Whose Baseball Team Is This? (2009 Blue Jays Thread)

FABIAN
Butch, whose motorcycle is this?

BUTCH
Its a baseball team.

FABIAN
Whose baseball team is this?

BUTCH
Teds.

FABIAN
Who's Ted?

BUTCH
Teds dead, baby, Teds dead.

And with that, the two lovebirds PEEL AWAY on Grace, as the
SONG on the BOOM BOX RISES.

FADE TO BLACK

Anyway, I took the chance to make a thread to post a Sheehan article I'm sorry to say hits it bang on the nose for me.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=8348

What we might call the Roy Halladay/Vernon Wells Blue Jays peaked last season. They did so without anyone noticing, without ever being relevant to either the AL East or wild-card races, and perhaps without having the kind of year that would get them off of a difficult treadmill.

Nevertheless, this was a fantastic baseball team in 2008, the best run-prevention team in baseball thanks to a strong rotation, deep bullpen and excellent defense. Despite playing in the loaded AL East, the Jays led the majors by allowing just 610 runs, and they also led if you use Adjusted Equivalent Runs Allowed. They had the third-best Defensive Efficiency and ranked seventh in PADE in the majors. Their pitchers were second in the AL in strikeouts and first in fewest home runs allowed.

So why did they go 86-76? Competition is clearly a factor. Per the Adjusted Standings, the Jays had a third-order record of 92-70, the fourth-best mark in the game. Unfortunately, two of the three teams better than them in 2008 were the AL East's division winner and the AL's wild-card team, shutting the Jays out of the postseason even had they played to their mark. Toronto's run prevention was so good that it carried a mediocre offense to that feat of ranking as the fourth-best team in baseball last season.

Were the Blue Jays in any other division in baseball last year, they would have made the postseason and been one of the game's best stories. With 2008 behind them, though, it's hard to see how, even with an improved offense, they get within 80 runs of last season's 610 allowed. Too many things went right for that to happen. Throw in this week's death of team owner Ted Rogers, and the uncertainty over the future grows. The Jays probably won't fall apart the way the Royals did after Ewing Kauffman's death, but a corporate-owned team whose benefit is largely its position as television programming certainly could see itself treated less well by the corporation in the short term. Rogers' willingness to let J.P. Ricciardi go over budget the last few years was a good thing for the organization, even if it was not a decision that produced a championship. Cutting back now would hurt the team, but there's an argument that no amount of money is going to make the Blue Jays better than the third-best team in their own division.

ugh.

john (ct): This year seems to not have any can't miss teams, the Yankees might be considred so but afterall they are in the very competitive AL East. What teams in the AL and NL do you think will surprise in a big way?

John Perrotto: Let's say the Blue Jays in the AL and Braves in the NL.

Joe Lefko (NJ): Care to elaborate on the Jays surprising in the AL? From where I'm sitting, they're significantly worse than last year and will be competing against the Orioles' new and improved lineup/defense for last place...

John Perrotto: Pitching, defense, breakout from Lind, finally a monster year from Rios.

*sigh*

Shouldn't that be on the dumbass analysis thred

ha!

they're more like a freak show than a baseball team at this point.

xp: I think Sheehan picked the Yankees as best candidates for an '08 Tigers-style flameout. :D

the pitching freak show continues...

We're in first place!

tied, anyways. i'm sure you enjoy it as much as i do!

no way man, run differential counts (+7), get your +5 out of my face

:)

almost forfeited the game tho - due to all the insane behavior from the mouth-breathers in the stands with me.
Anderson had 2 - *TWO* - balls thrown at him! i have never seen people behave like that at a game before. pretty much ruined the home opener for me.

Wow -- the Detroit TV team noticed one ball, and all they were able to show was Anderson picking it up. Why did it take the announcer 10 minutes to say something?

i dunno - it was the outfield so maybe they hard a hard time noticing.
i heard the same about the J's broadcast - they didn't see the "big deal" that caused them to delay the game. maybe they were trying to save face?

Suspended Liquor License Means Dry Jays, Argos Games

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_33488.aspx

http://cache-foo.deadspin.com/gawker/assets/images/11/2009/04/504x_bjs.com

so true.

Recommendation: The Jays are saying he suffered a right in his right elbow but we'll know more on his status later today. The Jays did reveal that Litsch did complain about some elbow soreness in his last start as well. (Rotowire.com)

You have to watch out for those rights.

wau @ this teams' hitting!

