Zen Dayley: Rios' release is a payoff kvetch

Saying something is hard really is code for wanting an easy way out, hardly a human failing.

The cynical, snarky response to the hue-and-cry over the Rogers Jays letting Alex Rios go was, "Too bad they don't have a 21-year-old outfield prospect who has popped 14 extra-base hits in his last 45 at-bats in Triple-A. Wait, they do!" That is rather insufficient, on some people.

It is understandable why jettisoning Rios was upsetting to Jays followers. No talk of financial flexibility or how much God's Gift of Sunshine, Travis Snider, is smacking the ball around in Las Vegas is going to brighten the picture immediately, especially for a lower-revenue team. Rios getting the ax is a splinter under the fingernail.

It's right to be irrational and kvetch about the salary dump, for a day or two. There is no reason to buy a full-priced Rogers Jays ticket for the duration of this season, although there are the 20,000-30,000 diehards who keep turning out. The lone reasons to attend a game are to watch Roy Halladay and Ricky Romero pitch or throw support to the Tampa Bay Rays (who come to Rogers Centre Aug. 24-26).

If that smacks of being fair-weather, so be it. Being a sports fan is not supposed to be exceedingly difficult. It is supposed to be fun. Only a deranged few, guilty as charged, get their jollies peeling back the onion and trying to understand the how and why of a team being only-OK when people's vanity and egotism demands awesome. The rank-and-file have enough on their plates. Adding the burden of being emotionally involved with a ballclub which is trying to mow the lawn with a pair of fingernail clippers by playing in the AL East is a little much to ask.

"Toronto is not Cleveland, with its budget problems, Pittsburgh, with an organizational model that has been a complete failure, Kansas City, which is awful but still wastes money on second-tier journeymen who don't know how to win, or San Diego, which will check out of the contending business for the next couple of years until its farm system improves. Toronto's problem is that it is a good team in the wrong division. 'Good isn't enough,' Ricciardi said. 'You have to be great.' "

Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated, Aug. 4

In that regard, The Tao was nails for saying, "Then there is the 'fan' in us, who is totally irrational and has spent roughly about a thousand hours over the past couple of years irrationally feeding into the hopes and dreams and misery and agony of Jays fans through this very blog. And that part of us is really finding it difficult to root, root, root for the home team's corporate ownership's bottom line."

That is where good friend Dan Rowe got the idea of terming Rogers' approach to its holdings "uninterested ownership." (Jan. 18, 2008). There is scarcely little rebuttal. Jeff Blair's column was spot on: There is every reason to believe Rogers is trying to sell the team. It probably ties in with their NFL ambitions, since that league dictates that owners cannot own teams in another sport.

There is stability with having a corporate owner. Stability is close to stagnation and stasis in the dictionary. The playoffs are a pipe dream with the current ownership and divisional alignment, but the unknown could be worse unless Jim Balsillie is a secret Seamhead.

Within the past couple months, greater minds such as Ottawa residents Howard Bloom of Sports Business News and Pete Toms of The Biz of Baseball have each voiced some variation of "baseball is dead and dying in Toronto." Pete's point is supported by sociologist Reginald Bibby's findings that only one in 10 Canadian teens follows Major League Baseball, down from one in three in the early 1990s.

Rogers can sense the break of the waves. It might well believe Blue Jays baseball is being affected by what Business Week calls the "incredible shrinking Boomer economy" or has run its course as a consumer product in Canada. (That might not necessarily be right.) Stephen Brunt recently related the story about when the late Ted Rogers wanted to invest in wireless. The vote among his company's directors was however many opposed against one in favour, but Rogers was the one in favour. Now you know the rest of the story.

They might have decided to punt, the way so many Buffalo Bills possessions end. The fact the aforementioned Rays might be before to trade leadoff man extraordinaire Carl Crawford (Jonah Keri, SI.com) is an indication that baseball has swung back toward the unfair system it had in the late 1990s.

