Analyzing Alex Anthopoulos

In last night's Jays game versus the Rays, the broadcast team mentioned the work of Rays GM Andrew Friedman, and his ability to constantly attain young talent and rebuild when they inevitably leave via free agency. The Rays have been able to remain competitive over the past 3 years, while built almost exclusively around homegrown talent. This made me start to think about how the Jays strategy compares to that of their AL East rivals, as the Jays payroll is higher than the Rays but obviously miniscule in comparison to the Yankees and Red Sox.

During the short reign of Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos, the young executive has stressed the importance of building a young team for future success, and many moves have represented this stance by dealing veterans for unproven prospects. With such a strategy it is impossible to currently analyze the full impact of Anthopoulos, but nevertheless, there have been a few moves that could already be seen as definite victories. The obvious example is the Vernon Wells dumping, I mean deal. Getting rid of the albatross of a middle-of-the-pack outfielder with a $126 million contract can only be described as a miracle. In the process, AA even extracted a valuable asset in 1B/C Mike Napoli (flipped for closer Frank Francisco) as well as a spare part in Juan Rivera.

Another very prudent move was the wheeling of a streaking Alex Gonzalez for a slumping but high-upside Yunel Escobar. After the trade, Gonzalez predictably cooled, while Escobar has been an upgrade defensively, and in on-base percentage, proving a valuable commodity at the top of the order. A sneaky throw-in to that deal was pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes who has been a contender for the starting rotation, despite some ugly outings thus far.

A name that has been on the lips of many Jays fans this season is Brett Lawrie. Anthopoulos showed that he wasn't afraid to rock the boat by sending away Shaun Marcum, coming right off a career year. Marcum battled back from Tommy John surgery to regain his pre-surgery form, and at 29-years old, isn't exactly over-the-hill, but Anthopoulos saw a peak in value and decided to act on it. In return for Marcum the Jays received not only a highly-rated prospect, but a highly-rated Canadian prospect in Brett Lawrie. With tales of ego and debauchery attached, Lawrie was depicted as a risk, but so far he has been nothing but money (.361 BA, .400 OBP, 4 HR, 16 RBI in 24 games), and Jays fans are salivating over the "prospect" of his promotion to the big team, which could possibly be as soon as this June.

But it hasn't all been sunshine, rainbows and unicorn boners in the early going for Anthopoulos. One move that still has some scratching their heads was the dealing of Brett Wallace. When Anthopoulos was faced with the prospect of trading Roy Halladay, the eyes of the entire league were on him, since you know, it's not everyday the best pitcher in the game is moved. Considering Doc was basically calling the shots with a no-trade clause, the Jays haul ended up looking relatively good, with three highly touted prospects coming their way in Brett Wallace, Kyle Drabek and Travis D'Arnaud.

The "sure-thing" of the group appeared to be Wallace, who tore up AAA and looked ready to become the Jays everyday first baseman after Lyle Overbay's contract expired at the end of the 2010 season. But Anthopoulos had other ideas and decided to go after a now Houston Astros prospect he had eyed in the original Doc Deal named Anthony Gose. A 20-year old speedy CF, the converted pitcher is noted as a threat on the base-paths (despite being caught on 29% of his attempts) and possesses an above average arm. However his bat has been seen as a serious weakness with a professional batting average of only .258 through just over 2 full seasons, and he was only promoted to AA this season, so is still a ways away from The Show. Wallace, on the other hand, was almost immediately thrust into the the Astros starting lineup. After a pedestrian showcase in the dog days of the 2010 season, Wallace has quickly adjusted in 2011, with a Pujolsian .450 OBP along with 12 runs and 10 RBI. The early signs point to a loss on the Wallace/Gose deal, but only time will time if that ends up being true.

Another area that Anthopoulos has gone against public sentiment or perhaps even common logic has been the early season roster moves in 2011. With a quartet of new relievers brought in, the bullpen has been constantly remodeled with two of the biggest moves being the exodus of David Purcey, and the conversion (demotion?) of Marc Rzepczynski to a reliever. Also having an out-of-options starter in Jo-Jo Reyes has led to the deserved demotion of Brett Cecil and the undeserved demotion of Jesse Litsch to AAA, just to keep an erratic Reyes with the team.

Despite the impact of those moves, one of the biggest shockers came just a few days ago, when a struggling Travis Snider was demoted to AAA, and 1B David Cooper brought up in his place. This has definitely been the hardest move to fully comprehend as Snider has often slumped in the majors but is still only 23 years old and would be much better suited working through his slump against big league pitchers than dominating AAA as he has in previous stints (tiny sample but right now he is 7-for-11 in AAA). Anthopoulos has shown through his other actions that the Jays are not a team of 2011, but more so 2013 and beyond, so why he would not allow a pivotal piece of that future team to improve against the best opposition is beyond me.

Overall, I think Alex Anthopoulos has done a fine job, but only time will tell if he is the next Gord Ash or J.P. Ricciardi. Let's just watch and wait and maybe Gose will turn into Carl Crawford (pre-Red Sox version please) and Snider will get his groove back in Las Vegas after forming his own one man wolf pack. Who knows?!