Though rookie Travis Snider has been playing against right-handers and Bautista against lefties, Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston won’t call his LF situation a platoon. "Still early. There’s still an opportunity," he said. "Even though it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, the duck’s going to walk differently soon."

This kind of stuff gets brushed off when the team is playing great, but this is EXACTLY why Cito is such a cocksmoking douche and isn't fit to manage a Little League team. He's got the organization's best prospect on the roster (and he's hitting well!) but Cito wants to platoon him with a veteran, because Cito is comfortable playing vets whereas rookies need to be babied, even if the vet in question is a journeyman role player and the rookie is the future of the franchise. PLAY SNIDER. FIRE CITO.

^Dusty Lasordaism

somehow I don't think .317/.374/.540 for the team is going to last

maybe the future of the franchise it hitting so well right now because he doesn't have to deal with lefties for the time being?
not the biggest fan of Cito - mainly for bullpen-al reasons - but i'm not gonna flip out over a 21 year old sitting down every 3rd game.

Given enough playing time, Bautista just might be able to put up his SECOND season of league average OBP!

Oh come on Thermo, not you too! Snider's hitting well because he's one of the best prospects in baseball (according to just about everybody), and he's not playing everyday because we can't trust Cito to help develop young players any more than we can trust him to wipe his own ass without an instruction manual. Once upon a time, he didn't think Shawn Green should be playing everyday because who knows, maybe Orlando Merced would be the breakout superstar to lead the team into the next century. Real organizations don't tolerate this bullshit -- you didn't see the Rays hanging onto Ty Wigginton so he could platoon with Evan Longoria in his first season.

oh. me too.
so what happens if Snider goes to playing full time in LF, and slumps. does he keep him out there then, full time? or does he sit him down full time or back to the platoon? should he shift the kids role on the team daily based on his performance? i don't see anything wrong with being cautious to start the season - he is a full three years younger than Longoria afterall!

to be honest i don't have a big problem with the platoon or full time - i can see reasons for both. but flipping out on Cito when the team is hitting like they are seems silly.

Those "what if?" scenarios might be reasonable if we were dealing with an ordinary manager, but Cito Gaston has a long history of not knowing the first thing about breaking in young players. Longoria's age isn't the point -- he's just one example among plenty that if you've got a top prospect on the big club then you PLAY THEM and stick with them and that's how they become stars. The fact that the team is hitting well at the moment is also not the point -- this is about the big picture, and nobody thinks about that when the team can do no wrong because whatever they're doing now is presumably "working". But the Jays' management is supposed to be thinking about the big picture, which means this: Bautista shouldn't be playing in place of Snider. EVER.

The Jays have been hedging their bets with their young stars for the past 15 years and that's a big reason why the team has been mediocre for so long. They pulled exactly the same crap with Lind last year and they're doing it again with Snider.

So like what the fuck did Scutaro and Hill eat/drink/rub on themselves/inject this offseason.

heart.

Goat placenta

He should give some of it to Michael Barrett, who for a big strong stud just has one freaky injury after another. Landed on his shoulder last night, looks like weeks, or surgery.

the blue jays current injured rotation:

1. McGowan
2. Marcum
3. Litsch
4. Romero
5. Janssen

Cl. Ryan

lets play a game: match the injury to the player above!

A. right forearm strain
B. sore back
C. sore right shoulder
D. right shoulder surgery
E. right elbow surgery
F. sneeze

Whoa, "sneeze" isn't a joke!

i'm not nearly creative enough to come up with that on my own!

Rod Barajas led off the 11th with a base hit off Brian Bass (0-1). After Travis Snider popped his bunt attempt to the mound, Barajas took second on Marco Scutaro’s sacrifice and scored on Hill’s single to right-center.

OK, they won the game, but seriously, WTF? Why does Cito bunt TWICE in extra innings with the team's hottest hitters coming up? Is it because Snider is a rookie, so of course rookies should bunt?

