Free Agent Activity

GM Goldberg says, "We are not fnished in free agency!"

Fans question where did all the money go?  Well it was clear that the market was well over priced for aging veterans.  I told the experts at the trade deadline, that CASH will be king.  In the off-season, it worked out just that way.  BSA star Martin Griffin CL, was still on the market after his original asking price of $10+M for 5+ years was ignored by everyone in the BSA.  The market continues to drop and we will be ready to make the right move when it makes sense.

Goldberg has a history of sticking to short term deals.

Lets look at the two major free agent signings so far for the Titans of Toronto.

Jose Brito  (1 year deal, $3.71M)  Goldberg says, "Lets see how he does in a larger ballpark..."

 "Living in Canada makes it easier for my family to visit me and watch me play!"

Carlos Garica  (1 year deal, $3.00 M)  Goldberg says, "perform or there will be no return back to Toronto next year - we needed some pop in our lineup and he can hit them out to any field!"

 "I hope to return to my 2011 form when I had 36 dingers!  I love the ballpark changes"

Opening Day/Week in the BSA

It was a disappointing start to Toronto Titans baseball in the BSA.

Fans were excited, Management was excited, all the work that went into the team in the off-season and pre-season came down to right here, right now.

Unfortunately the start of the season did not go as planned.

Newly acquired CL Jose Gomez had the worst stretch of his professional career.

Nicknamed Heartthrob, GM Goldberg said, "he better worry about pitching and not worry about the girls before the game and signing their bras...."  We gave him a healthy extension, he was hot in the spring training so all jokes aside we expect him to rebound nicely.  Asked if there was a rumor that a taxi was coming in ala Martin Cab Fare Griffin - Goldberg laughed, "Ha,,, not unless he lessens his $$$ demands.."

Game Log for Gomez

1 IP, 7 Hits, 8 runs (all earned), 2 HRs, 2 BB, 1K, 0-2 record with 3 Blown Saves

Toronto managed to come home at 2-3 despite the closers poor effort.  Fans are weary though with an opening night loss to division rival Kansas City and a home opener loss to another division rival Indianapolis.

If we can't close the games we will be in for a long season!

Titans Spring Training Review - 2 Prospects Make the Team!

Toronto used the spring training to give work to the young prospects in the system to see if any of them could crack the ML roster heading to Kansas City for opening day.

2 bright stars and past top prospects did make the club:

LF - Santiago Frias

RF - Luis Gonzalez

Santiago Frias was developed within our organization meanwhile Luis Gonzalez was acquired from HAD (newly relocated to IND).

Both players will see some time right out of the gate as Chien-Shih Cuan OF was nursing an injury during the spring.

The fans are excited to see the influx of new talent on the Titans roster.

Toronto Ownership Delivers on Promise!

Ownership delivered on their promises this off-season;

Toronto was one of the most active organizations this off-season.  Almost turning around their complete roster and minor league system.

In the eyes of management, Toronto lacked that ace needed to dominant a playoff series.  It was clear with the loss to Greenville in last years playoffs that SP was one of the biggest reasons for the loss.

To send a message, Toronto acquired Shawn Jackson from STL as a tease and then delivered the fans a special treat with Guillermo Mendoza from HAD.  Mendoze clearly is one of the elite pitchers in the BSA universe.  Toronto was very sad to see popular and producing players leave the organization but, clearly had to pay the price to bring home an ace.

Toronto was not done.  Lacking funds to be an active player in the Free Agent market, Toronto moved solid prospects that were a few years away from making the big club for CASH.

Then in a big a trade that made star Martin Griffin upset to walk to Free Agency, the Titans acquired solid closer Jose Gomez from POC plus obtaining more CASH to help resign star Raul Gonzalez 1B.

During Spring Training, Toronto completed two more moves to bring in future stars in the rotation.  First the Titans acquired;  Mike Saunders from CLE and then acquired Reagan Wear and Cesar Martinez from VIS. Both those trades probably hurt the major league roster a bit but, the feeling was by our management team that we could absorb the losses because of our depth.

A list of all the major trades are shown below:

Traded 17-year-old minor league right fielder Xamida Machuka, 23-year-old minor league first baseman Jesús Ontiveros and 23-year-old minor league reliever Didyu Ghosh to the St. Louis Browns, getting 26-year-old starting pitcher Shawn Jackson in return.

Traded 26-year-old second baseman Steve Robinson, 25-year-old starting pitcher Alfonso Gutiérrez, 25-year-old starting pitcher Ross Holley and 19-year-old minor league center fielder Héctor Camacho to the Haddonfield Hackers, getting 26-year-old starting pitcher Guillermo Mendoza, 25-year-old minor league center fielder Donovan Price, 19-year-old minor league center fielder Jorge Gutiérrez and 24-year-old right fielder Luis González in return.

Traded 26-year-old minor league third baseman Ángel García to the Greenville 84s, getting $2,000,000 in cash in return.

Traded 26-year-old minor league center fielder Jesús Santos to the Greenville 84s, getting $2,000,000 in cash in return.

Traded 15-year-old minor league closer Adrián Martínez, 24-year-old minor league starting pitcher Cho-yeong Cho and 16-year-old minor league reliever Manny Benavides to the Pocatello Boccabellas, getting 29-year-old closer José Gómez and $6,000,000 in cash in return.

Traded 25-year-old starting pitcher José Orozco, 28-year-old second baseman Jesús Valdéz and 26-year-old minor league left fielder Eduardo Bautista to the Cleveland Monsters, getting 24-year-old minor league starting pitcher Mike Saunders, 26-year-old starting pitcher Gary Cox, 32-year-old first baseman Rich Smith, 23-year-old minor league second baseman Will Newman and $2,600,000 in cash in return.

Toronto Sends; SP/MR John Stricker, CF Donovan Price, SP Clint Murphy, SP Ban-xao Lam, MR Alfredo Soto, 1B Claudio Hernandez

Vista Sends:  SP Reagan Wear, SP Cesar Martinez, DH Santiago Marquez

Relocation Announced for the Entire Organization

Out with old management in with new management, stated GM Jason Goldberg.

We have a lot of respect to the former management that draft, ran and led the former OKC organization to being one of the most successful franchises in the BSA.

However; with new ownership in place there is only one goal for management, coaches, players and our fans.  We are in this to win the BSA Championship!  An estimated crowd of 100,000 people gathered at the base of the CN Tower to listened to the press conference.

Our management team will live with a philosophy as simple as, "There is plenty of time to sleep where we are all dead...".  We will play hard, work hard and have fun.  We will not stop working until we have the Championship.

The new organization:

ML - Toronto Titans (black and gold)
AAA - Lansing Lugnuts (red and grey)
AA - New Hampshire Fisher Cats (green and yellow)
A - Dunedin Blue Jays (blue and grey)

Expect a ton of changes in the off-season as we take our step towards being a not just a Continental Central Division contender but, a BSA champion.