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	<title>Toronto &#187; ross atkins</title>
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		<title>Artificial Turf Wars Ep. 77: And Now our Watch is Ended</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/10/04/artificial-turf-wars-ep-77-and-now-our-watch-is-ended/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/10/04/artificial-turf-wars-ep-77-and-now-our-watch-is-ended/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Oct 2017 10:34:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Artifical Turf Wars]]></dc:creator>
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		<category><![CDATA[Josh Donaldson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mark shapiro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Offseason]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ross atkins]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=13685</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Episode 77 Greg and Josh go over the final week of the season and the decisions and press conferences from the immediate aftermath. They discuss Jose Bautista&#8217;s final games and the declining of his option, Josh Donaldson&#8217;s desire to remain in Toronto, the early outlook for the upcoming offseason based on comments from Ross Atkins, [&#8230;]]]></description>
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<strong><br />
Episode 77</strong></p>
<p>Greg and Josh go over the final week of the season and the decisions and press conferences from the immediate aftermath. They discuss Jose Bautista&#8217;s final games and the declining of his option, Josh Donaldson&#8217;s desire to remain in Toronto, the early outlook for the upcoming offseason based on comments from Ross Atkins, the murky future for Devon Travis, and the ballot goofiness from the Blue Jays team award voting. They also answer listener questions and give out two Do Overs, one to MLB and one the Giancarlo Stanton. </p>
<p><strong>Podcast</strong>: <a class="powerpress_link_pinw" title="Play in New Window" href="http://d1at8ppinvdju8.cloudfront.net/1/031/show_10311991_2017_10_04_03_35_15.mp3" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Play in new window</a> | <a class="powerpress_link_d" title="Download" href="http://d1at8ppinvdju8.cloudfront.net/1/031/show_10311991_2017_10_04_03_35_15.mp3" rel="nofollow">Download</a></p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/blue-jays-plus-podcast/id705699884?mt=2"><img class="alignnone wp-image-63" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/itunes1.png" alt="itunes" width="168" height="62" /></a><a href="https://soundcloud.com/turfpod"><img class=" wp-image-9054 alignleft" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/02/soundcloud.jpg" alt="soundcloud" width="123" height="60" /></a></p>
<p>Follow the guys on twitter: <a title="@coolhead2010" href="https://twitter.com/coolhead2010" target="_blank">@coolhead2010</a> and <a title="@JoshuaHowsam" href="https://twitter.com/JoshuaHowsam" target="_blank">@JoshuaHowsam</a>.</p>
<p>Intro music is Slow Burn (<a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/" rel="cc:attributionURL">Kevin MacLeod</a>) under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" rel="license">CC BY 3.0</a>.</p>
<div><strong>Podcast Email</strong>-<a href="mailto:artificialturfwars@baseballprospectus.com" target="_blank">artificialturfwars@baseballprospectus.com</a> Please drop us a line if there is a guest you&#8217;d particularly like us to interview, to submit a question to <strong>Stump the Josh</strong>, or to simply give us feedback on the podcast. We&#8217;d love to hear from you!</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>How the Blue Jays View Shohei Otani</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/09/13/how-the-blue-jays-view-shohei-otani/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/09/13/how-the-blue-jays-view-shohei-otani/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Sep 2017 14:33:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gideon Turk]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mark shapiro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ross atkins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shohei Otani]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto Blue Jays]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Japanese sensation Shohei Otani seems to have finalized his decision to come to North America this winter and make the transition from Japanese baseball to MLB according to reports in Japan. Otani is only 23-years-old and is famed for his ability to hit and pitch extremely well. The Blue Jays are definitely interested in Otani, as a source within [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Japanese sensation Shohei Otani seems to have finalized his decision to come to North America this winter and make the transition from Japanese baseball to MLB <a href="https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/09/reports-from-japan-suggest-shohei-otani-will-request-to-be-posted.html" target="_blank">according to reports</a> in Japan. Otani is only 23-years-old and is famed for his ability to hit and pitch extremely well. The Blue Jays are definitely interested in Otani, as a source within the club told me that eight to ten members of the Blue Jays Front Office and scouting staff have been to Japan to watch the young phenom. So, how do the Blue Jays view Otani, and is it possible that they could land him this winter?</p>
<p>The source made it clear that the Blue Jays are interested in him beyond due diligence, evidenced by the fact that &#8220;it is not cheap&#8221; to send 8-10 members of the organization over to Japan to scout somebody. The source continued by saying that the Blue Jays will be involved in contract talks with Otani, &#8220;unless the money gets really crazy&#8221;, adding that if allowed, he would &#8220;give [Otani] the Stanton contract for sure and sleep at night.&#8221; That&#8217;s very high praise.</p>
<p>Despite this not seeming like something that is Mark Shapiro&#8217;s style, &#8220;this guy is the one who is unique&#8221; said the source, continuing with &#8220;most of us have never seen anything like him at his age&#8221;.</p>
<p>One flaw in this might be that the Blue Jays have already used some of their bonus money, and thus won&#8217;t be able to offer Otani as much as other clubs. However, the source said that when it comes to Otani, he gets the feeling that it is &#8220;about fit and future money,&#8221; and speculates that any contract the star player signs in MLB will have a handshake agreement on a long term deal once he has played for some time in North America.</p>
<p>The Blue Jays&#8217; main point of contact in Japan is Dan Evans, who the source says &#8220;has an outstanding relationship he has cultivated with the GM and President of Nippon [Ham],&#8221; the team Otani plays for currently in the NPB. Evans &#8220;has a lot of weight [in Japan], and has been working on this for at least four years,&#8221; according to the source with the Blue Jays. &#8220;[Evans] wants him badly,&#8221; he continued.</p>
<p>The Blue Jays are also in the midst of expanding their presence in Asia under their new Front Office. They are &#8220;indentifying and developing relationships now with the Japanese clubs for the future,&#8221; creating much more of a &#8220;process in Asia&#8221; than what existed under Paul Beeston and Alex Anthopoulos.</p>
<p>The source&#8217;s report also says that Otani&#8217;s tools are all &#8220;near the top of the scale, to go along with the maturity of a 35-year-old&#8221; despite being only 23 years of age. He was also said to have &#8220;the humility of the 25th man on the bench&#8221; and be &#8220;a manager&#8217;s dream.&#8221; The club believes he is a &#8220;likely Ace and an All-Star 30/30 RF type&#8221; who would likely DH in MLB, though the source believes Otani wants to go somewhere he can play in the outfield from time to time.</p>
<p>The Blue Jays will likely have a couple of openings in their outfield this winter, especially in right field, so that could come into play.</p>
<p>In my view, the Blue Jays landing Otani seems like a big reach, but it&#8217;s exciting nonetheless to see how involved they are in the process and the strides they are making in Asia as a whole for the future.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Dan Hamilton &#8211; USA Today Sports</em></p>
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		<title>The Unfortunate Result of a Clash of Baseball Ideologies</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/01/16/the-unfortunate-result-of-a-clash-of-baseball-ideologies/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/01/16/the-unfortunate-result-of-a-clash-of-baseball-ideologies/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jan 2017 13:20:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Gwin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Justin Smoak]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mark shapiro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ross atkins]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=8558</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s the middle of January and the Blue Jays have yet to make any big moves. Of course, there is technically still time. The free agent market is all but depleted of big names, but the team could still make a splash through trade. However, with each passing day, the possibility that a big trade [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It’s the middle of January and the Blue Jays have yet to make any big moves. Of course, there is technically still time. The free agent market is all but depleted of big names, but the team <i>could</i> still make a splash through trade. However, with each passing day, the possibility that a big trade happens before the season begins is becoming increasingly meager.</p>
<p>With that situation comes one major affirmation: the Blue Jays aren’t pushing to compete in 2017. This possibility had been suggested by some for a long time, but with no clear indication from management about their direction, and a Blue Jays team that probably <i>should </i>be pushing to compete, we had no confirmation as to whether or not it was true. However, with just 77 days left until Toronto’s first game of the 2017 season, a lackadaisical approach to 2017 is all but certain.</p>
<p>After two straight seasons of Blue Jays playoff games (and a helluva lot of excitement), fans are understandably uneasy about the shift in philosophy. Myself included.</p>
<p>The Jays didn’t get Dexter Fowler, nor did they sign Edwin Encarnacion. The coups—a term I use very lightly—of the offseason look like they’ll be Kendrys Morales and a <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/report-jose-bautista-active-contract-discussions-blue-jays/" target="_blank">36 year-old Jose Bautista</a> set for a full statuesque season in a corner outfield position. That’s bad.</p>
