CBC: Solid work by Anthopoulos at winter meetings

Strav · Post #1 » by **Strav** » Fri Dec 9, 2011 8:30 pm

Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos may have acquired the next Tom Henke at this week's winter meetings in Dallas, but he was also reminded that he's expected to be the next Pat Gillick.

And for the first time, the charismatic GM seemed testy with the media after he finally conceded he was operating under "payroll parameters."

It should be a good omen that http://www.baseballreference.com indicates that Henke is the pitcher most similar to newly acquired closer Sergio Santos (through age 27). But fan reaction to the trade for the hard-throwing reliever has been lukewarm.

Anthopoulos's policy of not commenting on specific free agents resulted in his club being linked to almost every big-name free agent. One wacky report even tabbed the Jays as the frontrunner for Prince Fielder.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/opini ... tings.html

Wo1verine · Post #2 » by **Wo1verine** » Fri Dec 9, 2011 9:24 pm

Fans shouldn't be excited about a **** closer, ffs! If it turns outs that Santos is the biggest move this off season, it would be a huge fail.

xAIRNESSx · Post #3 » by **xAIRNESSx** » Fri Dec 9, 2011 9:31 pm

Wo1verine wrote:Fans shouldn't be excited about a **** closer, ffs! If it turns outs that Santos is the biggest move this off season, it would be a huge fail.

You obviously didn't read the article. They also mention that we filled a major hole in our back-up catcher position. Hello?

Did Rogers buy CBC too? AA's one of the hardest working GM's in the league, but I wouldn't exactly say that these winter meetings qualify as "solid work" from an acquisitions stand point. If more transpires then yes, but this article's a bit premature.

northernlight · Post #4 » by **northernlight** » Fri Dec 9, 2011 9:53 pm

Wo1verine wrote:Fans shouldn't be excited about a **** closer, ffs! If it turns outs that Santos is the biggest move this off season, it would be a huge fail.

25 or so blown saves last year which is devestating to the team. It steals wins from starters and depresses position players who built the lead. A decent closer won't recover all those losses but it is a good start. I'm a fan. Why wouldn't I be excited about a closer?

SharoneWright · Post #5 » by **SharoneWright** » Fri Dec 9, 2011 11:50 pm

That's the exact word to use: solid. Few teams create 'fireworks' at the winter meetings, and even fewer of those, don't get burned.

Santos was a solid acquisition.

dballislife · Post #6 » by **dballislife** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:46 am

solid doesn't get u anywhere, u gotta do great

Indiana Jones · Post #7 » by **Indiana Jones** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 2:19 am

northernlight wrote:
Wo1verine wrote:Fans shouldn't be excited about a **** closer, ffs! If it turns outs that Santos is the biggest move this off season, it would be a huge fail.

25 or so blown saves last year which is devestating to the team. It steals wins from starters and depresses position players who built the lead. A decent closer won't recover all those losses but it is a good start. I'm a fan. Why wouldn't I be excited about a closer?

yeah we blew a lot of leads last year. our offense was very good. but what happens if our offense stumbles a bit this year, but we save more games. we end up in the same spot we were in this year. he is going to have to spend to compete.

flatjacket1 · Post #8 » by **flatjacket1** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 3:29 am

Hopefully Fielder can hurry up and get his 10 year 200+M contract from some bonehead GM so we can all laugh in hindsight when he fails to live up to the contract even in the early years.

But yeah, solid meetings, I think apart from the Angels, we were the most active.

wbbfan · Post #9 » by **wbbfan** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 4:04 am

northernlight wrote:
Wo1verine wrote:Fans shouldn't be excited about a **** closer, ffs! If it turns outs that Santos is the biggest move this off season, it would be a huge fail.

25 or so blown saves last year which is devestating to the team. It steals wins from starters and depresses position players who built the lead. A decent closer won't recover all those losses but it is a good start. I'm a fan. Why wouldn't I be excited about a closer?

