I was only able to make it to the end of that article by skipping each and every one of Atkins quotes. Thanks for summarizing it for me cause...no, I was not gonna be listening/reading any of it otherwise. The guy has nothing to say and still talks too much.
Also I meant to say - love these deep dives. I look forward to them every time Atkins/Shapiro speak to the media. Great to get into the weeds, parse the words, etc.
I’m probably going crazy, but I seem to recall Ross saying (1) the players drive the process and the team is just trying to help players be the best versions of themselves, and (2) he wants more diversity in the lineup in terms of not only handedness but approach. (Well, maybe not going totally crazy cuz the last one was repeated in the post.)
Yet as I understand it, the team decided it wanted everyone to prioritize contact, which is at least partly why they traded away Teo. But now they want everyone to try and do damage. Which is good for guys like Varsho but not for guys like KK.
These pieces don’t seem to fit. And with the ever expanding coaching staff, and who knows how many they’ve got behind the scenes, you’d think it be easier to help each player do what works for them with personalized coaching.
But perhaps I’m misremembering or misunderstanding?
> "we feel it’s important to have balance and not just the same type of hitters up and down your lineup"
I always found this a weird thing. Like, yeah, in the abstract that's good, but when this was said, we had one of the better lineups in baseball. We were getting results. Turns out that if you have a bunch of good hitters in your lineup, you score a lot of runs! Who knew. Doesn't matter too too much if they're right-handed, left-handed, different, the same, it all pales in comparison to: do they hit, do they get on base, can they hit for power.
The front office seemed very concerned with, essentially, fixing something that wasn't broken. And they did! They "fixed" it, and now it's broken - as usually happens when trying to fix things that are fine.
The question I think was missing from all of this, and maybe it's just too rude, or something, but I think it's basically the only one that needed to be asked - "It's been obvious since middle of last year that offence was a problem. It wasn't addressed at the trade deadline, and the team got worse offensively over the offseason. It's been clear so far this year that offence is a problem. Why didn't you add offence?"
Like, that's the whole thing. Before 2023, Atkins re-tooled the team from a right-handed offence-first team, to a balanced-lineup pitching/defense-first team, and it was basically a total fuckup. Why didn't he recognize and correct that mistake? Why did he double down this offseason and make the offence worse to improve/stand pat on defence (IKF, KK)?
There were legitimate options to improve power hitting at DH (better than Turner, who I love to watch, but was due to drop off a cliff and has never been a big home run guy), Bellinger is clearly better than Kiermaier, Chapman is clearly better than IKF...
It seems inevitable that Ross Atkins will be sacked soon. The question is whether you allow him to start the reconstruction or move someone like James Click into an interim role and get him to start doing the heavy lifting. Given the renovations in the stadium, and the need to put bums in the seats, I suspect the Jays will punt on most of the difficult decisions now (making the same mistake that Masai Ujiri did with the Raptors), thereby diminishing the potential haul they could secure if Bo & Vladdy were traded.
Frankly, I'm so sick of listening to Ross's corporate BS, that I'd like to see a move made sooner rather than later. Shapiro has appointed some great people in Cleveland (Terry Francona, Chris Antonetti). So why is he sticking with such mediocrity in Toronto?
I think back to how they handled Donaldson and waited to trade him even when most fans probably would have understood the necessity. In other words, the waves of talent thing hasn’t worked out but I think Shapiro is serious about always trying to contend. So, yeah, I agree they probably won’t be trading Bo or Vlad away.
I’m starting to wonder though if they even trade Kikuchi, Yimi and others away. How far out of it would the team have to be before they’d throw in the towel?
Atkins, if you stopped saying "I'm really excited" about everything, people might not dislike you as much.
I really was hoping that Ernie Clement would be the next Jose Bautista. Unfortunately I’m just not seeing it. Sigh.
I was only able to make it to the end of that article by skipping each and every one of Atkins quotes. Thanks for summarizing it for me cause...no, I was not gonna be listening/reading any of it otherwise. The guy has nothing to say and still talks too much.
With all due respect to Ross Atkins...I have NO respect for Ross Atkins.
And wait, Hudgens participated in January 6th?
Also I meant to say - love these deep dives. I look forward to them every time Atkins/Shapiro speak to the media. Great to get into the weeds, parse the words, etc.
I’m probably going crazy, but I seem to recall Ross saying (1) the players drive the process and the team is just trying to help players be the best versions of themselves, and (2) he wants more diversity in the lineup in terms of not only handedness but approach. (Well, maybe not going totally crazy cuz the last one was repeated in the post.)
Yet as I understand it, the team decided it wanted everyone to prioritize contact, which is at least partly why they traded away Teo. But now they want everyone to try and do damage. Which is good for guys like Varsho but not for guys like KK.
These pieces don’t seem to fit. And with the ever expanding coaching staff, and who knows how many they’ve got behind the scenes, you’d think it be easier to help each player do what works for them with personalized coaching.
But perhaps I’m misremembering or misunderstanding?
> "we feel it’s important to have balance and not just the same type of hitters up and down your lineup"
I always found this a weird thing. Like, yeah, in the abstract that's good, but when this was said, we had one of the better lineups in baseball. We were getting results. Turns out that if you have a bunch of good hitters in your lineup, you score a lot of runs! Who knew. Doesn't matter too too much if they're right-handed, left-handed, different, the same, it all pales in comparison to: do they hit, do they get on base, can they hit for power.
The front office seemed very concerned with, essentially, fixing something that wasn't broken. And they did! They "fixed" it, and now it's broken - as usually happens when trying to fix things that are fine.
The question I think was missing from all of this, and maybe it's just too rude, or something, but I think it's basically the only one that needed to be asked - "It's been obvious since middle of last year that offence was a problem. It wasn't addressed at the trade deadline, and the team got worse offensively over the offseason. It's been clear so far this year that offence is a problem. Why didn't you add offence?"
Like, that's the whole thing. Before 2023, Atkins re-tooled the team from a right-handed offence-first team, to a balanced-lineup pitching/defense-first team, and it was basically a total fuckup. Why didn't he recognize and correct that mistake? Why did he double down this offseason and make the offence worse to improve/stand pat on defence (IKF, KK)?
There were legitimate options to improve power hitting at DH (better than Turner, who I love to watch, but was due to drop off a cliff and has never been a big home run guy), Bellinger is clearly better than Kiermaier, Chapman is clearly better than IKF...
It seems inevitable that Ross Atkins will be sacked soon. The question is whether you allow him to start the reconstruction or move someone like James Click into an interim role and get him to start doing the heavy lifting. Given the renovations in the stadium, and the need to put bums in the seats, I suspect the Jays will punt on most of the difficult decisions now (making the same mistake that Masai Ujiri did with the Raptors), thereby diminishing the potential haul they could secure if Bo & Vladdy were traded.
Frankly, I'm so sick of listening to Ross's corporate BS, that I'd like to see a move made sooner rather than later. Shapiro has appointed some great people in Cleveland (Terry Francona, Chris Antonetti). So why is he sticking with such mediocrity in Toronto?
How about Kim Ng as a potential replacement?
I think back to how they handled Donaldson and waited to trade him even when most fans probably would have understood the necessity. In other words, the waves of talent thing hasn’t worked out but I think Shapiro is serious about always trying to contend. So, yeah, I agree they probably won’t be trading Bo or Vlad away.
I’m starting to wonder though if they even trade Kikuchi, Yimi and others away. How far out of it would the team have to be before they’d throw in the towel?