We got our first look and listen at John Farrell as a Blue Jay. He was articulate, seems good with the media. The important things we learned: Bruce Walton and Brian Butterfield will be back. That's good news. Johnny, I want good cheese doodles, not the no name brand. Alex Anthopoulos says he didn't insist on keeping any of the coaches. But then Alex said that if a candidate said 'no I can't work with any of those guys' it would have raised 'red flags', saying that you don't want a person that thinks 'my way or the highway'. Farrell said they are still talking to Dwayne Murphy.
Other things we found out? Well, Toronto media folks can as the dumbest questions. 'Rank your top 4 starters in order.'I'm amazed that Farrell didn't just say 'you are kidding right?' It is October. A little later: 'Are you buying a house in Toronto?'. Ok, raise your hand anyone that cares where Farrell calls home.
I'll admit it makes me feel better hearing real sports writers ask dumb questions. I've not done a lot of interviews, but I know what it is like to ask a dumb one. They sound good in your head, then when they come out of your mouth, you know right away, 'Man that was stupid'. So hearing someone that actually gets paid to ask question come out with a dumb one, it make me feel better. Until I notice how often they ask dumb questions. Then I start to wonder why they are getting paid and I'm thrilled that I'm getting a free bag of cheese doodles.
Anyway Farrell seems like a good guy. Alex had 3 interviews with him, the first was 3 hours long. John apparently did a fair bit of homework on the team before the second and third interview. Asked about why he wanted to manage here and work with Alex, he mentioned Alex's thoughtfulness and his genuineness (is that a word).
Asked about lineups, John said that he believes in a 'set lineup' to a point. And that he doesn't want a player to come to the game and be surprised that he isn't in the lineup. He says he would talk to the player before hand. Sounds good.
He suggested he'd likely bunt more than Cito. Not a tough one, you couldn't really bunt less than Cito. And that he would likely move runners more. Ok.
One question that Alex and John avoided that I really didn't understand their reasoning for, was the one about his contract terms. Saying that wasn't relevant and 'it takes attention away from the team'. I'm not sure why it isn't relevant? I'd like to know if he was signed for a year or five years.
Alex was asked if the relative success of the team this past year changed the overall plan for the team. Alex said no, they would like to win soon but more importantly they want to be able to win each year. Seems like a good plan, no that you would find a lot of teams that don't want to complete each year.
All in all Farrell came off well at the press conference. Not that I expected different.
Update: Missed one I wanted to mention, Wilner asked Farrell was interested in the new numbers or if he was a traditional manager. Farrell said he believed in a mix but that he said he was interested in looking at the new statistics is a positive as far as I'm concerned.