Fronts: Beskorowany literally a big piece of the puzzle

Doug Gilmour has his big goalie: The Kingston Frontenacs just announced they have added 6-foot-5 Dallas Stars second-round draft choice Tyler Beskorowany from the Owen Sound Attack.

(And hey, they managed to get radio coverage.)

Beskorowany got drafted on upside. Part of the reason he was available was that the Sound Attack has another NHL-drafted big 'tender, Scott Stajcer (a fifth-round pick of the New York Rangers), who is a year younger. That's a big piece of the story, although it doesn't mean the deal should get panned from a Kingston perspective.

The upshot is that Beskorowany was added for relatively little, with centre Bobby Mignardi and a 2010 fourth-round pick going to the Sound Attack. One would have to figure that Beskorowany, after splitting the games almost 50/50 last season is Owen Sound, is coming in assured that he will start the season as the No. 1 netminder with either John Cullen or Mavric Parks as the backup. The people who have time invested in Beskorowany would like him to play more than 37 games and if he's as good as his NHL draft status indicates, then he should.

Some scouting reports have noted Beskorowany, who had a 3.64 goals against average and .902 save percentage with Owen Sound, has some issues with controlling rebounds. This is where you keep your fingers crossed the Frontenacs are going to be much tighter with their, cue Harry Neale, defensive zone coverage.

Parks' play in the first half of last season might have been worth a couple wins for a foundering Frontenacs team. However, even his biggest supporter will admit he had a proclivity to follow up a string of great saves by letting in a soft goal. One would hope he would rise to the challenge of having to earn his playing time after being the only option for much of last season, whether that is in Kingston.

(Kinger notes in the comments that adding a 19-year-old goalie is only a one-year move. The Frontenacs are notorious for this, but picking up a NHL-drafted goalie could also be a focal point.)

Meantime, the gang at Fronts Talk directed attention to the news the Fronts have found a radio partnership with, wait for it, 88.7 myFM in Napanee. (I would ask my parents how it sounds, but they might not be able to get from their RR1 Napanee address; just kidding, but only a little).

Far be it to put a spin on owner Doug Springer's contention that putting broadcasts on a 6,000-watt adult contemporary station will "help the team win fans in outlying areas" by saying he might want to prioritize keeping fans in Kingston's core.

Today is not the day for that. Please save smart remarks about a Kingston team having its games on a Napanee station that might be hard to get in parts of Kingston, or that trading for Beskorowany is only proof Mavric Parks is indeed one of the OHL's top goaltenders, as an anonymous commenter contended earlier this week. It's all on the up and up. Most of the commentariat has been that Gilmour has upgraded his complement of forwards and defencemen and now he has a NHL-drafted goalie.

(Although, it is almost like they are taunting Kinger. They trade for a goalie who is the same height, has the same first name and put the games on a radio station in his technically adopted hometown and make sure it's station whose signal is not much more stronger than CFRC 101.9 FM. Well played.)

Zen Dayley: Halladay stays, Rolen goes, and so should that attitude

Hang on tightly, let go lightly.

The straight from the gut is that keeping Roy Halladay and moving third baseman Scott Rolen to the Cincinnati Reds calls to mind a line from The Simpsons when Homer got a dishonorable discharge from the U.S. Navy: "It's the most any of us could have hoped for." Thirteen more Halladay starts, plus several million off next season's payroll? Score! Great move, Paul Beeston J.P. Ricciardi!

The wild guess that the juice (sorry for the double entendre, Red Sox Nation) was not worth the squeeze with regard to the Rogers Jays trading Halladay actually turned out to be right ("I know, kids, I'm scared too."). Granted, sometimes making moves to appease fans can be very bad for a team's record.

Rolen will be missed the first time the third baseman they got for him, 26-year-old Edwin Encarnacion, uncorks a throw that reminds us there is no fair catch rule in Canada.

Whoever is making the calls seems to have shrewdly gauged the law of diminishing returns with Rolen. He is 34 years old. He has only been healthy two of the past five seasons. In case people forgot (or never knew to begin with), was in Toronto because he asked out of St. Louis.

Taken together, Halladay's Non-Independence Day and people being upset over seeing Rolen go to some wrongheaded thinking. Who are we, White Sox fans?

This is not an apologia for the Roger Jays. Stephen Brunt nailed it when he wrote of Rogers, "there is a reason the NFL forbids corporate ownership of its franchises."

It is more an appeal for some clear eyes to go along with the full hearts of those who hang in season after also-ran season. One enduring belief in my whole watching baseball through adult eyes life is that the entire history of the game is a history of money.

That is a main reason why the Yankees are pretty much always on top. The only exceptions were when they were, wait for it, owned by a media conglomerate (CBS in the late '60s and early '70s) and the period when George Steinbrenner was at his most megalomaniacal, demanding the Yankees trade away future all-stars such as Fred McGriff, Doug Drabek, and of course, Jay Buhner ("Ken Phelps, Ken Phelps") to plug leaks on the big club.

The Boston Red Sox had ownership issues around that time; old Tom Yawkey, a sole proprietor, died in 1976 and the franchise was kind of circling the drain until his widow passed. It took another decade beyond that before John Henry, Larry Lucchino and Tom Werner got the Red Sox. That is a big piece of understanding which is left out when people hearken back on the Jays' glory years, 1983-93. The twin banes of their existence were both a mess in hindsight.

Baseball also had a two-division format in each league and a balanced schedule (AL teams played 13 games vs. each division rival instead of the current 18 or 19), which also levelled the playing field. Part of the reason that changed is ESPN. The rule of thumb two decades ago was that regular-season baseball was a write-off in terms of the U.S. TV audience. A 162-game season, as opposed to the NFL's 16, means there was not enough at stake to draw in the casual viewer. NFL fans can count on seeing certain personalities. There's nothing like that in baseball.

ESPN refuted that and Bud Selig, who is no dummy, fulfilled their need to play up rivalries by creating the unbalanced schedule and interleague play. People can kick and scream about ESPN, but a lot of their themes filter up from the audience. By and large, people want to see the Sox and Yanks ad nauseam.

That illustrates why baseball has an unbalanced schedule while carrying on as if it is a fair fight for the eight playoff berths. It sucks. However, deep-down, as fans people have to accept the sporting tail wags the business dog. The Red Sox and Yankees are also paired with regional sports networks (NESN and the YES network). The difference for the Rogers Jays, to borrow from a comment good friend Pete Toms left at ShysterBall when the Halladay soap opera premiered, "There just aren’t enough ball fans here." There were only 24,000 people at Halladay's last home start, which Rogers Sportsnet did not even broadcast to the entire country. Some show of love. It's enough to make one utter the words "death spiral," but if the Pittsburgh Pirates haven't been moved after 17 losing seasons in a row, the Jays should be safe.

This is straying farther afield than anticipated. The point was to address the derision, some of it Twitter-amplified, about dealing Rolen and keeping Halladay, and to reiterate the folly of falling in love with players instead of falling in like, unless it's for humourous effect (here one thinks of The Tao dubbing Rolen GBOAT for Greatest Blue Jay of All Time).

