ESPN Article on Blue Jays Financial History

[Raps in 4]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/13775575/toronto-blue-jays-back-thinking-big

A nice read for those of us who were too young to follow the team closely over the past 22 years.

I have some questions for the longtime fans:

Why did Beeston do this?

The Blue Jays, in financially muscular Toronto, were part of baseball's charity class. In 2001, owner Paul Godfrey petitioned then-commissioner Bud Selig for a "currency adjustment," where in addition to revenue sharing checks, the Blue Jays would also receive millions from Major League Baseball to offset the weak Canadian dollar. Beeston was offended. When he returned in 2009, he told the commissioner's office he wouldn't accept their charity money: "We don't apologize for being Canadian. The currency is bad for all sports teams, but it's good for manufacturing and tourism and good for the economy and the country. But I'm not going to apologize for our dollar being low and say that we can't compete.

Is there any chance we can negotiate this again given the current currency situation?

Some insights on working under Rogers from JP Ricciardi:

"Rogers was happy to have the identity of the team. Rogers was happy to have the team so it could broadcast the games. But Rogers didn't want to lose money. I really don't think Rogers knew what they were getting into. When I arrived in 2002, I inherited an $88 million payroll and was ordered to get it down as low as we could. We got it down to $64 million and still won 78 games. We did what we were told to do. We tried to plan out, and when they pulled the rug out from under us, we tried to adjust. The thing I learned in that job is you're only as good as your ownership and only as good as your ownership wants to be. I have no sour grapes. Rogers gave me a chance to be a GM, but the thing you learn is this: When you have marching orders, you follow them. Paul Beeston was in charge, and he didn't say 'keep spending money.' He was doing what they told us to do."

Apparently it took AA two months to negotiate the Tulo deal:

After two months of negotiating, Anthopoulos acquired Tulowitzki and veteran relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins on July 28 for three prospects and Reyes.

Anyway, the article is saying the Jays have gone back to "thinking big" (like the 92-93 Jays who led the league in payroll). Does anyone think that Rogers has actually turned a corner and will start spending? I certainly don't.

[Dennis 37]

The fact that the Blue Jays have not been in the playoffs since 93 is all on ownership. They lost tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of fans when people figured out what an Interbrew ownership would mean for the team. That is significant ticket sales and advertising revenue.

Maybe we finally have an ownership that is waking up to the fact that profit can be made from spending money. I live in an area of Ontario where Rogers is not a choice for internet and TV. If Rogers was a choice for me, I would choose them for my telecom provider should they bring their wallet up to the plate and keep all who do not wish to retire on this team next year. I realize that Rogers and Bell are both scum, but if one is spending boatloads on your favorite ball team then you support them.

Labatts knew that the Blue Jays were all about selling beer. Hopefully Rogers are awakening to the fact that the raisons d'être of the Blue Jays is to sell phone, internet and cable packages, not to make a huge profit on their own. Had Labatts remained a Canadian company, we would have at least 5 World Series Championships by now, and I would still be drinking Labatts beer.

[JaysRule15]

Rogers hasn't started thinking big at all. Our payroll this season has been in the $120 million range, which is actually a decrease from the $130 million it was at last year. In fact, AA actually intentionally started this season with a lower than maximum payroll because he wanted to save some extra funds for deadline deals. Last season, AA had spent to the max right away and was flatly denied at the deadline when he went to Rogers to ask for more money.

Let's just hope that Rogers looks at all the positive impact of having a good team and allows enough of a payroll increase to keep this team together for next year as well.

[Randle McMurphy]

As you'd expect, it's JP giving us the most interesting quote here. His comments just reaffirm again how cheap Rogers has been over its 15 year run.

We'll see if this AL East title does anything to change their level of commitment to winning because they can and should be spending a lot more on this team than they are. With their track record, though, I'll only believe it when I see it.

[0 - 100]

Rogers should be # 1 in payroll every single year. Simple as that. They make more money than any other owner in the league.

I do hope they open their eyes after this successful year and keep investing into the team.

[The_Hater]

The fact that the Blue Jays have not been in the playoffs since 93 is all on ownership. They lost tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of fans when people figured out what an Interbrew ownership would mean for the team. That is significant ticket sales and advertising revenue.

I wouldn't place it entirely on ownership. The Jays were spending like a big market team during hit Gord Ash era and a mid market team during the JP era. But they were both terrible GMs and the results reflected that with 14 years committed to their collective incompetence. Gord Ash was especially bad and could be the biggest reason why baseball popularity in Toronto nosedived after 1993.

During the period several mid-low market spenders still found a way to compete with the big markets because of strong, forward thinking management.

[LLJ]

To be honest, I think 1 or 2 of the JP teams should have made it in if based on talent. But they never ever seemed to get in a groove and there was always the injuries. The 2006 team was quite good on paper, although they were 8 wins off from the wildcard I believe.

