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shack

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I watched a bit of the 1st Grapefruit League game yesterday and here are my insightful takeaways.

1) My disgust with the shameful lack of effort to improve the team by management this off-season is going to make it hard for me to cheer for this year's edition. First time in my life I've witnessed this phenomenon. The addition of cup holders seems to have been a higher priority than making any significant additions to the roster. Their "I like our team" approach is predicated on the premises that

1)every player who had an off year in 2023 is going to return to their best career form,

2)every player who had solid or career years in 2023 will have no fall-off and will probably improve, which includes the starting rotation,

3)the highly improbable lack of injuries to the rotation last year is a given to happen again this year and

4)any players they call up will immediately be on an HoF trajectory.

As Bautista (in)famously said after some seriously big moves by AA prior to the 2013 season, "I don't see what could possibly go wrong." I can see plenty going wrong. Jays went 74-88 and finished a solid 5th that year.

Cheering for the Jays means that I want to see Shatkins being rewarded for their apathy. This whole "going after Ohtani" thing was probably just a PR scam. They spent diddlysquat in the end. They've had almost 10 years at the helm and have yet to come close to AA's success. And it's a joke the way they publicly criticized AA's lack of farm system development and here they are since 2015 with a farm system that, according to a ranking article I read the other week, is sitting at 20th out of 30 teams.

With the massive increase in ticket prices, I'd be surprised to see an increase in attendance. If the Jays get off to a slow start, say early to mid-May, the fans will stay away in droves.

2)The broadcast(s) without Dan Shulman are weak. Junior has a long way to go to catch his dad. I know he's young but.....
 
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K Douglas

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Obviously I'm no fan of Atkins he just isn't a good GM. Loses almost every trade and is quite often asleep at the switch. Doesn't come across as a knowledgeable baseball mind to me.
That said there really wasn't an awful lot of quality FA's this off season. The one I would have been targeting the most would have been Cody Bellinger. As it turned out he re upped with the Cubs for $80 million over 3 years. In no way would I have come anywhere close to offering $700 million to Ohtani, that's plain ludicrous. If Brandon Woodruff wasn't going to be missing the whole season I would have made a play for him.
I do like the signings of both Turner and Keirmaier but the jury is out for me on this Cuban pitcher we signed. I don't know much about him. Yes I would have liked to see more done but what I am most looking forward to is seeing a bounce back from Manoah. That is key for us.
My off season grade to Atkins is a C minus.
 
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farquhar

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Alek Manoah really struggled today.

Blue Jays spring training: Alek Manoah struggles in first pre-season start | CP24.com

Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Alek Manoah allowed four earned runs over 1 2/3 innings in his first start of the pre-season Tuesday afternoon against the Detroit Tigers.

Manoah, who was demoted twice last season after an all-star campaign in 2022, hit three batters and allowed a walk and three hits in a 6-4 loss at Publix Field. He was pulled after 38 pitches.
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I think his issues are psychological in nature.
 
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black booty lover

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shack said:
2)The broadcast(s) without Dan Shulman are weak. Junior has a long way to go to catch his dad. I know he's young but.....
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I agree with pretty much your whole post, but particularly this last point. They fire Wagner and give Shulman's kid a job, and really has a long way to go. Complete horse shit.
 
oral.com

oral.com

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Jul 21, 2004
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K Douglas said:
Obviously I'm no fan of Atkins he just isn't a good GM. Loses almost every trade and is quite often asleep at the switch. Doesn't come across as a knowledgeable baseball mind to me.
That said there really wasn't an awful lot of quality FA's this off season. The one I would have been targeting the most would have been Cody Bellinger. As it turned out he re upped with the Cubs for $80 million over 3 years. In no way would I have come anywhere close to offering $700 million to Ohtani, that's plain ludicrous. If Brandon Woodruff wasn't going to be missing the whole season I would have made a play for him.
I do like the signings of both Turner and Keirmaier but the jury is out for me on this Cuban pitcher we signed. I don't know much about him. Yes I would have liked to see more done but what I am most looking forward to is seeing a bounce back from Manoah. That is key for us.
My off season grade to Atkins is a C minus.
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You’re an easy grader, I would have given him a D- for effort.

it’s insane to think you can achieve a different outcome by holding pat.

