Late last night, I tuned in to ESPN's Baseball Tonight on my new cable, as provided by my friendly neighbourhood monopolist, Time Warner Manhattan. Following the Jays' highlights, Harold Reynolds and Bobby Valentine riffed on the club.
Reynolds said that Doc was "definitely this year's Cy Young," and Bobby V said "Hands down, Roy Halladay wins the Cy. He'd probably win it in both leagues." I have no love for Esteban, of course, but somewhere Loaiza was probably yelling, "I'm standing right here!" The erstwhile Rangers and Mets manager compared the Doc to Steve Carlton -- the kind of guy against whom you concede his game when you think about an upcoming series. "As a manager, I'm thinking we're going to score ten runs this series -- we got five yesterday and we'll get the other five tomorrow. Can't count on any today, though."
Valentine then talked through a montage of highlights from the 10-1 blowout yesterday, and concluded his thoughts as follows: "You've got Carlos Delgado, Vernon Wells and Roy Halladay -- all special players -- and you're three games above .500. It's a real shame that more wasn't done with that team."
Maybe Bobby missed the memo, but the Jays are building, a work in progress. As Coach has pointed out on several occasions, the Jays have little payroll flexibility thanks to one of the aforementioned special three. Would Valentine prefer that the Jays acquired the likes of Ugueth Urbina or Ruben Sierra?
But there is an interesting point implicit in his comment. Many of us here at the Box have been conceiving of the Jays' forthcoming glory days in a post-Delgado universe. Is that the wrong way to look at the team's expected opportunity to compete? If the Jays plan on losing Delgado after next year, can it be that next year might present the best window in the near future to make a bit of a run at the postseason -- while they still have arguably the game's most feared first baseman?
So, I'd like to offer readers a chance to "Choose Your Own Adventure: The Trouble With Talent." Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make the following five decisions in a way that will maximize the number of playoff appearances the Jays make between 2004 and 2008. Ideally, your team will make the playoffs all five years, but don't count your team out of '05-'08 by thinking too much about the short term.
Choice One: Delgado
Imagine Carlos' agent comes to you and says, "We'll take the following hometown discount: 3 years, $45M, blanket no-trade. We'll structure it 12/15/18 if you want, and we're willing to discuss deferring money further if you're reasonable."
Do you sign him? Let him go? Propose a shorter or longer contract? Assume that he won't waive his no-trade in any event until July '04, and that he won't promise that he'd be willing to do even that.
Choice Two: The Outfield/DH
Vernon's signed through '07. But there's still Kielty, Gross, Rios, Griffin, Phelps...not to mention Cat and the Sparkplug.
Who gets called up, and when? Who's trade bait?
Choice Three: Middle Infield
Hudson, Adams and Hill. Can any of them play short in the majors? As for second base, defensive stats are dubious...but Hudson's are awesome. Do you shop him again anyway?
Choice Four: Rotation
Do you wait on the kids? Do you open up the wallet and acquire a star, either by trade or free agency? Do you search for undervalued talent? And whither Kelvim?
Choice Five: Bullpen
Who's worth keeping from the current crew? Assuming that the Jays will never break the bank on relievers, what's the type of pitcher the Jays should be looking to acquire to shape up the club's top weakness? Or is the answer within the organization?
Choose wisely.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030728123703999