With the Blue Jays entering Sunday mired in a five-game losing streak and occupying last place in the AL East behind the dysfunctional Red Sox, GM Alex Anthopoulos met with reporters prior to his team's victory over the Yankees. Mike Cormack of Sportsnet has the details from the press conference.
- Anthopoulos believes Toronto's strengths lie in its potent offense and rebuilt bullpen. "You know for the most part this is going to be a very good, deep offensive team, and we'll have some young kids behind some of these guys for depth. Offensively, I feel very good about it." The 35-year-old general manager went as far as to say his team's bullpen and offense, when healthy, have the makings of being "championship caliber."
- Toronto's starting rotation has been an area of concern for Anthopoulos as his starters have struggled with myriad health issues and performance on the field. With Kyle Drabek and Drew Hutchison set to miss a portion or all of next season, the team may be looking to add as many as three new arms into the rotation to complement Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow.
- While the Blue Jays are clearly in need of a few starters to bolster their pitching staff, Anthopoulos says he'll be able to devote his entire winter to improving the team's rotation unlike in years past. "… It's a lot easier going into an off-season when you have really one area to really attack, and every trade dialogue, every free-agent dialogue, can be geared to one area rather than having 40 balls in the air and having to fill three spots in the bullpen, two spots in the rotation, two position players," said Anthopoulos.
We will see ! I have zero faith that the jays will sign anything but low budget stop gaps in the off season and try and spin it as guys we really like …. I hope Rogers cuts AA some breathing room and they get the payroll up to atleast 110-120 mil or the starters they get will be meatballers
You realize trades are another way of aquiring high end pitching right?
No really ! The closing line of the post was about signing free agents. And even if a trade was the way AA was to go as is his stated preference you still have to pay that players salary and if it’s a high end pitcher then guess what he is getting 15 – 20 million do the jays pay that …. Not as of yet
blah blah blah, fill the military tank-sized hole in your rotation then we’ll see how good they will be next seson
time to start using the farm system to bring in some talent.
hopefully they can bring in a top of the rotation starter and a LFer maybe someone like Choo
How about bourn? Move Rasmus to left. Although i have a feeling the Yanks will be all over that
but i want choo so bad
Rasmus is staying exactly where he is… the 1st player in the OF to move should be Bautista to 1B and that’s for the following year or beyond.
More yapping from AA.
I can tell what’s going to happen this offseason.
Sign couple of mediocre starting pitchers and that’s it.
We clearly need a LF, 2B and 2 starters and an ACE. There is no way AA fills all that without spending. And spending is not something he is going to do. Be prepared going in to 2013 with AAA lineup of players.
If you don’t like it, you can always just stop following the team.
marcum , dempster are options in the off season
i know hes old but our outfield prospects haven’t shown much offensivley other than sierra , why dont we make a go at torii hunter even though hes got a short list of teams
I’d still like explanations on his 2012 dealings.
Get Halladay. PHI is the time to rebuild. Jays has chance to rejoin the former The Ace.
newsflash: Phillies aren’t rebuilding.
The first step is admiting…
I’m getting tired of him…same ole same ole, time to DELiVER AA !
How is the “same ole same ole”? When has he ever come out and said that they planned on competing seriously?
My only concern regarding AA is that his patience may be his downfall. This offense will only last so long and bringing in back of the rotation starters while waiting on prospects will not work. Sometimes you have to overpay to get the guy that puts a team over the top and waiting to find the perfect deal may result in no deal at all.
What boggles my mind is:
Morrow still leads the AL in SHOs
Morrow is third on his own team. What stat were you looking at?
Shutouts. Sorry should have said SHOs
Strikeouts are Ks, imo.
Dear Alex,,,, no one believes you at all.
Signed
Jays fans/
The Jays need some healthy top flight starters. They won’t be easy to come by. I like Garza for them, that seems like a realistic trade target, that is if Garza’s injury isn’t serious.
They should bring in some second-chance pitchers, preferably ones that still have some team control left, for depth. Also take a chance on any AAA pitchers that are blocked that could be of some use, even if that ends up being a month or two.
Make a serious push for Greinke and Edwin Jackson. Get Romero back on track. Every deal from here on out includes a pitcher be thrown in to add depth and maybe get lucky with having one or two them develop into something.
Travis snider has a .333 avg and 5 RBIs since being traded.
I like this… means we have more money and targets this off season for starting pitchers… we need to get another ace caliber starter no doubt about it. Even someone better than Romero if we can… then we can have the #1 starter, Romero, Morrow, Alvarez and whoever lands the 5th spot – Villaneuva, Cecil, Hutchinson or Drabek…