Liveblog: How about those Blue Jays?

It's a liveblog: Yankees-Jays.



Incidentally, how about the play the team got from Jerry Crasnick at ESPN.com?

"The Jays' superb play is putting a new slant on a tired storyline. Instead of assaulting general manager J.P. Ricciardi with the question, 'When are you going to trade Roy Halladay?' inquiring ball writers can feel free to ask 'Who the heck is Scott Richmond?'

"If Boston, New York and Tampa Bay had broken out of the gate quickly and left the Blue Jays in their dust, contending clubs everywhere would be assembling trade proposals for Halladay, who will enter the "walk year" of his three-year, $40 million contract this winter.

"Quietly, subtly, the question has been turned sideways: If Toronto contends for a playoff berth or makes the postseason, could it improve the chances of re-signing Halladay before he approaches free agency?"

Let's not go nuts (although Halladay might just want to be a career Blue Jay, who knows).

Batter up: New York Yankees

It's that mystical, wonderful time of year where you commit to a team who you know fully well won't win. In honour of an popular Internet meme, we're presenting lists of 25 things tangentially about each Major League Baseball team. At bat: The New York Yankees.

1. One problem with gauging how CC Sabathia's signing will pan out in New York. Rob Neyer said it first, but there isn't a prediction model to use for 290-pound starting pitchers.
   
   
2. One Buffalo columnist imagined a major-league roster drawn entirely from the best players age 25 and under. One big takeaway: He didn't have a single Yankee.
   
   
3. That knee-jerk impulse about how Allen James Burnett only manages to throw 200 innings when he's in his contract year (and the one time he wasn't, he needed elbow surgery) was probably right.
   
   
4. Plain old Alex Rodriguez will be fine once he's back from hip surgery. It's the principle of the uncluttered mind. As for that photo of him kissing himself in the mirror: His advisors told him that he better start kissing some ass if he wanted to improve his image. He obviously misunderstood.
   
   
5. The early word on the New Yankee Stadium (the House That Lack of Couth Built) is that there's a jet stream out to right-centre field. The Yankees hit seven homers in the first two cash-grabs exhibition games there. Mark Teixeira, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, Nick Swisher and Johnny Damon front a pretty left-handed lineup.
   
   
6. Stop saying Derek Jeter had a bad season by his standards (.300/.363/.408) last season. The law of diminishing returns kicked in for him around the middle of '07. He'll be voted into to start yet another all-star game and should still get on base at good steady clip, but he left the basestealing and extra-base power back somewhere in 2006. In the field, there are NFL nosetackles who cover more turf.
   
   
7. They will be the best third-place team money can buy.
   
   
8. Right-hander Phil Hughes, or as he's alternately known, The Reason Johan Santana's A Met, is still only 22 years old.
   
   
9. They have overtaken the Red Sox. It will cost a family of four $410 to attend a Yankees home game this season. Fenway Park had been the most expensive place for the past few seasons.
   
   
10. The upshot of the Yankees spending $423.5 million on three free agents is it's a reprise of the '80s, when they ignored the farm system. This time around, it's been tagged The Joba Impact.
    
    
11. Closer Mariano Rivera is still money. The heir apparent in the farm system is Mark Melancon, if Rivera ever retires.
    
    
12. Damon and Matsui are free agents after this season, so presumably that gives them added motivation.
    
    
13. Rivera and lefty Damaso Marte are the only relievers earning more than $1 million. Does that make the other relievers the equivalent of underpaid domestics?
    
    
14. Totally baseless parallel: Remember when the Montreal Canadiens moved out of the Forum in 1996 and lost out in the first round of the playoffs after dropping all three games at home? It could like that for the first little while at the new stadium.
    


15. Joba Chamberlain is in the starting rotation, at least for this month.


16. The $180-million man, Mark Teixeira, typically has slow starts, but fortunately, the New York media corps is pretty patient and laid-back.
    
    
17. Second baseman Robinson Cano should have a bit of a bounce-back season after hitting a sucktacular .271/.305/.410 in '08. He needed a late-season run just to get his numbers up that high.
    
    
18. The football game in the novel version of North Dallas Forty was set at Yankee Stadium (the Giants played there in the '60s). Words to live by: "Somehow, I always felt closer to the greats when I was hung over."
    
    
19. Yogi Berra has collaborated on a book with Allen Barra. Yogi is probably the only living Yankee who everyone liked and he turns 84 years old in May.
    
    
20. Co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner is secretly a Blue Jays fan. Spread the word.
    
    
21. The only way the Yankees' image could take more of a beating is if they had AIG's logo on their jerseys. What global ports empire would do a thing like that? Sorry, bad example.
    
    
22. Since neither NHL team in Ontario made the playoffs, you could vow not to shave until centrefielder Brett Gardner hits his first home run of the season. Gardner, AKA The Squirrel, has gone yard only nine times in four seasons.
    
    
23. Gossip websites probably just random enter names into some beta application which generates come up with an article. You're 10 years late to the party if you make a joke about how Derek Jeter and Jennifer Aniston should be together.
    
    
24. They're aging, schlerotic, in need of fresh ideas and have been suffering steady setbacks since 2005. But enough about the Republican Party.
    
    
25. Jaded Jays-fan backbiting aside, Yankees fans is good people, especially Jason at It Is About The Money, Stupid. You have to be courteous and friendly. Please remember that there but for the grace of God goes Roy Halladay's future team.

Zen Dayley: Veni, vidi, vici for Vin

It's a trip, on a December afternoon, to watch Vin Scully speak outlined against the backdrop of Dodger Stadium.

Next season will be Scully's 60th calling Dodgers games, and judging from what he's saying, it could be the last one: "Certainly I'm very aware that the wolves are getting closer to the campfire, and I know that I've spent a lot of yesterdays and I have just a certain amount of tomorrows," he said. "I'm taking it day by day and year and year, so God willing, I will go through 2009 and then we'll just have to wait and see."

It's probably too glib by half to say that he is kind of the broadcast booth's equivalent to Johnny Carson, someone whom everyone knew and respected, even if they didn't tune into him all the time. In Scully's case, he even staked out Southern California 14 years before Carson, since the Dodgers moved west in 1958, 14 years before The Tonight Show.