<p>Well, bad <em>IF</em> the aim is to seriously push to contend for a playoff spot. &#8216;Pushing&#8217; being, at the very least, filling out the roster holes with average players. But, as we determined above, that probably isn’t the case. If you get past the poor emotional optics of that idea, in the abstract, not mortgaging the future (prospect or payroll-wise) to contend in 2017 isn’t actually a crazy idea. The Blue Jays had the <a href="http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/rosters/_/sort/average_age/order/true" target="_blank">fourth oldest roster in the league</a> in 2016. With the departure of R.A. Dickey that average should come down slightly, but the roster still contains quite a few major pieces inching towards their mid 30s in Donaldson, Tulowitzki, Happ, Estrada, Morales, and Martin.</p>
<p>The problem, however, is that the 2016 offseason doesn’t happen in the abstract. Decisions made now must take in to account those made over the last few years, even prior to the Shapiro/Atkins regime. Specifically, in his last couple of seasons at the helm of the Blue Jays, Anthopoulos set the team on a trajectory: World Series contention.</p>
<p>It matters not that Mark Shapiro <a href="http://www.thescore.com/news/866843" target="_blank">didn’t want the Blue Jays to “[go] for broke,”</a> when he signed on with the team. By trading away Daniel Norris, Jeff Hoffman, and others, that’s the path that Anthopoulos and fans had rallied behind.</p>
<p>That presented an issue. Anthopoulos had <a href="http://m.mlb.com/news/article/40363638/" target="_blank">already used a glut of young players to acquire major league talent a few years sooner</a>, and the 2015 trades only further depleted the pipeline. It was for a good cause: a shot at a World Series victory. However, as you begin to trade away each new emerging talent, the major league club begins to lose its pipeline for depth. Now, in 2017, the Blue Jays <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2017/01/13/blue-jays-will-dig-deep-for-rotation-insurance-griffin.html" target="_blank">main rotational depth</a> comes in the form of <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=102603" target="_blank">one starter who struggled in AA</a>, and another who has <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=103743" target="_blank">yet to pitch above A-ball</a>. Elsewhere, there&#8217;s an <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=67078" target="_blank">outfielder who the team refuses to acknowledge</a> and a <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=58320" target="_blank">26 year-old &#8216;Catcher of the Future&#8217; who hasn&#8217;t yet had an MLB plate appearance</a>. That&#8217;s kind of it.</p>
<p>Of course, once a team has, &#8220;[gone] for broke,&#8221; with an aging roster there are ways to compensate for it. But, those ways include spending a lot of cash on a lot of players to fill a lot of positions. The Blue Jays could have done this&#8230;and I tend to think that Anthopoulos would have done this. He created a leviathan and he was going to keep feeding it until it went belly up. However, at the peak of the execution of Anthopoulos&#8217; vision, he was hung out to dry by a franchise in dire need of a modernized business direction. In came Mark Shapiro.</p>
<p>In Cleveland, Shapiro built a lot of wins on not a lot of cash. How? By creating and sustaining a pipeline of talent. A team can save a lot of money just by being able to fill out the edges of a roster with usable pre-arbitration players. In Toronto, the Blue Jays had high upside talent, but lack the talent at the upper minors. The pipeline was turned into a shot at the playoffs not once, but twice.</p>
<p>With an Anthopoulos-less Blue Jays team dropped in to his lap, Shapiro then had a new set of incentives and would have to create his own vision for the team. If his time in Cleveland is any indication, that vision is a sustainable winner. If he were to continue the trajectory that AA had set the team on then he&#8217;d be unlikely to reach that goal. The Blue Jays would have been much closer to a smart version of the 2012 Phillies than to the dynastically inclined Cardinals. In order to fix that the Jays don&#8217;t have to hit the brakes, but it does require easing off the gas a little bit. That means holding back on going for broke in 2017 in an attempt at future success. In doing so, Shapiro has to treat things like the David Price trade as a sunk cost. In economic terms, that makes perfect sense, but in emotional terms, it&#8217;s tough to accept.</p>
<p>People don&#8217;t like waiting, especially when the ultimate goal (a World Series victory) looks so incredibly attainable. Shapiro&#8217;s vision, if it is as I described, will likely result in more Septembers with meaningful baseball over the next five seasons. But, the further away from the present that you&#8217;re projecting, the more risky it is that anything you&#8217;re attempting to achieve comes true. As such, I&#8217;d love to see the team make a greater effort this season, but I can also see the strategy behind waiting. Further depleting the system and adding backloaded contracts will restrict the team of its resources in the years to come. However, so many resources have already been dedicated to this window: the Blue Jays aren&#8217;t far from serious contention in the AL East. In the end, there probably is no right answer from a strategic point-of-view, but it certainly doesn&#8217;t help your argument when you&#8217;re handing out <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=58692" target="_blank">multi-year extensions to below replacement level players</a>.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: © Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>Give the Blue Jays Off-Season Some Time</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/11/15/give-the-blue-jays-off-season-some-time/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/11/15/give-the-blue-jays-off-season-some-time/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2016 11:18:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gideon Turk]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Edwin Encarnacion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jose Bautista]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kendrys Morales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mark shapiro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ross atkins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto Blue Jays]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7935</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins&#8217; second winter at the helm of the this club, and they are tasked with the daunting assignment of trying to appease a fanbase that is thirsty for a winner after back-to-back ALCS appearances and exits. Getting the team back to the post-season will be harder in 2017 than it [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins&#8217; second winter at the helm of the this club, and they are tasked with the daunting assignment of trying to appease a fanbase that is thirsty for a winner after back-to-back ALCS appearances and exits. Getting the team back to the post-season will be harder in 2017 than it was in previous years though, because Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista are free agents, officially rejecting their qualifying offers yesterday. There are going to be a lot of narratives that emerge when we look back at this Blue Jays&#8217; off-season, and most of them will likely tie back to those two players; franchise cornerstones who will have their names on the Level of Excellence  once they finish their respective careers in the next decade. But as Jenn Smith <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/11/14/this-week-in-blue-jays/" target="_blank">discussed ever so eloquently</a> in this same space yesterday, there are other ways for the Blue Jays to go. This winter isn&#8217;t just about Jose Bautista and Encarnacion. The front office has already done their best to show us that in the opening few weeks.</p>
<p>Last year, when David Price was departing the Blue Jays, the same fan hysteria was taking place that is occupying social media now with Bautista and Encarnacion. At that time, Shapiro showed that he is able to separate business and emotion, and he let Price walk. However, before doing that, he secured back up plans. Instead of trying to replace Price, he took a page out of the <em>Moneyball</em> playbook and recreated him in the aggregate, spending money on bringing back Marco Estrada and J.A. Happ to Toronto. Both of those moves occurred early on in the off-season, before December 1st. Shapiro showed a willingness not to wait around for any one player or one team to decide what the market would look like. He got his guys at a price he liked, and pounced.</p>
<p>This winter, Shapiro and Atkins have done the same thing. They made an offer to Edwin Encarnacion, but it had an expiry date. They made it clear that they weren&#8217;t going to wait around and then be in a position to miss out on all their other options because their number one target was taking too long to make a decision. So, when Encarnacion rejected the offer &#8211; which <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-transformation-underway-two-franchise-icons-depart/" target="_blank">Shi Davidi reports</a> was around the range of four years/$80 million &#8211; the Blue Jays moved on to Kendrys Morales. That deal materialized quickly, and by Friday, reports had surfaced that the club and Morales had agreed to a three year deal with an AAV of $11 million.</p>
<p>But Kendrys Morales isn&#8217;t going to replace Edwin Encarnacion. He isn&#8217;t good enough to do that. However, just like last year, when J.A. Happ and Marco Estrada were able to replace the production of David Price, Morales will be able to do the job if he is supplemented with additional talent around him. The Blue Jays have lots of holes to fill right now. First base is open. So is a corner outfield spot. The same can be said for the backup catcher position. Morales wasn&#8217;t brought in to be Encarnacion, he was brought in to build the base of the foundation that will fill the hole Encarnacion&#8217;s likely departure has left. Compliment him with any of the plethora of options on the free agent market (Dexter Fowler, Steve Pearce, Josh Reddick, and Matt Holliday are all solid options) and suddenly, losing Edwin and Bautista doesn&#8217;t hurt the club too much, if at all. Thus, it is important to keep in mind that it is only November 15th. How many times, in off-seasons of the past, has a team stayed silent at the start of free agency only to end up as one of the &#8220;winners&#8221; of the winter? How about the opposite, when a team makes a big splash right away but does nothing else until Spring Training arrives? The baseball season is 162 games, and we tell ourselves daily from April through October to take that into consideration before making conclusions about any one team&#8217;s play. So, shouldn&#8217;t we take the same approach to the off-season, a just-as-grueling part of the calendar that isn&#8217;t won on one or two days?</p>
