2014-2015 Blue Jays Off-Season Thread

[KootenayFlamesFan]

The Baltimore Orioles aren’t the first team to ask for Jeff Hoffman this winter, folks with the Toronto Blue Jays will tell you.

Despite the fact he won’t be ready to pitch in games until May — and despite the fact that as a 2014 draftee, he couldn’t join his new team until after this June’s draft — the Atlanta Braves asked the Blue Jays if they would make Hoffman the focal point of a deal for outfielder Justin Upton, who is a year away from free agency. Hoffman would have been a player to be named later. The answer was an emphatic “no.”

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb...-jeff-hoffman/

[Antithesis]

Bob Elliott skewers Rogers over this whole Beeston disaster:

Originally Posted by Bob Elliott

And on the 51st day of silence Rogers Communications did something really unique — they actually communicated.

They went from Rogers Un-Communications to Rogers Communications in a five-paragraph press release which arrived at 6:51 p.m. on Monday.

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/01/26...sion-with-jays

[bluejays]

Jays apparently in talks with Phillies over Pappelbon. I have no idea what to think of this. He seems like a redneck through and through, and I'm not sure he'd appreciate Canada. Plus he's on the downside of his career. I'm scared at what Philadelphia will demand.

[Parallex]

Papelbon... maybe if Philly eats half his contract and wants little in return. Otherwise pass.

[bluejays]

Janssen signed with Washington. 1 year $5M. About right. WTH are the Jays doing letting him walk away like this?

[flames_fan_down_under]

I'm OK with Janssen leaving. Designated closers are overrated and he was really losing his effectiveness as the season went on last year. I hope things work out for him in Washington.

[Caged Great]

The Jays can probably get by if they just throw a bunch of meh guys in the pen that are cheap. If they keep Sanchez as the closer for the time being, that would help alleviate most of the problems.

[browna]

Janssen got that viral infection/flu, and then just dropped off the map pretty quick.
I assume confidence is a big part of that position, and he came back not 100%, didn't have his stuff...blew a bunch of saves in the first couple weeks (after rarely blowing saves the previous year or so), and that was that.
Critical of the Jays lack of moves at the deadline, after they had climbed back into it leading up to the all star game didn't help, though the entire team went in the crapper when the Jays/Rogers backtracked on their preseason promise to the team to pick up players for the run if they were close.

But Janssen isnt Bautista and can't say those things with the same conviction. I'm sure he'll be back in a big way for Washington.

As for the Beeston things, seems like the latest Rogers sibling as the same misguided empire building stigma that his dad did with the Jays and the communication business, and has screwed things up behind the scenes. He can do that within his own company and get away with it, but its a little more public when dealing with MLB teams and trying to poach their staff clumsily.

He also needs to open up the wallet a bit more, because this team, like last year, is a decent sports car that's been tweaked and tuned up ready to race to the finish line with a good chance of winning. But its got a couple balding tires that, left alone, will at some point cause the car to hit a guardrail at the worst time like it did last year, when a proper set of tires from the start, and the additional full pit stop to add some new tires and change the oil halfway through the race, can get that car to the finish line first.

[flames_fan_down_under]

^Great analogy Browna, very accurate.

That latest Elliot article that Antithesis posted again leaves me quite angry with Ed Rogers.

In a league that still adheres to a bit of an Old Boys Club mentality Ed really didn't know what the hell he was doing, he underestimated Beeston's currency within the MLB, he underestimated Angelos, he underestimated Reinsdorf. The whole process was so mishandled and Elliot is right that none of this was a Blue Jays orchestrated event, it was all Rogers. Anthopolous' silence through the whole process is impressive, though hiring a team president isn't his job, but having teams demand some of your top prospects because your teams owner/boss is out of his depth then Alex has a right to be more than a little annoyed, IMO.

And for the love of god can we please have actual grass on the field!!!!!!!!!

[flames_fan_down_under]

Minor move by the Jays today:

I'm pretty sure its been confirmed he is officially signed by the Jays somewhere...