Hearing Vin Scully string out the word "marvellous" brightens the day, that's for sure (hope this clip embeds properly). Broadcasters have to learn to read and write before they learn to speak (just like writers have to learn to watch and listen), and Scully, in his word, is a marvellous example.

Something is up

The cryptic sentence of the day, from Brew Crew Ball:"The Padres and Blue Jays both might sell for less than the combined contracts of CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett." (Emphasis mine.) What are you guys saying?


Very Brave

Bringing in the veteran Rafael Furcal and having him displace 26-year-old Yunel Escobar at shortstop seems too chancy by half.

Someone was bound to take a chance that Furcal can play a full season. Escobar, who's going to get moved to either second base or traded, drew good reviews for his fielding last season. His .288/.366/.401 slash stats would have looked better if he hadn't gone in the tank in July.

Furcal is the better player if he can play a full season, but that's a big if to contemplate.

This, that and the other

• Langley, B.C.'s Brett Lawrie is rated as the third-best prospect in the Milwaukee Brewers system. Minor League Ball notes that he was taken down a peg due to his lack of a defined defensive position, but the Brewers haven't done too badly with bringing along hitters and moving them around in the field (Ryan Braun, Bill Hall).
• If it's any consolation, Rob Neyer didn't like the Yankees giving a five-year deal to A.J. Burnett: "(Burnett)'s not reliable, and the Yankees have pretty obviously overpaid. Too many dollars, too many years. If the Yankees wanted an impressive fifth starter, they probably could have spent a little less money for a slightly better pitcher. But what's a few million dollars to the Yankees?"
• The Yankees probably still need to sign Mark Teixeira to really challenge in 2009.
  
• The best takedown you will ever read of the sportswriters who are lobbying for Jim Rice to get into the Hall of Fame.
• A six-word argument for why the Blue Jays should not try to trade Roy Halladay: "The Padres couldn't trade Jake Peavy."
• No word of a lie, Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers' mustache actually has scared small children.
  

Snark break ...

Starting today, we try to inject some substance into this feature ... hey, where's everyone going? Substance!

Does everyone realize that the UFC's parent company, Zuffa LLC, is in deep water financially with its casinos? Mixed martial arts is here to stay, God love it, let's hope it's in Ontario soon, but as TheSavageScience points out, it's bound to hurt UFC when Station Casinos (just do a Google News search) is chin-deep in debt. Meantime, fight fans are ticked that MMA axes good fighters for flavours of the month.

Brian Burke travelled out to L.A. to see the Leafs play the Kings last night. The Toronto media would have you believe he flew without a plane.

Seriously, why not just give Burke the reins of the Canadian government in Ottawa while he's at it? Red Kelly played for the Leafs and was a member of Parliament at the same time in the 1960s.

Two words for anyone following the situation with the New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress after his weapons charge: Ray Lewis. This is a Vicking. The Giants' best linebacker, Antonio Pierce, is getting the kid glove treatment for his role in the Darwin Award-worthy discharging of a pistol.

From National Lampoon's Sports Minute (which you can follow on Twitter): "Notre Dame has not yet decided what to do with Charlie Weis. But they did ask him to go party with Plaxico Burress."

The above was worth nothing, but this is worth noting

• USC Trojans coach Pete Carroll is going to give up one timeout per half so Souther Cal can have wear their red uniforms on Saturday against UCLA, instead of road team white.
• Atlanta baseball writer David O'Brien believes A.J. Burnett will sign with the Atlanta Braves:

  "... they have a much better shot at landing Burnett than Lowe, and partly because they want a power arm who can dominate opponents to be the guy at the top of a rotation that includes budding stalwart Jair Jurrjens and, well, fill in the blanks.

  O'Brien is a big Warren Zevon fan, so that makes anything he says credible.
• The first all-blues station in Canada, DAWG FM in Ottawa, is in a pinch. Rob over at Salt Water Music explains how you can help. (Crying the blues over the Senators or Leafs does not count.)

A.J. Burnett, opter-outter

There is really nothing to add about the news that Allan James Burnett might prefer the company of another baseball team to the Toronto Blue Jays' exclusive company, with all the rights, privileges and contractually mandated obligations to do promos for Sportsnet Connected that come with the office.

By the way, if A.J. Burnett can get $14-$15 million per season, what do you think Bob Feller would have commanded on the open market? The mind reels.

Let us not speak of Burnett again until we know where he'll be pitching next season. There are so many good baseball sites that are all over every little bit of speculative minutaie from the winter meetings, which are "absolutely unbearable" to cover (Geoff Baker, Seattle Times), never mind read about, but you know where to find 'em. The Braves might sign the 22-year-old Japanese right-handed Junichi Tawaza. They play baseball in the Pacific Rim, but you would never know it from looking at the Rogers Blue Jays organization.

Minor League Ball also has a candid assessment of Jays catcher-of-the-future J.P. Arencibia.

Related:
Burnett opts out of deal, will become free agent (Ken Rosenthal, FOXSports.com)

Milton could be part of paradise found, for the price of a Penny

Trafficking in free agency and trade rumours for the big three North American leagues (and the NHL) is usually verboten here ... but MLB Trade Rumours' has posted its predictions regarding the destination of the top 50 baseball free agents. The caveat is Tim Dierkes says he would be happy to be "correct on a quarter of these guesses."

With that disclaimer, MLBTR says that A.J. Burnett will be an Oriole (Drunk Jays Fans has called that one) after he opts out of his contract. The Jays will add DH Milton Bradley from the Texas Rangers -- who only OPS+'d 163 to lead the American League this summer -- and L.A. Dodgers right-hander Brad Penny. The Dodgers seem likely to decline Penny's option and go with the kids, as the kids say.

And in about three seconds, some American will joke that Penny should play in Canada, where there isn't any sensational tabloid media.

Paul Beeston's back; it's a great time to be alive

by Neate Sager, Interim Blogger

There is one big takeaway from the Blue Jays press conference announcing Paul Beeston as the Jays quote, unquote interim CEO -- J.P. Ricciardi was not there.

(Digression: Lyle Overbay told his hometown paper in Washington state that with regard to A.J. Burnett, "My feeling is he won’t be back ... Hopefully they can reach an agreement. One thing in our favor is I know he has a great relationship with (catcher) Rod Barajas, and I know A.J. really wants to win, and he knows we’re close." Have any other Jays publicly weighed in on Burnett?)