The Jays did what they said they would. In Mike Wilner's phrasing, "They listened, they weren't blown away," so they passed. It is amusing, as others have pointed out, that the same people who said Ricciardi was unfit to make this deal will now rip him for not making said deal.

(By the way, within a hour after that became official, the NHL's Edmonton Oilers have said they are officially not interested in making a trade for disgruntled Dany Heatley. Honestly, it was just ass-talking writ large to say two weeks ago that the Jays would "trade Halladay the same day the Ottawa Senators deal Dany Heatley.")

The upshot is that there is still time to work out something amenable for Halladay, as Bart Given wrote before the trade deadline. The price tag might be lower, but it will still be more than the two compensatory draft choices a team gets for losing a big-time free agent.

"Assuming the mandate of remains the same, the Blue Jays will try and move their ace beginning in November. His value will be less than right now, as he will have just six months left under his current contract. On the positive side, there will be more interested teams in the mix as organizations ponder the opportunity to build their off-season around acquiring Roy Halladay.

"From a fan perspective it has to be torture. It will be like a farewell tour for the remainder of the season. I guess some fans will hold out hope ownership changes itss mind and tells Ricciardi to pull him off the market – or that no trade package is good enough. Unlikely – but possible I guess."

As for complaining about the loss of Rolen, please. Beyond Aaron Hill, who is signed through 2014 counting club options, the rest of the Jays infield consisted of three likeable 30-somethings they can move out for a younger and/or more productive player (whether one materializes, well...).

True, Rolen is hitting .320. However, his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is an unsustainable .342 (most players come down to the median, which is around .290). Going month by month, he just had a 200-point drop in OPS from June (.966) to July (.761), and that was still with an average BABIP (.301). You don't make calls based on one month, but one wonders if his July performance was closer to reality.

Please keep in mind Rolen was acquired straight up for Troy Glaus, who hasn't played all season. You could say the deal was Glaus for Encarnacion and two relievers with some potential. From FanGraphs:

"Josh Roenicke looks like a decent middle reliever who will be glad to get off the Louisville-Cincinnati shuttle. His fastball has some giddyup and he throws a solid cutter as well.

"Zachary Stewart is the 'get' of the trade. He has a 92-95 MPH fastball with good sink and a hard cutting 82-85 MPH slider. He’s quickly climbed the ladder, pitching at High-A, Double-A and now Triple-A, and has a cumulative 2.92 FIP (fielding-independent pitching) in 92 innings pitched. He pitched mostly out of the bullpen last year but is showing some good promise as a starter. He’s a solid B grade pitcher.

Of course, that would be too honest and rational. It's just that people shouldn't start dismaying over Rolen. The Jays picked up some young talent for very little. Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo did that with his trade with the Golden States for guard Marco Belinelli this week and was hailed as a genius.

For pity's sake, when all this was going down, a friend who knows better started dismaying about Hill leaving. Of course, he'll leave someday. All players do. And one day the sun will explode and since cockroaches and columnists are all that will survive, they’ll blame that on J.P. Ricciardi, too.

DocTalk: Prognosis negative from the Doctor's wife

A Blue Jays fan seeking reassurances about Roy Halladay might not have got any from his spouse.

For those who aren't following the Red Sox-Jays game on radio today, Brandy Halladay fought tears during a fifth-inning interview with The FAN 590's Alan Ashby and Jerry Howarth. She was on to talk about the food drive the players' spouses and girlfriends, the Lady Jays, are holding this weekend at Rogers Centre, but her voice could be read like a book. Howarth asked an easy question, something like, "What do you get from doing this?" Halladay steered her answer around to, "I've been here a long time and I love this city and I love these people" and it got kind of emotional. She touched on how accommodating GM J.P. Ricciardi has been, how gracious fans have been to her, how it could "my last homestand" and how "rumours are stronger than they have been in the past" and "I really hope the fans know that the Blue Jays have been great to us."

Halladay: "If something happens before trade deadline, I won't be back. That's difficult. That's really difficult. I just broke into tears four minutes ago. I'm in tears now."
Ashby: "It sounds like ... maybe to us, maybe to me, the possibility might be stronger than we've all thought it was going to be."

The bottom line from a Jays fan's vantage point is that Brandy Halladay was really projecting. What she said and the way the words came out belied any talk that the Blue Jays are just dipping a toe in the water with respect to trading Roy Halladay before July 31.

By the same token, surmising that Doc is destined for an American port of ball based on his wife tearing up in an interview is only one space on the Jump to Conclusions mat. Baseball spouses, and not necessarily solely those of the ballplayers, have a ton on their plate. In Brandy Halladay's case, she was helming a 3-day food drive outside Rogers Centre and, as she told Alan and Jerry, was also getting organized to move the family (two young sons) out of Toronto, presumably to their full-year, off-season home. One can only assume there's some stress involved, plus you never pretend to understand how someone else's committed relationship works.

As a fan who only knows what you hear and read in the media, one cannot claim to know what might happen. You can only prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Let's just say hearing Brandy Halladay on the radio makes for a better post-game story than rookie left-hander Marc Rzepczynski harnessing his control and gettng his first major-league win Saturday.

The Jays' brief switch to a four-man rotation, forced by off-days, would mean Halladay would start Friday, July 24 vs. Tampa Bay after he throws on Sunday.

(Not that they need to be told, but Alan and Jerry did a great job handling that interview and getting Ms. Halladay. They got her to open up, but did not exploit her emotion and steered it back on course. Work commitments prevented hearing what she said during an interview with Rogers Sportsnet during Friday's game ... but that interview didn't lead to a friend calling up to say, "Doc's gone, it's bullshit," either.)

DocTalk: The juice ain't worth the squeeze

Reading anything into the Blue Jays setting up their pitching rotation so Roy Halladay gets two starts at home before the July 31 trade deadline is a fool's play, likely.

It is just that if Halladay was throwing Friday against the Red Sox instead of Sunday, his next two starts would come on the road, assuming a normal five-man rotation with no one getting bumped. This way, with the temporary move to a four-man rostation, Halladay is in line to start a Friday home game on July 24 vs. the Tampa Bay Rays, so if Doc is headed out of Toronto (to possibly Philadelphia, San Francisco or St. Louis) that is the night to head down to Rogers Centre with a black armband fashioned out of hockey tape affixed to a powder-blue throwback jersey. (If they were still using a five-man, it would be July 25.)

Gut feeling: Richard Griffin's rationale that the Jays should hold on until the winter, do some fact-facing and say, "We're not gonna contend in the 2010 AL East," makes some sense. The media and fanbase will be on a less of a hair trigger.

The reasoned response all along was that Halladay was not going to be traded before the end of this season. By the way, the snappy answer to the question, "Where is Doc headed?" is, "Cooperstown." Those of you who like to feed two birds with one scone can say, "They'll trade him the same day the Ottawa Senators deal Dany Heatley."

