Father's Day is in 2 weeks, but don't wait!
Daryn

Very sad news. My heartfelt condolences to the Cheek family.

Probably the most touching Jays roundup I've ever read. As fun as it was to listen to Cat in the booth, I wish the situation hadn't presented itself, like everyone here. I doubt any Jays broadcaster will ever duplicate Tom's streak.

On a baseball-discussion note, JP announced yesterday on JaysTalk that he thought that Woody, Cat, Hudson, Speier and Delgado would all be healthy and ready to play on Monday. Delgado was never on the DL, so we don't need to make a roster move there, but we'd need to make four others to make space for the other four players.

I presume either Chulk or File will get sent down to make space for Speier, but the question is which one. Chulk seems to have been effective so far in his stint with Toronto, but File's been putting up good numbers at Syracuse, and you wonder if they would call him up just to give him four days with the club, or if they might not have called up Nakamura in that case, to avoid using an option on File.

We need to make space for 3 positional players when the two middle infielders and broadcaster-in-training return, so the question is how do we do that. The most obvious roster move is to send down Howie Clark, which clears up space for one of them.

I think the next point to discuss is if Rios will stick with the ballclub. I recall JP saying he's here to stay, but you wonder if his defensive lapses might make him reconsider that statement. There's no way Rios stays and doesn't play, so if he does stay up, I think he, Phelps, Cat and Johnson would enter some 4-way platoon of the two corner outfield spots and DH.

If Rios stays, I think Pond get sent down and Berg gets sent down or released, as those seem to be the only two roster moves that the Jays can make unless they want to send down two relievers, but I don't think we do with Kershner, Hentgen, Towers and Lilly all currently in the rotation, and none of them being able to go very long.

If Rios is sent down, the question becomes if they want to keep Pond up and eat Berg's contract, or let Berg stay up. My guess is that Rios stays, andneither of the two are not kept with the big league team.

I was wondering too. I don't think Rios is ready. I know that he's had better games than last night but I was groaning as he shielded his eyes while the sunnies where resting on his hat. Alex...pull your head out. The batting average is not so good and would look to be going south. I say, File gets some work this series, if he messes up he'll go down, if not, Chulk will be sent down.

The only reason Rios stays up is JP might look foolish sending him down 2 weeks after saying he was going to stick. I pray that Berg is jettisoned. I think that Clark will gone too. I think it's easier to send Pond down but I can't see Rios lasting the rest of the season in the majors. The guy's playing right field like it was beer league.

I think you may be confused how players 'options' works. Rob Neyer has a great column called transactions premier that explains it well.

I think there is a good chance Aquilina Lopez will be the pitcher sent down.

you wonder if they would call him up just to give him four days with the club, or if they might not have called up Nakamura in that case, to avoid using an option on File.

IIRC, I believe options are just based on service time and not a specific number of callups. If you have options you can be called up and sent down an unlimited number of times.

I used to think it was limited just based on how it sounds.

I hadn't thought about Lopez, but that's a good point. He's a candidate as well, even if his pitching has improved somewhat of late.

I remember reading Neyer's transacation primer once, and thinking to myself that it helped clarify a few things, however, it appears I've forgotten the relevant parts then. I was under the impression young players had a certain amount of options, one of which was used each time they were removed from the 25-man roster, but I also know that years themselves figure into there somehow, and its not that simple.

If anybody wants to post the relevant sections of the article, that'd be great.

If I were doing things and I had balls, I'd say goodbye to DLS, Berg, Pond, Rios (not enough at bats) and Clark - once DLS and Berg are removed from the 40 I add Bernard to be the 4th outfielder.

"Options"
After three years as a pro, a player must be protected on a team's 40-man roster, or he is eligible for the Rule 5 draft (more on that later). Once he's served those three years, and assuming he is added to the 40-man roster, his club then has what are called "options" on him.

When a player is on the 40-man roster but not on the 25-man Major League roster, he is on "optional assignment." One common misconception about the rules is that a player may only be "optioned out" three times. Actually, each player has three option years, and he can be sent up and down as many times as the club chooses within those three seasons.

When you hear that a player is "out of options," that means he's been on the 40-man roster during three different seasons, beginning with his fourth as a pro, and to be sent down again he'll have to clear waivers

I think that guys like File will get a chance because the bullpen is one area that I can see the Jays trading away. You might as well get a look at Chulk and File and others before deciding who's expendable in the pen. I think Chulk has succeeded and JP will be happy to trade a RH reliever. Are Adams, Lightenberg, DLS etc tradable is another story.