Please try to get past the whole running joke that the term "interim" has become in Toronto sports. Beeston, by all accounts has an impeccable reputation in the game. His presence ought to attract good applicants for the president and GM jobs after the 2009 season. He has better judgment and is more baseball-savvy than any other president the Jays have had since 2000 (that's about the most polite way to phrase it).



Ricciardi is not that bad a GM, for all his personality quirks. The Jays, after 2009, will look like a pretty sweet gig for an upwardly mobile executive. They have a decent team, there are some Ricciardi draft picks who will be getting close to the majors and with the way Canada's economy will be relatively shielded from the global economic chaos, the Jays might have more financial largesse than some teams (those teams won't be the Red Sox and Yankees, sorry).

The point is, please try to get past the knee-jerk reaction to another Toronto franchise is making a nostalgia play. It would be nice if the Jays brought in someone to go Rick Pitino on the self-satisfied Southern Ontario types ("Devon White is not walking through that door ... Tom Henke is not walking through that door"). The bottom line is the Jays have a top executive whose opinion is actually respected in baseball circles, not in Toronto cocktail party circles.

Related:
Paul Beeston is the Temp (The Tao of Stieb)
The First Jays Hire is the New Jays Hire (Drunk Jays Fans)

Zen Dayley: Price is right for Rays, but will it be for A.J.?

(Rob has the playoff primers in the hopper, meantime, here's some bullet points on this, the potential second-last day of the season.)

Should-be-awares-ofs

• The clamouring on the interwebs for the Rays to use David Price as a starter in the playoffs is just going to get louder. The schedule for Tampa Bay's series against the AL Central's sacrificial lamb champion mandates using a four-man rotation. Greater minds have already pointed out that the No. 5 starter, Andy Sonnanstine, had has the hit-lucky horseshow stashed someplace much of the season. The No. 4 man, Edwin Jackson, has a 7.82 ERA in September, although that includes a good start against the Twins.
  
  The Angels chose to play the longer series in the first round of the American League playoffs. It means they and the Red Sox could go with a 3-man rotation.
• If someone asks, the picks here for the MVP awards are the Twins' Joe Mauer in the American League and the Mets' David Wright in the National.
  
  What's not to like with Wright (.302/.391/.536, 115 runs scored, 124 RBI and the smoothest third baseman in the NL)? He's hit .344/.400/.619 since Sept. 1, so the Mets blowing the playoffs (again) can't be pinned on him.
  
  Many would say Justin Morneau is the Twins' MVP candidate, of course. Well, what would harder for the Twins to replace: A solid defensive catcher such as Mauer who also has the offensive numbers of an old-school leadoff hitter (.415 on-base percentage, 82 walks, 97 runs scored) or a power-hitting first baseman? Justin Morneau's a fine player and he's not just riding the coattails of the talented tablesetters in front of him, but Mauer is the unique talent.
• The Rays had an unusual clubhouse celebration -- the rain-soaked Red Sox loss dragged out so long that some Rays left the ballpark in Detroit, and came back for the party.
• For anyone who's wondering about the NL Cy Young -- Brandon Webb in Arizona or Tim Lincecum in San Francisco. It should be taken into consideration that Webb was 4-0, 2-89 against the lousy-hitting Giants. If he played anywhere but San Fran, Lincecum might have gone unbeaten.

Damn, the Jays

• The other, better sites will be all over the news that the Jays apparently have offered A.J. Burnett a two-year extension at $15M per season. The Yankee lovers really want to see him in pinstripes.
  
  There is nothing profound coming to mind. One point is that you shouldn't put too many eggs in the Burnett basket. The bottom line is the Jays' chances of seeing October baseball again rest with drafting and developing. Burnett is another franchise's gem that they plucked away as a free agent, so this whole "we have to keep him," is shortsighted.
  
  The best organizations are the ones who understand that talent is not in such short supply.
• Please read Stephen Brunt in the Globe, "Jays allowed to slip." (The headline might be a bit off, depending on your interpretation.)
  
  It's a good read ... but please don't begrudge a little back-patting. A quick check shows that about eight months ago, this site applied Dan Rowe's phrase "uninterested ownership" to Rogers Communications' approach to running the Blue Jays. Brunt is picking it up and running with it as he only can:

  "And so except for the (perhaps forced) departure of team president Paul Godfrey, this is a business that is being allowed to fall into maintenance mode. Lose a little money on an operating basis, create a bit of television programming for Sportsnet, give the paying customers reason to hope, but without incurring substantial risk."

  That was more or less the point back in the winter:

  "Their revenues are what they are. Aside from the NFL, Canadians only watch sports the rest of the world barely plays, since we're sure to kick ass in those (that goes for hockey, curling and about a third of the Winter Olympics). Rogers, which in fairness, would have to do a lot worse to be as bad as Toronto's other corporate sports owner, will only increase payroll enough to make it look like they care about winning. Do you see what we're dealing with up here?"
  -- Some fat, dumb and bald guy, Deadspin, Feb. 22, 2008

  God love Stephen Brunt. He is brilliant.
  
• Who was saying that "the Jays will lose Burnett and be better for it?"
• The Royals shortstop Tony Pena will finish with the worst on-base percentage of any player who batted 200 times in a season in almost a century. The only player to do worse died 65 years ago.
  
  John Gibbons, about a month before his firing, ordered Tony Pena to be intentionally walked.

Zen Dayley: What if you boycotted the media and no one noticed

The way word has got around about A.J. Burnett's boycott of the FAN 590 -- the Rogers-owned flagship of the Rogers Blue Jays -- is kind of curious.

It sort of points up one major misgiving some Jays followers have with the mostly awesome Mike Wilner. Stoicism is something he hasn't learned -- and maybe that's not a bad thing, since too many sports media types accept shabby or careless treatment. Inquiring minds had a right to know that Burnett wasn't talking to anyone from the radio station. Still, why even bring it up on-air when no one has asked about it? It just veered a little too close to airing dirty laundry. Granted, everyone in a vocation that has its share of easily bruised egos will do it eventually. (Present company very included.)

(As for Shannon Stewart's release, don't waste your beatiful mind, or try to play expert after-the-fact and say they should have kept Reed Johnson. You're arguing over very, very little.)

The other odd part is that no one else seems to think it's a big deal. No one's speculating that this is a sign that it's slim-and-none Burnett won't become a free agent after this season.