<p>Yes, we should.</p>
<p>The winter meetings are still close to a month away. There, some big deals will happen. The Blue Jays may or may not be in on them. However, it doesn&#8217;t necessarily matter if they are or not. If Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista are leaving, good for them. They deserve to get paid, but this team doesn&#8217;t need to be the team to do that. This team needs to be the team that makes smart business decisions that allow for the roster to be just as good or better than it was in 2016, and still make financial sense. That has started with Kendrys Morales, and it will continue, be it with a big power bat or a guy who can get on base and lead off.</p>
<p>Perspectives change. Right now, it may seem like the Blue Jays are replacing Edwin Encarnacion with Kendrys Morales. But that clearly is not the case. Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins are smart people. Give them a chance to work their magic. There are plenty of different ways to skin a cat. Not every one involves the two franchise icons that are going to require the big contracts.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>Blue Jays have the Perfect Excuse to use Bautista as DH</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/25/blue-jays-have-perfect-excuse-to-use-bautista-as-dh/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/25/blue-jays-have-perfect-excuse-to-use-bautista-as-dh/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Aug 2016 13:00:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Evan Peaslee]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[John Gibbons]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Melvin Upton Jr.]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Toronto Blue Jays]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[TORONTO – With the return of Kevin Pillar to the Toronto Blue Jays lineup Tuesday, and Jose Bautista expected to be back today it would seem that the club’s outfield picture just got a lot clearer. However, with further inspection it would seem that in actuality the water is about to become a whole lot [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>TORONTO – With the return of Kevin Pillar to the Toronto Blue Jays lineup Tuesday, and Jose Bautista expected to be back today it would seem that the club’s outfield picture just got a lot clearer. However, with further inspection it would seem that in actuality the water is about to become a whole lot murkier.</p>
<p>As my colleague <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/09/its-time-to-get-jose-bautista-out-of-the-outfield/">Matt Gwin suggested two weeks</a> ago, the logical move by the Jays might be to have Bautista, who is in the midst of an historically bad defensive season, stay out of the outfield altogether. This would let Melvin Upton Jr., Pillar, and Michael Saunders get the lion’s share of work.</p>
<p>Bautista is last on the club in defensive runs saved with -9, while Upton Jr. has +3 in his time in Toronto despite appearing in slightly more than a quarter of Bautista’s innings. However, the imminent return of Bautista likely won’t affect the club’s outfield hierarchy according to general manager Ross Atkins.</p>
<p>“(Bautista) will be playing every day.” Atkins said. “As long as his health is dictating that he’s feeling fine, recovering fine, he’ll be playing every day.</p>
<p>“BJ will be the guy that we acquired who can play all three (outfield spots), and when he’s not playing someone who can come off the bench and pinch hit, pinch run, pinch defensively, so providing depth.”</p>
<blockquote><p>“BJ will be the guy that we acquired who can play all three (outfield spots) and when he’s not playing someone who can come off the bench and pinch hit, pinch run, pinch defensively, so providing depth.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Maybe Atkins is toeing the company line and staying sensitive to a clubhouse leader who has been unselfish by putting the team first and his personal stats second time and time again this season. Maybe he even believes that for whatever reason (unannounced injuries, hitting ability, etc.), the Jays are better off with Bautista in the outfield.</p>
<p>At the plate the 35-year-old is batting just .129 with one home run, one RBI, and a .250 on-base percentage when not in right field this season, albeit in just nine games and 36 plate appearances. That could certainly be part of Atkins&#8217; decision, however historically his slash line is a tidy .267/.380/.503 with 14 home runs, 51 RBIs, and 44 runs scored in 288 at-bats as a designated hitter.</p>
<p>Whatever the reasoning behind it, it seems unlikely Bautista will move from his usual spot in the outfield. That is unless Gibbons has found a way to put his best defensive and offensive lineup out there with a convenient, and ego-saving excuse; Bautista’s left knee injury.</p>
<p>“When Jose comes back, he’s probably coming back Thursday, he’s going to need to DH a lot with his knee,” Gibbons said prior to his <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/23/recap-blue-jays-7-angels-2-blue-jays-break-seventh-seal-silence-angels/">club’s 7-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels</a> Tuesday. “It feels good, but I think it’s the smart thing to do.”</p>
<p>Admittedly, little has been revealed about the Dominican Republic native’s left knee injury outside of it being a grade-1 sprain, so maybe it’s still not fully healed and won’t be for some time. But it does make it a little bit easier for Gibbons to put Bautista at DH when he returns.</p>
<p>Furthermore, with Upton starting to find his stroke a little, hitting .290/.343/.581 over his last nine games and .255/.302/.447 with three home runs and nine RBIs in his past 14 games entering Tuesday, it would mean his spot in the batting lineup wouldn&#8217;t be a complete black hole devoid of offense and with limited returns.</p>
<p>Something else that Gibbons has noted is how Upton&#8217;s comfort levels with his surroundings, new city and teammates over the past little while are likely contributing to his recent success. This is something that would bode well for the future.</p>
<p>“I think he’s settled in here, he’s comfortable here,” Gibbons said. “I’ve said it before… you’re in a new environment you naturally want things to get off to a great start. Your tendency is to press and try to make things happen, in baseball that works against you. It always does, or always seems to.&#8221;</p>
<p>As the season continues Gibbons said that Upton&#8217;s &#8220;going to play a lot.”</p>
<p>Time will tell how much playing time Upton Jr. will see and in what role down the stretch drive. For Gibbons, however, it only makes sense to optimize your lineup with what works best for the club both offensively and defensively moving forward, and it appears there’s at least a possibility that Bautista will be found focusing more on his hitting and less on chasing down fly balls in the future if the manager has his way. He has the prefect excuse to make it happen.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>The 9 Biggest Bullpen Blowups in Jays History</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/24/the-9-biggest-bullpen-blowups-in-jays-history/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/24/the-9-biggest-bullpen-blowups-in-jays-history/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Aug 2016 15:53:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Elie Waitzer]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anthopoulos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blue jays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bullpen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jesse Chavez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ross atkins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Feldman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sergio Santos]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=5761</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The 2016 trade deadline didn&#8217;t come close to matching the euphoric highs of the 2015 deadline. You can&#8217;t trump David Price and Troy Tulowitzki. Nobody was asking first-year GM Ross Atkins to shock the world, and most Jays fans were impressed with the shrewd, but impactful acquisitions he did make. And the depth provided by Melvin Upton [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The 2016 trade deadline didn&#8217;t come close to matching the euphoric highs of the 2015 deadline. You can&#8217;t trump David Price and Troy Tulowitzki. Nobody was asking first-year GM Ross Atkins to shock the world, and most Jays fans were impressed with the shrewd, but impactful acquisitions he did make. And the depth provided by Melvin Upton Jr. and Francisco Liriano has already proved invaluable with all the outfield injuries and Sanchez&#8217; mini-vacation to Florida.</p>
<p>But if you&#8217;ve been following this team since the Ricciardi days, then perhaps the decisions to ship Jesse Chavez and Drew Storen off in exchange for <em>other relievers</em> was more stunning than last year&#8217;s fireworks. Toronto had never shelled out millions on a rental ace at the deadline, but it&#8217;s also not the Blue Jay way to throw out their bullpen garbage and roll the dice with fresh arms.</p>
<p>The last time I can remember something like this happening was when Anthopoulos traded away the struggling Francisco Cordero (along with Ben Francisco and a minor league package highlighted by our dear friend Joe Musgrove) to Houston in exchange for J.A. Happ and two relievers.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not like Scott Feldman was a clear upgrade over Chavez (as we <a href="http://www.torontosun.com/2016/08/02/new-blue-jay-feldman-tagged-for-loss-against-former-team">found out</a> the very same day), but it&#8217;s at least a shake-up, a change of scenery, a middle finger to inertia. Standing pat with a struggling bullpen <em>can</em> be perceived as a show of confidence in your guys, but when you stand pat year after year it starts to reek of complacency.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not saying that Atkins revolutionized the bullpen. Being in a position to land Andrew Miller would&#8217;ve been nice, or Jeremy Jeffress. But Toronto&#8217;s relievers have accumulated the 1.5 WARP as a group since the break, trailing only the Yankees and Rangers by that metric. The Cleveland series may have taken some winds out of some sails, but while this bullpen is more or less the same as it was talent-wise, it <em>feels</em> different somehow &#8211; more energized, dependable.</p>
