Eyedea
The Legend Continues
I'm talking about his actual performance, not overhyping his scouting report. Remember when Brett Lawrie and Matt Moore were in the same conversation as Mike Trout and Bryce Harper?
Blue Jays Discussion: It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Kevin Pillar!
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I'm talking about his actual performance, not overhyping his scouting report. Remember when Brett Lawrie and Matt Moore were in the same conversation as Mike Trout and Bryce Harper?
zeke
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metafour
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You make a lot of pretty ridiculous assumptions here. Shapiro's arrival had almost nothing to do with Anthopolous, and everything to do with the fact that they needed a long-term replacement for Beeston who was only ever supposed to be a stop-gap replacement for Godfrey, and yet ended up holding the President position for 7 seasons (this was NEVER the plan when they brought him back). The search for Beeston's replacement had begun over a year prior to Shapiro even coming into the picture. The over-blown "issue" on Shapiro having final say in baseball decisions is a convenient story that is supposed to give justified credence to Anthopolous walking out, yet you won't be able to find a single story about Shapiro blocking Chris Antonetti from making any baseball decision in Cleveland. We even know for fact that he let Antonetti make a blockbuster deal to acquire Ubaldo Jimenez despite it being a move that Shapiro himself admitted he wouldn't have made. If you really want to get technical, even Beeston obviously had final say in any significant baseball decision (he was the boss of course), the only difference is that no one even knew WTF he did as President so its assumed that he had no influence at all. Unless you are of the position that Anthopolous deserved to be promoted to President (why?), the addition of Shapiro was a no brainer. You somehow conclude that all of this was a "mistake", how? Anthopolous' team ultimately didn't win and had a hilariously short shelf-life, thus the idea that supposedly he earned authority to pick his own boss is absurd. We hired a more-than-competent President and unfortunately Anthopolous decided to walk out despite the fact that he was ultimately offered an extension and a raise. There is no need to blame others for his own decision that was obviously ego-based.
By the way, pretty much all of this was fueled by local baseball writers who were long-term friends of Beeston and took it upon themselves to shame the team for pushing him out, despite the fact that Beeston was quite obviously a dinosaur in a league that has rapidly evolved to one wherein successful team Presidents are now multi-faceted dynamos with competence in all aspects of the game.
zeke
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It's a fake discussion. If AA had drafted a bunch of good young position guys, and no pitchers, this discussion would be about the importance of drafting pitchers.
And if that was the case, the lack of developed pitchers would be a legitimate discussion.
The problem here is that you're so defensive of everything AA that you're taking a general discussion about the legitimate strengths and weaknesses of the farm system during his tenure and viewing it as a pro- vs. anti-AA thing.
There's a lot of text below this that frankly I don't care to read, but this is outright wrong. The second they hired Shapiro the writing was bright and clear on the wall for AA, which is why he did what he did. Now based on how the last 3 months of 2015 went, could they have found a way to work together? Sure, but it wasn't the optimal scenario for either person.
Thinking that Shapiro didn't want to bring in his own guy so he could focus moreso on the stadium renovation side of things is nothing short of naive.
metafour
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Anthopolous was a well regarded young GM around the league, the idea that Shapiro had full intention of dumping a proven quantity in favor of an unproven "own guy" is pure hypothesis at best. Yes, new President's tend to end up relieving the sitting GM in favor of their own choice. However, new President's are typically brought in on badly losing teams in which the GM was clearly toast either way, which wasn't the case at all when Shapiro came on, as the product on the field clearly had several things going for it and the team was very competitive.
Mark Shapiro is a smart guy. If Anthopolous is as bulletproof as a lot of you believe, I don't buy for one second that his fate was already sealed. Shapiro promoted Anthopolous' right hand man and pretty much kept every other high ranking member of AA's staff in place: Tinnish, Sheehan, Dana Brown, Perry Minasian. So what are you suggesting, that he liked all of those guys but was dead set on removing Anthopolous "just because"? I don't buy it.
Or people are acknowledging that he has weaknesses.
If I say "Jose Bautista is a poor defender," would you jump to his defense because he's a great hitter?
Glenn Isildur Healy
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TootooTrain
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Living through the recent playoff rounds has been great fun as a fan. It's too bad there aren't alot of position players coming up through the ranks. I'd describe it as unfortunate, rather than being an awful situation.
Eyedea
The Legend Continues
BertCorbeau
F*ck cancer - RIP Fugu and Buffaloed
I think Donaldson should be traded if the team is out of it by July.
I dont think management wants to commit 5 years, 150+ million to him anyways.
Eyedea
The Legend Continues
Glenn Isildur Healy
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I prefer sustained success
AA decides to cripple the farm system and then bolt from the organization to make himself look like a hero for 2 playoff runs
Suntouchable13
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I can't wait to hear what kind of sustained success were they on the verge of? *Hint* they weren't. People have been saying what you have been saying for literally 2 decades.
Between you and Zeke, we're getting both ends of the Ridiculous AA Opinions spectrum.
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