Since this is a pretty cost concious club. Here are the dollar figures to keep in mind while discussing which relievers are or are not tradeable:

Ligtenberg: $4.5 million / 2yrs
Adams: $1.7 million / 1yr
Speier: $1.6 million / 1yr
DLS: $850K / 1yr
Kershner: $315K
Lopez: $318K
Nakamura, Frasor, Chulk: ??

I would think that looking at this, JP would be happy to see Ligtenberg gone by the deadline.

I would think only DLS and Kershner would draw interest being LH and cheap. A team like the Angels (who I don't belive have a LH in the pen) could be a possibility.

For the only guy the Jays committed to, Lightenberg is not getting much action. I have no idea how things work, but I wonder if Tosca will be told to run Lightenberg out on an increasing basis as the trade dealine approaches to showcase him.

A team like the Angels (who I don't belive have a LH in the pen) could be a possibility.

With Donnelly eventually coming back, further adding to an already deep bullpen, I think that if Anaheim were to add a lefty -- which I think they eventually will, especially with post-season in mind -- that it would be a classic (and proven) LOOGY, someone to face a Chavez or Giambi and then leave the game. While this would certainly contradict their concept of building a pen with no-names from nowhere (KRod may have been the only true prospect of the lot), I would guess that would be the route they would go given the very narrow and high leverage requirements of the job.

How come Jays wins don't result in Nudity in the Streets of Toronto?

*sigh*

How come Jays wins don't result in Nudity in the Streets of Toronto?

Coz nobody wants to see Craig Burley dance around nekkid?

I think there maybe a problem in assuming the Jays want to deal Ligtenberg in the first place. To do so, JP would be admitting that Ligtenberg's contract was a mistake in the first place, in my opinion. Kerry's walked more than he did last year, but other than that he's been about the pitcher you'd have expected him to be based on his old statistics. Viewing those, JP gave him the contract he did. Perhaps he added in the second year to get Ligtenberg to come to Toronto and perhaps he knew he was overpaying him, even then. Regardless, he knew he'd have Ligtenberg for two years, in a time when most relievers are only getting one-year contracts, and I believe Kerry's offers were mostly for one year, aside from Toronto's.

A team is never going to net much trading a reliever at the deadline, unless he is a stud. Furthermore, the Jays may have to drop their price based on Kerry's guaranteed second year. I don't see whatever prospect(s) we might net for Ligtenberg justfiying whatever salary we've paid him so far, considering how cost conscious our ballclub is.

In my mind, unless JP's thoughts have changed on our plans for next year, the market for relievers or Ligtenberg himself, I don't see why he'd trade him, based on the original contract in the first place.

Thomas makes excellent points.

I'd add that the earlier and more eagerly a team flips players that signed multi-year free agent deals, the less attractive the organization becomes as a city and a team to commit to when several clubs are vying for a player's services. This will be especially important if the Jays have $18.5M to play with next year. Would you sign with a team that would trade you to the first team to offer a solid AA prospect, provided that you or the team aren't living up to expectations in early June?

Players around the league will notice if the Jays show patience and faith in Kerry's ability to bounce back.

A team is never going to net much trading a reliever at the deadline, unless he is a stud.

Or unless he's Larry Andersen. :-) Thomas is quite right, though -- there's little motivation to deal Ligtenberg, there's little need and there's very little market for journeymen righthanders.

I hadn't been aware of this story until today but according to ESPN, Al Clark (former AL umpire) has been sentenced to 4 months in prison and 4 months of house arrest after pleading guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges. The charges relate to a scheme that where he provided MLB baseballs he falsely labelled and authenticated as game-used from historic moments (Nolan Ryan's 300th W, Doc Gooden's no-no in '96, etc).
The largest sum of money obtained for a baseball was over $7,000.

I didn't realize that Brendan Donnelly pitched for Syracuse (badly) for parts of 1999 and 2000.

Again, Adams has to be considered the most attractive trade option. He's played in big markets and has performed well in the past in swing roles, starting and relieving. I figure the team knows better now than to put him in any pressure situations; use him in a 7th/8th inning role to let him recover his numbers (fatten him up before market day).

I remember his 2001 season with the Dodgers also started off miserably. Once they were out of the race, he was in the rotation. He built up solid starting numbers that translated into his multi-year FA deal with the Phillies.

It's great to have a choice of which players to keep and which to send down, as opposed to playing any warm body who is healthy.

Oh, and condolences to Tom Cheek and his family.