Stewart vs. Johnson: Baseball Prospectus 2008 projected Stewart to hit .271/.328/.374 this season in Oakland, where fly balls go to get damp and where foul balls that go out of play in any other park become outs. Johnson, who as you know was cut and is now on the National League-leading Chicago Cubs, was projected to hit .261/.322/.385 in a better hitter's park in Toronto. That's five points of OPS, with about a 10- or 20-point margin for error due to the park factors. Basically, it's nothing.

There's no difference between the two. Stewart is older and more injury-prone, but neither he nor Reeder rated 500 at-bats. That doesn't really, matter, though. The Jays have Adam Lind to play left field, who's matured very well this season. Travis Snider has jumped two levels in the minors this season and there will need to be a corner-outfield slot open for him at some point by early 2010 at the latest.

The only argument is that the Jays shouldn't have assumed everything was going to be OK with Vernon Wells, coming off shoulder surgery. Johnson might have been able stanch the bleeding defensively in the outfield a little bit better than Brevin Milkerson. Point being though, it does little good to second-guess, even if this is the third big J.P. Ricciardi move that's turned out not so well (Scott Rolen's on the disabled list and the Jays are living with McGlovin at shortstop instead of David Eckstein).

Zen Dayley: Requiem for Russ Adams; can't spell sob story without SOBs

Russ Adams is best known for not being something.

Let's think about what that says about us, rather than what it says about the first-round pick who was once the answer to the Jays' shortstop situation. Being a sports fan and cheering for a bunch of jocks employed by a multinational corporation, because it's your team, is an ultimate act of naive sentiment. It's odd how it's rare that any of that is saved for a bright hope who fell flat on his face.

(Maybe it's an offshoot of the self-loathing that builds up from having spent your waking hours worrying about the outcome of games you cannot control. To think I believed in Russ Adams?! He's dead to me.)

There's names for the exemplars of this phenomenon -- bust, flop, fizzle, dud, Ryan Leaf. It might be the worst ignominy to own in sports, on par with being a cheater. People will let an athlete off the hook for being an out-and-out rat bastard, but not for failing like Russ Adams has as a major-leaguer.

"I don't see playing baseball professionally, playing over two years in the majors, if someone thinks that's failing, I don't know what planet they live on. I'm not going to be sitting at home at 40 and think I'm a failure in life because I didn't play 20 years in the big leagues. That won't dictate my happiness." -- Syracuse Post-Standard

Hands up, everyone whose knee-jerk reaction was something along the lines, "Oh, go cry me a river." It might create the mental picture of Adams, barring some near-miraculous turnaround, spending the next 20 years dreaming of a parallel universe where he was the American League's answer to Chase Utley.

A lot of sports fans probably look it that way. It's not clear that the ballplayers actually do.

It's undeniable what springs to mind after seeing that quote from Adams, whose Triple-A rate stats in Syracuse this summer (.232/.322/.378) scream, "quintessential Quadruple-A player." This, of course, is from someone who as every Jays fan must know by now, was drafted ahead of Scott Kazmir, Nick Swisher and Joey Votto (not just a Toronto boy, but a paisano of J.P. Ricciardi).

It's actually straight of out of the novel North Dallas Forty. There's a scene where the antihero Phil Elliott (Nick Nolte played him in the movie) recalls commiserating with a player who had been traded, dumped by a team that had publicly proclaimed he would be brilliant:

"He seemed like the only survivor of a ten-car collison who was trying to explain how it happened. Several times during the course of our conversation he had stopped to stare off into his disastrous past, thinking of all those glories he had only tasted slightly."

There's a double-edge to that analogy. It could seem empathetic or just downright cruel. But it's c'est la vie for a human footnote.

For anyone who needs a refresher, the Jays advanced Adams quickly through the minors after he was drafted in 2002 (Matt Cain and Cole Hamels, both now top-flight starters in the NL, were also available when Ricciardi made the 14th overall selection).

In 2005, he put up a decent enough first season as a rookie shortstop. According to his Baseball-Reference.com page, his age-24 season compared pretty favourably with that of Orlando Cabrera, who's been an adequate, sometimes all-star shortstop for a decade.

He had the throwing yips in '06. You can't presume to know what's in a player's mind, but the stats make it look like he was taking his defensive problems up to bat with him. The Jays eventually had to send him to Syracuse to learn how to play second base, which was a give-up play.

Inside of two years, the Shortstop of the Future has become one of among the couple hundred Triple-A veterans -- roster flotsam who move about the minors, their names known only to the most hardcore baseball fans. They're valued by MLB organizations for what might be called their overdeveloped flexibility. Most of them, almost as a survival skill, have learned to play several positions (good for when the big club is shuffling players around). They've been around long enough that they don't need to be babysat by their manager. They're also fully comfortable with the hard reality that they can traded, demoted, promoted, or released at any time.

Who knows why it didn't work out for Adams. One historical note is that left-handed hitting shortstops are a rarity. (Stephen Drew of the Arizona Diamondbacks is the only everyday SS in the majors who bats lefty.)

The thing is, though, is that most fans don't fully appreciate that it does take exceptional skill, the kind not found in 99% of the population, to even be a career minor leaguer. People also don't get, or don't care, that's it debatable whether failing as an everyday shortstop actually hurt Russ Adams as a person. He got far enough to get all his illusions about playing baseball shattered, but a lot of men never will.

Some day in the not too distant future, the Jays will probably waive him. Drunk Jays Fans and the like will write a blog post for shits and giggles. Maybe someone will do up a Top 10 list of Toronto sports busts, slotting Adams in with Rafael Araujo and Ricky Williams, but Russ Adams will just go on living his life. The wicked burn won't be on him.

Errata

• So Joba Chamberlain goes on the disabled list on the same day that Jeff Karstens, the young pitcher whom the Yankees just traded to the Pirates, took a perfect game into the eighth inning. Yankees haters are travelling around in go-carts powered by their own sense of self-satisfaction, just like Ed Begley Jr.
• Padres rightfielder Brian Giles has reportedly been claimed on waivers. Please make note of which playoff contenders need some help in rightfield.
• Meantime, fellow Epic Carnival-ites Nick Underhill and Bill Baer had a little point-counterpoint over whether or not the L.A. Angels closer, Francisco Rodriguez, should be the front-runner for American League MVP because he's on pace to set a record for saves.
  