<p>So in honour of Atkins&#8217; refusal to go gently into that good night, I&#8217;ve decided to open up the vault and look back at some of the team&#8217;s worst bullpen moments over the past unkind decade. You&#8217;re probably already cycling through some names in your head: Jon Rauch, Sergio Santos, Frank Francisco. Maybe you&#8217;ve got a better memory: Tomo Ohka, Brian Tallet, Jesse Litsch. I&#8217;m really sorry if I made you think even for a second today about <a href="http://torontolife.com/city/toronto-sports/blue-jays-jo-jo-reyes-almost-sets-a-new-record-for-futility/">Jo-Jo Reyes</a>.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve already rambled too long, so I&#8217;ll keep the methodology explanation simple. I used the Baseball Reference Play Index to search for all the appearances under 1.0 IP by a Toronto reliever since 1977 and sorted the list by <a href="//www.fangraphs.com/wins.aspx?date=2014-09-05&amp;team=Red Sox&amp;dh=0&amp;season=2014&quot;&gt;FanGraphs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;">Wins Probability Added (WPA)</a>. WPA has nothing to do with how good a pitcher is, it&#8217;s entirely based on context &#8211; this isn&#8217;t a ranking of the worst Blue Jays relievers. Here&#8217;s the <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/game_finder.cgi?type=p#gotresults&amp;as=result_pitcher&amp;offset=0&amp;match=basic&amp;suffix=&amp;min_year_game=1977&amp;max_year_game=2016&amp;series=any&amp;series_game=any&amp;playoffs=&amp;WL=any&amp;game_length=any&amp;team_id=TOR&amp;team_lg=&amp;opp_id=&amp;opp_lg=&amp;use_dh=&amp;throws=any&amp;HV=any&amp;game_site=&amp;temperature_min=0&amp;temperature_max=120&amp;wind_speed_min=0&amp;wind_speed_max=90&amp;wind_direction_tolf=1&amp;wind_direction_tocf=1&amp;wind_direction_torf=1&amp;wind_direction_fromlf=1&amp;wind_direction_fromcf=1&amp;wind_direction_fromrf=1&amp;wind_direction_ltor=1&amp;wind_direction_rtol=1&amp;wind_direction_unknown=1&amp;precipitation_unknown=1&amp;precipitation_none=1&amp;precipitation_drizzle=1&amp;precipitation_showers=1&amp;precipitation_rain=1&amp;precipitation_snow=1&amp;sky_unknown=1&amp;sky_sunny=1&amp;sky_cloudy=1&amp;sky_overcast=1&amp;sky_night=1&amp;sky_dome=1&amp;Role=noGS&amp;DEC=any&amp;number_matched=1&amp;orderby=wpa_def&amp;order_by_asc=1&amp;c1criteria=IPouts&amp;c1gtlt=lt&amp;c1val=1&amp;c2criteria=&amp;c2gtlt=eq&amp;c2val=0&amp;c3criteria=&amp;c3gtlt=eq&amp;c3val=0&amp;c4criteria=&amp;c4gtlt=eq&amp;c4val=0&amp;c5criteria=&amp;c5gtlt=eq&amp;c5val=1.0&amp;c6criteria=&amp;location=pob&amp;locationMatch=is&amp;pob=&amp;pod=&amp;pcanada=&amp;pusa=&amp;firstgames=&amp;startgames=&amp;lastgames=&amp;firstteamgames=&amp;startteamgames=&amp;lastteamgames=&amp;ajax=1&amp;submitter=1&amp;z=1&amp;z=1">full list</a> if you&#8217;re interested.</p>
<h4><strong>9. -0.913 WPA: Casey Janssen (September 5, 2014)</strong></h4>
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&amp;static=0&amp;type=wins&amp;num=0&amp;h=450&amp;w=450&amp;date=2014-09-05&amp;team=Red Sox&amp;dh=0" width="450" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" ></iframe>
<p>After the Red Sox rallied for three runs in the bottom of the 8th against Aaron Loup to send the game to extras, Dioner Navarro singled in Marcus Stroman &#8211; who was pinch running for Edwin Encarnacion &#8211; and the Jays retook the lead with a two-run 10th. Boston had a 9.4% Win Expectancy when closer Casey Janssen entered the bottom of the 10th. Four straight singles and a sac-fly later and Boston&#8217;s Win Expectancy was up to 71% with men on first and second.</p>
<p>With the score knotted at 8-8, David Ortiz grounded sharply to second baseman Steve Tolleson, who had come on as a defensive replacement for Munenori Kawasaki. Instead of starting an inning-ending double play, Tolleson&#8217;s throw sailed past second base and set the stage for Yoenis Cespedes&#8217; walk-off single.</p>
<h4><strong>8. -0.917 WPA: Kevin Gregg (May 20, 2010)</strong></h4>
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&amp;static=0&amp;type=wins&amp;num=0&amp;h=450&amp;w=450&amp;date=2010-05-20&amp;team=Mariners&amp;dh=0" width="450" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" ></iframe>
<p>Kevin Gregg somehow saved 37 games for Toronto during a 2010 season in which the starting five featured Ricky Romero, Shaun Marcum, Brett Cecil, Brandon Morrow, and Mark Rzepczynski. He was a pretty good pitcher by 2010 Jays standards, but it&#8217;s funny how a few terrible appearances colour our memory of a player.</p>
<p>The Mariners entered the bottom of the 9th down two runs with a Win Expectancy of 8%, and quickly got within a run on two singles and two walks. Gregg then recorded his only out of the inning on a sac-fly that tied things up before allowing a walk-off single to Ken Griffey Jr.</p>
<h4><strong>7. -0.923 WPA: Sergio Santos (May 2, 2014)</strong></h4>
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&amp;static=0&amp;type=wins&amp;num=0&amp;h=450&amp;w=450&amp;date=2014-05-02&amp;team=Pirates&amp;dh=0" width="450" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" ></iframe>
<p>What happened with Santos in 2014 reminds me a lot of Storen this year. Electric stuff, previous success&#8230; cringe-worthy trainwreck. After serving up a game-tying two-run jack to Pedro Alvarez which brought Pittsburgh Win Expectancy from 9% to 57%, Santos got a quick fly out before Starling Marte crushed a 2-1 offering for a walk-off win. It was Santos third blown save in a little over a month as the Jays closer.</p>
<h4><strong>6. -0.946 WPA: Mike Timlin (July 15, 1996)</strong></h4>
<p><iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&amp;static=0&amp;type=wins&amp;num=0&amp;h=450&amp;w=450&amp;date=1996-07-15&amp;team=Orioles&amp;dh=0" width="450" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" ></iframe></span></p>
<p>The O&#8217;s needed four runs in the bottom of the 9th to win this one. They got five. Cal Ripken Jr. led things off by reaching on a fielding error, and two batters later Bobby Bonilla tied things up with a three-run shot. Timlin struck out the next batter, and Manager Cito Gaston left him in to close out the bottom of the lineup.</p>
<p>Didn&#8217;t quite work out that way. Pinch-hitter Luis Polonia bunted on the first pitch and narrowly beat out the throw, setting the stage for a walk-off homer by catcher Chris Hoiles.</p>
<h4><strong>5. -0.947 WPA: Darren Hall (June 4, 1995)</strong></h4>
<p><iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&amp;static=0&amp;type=wins&amp;num=0&amp;h=450&amp;w=450&amp;date=1995-06-04&amp;team=Indians&amp;dh=0" width="450" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" ></iframe></span></p>
<p>The high-powered Jays offence scored seven runs in the 1st inning of this game, but an uncharacteristically terrible start from David Cone made it an 8-6 game heading into the 9th. Still, the Indians had just a 5% Win Expectancy after Carlos Baerga failed to bunt his way on base to lead things off. A couple of singles and an RBI groundout by Jim Thome got Cleveland to within a run, but their Win Expectancy was still just at 11%.</p>
<p>Down to their last out, first baseman Paul Sorrento stepped up to the plate and belted the first pitch he saw from Hall into the seats to give the Indians the win. One swing, -0.890 WPA. The craziest thing is that Hall only threw eight pitches in the appearance.</p>
<h4><strong>4. -0.950 WPA: Casey Janssen (September 10, 2007)</strong></h4>
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&amp;static=0&amp;type=wins&amp;num=0&amp;h=450&amp;w=450&amp;date=2007-09-10&amp;team=Tigers&amp;dh=0" width="450" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" ></iframe>
<p>Almost exactly a year after sending Detroit to the World Series with a walk-off home run against the A&#8217;s in Game 6 of the ALCS, Magglio Ordonez came to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the 9th and his team down a run in a game with important Wild Card implications.</p>
<p>Roy Halladay was toying with the Tigers all night, and after getting a quick ground ball double play to start the 9th it looked like Doc was headed for another complete game. Detroit had a 1% Win Expectancy when Sean Casey singled, and after another single Gibby pulled Halladay for Janssen.</p>
<p>As a general rule, even if Halladay has thrown 123 pitches, you don&#8217;t pull him for anyone with one out left. Janssen proceeded to load the bases before throwing an 0-0 meatball that Ordonez slapped into right for a two-run walk-off single.</p>
<h4><strong>3. -0.954 WPA: Jeremy Accardo (September 8, 2007)</strong></h4>
<p><iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&amp;static=0&amp;type=wins&amp;num=0&amp;h=450&amp;w=450&amp;date=2007-09-08&amp;team=Devil Rays&amp;dh=0" width="450" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" ></iframe></span></p>
<p>Just <em>two days</em> before the Ordonez walk-off, a skinny center fielder named B.J. Upton came to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the 9th and his team down a run in a game that didn&#8217;t matter at all for either team.</p>
<p>This one had played out a lot like the Ordonez game: Jays starter A.J. Burnett cruised through eight innings before handing the ball over to Accardo to wrap things up. An error by Troy Glaus opened the door for a two-run shot by Delmon Young, but Accardo recovered with a quick grounder for out number two and the Rays Win Expectancy was back down to 5%. Accardo would proceed to walk Jonny Gomes before serving up a first pitch walk-off homer to Upton.</p>
<h4><strong>2. -0.959 WPA: Dennis Lamp (August 16, 1984)</strong></h4>
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&amp;static=0&amp;type=wins&amp;num=0&amp;h=450&amp;w=450&amp;date=1984-08-16&amp;team=Indians&amp;dh=0" width="450" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" ></iframe>
<p>What do Pat Tabler, Brook Jacoby, and Joe Carter have in common? They were all on the 1984 Cleveland Indians. Really makes you think!</p>
<p>Looking to close out a quality start from Dave Stieb, Lamp allowed four straight base runners to open the 9th. With the bases loaded, Lamp briefly recovered to get two quick outs before giving up a walk-off two-run double to DH Andre Thornton.</p>
<h4><strong>1. -0.960 WPA: Cliff Politte (June 7, 2003)</strong></h4>
<p><iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&amp;static=0&amp;type=wins&amp;num=0&amp;h=450&amp;w=450&amp;date=2003-06-07&amp;team=Reds&amp;dh=0" width="450" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" ></iframe></span></p>