Of course these questions are rhetorical because we know that Cito is a moron who will fuck this team ten times over before the season is up, unless he's blessed with Bob Brenly-style dumb luck.

calm down, calm down.
do you remember what happened with Snyders' earlier at bat? also with a runner on first? hint: it rhymes with "stubbleplay". he'd also pulled off a successful bunt earlier.

i was also going "wtf" with the double sac bunts tho - what's the point of getting a runner to second if you're giving up two outs? i'm more or less playing devils advocate because your Gaston hate-on is so ott!

i was at the game on friday night - you missed a good one man. when you gonna be back?

lol at this: it rhymes with "stubbleplay"

A strategy might fail once, but that doesn't mean it was the wrong move to make! Bunting is a poor strategic play in most situations.

I'll be visiting for at least a couple of weeks starting from Aug 7. This time I won't have a gf to tote around S. Ontario (at least, that's how things stand at the moment!) so that frees up a lot more time for baseball!

Maybe he was trying to ensure that Snider didn't hit into a DP so the player with the most hits in baseball could come up with a runner is scoring position.

The second bunt is same line of thinking.

i never liked Shawn Camp.

more like Shawn Can't - amirite?!

What the hell happened last night. Dude has a no hitter going into the 7th and both bullpens collapse like a barrell of collapsing monkeys.

ya - sending League (as much as i love him) out there for a second inning was obv a mistake.
just like Shawn Camp.

How many years have the Jays waited for League to turn into something even remotely resembling a decent major league pitcher? Time to give up on this guy, I think.

I mean, whatever great upside he used to have is obviously long gone, and the Jays have been assembling great bullpens out of scrap parts for a few years now (Brad Arnsberg rulz), so my tolerance for League has run pretty thin.

wtf?

Brandon League, mouthbreather

aw :(

Jamie Campbell: "Brett Cecil has a great spiked curveball"
Rance Mullinicks: "I've never heard of a spiked curveball"
JC: "A.J. Burnett threw one" (and came up about a thousand times last season when his fingernail broke)
RM: "All I know is that A.J. Burnett has the best one"
me: ***mutes TV, puts on radio***

Anyone have mlb.tv? The streaming radio has a longer delay than tv!

At times like this, there's only one thing to say.

John Cerutti RIP.

all i got going is radio. /nümorbs

so going to tuesday's game, btw!

lol thinking abt going to see a couple of games when im in town @ the end of the month. my friend told hed only take me if i dont jinx it. should be v. interesting to see how the next few weeks go

work is so slow right now. i want tonights game to start RIGHT NOW!

halliday will have a <100 pitch CG tonite for sure.

wow - i was a run off predicting the score too! over 43,000 asses in the stands!

this was a rape

Halladay (7-1) walked none and struck out five to win his fourth straight start and improve to 16-5 in 33 career games against New York. He has an ERA of 2.77 against the Yankees, his best against any AL opponent.

This is amazing, btw.

what is amazing is no FB outs until the 9th inning and eve then Wells had to come IN to get it.

^wow - did not notice that!

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/blogs/2009/05/13/toth_halladay_triano/

Oh MAN I really dislike Roy Halladay now.

wkiw those dudes dressed as umpires behind home plate

^^should be on dumbass media.

should be on dumbass media Hall of Fame

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/blogs/2009/05/13/toth_halladay_triano/

Oh MAN I really dislike Roy Halladay now.

― Tito Linndrum (Andy K), Wednesday, May 13, 2009 6:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^that article is pointless

i like how every comment is at least a paragraph of "wtf are you thinking?!"

According to BP's playoff odds report, the Jays have a 77% chance of making the playoffs, as of today.

Whatever, it's only the middle of May, but still: WOWOWYESYESYES

sweet!

I think those Odds Reports are awfully dicey til August.

The simulations are based purely on third-order winning %age, which is definitely skewed when the contenders' schedules differ so much this early in the season (i.e. Jays haven't played many games against other AL East teams).

More significantly, the Jays are currently six games up on the wildcard, which isn't tiny, even in May. Unfortunately, the wildcard will almost certainly come out of the AL East this year, so again it always comes back to intra-division games.

so going into the Boston series it is impossible for the J's to drop out of 1st place plating them. even if they get swept they will still be in first! :D

that does not mean it is ok to get swept tho.

so someone had to pay for that Boston series.

those people are: Travis Snyder, Brett Cecil & Robby Ray. rip

Cecil isn't allowed to have a bad game, I guess.

i was suprised at first.
i guess it makes sense tho. he's so young and only recently went from a closer to a starter. they said at the onset of the season they had no plans for cecil to play in the majors before sept - he was only up on account of all the injuries. keeping him up probably risked alot of things going wrong.

