Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos is testing the fans

[s_other]

Uh.... no.

Considering how horrendous the Raptors and Jays have been over the last decade, I think the attendance they still get is a testament to how DEDICATED Toronto sports fans are.

Toronto has so many dedicated fans you'll only notice minute attendance fluctuations even if the team is terrible. The difference between a good Raps team and current Raps team is maybe 30,000-40,000 people a season. The Rock saw a drop of only 2,000 people a game from their glory years to their terrible years. These slight differences are where the fickle fans come in.

You're not going to fill a 50,000 seat stadium with dedicated fans. That's why it's much more obvious with the Jays. You'll have your 20,000 dedicated, but baseball stadiums are so huge you'll notice the empty seats.

[Raps in 4]

How can anyone fault AA? He's been arguably the best GM in baseball during his tenure here. He would love it if could splurge on a big name FA but he simply can't do that.

You're confusing can't and won't.

Are you satisfied with your employer? I was thinking of dropping off my resume with the company, but I'd like to hear some first hand experience first.

[Raps in 4]

What are they trying to do? Shift the blame away from the ownership group by pinning it on the GM incase the Jays don't make the playoffs this year? Nice fallback plan, I see they are already setting the scapegoat into place.

It is AA's fault if the Jays don't make playoffs. It should be his fault every year they don't. AA has said numerous times that his hands aren't tied by Rogers, so either hes lying to ruin his own reputation or hes lying to make everybody buy more TV.

I'm of the belief that waiting this year out as far as FA is the best option, but if you think we should have gone for it (and disagreed with AA's decision) then it is fine! Everybody on here has different opinions, I'm just kind of lost as to why this is a Rogers problem and not an AA problem.

Looks like we've got two Rogers employees here.

You can help me out as well then. What are the working conditions like at Rogers? Are the benefits packages generous?

[spykelee]

Looks like we've got two Rogers employees here.

You can help me out as well then. What are the working conditions like at Rogers? Are the benefits packages generous?

Working conditions are great and they are an awesome company to work for. No complaints, none.

[Randle McMurphy]

Looks like we've got two Rogers employees here.

You can help me out as well then. What are the working conditions like at Rogers? Are the benefits packages generous?

Working conditions are great and they are an awesome company to work for. No complaints, none.

Apologist.

[flatjacket1]

What are they trying to do? Shift the blame away from the ownership group by pinning it on the GM incase the Jays don't make the playoffs this year? Nice fallback plan, I see they are already setting the scapegoat into place.

It is AA's fault if the Jays don't make playoffs. It should be his fault every year they don't. AA has said numerous times that his hands aren't tied by Rogers, so either hes lying to ruin his own reputation or hes lying to make everybody buy more TV.

I'm of the belief that waiting this year out as far as FA is the best option, but if you think we should have gone for it (and disagreed with AA's decision) then it is fine! Everybody on here has different opinions, I'm just kind of lost as to why this is a Rogers problem and not an AA problem.

Looks like we've got two Rogers employees here.

You can help me out as well then. What are the working conditions like at Rogers? Are the benefits packages generous?

Rogers communications, which owns the Blue Jays, has never denied a request to increase payroll or spend on player development, Beeston said.

All I'm saying is why is hate directed at the organization that never denied us anything? Its the GM's fault. I'm not siding with Rogers I'm just simply intelligent enough to understand who to blame.

[LittleOzzy]

Even with a solid bid I think the Yu Darvish sweepstakes really screwed over the Jays.

Fans expected him, something new to cheer for and when we didn't get him I think it let out a lot of anger within the fan base.

Do I agree with it? Not really, but I can clearly sense it. Hell we had a 70 page thread on Darvish in the middle of the winter on this board, that never happens.

People tuned in and left disappointed, that's not the Jays fault but It feels like they lost a lot of people because of it.

[tiger7]

http://www.rogers.com/web/link/showBodD ... il_zone_9j This is the guy you need to be blaming more than AA. He said himself he didn't know a damn thing about baseball before he took over as CEO. His job is to make profit hence the new Jerseys and whatever new revenue streams he can manufacture. He doesn't give a f*** about the Jays its just another asset on their financial statements for stock holders. Rogers is a terrible owner. They show their true colours this off season.

