We have the better Starter, provided he is healthy enough to pitch as the better Starter.   We have the better bullpen, provided they don't ever look at the score.   We have the better offense, I truly believe that, in AAA or in AA or in A+.    If they can forget being World Series bound and just remember who they really are, they can with this game going away.   If they can't, just another loss, they do that well.

I don't agree about 2B and LF. Doesn't every team have to go "cheap" and "find bargains" if that's how you're going to categorize Cabrera and Izturis? Do you have specific players you think they should have signed instead?

Yes, Cabrera and Iazturis have underperformed, but both were seen by most analysts as signings with a very good chance of meeting the value of their contract and a reasonable chance of exceeding it. The only alternative in Izturis' league at 2B was Kelly Johnson and he didn't come with the defensive versatility that Izturis did (not that Izturis has looked good anywhere but 2B). And Cabrera was a good value signing in LF if you weren't going to make a $60 million commitment to someone like Nick Swisher or Michael Bourn (which I think were relatively good signings, but not moves AA was able to make).

I guess you can take issue with the way AA allocated his financial resources if you think he should have taken the money that's being paid to Johnson and Buehrle and, instead of making that trade, spent it on Swisher and I don't know who at 2B, but that'd have left the middle starting rotation in the hands of Henderson Alvarez and Ricky Romero, which isn't appealing either. I don't see any indication that Rogers was going to give AA any more money than they did and I can't fault him for those moves.

I have my disagreements with some of his offseason moves, such as the way DH was handled, etc... but I think Cabrera and Izturis are just underperforming. Plain and simple. There was a lot of risk in the Marlins trade and maybe AA didn't evaluate that properly or maybe he did and the dice have just come up snake eyes so far.

Some points that caught my eye:

Yes, the Jays had an above-average offense in the first half of 2012.   I disagree, Toronto had a very selective/productive offense that produced well.  It just wasn't a balanced attack.   How many times would one more hit (1 or 2) drive in a run (or 2 or more)?   Results in possibly 5 or 6 more wins, similar to 2012.

I assume the hitting will come around some although, as discussed here, its a bit "homer" driven right now.    That is unlikely at this time.   The hitters need to be sat down and told " what you are doing right now is not working.  What are you doing to change that?"

I'm not sure if this Team can even recover by July without a massive shakeup of the Team.  

I thought the Melky Cabrera acqusition was a good move at a very good value.  All he needs to be is better than 2010, if not quite as good as 2011.   That would be fair value.   I just didn't think keeping Rajai Davis was that good a decision.  His offense is average, his defense is sub-average, while speed is an asset, poor OBP renders it of little use.   Jose Bautista has missed a lot of time, and is apparently not trying to regain his stroke, just trying to mash HR.   Hitting .300 with only 20 HR is much superior to hitting .200 with 50 HR.   Colby Rasmus is supposed to be much better than he is.  That make him a disappointment to me.

Brett Lawrie is just finally starting to get his stroke back, but may yet be another week away.   April is almost over and he's done so little due to injury.   Jose Reyes injury was a surprise, such an ugly slide for no reason - other than not paying attention to the play.   His return might salvage the last half of the season, probably to no avail.   I always thought the Maicer Izturis signing was for the Bench, not as starting 2B.   I just don't think he's good enough there.   Emilio Bonifacio should be better than he is, with average or better defense at CF and 2B, with less than that at LF, RF, SS, 3B.   Edwin Encarnacion has gotten over his injury and his stroke is almost all the way back.   He's become a good defender at 1B, so offer options for playing.   Adam Lind is puzzling,  he's no longer striking out a lot,  but he's not hitting a lot either.   J.P. Arencibia has to learn that hitting just HRs is not that much if it is all he can do.   Henry Blanco is barely an asset for this Team.

Brandon Morrow may not make his start on Tuesday, if his arm hasn't recovered to being much better.   Josh Johnson will miss at least on start, but might miss more.   Mark Buehrle needs better pitch selection and control.   With still close to $45.0 MM remaining on his contract, he's going nowhere any time soon.  He has adjusted to his deficiencies each year.   He just needs to get better at it soon.   J.A.Happ wil had bad games, he's a 5th Starter and that expected occassionally.   The only reason R.A. Dickey's not 5-1 instead of 2-4 is mostly offense.