<p>The main reason why Politte takes the top spot is that WPA is an aggregated stat, and for some reason he was allowed to throw 32 pitches in this outing. Even after allowing a game-tying three-run homer to Jason LaRue, Jays Manager Carlos Tosca didn&#8217;t think to yank him. Maybe the <a href="http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/06/phillies-bullpen-phone-off-the-hook-francoeur">bullpen phone was broken</a> that night.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>This Week in Blue Jays: The Good, The Bad, and the Better</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/05/08/this-week-in-blue-jays-it-was/</link>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 08 May 2016 10:49:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jenn Smith]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[This Week in Blue Jays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chris Colabello]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kevin Pillar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mark shapiro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ross atkins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Russell Martin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=2420</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s been a good week for the Toronto Blue Jays. After ending the month of April three games below .500 with a 11-14 record – a month in which both the offense and bullpen struggled mightily – the Jays welcomed May with open arms and have begun the month 5-2 and are now an even [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It’s been a good week for the Toronto Blue Jays.</p>
<p>After ending the month of April three games below .500 with a 11-14 record – a month in which both the offense and bullpen struggled mightily – the Jays welcomed May with open arms and have begun the month 5-2 and are now an even 16-16 in 2016, which is exactly where they were after the first 32 games of their historic 2015 season. What is more important than their recent four-game win streak, perhaps, is the fact that there are signs of improvement in some of the more troubling areas of concern.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s still early (notice how that line is never used when a team gets off to a good start?), there are two critical reasons why it&#8217;s vital that the Jays step up their game. First, despite their slow start, the Jays sit just 2.5 games back of the Baltimore Orioles for first in the A.L. East, and although anything can happen over the course of a 162-game season, it would be nice to take advantage of the (currently) weak division. Second, <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-shapiro-nobody-satisfied/" target="_blank">Mark Shapiro stated</a> towards the end of April that he works hard &#8220;not to draw any conclusions until 40 games in&#8221;, a threshold upon which the Jays are quickly closing in. <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/baseball/blue-jays-put-on-slugfest-win-third-straight-against-rangers/article29909699/" target="_blank">Ross Atkins has also said</a> that the &#8220;it&#8217;s early&#8221; excuse has just about run its course, and that after thirty games one has enough information to start evaluating trends. It is entirely possible based on these comments that if these two decision-makers are unsatisfied with what they&#8217;ve seen from this team, they may make some changes before the month of May has concluded.</p>
<p>It was a turn-around week for Justin Smoak, who has been thrust into the every day first baseman role due to Chris Colabello&#8217;s 80-game drug suspension. Smoak, who had been effectively replaced by Colabello during the playoffs, hit just .189/.375/.216 during March/April. This month, he is .389/.500/.722 with two home runs &#8211; one to tie Tuesday&#8217;s game in the bottom of the ninth against the Texas Rangers, and one to win the game in the bottom of the tenth. Not only did this kick off the four-game win streak, but his first home run also ended a <a href="http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/justin-smoak-homers-in-9th-to-tie-it-again-in-10th-to-win-it-050316" target="_blank">14-inning scoreless drought</a>. Given that he no longer has his platoon mate, it is imperative that Smoak be able to contribute offensively.</p>
<p>One of the most &#8220;concerning&#8221; players thus far, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/2016/04/30/blue-jays-slow-start-in-april-no-cause-for-concern-griffin.html" target="_blank">Richard Griffin of The Star suggests</a>, is Russell Martin. As Griffin points out,  &#8220;The Canadian catcher has had slow starts in the past, but when his batting average has been low he would draw walks and keep his OPS reasonable. He reported to camp in better shape, lighter than he had ever been, but his bat has been AWOL.&#8221; With the hopes of turning his season around, Martin shaved his famous beard when the calendar turned to May, sporting just a mustache that has been affectionately referred to on Twitter as the &#8220;Russtache&#8221;.</p>
<p>Sans facial hair, Russell Martin has been &#8220;<a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/rejuvenated-russell-martin-playing-like-man-possessed-blue-jays/" target="_blank">playing like a man possessed</a>&#8220;, writes Sportsnet&#8217;s Shi Davidi after Martin hit a bases-loaded game-winning single on Wednesday night to give the Jays their second walk-off win in a row. And, though it&#8217;s a small sample size, Martin I hitting .263/.300/.263 thus far in May, compared to .150/.224/.167 in March/April. Said Martin: &#8220;Sometimes you&#8217;ve just got to keep things simple and one of the best parts of my game is just what I put into it&#8230;When you get your mind right, you don&#8217;t take anything for granted. Keep it as simple as possible, tomorrow is never guaranteed. My goal is to try and play today&#8217;s game like tomorrow is not guaranteed&#8230;that&#8217;s how I&#8217;m going to go about it&#8230;I&#8217;m going to go hard.&#8221; Whether his slow start was due to injury (he had been suffering from neck spasms) or some other factor, his bat is just one that must heat up if last season&#8217;s best offense in baseball is going to defend their championship this season.</p>
<p>Thursday&#8217;s game against the Rangers was a laugher, as the struggling Edwin Encarnacion <a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/encarnacion-drives-in-6-runs-as-blue-jays-crush-rangers-12-2-1.2890322" target="_blank">drove in six runs </a>(in the first two innings!) to help crush the Rangers 12-2. It was the first time this season that the Jays scored double-digit runs (something they had accomplished six times in the first thirty games last year) and was the first true glimpse of the dominant offense seen in 2015. It felt as though such a catharsis was needed by the team and fan base alike, if for no other reason than to be reminded of just how much <em>fun</em> baseball is.</p>
<p>On Friday night against the Dodgers, it was Kevin Pillar&#8217;s turn to play hero, jacking a three-runner home run in the bottom of the eighth to break a 2-2 tie and give the Jays their fourth consecutive win. No one was more surprised than Pillar, who has been shuffled between the lead-off spot and batting eighth in the order due to his early-season slump, that he was able to put one over the fence. When asked if he knew he had hit it out of the yard, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/mlb/jays-dodgers-pillar-1.3571589" target="_blank">Pillar responded</a> &#8220;Oh, I don&#8217;t hit enough of them to know that they&#8217;re going to be homers.&#8221; The beauty of it, aside from the fact that the offensive production came from an unexpected source, is that Smoak had been intentionally walked ahead of Pillar despite only one out in the inning. Again, it&#8217;s a small sample size, but Pillar is batting .391/.440/.696 this month, while continuing to provide the <a href="http://m.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article/176770040/kevin-pillar-makes-another-great-catch" target="_blank">Superman-esque defense</a> for which he&#8217;s become known.</p>
<p>A hot Kevin Pillar means that pitchers can no longer bat around the big boppers to get to an easier match-up; it may also mean that Pillar will see more time at lead-off, which seems to be John Gibbons&#8217; preferred spot for him in the lineup. Regardless of batting order, a hot bat in Pillar&#8217;s hand ought to bolster the offense, at least until some of the other bats fully wake up.</p>
<p>What exactly does all of this mean? I&#8217;m not yet prepared to shout from the rooftops that the Jays&#8217; offense has finally figured it out, the results this week have been promising. If it&#8217;s too early in the season to say that the Jays are terrible, then it is also too early to say that what we&#8217;ve seen this week is what we can expect the rest of the season. However, I do believe they&#8217;ve turned a corner and that fans should be optimistic. In a radio hit with Mike Richards on TSN 1050, Blue Jays analysis Dirk Hayhurst <a href="http://www.tsn.ca/radio/toronto-1050/hayhurst-blue-jays-finally-starting-to-show-their-potential-1.485059" target="_blank">provided a voice of reason </a>when he said the Jays, &#8220;showed better baseball poise,&#8221; during the close games than when they&#8217;re able to beat up on a pitcher, and that there is some &#8220;psychological roll-over&#8221; when a player has a good game. Combine that with the fact that the starting pitching has thus far been exceptional and the bullpen is beginning to get it together, the Jays as a whole may not quite yet have it all figured out, but they are finally demonstrating their potential.</p>
<p>Quick Hits:</p>
<ul>
<li> Brett Cecil, who has struggled out of the bullpen this season, <a href="http://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/1000933%20" target="_blank">responded to fans </a>who have taken to booing him recently. “One thing I will say If you’re going to boo me, don’t cheer for me when I’m pitching good.” Jays fans are not wrong about Cecil&#8217;s performance to date this season &#8211; he is the first reliever to post a 0-5 record in the month of April since 1913, which is when Major League Baseball began keeping records. Some fans seems to forget, however, that beginning June 24 last season, Cecil had a 37-game streak in which he did not surrender a single earned run. Fans &#8211; if you purchase a ticket to a game, you most certainly have the right to boo a player. Conversely, I (and others who share my mindset) have the right to judge you as a lousy fan. Remember that these players are human beings who go through ups and downs in life and in their careers just like the rest of us, and that booing members of your own team when the are struggling says more about you than it does about them.</li>