Bummed to see my AL ROY selection Snider get sent down.

Fucking hell, I jinxed the team with my posts earlier in the week.

Why was Halladay pulled in a scoreless game after 95 pitches??

pinch hitter?
looking at the box score when i got in last night was a heart breaker.

Oh right, duh. NL parks.

This is why not having the DH is dumb!

ha ha! not the other way around, eh?!

also: Janssen makes his return today! :D

let us hope Jah is kind to him.

$#@*&^%#$%$#

What the &%*# is going on with this team?? 8-3 in the 8th with Halladay pitching, and now it's 8-8 and heading to extras? I might have jinxed the living hell out of them last week but still, this is getting out of hand.

UUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

$#@*&^%#$%$#

think i'm starting to understand why Morbs is so curmudgeonly all the time.

Cito Gaston has never managed the Mets

i'm not sure - do you mean that would be good; or horrible?

"Good" and "Cito Gaston" shouldn't appear in the same sentence, unless that sentence is "it would be good if Cito Gaston was walking to the ballpark one day and was kidnapped and thrown in a freezer by the staff of East Side Mario's."

he plays the same 9 guys every single day, right? A medical impossibility w/ the Mets.

ha hahahhahhahaaa! east side marios?! ha ha ha!

We have those over here.

no mater what happens the rest of this game - the J's can at least be proud of having ended Greinke's no-hr streak!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt9hRCthV8E

TORONTO (AP)—Blue Jays outfielder Alex Rios(notes) apologized Friday after he was caught on video yelling profanities at a fan.
The incident, which was posted on YouTube, happened Thursday night as Rios was leaving a gala dinner for the Blue Jays’ charity.
Rios is seen walking to his car along with a woman after the event when he appears to ignore an autograph request from a young fan. An older man yells at Rios, saying “The way you played today Alex, you should be lucky somebody wants your autograph.”
Rios responds with a profanity, then swears again after the fan calls him “a bum.”
Rios struck out five times in five at-bats in a 6-5 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday. He matched a club record by striking out in seven consecutive at-bats and is 0 for his last 10.
He apologized before batting practice for Friday’s game against Kansas City, saying “I lost my cool.”
“I just want to apologize for the situation that happened yesterday at the gala,” Rios said. “I just want to apologize to my fans, to the team, to my teammates, because it was something I should have never done. It was a bad reaction on my side.”
“That’s not the person that I am,” he said. “You shouldn’t act like that, even if there’s sites like that or people following you, trying to make you say bad things, you shouldn’t act like that.”
Rios acknowledged that frustration with his poor performance Thursday led to the incident.
“It was a long day,” Rios said. “I kicked myself, I couldn’t help the team win. It was just bad.”
Rios is batting .266 with seven home runs and 26 RBIs for Toronto, which had lost 12 of 15 to fall from first to third in the AL East.

4 K's is a golden sombrero. What's 5?

Platinum

This is a video response to Dog The Racist Bounty Hunter's wife gets deserved welcome!!

Oh man, that's not even his first platinum sombrero

rios otm

and they say no one here follows baseball!

has Roy assumed Cy frontrunner position?

i don't think so. it's still whats-his-name in KC.

for now.

BLUE JAYS STARTER ROY HALLADAY LEFT THE GAME IN THE TOP OF THE 4TH INNING AFTER SUFFERING A MUSCLE INJURY IN HIS RIGHT GROIN.

;_;

i'm starting to think Cito could indeed be an idiot /Downs

Pitcher or syndrome?

lol pitcher

LHP Scott Downs sprained his left big toe coming out of the batter's box Tuesday night. Downs will go on the disabled list Thursday. "That's what happens," Gaston said. "My guys don't take batting practice every day and they don't run, so things like this are going to happen."

The closer of the American League team you manage does not take batting practice or run windsprints? That's weird.

(Cannot fucking BELIEVE that quote.)

OF Vernon Wells blew his grill out pitching Tuesday night. Wells will go on the disabled list Thursday. "That's what happens," Gaston said. My guys don't throw off the mound every day and they don't stretch with the pitchers, so things like this are going to happen."

tied for the AL wild card!!!

what are they WEARING?

whoops, didnt realize both teams were wearing those hideous hats

also the fan umpires are back!!!! <3 <3 <3

jays stockpile of at least capable arms is amazing -

Rzepczynski will be the 12th starter for the Blue Jays this season and the fifth to make his major league debut

aside from walking everybody - he did pretty good!

