Here are a few items of note regarding the offseason plans for teams that reside in MLB's East divisions …
- The Blue Jays will be more active on the trade market than in free agency this offseason, GM Alex Anthopoulous tells Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca. “Philosophically speaking, if we want to improve the club, free agency is the last area I want to go to,” says Anthopoulos. Still, some in the organization feel the Jays need another starter, according to Davidi, and Yu Darvish remains a possible target. The Jays will also look to improve their bullpen.
- The Marlins will interview Nationals third-base coach Bo Porter for their managerial vacancy this offseason, according to Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post. Porter, 39, is considered a "rising star" among future managerial candidates, according to Kilgore, and could take over in Washington if Davey Johnson does not return as Nationals skipper in 2012.
- As mentioned above, the Nationals could have a managerial vacancy of their own this offseason. Among the candidates to replace interim manager Johnson are first-base coach Trent Jewett, Triple-A Syracuse manager Randy Knorr, and Porter, according to Bill Ladson of MLB.com.
Remember AA’s move always comes out of no where. This is just a smokescreen for a big free agent signing!!
Would that even be a great move though?
unless he ninja’s someone in to a pretty fair deal, probably not
Blue Jays will be on everyone. Even though AA said he doesn’t like what the media are doing with all the rumors. I bet its one of their plans to show everyone in the league that they are serious and always inquiries about every single player out in the market.
They will definitely inquire but I doubt they will sign anyone other Yu Darvish, and they may not even do that. To build the team it is more likely for them to go through trade possibly going after such players as Joey Votto (hopefully) among others
honestly, no offense, but jays fans seriously need to end it with the votto talk…
yea all that bautista for votto craziness got started cause of some anonymous contributor to a reds blog, and the blogger who heard the jays were scouting some reds pitching prospect. obviously a bautista-votto deal is completely impractical at this point, but jays fans still wont let go of the votto pipedream. i’ll bet very few of them even know how untrustworthy a source the original rumor came from.
I don’t think Votto becoming available later because of budget issues is unthinkable. But, I do consider it unlikely.
The Jays need to start filling some seats. A splash in free agency might do that.
It might do that in the short term, but in the long term, the thing that consistently fills seats is winning. And a splash in free agency usually tends to create a sort of winner’s curse.
Yeah the Yankees and red sox live under that curse every year, right?
Yeah, right.
It’s poor wording, but look at how recent free agent “winners” have turned out. Crawford, Werth, Dunn etc.
Victor Martinez
Also valid, yes.
Cliff Lee but then there is Bay, Lackey, Burnett etc… there are more good and bad but generally, when do free agents actually live up to those big contracts throughout the course of the contract?
I doubt it’s often. Just look at MLBTR’s recent $100 million contract article.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Cliff Lee is not a “win” for a FA signing in year one, especially when they haven’t even won the WS yet.
Cliff Lee is already a win this season, regardless of what happens in the postseason, because his performance has lived up to his contract. The Phillies have already gotten more than $20 million in value from Lee’s contract, so they’ve already won.
Maybe it will change later, but do you want to bet on that?
Even for the Yanks and Sox, a lot of core talent was homegrown or acquired through trades. NY – Cano, Jeter, Granderson, Gardner, Rivera, Nova, Robertson. Bos – AGon, Pedroia, Youk, Ellsbury, Beckett, Lester, Buchholz, Bard, Paps.
A-Rod and Swish were also traded for.
Attendance is a secondary concern for Rogers, Inc. Primarily they want TV viewers who watch their cell phone ads every single commercial break.
Why do people always think this?
Because players like to play infront of crowds, which in the end draws more players to the city wanting to play for your team. Do you want to start being called little Montreal with those types of crowds.
Toronto is averaging over 22k a game. Only thing Toronto and Montreal have in common is they’re both in Canada.
Ya I guess your right, 24th out of 30 teams in attendance not bad.
That’s irrelevant. The Expos could barely pull 10k their last seven years of existence. We’re in a land far, far, far away from being called little Montreal.
Ozzie Guillen on the cowds in Toronto. From an articale on TSN`s webpage.
“Terrible,” Guillen said. “I felt like I was in Montreal.”
Guillen began his coaching career as the third base coach with the Expos in 2001, as the franchise was shrivelling on the vine in Montreal. The Expos drew an average of only 7,935 fans that year.
Using an Ozzie Guillen quote to support your stance just threw what little shred of hope I had for you out the window.
It was just a comment made by someone who has experienced both venues when they are empty. TSN, CNBC, The Star and various blogs have wrote about the Blue Jays attendance issues, Google it. The Blue Jays are as of today 25th out of 30 teams in attendance, in front of Bal, KC, Flo, TB and Oak. Anyone watching on TV can see they are experiencing poor attendance aside from the home opener and the Canada day game. I just don’t get how you don’t see this…..
I think they have an OUTSIDE shot at Darvish. Only because AA does not appear to be a guy that will overpay. That said, when he sets his sight on an asset, he is a determined little guy and tends to end up with his man. Is Darvish a guy AA really likes? Hope so!
Its very rare that I buy into international hype, but I’ve seen film of Darvish pitch. He is an absolute monster, and will dominate in the majors, in my opinion.
i’m still so skeptical over the transition of the size of the ball, workouts etc
I always have those concerns, but Darvish is filthy.