  Not gonna take sides, but relievers shouldn't be eligible for the MVP -- they already have the Cy Young Award.
• Forty-six years ago today, 46-year-old Satchel Paige won a 1-0 game in 12 innings.

Damn, the Jays

• Shaun Marcum was awesome last night.
• The uber-prospect, Travis Snider, is going to get called up to Triple-A. J.P. Ricciardi said that would happen during his weekly fireside chat on the FAN 590. It's a fireside chant because the GM's pants are usually on fire by the end, for some reason.
  
  J.P. also said that "Cito Gaston will definitely be the manager next year."
• Brett Cecil had a mixed result in his first start since being called up to Syracuse: Two runs (both earned) on six hits over five innings, with three walks and seven strikeouts. It was enough for him to get the win.
  
  (Danny Sandoval, last season's Ottawa Lynx shortstop, was 5-for-5.)
• Drunk Jays Fans has already fired a preemptive strike against "all these people are jumping on the Rays' bandwagon just because they've played their first four months of good baseball in franchise history." It seemed to be tongue-in-cheek. The operative word is seemed.
• The article on MLB.com states "a competition (is) brewing atop the Blue Jays' rotation" almost likes an act of mawebolence aimed at the anti-A.J. Burnett types, stat geeks and the I Heart Halladay folk and combos thereof.
  
  Well, congratulations, because using the pitchers' matching win totals as a premise for an article worked. Pay no attention to any differences in their respective ERAs (Burnett, 4.57; Roy Halladay, 2.77), baserunners allowed per inning (1.437 to 1.021) or run support (4.65 for A.J., 3.91 for Roy). it worked. There's actually a small grain of truth to comparisons of between Burnett and that are based on the premise they each have 13 wins.
  
  A quick check at FanGraphs.com does show the pair is only a half-run apart in fielding-independent pitching (basically, what a pitcher's ERA would be with an absolutely average group of fielders behind him). Halladay's FIP is 3.00. Burnett's is 3.50 -- suggesting there's more than anecdotal evidence that his teammates have let him down.
  
  Of course, that's A.J. Burnett's just desserts for being just good enough to make you scream.

Snark break...

Don't feel guilty... It's not like you tried to help an eight-year-old cheat at a tennis tournament...

Wait a second. Caleb Campbell, the Army football player, actually wanted to play for the Detroit Lions instead of being deployed to Iraq?

A day later, it still hasn't sunk in ... the Houston Astros traded for broken-down Randy Wolf when they're nowhere near being in contention? This never happens if Astros GM Ed Wade was still alive.

Trent Yawney has been hired as an assistant coach by the San Jose Sharks. That Jack Adams Trophy that Don Cherry predicted for him three years ago can't be too far off.

The Associated Press story on the 25th anniversary of the Pine Tar Game says, "Still, for most baseball fans, two words quickly come to mind when they hear (George) Brett's name: pine tar." That's only because hemmoroids isn't hyphenated.

Rain in Southern Ontario could mean the Canadian Open won't go the full 72 holes. If it was shortened in accordance with its actually relevance, they'd be down to nine holes at a mini-putt.

Channeling a certain Toronto scribe: This is why A.J. Burnett makes people scream: He is pitching brilliantly. He has a one-run lead against a Baltimore team that is below .500. And it starts raining in the sixth inning and the game gets suspended.

From The Hockey News' Ryan Dixon: "Somebody could tell me they’ve got the Ottawa Senators slotted anywhere between one and 12 in their Eastern Conference predictions and I wouldn’t bat an eye. A team that used to be the model of regular season consistency is far and away the most unpredictable squad out there."

Rich Ricci, who coached in the Provincial Junior A league last season with the St. Mike's Buzzers, has been named an associate coach-assistant GM for the Oshawa Generals. Isn't it nice that some OHL teams actually believe they should tell the public who their coaches are, eh, Doug Springer?

Last, but not least, the fine folks in Sault Ste. Marie will now be watching their beloved Greyhounds at the Essar Centre. Let us never speak of the previous corporate naming rights holder again.

Snark break...

Getting the grouch out before coffee break ...

It stinks that the Yankees went back on their practice of confiscating fans' sunblock and making them pay a huge markup for a replacement tube. How often do you get a chance to write the headline, Yankees Greed Beyond The Pale or The Yankees Don't Care About White People?

$5 for a one-ounce tube of SPF 15 sunblock? That gives new meaning to greasing people.

Here's what what some would write if some overpaid gutless puke like, say, the Jays' A.J. Burnett, had started that game for the Mets last night.

This is why Johan Santana makes people scream: He is pitching brilliantly. He has a three-run lead against a Philadelphia team with first place in the NL East on the line. And the Mets bullpen gives up six runs in the ninth inning to lose the game.

That's the difference between being a grouch for a few minutes and being one full-time.

It's great to be young and a Canadian Patriot... the best summation of New England Patriots Nick Kaczur's legal situation: "Kaczur will have to pay $355 in fines and fees. You or I would be living an episode of Oz in similar circumstances."

Garrett Reid, troubled son of Eagles coach Andy Reid, has been sentenced to two years in drug rehab. While there, he'll get clean, learn to love himself and figure out why his dad never drafts any decent receivers.

(Obviously, you never joke about drug addiction, unless it's an actor or a pro athlete..)

Canada is introducing its flag-bearer for the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony today. They should pick the 61-year-old equestrian Ian Millar, since he might have actually been in the first Olympics -- in Athens. (What kind of saddle sores did he get riding the horse nude?)

The Canadian Olympic Association could also go with Alexandre Despatie, as the flagbearer. That way, Sidney Crosby can make it two divers in a row in 2010.

With respect to the WNBA brawl: Well, people were promised it would be electric between the L.A. Sparks and the Detroit Shock. David Stern is so mad that he already suspended Ron Artest indefinitely.



That's all it was? It's actually good to see the WNBA show some bite. Please don't go thinking that a rumble will spark American interest in the league -- it doesn't. Just ask the NHL.

Still wouldn't be something if these teams -- which teams were they again? -- meet in the WNBA final?

The OHL's Peterborough Petes introduced their new coach yesterday. There's a novel concept, eh, Doug Springer?

Zen Dayley: Jumping into the second half

It's getting more likely A.J. Burnett and Jays fans are going to be forced to share the same space, a lot like Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in the upcoming Stepbrothers.

