Okay, Now What?

 

There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball.

Each one has a General Manager.

Teams can win with poor General Managers.  Teams can lose with good General Managers.  The truth of the matter is that there are lots of moving parts.  Where a team is in their development life-cycle, Injuries, bad field management, flu bugs, there's tons of factors that determine whether a team wins or loses.

I won't pretend that Alex Anthopoulos is the best GM in baseball.  He was named Executive of the Year by his peers.  But that's one year.  Is he amazing and irreplaceable?  Not sure yet.  I'm working through that.

I do; however, know what amazing and irreplaceable does like.

And you know what?  Eventually that guy was replaced too.

There have only been 5 GMs selected to baseball's hall of fame.  Unlike others sports, this hall of fame is damned near impossible to get in to.  And one of those GMs that joined the likes of Branch Rickey is the Blue Jays own, Pat Gillick.  He took 4 different teams to the post season as an executive.  His teams won 3 World Series.  His revamping of the minor leagues and sheer abuse of the rule 5 drive make him legend in baseball circles.

Best General Manager I've ever seen.  On any team.

And I know what a terrible General Manager looks like too.

It looks like a guy that signs Vernon Wells to a 126 million dollar contract.  A guy that signs an aging Frank Thomas to a two year 18 million dollar contract.  Signs B.J. Ryan, Corey Koskie, A.J. Burnett, trades Cesar Iztuis and Paul Quantril for the legendary Luke Prokopec,  That ladies and Gentlemen would be Mr. JP Ricciardi.

Worst General Manager I've ever seen.  On any team.

However Pat Gillick traded (.283 career, 2 all star games) Damaso Garcia AND (51-58, 4.14) Luis Leal for (28-42, 4.08) Craig McMurtry.  And Ricciardi got Marco Scutaro (.277 2012 WS MVP) out of Oakland for two guys named (1-6, 5.09) Graham Godfrey and (-) Kristian Bell.

Good GMs can do stupid things.  Stupid GMs can do good things.

Alex has proven himself to be neither of these two guys.  Not yet anyway.

In 17 years Gillick was over .500 11 times, was 1352 - 1297 (.510); Ricciardi in 8 years was .500 4 times, was 642 - 653 (.496); Anthopoulos in 6 years was over .500 4 times, and was 489 - 483 (.503).

If you think Double A was a good as Gillick, well....you're on crack.  And if you think he was as bad as JP, you probably share the same dealer with the guy that thinks he was a good as Gillick.

That being said, when Toronto was running out onto the field to play the Oakland Athletics on August 13th of this season, the Jays had the same winning percentage under The Greek that they did under The Italian. .496 for both of them.  The real difference between them is simply that the Jays played .638 in the last 47 games with Jason of the Argonauts (get the Greek reference there) steering the ship.

As most people know, there's only two things in this world that I detest.  1) People that don't accept other peoples cultures or ethnicities and 2) Greeks.  More on that later.

I started writing this with a "ya it sucks, but we'll fine", but as I've thought about it more and read some other stuff....I'm not so sure that's true anymore.

Ricciardi, who had everything going for him (dude's Italian...come on!) was pretty much hated from the outset here.  He butchered Delgado's free agency getting nothing for him when he would have stayed here had their been a real offer.  He got nothing for Chris Carpenter who went to St. Louis to win a Cy Young and a World Series.

But more than that it was the lies.  Remember when BJ Ryan's aching "back" was solved by season ending Tommy John (elbow) surgery?  JP's explanation for this on purpose miss-communication? "Its not a lie if we know the truth".  Holy friggin' Constanza.

Then he lied about Halladay asking for a trade and providing a list of teams that he would go to.  Halladay had to hold a press conference to deny it all.  Mid season!

He insulted fans.  He was arrogant.  He was a dick.  I'm half Italian and I hated him.  Yep, the first Italian I hated.

So why the difference with The Greek?  Well he didn't lie.  His personnel deals were 'smart'.  Doesn't mean they all worked out, but they were well thought out.  He's handled player signings responsibly and respectfully.  He got Bautista done when everyone thought he would bolt after his 50 home run year.  He stayed, I was surprised.  He got Encarnacion resigned.  No fanfare, just quietly taken care of.

But there's more.

Gillick and Anthopoulos have something else in common.  Toronto and Canada for that matter is very different than the States.  Its more than just guns.  Pat learned this where as Alex was born into it.  Americans are aggressive.  They're arrogant.  At least your type-A personality Americans that run sports franchises are like that.  Canadians are different.  We're generally honest.  We're polite.  Our humor is mostly self deprecating (or making fun of Greeks).

