Alex Anthopoulos on the Jeff Blair Show

Jeff Blair had Alex Anthopoulos on his show this morning.

Here are a few of the things he said:

• Asked about the effect the Royals success might have on the game Alex said "the game is slowly veering towards speed and defense."
• Gibby will be back.
• They are still working signing the coaching staff.
• He can't wait until November, the gates open (on the off-season) right after the World Series is open.
• Asked if there is a spot for Pat Hentgen? "His family is still his priority." He won't be back to a significant role until things settle down with his family.
• Asked about what went wrong with the team: If we had a top 5 bullpen we would have been in there. The bullpen did not perform up to expectations. A lot of guys underachieved. 'If we even had an average pen we would have won 5 for 6 more games and been in the wild card.'
• Asked about Shi Davidi's column on a lack of trust between the players and management? 'if we played in the Wild Card game this wouldn't be an issue'. 'That's what happens when you don't make the playoffs'. 'It is just a convenient narrative.' And he went back to talking about the bullpen.
• Are you happy with the clubhouse culture? "I think we can definitely improve it". 'It isn't the most tight knit group in the world.' And back to blaming the bullpen.
• Melky Cabrera? He wouldn't say if they have made Melky an offer. 'It isn't fair for anyone to say there hasn't been dialog." "A deal hasn't been done because both sides haven't been able to get together". 'With Casey Janssen we made an offer and he made a counter offer, and we were miles apart".
• Asked why he didn't talk to the players after the trade deadline he said that the team was road, and he can't be on the road at the deadline because all the data he needs is in Toronto. He says the usual, the players can talk to him anytime and no one chose to talk to him about the issue, but didn't put any onus on himself to be proactive and talk to the players before things become an issue.

He seemed to put all the problems of the season on the backs of the bullpen. He didn't seem to think there was much to be learned from Shi Davidi's story on confidence.