that they're operating based on giving fans something to cheer for next season. That's not how you build a team from a management point of view.

And now reports come out that Rogers is looking at selling the team. It's obvious that a team drawing good crowds and generating ratings will be valued higher than a rebuilding team that's currently at a low point and won't be attracting as many fans. So it's fair to ask the question about Rogers potentially meddling with the Jays' management because of external factors like this potential sale.