Tuesday 31 January 2012

Stupid Question

I'm sure I'll be called an apologist in some quarters for this, but dude just pissed me off. in Monday nights State of the Franchise event, one of the questions from the floor went as follows:

Jonathan: "I would have bought a shirt tonight, but the name Fielder wasn't found up there so I'm, uh, a little disappointed. In all seriousness, my passion has turned to anger, i've been a long time supporter of the Jays, I can stand here tonight and basically say that I'm not sure I'm going to be back next year as a fan. Because I am disappointed, I would have expected some on-field betterment of this season's club and if it wasn't for Fielder, I don't see why Carlos Beltran wasn't signed to back up Jose Bautista in the lineup. It was only a two year deal at 12 million dollars per, not a lot of money, right? ... You harped on making a bunch of trades and not going the free agent route - I think I've only seen one trade. We've seen the bullpen betterment but where's the young starters? I mean, uh, uh, we've seen Washington add a young starter, we've seen Cincinnati add a young starter, Boston went out and got Andrew Bailey and we...uh...I think we're in the #2 position for our minor league system right now and if we do have all this talent, why aren't we seeing the trades? Where are the guys?"

Jonathan, with all due respect, you're a dumb ass. Or at least you ask dumb ass questions.

Alex and Buck said "good questions" - Bullshit. they were just being nice to you because they have to.

let's break it down:

"I don't see why Carlos Beltran wasn't signed"

Because Beltran gets a say. You can't just go out and pluck a guy like drafting a minor leaguer.

"I think I've only seen one trade."

This off-season, sure. It's easy to say "make a deal" without being specific or realistic. Alex has said he wants to add premium talent when he trades. He did so with Lawrie, he did so with Excobar, with Rasmus, with Morrow, and with Santos. But there's not a premium talent available every week or every month. As good as he is, Alex can't simply call up Seattle and say some magic words and make them hand over Felix. Even Pineda went for a guy who was the equivilant of our dealing Lawrie - is THAT the trade you can't wait for?

"but where's the young starters?"

ON OUR TEAM! Romero, Morrow, Alvarez, Drabek, Cecil? Hutchison and McGuire on the cusp. sure, lust after Gio Gonzalez and Matt Latos - but a roughly equivilant set of Blue Jays to the package that got Latos would be d'Arnaud, Snider, and Drabek. Still interested?

I get the real sense that there's a "grass is greener" narrative. Someone else's young starter is better than our young starter, their young SS is better than our young SS, whatever it is -" go out and bring us fresh meat." Sometimes YOUR young player is the guy you want.

"Boston went out and got Andrew Bailey"

THIS is the one that broke down my resistance and convinced me to write. The Jays traded for a closer two, one who's under team control for SIX more years, while Bailey will be out there looking for the 8 figure contract in TWO years. Our guy pitched for less than 30 innings in the minors, and has only two years in the majors yet he was every bit as good as Bailey (who pitched ~300 innings in the minors) last year. We got the better guy and made the better deal! And what does this have to do with starters?

"why aren't we seeing the trades?"

Basically this is just "trade for the sake of trading" Bring us fresh meat. The reality is that there wasn't a smart deal that really made the team better out there. Six of the nine positions in the field don't need to have a bright young talent added because one of them is Bautista and the other five HAVE a bright young talent (or two). There was no bright young talent at 2B to be had, and the best 1B who was dealt was Anthony Rizzo, who's not considered really a premium guy. The bullpen is packed out with talent, and there are more young pitching that we have spots for. Let's say you go out and deal for Gio Gonzalez and have to trade Henderson Alvarez to get him - is that smart? how much better will Gonzalez be than Alvarez over the next five years? I'll wager he won't be, at all. And that's not counting the other guys you'd have to put into the deal.

Basically, I'm glad Jonathan isn't our GM.

6 comments:

Ian Hunter said...

There was also another guy who claimed to be a Blue Jays fan "through and through", and yet he was wearing a Tigers shirt. Alex called him out on it, that was pretty funny too.

Unknown said...

There's no such thing as stupid questions, only stupid people

Small Potatoes said...

For the love of God, let it be spring very, very soon.

Anonymous said...

Overall Agreed. I'm not happy we have Lind as our 1B, but Johnson was the best 2B on the market and we have him. The only position where there is an upgrade possible was 1B and I don't want 9 years of Feilder. People we just got rid of Wells. Do you think that Tony Regan will get another GM position so he can trade for Feilder in 4-5 years?
Also how do guys become elite players? By PLAYING! If Alvarez, McGowan, Drabek and Hutch get 185+ innings this year we will have a dynamic rotation both this year, in '13 and for the next 4 years after that.
I'm happy with what has happened the off season. That pen will keep us in a lot of games.

George said...

Overall, I was pretty happy with Adam Lind's performance last year. He fielded at better than league average, and only made 4 errors all season, in his first year on the job. He didn't have a stellar year at the plate, but 26 homers isn't shabby either. If he can get back to what he's capable of, we will have a pretty good first baseman.
Let's not forget that this is the first time he has found a permanent role in the big leagues, so maybe we don't know yet what he's capable of.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Southpaw! It's amazing how many stupid people are out there who call themselves jays fans. Way to stick it to this bozo.