The MSBST3000!
8 years ago
Over the weekend, Tyler Kepner of the New York Times penned an interesting piece on the state of the Toronto Blue Jays and the strange transition the club has had to make from the Paul Beeston era to the one that now sees Mark Shapiro in charge.
Much of it isn’t particularly new for those of us who follow the team closely, but there’s enough meat in there to make it worth a read, and it provides us with a perfect quote to dust off a relic of the old Drunk Jays Fans era and update it for this wild new future we now live in.
Yes, the JP Ricciardi Bullshit Translator 3000 has now become the Mark Shapiro Bullshit Translator 3000.
The MSBST3000!
So let’s feed the old girl Shapiro’s take on whether his club’s payroll can be increased to accommodate fresh contracts for stars like Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion and see what truths she spits out, shall we??
[whirring noises] [various bleeps and blorps]
“If you were going off the premise that this market has the capability to drive revenues at extreme rates…
If you absolutely insist on not allowing us to paint ourselves as one of the league’s downtrodden clubs, here in our giant wealthy metropolis with our astronomical national TV ratings…
“If this team wins for a second year, then where potentially we could be from a resource perspective is unknown — and very high.”
What I’m going to tell you is that we can definitely be a big market club! How big? Ohhhh… welll… couldn’t say for sure, exactly. But big!
“The bigger question is what happens if the team fails to meet expectations, or something derails performance?…
Thing is, if the team doesn’t do well, ownership is proooooobably going want to do that pretend-we’re-poor thing.
“That creates more uncertainty on how to answer that question.”
We probably don’t even know what they’re going to allow us to spend!
“So I think there’s going to be some fluidity in how we answer that.”
So… let’s just say, we have no goddamned idea.
“But if it we knew already it was going to be huge, do you think we’d have so many impending free agents still unsigned?” he didn’t add, but could have.
I’m pretty sure the machine totally nailed it here. Which… doesn’t make the quote all that revealing, as much as it’s just a new spin on the well worn concept that Rogers basically just makes up a number for the Jays’ payroll to be at as it goes along. Which could work out in their favour! (If “in their favour” means could still give them the chance to retain Bautista and Encarnacion).
It’s just… y’know… I guess that until we know how the year goes there’s going to be some fluidity in how they answer that. *COUGH*
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