As a teenager hitch hiking from California to Vulcan Alberta to tryout for a minor league ball team, Pat Gillick might of figured that out.  If not, maybe he did when he pitched for the Vancouver Canadians four years later.  Maybe it was when he was the Assistant General Manager of the Jays in 1977.  Or when he took over as the GM the next year.  Or when he became a Canadian citizen.  But somewhere along the line Gillick figured us out.

He spoke from the heart.  He was honest.  He would always explain his moves or lack of moves.  He brought scouting to the organization.  He (along with the Dodgers) was the first to mine the great baseball resources of the Dominican Republic.  He watched games like a 'fan' not like the 'boss'.  He lived in Toronto.  He was one of us.  He had a GREAT gig, but he was one of us.

There is nothing in the above paragraph that isn't true about Anthopoulos.  And there is nothing in the above paragraph that is true about Ricciardi.

The devil you know is maybe better than the devil you don't.

Organizationally, you've gotta wonder what the heck is going on.  The replacement of Beeston was botched.  Going after Kenny Williams without permission?  Crazy.  Going after Dombrowski and then not wanting to pay the compensation?  Who's running this show?

Then the Mark Shapiro signing.  By all accounts, and I mean ALL accounts, he's a good guy.  He better be, because most people already hate him.  They may have reason to.  I'm not sure though.  I'm not sure who to be mad at here.

So the word is that the Jays offered Double A a 5 year contract.  Alex hasn't denied that.  He has said that issue wasn't term or money.  Great.  He has said that the loves the team.  Loves the city. Said it was his dream job.  The only thing he has said is that Toronto is not "the right fit for me".

What the fuck?

What exactly does that mean?  Not the right fit.  Let me think....if I had that gig and was offered a long term deal at more than double my current salary, what could possibly make me quit?

1.  Money (oh yeah, not that)
2.  Term (oh yeah, not that)
3.  Hate my co-workers....doesn't seem to be an issue.
4.  Hate my boss....maybe, Double A says no and to be honest, he doesn't really know him.
5.  Organization change of direction.....uh-oh.

This is my worry.  If its any of the first 4, I say "see ya Alex", you're on my list of Greeks I hate.  If its #5 we got us some problems and I don't blame him leaving.  So could it be that Shapiro needs to sign off on player personnel decision like happens in 29 other organizations?  Probably.  And shame on Anthopoulos if that's the reason he's leaving.  Organization direction changes could be lots of other stuff.

• We want you to cut back on the scouting staff
• We want you to cut player salaries by 20%
• Maybe Alex wanted to get Pillar and Goins locked up for long term deals to keep them away from their 1st couple of years of free agency and the club said no. 
• Maybe they said no to making a serious run at Price. 
• Maybe they don't want to spend any money on resigning Estrada.  

There's lots of maybes.  I'm not sure if anyone remember what happened after the Jays won their 2nd World Series.  Rickey Henderson was allowed to leave as free agent.  He would play 5 more seasons.  Mark Eichhorn was granted free agency and he would play 2 more years.  Tony Fernandez was granted free agency and he would play another 8 season.  Jack Morris was simply released, he hooked up with Cleveland and went 10 - 6. Turner Ward was put on waivers and picked up by Milwaukee and he would play until 2001.  

Then the strike in 1994 and Darnell Coles leaves, Todd Stottlemyre, Pat Borders, Danny Cox, Dave Stewart and Dick Schofield....all gone.  And who said enough of this shit, I'm out?  Gillick.  

The point being that I fear something much bigger is afoot than Shapiro getting sign off on personnel moves.  And for that I worry.  

But if its anything else then Alex is just being a suck which doesn't match anything we've learned about him in the last 6 years.  

I blame Rogers regardless of what the issue is because they had the power to fix or prevent any of it.  The quick answer is that he IS replaceable and it isn't the end of the world.  

The truth is that this sets a tone.  A tone of who the club is and what they're about.  And the next GM will not be very likely to "get us" and dammit, that's important.  People said they left baseball because of the strike....I came close to leaving because of Ricciardi and the stupid stylized blue jay logo plus all his other bull shit.  

The likelihood of getting someone of Anthopoulos' character versus someone closer to Ricciardi's?  Don't like the odds.    

Until proven otherwise, Alex will stay on the good list, but his perch is tenuous.

GREEKS THAT I....