This is the 4th year for shapeero. They made the playoffs his first but it was basically AA's roster. I think he brought back Happ but aside from that did very little to better a team that was 2 wins away from a World Series. When a team is that close to winning it all, the more common scenario is do what is necessary to put them over the top as opposed to tinker a bit and hope they can win without spending any extra money. The World Series is the holy grail. Why did he not make a serious attempt at the grand prize? Although I have no factual basis to lean on, the only thing I can speculate on is he did not seriously try to win in'16, is that he wants all the credit. Speculation.
Neither do I but once again, when you are so close to winning the whole shebang a budget should be more flexible because there is a pot of gold awaiting. As well, a budget is set arbitrarily, especially for an org with so much money. What good is the money saved by staying on budget compare to the $75-100M they have lost each of the last few years by fielding a moribund team with absolutely zero chance?
The difference with AA is that he was not afraid to make bold moves and it was every year. He did not do "nothing". He showed how much he wanted to bring a winner to Toronto. The trade for Cy Young Dickey, the huge trade (flop) with the Marlins, Donaldson, Tulo etc. The moves did not all work out but he gave us entertaining teams to watch. He did not cheap out at every turn. He proved by his actions that he wanted to win. The teams under shapeero have gotten worse each year and this trend was totally predictable based on his (in)actions. We had fun under AA. We are being tortured under shapeero.
I think the fans of Toronto deserve more bang for their buck than what shaps has given us.
@ScottyMitchTSN
