Sunday afternoon after the Toronto Blue Jays lost to the New York Yankees 6-4, at the Rogers Center, Sportsnet aired a Blue Jays TV special called, Alex Anthopoulos: State of the Franchise. This was a half hour special aimed to show the Blue Jays fans interviews with Alex Anthopoulos and others about this past off-season, an off-season which had disappointed many Jays fans.
The show looked at how Alex Anthopoulos dealt with former catcher JP Arencibia, his signing of new catcher Dioner Navarro, his trade, which would have sent Sergio Santos to the Texas Rangers and the failed attempts at trying to land a starting pitcher to add to the Jays rotation via free agency. Some of the things that were said weren’t new, or exciting, reiterating on how the Blue Jays have that unique five-year limit on contracts offered. How they weren’t keen on signing free agents and how there are always trade possibilities for this team. That is stuff heard all off-season and stuff we are still hearing today.
Some of the interesting stuff was how Anthopoulos dealt with the Arencibia situation; JP Arencibia was upset with being dealt, but showed respect towards Anthopoulos and was happy the way he was treated during the whole ordeal. They showed a small interview with relief pitcher Sergio Santos and about how he was set to be traded to Texas pending a physical, the deal would ultimately fall through, but it was said it was not because of Santos.
We also had an explanation from Paul Beeston and Anthopoulos about how they can spend they spend money to make their team better and of course the Ervin Santana situation. The two of them ever admitted that they were going to defer money from other contracts to pay Santana and that some of the players were on board to defer their money. It was confirmed that Santana chose Toronto and was set to sign with the Jays, but then Atlanta Braves pitcher Kris Medlen went down with an injury and Santana decided to sign with the Braves. This interview you could clearly see Anthopoulos annoyed about the Santana situation, but of course he said it’s a business and it happens.
It was an interesting view for baseball and Blue Jays fans, you got to hear about what the teams general manager did, or at least try to do in the off-season. It showed the fans that he was trying his best and that it just didn’t work out in his and the Jays favor.
There was one thing that I didn’t like about this TV special, it almost felt like this special was meant to save Anthopoulos’ skin, from irate Jays fans. It wasn’t the best off-season and yes it happens, but it really looked like they were pumping his tires, saying hey fans he did his job so if we have a bad season, its not his fault.
Also the two people pumping his tires were Paul Beeston and J.P. Ricardi, and we all know how many Jays fans feel about Ricardi they feel like he is the reason why the Jays have been in such a poor state for so many years, so to them his opinion isn’t valid. Personally if you don’t have Ricardi and Beeston saying how great Anthopoulos is then maybe I don’t see it as a promotion to save the GM.
Maybe I’m a bit paranoid, but the way I see it, he’s the reason why John Gibbons is the manager and he did all the trades, so if the team continues to fail than he and the manager, should be shown the door.
I don’t think its fair to attempt to undermine the fans by trying to let fans believe that he isn’t at fault when and if this team fails. Hopefully the Jays to well this season and at least compete for a wildcard spot, so far they are 3-4 and that’s much better than I thought they would be and so far most have the games have been entertaining. So hopefully for the Jays and the fans sake this will be a much more successful season and that this TV special won’t be a way to save the gm.
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