Once again it’s been a while since a published anything in these parts. I had a couple more Winter Dance Partners posts half-written/in my mind but that whole idea may be scrapped.
Been a busy couple months for me. Between work, a wedding, being sick for a couple weeks and other stuff I haven’t had a chance to even think about any posts, let alone write them.
Luckily, there really hasn’t been much Jays related that’s happened. And it’s this part of the year I always find amusing. Unlike in other sports, the baseball offseason isn’t a mad dash. Things develop slowly, marquee players stay free agents into well into December, or in some cases, later. I guess, really, the offseason is much like the season itself: a marathon.
And yet, much like the season, we all seem to forget that fact. A slow start and the season’s done. An 11 game winning streak and we’re planning the parade. November 23 comes along and we haven’t made a move? How pathetic is AA and Rogers for not doing something!
But folks, except for two major trades, there has been nothing.
I was having lunch yesterday and ran into an acquaintance. He saw I was reading something on my phone from Fangraphs so we chatted baseball a bit. He made some comment about how the Jays won’t do anything and won’t spend any money. I didn’t say anything because, quite simply, I didn’t know what to say. Now sure, with the influx of money, the changes to the CBA and everything, last year’s budget may not have been the huge boost it seems, but still, it’s a lot of money. Regardless of the outside factors that affect the Jays, the fact that they were willing to take on two huge contracts and a third player who was potentially going to require a huge contract if he played like expected, shows they are willing to spend money. And the first point is just laughable. They never do anything? A year ago the Jays made one of the biggest trades in history. In history! Like, for evers.
And it wasn’t just that short conversation, I see similar comments on Twitter all the time.
But for some reason we, as Jays fans, seem to have conditioned ourselves in this way. We’re convinced management never does anything and doesn’t care about winning. We’re convinced free agents will never want to come here. We’re convinced we can’t grow our own stars, and if we do then they’ll leave the first chance they get.
I guess what I’m saying is, we need to up our games as fans.We need to realize the market develops slowly. We need to realize it’s not easy to get the players you’re targeting. We need to realize last year the organization shifted its philosophy and that we are in a win-now mode. It seems odd given the past season’s results, but it’s true.
The organization knows that, AA and Beeston knows that. So if we realize that, we have to expect moves will be made to strengthen the 2014 team.
Now, having rambled for a few hundred words, I think we can safely expect to see some action in the coming weeks. Namely, with the tender deadline coming up on December 2, I think we’re going to see the catcher situation cleared up before that. I don’t think Anthopolous would like to non-tender JPA without having his replacement in, uh, place. He also wouldn’t want to tender him, get someone else and then be stuck. I suppose they could still trade Arencibia, but I think he’d rather keep his options open.
So, maybe, perhaps, expect the Jays to make a move before December 2. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if they made a move this week.
Maybe.
thejunkballs.wordpress.com 