During the all-star game telecast on Tuesday, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal came off like he was backpedalling like a Pro Bowl cornerback when he reiterated that Halladay would be traded, and now he's admitting the St. Louis Cardinals and L.A. Angels are all but out of the running, although Cardinals fans sure were fawning over the right-hander. No doubt you read speculation that the Yankees could take Vernon Wells ludicrous contract off the Jays' hands. Of course, as Jason Rosenberg at It's About The Money, Stupid noted, adding Wells might be too rich even for the Yankees' blood, even with the extra revenue they're bringing in by streaming broadcasts online. It would potentially leave them with almost $170 million committed to nine players come the 2011 season.

"That's flat out insane. Of course, this doesn't include resigning Halladay or any other free agents. They might try to overpay Jason Bay (assuming he's not signed to an extension by Boston), sign Matt Holliday or any of the eventual Rays free agents. Bottom line, that money's gonna be spent.

"Wells might be another Bobby Abreu with a lower OBP and less SB; a solid player with 20 HR power. Is he 'worth' $23M? Not a chance. Is he worth absorbing that contract to land Halladay, assuming you don't have to give up Joba (Chamberlain), (pitcher Phil) Hughes, (outfield prospect Jesus) Montero? I'm not sure. I've been debating this for a long time and I've been staunchly saying that 'there's no way the Yanks take on Wells,' but maybe I am wrong. (Veteran outfielders Johnny) Damon and (Hideki) Matsui are gone after this year. (Xavier) Nady, too. Can you put Wells in CF for the next few years and have greater productivity than (Brett) Gardner and/or Melky (Cabrera)? Probably. Can you absorb Wells' abortion of a contract for the year and a half (at least) of Halladay's services? I'm not sure."

It cannot be stressed enough that all of this is just a fan's futile attempt to, in the parlance of those MacLean's promos which are played ad nauseam on Blue Jays radio broadcasts, make sense of it all. The best one can do is try to offer some guidelines:

• Baseball Prospectus believes the Jays should act with Halladay and the left side of the infield, 34-year-old third baseman Scott Rolen and 33-year-old shortstop Marco Scutaro. A lot of people have fallen in love with those two, instead of merely falling in like.
  
  
• One should shudder at hearing any rumours about a deal with the Yankees that would send Chamberlain, Hughes, Gardner and Shelley Duncan to Toronto. It's not out of the realm of possibility that Chamberlain has plateaued as a pitcher. Also, he's shown a lack of durability in his career to date, which would make the optics of dealing Halladay even worse.
  
  
• It should have been stressed from the get-go that using the 2008 Erik Bedard trade, where the Baltimore Orioles got all-star outfielder Adam Jones and closer George Sherrill (among others), is a poor baseline. That was more of an anomaly and the GM who signed off on that, Bill Bavasi, has since been fired.


• Meantime, the San Diego Padres' story arc with their ace Jake Peavy is pretty germane. That franchise has overriding internal issues (change of ownership), not unlike the Blue Jays (an interim CEO, a meh attitude in their local market and questions about their uninterested ownership). The Padres were unable to get anything done with Peavy, and are now on course to finish with about 97 losses. The gist of it the Jays probably have to act, but there's a time and place for it and that time is not in the next two weeks.
  

Anyway, you know it's not my style to rubberneck rumours (better to dilettante around committing to nothing, that's how it's done in Sageritaville, right?), but this one was rich:

"The Phillies remain 'very, very interested' in acquiring Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay and are currently putting together a package of prospects that may actually also include recently-signed P Pedro Martinez. The Cardinals are also a favorite to land Halladay if, and only IF they are willing to part with blue-chip prospect, OF Colby Rasmus, along with several other prospects. The Dodgers remain in the action as well and a late entry into the field are the San Francisco Giants who are unsure of the availability of Randy Johnson for the rest of the year. Their package is said to include former AL Cy Young winner Barry Zito and the highly-touted Jonathan Sanchez, who threw a no-hitter in his last start right before the All Star Break.

Halladay and Tim Lincecum in the same starting rotation in San Fran? At least that would be ironic. Another irony for an Ottawa-based Jays fan: Michael Taylor, the one outfielder whom the Phillies are said to have dangled, just got promoted to Lehigh Valley. Oi, a thousand times, oi.

(There's no graceful way to segue into it, but Bart Given has a post up at Inside The Majors explaining what a travelling secretary does in major league baseball. He managed to dig out a picture of George Costanza and Wilhelm from Seinfeld. Kinger referenced Seinfeld when Given was a guest on his CFRC sports show several weeks ago.

Halladays of Reckoning: That damn Dodgers rumour

Presumably, most of you are outdoors on this fine July Sunday, but when the Los Angeles Times suggests the Dodgers dangle all-star catcher Russell Martin as part of a package for Roy Halladay, the ears tend to perk up, eh.

"The Dodgers would have to pay dearly to get Halladay, as any team should. This is not about quantity, about trading half a dozen scrubs and suspects. This is about quality, about enticing the Toronto Blue Jays to surrender perhaps the best pitcher in franchise history.

The Dodgers ought to start by offering two-time All-Star catcher Russell Martin, a Canadian star for Canada's team.

However, then it kind of unravels, not just because of the notion that the Dodgers could get by with aging Brad Ausmus as their No. 1 catcher.

"... The Dodgers also should offer two of their top 2008 draft picks -- shortstop Devaris Gordon, a high-ceiling shortstop prospect two or three years from the majors, and right-hander Josh Lindblom, the former Purdue closer who almost made the team out of spring training. Lindblom could go into the Jays' bullpen right now, perhaps into their rotation next year.

"Keep in mind that neither Gordon nor Lindblom is ranked among the top 50 prospects in the minor leagues, as ranked last week by Baseball America. None of the Dodgers' prospects is ranked, in fact, and certainly the Dodgers will be bidding for Halladay against teams offering prospects near the top of that list.

"But this is the time. This group of Dodgers position players will run out of time soon. Martin, Kemp, Andre Ethier and James Loney all are eligible for salary arbitration next season, when Manny Ramirez figures to play his final season in L.A. Orlando Hudson is not signed beyond this season. Blake turns 36 in August. Shortstop Rafael Furcal turns 32 in October."

The Jays have catching prospects; of course, 23-year-old J.P. Arencibia is hitting an Ausmus-esque .236/.291/.417 in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League (then again, he's 23).

The Toronto Sun on Friday put the L.A. Angels as front-runners to get Halladay. The kneejerk response is that the Dodgers would love to get him. It's brinksmanship, baby.

Related:
Dodgers can't let Roy Halladay get away (Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times)

Halladay of Reckoning (maybe)

It is not like there was no warning about Roy Halladay ("it's tempting to think of the Brewers reprising the CC Sabathia trade to get Roy Halladay for a playoff run," March 29, 2009 and " do realize that trading him this season would be wise, since he's in the second-last year of his contract," April 4, 2009).

The wikiality at this moment is that evil, no-good J.P. Ricciardi (whom everyone forgets, passed up a shot a running his home-state Red Sox early on in his Toronto tenure) said he is going to trade the Jays' talisman. Whatever happens, happens, it would no doubt suck, but the vultures are kind of circling with the Jays at 43-41.

It might be best to invoke the Clavin Rule. The rest of you lot might want to check out Minor League Ball to get a low-down on who is out there for prospects and young players. Meantime, others have outlined potential trading partners (none in the AL East, thankfully), and here's a symposium of thoughts from around the interweb.