Yeah but very good key improvements dont bring the fairweather fans to the stadium. people were expecting a richardi esq over pay for a low priority position that would magically turn us into competitors. Forget that AA has solidified our back up catching, our closer one of our biggest issues last year, and was able to reel back the best 2b available. All thats done is make us a better team. Not sexier. :roll:

rarefind · Post #10 » by **rarefind** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 6:50 am

Am I the only one who feels that our bullpen is still rather lackluster? Considering the success of Frank in the second half only - we essentially replaced that with Santos (well done). But our bullpen still is not very strong in my opinion at least in comparison to teams built to contend.

We have still done nothing to replace Rzep (Perez does not) who contributed much last season before being traded to St. Louis.

Jeff Mathis can be a fine back up but again, is just a replacement - not an upgrade (or much of a downgrade).

Kelly Johnson is back, but nothing was done at the winter meetings to do this. AA tendered arbitration and it was accepted - glad he did, but nothing to upgrade the team at least in comparison to last season. Saves the team greatly in regards to the prospects we'd get out of the draft would not equal to what we'd give up to replace him.

So, this team has done nothing to get better (to a certain extent) - yet. Mind you, Santos could have still been a member of the White Sox, KJ could be elsewhere and Jeroloman could be our back up (no bueno). So AA has done alright, but there has not really been a true upgrade made to the team in the small amount of transactions yet other than the picks attained for our bullpen arms. AA has spoken of more moves to better the ball club so I won't get too disappointed yet. If nothing else happens this off season, one would assume that the continued development of our young core makes this team better alone but likely contemplative of what more could have been if a couple notable additions were made.

And btw, not referring to Prince or Yu Darvish.

ldnk · Post #11 » by **ldnk** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 10:36 pm

northernlight wrote:
Wo1verine wrote:Fans shouldn't be excited about a **** closer, ffs! If it turns outs that Santos is the biggest move this off season, it would be a huge fail.

25 or so blown saves last year which is devestating to the team. It steals wins from starters and depresses position players who built the lead. A decent closer won't recover all those losses but it is a good start. I'm a fan. Why wouldn't I be excited about a closer?

25 blown saves does not equal 25 losses as a result of blown saves. They won a bunch of those blown saves...but the thing is, that was a total bullpen screw up. So right now we are going to go into the season with a bullpen of:

Villaneuva - long-arm
Janssen - hope doesn't revert to 2009 form
Santos - 6 blown saves (Francisco 4 blown saves)

The bullpen isn't better. And the guy who is our new backup catcher is essentially Molina with a 0% chance of hitting anything above .200

flatjacket1 · Post #12 » by **flatjacket1** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 10:53 pm

ldnk wrote:25 blown saves does not equal 25 losses as a result of blown saves. They won a bunch of those blown saves...but the thing is, that was a total bullpen screw up. So right now we are going to go into the season with a bullpen of:

Villaneuva - long-arm
Janssen - hope doesn't revert to 2009 form
Santos - 6 blown saves (Francisco 4 blown saves)

The bullpen isn't better. And the guy who is our new backup catcher is essentially Molina with a 0% chance of hitting anything above .200

25 blown saves doesn't equal 25 losses. But it equals a lot.

When you begin to realize that half this board wants to ink Fielder to a 200M+ contract for 2-4 extra wins a year, even 5 losses due to blown saves should be counted as massive.

Santos did blow 6 saves. Out of 36 chances. Francisco did blow 4 saves. Out of 21 chances.
Saves themselves are a terrible stat. Its like looking at wins for pitchers, or home runs for hitters. Sure great players typically accumulate a lot, but the stats are very one dimensional and have a lot of wiggle room. If Santos comes in to 36 1 run games and allows 6 BS, is it not better than if Franky comes into 21 3 run games and has 4 BS?

Santos saved 83.3% of games.
Francisco saved 80.9% of games.

That is much more accurate.

I would argue our bullpen will be much better this year, because AA still said he wants to acquire a setup man and make Jansen a 7th inning middle reliever. This means that on ideal games it will be:
7th - Jansen
8th - (Insert setup man here)
9th - Sergio Santos
We also have Joel Carreno who could be a good reliever and possible some other guys from AA like Beck. I like how AA is looking for longterm bullpen help now instead of his typically 1 year bullpens.

That being said, if the season started today I would say our bullpen is weak, but better than last year.