A Glimmer of Hope in TO

As much as I try, I can't help but feel a strong allegiance to my beloved Toronto teams, no matter how bad they've become. It's hard to justify when the city hasn't seen a championship since I was 10 years old, an age where I understood what was happening, and remember it fairly vividly, but not nearly old enough to truly appreciate it (in other words: riot in the streets).

Even as the Raptors can't seem to win a game and the Maple Leafs attempt to chase down a playoff spot that they surely will not get, I look into the near future and definitely see a glimmer of hope. Namely, the Toronto Blue Jays.

You read it here first: the Blue Jays will be the next Toronto based team to win a major championship. The reason: Alex Anthopoulos.

I can't tell you how happy I was the day I learned that after what seemed like decades of futility, Ted Rogers finally grew a pair and sent JP Ricciardi packing (I'll give you a hint, almost as happy as I was the day they finally fired John Gibbons). After the endless string of "we're building for next year" or "two years from now" or "2007 will be the year"; after all the ill advised moves that Ricciardi made in order to build for next year, away he went.

I'll admit, the moves Ricciardi made were not all bad. In fact, when it came to evaluating pitching I don't think he could have done much better. After all, he was the one responsible for drafting and developing the likes of Shaun Marcum, Dustin McGowan, Jesse Listch, Casey Janssen, Brett Cecil, Shawn Camp, Jesse Carlson .. the list goes on. He did manage to keep the best pitcher in baseball in a Jays uniform for quite some time. And yeah the Burnett and BJ Ryan deals didn't turn out quite the way we hoped, but he was consistantly able to put a great pitching staff together. I'll give him that.

Position players, whole different ball game. I won't start with the outrage I felt in 2008 when he kicked Reed Johnson to the curb, thinking that Shannon Stewart was a better option in left and Frank Thomas at DH, leaving Matt Stairs on the bench and no room left for Reed. Guess what? Stewart and Thomas were both gone within two months and Johnson went on to hit .300 for the Cubs. Good one JP. Hudson for Glaus, Dave Bush for Overbay, you can go all the way back and find a trail of trades for position players ranging from questionable to flat out awful.

So what is it about AA that makes me optimistic? It's easy, this guy means business.

Every time I listen to Anthopolous do interviews on the radio or TV, he is constantly talking about how he always talks to other GMs, asks questions, finds out who's available. It's not that he is constantly making deals, it's that he knows what the team needs both now and long term, and he goes and finds those things. He doesn't sit around and wait for deals to come to him.

Take this offseason. With Gregg, Tallet, and Downs all opting for free agency, the Jays now no closer and no bullpen (although Gregg's credentials as a closer are tenuous at best). That's a huge problem. What does he do? He gets not one, not two, not three, but FOUR ptichers who have been effective closers at some point in their careers, namely Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch, Octavio Dotel, and Chad Cordero. Throw in Frasor and three of Janssen, Carlson, Camp, Villenueva, Purcey, or Richmond and voila, problem solved.

What about the rotation? True he had to part with Shaun Marcum to help the bullpen, but it was a justified risk. Romero, Morrow and Cecil all came into their own last season, and Jesse Litsch looks to be in fine form this spring. Add top prospect Kyle Drabek and the rotation is looking pretty good. Young and able to grow and mature over the next few seasons. Injuries? Zack Stewart and Jo-Jo Reyes look to be more than able to fill in. Nothing to worry about there (yet).

Position players could be a problem for now, but when you look at the prospects this team has, it's gonna be scary to face the Jays lineup in a few years. The core of Hill, Lind, Bautista, and Snider are only going to get better. Once they gain some consistency, the middle of the order could be scary. Arencibia has the potential to be a big bat as well. Everything I've read and seen of Adeiny Hecchevarria suggests that defensively he's major league ready, and in a few years when his bat catches up, look out. And the two prospects AA went after pretty aggressively, Brett Lawrie and Anthony Gose, are two very highly rated prospects. Gose could steal 50 bases a season and Lawrie is one of those guys who will give 110% every single night.

The Jays aren't going to win it all this season. Or next season. But in about two years, something tells me a lot of baseball people are going to be giving the Blue Jays some serious attention, long before the Leafs make the playoffs and the Raptors have a winning record.

-matt