Craig Calcaterra, Circling The Bases: "My insta-takes on the deals about which (FOXSports' Ken Rosenthal) speculates: White Sox (arguably plausible but unlikely); Braves (totally doable but the Braves would never, ever do it); Dodgers, Cubs, Angels, Mets (no; they don't have the chips); Rangers (no; don't have the cash); Brewers (did it last year, won't do it again).

"All of this chatter may be fun, but it's a total pipe dream."

Jeff Blair, Unwritten Rules: "They’ll want to get something approximating what the Cleveland Indians received from the Montreal Expos in return for Bartolo Colon: Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore and Brandon Phillips (the Indians also had to pick up the prorated portion of Lee Stevens' $4-million - all currency U.S. - contract). They’ll want cost-effective players with one or two years of major-league experience at the very most and a prospect ready for the majors.

"The Blue Jays have long-term commitments to Alex Rios and Vernon Wells and serious revenue concerns, but there is also some relief in that B.J. Ryan, Scott Rolen and Lyle Overbay’s contracts coming off the books at the same time as Halladay’s (after the 2010 season — Ed). Ryan, Rolen and Overbay’s exit clears $28-million."

Buster Olney, ESPN.com: "The Jays essentially will have three windows of opportunity in which they could consider dealing the former Cy Young Award winner — in the 24 days before the July 31 trade deadline; during the offseason; or next season.

"Right now, the team most aggressively searching for a frontline starting pitcher is the Philadelphia Phillies, who no doubt would covet Halladay for their particular park for his ability to generate ground balls and missed swings -- he has a ground ball/fly ball ratio of 1.30, to go along 98 strikeouts in 116 innings this season. The question about the Phillies -- as it is with most teams these days, when the value of young players has never been higher -- is whether they would be willing to give up what the Jays would require in trade."

(And lookey-doo, they're already salivating down in Philadelphia over what the Phillies would have to send the Jays' way. The San Francisco Giants, though, would not part with prize pitching prospect Madison Bumgarner.)

Bill Shaikin, L.A. Times: "To say that 'Halladay is a goner" and 'Once this process starts, it's almost impossible to stop' — well, to that we say: Where is Jake Peavy pitching this season?" (San Diego, same as last year.)

Zach Sanders, Baseball Digest Daily: "If things don’t go as planned next year, then Halladay will be a valuable trade piece to be dealt to a contender. I understand the need to deal him now, because teams won’t just be getting a rental, but I don’t see the need to deal him because of financial issues. Teams should be planning ahead with the budgets, and not giving out big extensions in years they can’t afford them."

Orland Kurtenblog: "Dear Roy Halladay: If J.P. Ricciardi is telling the truth and he’s willing to entertain trade offers for your services, don’t fight it. Barring realignment, you aren’t seeing the playoffs in Toronto."

DanyWatch Day 23: Heater left holding the bag, which might not contain $4 million

None of the principals in the Dany Heatley debacle had time to pick up face paint for Canada Day, but boy are their faces red.

This is not about trying to figure out how this ends. Maybe it gets worked out within a day, or maybe a team who strikes out in free agency will look at "Dany Nicks" as a nice silver medal.

This is more about about being a fan and feeling inadequate trying to figure out what's going on in a league where two front offices do not even seem to understand the rules. The Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers, and possibly Heatley's agents, seemed to work on the assumption a trade had to be wrapped up by 12 a.m. July 1, since hey, that was what they'd heard on TSN and read in the newspaper like all us Al Capp schmos. There was that $4-million matzo ball, the bonus Heatley was due, hanging out there, as you know. It turns out, as mc79hockey explained, they had another 24 hours, possibly longer. Cue Tyler Dellow, who knows this stuff cold (he has a law degree, which makes him the Canadian version of Craig Calcaterra):

"The really interesting thing though is that I don’t think Ottawa necessarily has to pay Heatley the $4MM at some point (Wednesday). The CBA specifically deals with what happens when a team defaults on a contract.

"... There is, I think, some room here for the Senators to simply agree with Heatley that they will default on payment of his bonus and that he'll hold off on grieving that default. Then, once he’s traded, he can file his grievance and his new team can cure the default."

This is the pertinent section of the CBA Tyler dug out:

"11.15 Default. If a Club defaults in the payment of any compensation to the Player provided for in his SPC (standard player's contract — Ed.) or fails to perform any other obligation under his SPC, the Player may, by notice in writing to the Club and to the League and the NHLPA, specify the nature of any and all defaults and thereafter:

(a) If the Club fails to remedy the default within fourteen (14) days from receipt of such notice, except as hereinafter provided in subsections (b), (c) and (d) of this Section 11.15, the SPC shall be terminated, and, upon the date of such termination, all obligations of both parties shall cease, except the obligation of the Club to pay the Player’s compensation to that date."

Cripes, where was that piece of understanding three weeks ago? No doubt there are some CBA experts who were aware, but we are talking about the normals.

It sure looks like everyone believed they had a deadline. Hindsight is 20/15 when someone is standing to the side of it all. However, it stands to reason that if Heatley and his agents were aware of the rules, they could have said to the Senators, "Dany is going to sleep on it," before talking to the New York Rangers, who cleared cap space by trading Scott Gomez to the Montreal Canadiens in the afternoon. The Senators probably could have sat tight and remained in control of the situation. Instead, they were sitting there getting tense because of a deadline that was not only arbitrary, but apparently wrong. No wonder beat writers in other NHL cities are calling Eugene Melnyk's franchise "one of the most dysfunctional clubs in the NHL."

The point, hopefully, is how much one's eyes can get opened to the realities of the salary-capped NHL within a span of 24 hours. This stems from a comment one of this site's users, Alex, left Tuesday morning which turned to be prescient, at least for now-now:

"The reason Heatley is not going to be dealt (at least possibly until the trade deadline) is the lack of understanding of value in the cap environment by Ottawa fans. Every Ottawa fan seems to be expecting a huge return for him. But his value is not high. He is an excellent player and maybe he will get 50 goals again, but his contract is bad enough to cut his value way down. They would get spare parts and other people's salary problems in return. Near the trade deadline when contenders are looking to add salary is when his value will be at its peak, but still with the length of the contact it won't be what fans are expecting.

"Since Murray (who above all wants to avoid looking bad or disappointing fans) can't get what fans expect for him, he won't be dealt."

From the get-go, it seemed like a lot of the Heatley coverage in Ottawa has not reflected that the days are gone when one team could just pick up the phone and hammer out a blockbuster trade.

The other big ball-and-stick sports have gone through this evolution. In the NFL, you rarely see star players traded in their prime. (The deal the Chicago Bears made with the Denver Broncos for quarterback Jake Cutler does not count since Denver's coach is a wingnut and Cutler is not actually a star).

The informational revolution in baseball over the past 10 years has made it harder for teams to flip a veteran for a package of prospects at the trade deadline. Meantime, in pro basketball, only the truly deranged really understand the ins and outs and why it's good to add a player with an expiring contract, like the Raptors did last winter with veteran forward Shawn Marion.