There are two ways to spin the Phillies swinging a trade with Oakland for starting pitcher Joe Blanton. One is that this means the Jays are going to be stuck with Burnett for the rest of the season. The second is that leaves him as the only prized pitching rental out there and, well, the L.A. Dodgers, with their .500 record, have a NL West title that's easily there for the taking.

The best uneducated guess is that the Dodgers want to stay in-house for any pitching help, even if that meant putting 20-year-old phenom Clayton Kershaw (one hit, no runs over five in Double-A last night) back in their rotation in the heat of a playoff race. Plus, Burnett might not be worth it when 84 is all it's gonna take to win that division.

In other words, Pete Toms was right about a week and a half ago when reckoned that the Jays were likely to be stuck with Burnett. Twelve million dollars for a pitcher isn't that steep these days.

Not to do too much of "this happened in sports and here's what I think about," but what were the Phillies thinkng? When the first adjective used to a describe a pitcher is "durable," it usually means he isn't exactly a prize Guernsey. Blanton, an innings-eater if there ever was one, had a 4.96 ERA pitching for Oakland, where fly balls go to get damp with mist. He also benefited from pitching in a park that has vast foul territory, since he doesn't have strike out many guys. Now he's going to one of the best hitter's parks in the game, which also has tight foul lines. (For his career, Blanton has a 3.79 ERA in Oaktown, a run higher, 4.78, everywhere else.)

(Seriously, it's OK to go see Stepbrothers, even ithough Ferrell and C. Reilly should have moved beyond this Adam McKay popular schlock after Talladega Nights. Even-numbered years are good for summer movies that you shouldn't laugh at but do -- 2006 had Accepted; '04 was Euro Trip and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.)

Also on the Jays...

• Roberto Alomar's eponymous website won't be complete unless he adds clips from his old McCain's Fruit Punch commercials... Catch the taste!
• Roy Halladay cleared the air over Groundhog-gate. You can go right ahead and suspect that someone was pulling the strings a bit.
• The Drunks have basically concluded that Paul Godfrey yesterday came as close to saying J.P. Ricciardi was gone after this year as he could without saying the magic words.
• Anyone want to take bets on when catching prospect J.P. Arencibia will draw his first walk in Double-A? He's at 96 at-bats and counting without a base on balls.
• Congratulations go to a fellow Kingstonian, Sun Media baseball writer Bob Elliott (formerly based in Ottawa once upon a time, too), for being a finalist to go into the writers' wing of the Hall of Fame next year. It's probably far-fetched that he'll go in the same year as Tim Raines, whose career he covered.

Other business

• Try not to laugh when you read the District Council in Washington might hike the sales tax on all items sold at a stadium that already cost $611 million US in taxpayers' money.
• Let's all have a good laugh at the wannabes trying to claim Barry Bonds is going to sign with the Yankees. Then wonder what New York picking up Richie Sexson and his .218/.315/.381 statline does for Bonds' charges of collusion.
• A Lynx diaspora update: Left-hander J.A. Happ, who was here last season, threw no-hit ball for seven innings, striking out 12, to get the win for Lehigh Valley last night. Double bonus: It was against the Yankees' Triple-A team. Happ could be back up in Philly again soon.

First they trade Burnett; then they lose the Doc

"I don't know if move on, but I want to play for a team that can win a World Series. That's the one thing I really want to accomplish in the rest of my time, is win a World Series…I've got two years to decide That's still a ways off for me, but I definitely want to keep moving in the right direction and I hope we do in these next two years. I'd like to get something accomplished and then after that, readjust and see where we're at."

--Roy Halladay

Anyone want to lay money that he re-signs in two years? Halladay doesn't strike one as a guy that speaks out (however subtle it may be) without serious thought behind it. That he would refuse to issue a tired cliche when about his future with the Jays is telling. He's practically screaming from the hilltops -- get me a winning team or watch me come back in pinstripes ('cause, really ... who else will be able to afford him).

It's difficult to see how the Jays can restructure themselves into a winner in the two years that Halladay has left. J.P. Ricciardi has hitched the team's fortunes to a core that doesn't have a ton of trade value and doesn't seem quite good enough by half.

Unless you think the Jays are going to go 47-20 the rest of the way (what they would need to do to get to the 94-win total that the average AL wild-card team has had since its inception), or you think a No. 4 hitter suddenly going to fall from the sky, you might want to make sure you get down to the Dome every five days or so for the next couple months. You never realize how good you have things until you lose them after all.

I'm not about to look it up, but I'm pretty sure that last time the Jays went 47-20 they were winning World Series. Since that doesn't seem likely, it's vital that something be done with the assets they have to trade now. And, there is no bigger asset than A.J. Burnett. A lot of people like to suggest that the Jays would be better off keeping him and collecting the draft picks they will receive when he opts out of his contract at year's end. I'm sorry, but two compensation picks aren't going to cut it with Burnett. And since keeping him is next to useless (again -- 47-20. Show me evidence that the Jays could go 47-20 and I'll listen), it's pretty clear that he needs to be moved. If Ricciardi is as good as he thinks he is, he needs to find a position player that will contribute to the team in 2009 or sooner.

He better, because his job likely depends on it.

(Update: As for the story about the topless woman in one of the Rogers Centre hotel rooms, could everyone try to act like they've seen bare breasts before? Jeebus.)

BTW - the title is a bad Leonard Cohen reference in case you were confused...

Adios, A.J., very well might have just got real (or not)

The latest is that the Phillies are hard after A.J. Burnett, dangling a couple of prospects.

The larger point, which friend of the blog Pete Toms made between innings during the Rapidz game last night (they won! they won!) is that we shouldn't downplay the possibility that the Jays might end up being stuck with Burnett for the rest of the season. They probably want to move him, since (a) it makes it look like Godcciardi is doing something and (b) the cynical observation is the front office very wells now that any minor-leaguers they can get now would likely have more value than two compensatory draft picks, since Rogers Communications is a bunch of El Cheapos when it comes to spending on quality prospects.

The Phillies' interest is a real wild card, since ol' Wolley Segap himself, Pat Gillick, has been known to go all in to land a pitcher for the stretch run. Remember Jeff Kent for David Cone in 1992?

