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Blue Jays Podcast: Anthony Alford!

By Shaun Doyle

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We have a special episode of the Jays’ Nest Podcast for you this week. We sit down and talk to Blue Jays minor league prospect, Anthony Alford! You’ve been hearing his name for a while and now you get to “meet” him. He’s a calm dude who is very realistic about himself and his future. We also discuss there ALCS and what went wrong as well as looking ahead to the offseason.

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We started our discussion with a bit of a postmortem on the Blue Jays 2015 season. Specifically, we look at what went wrong in the  ALCS. We discussed the so-called bias that may or may not have existed against the Blue Jays throughout this postseason. The bias of the broadcast crew was evident, but we looked at whether there was a bias on the part of MLB.  While we decided that there may not be a bias against the Blue Jays, there may very well be a bias when it comes to umpires and their decisions.

Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto Blue Jays /

Toronto Blue Jays

But, at the end of the day, the umpires are not what cost the Blue Jays this series. We looked at what did cost them. Essentially, it comes down to situational hitting. We know that the Blue Jays have the power to explode at any time. But, when you wait for ‘any time’, you don’t necessarily capitalize on what is in front of you.

We shifted our focus to the offseason that presents itself now that the season is over. First and foremost, the club has to decide on the future of the current GM, who has mere days left on his contract. The longer that this process takes, more and more people are getting less confident as to whether Alex Anthopoulos will return. We talked about this possibility. Here’s a hint: it would not be a good idea to let him slip away. It makes zero sense. Whoever is in the position, they’ll have to address several question marks this winter. Those question marks are not exactly mysterious, but we discuss them anyway.

From there, we brought in the exciting prospect, Alford. He’s had a great 2015 for the Lansing Lugnuts and the Dunedin Blue Jays. All tolled, he hit .298/.398/.421. He stole 27 bases. But, we wanted to chat with him to get to know him as more than just the numbers. We talked about the decision to leave football behind and focus on baseball full time. It is a very interesting story where GM, Anthopoulos, went to Mississippi to meet Alford.

Alford also had an interesting story about his mindset during the Trade Deadline. It was an odd time as he was hearing rumors involving his name as the Blue Jays were landing David Price. We also talked about Alford’s power potential. It is so interesting to listen to a guy talk about the abilities that he possesses and the faith he has in himself in comparison to the faceless numbers we see in boxscores. To highlight this point, we asked him to give us a scouting report on himself. After hearing it, you’re bound to be excited that he is in the Blue Jays’ system.

LISTEN HERE:


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Next: Did Blue Jays Live up to the Predictions in 2015?

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