<li>The series against the L.A. Dodgers meant a return to Toronto for former general manager Alex Anthopoulos. In a press conference with Toronto media, he <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2016/05/06/alex-anthopoulos-still-a-jays-fan-after-all-these-months-griffin.html%20" target="_blank">reminisced about what could have been</a> had the Jays traded for Ben Zobrist, and discussed his relationship with Jays’ ownership. He said his dream is for the Blue Jays to play the Dodgers in the World Series &#8211; which, quite frankly, is a dream of mine. (As a follow-up, Ian Hunter posed <a href="http://bluejayhunter.com/2016/05/5-unanswered-questions-alex-anthopoulos-era.html" target="_blank">five lingering questions</a> about the Alex Anthopoulos era that he, and others, would love to have answered.)</li>
<li>Free agent and two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum threw 41 pitches in a showcase for interested scouts. The former Giants pitcher is hoping to make a return to the big leagues after undergoing hip surgery, and the <a href="https://twitter.com/LottOnBaseball/status/727580223022223361%20" target="_blank">Jays were amongst the teams</a> who took a look at what he had to offer. Make of that what you will.</li>
<li>And, finally. After recording his first big-league win on Tuesday, Joe Biagini gave a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBT5HNTf2iM&amp;feature=share%20" target="_blank">post-game interview </a>that was, well, a tad unconventional. I’m just going to let the video speak for itself.</li>
</ul>
<p>One final thing: you have no doubt seen the devastating images out of Fort MacMurray of the wildfire that has left tens of thousands of people homeless while running for their lives. The Blue Jays have created an <a href="http://auctions.mlb.com/iSynApp/allAuction.action?sid=1101001&amp;selectedCatId=13000&amp;query=&amp;sort=timeleft_asc&amp;qMode=open&amp;rc=25&amp;layout=grid&amp;pgmode1=teamsite&amp;pgmode2=&amp;pgmode3=&amp;pgcust1=jays&amp;pgcust2=&amp;pgcust3=&amp;&amp;qt[0].type=openbrac&amp;qt[1].type=openbrac&amp;qt[2].type=fieldmatch&amp;qt[2].name=panname_partnername_s&amp;qt[2].value1=mlb&amp;qt[3].type=operor&amp;qt[4].type=fieldmatch&amp;qt[4].name=panname_partnername_s&amp;qt[4].value1=team&amp;qt[5].type=closebrac&amp;qt[6].type=operand&amp;qt[7].type=fieldmatch&amp;qt[7].name=panname_teamname_s&amp;qt[7].value1=jays&amp;qt[8].type=closebrac&amp;rs=25&amp;partnerId=ed-10295381-894244913" target="_blank">auction to help raise money for the Red Cross</a> to assist in the aid relief. You can also text FIRES to 45678 to make a $10 donation. As of Friday, fans making a purchase in the Jays Shop could add a donation to their purchase. The Canadian government has pledged to match all public donations, so please &#8211; give generously.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>Where You Can Validly Criticize Mark Shapiro: Diversity</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/23/the-one-place-where-you-can-validly-criticize-mark-shapiro-diversity/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/23/the-one-place-where-you-can-validly-criticize-mark-shapiro-diversity/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Mar 2016 10:02:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael Bradburn]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alex anthopoulos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mark shapiro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ross atkins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tony lacava]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=537</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s been an awful lot of focus on the Blue Jays new President of Baseball Operations over the offseason. If you don&#8217;t believe me, you can take a glance at this petition for his dismissal, which has amassed more than 1300 signatures. This thinking follows from the topic of my last essay &#8211; an interesting, somewhat unhappy quirk of [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There&#8217;s been an <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/mlb/toronto-blue-jays-president-mark-shapiro-more-concerned-with-winning-than-being-well-liked">awful lot of focus</a> on the Blue Jays new President of Baseball Operations over the offseason. If you don&#8217;t believe me, you can take a glance at <a href="https://www.change.org/p/rogers-communications-inc-fire-mark-shapiro-and-resign-alex-anthopoulos">this petition</a> for his dismissal, which has amassed more than 1300 signatures. This thinking follows from the topic of <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/11/where-canada-fits-in-americas-pastime/">my last essay</a> &#8211; an interesting, somewhat unhappy quirk of the Canadian baseball fan. While Mark Shapiro may not deserve the ire of Blue Jays fans, <em>one</em> thing he did during the offseason does follow a troubling trend in baseball: the hiring of Ross Atkins.</p>
<p>Prior to actually getting into this, I don&#8217;t want to imply that I think poorly of either Shapiro or Atkins, personally. However, it has become clear that baseball is heading into an era of exclusivity that desperately needs correcting.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s start with Shapiro. When Alex Anthopoulos stepped down, there was a very brief period of time where Shapiro acted as the general manager. However, that was quickly remedied by throwing an interim tag on Tony LaCava. LaCava, a Smart Baseball Man™, has been an assistant general manager with the Blue Jays since 2007. Although his original hiring actually predates the Anthopoulos era, he has, rightly or wrongly, been labeled as an &#8216;<a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-to-name-tony-lacava-interim-general-manager/">Anthopoulos guy</a>&#8216;. LaCava&#8217;s tenure would last less than a month, as Shapiro interviewed only few other candidates before deciding on current GM Ross Atkins.</p>
<p>Atkins could also be a Smart Baseball Man™. Frankly, I&#8217;m not sure. And Shapiro could be the Smartest Baseball Man™ that made an extremely Smart Baseball Decision™ by hiring Atkins. Or, conversely, the qualifications to get become a general manager in baseball have become misguided.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s look at those qualifications, shall we. Atkins has more than 14 years of baseball executive experience. He has worked his way from assistant director of player development to vice president of player personnel. It&#8217;s an impressive resume for certain. It is also one that may definitely qualify him to become a general manager. Through hard work and determination, Atkins has most-assuredly made himself a suitable candidate.</p>
<p>For those that don&#8217;t know, Atkins&#8217; former boss with his previous organization, and thereby the person at least partially responsible for some of those promotions, was Shapiro. Shapiro came from the Cleveland Indians and promptly poached an old colleague. There&#8217;s a lot to take in about that fact, but let&#8217;s make the fewest assumptions possible and say Shapiro really does like Atkins&#8217; work ethic and thinks he has gotten to where he is on merit.</p>
<p>Perhaps Shapiro and Atkins find it easy to work together just because they have before. Because they had a good rapport in prior work environments. Because they are like-minded individuals. These are by no means outlandish theories. The optimist may look at the last one and suggest that Atkins and Shapiro may not be like-minded insofar as they have simply found effective ways to deal with their differences. To me, that&#8217;s semantics.</p>
<p>Meg Rowley <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=28120">discussed this inequity</a> similarly mere months ago when Jerry Dipoto hired Scott Servais. Servais, who had worked as an executive under Dipoto with the Los Angeles Angels, was hired by the Seattle Mariners following the 2015 season to manage the team. What makes Servais different? He had absolutely zero managerial experience.</p>
<p>This inequity in baseball front offices stems from a really difficult question to answer: What makes someone qualified? For any job even. For some jobs, that question is easier. To teach at the university level, a PhD is required. For others it gets a tad trickier. While administrative jobs prefer some form of formal training, it isn&#8217;t actually a requirement and experience is favoured. So what does it actually take to be a general manager in sports?</p>
<p>Shapiro has a better understanding of that answer than I do. I&#8217;m certain of that and will concede that fact. However, I&#8217;m not certain he made the correct choice. Even more troubling though, it appears as though the correct process wasn&#8217;t even fulfilled; that due diligence wasn&#8217;t met. And Shapiro can get away with it because we all have no idea what it takes to be a general manager.</p>
<p>Perhaps Atkins just really is that good, but how does Shapiro know that if he didn&#8217;t interview other candidates? If he didn&#8217;t &#8216;broaden the talent pool.&#8217; At the very least, show Toronto, the most populous city in a country growing in culture, that you care about diversity.</p>
<p>By my count there will be only four non-white GMs or Presidents in baseball next season: Dave Stewart, Farhan Zaidi, Kenny Williams, and Michael Hill. And that&#8217;s where the inequity becomes most glaring. That&#8217;s both grossly unfortunate and unrepresentative. I would contend that it isn&#8217;t for a lack of qualified candidates either. Instead, it&#8217;s due entirely to the fact that executives get to a discourse on &#8216;inside baseball&#8217; with zero culpability. It is because teams perpetuate a false narrative that <em>they</em> know what makes a truly good executive, and the public is forced to agree because we don&#8217;t have the means to prove them wrong.</p>
<p>Frankly, I&#8217;m tired of hearing about this. I hope you are too. At this point, I&#8217;m really tired of writing about Shapiro even. For what it&#8217;s worth, he seems like a savvy business man and I hope he&#8217;s able to make the Rogers Centre resemble Progressive Field. Mostly though, I&#8217;m looking forward to writing about actual baseball. However, not talking about this has gone on for too long. Baseball should not operate outside of basic human resource principles. It&#8217;s unfortunate that it has. It has been easy to avert our gaze, but doing so has led us to a league that will only have two persons of colour managing clubhouses next season. And that&#8217;s not even addressing the abhorrent gender gap.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t know what makes a good executive, but I do know that promoting diversity should be on that rubric. It&#8217;s time we make it a requirement.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
<p><em>Correction: This article originally stated that the Jays interviewed only two candidates for the GM position; they interviewed four. It also stated that there are only four non-white baseball executives, when the writer intended to say that there are only four non-white GMs or Presidents.</em></p>
