A J Gonna Walk Out On Me : the '08 Blue Jays

predictions:
• after reaching the illustrious 14 win mark for the first time in his career AJ Burnett walks away from his remaining contract for a dumptruck full of money (from the Yankees).
• Wells and Overbay bounce back (somewhat).
• Thomas will be hurt.
• putting up Eckstein-esq numbers, Stewart will make the starting line-up - guaranteeing Lind will spend some much needed quality time with AAA.
• Rolen will be a mistake of Shakespeareian magnitudes.
• if we get the pitching from '07 and the hitting from '06 this team could finnish... no wait.... yes - 2nd place in the AL East!

oh one more:
• Rod "does not keep his word", "will never play baseball in toronto" Barajas will be booed mercilessly until i am hoarse.

I can't believe that it's already the 10th anniversary of the Canseco-Clemens-etc. steroid man-love party. Time flies when Tim Johnson isn't managing the club!

i heard they were trying to deal lind? he's out of options, no?

that seems to be a idea that's getting some play. since we now have 3 mediocre left fielders who have all surpassed their primes - why would we need a young slugger who hasn't come close to reaching his potential?!

i'd really hate to see this team deal Lind (and probably get grifted) without giving him another chance.

well, no one can accuse j.p. ricciardi of being conventional.

how can you trade a guy who can jump over joe garagiola?

Woo! they're showing a spring training game today on City!
(i have no cable so this is a big deal to me!)

omg! Kathryn Humphreys just asked Rios if he thought he could win in a fight with Debbie Clemens!

She was so damn funny.
To Zaun:"Is it awkward in the shower?" (about Rios being so beautiful).
Zaun: "Yes, yes it is"

"Does the bullpen phone ever ring, or is it like my phone in college?
It never rang *long pause* it never rang. *longer pause*
McGowan: "Uh..."

ha hahaha! man i hope they do some regular season games!
even tho it would annoy me in a regular season game the half assed coverage was pretty funny overall - "and we're back. i think we missed a homerun from someone!"

casey janssen, done for the year. can't say why, for sure, but let's say for now that on a walk through the woods, he encountered that lethal beast which hates pitchers: the fabrum bear!

no, no - it's a torn labia.

also - this is not good. hopefully he doesn't wind up being brandon league v2.0.

I was wondering when the season was officially going to begin.

ha ha haaaahhhhhh :(

I assume he tore his labrum, and in fact has nothing to do with his female genitalia? This is terrible news.

Blue Jays have officially released Reed Johnson.

aw that sucks! he was doing alright this spring too.

and also rolen is injured. end scene.

I heard League is hitting 97mph and very effective, so there's a plus over last season.

Inside sources are telling me Johnny broke his leg :(

Injured to start the season:
Rolen, Janssen, Ryan, Stairs(?), McDonald and did Burnett get over breaking his fingernail?

he was using a fake nail towards the end of spring training, but we'll see tonight how that works out.

Oh my god, i just got April fooled. McDonald being the best guy on the Jays, it's apparently funny to play with my emotions.

McDonald being the best guy on the Jays

Wait -- so are we being April Fooled now?

John MacDonald - best Blue Jay ever.

gregg zaun: corny indie fuck

throwbacks!!!

lol @ ellsbury
fiiinally gettin to wake

i'll be attending my personal home opener tomorrow - dare I hope for a sweep?!

Are you guys all from Toronto or does the world care about our baseball team? How random.

/sports fan, obviously..

most of us are not of toronto.
but i am, obv.

This is as good a place as any to say "eat shit, TBS!" But not because BOS-TOR is this week's game -- it's just that Chip Caray + Buck Martinez is a broadcast team from the 9th level of hell.

And yet Buck Martinez is still a better broadcaster than he was a manager.

haha, okay, but couldn't he just get out of the game and open a steakhouse or something...

You know, other than getting names wrong (Manny Ortiz!), making stupid points (um, was the problem w/ Toronto last year really their PITCHING?), making way too much about the Red Sox road trip, and just being kinda generally schmuckish, they really weren't that bad.

tell me buck was the one saying that!

(about pitching being the J's problem)

(last year)

[that was an awesome game i went to today, btw!]

Sox suxk

Buck was the one that said that. He then went on to say something about the Jays having to play sub-Angel small ball because of the Red Sox and Yankees ("you can't outhit them; you can't outspend them").

Wake me when Eckstein stops hitting Texas Leaguers just over outstretched gloves and just fair down the lines -- I could use the long nap.

Tho I have to say I liked how Manny Delcarmen was sonned yesterday -- in Saturday's game, Frank Thomas got the Big Hit off a change-up (low & awayish, smacked to left-center); Delcarmen & V-Tek, possibly aware of this, decide to start FT off with a fastball w/ the bases load, and he, um, you know.

:D

:/

:(

Buck was the one that said that. He then went on to say something about the Jays having to play sub-Angel small ball because of the Red Sox and Yankees ("you can't outhit them; you can't outspend them").

Haha I was just looking at tonight's boxscore as I read this

HA ha ha ha - an apt likeness.

:(

Marco Scutaro with one of the worst plays I've ever seen last night. Slow runner on first, fast runner at third, 1 out, 1-run lead, top of the 9th. Quick grounder to third and he throws home instead of taking the sure double-play. Misses the catcher by a few yards.

Always nice to have a spy on the other team, I guess.

ok then. they still suck.

Inglett killed the rally.

John Gibbons axed!!!

Replaced by Cito Gaston!!!

they always come in threes.

Oh Canada

That's what she said

that's sort of nutty. do you think cito had been chairing a mangerial search committee?

not sure if Cito is the man for the job here.
also sad to see Whitt go.
hopefully the next head on the block is JP's.

j.p. blinked.

from espn:

"J.P. Ricciardi, general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, apologized profusely for critical remarks he made about Cincinnati Reds outfielder Adam Dunn earlier this week, and indicated he is trying to reach out to Dunn -- who blasted Ricciardi in response to his remarks -- to apologize directly."

he must have remembered that big adam was coming to toronto to play in a few days. i wonder if the jays fans will give him a standing o?

wow! I think Cito becoming part of the Old Recycled Managers' Club is nearly as significant as Obama getting the presidential nomination.

This is like the Mets bringing Davey Johnson back.

This franchise is on cruise control. CITO FUCKING GASTON????? ARE YOU SHITTING ME?????????????????????????????????????????????

Seriously, JP could re-sign and re-release Frank Thomas another five times and it wouldn't be as dumb as hiring Cito Gaston to be the new manager.

i was reading an article where they were saying this all the doing of the team president and ricciardi basically had to sit back, shut the fuck up and take his medicine.

i noticed at the press confrence riccardi looked like he was ready to jump out of his skin. i assumed it was because it's his neck stretched over the block next.

well, today was unexpected.

Dumb question: has Ernie Whitt been dismissed completely out of the Blue Jays organization? After being with the Jays for more than 30 years and from the very beginning of the franchise?

think so.

So, another classy move in a year full of classy moves ...

JP is all about being a class act and a straight-shooter.

"The caller said, 'Hi, this is Adam Dunn,' " Ricciardi said. "The person said, 'I'll see you in Toronto.' If it's not him, then it's some prank. But I don't know how the person would get my cellular phone number. I mean, I don't even give it out to you guys [the press]."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJhzaGNp_q0 was pretty sweet.

wow.

listening to the game on the radio and Labatt just had an ad air advocating the immediate dismissal of JP Ricciardi!
i have never heard anything like that before in my life!

While Rolen and his balky shoulder have managed just six homers and 30 RBI north of the border, Glaus has accumulated 18 jacks and 66 RBI in St. Louis.

not surprised. i thought the deal stunk as soon as i heard about it.

but lets not forget rolen's **brilliant* *defense**!! :o

http://www.greggzaun.com/

The intro flash is hilarious.

G n' f'n R man!

is it true that halladay's on the block now?

nope.

Bye bye Shannon Stewart.

David Purcey Cy Young lookin' boy
David Eckstein buntin' gettin' tagged called safe lookin' boy
Alex Rios hittin' bad hop infield single lookin' boy
Vernon Wells grand slam off old man lookin' boy
Brandon "All Mouth Breathin'" League with Delmon Young narrow escape lookin' boy

ysi?

Maybe I'm the only one who cares about this, but Roy Halladay at #39 on the BP Ultimate Fantasy Draft, behind about a dozen other pitchers?

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7975

OK, you generally don't want to bank on pitchers who are in their thirties, and Halladay is the oldest pitcher on the list. But guys like Beckett and Webb are only a couple of years younger, as is Johan Santana (who is arguably regressing over the past couple of years), so is there really that big of a difference between them?

Beckett? if he's ahead of Halladay it's because of the team he's on and nothing else.

Beckett is #22 and Halladay has had at least three seasons (including this year) that are better than Beckett's best season. But in a Game Seven, Beckett's your guy! (acc. to Nate Silver)

While I generally agree that Halladay deserves to be ranked higher, for some reason PECOTA really does not like him.

I think PECOTA likes high K rates, but his K rate this year is the highest it's been in years! And although his K/BB ratio has always been good, but star pitchers with good K/BB ratios usually get that ratio by having lots of K's, not fewer BB's.

I'm basically saying that PECOTA might not handle these Halladay/Bret Saberhagen/Greg Maddux type of extremes very well.

Looking at that list, Beckett's (and Harden, but that's only two spots) really the only guy in his range who doesn't deserve to be rated higher than Halladay. Sabbathia, Webb and Santana are all younger and better (albeit not necessarily by much in the former two cases) and healthier.

Guess Haren is debatable too, but he's four years younger as well and been steadily improving for the past two seasons.

But chances are that the really young pitchers (i.e. Chamberlain, Lincecum) will be hurt at some point in the next six years (or right now!), which should reduce their value on this kind of list. What happened to the saying about pitchers arms not properly maturing until they're 25?

AFAIC, a guy like Sabathia is way more valuable that a guy like Lincecum, because he has more of a track record and has proven to be essentially a freak of nature who doesn't get hurt. We have a much clearer idea of how many innings Sabathia (or Halladay) will pitch over the next six years compared to Lincecum, and I don't think Lincecum's higher upside makes up that difference in uncertainty.

Nate def. seems like he's in love with upside, I'll give you that.

As far as injury risk goes, Chamberlain is IMO less of good bet over the next six years than Lincecum who if recall has never had even a minor injury in his post-high school years and who takes pretty good care of himself.

Sabbathia is rated higher than Lincecum on the list btw.

SIX INNINGS? Gut one out just once, "DOC."

So I guess Adam Lind is this year's low-rent Ryan Braun (in that, if Toronto actually brough up / played the dude to start the season instead of dicking around with D- alternatives for 1-2 months, they'd have a better record to show for it)?

Stairs traded! :(
Snider up! :o

His 11th team, I think.

lord of hustle - gone!

well it was a fun 10 game winning streak while it lasted!

I saw JP at the Timmies by my office!
i did not slap him, however.

RIP Ted Rogers.

this can mean nothing but more crappy news for the J's.