AA was quite obvious that Jays would not be signing any big name FA. He made it quite clear.
I think Jays definitely need 2 things:
1 – Impact bat to hit behind Bautista.
2 – An ace calibre pitcher to anchor the ration.
With the amount of arms coming up through minors, bullpen should not even be a problem. Besides you can always find cheap/good bullpen arms in FA or trades.
yep, it’s just that simple
Sounds like about 25 other teams in the league.
Jays need a 1B and a couple reclaimer projects for the bullpen–Broxton comes to mind.
k rod?
1. Lawrie
2. Romero
You could quibble about the fact Farrell refuses to bat Lawrie higher, or the fact that Romero’s awesome performance this season has been completely overlooked by the media, but neither of those two things invalidates them as answers to your questions.
AA only gets his man if he can sign him within the value the team has placed on the player, which is why Tyler Beede is at Vandy now. Darvish will only end up in Toronto if no other team is willing to overpay for him. Highly doubtful, especially with the Yankees need for starting pitching.
I don’t blame AA for shying away from the free agent market.. i’m sure he’ll check in and see whats going on… but I cant see him giving fielder 150+ and Pujols 225+
I think the only guy we have a legit shot at is cj wilson, but fa pitching is thin, so even that could get out of hand…
its unfortunate, but its how it is.. realistically this team has improved a lot with the additions of rasmus and johnson and lawrie.. not to mention the subtractions of patterson , rivera and hill.. so with some young players stepping up and a few bullpen pieces. I can see the team finishing in the 85-90 win range.. prob not enough to make the playoffs.. but close enough that games will kind of matter
my thoughts are AA is more likely to get a Type A in final year of contract (such as Greinke) like Tampa did with Soriano instead of signing a free agent. This way, when he overpays:
(1) he keeps the risk down with only one year;
(2) avoids giving up a draft pick;
(3) purges some prospects/players who won’t measure up to AL East standards;
(4) gets 2 draft picks if he loses the player after the year is over; or
(5) gets the player at 80% of salary if there is a bad year.
i think we meight have a small chance at olswalt if the philies don’t want him
Also watched Buck Martinez & Pat Tabler interview Alex Anthopolous on TV tonight during the game. Tabler asked two excellent questions which revealed the following:
(1) AA expects Jenkins, McGwire, Hutchinson, and Molina each to be on the MLB roster some time in 2012.
(2) In response to Tabler’s question of “What is the budget for 2012?”….AA explained there is no set budget. He confessed working with Beaston is a very unique experience in that instead of receiving a budget number, they all sit down with the sales and marketing staff and work out various scenarios where they crunch out…if we spend X dollars to get player Y, how much incremental revenue can our sales team generate. I presume it is both ticket and advertising revenue.
AA revealed examples where Beaston asked him…how many extra wins will we get if we sign Jason Bay and/or John Lackey?
I imagine WAR must play a big factor in these talks and makes it simpler for Beaston and the marketing and sales team to comprehend the impact of any spending.
Within this discussion, AA did assert, from a baseball team development perspective, you should only use free agency as the final move after the team has been developed.
My impression was, although AA has a set baseball team development doctrine, spending money to generate incremental revenue is an organizational consideration and gets explored when making budget/spending decisions.
“AA revealed examples where Beaston asked him…how many extra wins will we get if we sign Jason Bay and/or John Lackey? ”
Is the correct answer -14 ?
Also, Molina and Hutch are going to be BEASTS.
lol…AA didn’t elaborate that much. But, he made it clear, there is a revenue generation consideration when considering free agents and there is no fixed budget. However, AA’s development doctrine has free agency as a step to be taken after the team has been built. So…it is “clearly” not a clear cut decision.
We can also add the “value” component mentioned in an earlier comment where AA places a value on a player and prospect and stays close to it when making a spending decision.
Must add…the expectation all four AA starters will be on the big club some time in 2012 implies other moves with the present starting staff. Perhaps Molina goes into the bullpen as suggested by others. But, I can’t imagine all four.
you cant move too many of them into the pen and deplete your starting rotation depth, if you start them as a reliever you wont be able to stretch them out to be starters if you need rotation help..
I think Hutch and Molina stay as starters, I think Jenkins long term plays better as a reliever so his arm could be put in there… i’ve also really like Carreno in there as well.
lackey and bay?? glad they didnt go down that road…
Faster the Jays get better the faster MLB will realize the AL East is a problem and hopefully implement balanced schedules and other various changes.
I have been thinking about balanced schedules and I really can’t think of a drawback. Hopefully the Commish is on the same page.
I can think of one drawback….there will be fewer Yankees and Red Sox games to choose from. I mainly buy tickets for those games.
But, yes, I see your point.
soon kc will be a big draw, plus more tiger games will be cool too
I agree with you totally, but to the commish the whole league and it well being revolves around Bos and NY. Its maddening and it sucks.
Get rid of inter-league and have a few more games against other Americian league teams Bos, NY and Tor. As a kid the Blue Jays and Tigers were rivals, last year they played 4 games in Toronto and 3 in Detroit……brutal.
yeah…you’re right. I remember baseball video games always had the Jays and Tigers as rivals…and yet they barely play each other anymore. Total shame.
Bo Porter for manager 2012!
Just checking in to say that Bo Porter is awesome.