On consumer confidence, a weird weekend, and hopefully the last of the Bass fallout. Plus some quick news and notes as the Jays get set for a big series with the Orioles.
We are like 5 Vlad home runs (at home), 2 shitty Bassit starts and one unfucked Manoah away from the vibes surrounding this team being way less dour. Alas,
Sure we're a good team and there's lots of ways to create a positive spin on the season so far - we're only 0.5 a game out of a wild card with months to go etc. But I think most fans expected more at this stage? It's frustrating to see Tampa keep doing what they do year after year and the Yankees fall into that category as well - and both those teams have dealt with more significant injuries than we have this year. Baltimore seems to have leapfrogged us thanks to reaping the benefits of years of misery (not that I wanted us to go that route) although I'm still not sure how they're doing what they're doing. At any rate - these teams and others in the AL seem to be better than us. Better to the point where we potentially might not make the playoffs. So why aren't we better? Yep - I get it - lots of teams want to be better, but I don't care about those teams, I care about this team.
And that's kinda the crux, isn't it - other teams seem to be doing it better than us, often with a lot less money. For a long time, it seemed like the pocketbook was the barrier - Rogers just wouldn't open the purse strings to be a real contender, content to sit in the mushy middle and reap TV dollars. But that excuse is gone, we're still in the mushy middle, and the question becomes - ok, then where is the problem?
Presumably, it's in the staff who don't get a lot of attention. Scouts, analysts, coaches in the majors and minors, and (not that the GM doesn't get a lot of attention but...) the front office. It would be interesting to see if there's any way to tell how good a job they're doing, aside from the record or the obvious "we can't develop pitching like the Rays" or whatever.
I also think there's an argument that this front office tries to be "too fine" or "too clever" about the moves they make, thinking they're finding free money or "great value" instead of just great players. Derek Fisher comes to mind, as does Mitch White. The Berios signing may still bear fruit (and it certainly looks better today than it did six months ago), but it was interesting to see that they went after a guy whose big selling point was "consistency", not "excellence".
That's a good point about scouting. We've got some homegrowns like Bichette, Biggio, Kirk, Manoah from the current regime, but overall not a lot to show for the last 7 years. Even some of the top prospects we traded away like Groshans and Martin have sort of fizzled out for various reasons. Sure, we haven't had very high picks, but neither have Tampa and New York. So maybe our scouts and evaluation aren't as good as other teams? I just think that it's a bit of a red flag that two of our most important offensive contributors this year are Kiermaier and Belt who are on 1 year contracts.
Logical, reasonable and insightful as always. But you keep dropping articles minutes before a big game. Gotta get Stoets in before it becomes dated. :)
We are like 5 Vlad home runs (at home), 2 shitty Bassit starts and one unfucked Manoah away from the vibes surrounding this team being way less dour. Alas,
And to all you lurkers out there who haven't subscribed yet - pay the man!
Andrew - might be good to engage with comments as it might be more of an incentive for people to pay?
Sure we're a good team and there's lots of ways to create a positive spin on the season so far - we're only 0.5 a game out of a wild card with months to go etc. But I think most fans expected more at this stage? It's frustrating to see Tampa keep doing what they do year after year and the Yankees fall into that category as well - and both those teams have dealt with more significant injuries than we have this year. Baltimore seems to have leapfrogged us thanks to reaping the benefits of years of misery (not that I wanted us to go that route) although I'm still not sure how they're doing what they're doing. At any rate - these teams and others in the AL seem to be better than us. Better to the point where we potentially might not make the playoffs. So why aren't we better? Yep - I get it - lots of teams want to be better, but I don't care about those teams, I care about this team.
Yikes- just looked at the score!
And that's kinda the crux, isn't it - other teams seem to be doing it better than us, often with a lot less money. For a long time, it seemed like the pocketbook was the barrier - Rogers just wouldn't open the purse strings to be a real contender, content to sit in the mushy middle and reap TV dollars. But that excuse is gone, we're still in the mushy middle, and the question becomes - ok, then where is the problem?
Presumably, it's in the staff who don't get a lot of attention. Scouts, analysts, coaches in the majors and minors, and (not that the GM doesn't get a lot of attention but...) the front office. It would be interesting to see if there's any way to tell how good a job they're doing, aside from the record or the obvious "we can't develop pitching like the Rays" or whatever.
I also think there's an argument that this front office tries to be "too fine" or "too clever" about the moves they make, thinking they're finding free money or "great value" instead of just great players. Derek Fisher comes to mind, as does Mitch White. The Berios signing may still bear fruit (and it certainly looks better today than it did six months ago), but it was interesting to see that they went after a guy whose big selling point was "consistency", not "excellence".
That's a good point about scouting. We've got some homegrowns like Bichette, Biggio, Kirk, Manoah from the current regime, but overall not a lot to show for the last 7 years. Even some of the top prospects we traded away like Groshans and Martin have sort of fizzled out for various reasons. Sure, we haven't had very high picks, but neither have Tampa and New York. So maybe our scouts and evaluation aren't as good as other teams? I just think that it's a bit of a red flag that two of our most important offensive contributors this year are Kiermaier and Belt who are on 1 year contracts.
Logical, reasonable and insightful as always. But you keep dropping articles minutes before a big game. Gotta get Stoets in before it becomes dated. :)