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		<title>Ross Atkins Speaks: Change to Gibbons Contract, Pitching, Pompey, and More</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/21/ross-atkins-interview-john-gibbons-dalton-pompey-pitching/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/21/ross-atkins-interview-john-gibbons-dalton-pompey-pitching/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Mar 2016 15:40:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ewan Ross]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dalton Pompey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Depth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Gibbons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Saunders]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ross atkins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Starting Pitching]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=552</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sunday night, Sirius XM’s MLB Network’s Spring Training Tour reached Dunedin and the Blue Jays camp. As part of that program MLB Network hosts Todd Hollandsworth &#38; Steve Phillips interviewed new Toronto GM, Ross Atkins. You can listen to the Gibbons portion of the audio here, but I&#8217;ve pulled a few extra notable quotes to come out [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sunday night, Sirius XM’s MLB Network’s Spring Training Tour reached Dunedin and the Blue Jays camp. As part of that program MLB Network hosts Todd Hollandsworth &amp; Steve Phillips interviewed new Toronto GM, Ross Atkins. You can listen to the <a href="https://soundcloud.com/mlbnetworkradio/ross-atkins-tor-gm-weve-taken-the-rolling-year-out-of-john-gibbons-contract" target="_blank">Gibbons portion of the audio here</a>, but I&#8217;ve pulled a few extra notable quotes to come out of the short, five minute interview.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><em>Steve Phillips &#8211; </em></strong><em>In John Gibbons, you have a manager that you and Mark inherited. A guy that we both know; I go back to the Mets organization with Gibby, and he’s as easy a guy to get along with as there is, and you guys are too, so it’s a nice fit in that way. But philosophically his deal in the past used to be the rolling year, where he’d never be a lame duck. Is that structure something that is part of your thought process going forward, or is it something that you’ll address things as time goes on?</em></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong><em>Ross Atkins –</em></strong><em> No, we’ve already addressed that. That’s already come out of his contract. That’s the short answer, but not taking anything away from what it was. I think every situation is different. Gibby has been unbelievable, I love being around him, I can see why players trust and respect him. He’s an extremely consistent human being, with great values and morals. And really has set a nice tone here. He’s obviously a good decision maker, and handles himself great in pressure situations.</em></li>
</ul>
<p>This was easily the most interesting subject touched upon in the entire interview. Gibbons thus has 2 seasons left on his contract, 2016 and 2017, which was picked up on January 1st. Starting next January 1st, Gibbons won&#8217;t have the rolling option available in his contract.</p>
<p>Once the Gibbons talk was exhausted, Hollandsworth moved the discussion to how to better the team on the field:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><em>Todd Hollandsworth &#8211; </em></strong><em>In spring training, if we wanted to accomplish THIS, what would that be, and is there some tweaking that maybe needs to happen.</em></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong><em>Atkins &#8211; </em></strong><em>Yeah, we wanted to make sure we had enough depth for our pitching. I think throughout the offseason the acquisitions that Mark and Tony made before I was here in Happ, &amp; Estrada the trade for Chavez, and then adding some more pieces to that, the trade for Storen, the acquisition of Gavin Floyd and some of the other minor league free agents. We feel good about our starting options. We feel good about the depth of our bullpen. We need to continue to be creative, to not stop thinking that that’s going to be OK for the rest of the year. </em><em>It’s not too often you go through the season with five starters. I think the last time that happened was five years ago. We’re going to need depth and that was our goal through the off-season and into spring training. </em><em>I will say, what I’ve been really encouraged by is the depth in the minor leagues. I have really been impressed with 1) that there is some talent, but even more impressed with how they carried themselves here in the major league environment. From Conner Greene &amp; Reid-Foley (who wasn’t here), guys like Anthony Alford &amp; Richie Urena. Wow Dalton Pompey’s gonna be a great player, there are very good pieces in this organization.</em></li>
</ul>
<p>The Blue Jays are coming off a season where they gave 10 starts to the collection of Felix Doubront, Scott Copeland, Matt Boyd &amp; Todd Redmond, where they contributed a piddling -2.1 WARP. It’s clear that pitching depth was a major area of concern for the Jays coming into this off-season. While acquisitions at the top of the roster are much more glamorous, it’s quite possible that the Jays could improve just as much by replacing the detritus on the back end of the roster with merely replacement level players.</p>
<p>Since there are so many more players available to target by taking this approach to team building, it’s much less likely that a team will wind up in a bidding war. As a result this tends to be much more economical, and given Shapiro &amp; Atkins previous tenure was with the small budget Indians, it’s hardly surprising that’s the approach they would focus most upon. So far, <a title="How the Blue Jays Finally Created a Deep Roster" href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/08/bluejays-depth-spring-training/" target="_blank">the results seem to be pretty good</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><em>Hollandsworth &#8211; </em></strong><em>Michael Saunders, it’s kind of the one spot on your team where there’s a bit of a position battle. My guess is you wanted to make sure that Saunders was completely healthy. He’s come into camp, he’s had a really strong camp offensively. Pompey’s going back to Triple A, is that for playing time?</em></li>
<li><strong><em>Atkins</em></strong><em> – Yah, I think for Dalton it’s more about foundation for him. The guys that are coming and going, the old adage you wanna get there and stay. Dalton’s probably heard that way too much. So it’s about how do you give him the best foundation to deal with the struggles of a major league season, the ups and downs. The best place for him to get that foundation is in the minor leagues not in the major leagues. Yes it is about playing time, but it’s also about he has also moved quickly, and there’s been a lot asked of him. He’s a great player, I get it. He’s gonna be special, he really is. I have a lot of confidence in saying that.  </em><em>Saunders has been awesome. Dealing with the rumours of a trade, handling the expectations of coming off of this injury. Not only has he looked good, but his commitment and his drive of &#8216;this is going to be the best trade rumour that never happened.&#8217; We’re really encouraged by him, and to think that he is just an addition to this lineup is remarkable.</em></li>
</ul>
<p>The measured approach being taken with Dalton Pompey stands directly in contrast with how the Jays threw him into the fire at the beginning of the 2015 season, and links back to the previous point I made about moral hazard. It’s interesting to see the different approaches that a front office with years of security under their belt takes, as opposed to someone like Alex Anthopoulos, who came into the 2015 season with an immense amount of pressure to perform. Rather than letting the team’s situation dictate whether Pompey would be forced into major league duty, Atkins and seems to be taking the more measured approach, and is instead letting Pompey&#8217;s performance be the deciding factor. I firmly believe that in previous years the team would&#8217;ve taken the marginal upgrade by having Pompey serve as the team&#8217;s 4th outfielder, and I believe this approach will be much more advantageous for both Pompey &amp; the club in the long term.</p>
<p>Those were the main takeaways from Atkins&#8217; discussion with Hollandsworth. It will be interesting to see how this relationship between general manager and the media evolves over time. With Alex Anthopoulos, he learned that he could say a bit more, but also ended up rounding into even more doublespeak. We&#8217;ll be watching Mr. Atkins closely.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Note: This article previously stated that John Gibbons could be a lame duck manager in 2016, depending on when the clause was removed. This has been corrected, as Gibbons&#8217; contract has been renegotiated to end after the 2017, with a slight pay bump for Gibby. The same analysis from the piece still applies to next season, which would not have been the case if the rollover option was still intact. </em></p>
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		<title>This Week in Blue Jays: A Successful Chemistry Experiment</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/20/this-week-in-blue-jays-a-successful-chemisty-experiment/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/03/20/this-week-in-blue-jays-a-successful-chemisty-experiment/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 20 Mar 2016 13:48:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jenn Smith]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[This Week in Blue Jays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mark shapiro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ross atkins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Team Chemistry]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[In this space, Jenn Smith takes a look back at the recent stories surrounding the Blue Jays and provides her thoughts on the matter, with links to some of the original sources. Look for this series on Sunday mornings to help you catch up on the goings on in Jays land. I will be the first to [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>In this space, Jenn Smith takes a look back at the recent stories surrounding the Blue Jays and provides her thoughts on the matter, with links to some of the original sources. Look for this series on Sunday mornings to help you catch up on the goings on in Jays land.</em></p>