It's possible some of the defensive problems arise from having turf and not the slower grass.   But the offensive problems come from believing the Hype.   The only options even remotely possible to make are Gose for Rasmus; Sierra for Davis; Thole for Blanco; Negrych for Izturis and later Romero for Buehrle.   All other option involve trades, which rarely occur before June.

I agree completely. I noted the number of plate appearances for that very reason.

And I take your point about not having too many LHBs who should be rested against right-handed starters, but if the Jays have Snider than some parts of the offseason would likely have played themselves itself out differently. Maybe the team dumps Adam Lind (whose OBP has been great, but I'm similarly skeptical he's going to sustain that). Maybe Melky's not signed and the team can spend that $8 million retaining the services of Brandon Lyon or convincing Koji Uehara that playing in Canada isn't that bad or finding a much better platoon bat than Rajai Davis.

China Fan, most sources I've read suggested that AA spent all the money he was given by Roges this offseason (and remember he had to sell them on the payroll increase for the Marlins trade). I would prefer a better DH than Lind, but I don't think you can characterize the decision to sign Cabrera as trying to get extra value for flawed players. Can you provide a hypothetical alternative signing in this year's free agent market? The best I have is Nick Swisher, which is a 60/4 commitment instead of an 16/2. That's a different financial ballpark.

And, yes, the Jays bullpen hasn't been a problem. But if the team signed Brandon Lyon, they might not have believed they needed to trade Aviles for another reliever and the team would have a better backup infielder than De Rosa (not that he's been the biggest problem to date this year either) and money to spend on a better right-handed reserve outfielder than Davis. Or, as I also suggested, retaining Snider and not signing Melky would have provided financial flexibility to upgrade at DH. (For example, perhaps the non-contending Twins would have dealt Josh Willingham for a non-elite prospect or two and the Jays could have taken on the 14/2 commitment left on his deal.)

You can argue about whether it was defensible or not to trade Snider for a pitcher the Jays seem to in retrospect, view as a middle reliever or setup man. But, if you support trading Snider and think Melky was the wrong singing, then you should come up with some hypothetical non-flawed outfielder and a reasonable scenario for where the money to make this move is going to come from.

“He isn't the first active openly gay athlete in one of the major North American sports until he's actually playing somewhere.”

I don’t agree. He’s active in the sense that he’s actively seeking a contract next year. That’s hugely important in breaking this cultural barrier.

"although it would've been good if it was a star instead of a backup who is without a contract for next year."

This misses the point in a huge way.

I don't think it's like the Amaechi story in a meaningful way. Amaechi came out three or four years after his NBA career ended. Twelve days ago, Jason Collins played 17 minutes against the Chicago Bulls.

I don't follow basketball very closely at all, but I recognize that Collins doesn't have many NBA years left and, those that he does have left, will likely resemble this one in terms of minimal playing time and minimal production. However, if Collins never plays another NBA again (and I think he will) than this will still have a hugely significant impact in terms of how it is viewed by fans, other athetes, the media and other cultural forces. Some of it may be negative, unfortunately, if his sexuality is perceived as a reason that contributed to him not getting another contract offer, but the discussion around the subject has an entirely different context here than it ever did with Amaechi or the other players who have come out after they retired or were no longer active. As difficult as it may have been personally and as important as it was to lead up to this moment, Collins has broken down a door (and I think several will follow in the coming year) that Amaechi didn't, regardless of whether he ever scores another point in the NBA.

Anyhow, I don't know if we're getting into non-Box discussions here or not...

Some info from Rosenthal:

Already, though, there are rumblings that the Jays don’t have the right mix — “Alex loves to collect players,” a second rival exec said, referring to GM Alex Anthopoulos. “But putting a team together is different than collecting players.”

I’m not shocked that the Jays are off to a 9-17 start, particularly after losing Reyes — they brought in not only a number of new players, but also a new manager, and sometimes it takes times for such teams to gel.

I will modify only to primarily. However, I don' see how else to reasonably interpret comments saying that you were unimpressed by his actions and skeptical of the motivations behind it.