<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	
	>
<channel>
	<title>Comments on: Mark Shapiro, Alex Anthopoulos, and the Failures of Change</title>
	<atom:link href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/</link>
	<description>Comprehensive coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 09 Dec 2018 23:15:57 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1</generator>
	<item>
		<title>By: Kongos</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/#comment-15837</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kongos]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:38:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7676#comment-15837</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Check out the first three items on the &quot;worst&quot; part of this list. That&#039;s the next 5 years of the Jays&#039; future. 

http://thecomeback.com/theoutsidecorner/2015-articles/best-worst-moves-mark-shapiro.html]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Check out the first three items on the &#8220;worst&#8221; part of this list. That&#8217;s the next 5 years of the Jays&#8217; future. </p>
<p><a href="http://thecomeback.com/theoutsidecorner/2015-articles/best-worst-moves-mark-shapiro.html" rel="nofollow">http://thecomeback.com/theoutsidecorner/2015-articles/best-worst-moves-mark-shapiro.html</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Matt Gwin</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/#comment-15809</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Gwin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 31 Oct 2016 18:35:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7676#comment-15809</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[That&#039;s a really poor portrayal. It&#039;s possible that we might not get another &quot;ninja&quot; trade, but you need a bigger sample than 1 season to assess that. It&#039;s not as if all of Anthopoulos&#039; trades were &quot;ninja&quot;-esque.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>That&#8217;s a really poor portrayal. It&#8217;s possible that we might not get another &#8220;ninja&#8221; trade, but you need a bigger sample than 1 season to assess that. It&#8217;s not as if all of Anthopoulos&#8217; trades were &#8220;ninja&#8221;-esque.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Matt Gwin</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/#comment-15808</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Gwin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 31 Oct 2016 18:34:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7676#comment-15808</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[But he needed the short term gain. That&#039;s the whole point. The Jays&#039; almost made it to the World Series, and Shapiro will still be hated this offseason.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>But he needed the short term gain. That&#8217;s the whole point. The Jays&#8217; almost made it to the World Series, and Shapiro will still be hated this offseason.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Kongos</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/#comment-15674</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kongos]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 30 Oct 2016 00:26:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7676#comment-15674</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#039;s more that that. AA was imaginative and articulate. That list of Shapiro&#039;s trades really says it all. Not one of them was unexpected, exciting -- at most some of them are mildly interesting. 

We&#039;re not getting imaginative management any more. We&#039;re getting boring, no-risk bean-counting. 

Some of it is symbolic. You want management to be somewhat in tune with what you enjoy about the team. To me, the player move that told me they had no interest in keeping the team fun to watch was when they let Kawasaki go. Sure, he&#039;s at best a marginal player. But he offered the hope that the games were going to be entertainment. It was a symbolic thing -- the fact that Kawasaki was a fan favourite simply wasn&#039;t on their radar. 

AA was brilliant in knowing what the fans wanted and exceeding their expectations. These guys are clueless.

It doesn&#039;t help that with Shapiro and Atkins are both utterly inarticulate during interviews.  These guys manage to be both boring and irritating. Watching them plod along is just excruciating. 

AA was fun. These guys never will be.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s more that that. AA was imaginative and articulate. That list of Shapiro&#8217;s trades really says it all. Not one of them was unexpected, exciting &#8212; at most some of them are mildly interesting. </p>
<p>We&#8217;re not getting imaginative management any more. We&#8217;re getting boring, no-risk bean-counting. </p>
<p>Some of it is symbolic. You want management to be somewhat in tune with what you enjoy about the team. To me, the player move that told me they had no interest in keeping the team fun to watch was when they let Kawasaki go. Sure, he&#8217;s at best a marginal player. But he offered the hope that the games were going to be entertainment. It was a symbolic thing &#8212; the fact that Kawasaki was a fan favourite simply wasn&#8217;t on their radar. </p>
<p>AA was brilliant in knowing what the fans wanted and exceeding their expectations. These guys are clueless.</p>
<p>It doesn&#8217;t help that with Shapiro and Atkins are both utterly inarticulate during interviews.  These guys manage to be both boring and irritating. Watching them plod along is just excruciating. </p>
<p>AA was fun. These guys never will be.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Arjonn</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/#comment-15573</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arjonn]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Oct 2016 15:11:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7676#comment-15573</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In terms of PR, telling people what they want to hear even though it&#039;s inaccurate is a strategy that can be described as &quot;short-term gain for long-term pain&quot;. In the absence of special circumstances we&#039;re unaware of, Shapiro made the clearly better choice from a PR POV.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In terms of PR, telling people what they want to hear even though it&#8217;s inaccurate is a strategy that can be described as &#8220;short-term gain for long-term pain&#8221;. In the absence of special circumstances we&#8217;re unaware of, Shapiro made the clearly better choice from a PR POV.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Matt Gwin</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/#comment-15517</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Gwin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Oct 2016 02:53:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7676#comment-15517</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You&#039;ve seriously misread this, my friend.