Fire Schneider
Get rid of shapiro and Atkins
Trade Vladdy for prospects whatever, he seems more interested in clowning around and that attitude is infectious .
Also, he’s been the league for years and he still can’t speak English? WTF
Keep Manoa away from the team until he gets his mojo back
 
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black booty lover

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oral.com said:
Ross??? Is that you?
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He's won more of the trades he's made then he's lost, and he's hit on most FA's he's signed. He just hasn't been able to put it all together in the same year. Had they made the playoffs in 2021, they might have won the whole thing. Having that said, he's been here almost 10 years now, hasn't won a playoff game, and doesn't have much in the pipelines coming up. Should have been fired last year.
 
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shack

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black booty lover said:
So are you blaming Shatkins for that or Rogers?
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Shatkins, definitely.

Rogers has been very, very generous and given Shatkins everything they've asked for. The budget is the only thing that Rogers controls, and should be the only thing. After that it's how management uses that money. They are the supposed baseball experts not Rogers. The payroll has been massively increased to the point of going over the luxury tax threshold. Just going off the top of my head, I'm thinking the payroll went up 40-50% since the AA years. He did more with less.

As well, Rogers ponied up the money to make a state of the art development/training facility in Dunedin. Shatkins has "parlayed" that into the 23rd ranked minor league system in baseball. That's in the bottom 20%. As Lindy Ruff would say about our developmental system, "That's a joke." Rogers gave them what they asked for and all they've done is confirm the old adage, "be careful what you ask for...."

TBH, Rogers is at fault for one thing and it may be the biggest fault overall. They hired Shapeero and by extension, Shatkins.
 
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black booty lover

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shack said:
Shatkins, definitely.

Rogers has been very, very generous and given Shatkins everything they've asked for. The budget is the only thing that Rogers controls, and should be the only thing. After that it's how management uses that money. They are the supposed baseball experts not Rogers. The payroll has been massively increased to the point of going over the luxury tax threshold. Just going off the top of my head, I'm thinking the payroll went up 40-50% since the AA years. He did more with less.

As well, Rogers ponied up the money to make a state of the art development/training facility in Dunedin. Shatkins has "parlayed" that into the 23rd ranked minor league system in baseball. That's in the bottom 20%. As Lindy Ruff would say about our developmental system, "That's a joke." Rogers gave them what they asked for and all they've done is confirm the old adage, "be careful what you ask for...."

TBH, Rogers is at fault for one thing and it may be the biggest fault overall. They hired Shapeero and by extension, Shatkins.
Click to expand...
But your statement was "there aren't a lot of owners with more money than Rogers"
 
oral.com

oral.com

Sapere Aude, Carpe Diem
Jul 21, 2004
920
534
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Toronto
shack said:
Shatkins, definitely.

Rogers has been very, very generous and given Shatkins everything they've asked for. The budget is the only thing that Rogers controls, and should be the only thing. After that it's how management uses that money. They are the supposed baseball experts not Rogers. The payroll has been massively increased to the point of going over the luxury tax threshold. Just going off the top of my head, I'm thinking the payroll went up 40-50% since the AA years. He did more with less.

As well, Rogers ponied up the money to make a state of the art development/training facility in Dunedin. Shatkins has "parlayed" that into the 23rd ranked minor league system in baseball. That's in the bottom 20%. As Lindy Ruff would say about our developmental system, "That's a joke." Rogers gave them what they asked for and all they've done is confirm the old adage, "be careful what you ask for...."

TBH, Rogers is at fault for one thing and it may be the biggest fault overall. They hired Shapeero and by extension, Shatkins.
Click to expand...
Absolutely 100%
I find I tend to agree with most of your opinions. Pity you’re not a hot asian 20 year old co-ed.
 
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shack

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black booty lover said:
Okay, that’s weird spin on it seeing as your statement response to why they didn’t sign any FA’s this off season.
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I've got no problem spending someone else's money. But I don't think that anybody can say the Jays have been cheap in recent years.
 
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