Anthopoulos earning his keep
General manager’s deals for Donaldson, Martin crucial to the Blue Jays’ recent success
Where would the Blue Jays be right now without Josh Donaldson and Russell Martin?
That question should be asked of those who are anxiously and privately waiting for this baseball season to end so they can remove Alex Anthopoulos as general manager of the club.
All Anthopoulos managed this past off-season was add an MVP-candidate in Donaldson and a roster-changing catcher in Martin.
And when he wasn’t doing that, he was trading for Devon Travis and Marco Estrada, claiming Chris Colabello on waivers, making deals for the currently injured Michael Saunders and Justin Smoak, altering more than 40 per cent of his wavering roster.
In the meantime, Anthopoulos, fulfilling his mandate, has rebuilt the farm system with a long list of young pitchers that includes Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez, Daniel Norris, Jeff Hoffman, Roberto Osuna, Miguel Castro and the ever-improving lefty Matt Boyd.
And while the supposedly big winter of 2013 — the deals with the Miami Marlins and New York Mets — backfired on the Jays, Anthopoulos has done what the best of general managers do: He has recovered from it.
There is still a pitcher or three to acquire here. But look around baseball and ask yourself this: Who is doing more than Anthopoulos?
And how could anyone make a case for firing him no matter how this season turns out?
THIS AND THAT
Almost every mock draft you see has the Arizona Coyotes selecting either centre Dylan Strome or defenceman Noah Hanifin with the third pick in Friday night’s NHL Draft. The Leafs pick fourth. But at least one tuned-in scout is willing to bet that both Strome and Hanifin will be available when the Leafs choose, which will make both the draft and the future fascinating in more than one way ... With the draft getting close, the Leafs have divided up work in their front office without a general manager. Mark Hunter is doing draft preparation. Kyle Dubas is working the phones, talking trade ... What I’m hearing: Brendan Shanahan doesn’t love Phil Kessel and neither does new coach Mike Babcock. They want him gone. But they want to make a hockey trade, not make Kessel an expensive garagesale item. The pair of Shanahan and Babcock doesn’t dislike captain Dion Phaneuf the way they do Kessel ... What the Leafs now wonder — and this kind of thinking can be potentially dangerous: Which of the current players they lost faith in last season can change and get better because Babcock can “coach them up.” That is now being discussed ... The Zach Hyman the Leafs acquired in a minor deal on Friday is the son of Stu Hyman, the one-time disgraced minor hockey operator in the city ... Dave Nonis should be back in the NHL by early July in some kind of senior adviser position with the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks can’t hire him before July 1, but he and GM Bob Murray are old friends.
HEAR AND THERE
Mr. Edward Rogers wanted to replace Paul Beeston as president of the Blue Jays with Kenny Williams from the White Sox or Dan Duquette from the Orioles. Which was nice and rather awkward of him. By the way, when last I checked, the White Sox had the worst record in the American League and the Orioles were behind the Blue Jays ... Quick tip of the hat to Dale Tallon, who sometimes gets lost in all the Stan Bowman rhetoric. Tallon drafted Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Corey Crawford, Niklas Hjarmalsson, Dustin Byfuglien, Troy Brouwer, Bryan Bickell, David Bolland and traded for Patrick Sharp in his time with the Blackhawks. He barely gets mentioned there anymore ... So long, Cindy Klassen. And thanks for Turin and that Canadian performance for the ages ... Is it just me, or does Edwin Encarnacion look uncomfortable at the plate? Imagine the Blue Jays offence if he ever gets feeling right? ... I will defend Pablo Sandoval in only one pathetic way: Almost daily, I inadvertently push the wrong button on my phone and wind up in predicaments I’d rather avoid.
SCENE AND HEARD
Strange juxtaposition of statistics: The Montreal Canadiens don’t have enough scoring. The Pittsburgh Penguins are blessed with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin at centre. Yet both teams ended up with the identical number of goals, 221 this past season ... Strange juxtaposition of statistics, Part II: Plus-minus is meaningless (so my smarter friends tell me) yet the Triplets line of Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat was a +102 for the Tampa Bay Lightning while the Leafs don’t-givea-bleep line of Tyler Bozak-Kessel and James van Riemsdyk was a combined minus-102 ... The news is relatively quiet around the Raptors these days, but don’t be surprised if former star Jerry Stackhouse winds up being added to the team as player development coach. The additions to Dwane Casey’s coaching staff won’t be named until after Thursday’s NBA draft ... Last summer, Jonas Valanciunas did some work with Hakeem Olajuwon. This summer, he’ll be tutored by Jack Sikma ... If Jeff Spicoli had been a big-league pitcher, wouldn’t his name have been Noah Sydergaard? ... Chris Sale has stuck out 12 batters in five consecutive starts. The last time anyone in baseball managed that was Pedro Martinez in 1999 pitching for the Boston Red Sox. He finished 23-4 that year ... If I was an NHL GM, I would seriously consider a large restricted freeagent offer to game-changer Vladimir Tarasenko in St. Louis, who finished fifth in the NHL in goal scoring. The Blues aren’t exactly known for paying big bucks ... The CFL season opens Thursday in Montreal against Ottawa. The Argos’ true home opener comes 44 days later, just in time for Ricky Ray to return.
AND ANOTHER THING
He didn’t rest in life, maybe he will rest in peace: Tank Landry, the great and erratic CFL talent, dead at the age of 51 ... Why not find a way to keep Graham James in prison for life? ... Loved the Saturday sporting cover of the New York Post after Alex Rodriguez got his 3,000th hit. They had the numbers 3,000, with syringes going through the three zeros ... The last golfer to win the Masters and follow it up with a U.S. Open victory: Tiger Woods. Before that, Jack Nicklaus ... The timing of this couldn’t be worse for anybody: Jarret Stoll, free agent ... And happy birthday to Duane Thomas (68), Robert Drummond (48), Rick Sutcliffe (59), Ron Low (65), Cheryl Pounder (39), Bob Bourne (61) and Michel Platini (60) ... And hey, whatever became of Pat Falloon?