Jays take another front-office hit

[dagger]

So far, this offseason has seen things go from mediocre to... (not sure)

jonmorosi
#WhiteSox hire Marco Paddy as special assistant to GM/international operations. He had been dir of Latin American operations with #BlueJays.

With the new CBA gutting AA's current primary strategy, are the rats leaving a sinking ship?

What is Plan B? We know it isn't to spend megabucks on a top free agent power hitter?

A lot of people here are resigned to not contending for playoffs next season. If so, what is the frickin plan since the league seems to have stamped out a draft-based growth strategy? Will AA try to hang on to young assets longer now that he doesn't have access to an unlimited supply?

[Michael Bradley]

Well, the need for extra scouting has become essentially meaningless for the Jays since the inefficiencies of the amateur draft that AA spent two years exploiting no longer exist, and now international spending will be severly lessened across the board as well. It hurts losing good people, as the new rules have made scouting more about quality than quantity, but you can't keep everyone happy.

AA's goal was to take advantage of the draft and build a self-sustaining team. That won't happen as quickly now with the new CBA, so unless he plans on trading Bautista, then I would hope this expedites the team's window of competing.

I remember reading that Godfrey did not want to go overslot because it would raise the ire of MLB. Looks like he was right.

[dagger]

I understand the rationale for why guys from a large staff might want to strike out elsewhere now, I'd like to see some evidence that AA (and Beeston/Rogers et all) is adjusting the strategy.

Maybe under the old CBA there were grounds to keep pursuing organic growth, but the new deal seems to give a greater imperative to spending at the major league level. You can spend money in a number of ways: go out and sign free agents, that's obvious, but if AA doesn't want to give up good young players yet, we can also leverage our large market status to take on bad contracts as a means to add either a desirable player, or to continue to build up the system.

It's not the time to judge the Jays now, but it will be interesting to see how they come out of the winter meetings.

[The Flying Gent]

With the new CBA gutting AA's current primary strategy, are the rats leaving a sinking ship?

*face palm, stops reading*

What are you, a tabloid writer?

[StringerBell]

Speaking of scouting, does anyone know what's happening with Omar Minaya and when he'll make a decision on the Jays offer?

[raptorforlife88]

Wow Dagger, that rats line was like reading a Daily Mail headline.

[Schad]

With the new CBA gutting AA's current primary strategy, are the rats leaving a sinking ship?

Or, y'know, teams are offering promotions to our management because we have a reputation as one of the best-run organizations in the league at the moment.

Egad, man.

[-MetA4-]

With the new CBA gutting AA's current primary strategy, are the rats leaving a sinking ship?

What? The dude got a promotion to a bigger title...I fail to see what that has to do with the new CBA. Chicago is one of the least active amateur-scouting teams in the league, so I'm really failing to see what you are trying to say.

If so, what is the frickin plan since the league seems to have stamped out a draft-based growth strategy?

The strategy hasn't been stomped out. Everyone is playing under the same rules...that means that if you can manipulate this new system the best, out-work everyone, and out-scout everyone else then nothing has changed: you're still bringing in the most talent. If anything our huge scouting staff puts us at an advantage going into this transition because we have more eyes and thus a greater ability to find under-the-radar talents who will sign for slot but have big upside (which I believe will be a key in this new system: being the team that can find kids like Noah Syndergaard and be extremely efficient with the set money allocated to you).

[-MetA4-]

If anyone is interested:

The Blue Jays have replaced Paddy with Ismael Cruz, who had been with the Mets as their supervisor of Latin American operations and now will be Toronto's special assistant to the GM in charge of Latin American operations. During Cruz's time with New York, the Mets' notable Latin American signings included Jenrry Mejia, Ruben Tejaad, Jeurys Famillia, Wilmer Flores, Cesar Puello, Jordany Valdespin and Juan Urbina.

[Schad]

If anything our huge scouting staff puts us at an advantage going into this transition because we have more eyes and thus a greater ability to find under-the-radar talents who will sign for slot but have big upside (which I believe will be a key in this new system: being the team that can find kids like Noah Syndergaard and be extremely efficient with the set money allocated to you).

This. It makes it more difficult in some respects, but it also places greater value on finding players willing to sign for reasonable dollar figures...the Jays have shown the ability to do just that, as the majority of our 2010 signees weren't too far from slot (Sanchez was actually below slot; Nicolino was ~$150k over, Hawkins/Syndergaard were at slot).

[lilneige]

How many Latin talents that we got under Marco Paddy ? I got the impression that Jays were pretty "white" since Riccardi.

[Michael Bradley]

How many Latin talents that we got under Marco Paddy ? I got the impression that Jays were pretty "white" since Riccardi.

To be fair, Paddy was brought in by Ricciardi. Clearly, the Jays have been way more active in Latin America since AA took over though, so Paddy was likely far more important to AA than he was to Ricciardi.

International signings since 2006:

Henderson Alvarez
Balbino Fuenmayor
Kenny Rodriguez
Carlos Perez
Gari Pena
Gustavo Pierre
Santiago Nessy
---------------------(AA takes over as GM)
Aderlin Gonzalez
Luis Martin
Gabriel Cenas
Adonis Cardona
Adeiny Hechavarria
Jairo Labour
Francisco Tejada
Roberto Osuna
Wilmer Becerra
Jesus Gonzalez
Dawel Lugo
Manuel Cordoba
Jesus Tinoco

(might be missing one or two)

This will hurt the Jays, depending on how good Ismael Cruz turns out to be, but with international spending being cut down across the board, it may not be as bad.

I am really going to miss the old CBA. The Jays were so good at reaping the benefits of it the last two years.

[Schad]

I am really going to miss the old CBA. The Jays were so good at reaping the benefits of it the last two years.

Yeah, I still haven't quite escaped the state of stunned rage that overtook me upon reading about the draft provisions, but at the same time, the most basic element remains: there are a handful of GMs and teams who consider the draft to be the bedrock of their and are going to spend an enormous amount of time and energy trying to reestablish the sort of competitive edge that they previously enjoyed, and there are roughly 22-24 who consider it their third or fourth priority.

The first group will, in the aggregate, always beat the second group; it's just a matter of the margin. And while I hate the new system because we were so good under the old, the possibility remains that the gap will widen...it basically turns the draft into a fantasy baseball auction, and the fact that some teams are likely to blow the bulk of their mandated budgets on a couple players could mean that even more talent is available later.