Anthopoulos assesses his season

[LittleOzzy]

A year into the job, Alex Anthopoulos is still running the Blue Jays as if his hair is on fire.

“We’re all sports fans and you live and die with the team,” Anthopoulos said during his season-end press briefing Monday.

“You want to know that your GM and your front office are up all night, doing whatever they can.”

There are never enough hours in a day for Anthopoulos, never a moment when he has nothing to do, no problem to analyse. On the anniversary of his hiring (Oct. 3) he decided to beat himself up a little by creating a list of what he considers his failures.

“One of my strengths and maybe often one of my weaknesses is that I’m too hard on myself,” he admits. “And I agonize over things too much. I’m one that laments things that could have been done and opportunities that got away.

“I made a list of the things we could have done, things we should have done and I kick myself for not doing. I want to make sure we learn from it.”

Beyond his failure to sign Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman, Anthopoulos would not outline anything on the list.

“I was telling Paul (Beeston) today that when I finally get to spring training, it will be the most stable we’ve been in a long time,” he said. “It’s been one thing after another to get done. Then we can operate with a better pace. I feel like we’re always trying to chase to get caught up.”

Right now, he’s chasing the man who will be the Blue Jays’ next manager and he’s dropping no hints. This fall, there may be as many as a dozen teams looking for a manager and Anthopoulos isn’t about to lose a competitive edge by talking about candidates, even though everyone else is.

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/column ... 82911.html

[LittleOzzy]

Blue Jays must decide whether the time is now

The question before Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos after a 2010 season full of pleasant surprises is whether or not the time has come to push things forward and add some pieces to take a run at the playoffs.

Strong and hearty "Hell, yeahs!" from his players and fans aside, it's a delicate and crucial call for the 33-year-old from Montreal, who took over the team one year ago preaching a steady, patient approach to building up the talent-base while eschewing the quick fix.

His long-held mantra is that the team will dictate when it's time to go for broke, but whether or not a team that went 85-77 thanks to some tremendous pitching from a young starting staff and a club record 257 home runs is, at this point, up for debate.

Can the Blue Jays count on another year without a single major arm injury to any of its pitchers, continued progress from its young starters and the same thunder from hitters who had career seasons? And if so, will plugging looming holes at first and third base, catcher, the fifth spot in the starting rotation and the bullpen be enough to close the 11-game gap between them and the playoffs.

"I'm not sitting up there in our office with our baseball operations team saying, 'OK we won 85 games, if we make these six moves that will equate to 10 wins,"' Anthopoulos said Monday during a lengthy chat with the team's beat writers. "It's not that easy. I've heard stories and talked to teams where they've done simulations and there are just too many variables, you're dealing with human beings.

"If the focus is on making the team better and continuing to look for value whenever you can get it to build that team, at some point the wins will continue to pile up and we'll get to the point in-season, that hopefully we're going to look to add a piece. Then when you get to that playoff area, that's when you make a big splash."

By that criteria, the Blue Jays did not make the grade in 2010, so a reading between the lines suggests Anthopoulos doesn't think the time is now just yet. Still, that doesn't mean he'll head into his second off-season as GM in low gear.

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/ ... ntoNewHome

[LittleOzzy]

Anthopoulos marks anniversary as GM with lots still to do

Monday marked one year and one day since Alex Anthopoulos was promoted to general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, and he's still trying to catch his breath.

Over the past 366 days, the 33-year-old from Montreal has dramatically remade a franchise reeling after a clubhouse mutiny against manager Cito Gaston, adjusted the coaching staff, traded Roy Halladay, gotten married, put together a team that far exceeded expectations, and nearly two weeks ago became a father for the first time.

Talk about a whirlwind.

And it's not like this winter is going to be any quieter.

He's in the midst of searching for a new manager, has several free agents to deal with, a few key holes to fill, and several other organizational matters to deal with.

"I think when I finally get to spring training, it will probably be the most stable that we've been in a long time," Anthopoulos said Monday during his season-ending chat with the team's beat writers.

"There's just been one thing after another to get done, and then we can operate with a better pace. I just still feel like we haven't caught up."

There has already been a lot of lessons for the former Montreal Expos mailroom intern, whose boundless energy has been sorely needed over the past 12 months. The former assistant GM hit the ground running when he took over from the fired J.P. Ricciardi last year in Baltimore and hasn't stopped working since.

He has a handful of regrets -- not outbidding the Cincinnati Reds for Cuban left-hander Aroldis Chapman chief among them -- and is learning to cope with them better.

http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=336375

[hyper316]

he's doing pretty well so far in his job. definitely helps when the team is overachieving. let's see how he's gonna earn his money this offseason with so many uncertainties

[Wally West]

I love what AA has done to this team so far. It's really gonma be interesting what happens to some of our free agents like Bautista, Overbay and Encarnacion.

[luvtheteam]

Unfortunately the Chapman miss is a big one. How often do flamethrowers like that come along that you can sink in your bullpen and call it lights out in the 9th? I think Gregg has done an admirable job, but there's nothing like a power arm to intimidate the opposition and shut everything down. I don't know if there's another one out there as a plan B.

[LLJ]

Still too early to go "all in." This squad needs at least another year, maybe two.

I'd like to see what this team does with a new manager also. There's a feeling that they overachieved this year. The talent is there to compete consistently at around 85 wins currently, but with Blue Jays you never know who's gonna have a slump season. We've been littered with guys like Wells, Rios, Hill, etc,. who would have one good season and then come back to earth.

I also want to see how the pitchers hold up. I'm fairly confident that Romero will at the very least remain decent, same with Cecil, but how will Morrow, the biggest potential stud pitcher in our lineup hold up? I also don't know what people here make of Drabek, but he's also a big question mark to me in terms of his potential. Someone here posted that he had a mediocre strikeout rate in the minors. He has some stuff, but it's pretty hard to read if it'll come easier for him to work things out.

Anyway, it was a good season. Aside from Bautista's great homer season, the absolute peak of the Jays season came in the weekend where Morrow threw that gem of his vs the Rays. For one weekend, it seemed like the Jays were THE buzz of the city.

[J-Roc]

If he's stressed out it's because he's a fan of the Raps.

[LLJ]

There's no stress to being a Rap fan, there's just ennui.

[ItsDanger]

I dont mind missing Chapman. Wild throwers like that dont last long in the league.

[DonYon]

So far, I think he's an improvement over JP. That's about as much as I ask for really.