That being said, talk about the Jays being headed down the same path as the late and lamented Montreal Expos is a bit much. For that to happen, there needs to be a viable market for relocation. MLB already has one lame-duck franchise, the Oakland Athletics, which cannot move.

Toronto is stuck with a stadium no one likes, a corporate owner who does not seem to care and a stacked deck for a division. People can hardly be blamed for begging out of the situation.

As for Rios, the player was often accused of being a no-brainer. It remains to be seen with the move. Baseball Prospectus and Game of Inches thought the White Sox must be out of their minds for taking on Rios' contract. FanGraphs thought it was a steal for Chicago. Walk-Off Walk pointed out if you want to blame anyone, blame Paul Godfrey and Vernon Wells:

"Ricciardi's hand was forced because Rios' talents could not fully shine when an even larger bag of waste was blocking up the dollar flow. Blue Jays CF Vernon Wells is owed almost $100 million before 2014, at which point he'll be 35 and have a mailbox clogged with AARP junk mail. In a move reminiscent of Sophie's Choice, J.P. was stuck choosing between the two big OF contracts and ended up giving up the more attractive one. If Wells wasn't around, Rios could rotate into center. But Wells will be around, jingling the pocket change from his Albert Belle-esque contract without the Albert Belle-esque production."

Bottom line, the anger over Rios is understandable, but misdirected. Whether the Jays pried a player loose from Chicago is irrelevant. Since Kate Hudson was at Monday's Jays-Yankees game, you at least wish they could have got $50 and a case of Heineken, like in Almost Famous, but would people really feel any different if Dayan Viciendo was now in the Jays system? No, they wouldn't. No one wanted to hear about the players whom J.P. Ricciardi got in return for Scott Rolen. Try to be consistent, please.

The point is the obvious, it was right to give into emotion for a while. It's a little rich to start being doom-and-gloom and always blame Ricciardi, who is out the door in October. At the end of the day, the desire is to always want Major League Baseball in Canada, in the worst way. Hopefully that's not the way you'll start getting it in Toronto.

Saturdays with Stieb: Imaginary baseball is getting painfully real

One of us is owner of the the all-time Toronto Blue Jays team — the ATJs — in the Seamheads Historical League., So, how about those Blue Jays?

It's tight-collar time in T-Dot as July beckons.

The All-Time Jays' division lead has been cut to two games coming into a three-game home series with the Arizado D-Rocks — "four-pointers," to borrow a term from hockeyheads calling into the FAN 590 use just to push Mike Wilner's buttons. The somnolent Seattle Mariners, led by Edgar Martinez, Ken Phelps ("They kept saying, 'Ken Phelps, Ken Phelps' ") and others are also threatening to make it interesting.

At 39-28, the All-Time Jays have the best record of any of the expansion teams, and that two sub.-500 clubs are in first place in the other expansion groups. Still, there's a whole lot of frettin' and fussin', like there was back in the early 1990s when people called for Cito Gaston to be fired on a nightly basis while has was coolly guiding the Jays to back-to-back titles.

The blame has to fall on the ATJs general manager, who recently defended his decision not to get Dave Winfield based on his one season in Toronto as a 39-year-old DH) for his right-field problem by saying, "Do you know the guy doesn't even like baseball that much? Maybe we know some things about him that you don't." He later explained that in classic Sagerian knowitall fashion, he just trying to point out that the Hall of Famer played college basketball and was once drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. Not a lot of people know that.

The big snag has come on the mound. The staff ERA has ballooned like a blogster's waistline, all the way to 4.51. The 1-2 punch of Roger Clemens (5.17 ERA in June) and Roy Halladay (9.43 for the month, losing all four of his starts) have taken some body blows, possibly from overwork.

The SHL's 154-game season includes a lot of scheduled off-days. The effort to squeeze as many starts out of the top three of Doc and Dumber, along with left-hander Jimmy Key, appears to have left them plumb tired.