Try telling that to anyone today. After all, the Hockey Reflex dictates that consumers should be led to believe something big is going to go down before the next commercial break. Of course, it does not always go that way, as TSN's insider, Darren Dreger, said on his Twitter after the first round of the NHL draft last Friday ...

"The perfect storm didn't materialize. Tons of talk, but the cap complications killed deals. Saturday should be fun."*

... but it will, probably in the next few minutes, honest.

Ultimately, it seems better to try to understand how this is possible. The endless flame-fanning and rip-jobs in the Ottawa media (and Edmonton too, shame on you, Terry Jones) got really old really fast. Heatley should not rate a single iota of sympathy. He asked for a trade, got one, and shot it down. The situation is akin to Trish Piedmont telling Andy Stitzer in The 40-Year-Old Virgin: "You asked for this, Andy. You asked for all of it." Puck Daddy's headline is "Oilers, Senators had deal in place; Heatley nixed it."

The media might point the cannon at Heatley (fist bump: John Fogerty), but the onus is misplaced. James Mirtle noted the CBA is a culprit:

• "There has to be some way to force players to either (a) honour their contractual commitment to a team or (b) not be able to veto deals when they're the ones requesting a trade. Heatley put the Sens in a terrible position by asking (publicly, no less) to be moved with his July 1 bonus date approaching, and if he now is going to turn down deals, it's going to become increasingly difficult for GM Bryan Murray to get anything resembling fair value for his top player.


• "How bad would it be if the Sens had to pay Heatley's $4-million bonus before making a trade? Well, his contract was heavily front-loaded, with Ottawa paying out $10-million in Year 1 of a six-year, $45-million extension he signed in 2007. If Murray pays the bonus, it'll mean Ottawa forked out $14-million — 31 per cent of the contract — for only one season under those terms, and the acquiring team will get Heatley for just $31-million over five years (about $6-million a season instead of $7.5-million)."

See how far you get with that down on Parliament Hill today, though. Heatley is the bad guy, but a NHL GM not knowing the rules might be worse.

Many metabeers should be consumed in Tyler Dellow's honour on this Canada Day. (That is a new word for beers you say you're going to drink in gratitude to someone, except you're now a semi-responsible adult and have to be sober enough to drive, or get on the right bus, subway and/or streetcar).

UPDATE: Alanah McGinley has all-things-considered take defence of Heatley posted at Kukla's Korner that reasonable-minded Senators fans ought to read.

"... most of the rhetoric floating around seems to go off the charts.

"And why? Well, the justification for this is clear, we're told. First, Heatley went public with his desire to leave Ottawa. Next, he turned down a possible escape trade to Edmonton, making the situation infinitely worse.

"However, being that I’m willing to give Heatley the benefit of the doubt, I’m also willing to believe in at least the possibility that there were other factors at play in the choices he’s made in the last few weeks. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that a goalie named Ray Emery was in the hot seat, getting blamed for all the destruction around him as his once-mighty Senators took an abrupt and unexplainable plummet into the crapper. And back then, everyone whispered all sorts of unsubstantiated and shocking gossip blaming Emery for the team’s fortunes.

"But then Emery left and seems to have done reasonably well since then. And yet Ottawa is still... Ottawa.

"So isn’t it remotely possible — just an tiny bit possible — that the problems in Ottawa might have more to do with the Senators organization itself than any one player? If so, then maybe Dany Heatley's comments to Darren Dreger last night, implying he felt he was getting deliberately screwed around by the team, are at least reasonable from his point of view. (Not that I have any reason to believe he was, simply that I'm no more likely to let the Senators off the hook than I am to let Heatley off for this mess.)

"On the other hand, Heatley is the one that made this public and that wanted out of a contract that HE willingly signed in the first place, so he has plenty of fault in this no matter what. And I’m not saying the Senators are the 'bad guys' in this drama, either. Only that we don’t necessarily know the whole story. And since Heatley strikes me as a reasonably smart guy able to anticipate he’d look pretty bad in all this, I can only assume he felt he had good reasons to take this path.

"Whatever the truth, it seems likely there's far more back-story to this than simply 'Dany Heatley is an evil psycho,' and everyone's sanctimonious moaning about how terribly Heatley has treated the 'poor Ottawa Senators' strikes me as an infantile over-reaction. At the end of the day, it's just business, and conflicts aren't unheard of in business, especially given the amounts of money at stake.

"... until some clever and gutsy Ottawa hockey journalist writes a tell-all book about Heatley and/or the Senators, I'm reserving judgment."

(*It wasn't.)

NBA Draft Day: No. 1 overall not the most interesting topic right now

Draft Day's are always exciting, thankfully this week ends with 2 big drafts back-to-back. And my favourite of them all, the NBA draft, is the first one up! (tonight at 7pm).

As Riz already mentioned beyoned Blake Griffin going to the Clippers (a move yes even the Clippers can't mess up!) the board is wide open! It'll be interesting to see what a number of teams end up doing tonight!

But before the night has come there's already been some big moves, and they just keep on coming as well!

Shaquille O'Neal was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Ben Wallace, Sasha Papolovic and a draft pick. The Suns are entering full rebuild mode and the Cavs, likely upset this move fizzled earlier in the season, are hopeful this will keep LeBron James in town (I'd say put them over the edge but let's be honest here, win or lose if they still have LeBron after next season they'll be happy!)

Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson have just been traded from the New Jersey Nets to the Orlando Magic for Rafer Alston, Courtney Lee and Tony Battie. While this solves the point guard issue it also brings about a new, "I'll play when I feel like it" issue that has dogged Carter his entire career. The Nets certainly benefit but adding some size in Battie, potential and defence in Lee, and...street ball moves and turnovers with Alston...at least they have some insurance for Devon Harris.

The San Antonio Spurs picked up Richard Jefferson in return for aging defensive specilaist Bruce Bowen, and aging rebounder Kurt Thomas to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Detroit Pistons were in there too acquiring The Spurs needed an injection after it was evident they couldn't do it in the postseason sans Manu Ginobli, in Jefferson they definitely helped out their offence. The Bucks are clearly posturing for signings in the coming future

The Minnesota Timberwolves stockpiled the draft picks, now claiming the fourth overall pick to accompany their fifth overall pick. The trade sends Randy Foye and Mike Miller to the Washington Wizards who, with all star Gilbert Arenas returning next season, should be very much improved. The players the T-Wolves got in return with the fifth overall pick were relatively minor players (Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila and Oleksiy Pecherov), now what they do with their stockpile of high ranking lottery picks will be interesting. Many believe there will be a move made here with someone and not to expect Minnesota to draft twice.

It's never generally this active around draft day, some moves happen but not that many. However this season, with the 2010 free agent bonanza looming, these moves may not even be the last ones we see today! With talks of Detroit making a power move, Rajan Rondo getting into a verbal battle with Celtics GM Danny Ainge after being mentioned in trade talks, and Tracy McGrady being mentioned while the Rockets hope to move into the top 10, there's still plenty of time to go in the next few hours!

Generally who is taken number 1 overall is the talk of the day - this year, it's anything but the first overall selection.

A Jay a Day: Adam Dunn is a left-handed thumper, eh

The word has travelled around the block that the Blue Jays would like to get "a thumper" if they can stay in the playoff race.