BJ Ryan released, apparently.

wow. eating abt $15 million. that was a horrible contract.

holy shit!

there is nothing BUT horrible contracts on that Jays -- confirm/deny

i was going to say $13 million per for halladay is a good deal but then again they only signed him for three years, which seems a little weird. even with his injury history i'd have thought they'd have gone for five.

iirc his injury history was all freak injuries, not mechanics-related. i think he got beaned by a ball and then got tangled with a runner (art of pretend baseball trivia?)

true, which makes the contract even more overly cautious and/or cheapass

It's usually smart to sign to pitchers to shortest deal you can though (since even historically healthy ones can fall apart in a hurry.)

See BJ Ryan for example.

~*mike hampton*~

the smart move would have been to just insert low cost option into the closer slot, and i think halladay would've been worth the risk (5 years, 65 mill maybe?)

i never understand those kinds of contracts for closers. all that bj money went to waste.

don't take that out of context

throwing away that money on BJ definitely blows.

http://twitter.com/JoeCarter_29

It was a dumb contract when he signed it ... IIRC from the Hot Stove threads, we were all in agreement that Ryan's contract was even dumber than Burnett's contract, and that's saying something.

still not even the worst contract on the books tho!

Wells is really just an awful signing.

wells is awful, i can't believe how far he's fallen

i got dizzy when i heard that he was owed $20 through 2013 (or is it 2014?)

haha he's worth about $20 through 2013 - obv i meant $20 million

JoeCarter_29
Pregame Show: Players from the 1992/93 World Series Championship teams will be honoured on the field before the game. CARTER Wants Noise!

:)
heading to tomorrow's game.
gotta see Halladay pitch.
y'know.
just in case.

Ugh ... can't even think about it ...

I'd like to place a bet that Halladay doesnt go anywhere. We can do this song and dance again next year.

i agree 100%.

SCOTT DOWNS YA CRIPPLIFIED SAVE BLOWING NON CLOSING CRIPPLE
BRING BACK THE GOD JASON FRASOR

um

why was Rios put on waivers? what is going on?!

So they can get rid of his contract.

b-b-b-but he won the home run derby!!!~~~ this time it counts?

why wouldn't they do that with Wells then?

They probably did, but no one claimed him.

I have to hand it to JP -- getting back spare parts for Rolen and Rios (and their contracts) would be a job fairly well done.

i'm not sure if i'm willing to write off Rios just yet.

At least Wells had a couple of years that were arguably (although it's a stretch) deserving of superstar-level money. Can't say that for Rios. And in the market for corner outfielders, he might be even more overpaid than Wells. You could buy 14 seasons of Bobby Abreu for that money.

I'm watching Jays-Orioles, and Campbell/Tabler are giving Cito Gaston the credit for developing Adam Lind and talking about how important it is for a young player to know that the manager will stick with him even if he goes 0-4 for two games in a row. W. T. F. I came back to Toronto for this? Anything else I should know? Does the sun rise in the west in this country now?

You were giving hell to Cito before for platooning Snider, what are you getting at here?

Best Blue Jays game of my life last night, btw! My cousin got box seats from his company, right beside where sam consentino(sp?) was interviewing winfield, carter, morris, devo! so i snuck in to where they were all hanging out, saw stewart, molitor, gruber, etc. was eating popcorn with candy, ward & cone, kicked out about 30 sec into it, but it was awesome

Although your memory is apparently good enough to instantly recall isolated posts that I made four months ago, you sure did miss the point of everything I've been saying about Cito on this board for the past five years (not to mention the ten years before that).

i think he had a fair point dude.
um - so are you actually back in toronto now?!

also francis - that's awesome!

at any rate - the state of this team is bummer city.

butbut didnt u see bautista's throw from the warning track?!?

blol jays

to tear-y eyed to notice whatever untility infielder we have in lf

Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi said the move was not "a financial dump."

WTF else could it be when you give up a guy and get nothing in return, asshole?

christ whenever i think there's no further way to hate on ricciardi.

that's probably the most irritating thing about the man. he just cannot be honest about anything. ever. and it certainly isn't for a lack of talking! but it's like he thinks we're idiots.

