Things are quiet in Blue Jay land. Alex Anthopoulos continues to work on his plans for league domination. There have been a few news items recently with AA saying the Jays would like to bring back Marco Scutaro and Rod Barajas and last week AA was on the road inspiring the troops.
Bob Elliott has todays story where AA says:
"We like both players," said Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "We'd like to bring them both back."
Can the Jays afford to bring them both back?
Antopoulous won't know his team budget until later this month.
"Like I said, we like both players and they are both important positions, but we can't make a bad deal," the rookie GM said from Toronto.
Baseball signings come down to value. If Scutaro would take a one year deal then a contract should be easy. If he wants three it could be tougher. It may be hard for Scutaro to get significant offers from other teams due to his type A status.
Elliott also discloses that AA is contacting all the players and coaches as part of his fact finding post-season session with the team.
Anthopoulos has been busy calling each Jays player and all of the coaching staff for a fact-fining conversation as he promised the day J.P. Ricciardi was fired in Baltimore.
"I've spoken to Scutaro, probably about 18 out of 25 players and have another three calls scheduled for (today)," he said. "I started with the players with the most service time and worked my way down the list."
Last week Elliott had another article on AA's trip to Florida to address the minor league staff. It was inspiring stuff.
"I've heard all our GMs speak, I go back to Peter Bavasi. Alex said he wants to get back to the point where everyone in baseball wanted to work for this organization.
"Alex said how the Angels and the Twins minor-leagues have an identity -- fundamental baseball. He asked what do people say if you mention our system, he didn't think we had an identity," Holmberg said. "There was a time when everyone wanted to be like the Blue Jays."
Bob Elliott picked up that the minor league crew were impressed:
Ten men totaling 323 years in baseball, 130 years with the Jays. That's an average of 32 years in the game, 13 with the Jays.
You have to get up pretty early in the morning to fool people with this much experience.
They believed.
And if you know Bob Elliott here is the key paragraph:
"It's clear this is going to be an employee-driven club," LaCava said. "He wants to expand scouting and for this to be a great place to work.
"The details will follow, but he's going to make it easier for people to do their jobs, be treated fairly and consideration for employees personal lives and families."
He was preaching to the choir, but they believe.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20091019114927204