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb...ith-belisario/

The team is “very close” to a deal with free agent right-hander Ronald Belisario, an industry source told Sportsnet. Jon Morosi of FOX Sports, who first reported late Wednesday that the Blue Jays were making a strong push for Belisario, wrote Thursday that the sides are close to a deal.

[Antithesis]

I'm starting to think a new stadium is more likely than grass in Rogers Centre, and I don't think a new stadium is likely at all. This whole episode with Beeston and the way Ed Rogers bumbled his way through it hasn't exactly buoyed my confidence.

[ClubFlames]

Apparently the deal with Belisario fell through.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by ClubFlames

Apparently the deal with Belisario fell through.

Yep

http://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/690787

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by Antithesis

I'm starting to think a new stadium is more likely than grass in Rogers Centre.

Yeah, they're going to leave the most perfect location in all of Toronto (a stadium they own btw) because planting grass is going to be hard

[flames_fan_down_under]

Going by Rogers track record with the Jays, honestly I'll be shocked the day grass is actually on the field.

Also I think Beeston said that the stadium needs about 250 million dollars in renovations to bring the Skydome up to date. So yes they own the stadium, but that building will have to be replaced eventually.

[Antithesis]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Yeah, they're going to leave the most perfect location in all of Toronto (a stadium they own btw) because planting grass is going to be hard

You do realize that it is possible to respond to posts that you disagree with in a manner that doesn't cause you to come off as a condescending, insufferable jerk, right? Let me show you:

"I disagree. The Rogers Centre is in a great location, the Jays own it, and while installing a grass field will be challenging, I think it can be done. I doubt that it'll be that big of a deal." See? Not hard.

My point isn't as asinine as you so clearly believe. I'm also not a complete moron that deserves to be talked down to.

Yes, the Jays do own Rogers Centre. I'm sure they quite like that. It's also a 26-year old building without the historical charm of a Fenway Park or even Camden Yards. They're going to need/want to replace it some time, and this is the time that many teams start itching for new parks. Atlanta just announced they were replacing a ballpark that is newer than the Rogers Centre. By 2018, it'll be nearly 30 years old.

As mentioned earlier, it's going to be costly to install grass if it can be done at all. I've also heard the $250 million number thrown around and I don't think they've even engaged in a feasibility study to determine if it can be done. I think there's a fairly strong chance that ownership looks at the situation and decides that spending that amount of money on a 30-year-old stadium isn't worth it. At that point, I think they'll either find a way to cancel the project and sweep it under the rug, or they'll start positioning themselves to get a new ballpark built.

Of course, a challenge standing in the way of a new ballpark is indeed its perfect location. McCown on PTS brought up that while they own the park, they don't own the land it sits on, which will serve as a roadblock.

Overall, I agree with flames_fan_down_under. I have little to no faith in Rogers doing right by the Jays and the circus act and bumbling around by Ed Rogers over the last while didn't do a lot to reassure me. I think that one of the reasons they signed a medium-length lease with the stupid Argos rather than year-by-year leases was so that they could put off the grass as a long-term project that could either keep getting pushed back or cancelled altogether without any huge disappointment. It's still far enough to be off in that nebulous zone of 'will it happen or won't it happen'? I'll put it this way: I'm not expecting it to happen.

[Tyler]

Argos have been given notice. Consultations with University of Guelph regarding growing proper grass species have been ongoing for years. Structural and engineering plans already commissioned. This will get done and it will get done before the end of the decade.

Equating competence in stadium improvements to management discussions that have not gone well is incredibly asinine.

[Joborule]

Considering how perfect of a location their ballpark is, I think Rogers would invest the money into significantly renovating the stadium to modernize it ala Madison Square Garden's recent "transformation". So the grass project should be a go.

[Tyler]

Until we get our precious grass, here's our new 'turf' for this season being laid down:



http://imgur.com/a/4FNQx

[Gord Wappel]

it looks like a big shower curtain