Wow, a corner outfielder with a .740 OPS with Coors-ish home/road splits ... how will we ever replace a player like that?? And who cares if Ricciardi says "financial flexibility" instead of "salary dump", either way the end result is the same. Basically, he f***ed up and badly misjudged the market on corner outfielders when he signed Rios to that contract, and now he's been granted a mulligan for that move. We should all be celebrating.

it just sucks that it's came to this. tossing Rios out the airlock isn't going to fix what's wrong with this team.

so Ruiz is up.

"Basically, he f***ed up and badly misjudged the market on corner outfielders when he signed Rios to that contract, and now he's been granted a mulligan for that move."

Not exactly though cuz he didn't get to extract any value from Rios. Also not sure Rios is as bad a ballplayer as you think he is. Most defensive metrics indicate he's pretty good and he's a good and efficient basestealer. And his BABIP has been low this year indicating he's probably been pretty unlucky. Seems like a classic case of selling very low on a player to me.

i mean essentially jp signed him to a sox/yankees contract--somehow forgetting that he manages the jays. it's not really abt whether rios was worth it as much as how they locked up a ton of salary in players who are complimentary at best.

i had hoped that even if he never put up the power numbers people had hoped for he still had the potential to be a decent lead-off hitter. he's shown he can be a decent base stealer all he really needed to do was improve his obp. and obv hit a bit better than 260-270 - which we've already seen he can do.

the most irritating thing about this is that it's not even about Rios' contract. it's Wells.

but with Ruiz up maybe we'll see some addition through subtraction. i'd been waiting since 4 weeks into the season for Millar to hurt himself or something so we could see Ruiz up.

"i mean essentially jp signed him to a sox/yankees contract--somehow forgetting that he manages the jays."

But Wells' contract is the awful one. Rios is actually relatively reasonable. Which should mean that it should be moveable assuming that hits start to fall for him (which again given his low BABIP was not entirely unlikely.)

i'm not even talking abt wells--that's just retarded.

rios actually posted his highest babip in 08 and still only managed a .798 ops. there are other factors to watch w/him--his big year in 07 he got a lot of infield hits, and in the two years since he's become more of a groundball hitter while getting less infield hits. i don't think he's a true .290 hitter.

with his defense and speed grading above average he's not a bad regular--but when you're the beejes and need to be smart with yr money extending him to 2014 (!) and buying out his arb was totally reckless and dumb. they were going to control his peak seasons anyway!

it sort of ties in to how i look at jd drew's contract--when you're the sox jd drew at $14 mil is an affordable luxury because he's a good everyday right fielder and was the best option at the time, even if he'll never truly be worth $14 mil season in, season out. the jays can't think like that.

I'm not saying it's a great contract, mind you. Just that it's far from a travesty and he had value and could potentially have value down the road. Giving him away for nothing just seems dumb to me.

"rios actually posted his highest babip in 08"

He didn't btw.

it depends what they do with the money, no?

Well admittedly there isn't much of value left in the White Sox system so you might have a point there.

xp oh yeah i should've considered 06 a full season for these purposes.

Ruiz with tha dingah!

Ruiz again!

the (tragic) blue jays' message board is probably going apeshit right now

But Wells' contract is the awful one. Rios is actually relatively reasonable.

Almost any contract looks reasonable next to Wells' :) ... but srsly, Rios' contract now looks horrible when compared with the money given to Abreu, Burrell, Ibanez, Dunn, etc. in the off-season. You can't blame JP for not knowing that FA salaries would plummet, but you can blame him for signing Rios to a long-term deal when there'd be literally 10-12 quality FA OF's coming onto the market at the end of the season.

It's not really abt whether rios was worth it as much as how they locked up a ton of salary in players who are complimentary at best.

OTM. This was the Orioles' situation over most of the past few years -- they were handcuffed because they were waiting for these sorts of contracts to come off the books.

This team is just so hopeless now, all this build-up to the 2010 season and ultimately Rogers Cable (without Ted) just wants to balance their books :(

and not pay for the free programming the team provides while they're at it.

ok, who can summarize why this game is tied when Jays have outhit em 13-5?

some kind of management policy against hitting with risp. also: lolright field.

well, missed end of that. 3 runs on 14 hits, v Metslike.

Joe weighs in on JP:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/08/12/worst.contracts/index.html?eref=sihpT1

And other things.

He probably should've included the ARod contract, imo!

