Quote:
Originally Posted by jayswin
Yeah, the revisionist history on AA is a little harsh. Most criticism omits that he was operating under Rogers when they were SUPER tight with the purse strings. They were an $8bil company treating the Jays like they were a small to medium market team, and AA was operating under that premise and still managed to finagle the team into something real.
He saw an opportunity to possibly sacrifice himself but push the team into contention and successfully did it. I really wish this team would have KEPT pushing after that playoff season. Instead we tried to go half in in 2016, it was so frustrating.
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I liked AA, loved a lot of his moves, but I think the money thing was largely driven by a very dated business strategy from Paul Beeston. Beeston was, from all accounts, a great guy and a guy who was loved within the baseball community and also, from all accounts, someone still living as if it was 1989 from a business perspective and this frustrated Rogers which is why they were trying to get rid of him in 2015. With Beeston at the helm from 2008 to 2014, the Jays valuation went from 353 million to 610 million, then we get to 2015 and we hear stories of Rogers trying to find a replacement for Beeston. Beeston was at the very least smart enough to see how talented AA was and put him in a position to succeed. Anyways in August of 2015, as we all know, Shapiro is brought in to replace Paul and since then Rogers is finally seeing their investment increase in valuation, from 870 million in 2015 to 2.1 billion in 2023. Accordingly the Jays budget has increased as well.
AA put together the best Jays team we have seen in a long time, that 2015 team in my mind should have won the WS. KC had luck on their side, Alcides Escobar turned into Ted Williams for a few games and a couple more breaks go their way, including neck beard guy in the bleachers turning a Moustakas double into a home run. Not sure I will ever get over that.
Shapiro and Atkins have put together a more consistent winner, however not a team that has reached the level of that 2015 team which was probably the most fun Jays team I have seen.