Let&#039;s get a few things straight:

1. I think that, objectively from a baseball ops POV, the Shapiro/Atkins FO has done a great job. They made missteps that&#039;ll make their job harder, but their moves have been REALLY good.

2. I was one of AA&#039;s biggest detractors last year, and still am. He was by no means perfect, he just went out on top.

With that said, PR is important. Fickle or not, the fanbase is what drives this team. On some level, you have to appeal to them. Shapiro hasn&#039;t done that.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You&#8217;ve seriously misread this, my friend.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s get a few things straight:</p>
<p>1. I think that, objectively from a baseball ops POV, the Shapiro/Atkins FO has done a great job. They made missteps that&#8217;ll make their job harder, but their moves have been REALLY good.</p>
<p>2. I was one of AA&#8217;s biggest detractors last year, and still am. He was by no means perfect, he just went out on top.</p>
<p>With that said, PR is important. Fickle or not, the fanbase is what drives this team. On some level, you have to appeal to them. Shapiro hasn&#8217;t done that.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Jake</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/#comment-15511</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jake]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Oct 2016 00:24:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7676#comment-15511</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This article just seems like a bitter fan, harping about his  subjective feelings toward the new front office. Why should the Blue Jays pander to the fan base by pretending to show interest in a player? It makes no sense to make a &#039;token&#039; offer, it would have been a waste of everyones time. Do you really think Price would have accepted Happ AAV? (they clearly had a budget outlined) And the grass things? really? He was being candid and honest about the reality of grass. Beeston was on his way out and he was going to play the grass card, regardless of its feasibility.  

Regardless, Shapiro has put the Blue Jays first and not bent over for the pipe dreams of a fickle fan base, and that is a great thing for the Blue Jays.

As a fan, I think the start of the Shapiro era has been good for the long term competitiveness of Blue Jays. 

I guess we can expect more AA love letters when Bautista and EE walk.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This article just seems like a bitter fan, harping about his  subjective feelings toward the new front office. Why should the Blue Jays pander to the fan base by pretending to show interest in a player? It makes no sense to make a &#8216;token&#8217; offer, it would have been a waste of everyones time. Do you really think Price would have accepted Happ AAV? (they clearly had a budget outlined) And the grass things? really? He was being candid and honest about the reality of grass. Beeston was on his way out and he was going to play the grass card, regardless of its feasibility.  </p>
<p>Regardless, Shapiro has put the Blue Jays first and not bent over for the pipe dreams of a fickle fan base, and that is a great thing for the Blue Jays.</p>
<p>As a fan, I think the start of the Shapiro era has been good for the long term competitiveness of Blue Jays. </p>
<p>I guess we can expect more AA love letters when Bautista and EE walk.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Matt Gwin</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/#comment-15494</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Gwin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Oct 2016 18:10:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7676#comment-15494</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The act of extending Smoak isn&#039;t so bad, but it&#039;s the cost that he came at. Can&#039;t see him getting 2/8 mil on the open market.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The act of extending Smoak isn&#8217;t so bad, but it&#8217;s the cost that he came at. Can&#8217;t see him getting 2/8 mil on the open market.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: I'd argue that:</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/#comment-15493</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[I'd argue that:]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Oct 2016 17:59:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7676#comment-15493</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[the Feldman trade is the worst one...  I actually like the Smoak extension, as we have at least a serviceable 1B/DH instead of no one at all... Without consistent AB&#039;s, it&#039;s really tough to get one&#039;s timing down, especially for a swing like Smoak&#039;s.  He has been a true team player the last couple of years, even when Colabello was taking some of his playing time... not a peep]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>the Feldman trade is the worst one&#8230;  I actually like the Smoak extension, as we have at least a serviceable 1B/DH instead of no one at all&#8230; Without consistent AB&#8217;s, it&#8217;s really tough to get one&#8217;s timing down, especially for a swing like Smoak&#8217;s.  He has been a true team player the last couple of years, even when Colabello was taking some of his playing time&#8230; not a peep</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Arjonn</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/26/mark-shapiro-alex-anthopoulos-and-the-failures-of-change/#comment-15479</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arjonn]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Oct 2016 14:52:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7676#comment-15479</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Absolutely, which means he could have tried to take the &quot;easy way out&quot; by saying and doing nothing about grass and hoping the matter would slowly fade. I&#039;d rather the team be in the hands of someone who is willing to tell me things he knows I don&#039;t want to hear.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Absolutely, which means he could have tried to take the &#8220;easy way out&#8221; by saying and doing nothing about grass and hoping the matter would slowly fade. I&#8217;d rather the team be in the hands of someone who is willing to tell me things he knows I don&#8217;t want to hear.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
</channel>
</rss>