The rotation has been shuffled in a vain attempt to address the situation; from this point forward, a strict five-man rotation is in use. David Wells and A.J. Burnett have been summoned from Triple-A Las Vegas. It took 25 U.S. marshals to get Wells away from the craps table, but in his second start since being brought up (he refuses to call going from Las Vegas to Toronto as a "promotion"), he shut out the Milwaukee Brewers on three hits. Key and Dave Stieb have more or les picked up the slack, winning 5-of-6 decisions between them in June, while middle reliever Scott Downs is doing yeoman's work.

Actually, Stieb hasn't. The namesake of the best Jays blog going has a 5.96 ERA but somehow has a 7-3 record, usually because he's matched up against the dregs (relatively speaking) of the other team's rotation. The Jays have scored at least nine runs in five of his past seven starts, a little ironic considering he was always known as the pitcher who could never win 20 games. (Remember 1985, when he won the ERA title, but had just a 14-13 record?)

Naturally, Stieb was on the mound June 18 for a 26-3 curb-stumping of the New York Mets, when the ATJs pounded out 33 hits. All nine starters, including the one-time Southern Illinois Salukis outfielder who converted to pitching, had at least two hits. Stieb went 3-for-6 with two doubles.

That was a ray of sunshine in otherwise cloudy month. The ballclub is scoring a lot of runs (367, sixth in the league), but the hitting has been peaks-and-valleys. The corner spots have been hit-and-miss. The infield corners are getting it done, more or less. Carlos Delgado is leading the SHL in OPS (1.070), on-base percentage (.432), slugging (.632) and isolated power (.304). Across the diamond, lefty-masher Troy Glaus (five of his six dingers have been off portsiders) and the original professional hitter Rance Mulliniks are providing adequate production.

The outfield spots, not so much. The SHL version of Alex Rios (.273/.294/.439) has some pop in his bat, but has no clue how to control the strike zone (seven bases on balls, 50 strikeouts). George Bell has been busted down to platoon status in the left field. He's been bumped out by switch-hitting Devon White, who playing centrefield vs. right-handed pitchers, is OPSing 1.104 in June with five homers on the month.

Leadoff man Lloyd Moseby is moving between two positions and is still on pace to score 120 runs.

It promises to be bumpy, but it's provided some great brain candy over the past few months. A few highlights from the recent games:

Ill Devo: Putting White in the starting lineup up felt like a masterstroke after his two-run, walk-off homer in a 5-4 win over the Marlins-Rays on June 12. It also cut the Florida version of A.J. Burnett out of a victory, as an added bonus.

Caught napping: For some reason, the computerized ATJs manager is more notorious than John Gibbons was for overworking his starters. The Angels' 7-6, 14-inning win on June 21 looks like it would have caused our inner geek to drop-kick at least three inanimate objects across the living room.

Clemens was at 127 pitches and had a 6-2 lead going into the last of the ninth, but was left in for God knows what reason. Two singles and a four-pitch walk loaded the bases. Normally reliable Tom Henke came in and induced two tension-abating popouts, but then Mike Napoli (who has better numbers in the SHL than in real life) ripped a game-tying grand slam.

Napoli, a catcher no less, later tripled and scored the winning run in the 14th. Having the opposing catcher leg out a triple was a perfect capper to a dismal night all around, especially since in the 13th, White was thrown out trying to steal third and Moseby made an out after swinging on a 3-0 pitch.

Call goes out for Carter: Bell has been so bad that as of this moment, he's been sent to Triple-A, with Joe Carter catching the red-eye. Carter was shipped out early in the season and has been raking, with 11 homers and 42 RBI in 53 Triple-A games; he's even managed to draw 15 bases on balls.

This actually happened: Downs has earned two wins in a four-day span, which means he'll probably soon feel a twinge in his elbow like his real-life counterpart. On June 22, he pitched a shutout 10th and 11th in a 4-2 extra-inning win over the Angels. Three days later, he was in the right place at the right time in a 9-8 decision where Moseby hit a game-winning homer off Willie Hermandez in the bottom of the eighth inning.

That came on the eve of the big series vs. the D-Rocks. If you believe momentum exists in baseball, feel free to believe the ATJs have some.

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)

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.