Anthopolous meets with the media Part 1

Mike Wilner has been covering the winter meetings in Orlando very closely (considering he's actually in Orlando, he damn well should be) and has some really interesting reads at his blog. Here's my take on some of the things Anthopolous spoke to the media about yesterday.

One comment that really stood out to me was when AA touched on his not being overly open with the media with regards to potential deals that he's working on.  He talked about how he recognizes that fans want to be a part of the discussions and that he would "rather not be completely quiet and not comment on anything". The reason why he keeps things close to the vest is that he's seen so many deals that were close to happening but then other teams catch wind of the deal and get involved, which drives the price up (or down depending on which side of the coin you're on). This was particularly interesting for me because it related back to my thought process on all the Grienke rumors. We've heard so much talk about the Jays being involved in trade discussions with the Royals, but if you think about it, we've never heard anything about any of the deals AA has actually pulled off until they're done.

Anthopolous also addressed the need to..ugh...address the back end of the bullpen. He mentioned how last year they picked up Gregg after the majority of the other relievers had found homes, and that he doesn't plan to wait quite as long this year. I get the sense from AA that he doesn't necessarily prescribe to the notion of "closer by committee" and would prefer to have a bona fide closer finishing off games. There's been some debate lately as to the actual value of a full-time closer, and the numbers seem to point to there really being no benefit. I'm still not completely convinced that having a legitimate closer is without value, though. Just ask the Yankees how it feels to have Rivera come out of the pen every ninth inning (when they're winning, that is). Now there obviously isn't a Mariano Rivera waiting in the wings to become the next long term closer for the Jays, so closer by committee might be the best option for the team right now. I certainly wouldn't want them throwing a tonne of money at Soriano, if that was the alternative.

That's all for now. I'll have a post from today's media scrum with Anthopolous soon.