Uh OPS+ isn't the end all and be all of statistics, Joe.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/sweetspot/0-4-162/Baseball-s-worst--Ricciardis-.html

Neyer pointing out that hindsight is 20-20, amongst other things.

dumb list.

- J. Bartlett singled to shallow left center
- C. Crawford grounded into fielder's choice, J. Bartlett out at second
- E. Longoria singled to shallow right, C. Crawford to second
- B. Zobrist singled to shallow left, C. Crawford scored, E. Longoria to third, B. Zobrist to second advancing on throw
- C. Pena hit sacrifice fly to right, E. Longoria scored, B. Zobrist to third
- P. Burrell singled to shallow left center, B. Zobrist scored
- G. Zaun singled to shallow left center, P. Burrell to second

sux 2 b u

Scutaro explained?

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2009/8/27/1003671/five-win-wonder-marco-scutaro

Come on, Travis.

Bah.

Barajas swung at a pitch that was almost up in the 'T' of the header of PITCH ZONE.

What a crazy game:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=290831113

it's good to know that they were saving all those runs from those close 1-run losses for an 18 run scoring orgy.

8 rbis for Lind alone!

Grilli/Strop is a GREAT bullpen 1-2.

1 hit.

OK, did Ruiz have his HR taken off the board? Must've, I tuned away and Jays still at "0." He missed a base?

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/2009/10/02/jays_gaston/

The on-field woes for the Toronto Blue Jays were plain to see this season, but what hasn't been obvious is a brewing controversy between the team's players and its iconic manager, Cito Gaston.

Sources from all areas of the organization have told The Canadian Press the dysfunction currently crippling the Toronto Blue Jays front office extends all the way down into the clubhouse, where there are major problems in the relationship between the players and Gaston.

Those who agreed to talk to The Canadian Press about the friction between the manager and his players would do so only if their names weren't used. Some players wanted to speak to senior team officials first -- and to avoid the news leaking at home in front of a large media contingent -- before putting their names to the complaints. But a series of interviews with front office and players done over the last few weeks indicate the problems are widespread and beyond the normal tensions that often build up between players and a manager over a long, losing season.

One player said there was simply "constant negativity" coming from the manager's office, while another noted that Gaston once said "there aren't any good players in here." Also at issue is Gaston's hands-off, in-game decision making -- a criticism that dates back to his first tenure as manager from 1989-97

The problems are so deep that when one player was asked how many others felt the same way, he replied: "Just about everyone."

ugh

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/11/2009/10/500x_custom_1254523693343_barajas.jpg

Best news of the season.

xpost?
JP Riccardi fired after 8 years
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AjLrBtJQb779RBsHTB246TMRvLYF?slug=ap-bluejays-ricciardifired&prov=ap&type=lgns

Blue Jays fire GM Ricciardi 8-year tenure

27 minutes ago

TORONTO (AP)—The Toronto Blue Jays fired general manager J.P. Ricciardi on Saturday, ending an eight-year tenure marked by an inability to get past the Yankees and Red Sox and into the playoffs.

“This was a tough decision and a difficult one for me personally as I have enjoyed J.P.’s friendship and his perspective on the game,” said Paul Beeston, Toronto’s acting president and CEO.

“J.P. has put an incredible amount of effort into improving the team and he has brought along a number of great young players,” Beeston said. “However, I feel that it is time for a change and accordingly we have decided to move on.”

Ricciardi, who was also senior vice president of baseball operations, joined the Jays in 2001 and had one year left on his contract. The team posted four winning seasons and four losing ones under Ricciardi, never making the playoffs in an AL East dominated by New York and Boston.

Ricciardi was criticized for poor free agent signings and off-field missteps that overshadowed some productive drafts and other good moves.

The Blue Jays (75-85) are finishing out their regular season in Baltimore.

Ricciardi’s firing comes on the heels of news of locker-room unrest with manager Cito Gaston.

VictorRojas29 On Cito-the guy got credit for turn-around last year but he's horrible now? The guys honest & players sometimes have to look in mirror #mlb

OK bub

wwooooo - Ricciardi era is coming to a close!

NA NA NA NAH - NA NA NAAA NAAH - HEY HEY HEY ETC!

Really hope the Padres don't go get that guy.

