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Originally Posted by JayP
Yeah, Drew said he's heard that AA and Shapiro have never actually sat down and talked. That could be wrong, but it's just as baseless as the "scolding" meeting that people talk like it's fact.
It does beg the question - why is something like that just leaking out now? In today's media world, it seems pretty odd for a reporter to get a juicy tidbit like that and just keep it quiet.
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Because nothing leaks out with Rogers on the Jays. It's all fluff and bull#### because they control the majority of the media sources in Canada. It only really comes out when the US media picks up on something and starts to dig in. Given AA is baseball executive of the year, this is a story they were interested in. TSN's entire MLB coverage is a re-branded pick up from ESPN, so the only non-bias reporting we'll get in Canada, doesn't really give much insight on the Jays other than recapping the games. Normally the story you'd be hearing is "AA leaves Jays despite being offered market contract from his hometown team" and that would be the end of it. Nothing that could potentially make Rogers look bad at all.
I've been listening to MLB coverage on serious XM for years. Sportsnet's rosy picture of the Blue Jays and their ownership is not the picture league insiders who aren't on Rogers payroll have of the organization. Sure you could say they just don't like a Canadian team, but there's too many of their reports that end up being true to chalk it all up to that.
- Bautista refusing to talk to SN over "suit gate": Not a peep until US media picked up on it
- The whole Beeston scenario. The Canadian media just gives a complete pass on this, but this was devastating to the Jays already terrible reputation. As reported throughout the US, Rogers went behind Beeston's back (and the whole baseball operations) and tried to replace him with Kenny Williams. The only reason the Jays didn't get in huge trouble over this is that the White Sox owner (Jerry Reinsdorf) said he had too much respect for Paul Beeston to force MLBs hand on this. Rogers than duplicated this lunacy by doing the same thing with Dan Duquette. The only reason Shapiro is here now and not Duquette is Baltimore basically told Rogers that if this continued they were going to be handing over all their high draft picks and prospects for the forseable future to avoid a tampering charge. I have no problem with the Jays getting rid of Beeston, but the way it was handled was deplorable.
- Last year's trade deadline: SN reporting Jays are highly active on the market and looking for multiple upgrades. US media reporting two weeks before the deadline that Rogers will not approve any increase in budget and AA is telling all major league teams Jays will not be active. This was despite the promised they had made to the team at spring training. We all know how that turned out come deadline day.
- Sportsnet reports Ervin Santana signs with Jays, only to later say he had a change of heart: US reports Ervin Santana had agreed to sign with Jays but when he heard that the Jays had asked multiple players to restructure their deals to afford it without him knowing, he rejected the offer, and it may not have been approved by the MLBPA anyways. It is later determined the US reports were accurate.
- 2 Years ago Sportsnet Reporting Jays are all in on Garza with AA sparking the fire. US media asks Garza if he's considering Toronto, and he confirms that he's never even been approached by the Jays for a conversation, let alone close to signing. You can actually repeat this story for multiple players over the past 3-4 years.
- And on, and on, and on.
At the end of the day, from a pure baseball perspective, I honestly couldn't care if Anthopolous is here or not. He's made some good trades, but for every good one, I can counter with a bad one. I also think he's getting way too much credit for this year's run. Anyone could have traded the prospects the Jays did and got as good or better players as he did. Not hard to win when your 1-7 hitters are essentially an all-star team, and your division is likely the weakest in baseball. What I care about is this:
1- I think AA just walking away without a number job in place signifies the budget isn't going to be there despite the Toronto market showing what can happen financially when they have a good team to Rogers.
2- The Jays reputation is absolute #### across the league with players and agents. What little goodwill they've built from this run and the trades that looked to be a shift in culture to that of an organization willing to do what it takes to win, is now completely gone out the window. There's not a free agent in their right mind that would sign in Toronto after having seen AA going from jumping up and down with champaign bottles with the players, to walking away less than a month later.
Rogers running a baseball team is an outright clown show. Their business model does not translate into the world of professional baseball. Even when you think things may change, they wont.