Quote:
Originally Posted by flamingred89
AA was a gunslinger who wanted autonomy. The Jays, being a budget team for many many years, wanted to play it safe. So they pivoted. Even after AA and his bold moves saved the franchise in a lot of ways. The Jays circa 2012-2016 were some of my favourite versions of this team. Hitting lots of bombs and had a ton of characters. The 2013 trade with the Marlins blew up spectacularly but you cant deny the hype heading into that season. And then we all loved to hate Josh Johnson. And then all loved to love Bhuerle. So it was kind of a wild ride.
Atkins was gifted Vladdy as a prospect and hit a homerun with Bo. So the foundation was set to see what he could do. But his smarter than everyone in the room attitude rubs me the wrong way. And having 0 playoff wins also rubs me the wrong way(2016 was AA's team still).
I personally romanticize AA in a lot of ways and there's definitely a recency bias when it comes to Atkins. But one has to wonder what a gunslinger could do with a team with a foundation like the Jays.
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I stand corrected. I didn’t realize Bo was an Atkins draftee. That year was pretty rough so he definitely hit a home run. Perhaps the best player that draft.
The challenge with Toronto is that for all their pro teams being owned by hands off ownership, all the teams require an established businessman who speaks the languages of the boards. So a baseball guy who may be seen as not translating baseball to business, means that AA wasn’t destined to be President. It sucked then and it sucks now but that’s the nature of corporate owned sports. Shapiro had a business name based on his dad’s involvement with pro sports in Canada and the rest is history. It would have been nice to have Shapiro and Atkins if they were able to work that relationship out, but here we are. I wouldn’t go so far to call Atkins a fraud, but he hasn’t lived up to the billing of having a steady stable of prospects being able to come up. He’s been mediocre at that and it’s painful to see him give up a lot in prospect capital. Barrios was an overpay then and fortunately the prospects didn’t pan out but the Varsho one was a disaster. To also not employ a running game when you had a mobile enough lineup, is just stupidity.