Is Alex Anthopolous the Best GM in Baseball?

If I could choose any GM in the league to bring success back to the Jays organization, I would easily choose AA(Alex Anthopolous). Simply moving a contract as horrendous as Vernon Wells has definitely put AA in the upper echelon of General Managers.


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Sultan of Swing

Everyone knows the story about Jose Bautista coming out of nowhere, what most are overlooking is how godly his numbers really were the past 2 seasons.

No batter in the MLB has the ability Bautista does to hit strikes hard and lay off of pitches outside the zone.




Now think of the pitcher, your looking at Bautista in the batters box and you know if you leave one up in the zone it could be out of the park fast. You try and jam him, his lightning quick bat is able to get to all inside pitches and drive them. You try to get him to chase, he has the best eye in the game. If you try and nibble the outside corner, his ability to battle and get the count in his favour is outstanding. Now any player can hit with a 2-0 count but not many players get the count in their favour as often as Jose. When Bautista is at bat, the game is in his hands.

Not only is he the homerun king in back to back seasons, he is the leader in the clubhouse, has a rocket arm in right field (can pick it at 3rd aswell) and he can take a walk with the best of them to give his team mates the opportunity to hit with runners on base. His OPS lead the league last year after finishing in 5th in 2010, OPS is arguably the most important offensive statistic. His slash line was remarkable in all stats, in 2011 .302/.447.608 with an OPS of 1.055.

Sell Low, Buy High?

Most jays fans would love a trade for a poised Matt Garza going into his 7th career major league season. Even after seeing him post excellent numbers with the Chicago Cubs in 2011, a trade bringing him to the great white north doesn't seem reasonable. At the cost Theo Epstein is asking for which would be along the lines of a package similar to Kyle Drabek, Travis Snider and Deck McGuire, it seems like a situation AA (Alex Anthopulous) would like to avoid. This would be selling off two of the jays top prospects at their lowest value ever in their respective careers. Along with Travis D'arnaud, Drabek was the centre piece of the Doc Halladay deal. Although last year wasn't the type of showing most would have liked out of Drabek or Snider, both should be kept in the system to let their tools come together.