One thing about this 2015 team that has been underplayed is that all our best players have been healthy during this stretch run, which has rarely happened in those previous 85 to 87 win Jays teams. There have been a few years lately where Bautista's season basically ended in August.

[Santoki]

To be honest, I think 1 or 2 of the JP teams should have made it in if based on talent. But they never ever seemed to get in a groove and there was always the injuries. The 2006 team was quite good on paper, although they were 8 wins off from the wildcard I believe.

One thing about this 2015 team that has been underplayed is that all our best players have been healthy during this stretch run, which has rarely happened in those previous 85 to 87 win Jays teams. There have been a few years lately where Bautista's season basically ended in August.

Yup, outside of basically Stroman we finally had that "what if" year we had been hoping for forever.

[TBRunGood]

I respect Ricciardi a lot more after this article

[LLJ]

I respect Ricciardi a lot more after this article

To me it sounds like he's make excuses (even though I obviously agree with his insinuation that Rogers basically sucks) and trying to take credit for AA a bit, although purely objectively I did like some of the teams he fielded. He had some bad luck.

[TBRunGood]

I respect Ricciardi a lot more after this article

To me it sounds like he's make excuses (even though I obviously agree with his insinuation that Rogers basically sucks) and trying to take credit for AA a bit, although purely objectively I did like some of the teams he fielded. He had some bad luck.

He got a lot of crap from Toronto Media and fans (including me) for something he could not control. The fact is he's the one who got AA here, and I'm sure a lot of AA's thought process is influenced by him. So if he wants to talk about how crippled he was because of Rogers or about his student doing well, let him.

[Hoopstarr]

To be honest, I think 1 or 2 of the JP teams should have made it in if based on talent. But they never ever seemed to get in a groove and there was always the injuries. The 2006 team was quite good on paper, although they were 8 wins off from the wildcard I believe.

One thing about this 2015 team that has been underplayed is that all our best players have been healthy during this stretch run, which has rarely happened in those previous 85 to 87 win Jays teams. There have been a few years lately where Bautista's season basically ended in August.

We've been incredibly lucky this year for the first time in forever. In addition to the best players being healthy, they also had among their best years at the same time. Stroman's ACL was bad luck but him coming back in 5 month is pretty much unprecedented (Adrian Peterson took 9 months and that was amazing) and he dominated on top of that with the best September of any Jays pitcher ever. Imagine the rotation without him. I consider ourselves massively lucky that Tulo is coming back at all. The trades worked out splendidly - Price, Revere, Tulo. The supporting cast has stepped up with solid years - Pillar, Cola, Smoak, Goins. Even with Travis' troubles and undershooting the Pythag considerably, this whole run has been tremendously lucky. Before these last two games we were 47-19 since the ASB and 45-46 before that. That has to be up there among the biggest second half comebacks in history.

Those 2006-2008 teams had the triple whammies of being just short on talent after the ASB because they wouldn't/couldn't do anything at the deadline, injuries in 07 and 08 (in 07 they set a record for player games missed to injury), and they just never got lucky (07 and 08 teams were 87 and 93 win teams by Pythag).

[LLJ]

Stroman's injury may even turn out to be lucky when all is said and done because basically we have a really fresh arm--ace calibre, possibly--to use at a time of the season when everyone else is run down. October is basically Stroman's May.

[Hoopstarr]

And yet despite all that we could just as easily get swept in the DS or lose in 4. Plenty of great teams haven't made it out of the first round. Plenty of 100 win teams haven't - in fact, 7 of the 13 100 win teams in this century lost in the DS and only the 09 Yankees won the WS. The early 00s A's lost 4 straight DS. The playoffs are truly deaf to anything that happened before them.

[LLJ]

Yup, baseball is just flat out cruel. We need our luck this season to continue, and every little controllable advantage to try to deflect periods of minor bad luck. I don't know how this city today would react if we lost in a manner like the 1985 Jays.

[Suga2Panda]

So this playoff run and the sell outs means Rogers is going to open up the wallet next year, right?

[Santoki]

Yup, baseball is just flat out cruel. We need our luck this season to continue, and every little controllable advantage to try to deflect periods of minor bad luck. I don't know how this city today would react if we lost in a manner like the 1985 Jays.

Choking away a 3-1 ALCS lead? Ya...not well lol.

[LLJ]

I'm only a casual Leafs watcher and even I was depressed for a week after the way they choked Game 7 against the Bruins. I mean, 3 goals in 5 minutes? Really?

But you know, as horrible as choking a 3-1 series lead would be in a 7 game series, I still think the worst way to lose is the Game 6 losses for the 2011 Rangers or 86 Red Sox. Those are losses that haunt you for years.

[thejigglyroom]

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[Kurtz]

So how has Beeston been allowed to remain the GM when he cost his bosses millions of dollars annually for absolutely no logical reason? I mean, the currency equalization cheques the Jays would have received this year and next would have been worth what $5mil? $10 mil a piece? I mean that can buy you some decent talent...