Out of the prospects Jeff Blair mentioned, though, only one who's even mildly groin-grabblingly awesome: Lou Marson. He's a righty-hitting catcher, said to be the total package behind the plate, and while there's questions about whether he'll hit enough to be an everyday player, he's leading the Eastern League in on-base percentage. The downside is that his .447 OBP eclipses his .424 slugging percentage.

The big matzo ball hanging out there with centrefielder Greg Golson is that his walk-to-strikeout ratio in the minors over the past season and a half is 36-to-250 -- sub-Soriano plate discipline. He's supposed to be a burner -- hit, run, throw -- but the batting eye apparently leaves something to be desired.

Our handy-dandy Baseball Prospectus 2008 also says that right-handed starter Carlos Carrasco isn't anything special, even though he did reach Double-A last year at age 20.

Burnett to the Dodgers would be a wicked burn of sorts, since going from the 44-47 Jays to the 45-46 Dodgers would mean he's on a contender. Is anyone else tired of the unbalanced schledule and interleague play yet?

Related:
Blair: Phils mulling trade for Burnett (Globe on Baseball
Report: Phillies, Dodgers after Burnett (Roto World)

Zen Dayley: The arms shuffle

Did that really happen? A comeback from four runs down?

• Dustin McGowan is having a MRI, which means the Jays might have to shelve plans to trade A.J. Burnett and now that Rich Harden is a Cubbie, that should increase demand for Erik Bedard, even though he's pitched terrible everywhere but in his expansive home ballpark. Got all that? Good, because there'll be a test on it tomorrow.
• There's a sign Derek Jeter is past his best-before, even though he still got it done for the Yankees last night. The guy who threw him out at the plate, the Rays' B.J. Upton, wears No. 2 as a homage to The Captain.
  
  (There will be a full-length Rays post coming at some point soon -- it's amazing that people are having the knee-jerk "they'll fold" reaction. Teams that are 55-34 seldom fold.)
• It's worth mentioning Jays catching hopeful J.P. Arencibia, just to see if anyone else has noticed that he's still looking for his first walk since being promoted to Double-A. (He has five homers and is slugging .580 in 69 at-bats.)
• One modest suggestion; The Hall of Fame should have, What The Hell, They Were Better Than Jim Rice wing. This will have to wait until after Jim Ed's inevitable induction next season.
  

Zen Dayley: Interleague play should be history

A.J. Burnett, living up to his rep as a .500 pitcher, does his best to blow it for the Jays, who beat the Braves 1-0 despite his 11 strikeouts in seven innings.

There's a huge element of "don't waste your bandwidth" to any anti-interleague play screed.

There are literally powerful forces -- the manufacturers of the approximately 373 erectile dysfunction drugs advertised weekly on the Fox Saturday Game of the Week -- who believe interleague is Good for Business. There's no convincing Bud Selig, et al., otherwise. That means you'll be subject to more wallowing in nostalgia about long-ago World Series matchups -- as if they have any revelance to the current season.*

The bottom line is it's tiresome to see a gimmick play hell with whatever integrity the playoff races might accidentally have in the age of $200-million payrolls and playing each divisional opponent 18 times each season. Ask the L.A. Angels about how they love having their players forced into roles they're uncomfortable with when they play at a National League park. The Angels pinch-hitters were 0-for-11 in those games. Please keep that in mind if L.A. ends up missing the playoffs by one game.

The stupidity of it all is in persisting with a tradition that's been laid to rest in almost every other precinct. As any Ottawa Lynx diehard remembers, pitchers only bat in the minor leagues when two NL-affiliated teams are playing each other. If a Jays farm team meets a Braves farm team, the DH is used. Why should it be any different in the majors?

(Digression: The rule should be the same in each league, but perhaps the DH should be de-emphasized. Being physically capable of holding down a defensive position should be a prereq for being an everyday player. The concept of the "floating DH" -- someone who can enter at any time, but can't come up again until another eight batters have had their turn, is really appealing. Another halfway crackers idea: Pitchers have to hit and the DH takes the spot of the worst position player in the lineup. John McDonald would be a Hall of Famer if he could play every day and not have to bat, which is the only way he could play every day.)

There's probably evidence that the National League is weaker for insisting that pitchers have to bat. The Minnesota Twins, who are below .500 against AL teams, are flirting with contention by virtue of going 14-4 in interleague. (The Twinkies are also 7-2 against the K.C. Royals, whose record looks better than it is since they also cleaned up in interleague. Don't ask why the Jays struggle with it seemingly every year. That said, the Twins being fifth in the league in runs scored is awesome.)

Having to watch 18 of the suckers, as a fan of a team with no geographical rival, is also tedious. The AL should go back to the old balanced schedule and have teams play six interleague games -- during the second week in April. Then we'll see how popular it is.

What else ...

• It's reasonable to wonder if the Detroit Tigers are going to make a run in the second half (at 41-40, they're above .500 for the first time this season). The short answer is no, not with their pitching.
• There's a report that the A's are betting a $4.25-million signing bonus on a Dominican dandy, 16-year-old right-handed pitcher Michael Inoa.
  
  A Jays fan can't even dream of the Rogers Communications cheapskates ever authorizing that kind of investment in young talent. How come no one with a bigger platform points out that the Jays don't win because, under Godcciardi, they've persisted with the most cynical corporate approach -- make sure the casual fans see you spending money, instead of spending it wisely where no one's looking..
  
  That's how you end up with a .500 team that starts David Eckstein as the DH and has only two of Baseball America's top 100 prospects (although it's getting better). It doesn't have to be that way -- just look at the Tampa Bay Rays.
• Tracking Phillippe Aumont's progress has taken the focus away from Michael Saunders, the other hotshot Canadian in the Seattle Mariners system. Sorry about the procrastination -- he's been doing well as a 21-year-old centrefielder just called up to Triple-A.
• Revising Jackie Robinson's Hall of Fame plaque was a well-meant gesture, but Sports on My Mind says real progress would also mean revising Kenesaw Mountain Landis' plaque -- or removing it altogether.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

Jays are hurtin', but not for a Murton

It's too speculative by half, but the Chicago Cubs have recalled outfielder Matt Murton, possibly as trade bait.

Wasn't there a bit of news about some Blue Jays pitcher, A.J. Burnett, who will become a free agent after this season, saying he'd love to play in Chicago? Now, this is why it's a bad idea as a fan to start pitching trade ideas (although that Seinfeld episode where an out-of-work George Costanza contemplating getting a job in sports, "like the general manager of a baseball team" should have cured you of the notion).