GM J.P. Ricciardi dropped some hints to Jordan Bastian and FOXSports.com's man on the inside chimed in, "Club officials ... are more apt to pursue a left-handed slugger unless Travis Snider proves to be the answer. The Orioles' Aubrey Huff, Nationals' Nick Johnson and Pirates' Adam LaRoche all could fit for the Jays."

Lefty hitters have accounted for only 23% of the Jays' plate attendance, a far cry from the insanely balanced Tampa Bay Rays lineup. The need for a lefty bat is as obvious as the logic of trying Aaron Hill in the middle of the order, down in the order (Ken Rosenthal mentioned that, too) even if that's probably not happening. Vernon Wells is miscast as a cleanup hitter, as everyone knows. The Jays could better take advantage of Wells' superior baserunning if he was allowed to hit in the 2-hole.

Ken Rosenthal's latest, though, didn't mention the Washington Nationals' Adam Dunn, for reasons which are unclear. (Are riffs on Dunn not liking baseball that much still OK?) Dunn has a big deal ($10 million per), so that might make him off-limits. Anyway, it's a good jumping-off point for a discussion. The point isn't to say who the Jays should get if they're still a game out of the wild card on July 2. It's good to know who is out there.

• Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego: Mention Going, Going Gonzo once just to get it out of your system. The Padres ain't dealing.


• Aubrey Huff, Baltimore: If Huff talk starts to heat up, you will hear ad nauseam that he has always hit well at Rogers Centre (.321/.400/.546 with 14 homers in 73 games) and that he played for Tampa Bay when Jays pitcher Jesse Litsch was a batboy for the then-Devil Rays. That anecdote never gets old.
  
  Huff typically has been a better second-half hitter. The more one thinks of it, the more it might be palatable, although there is the taboo of trading within the division for three months of Aubrey Huff at-bats (he's a free agent after the season).
  
  
• Nick Johnson, Washington: He's an on-base machine with only modest power.


• Adam LaRoche, Pittsburgh: Over the past five years he's on-based .360 and slugged .548 in the second half of the season (sotto vote, in the National League), and like Johnson and Huff he's a free agent. He would not cost an arm and a leg.
  
  
• Jason Giambi, Oakland: Le snark just is be that Giambi oughta be grateful his struggles (.216/.355/.364, just six homers) are coming on a West Coast team which doesn't get much media attention. He's not as low-hanging fruit like David Ortiz.
  
  Giambi's splits are even uglier than sin (the ballpark isn't hurting his numbers, and only two of his six homers have been off righties). He's not necessarily washed up but the A's won't trade him unless he starts to hit (and he has hit .279/.366/.536 at Rogers Centre with 22 homers, more than he's hit anywhere else outside of his home parks.).
  


• Travis Hafner or Victor Martinez, Cleveland: Hey, the nine-games-under-.500 Indians aren't done yet ... wait, they are. However, Hafner is damaged goods and Martinez's flexibility as a catcher-first baseman means he's too valuable to the Clevelanders.
  


• David Ortiz, Red Sox: Just kidding. He's just in here for a cheap segue to Bill Simmons' column on the fall of Big Papi, who fallen into obsolescence faster than the Republican Party.

Damn, the Jays:

• FanGraphs can see four Jays in the All-Star game: Scott Downs, Roy Halladay, Aaron Hill and MAR-co SCU-ta-ro.


• Major reputation points to The Tao of Stieb for its Q&A with Ryan Greene, who covers the Triple-A team in Las Vegas. He had a profile of Travis Snider the other day. The player whom the FAN 590's Mike Toth intimated wasn't coachable seems pretty aware of what he needs to work on:

  "I'd say there was a period of time where I got outside of my approach and got really swing-happy, trying to hit off-speed pitches in the dirt instead of waiting for a fastball ....I think as you go through it and you start to chase those balls and you're not having the success that you want to, you start to try and change things instead of sticking with what you're doing and changing your approach."

  An uneducated guess is Snider doesn't return until after the all-star break.

Erik Bedard, hot commodity

It would be remiss to not make note of the first trade rumours of the season surrounding Erik Bedard, the Seattle Mariners pitcher from Navan, Ont., near Ottawa.

"Bedard, who is reasonably priced at $7.75 million, could enhance several rotations, including those of the Phillies, who could now lose Brett Myers for the year (which they have -- Ed.), plus the White Sox, Brewers and others.

"... Bedard, who is 3-2 with a 2.48 ERA and back to showing his immense talent after a rough initial year in Seattle, is the clear headliner."

FOXSports.com's ubiquitous Ken Rosenthal (when does that man sleep?) reported the defending World Series champion Phillies believe they have "only one move," which is to add a top-end starter.
The experts wonder if the low-key, small-town Bedard could hold up pitching in Philly, which seems like a legitimate question.

Meantime, Bedard is a top-end starter ... when he's on. He is, after all, a 30-year-old pitcher who has worked more than 190 innings only once. The numbers quoted above might have got a boost from his competition. His three wins this season are against Oakland and L.A., two of the poorer hitting teams in the American League.

He does have to be used carefully with regard to pitch counts (don't let him go past 100). However, when he had his best season with the Orioles in 2007, he was able to get a lot of ground balls, which is a prereq to pitch at the little bandbox ballpark in Philadelphia. The Phillies could do a lot worse for a trade-deadline addition.

As Peavy saga drags on, Bedard may become hot commodity (Sports Illustrated)

Raptors make their move - O'Neal, Moon swapped for Marion, Banks

All the talk has finally culminated in a move, as the Toronto Raptors have sent both Jermaine O'Neal and Jamario Moon to the Miami Heat for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks.

THE GOOD
For Toronto:
-instantly they have the best defender they've EVER had (and I mean in franchise history) in Marion so that's an improvement. Plus his expiring contract, and the very unlikely possibility he will resign with Toronto next season, allows GM Bryan Colangelo to walk around with an extra $17 million in the offseason to fill some holes/extend or resign some players.
-Banks is another Point Guard and likely one a step up from Will Solomon, so there are now more options for the back-up role when Calderon goes down. Until the play of Solomon and Roko Ukic becomes more consistent, you really need as many options as you can to choose from at that position coming off the bench (although it's likely this will spell the end to Solomon's playing time).
-with the improved play of Andrea Bargnani, finally starting to show signs of blossoming into the player Colangelo hoped he would become, O'Neal became expendable - especially with new Interim Head Coach Jay Triano's desire to pick up the pace on the Court. Toronto has just become faster.

For Miami:
-after the retirement of Alonzo Mourning they needed a presence down low and that is certainly what JO provides. and O'Neal does suit the style that Miami is playing right now, so as long as he can stay healthy and keep producing the way he has as of late this should be a happy marriage of player and team.
-Moon is a very great pick-up if for his contract alone! ($427,163 expiring this season).
-the whole salary cap thing works in Miami's favour for 2010, when they'll hope to retain all world Dwayne Wade and stop a flight to Chicago, New York or Toronto...alright I'm kidding about that last one, but man that'd be sweet!

