[flames_fan_down_under]

Really good piece from Shi Davidi that highlights a lot of reasons as to why so many Jays fans are frustrated with Shapiro; a lot of it comes down to messaging.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/ml...-conversation/

In it, Shapiro needlessly extended the franchise’s ongoing self-flagellation by:

• Feigning ignorance about why Anthopoulos left. It’s been widely and accurately reported that as Anthopoulos’ team was winning the 2015 American League East, Shapiro eviscerated everything Anthopoulos built in their early conversations and has since spent four years undoing all he had put together;

• Criticizing “the anecdotal decision making” that had to be changed to make the Blue Jays “an organization that I felt comfortable being a part of,” while refusing to acknowledge that such decision-making had ended a 21-year post-season drought, left behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Danny Jansen, Ryan Borucki and several others, plus the people who fought hard for the drafting of Bo Bichette in 2016;

• Complaining about how he’s “been disappointed too many times by people who get written by a journalist, they just present one side to them,” while going on to say he presents a full picture of himself, but ends up being written in precisely the manner he criticizes.

His comments are disrespectful to the people who helped win the AL East in 2015, which serves no end, and helps sends the discourse back in the wrong direction.

...

Some of the most pressing issues not being talked about nearly enough:

• Can a team be successfully built by acquiring numerous players of similar skill sets and profile (e.g. Derek Fisher, Billy McKinney, Teoscar Hernandez, etc.), rather than seeking specific pieces and methodically plugging them into place?

• Is the organizational emphasis on making players positional jacks of all trades, masters of none, setting the Blue Jays up to be a subpar defensive team that ultimately undermines the pitching staff?

• Why, in its fourth year, is the expensive and arguably excessively large High Performance Department still drawing quiet complaints throughout the organization for the way it functions? Is it being given too much leeway in deciding when players should be resting, and what exercises they should be doing? Why are so many players in the organization suffering lat/oblique injuries? Has it actually helped keep players on the field?