<p>I will be the first to admit that I experienced a strange mixture of emotions the day it was announced that then-General Manager Alex Anthopoulos had decided to part ways with the Blue Jays. It seemed incomprehensible – how could a man walk away from the team for which he (along with then-President Paul Beeston) was the primary architect after they had just completed the most exciting and magical season in twenty-two years? And though at the time I would not have been able to articulate why I was so distressed, I later came to realize that my concern was that the loss of Anthopoulos would somehow lead to the demise of whatever team chemistry had been established. It was as if pulling on the one thread would somehow cause the entire fabric of the team to unravel. I will also be the first to admit how much of an overreaction this was at the time. All one has to do is listen to both the players and the front office to realize just how much the entire team is in sync and motivated by the ultimate team goal – to finish what they started last season.</p>
<p>Some analysts and fans believe that winning promotes team chemistry, but many players appear to believe the opposite – that, while talent is certainly necessary (no team is going to win with a bunch of below-average players), team chemistry begets the winning culture require to have success on the field. In an <a href="http://m.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article/167554620/josh-donaldson-seeking-world-series-title" target="_blank">interview with Richard Justice of MLB.com</a>, reigning MVP Josh Donaldson is quoted as saying, “some people say chemistry is a non-factor. But if you could have seen our clubhouse from the beginning of the season last year to what it was at the end of the season, it was night and day. When you have 25 guys on the same page, that’s just fun.” That same page is what Donaldson refers to now as “unfinished business,&#8221; Last season’s playoff berth lit a lingering fire under the team which won’t be satisfied unless they bring home a championship.</p>
<p>While it may be easy to dismiss Donaldson’s comments about team chemistry – it’s easy for a player to make such statements when the only season they’ve played with a team happened to be successful – he isn’t the only Blue Jay expressing such an opinion. Jesse Chavez told <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/mlb/its-just-a-maturity-thing-toronto-blue-jays-jesse-chavez-likes-what-he-sees-in-clubhouse" target="_blank">Steve Buffery of the National Post </a>that it’s one of the best clubhouses he’s been a part of, including his time here in 2012. “…it’s not because of the playoffs. It’s because of the atmosphere the guys bring to the clubhouse. I think it’s better…If you’re not comfortable, you’re not going to perform and we’ve seen that. The talent has always been here, I don’t know if certain guys were not comfortable, or certain people were around guys they weren’t comfortable being around,” said Chavez.</p>
<p>Russell Martin <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/martin-structure-new-jays-management/" target="_blank">reiterated this sentiment</a> in a phone interview on the Fan 590, saying that there was a “good feeling because of established chemistry” and that the players are excited because they “know they have a good team.” Martin took his comments one step further, though, saying that this season there is “more communication between the front office, training staff, (and) strength coaches” and that everyone seems to be in unison. He praised the more scientific approach to player training and said that things were “structured and organized more so than last year.”</p>
<p>This brings me back to my original point, which is that the vilification of Mark Shapiro was born out of fear brought about by the emotional season that was 2015, rather than any concrete reason to believe that he would somehow dismantle the team and its chemistry. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, but the passion of many fans – myself included – caused an overreacted to Anthopoulos’ departure. In fact, I would now argue that Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins have improved upon the foundation they inherited. Let’s examine the evidence. The decision to not offer Price a lofty contract led to the re-signing of Marco Estrada and the acquisitions of J.A. Happ and Jesse Chavez, all of whom offer far more flexibility than the team would have had otherwise. The fact that there is a <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/jeff-blair-show/pete-walker-still-four-way-battle-5th-spot-blue-jayas/" target="_blank">four-way battle for the fifth spot in the rotation</a> speaks volumes about the accumulated depth on this team.</p>
<p>The new front office has also established an innovative high-performance department (<a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-high-performance-department-hopes-change-game/" target="_blank">described in detail last week by Arden Zwelling</a>) that is already being praised by players (see Martin&#8217;s comments) and which, if successful, could change performance design in baseball. This demonstrates a commitment to player health that is vital not only in terms of reducing the number of time spent on the DL this season, but in avoiding decline as players age.</p>
<p>Finally, there is the enthusiasm from Shapiro himself, who has clearly spent time getting to know the players and who admires their &#8220;grit, determination and perseverance.&#8221; If you listen to him speak, as he did on the Fan 590 Friday <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/jeff-blair-show/40-minutes-toronto-blue-jays-president-mark-shapiro/" target="_blank">with Jeff Blair and Steven Brunt</a>, there is no doubt that he believes in this team and is committed to its success. Of course, one could argue that Shapiro is very adept with words, and that we cannot evaluate this front office until much more time has passed. I agree with that. But, I no longer doubt the commitment of this regime to fostering a winning culture now and into the future. This is something that, as a fan who is heavily invested in this team – both emotionally and financially – I greatly appreciate.</p>
<p>The start of the regular season is just fourteen days away, folks. It’s time to take care of unfinished business.</p>
<p>Quick Hits:</p>
<ul>
<li> With Edwin Encarnacion’s self-imposed deadline of Opening Day to sign an extension fast approaching, <a href="http://www.torontosun.com/2016/03/18/bautista-on-contract-talks-im-not-worried-and-neither-is-edwin" target="_blank">Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun</a> reported that the Jays have offered the slugger a two-year deal with no dollar figure attached. Elliott followed this with another article in which he quotes Encarnacion as saying, &#8220;they don&#8217;t have it in their plans for me to stay here.&#8221; This comes just a few days after it was <a href="http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/beisbol/nota/_/id/2621314/edwin-encarnacion-lesionado-y-pesimista-sobre-su-contrato" target="_blank">reported that Edwin is “pessimistic”</a> about reaching a deal. I refuse to let this curtail my enthusiasm for this season. I&#8217;ve made my peace with the likelihood of Encarnacion and Jose Bautista not returning after this season &#8211; I intend to enjoy the heck out of this season. The rest, as <a href="http://bluejaysnation.com/2016/3/19/edwin-they-don-t-have-it-in-their-plans-for-me-to-stay-here" target="_blank">Andrew Stoeten points out</a>, is &#8220;just business.&#8221;</li>
<li><a href="http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2016/03/17/2016-preview-toronto-blue-jays/" target="_blank">Bill Baer of Hardball Talk</a> has an in-depth Blue Jays preview, in which he predicts the Jays will finish the season in second place in the AL East with a 94-68 record (yes, you read that correctly. 94 wins and second place). Baer lists five things necessary for the Jays to repeat as AL East champions, the first of which is to have repeat performances from Marco Estrada and J.A. Happ. Both of these guys showed some sort of changed, repeatable skill, so there&#8217;s some hope that this could work out.</li>
<li>David Kaplan from ESPN 1000 Chicago joined Dean Blundell and Co. and once again opened the David Price wound (as written <a href="http://bluejayhunter.com/2016/03/kaplan-david-price-wouldve-taken-less-to-stay-in-toronto.html%20" target="_blank">about here by Ian Hunter</a>). To wit: “I know for a fact David Price wanted to stay a Blue Jay. He would’ve taken less than he got from Boston or the offer he got from St. Louis. He literally would’ve taken less money to stay in Toronto.” Frankly, I don’t buy it. Price was in Toronto for all of four months, and while I believe he loved both the team and the city, I can’t imagine even a native Torontonian turning down $217 million, but perhaps that’s just me.</li>
<li>A notoriously media-shy Troy Tulowitzki <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/mlb/these-guys-shouldnt-be-overlooked-troy-tulowitzki-not-worried-about-toronto-blue-jays-rotation" target="_blank">spoke out about the pitching staff</a> earlier this week, saying, “definitely the offence gets more love, but these guys [the pitchers] shouldn’t be overlooked.” And to harken back to the previous point, Kevin Pillar added, “as much as we’d like to have David Price back, we’ve made some really good moves in bringing back a guy like J.A. who was arguably the best pitcher in the second half last year in Pittsburgh – a guy who is familiar with this clubhouse and the city and we’re excited to have him back.”</li>
<li>Sixteen year old slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is working out with the Blue Jays this spring, hoping to earn a spot with the Jays’ class-A affiliate Vancouver Canadians. <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/vladimir-guerrero-jr-makes-father-proud-blue-jays-spring-training/%20" target="_blank">Behold his sweet swing and raw power</a>.</li>
<li>John Lott wants you to <a href="https://sports.vice.com/ca/article/meet-conner-greenegymnast-surfer-model-and-torontos-top-pitching-prospect%20" target="_blank">meet Connor Greene </a>– “a lanky, loose-limbed youth who oozes athleticism and breaks out a big grin every now and then, as though he can’t believe his good fortune.”</li>
<li>Though he will once again use old faithful this season, Troy Tulowitzki is beginning to <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/gotta-hear-tulo-preparing-life-beyond-old-glove/" target="_blank">prepare for life beyond his infamous glove</a>.</li>
<li>And, finally. The Blue Jays tweeted out a <a href="https://amp.twimg.com/v/4e2c2f04-9339-47b4-b109-f9992bb14662%20" target="_blank">promotional video </a>with the message “Last year was just the beginning. History is Now.” The tweet included what I assume is this year’s official hashtag &#8211; #OurMoment.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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