Let's face it. Shapeero has not attempted even one significant move in his time here, to try and keep us as a playoff team. His biggest acquisition was Morales, and he only did that to try and save a bit of face from letting EE go (which in actuality was the most significant move he made, although negatively). Retreads, wannabes, maybes, hope for a career year or two. He likes using AA as a scapegoat, but I don't believe he has been handcuffed as much as he'd like us to believe. Maybe the payroll gets a bit stretched, but Toronto (with a whole country as their local market) should be conducting itself as a big market team as give us a few nuggets to keep us somewhat competitive. We deserve it for the support we have given the team over the years, especially the last 5. Instead we are being managed as just another small market Cleveland. 3 off-seasons of shit acquisitions.
You can't blame the players for being shit, because that is what most of them have always been and management either knew or should have known this. You can't blame the coaches because they have been given shit to work with. These same coaches got us to the playoffs when they had some talent to work with. So we can feel bad for the players (for having to know they are a shit team), we can feel bad for the coaches and we can certainly feel bad for the fans because we've been sold a bill of goods. "We are going for it, this year." Give me a big fucking break. We and the coaches got what shapeero gave us. A big scam and a lot of years of meaningless baseball and that is immediately after having gotten to within a game or two of the WS. We are sinking like a bag of rocks tied to an anchor.
And anybody who wants to say that this should be a playoff contending team and wants to blame the coaches, I would love to see their posts from the off-season/pre-season portion of this thread, where they were claimed that they were excited with the additions of Garcia, Dias, Grichuk, and whatever else cheap shit that shapeero got us. I don't recall anybody being excited and as such, IMO, do not have much credibility/right to criticize a coaching staff that has previously brought us playoff teams. Maybe it is a big coincidence that Gibbons/Walker/Jacoby etc. all got stupid at the exact same time, just when shapeero showed up.
All of this lays at the feet of upper management. End of story.