[flatjacket1]

http://www.rogers.com/web/link/showBodDetail?ZoneName=cg_boddetail_zone_9j This is the guy you need to be blaming more than AA. He said himself he didn't know a damn thing about baseball before he took over as CEO. His job is to make profit hence the new Jerseys and whatever new revenue streams he can manufacture. He doesn't give a f*** about the Jays its just another asset on their financial statements for stock holders. Rogers is a terrible owner. They show their true colours this off season.

But... they have never denied AA the right to go after FA? I hate Beeston because hes an idiot, but he is completely at AA's disposal. AA has never been denied anything by Beeston and Beeston has actually been denied by AA when he wanted to go after Jason Bay.

I'm not Rogers fan because they bill me insane amounts of money but they aren't bad owners. I would take them over most other owners, because if Rogers owned St. Louis or the Brewers, they would be getting their respective stars back right now.

If you want to hate on the direction of the Jays that's cool and all but it should be directed at AA not Rogers. So far Rogers has tried to go after more premier FA than AA.

[hyper316]

if nothing is stopping AA to ask for money to sign FA, why isn't AA asking to sign Fielder? he's such a big upgrade from Lind or Encarnacion. probably Fielder is still shooting for the moon asking for Pujol's money and contract length. if it's down to 6 years, i would hate to see Fielder go to another team.

[flatjacket1]

if nothing is stopping AA to ask for money to sign FA, why isn't AA asking to sign Fielder? he's such a big upgrade from Lind or Encarnacion. probably Fielder is still shooting for the moon asking for Pujol's money and contract length. if it's down to 6 years, i would hate to see Fielder go to another team.

I agree that signing Fielder 6 years would be nice, but I doubt its 6 years. As Keith Law mentioned recently in one of his chats;

I don't get the idea that he should have made moves just to make them. The guy is a value whore. If he can make his club better, he will do so. I don't think he's seen great value this offseason

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/ ... -keith-law

I would do Fielder 5 years 125M easily but from what it sounds like it might be closer to a 200M+ dollar commitment.

I'm just simply saying if you wanna hate, it should be directed at AA. He has all the power to do whatever he wants.

[Al_Oliver]

so now it is AA's policy on 5 year + deals?

[dagger]

JimBowdenESPNxm JIM BOWDEN
Nationals remain in race for Fielder...grinding it out on a turtle speed pace...but alive and trying thx to depressed market - Source

A depressed market. Isn't that why the Jays should be in on this? There will be no Pujols type deal in years or dollars. Sure, Fielder wouldn't come cheap, but the weak market has removed the biggest risk overhang.

[satyr9]

JimBowdenESPNxm JIM BOWDEN
Nationals remain in race for Fielder...grinding it out on a turtle speed pace...but alive and trying thx to depressed market - Source

A depressed market. Isn't that why the Jays should be in on this? There will be no Pujols type deal in years or dollars. Sure, Fielder wouldn't come cheap, but the weak market has removed the biggest risk overhang.

I 100% understand where this feeling coming from, 'cause I get a tinge of it at least daily. Still, we have no way of knowing where Prince/Boras are holding the line on their demands and until he actually signs, IMO there's nothing to criticize here. If he ends up signing for anything less than what would actually make me vomit on my keyboard, then it's probably time to ask whether the Jays ever put an effort into getting him, but the cart has been put so far in front of the proverbial horse around here lately.

And honestly, based on the fact that AA is widely documented as being a bit of a pest with other GMs and asking about players, I cannot imagine he's any different with agents. The only potential caveat to that is Boras. Some people just refuse to play with him and there's a real possibility the Jays are one of them, which means Prince might never be an option. Not saying that would be a good thing, but for AA and his reputation, I simply cannot imagine he wouldn't be up to date on where Prince's negoatiations are and we'll have to see what he gets before we try to assess whether AA missed out on value because of budget restrictions or the market never got into reasonable territory to begin with.