(UPDATE: Case in point -- on Jays Talk tonight, a caller asked J.P. Ricciardi if the Jays had talked with the Cubs about trading Burnett for their one good prospect who's not already in Chicago already, 18-year-old third baseman Josh Vitters. As if the Cubbies are going to sacrifice last year's No. 3 overall draft choice this soon.)

Murton would only give the Jays another well-rounded hitter who doesn't hit for power (although at least he's younger than Kevin Mench). The Cubs don't have a lot in the farm system that would make it worth the Jays' while to make a 3- or 4-for-1 trade. It's best to wait for the Cubbies to cut and run with Jeff Samardzija, the former Notre Dame wide receiver who got a jesus-big signing bonus to give up football and is now struggling with his control down in Double-A.

Incidentally, the Cubs are trying to get a David Eckstein error from last Saturday changed to a hit ... that would tack a few points on to Roy Halladay's ERA, since he gave up a three-run homer to the next batter.

(Meantime, the axe flashes at the top of its arc over the hards of John Gibbons and Godcciardi.)

Related:
Let there be blood in the streets... (John Brattain, Hardball Times)

An inspired analysis of the painfully obvious

What do you say about this AJ Burnett stuff? Seriously. Other than the fact that the Jays PR people likely want to kill the man today—and the 10,000 Cubs “fans” that were at the Dome this weekend are probably enjoying themselves (in their Mississauga home).

Saying "My focus and abilities belong to the Toronto Blue Jays until I can't control it any longer.” wasn’t likely the brightest thing the man has ever said to a reporter, and it probably gives Jays fans a pretty good idea where Mr. .500 lifetime’s head is on this whole player’s option thing, but, really, what did he say that we didn’t already know?

Drunk Jays Fans sums it up best, I think, when it asks the unanswered question about Burnett: Can you honestly imagine Burnett's mental makeup in a major baseball market? If we're to believe in the Nuke LaLoosh comparisons, what's the over/under on media criticisms before A.J. would snap?

Not many.

Meanwhile, it would be nice if Toronto would evolve one day to the point that it wasn’t so damn hypersensitive about every perceived slight by professional athletes. (Vince Carter aside. Carter should be stoned in public during an annual Kill The Sucky Baby festival held in Dundas Square). T.O. is a wonderful city and those of us that live here shouldn’t need the approval of some uneducated guy who happens to throw hard to understand that.

As for the baseball part of this…I’m sure Neate can pull out all sorts of fancy sounding acronyms that will tell us what anyone with two eyes who isn’t an egomaniacal closet Boston Red Sox fan with a name that rhymes with A.T. already knows.

The man’s overrated and Toronto would be better off using the money they will save by signing someone who can hit the damn ball with a runner on second.

Zen Dayley: To mould a new reality, closer to the heart

Observing the sleep-on-it rule seems to be the best way to avoid saying, "The Jays will go as far as John Gibbons will take them." Talk about one cruel evenout, losing four straight... but Vernon Wells is back, Roy Halladay throws on Sunday and then the lousy Mariners come to town.

• Discuss among yourselves: A.J. Burnett is a straw man for everyone in Toronto who craps on the Blue Jays to avoid having to say what they really think about the Leafs.
  
  Burnett -- who tipped his cap to booing fans after getting jocked today -- and Roy Halladay have each made 13 starts this season. Burnett's given up four or more earned runs four times; Halladay's given up four or more earned runs five times. His little gesture -- which might have sent the message, relax people, it's only a game -- had a point.
  
• Jeff Blair noted that draft day is when Rogers Communications' uninterested ownership shines through: "Time for the Blue Jays to get with the flow and go over slot like everybody else."
  
  Over slot is Seamhead-speak for paying a high draft choice more than MLB's suggested signing boni, which tend to fall on te low side. More teams are realizing that lavishing a big bonus on a top-end prospect is cheap at twice the price, since there are ceilings on young players' salaries. Damn whatever the knee-jerkers say about giving $2.5 million to a high school shortstop or a college left-handed starter.
  
  Rogers' corporate cynicism dictates that you raise the major league club's payroll just high enough to defeat any charges of not wanting to win. "But the payroll is $100-million!" Add anyone who was pretty good back in 2003 and whom casual fans know from years of sports highlights and their fantasy league, and stir. Granted, that's what you would expect in Toronto, where sports franchises set out to win press conferences, not championships.
  
  There's nothing miraculous about why the Tampa Bay Rays are so good all of a sudden. They shelled out for to find players at the grass-roots, and now they're (knock on wood) headed to the playoffs.
  
• This never happens if George Steinbrenner was still alive ... 6-6 tie in the seventh iinning, bases drunk with Kansas City Royals ... Joe Girardi opted to leave Andy Pettitte to pitch to José Guillén. Never mind that Guillén had a .952 OPS this season vs. lefties, compared to .648 vs. righties, the first swollen considerably by a homer off Pettitte, who had thrown more than 100 pitches.
  
  Boom, grand slam. Back in the day, King George would have fired the manager before the plate umpire fished a new ball out of his pocket.
  
  (The Yankees, won 12-11, but when you have to score 12 runs to win, to quote Dave Smart, "You've lost already.")


• It's cold comfort to know that Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi at least has good taste when it comes to unrequited crushes.
  
  Tim Lincecum, whom the Jays were trying to get in the winter, is vying to be in the all-time, top 5 for pitchers who had the best years pitching for terrible teams. He has a 2.15 ERA, twice as good as the 4.68 for the rest of the San Francisco Giants staff. The Giants are 10-3 in his starts and 16-32 the rest of the time.
  
  No one's ever going to touch Steve Carlton's 1972 season, going 27-10, 1.97 for a last-place team. (He started in 29 of the Phillies' 59 wins.)
  
• Geddy Lee from Rush is the closest thing the Jays have to a celebrity fan, which makes it less of a surprise that he would be a benefactor for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Lee donated more than 200 balls autographed by Negro Leaguers, many of whom are long dead, to the museum.
  
• Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley is apparently a Jays fan.

Yes, losing two straight to the Baltimore Orioles is especially teeth-gnashing. The Red Sox and Yankees have money and brains. The Rays have brains. The Orioles organization is patchwork quilt that has neither.