THE BAD
For Toronto:
-Marion is injury prone, all the benefits gained thru this trade (for this season anyways) can be lost with a serious injury.
-Banks has a rather large contract ($4.75 mil for another 2 years) for a player who likely won't amount to a key contributor on this Toronto team.

For Miami:
-same-same, O'Neal is injury prone as he has also missed a number of games this season. With a team like Miami who is actually in the playoff hunt a loss like that could hurt them.
-Moon will not replace Marion, he's like the Caffeine-Free Diet Crystal Pepsi version of Shawn Marion! And he can be quite inconsistent from time to time on both ends of the court, the main reason he has lost so much time this season to Joey Graham. His contract is worth it unlike Banks, but much like Banks this isn't a player to sell the farm on.

There's issues for both teams here that may result in this trade becoming a dud, however there's also some great potential as well! Two talented former star players nursing injuries all season long with two bench players who won't change a game out there, that's what this trade amounts to. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, and if this is the start of a push or a firesale for Toronto...

Fronts: All hail president Kang (and that Tavares guy)

The diaspora in Dougie! land is fully on.

Matthew Kang, the overage forward, has been traded to the Brampton Battalion for a fourth-round pick in 2010 (and this is as close to an OOLF exclusive as it gets -- he just left the K-Rock Centre not 15 minutes ago). The gang over at the New OHL Open Forum says the Frontenacs also got the rights to overage forward John Hughes.

Loose Pucks has confirmed that the Kingston Frontenacs got 17-year-old goalie John Cullen from the Niagara IceDogs for a fifth-round pick in 2010.

Frontenacs GM-for-life Larry Mavety is aware that Hughes is playing in Austria, one would hope. He's already traded once this year for a 20-year-old player who was out of the league.

One wishes Kang all the best with Brampton, which is near the top of the Eastern Conference (and no doubt noticed that Kang had seven points in five games back in 2007, the last time Kingston was in the post-season). If he heats up at the right time, it can turn the tide in a particular game or even a playoff series. Generally, he tops out as a second-line forward on a good day, third line most of the time, but used right he can be one of the 20 finely meshed gears that comprises a good junior hockey team.

The problem with the Springer Frontenacs is that the team is run in such a way that it becomes about what a player cannot do. Kang became a Spezza-esque scapegoat since he wasn't a physical player and was a good but not great scorer. Put him in a good organization under Stan Butler and see what happens. Players perform to expectations.

As for Cullen, he could be called "Mavric II." He is at the same point that the Frontenacs one decent goalie, Mavric Parks was last season -- a 17-year-old rookie who needs a good environment to help him develop, which likely is not what he'll get in Kingston. One wonders how Parks feels. The team might be stuck on 1-2 wins instead of eight without him, and they basically hand the No. 1 job to the new guy.

That said, Cullen has potential. USA Hockey has had him on his radar, so he's not a bad pickup, notwithstanding the Frontenacs have much larger problems than goaltending. Since it involved a fifth-round pick, it's basically Cullen for Anthony Peters.

This is a patented move for Fronts GM-for-life Larry Mavety -- make a minor deal that owner Doug Springer and the local cheerleaders can point to as proof Mavety is an astute hockey man, even if it only amounts to a patching job. Meantime, you watch a player who could have been part of the solution -- if Springer had dumped Mavety a long time ago like he should have -- go off to try and win a championship someplace else.

(John Tavares is headed to London, and were we not fools to think it would have played out any other way. There is a lot of stuff on the go today, so keep an eye on Loose Pucks if you're curious who and what the Knights sent to the Oshawa Generals. It's all right here -- NHL first-rounder Michael Del Zotto was included in the deal.)

Related:
Tavares traded to London Knights (Sunaya Sapurji, Toronto Star)

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.

Zen Dayley: It's the big one, or not

The smart money seems to be saying that Manny Ramirez-to-the-Marlins speculation is the real deal (so much for the rule of the thumb that you never hear anything in advance when a big trade goes down).

Canada's own Jason Bay could be going from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Red Sox in one three-team scenario. Or not. Boston has nothing to lose trading Ramirez. They were good enough to get past an injury to David Ortiz early in the season and keep pace with the Tampa Bay Rays, so who's to say that it couldn't happen again? Theo Epstein can trade the crazy clubhouse distraction and be the toast of New England if it works, or spin it to his advantage if the Sox reprise their final-third collapse of 2006.


Besides, it's Boston. It'll be just like the effort in Ottawa to make Ray Emery the scapegoat for the Senators falling apart. It's always easier to blame the guy who marches to the beat of his own drummer, especially when he truly has worn out his welcome.

Ramirez isn't the extent of Boston's problems -- about half their lineup has stopped hitting (distraction? normal fluctuation). That change because or despite a new left fielder. They're best off to pull the trigger; with their front office and revenues, writing off this season won't mean the end of their hopes of winning another World Series title in the next five years.

Meantime, Bay playing in Fenway Park? Didn't jamiecampbell tell us not so long ago that the pride of Trail, B.C., wanted to be a Blue Jay? The Rays do have a lot to offer in their farm system, and they're desperate for a lefty-masher in their lineup, so they might have more incentive.

(Jeff Passan, who seems to be fast becoming this generation's Thomas Boswell, hit one out of the park with his column from Beantown.)
Errata

• Bless You Boys' take on the Tigers trading Iván Rodríguez, their only catcher, to the Yankees: "The Tigers better rub (Brandon) Inge with chicken bones after each game and make sure he sleeps on a cushion of dove feathers, however, because if he gets hurt again, their catching position is — how do you say — screwed."
  
  (It's somewhat astounding the Tigers trade a starter when they're 5 1/2 games out, while 250 miles to the east, another .500 team is acting like they still have a shot, in a better division.)
• It's unclear what's at the root of the story about Heisman Trophy candidate Pat White saying he chose not to play baseball at college in part because the team at West Virginia doesn't have any black players. It seems like it's about a particular coach at his school, but man, is it ever sympotomatic of how baseball has turned away from African-American athletes. In another era, White would be someone's centrefielder of the future instead of leaving would-be tacklers with tube-sock tendrils trailing from their fingernails.
• Phillippe Aumont pitched in a simulated game yesterday. Rattler Radio should have an update on the pitching prospect from Gatineau.

Damn, the Jays (but more about the Rays)

• Here's the challenge: Watch Batting Stance Guy's imitation of various Blue Jays hitters from the past 25 years with the sound turned off and try to guess which hitters he's imitating. At the very least, it will take your mind off the fact losing 2-of-3 of the Rays removes all doubt about where the Jays are headed.
  
  It's incredible how well this evil genius can evoke ballplayers who played 20 years ago (although, if you're doing a cycle of Jays hitters, how do you not do Garth Iorg, who not only had the strangest name in baseball in the '80s, but probably had the strangest, wouldn't-let-a-Little-Leaguer-do-it-in-a-million-years stance?
• Drunk Jays Fans has the takedown on Gregg Zaun for going into his little pout.
• There's no interest in starting a vendetta with Torontoist. Mom always said, dilettantes bruise the easiest. Seriously, though, is it not irritating to see the dismissive attitude toward sports? "Still unexplained: why Tampa Bay is leading the AL East."
  