I know next to nothing about Anthopoulos ... although I do like the idea of starting fresh with a young GM.

discus

i guess vernon wells' leading of a clubhouse revolt is one way to distract attention from the fact that the players whose OPS is higher than his include alexei ramirez, brandon inge, jeff francoeur, kurt suzuki, michael bourn, scott podsednik, and 127 others...

just 127? i'm sure there's some pitchers in the nl...

all i know about AA is what i've gleaned from his appearances on a few radio broadcasts. which isn't much. he at least seems like he's not full of shit 100% of the time. they were grumbling on the j's message board that he might be some ricciardi sycophant and we might not see a huge difference - but who knows.

it is now official - come back player of the year: Aaron Hill.

Bill K. (Long Beach, CA)

So if the Jays had done this in 2006, do you think you'd still be there?

Klaw (1:25 PM)

I'll put it this way: I left in 2006 because I could not work for Ricciardi any longer. What would have happened after that is anyone's guess.

i always forget law used to be a J.

so to speak.

o_o

Eddie (Milwaukee)

What was Steve Phillips thinking? Almost trading a 19 year old David Wright for Jose Cruz Jr.? Ridiculous.

Klaw
(1:42 PM)

I've been asked about that trade rumor for three years but never answered while Ricciardi was still GM. The offer was made, though; I was there when the call came in. It was the first time I'd heard of Wright, since I wasn't with Toronto in 2001 nor had I followed the draft when Wright was in it. JP's reaction was, "I'm not trading a major league player for some guy in the Sally League." And that was pretty much that. We had a chance to trade Cruz after that for Rafael Soriano, but JP refused to do it unless Seattle included Clint Nageotte, who, at the time, was a pretty hot prospect. It's weird; I can't remember some things that happened last week but I remember those conversations (over seven years ago now) like they just took place.

:|

AA speaks: http://www.fan590.com/media.jsp?content=20091107_151806_11860

no huge revelations there and he said alot of thing that you'd likely hear from most GMs. his "plan" sounds fine and i guess we'll have to wait quite a few years to get an idea if he pulled it off or not. he at least seems heaps less douchy than JP.

and apparently working on swapping Overbay for Chris Snyder?!

ElAngelo (New York, NY): What team has the worst "best" prospect?

Kevin Goldstein: I think it's going to be Toronto.

WE'RE #1! WE'RE #1! WE'RE #1!

You'll also be getting Jason Giambi if Ben Reiter at SI is right...

sweet jesus. (i assume they're referring to Snyder above?)

Does Snider still count as a prospect? (i.e. he already has big league playing time in parts of two seasons)

if the rumours are anything to go by - the next few weeks are going to be pretty nuts for the J's:

• Halladay going to either the Dodgers, BoSox, Yanks or Angels (hello bidding war between Boston and NY!)
• moving Overbay... somewhere
• signing a new new catcher
• aquiring a new SS (not named John MacDonald) since it looks like Scutaro is gone
• maybe moving one of our late inning bullpen arms

i know i shouldn't put too much weight behind rumours and speculation, but it looks like at least 3 of those things will be happening for sure. will be a much different team in '10 - with 1B, SS, C, closer and our #1 starter all up in the air.

You're after Torrealba, I read. I think it'd be a decent move for everyone.

Torrealba is a career back-up catcher, why on earth anyone would be "after" him esp now as he approaches his mid-30s is kinda O_o.

you're looking at a team that gave Rod Barajas 449 plate appearances last year.

trading halladay to the yanks or bosox...is it a pre-emptive strike, taking advantage of what may be inevitable? or is it resigning oneself to being totally non-competitive for the next 5-7 years? both?

a little of both i suppose. it sounds as if he's gone no matter what after '10 - so why not get what you can since the Js aren't expecting to be competitive anytime soon. and lets face it - the best way to raise the price is with a dice-k-esque yanks/bosox bidding war.

well then. new SS is Alex Gonzalez?!
oh well for 2.75m i can't get too bent out of shape.

Signing a mediocre shortstop named Alex Gonzalez? I thought this GM had new ideas?

i read that he was offered 3 mil from Boston, but took the J's offer because the BoSox were waiting to hear from other guys before they finalized anything. which pretty much means they will be taking Scutaro now - which means the J's will be getting a pick from the the Sox.
rather convoluted but interesting nonetheless!

not that i love these deals or anything. but i don't hate em either.

jays best hope is still to find a shaman kid possessed by the ghost of ty cobb