On Alex Anthopolous, Fleecing and Stuffed Grape Leaves

There was a time long, long ago when I did not like Greek food. Mention gyros, tatziki, cucumber salad or stuffed grape leaves and I said "no thanks." At some point, that sentiment changed radically and Greek food is now one of my favorites. Alex Anthopolous is Greek. Alex Anthopolous is the General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. I think I read somewhere that the transitive property is an effective literary device. Anthopolous (AA) has just in effect traded some relievers, some cash, Zach Stewart and Corey Patterson for Colby Rasmus. When you read the title of this post I imagine you were hoping "fleecing" would be a discussion of how sheep are sheared and the wonderful fleece is turned into warm and fuzzy clothing for us capitalists, but sadly, it's there as what AA just did to John Mozeliak. Now extenuating circumstances existed, as Tony LaRussa has been hard at work destroying Colby Rasmus' value for the past year or so. As such, Mozeliak was severely handcuffed, but doesn't change the fact that AA gave up A, received B, and B>A. A apologize for the math lingo sprinkled throughout.

This further cements the public sentiment that AA is a fantastic GM. He's gotten rid of the terrible contracts of Alex Rios and Vernon Wells. He turned Robinson Diaz into Jose Bautista and Jose Bautista into Barry Bonds/Atlas. He sold high on Alex Gonzalez and bought low on Yunel Escobar. He has turned the farm system into arguably the best in baseball (just signed two high picks yesterday, the addition of Beede and Norris would be huge). The farm system has every type of talent: pitchers, hitters, low-risk, high-risk, close to the majors, still far away, etc. A discussion of the AL East is for another day; this is all about AA and how you would be hard pressed to find a GM who has done more to turn a franchise around in the past few years. Yelp recommends Zaina, so I must bid adieu so I can demolish some stuffed grape leaves.