  God forbid the cool kids would ever little a sports nerd into their little circle if he wasn't up on whatever's current. But since you asked: The Rays' have cut their bullpen ERA from a beyond-sucktacular 6.16 last season to a downright decent 3.48, thanks to the choice to put lefty J.P. Howell and pick up righty Dan Wheeler. Their fielding has gone from porous -- they were 71 Fielding Runs Above Average in '07, meaning they basically gave the other team the equivalent of an extra run every game to among the league's best (Evan Longoria at third, Jason Bartlett at second and Akinori Iwamura at third, short and second is a vast improvement over whoever they were running out last season).
  
  The Rays are 8-5 since the all-star break. This is no fluke.

The computer has traded menace shoes for skates

Without stepping on anyone's toes or casting aspersions on anyone's professionalism, yesterday's theory that Sens Chirp is an elaborate con might only be slightly bonkers.

The site seems to have knocked one out of the park in terms of getting an Internet meme on to the printed page. The timeline on the Anze Kopitar three-way deal rumours, which Puck Daddy has termed "hilarious," after the jump.

From Sens Chirp: Monday, July 14, 11:55 p.m.

Seemed to be a pretty steady day on the rumour front. What started out as a Neil for Barker swap had escalated into a 3 team/10 player deal by late afternoon. By the evening it seemed as though things had cooled down. At this point its really difficult to gauge exactly where the deal stands. But much of the talk remains the same. Same teams (Chicago and Ottawa) with many of the same players being discussed( Barker, Neil, Vermette).

By today, it had morphed into this report from an Ottawa daily:

According to insiders, Ottawa would trade netminder Martin Gerber and defenceman Andrej Meszaros to Los Angeles, the Kings would move 20-year-old centre Anze Kopitar to Chicago and the Blackhawks would propel goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and either of young blueliners Brent Seabrook or Cam Barker to the Senators.

Puck Daddy has already taken care of the debunking. (nhlnumbers.com, which even by its own admission isn't 100% accurate, also has Khabibulin counting for $6.75-million salary cap hit next season. It's odd a team with a salary-cap crunch like the Sens do would add a goalie making that kind of money when it already has two acceptable options under contract, but this is just coming from someone who sharpened his skills on a blog.)

The dead giveaway that this was a trap came last night night, in a post that went online at 11:12 p.m. -- after most newspapers have their sports pages dones and only make changes to correct serious errors.

The longer this goes on the more I am convinced it wont be the blockbuster some are speculating.

Who would perpetrate such a ruse?

• Someone in the Sennies' sanctum sanctorum saying, "Jump, minions, jump?" by passing on rumours and seeing what gets reported by the local press?
• A jealous journo?
• An Eklund wannabe trolling the hardest of hard-core message boards, in the same manner some people drive out to the county dump on Sunday afternoon to look for discarded treasures?
• Some ivory-tower journalism prof, who should probably just sit the hell down and be grateful to not have to deal with the real world of deadlines, editors and competing media outlets -- trying to prove some very academic point about the risk or reporting rumours?

Honestly, this post is a little motivated by the worst disease in life, jealously -- of the evil genius behind Sens Chirp, not the newspaper guys with a bigger platform. He/she is getting a bang out of it.

Just commit these words from Lyle Richardson of Spector's Hockey and to heart. You'll probably live longer:

Don't get too wrapped around the axle over the rumours, just employ your common sense and remember that 99 percent of what gets reported never happens.

Hey, maybe something happens, but until it does, go on living your life.

Update: Kukla's Korner also delivered a smackdown:

"Regarding all the rumors involving Ottawa, yes we are aware that a well known hockey forum and a hockey entertainment site had posted both Jason Williams was a Senator and Chris Neal had been traded.

"Numerous emails from KK readers asked why we did not mention them and our response was they were not true. You may not realize it, but we do have a system of checks and balances at KK, we want to keep our readers informed of what has happened in the hockey world but will not post trades or signings that DID NOT happen."

The theory that it's someone's elaborate joke still holds!

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)

But, did he see Mats Sundin in there?

A sports writer (it's two words over there) in England found that rumour mill that sports fans are always hearing about:

"It was a converted barn, far from the mill proper. Inside, suspended in a giant transparent pane -- very much like the imprisoned evil General Zod in Superman - was the huge, flattened face of want-away Aston Villa ace Gareth Barry.

" 'Our new service,' the director shrugged. "With Barry trapped here inside a purgatory of rumour and counter-rumour we can flood the market with Barry-talk, all of it authentically Barry-flavoured. Within weeks we can transform an entire career into a mind-numbingly repetitive transfer rumour. Did I tell you we had that Cristiano Ronaldo in? Very large neck muscles.'

"' This is unacceptably weird,' I cried, pounding my fist on the wall and feeling my eyes bulge like Edward Woodward in The Wicker Man. 'Gareth. I'm busting you out of here.' "

Don't feel remorse if some part of you would like to print out Barney Ronay's column and staple it to the forehead of the nearest media insider. Pick Bob McKenzie from TSN. He looks like he would be heavy sleeper.

Point being, keeping up with all the trade and free-agency scuttlebutt seems to be a quick ticket to your wit's end... Life is not one continuous news scroll across the bottom of a TV screen, so you have to laugh like hell, and feel a little empathy for the media professionals who are paid to be so super-serious about this, this minutaie. Hey, the Flames signed Todd Bertuzzi today? Whoop-de-freakin'-do, the rest of us are content to go on living our lives.

(Digression: Did Calgary Flames management figure that they better go get Bertuzzi since their team wasn't already plodding and penalty-prone enough last season? He's basically Eric Lindros during his half-season with the Leafs -- he might be listed at 240, but he plays like a buck-eighty.

Jarome Iginla is diminished in these eyes for apparently lobbying the Flames to bring in Bertuzzi. The Hockey Mafia just have to keep propping up Bertuzzi, which might keep him in the swanky hockey player lifestyle to which he and his spouse are accustomed, but probably isn't going to help him in the long run. Please go read Five Hole Fanatics' take.)

Anywho, in future columns, the intreprid Ronay will set out to locate the Missing Link, the lost city of Atlantis and Freddie Prinze Jr.'s career.

Related:
Is Barry stuck in the rumour mill? (Barney Ronay, The Guardian; via Jeff Blair)
Can't Buy Me Love (Andy Grabia, The Battle of Alberta)

Raptors swing the big deal

It appears it's a done deal between the Raptors and Indiana Pacers — all-star Jermaine O'Neal for T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, the 17th overall pick and a player to be named later.

It's a challenge trade, to be sure — the Pacers need a point guard and the Raptors, well god knows they need some jam in the low post, a tag-team partner for Chris Bosh. Ball Don't Lie figures they need another reserve big man. What does that say about Andrea Bargnani?

Know why the NBA makes teams wait to announce these trades? That's a test to see if the local sportswriter knows his principals from his principles. Ford and O'Neal are the principals in a deal that's been agreed to in principle.

Related:
Report: Raptors land Jermaine O'Neal (The Canadian Press)
O’Neal nearing trade to Toronto for Ford (Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports)