Sunday, November 18, 2007

JAYS MAKE THEIR MARCO

Now there's some synergy that would make any corporate drone proud: Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi announced a trade for infielder Marco Scutaro while the Raptors were having Italian Day.

Scutaro, who of course drove had six RBI in Oakland's first-round playoff win over Minnesota in 2006, in is a better hitter over McGlovin and he can kind of play shortstop. It's great for Ricciardi, who probably doesn't mind having a modestly talented paisan around, someone that he can live vicariously through. Scutaro could either become a folk hero or by mid-season he'll be viewed as the poor man's Frank Menechino.

(By the way, T.K., this is written with total awareness that Scutaro was born in Venezuela and played for that country internationally, but his father is Italian.)

Sadly, it was c'est la vie in the weekend of Toronto sports...
  • The Raptors lost wearing their Italian flag jerseys;
  • Chuck Swirsky punctuated a breakaway dunk by Carlos Delfino by exclaiming, "Touchdown Toronto!" ... Alas, even if the Argos had been credited with an extra touchdown, they still would have lost the playoff game to Winnipeg;
  • The Leafs scored a rare win over the Senators on Saturday night, so naturally, the Marlies lost for the first time in regulation all season. Fortunately, no one in Toronto actually noticed.

7 comments:

Tyler King said...

I was getting the comment ready until I got to that third paragraph. Damnit Sager!

Is he really the poor man's Frank Menechino at 1.55 million per year though?

sager said...

That was a bag of ssssh with your name on it.... "poor man's" referred to Scutaro having less power than Menechino. At least he can hit a right-hander.

Tyler King said...

And get on base. An infielder with an OBP over .300? Craziness!

Anonymous said...

Come on now! Lay off the Menechino-inator! Remember that magical summer of 2004? I'll never forget it. Frank batted a sweet .301 with a .400 OBP.

I've been giddy as a school girl ever since....

sager said...

Tyler might have been referring more to McGlovin... but hey, at the genius callers to the post-game show pointed out, he does provide more offence in the No. 9 spot than a pitcher in the National League. That almost be a valid point if the Jays actually played in that league.

Tyler King said...

And didn't get crushed by that league annually in interleague play.

sager said...

10-8 vs. the NL is getting crushed, especially compared to a near-pennant winner, Cleveland, going 9-9. All together, SMALL SAMPLE SIZE!

(For the record, Boston and L.A. did go 12-6 and 14-4.)