I still can't get it into my head that this isn't Johan's third Cy award.  It's just that ... how did he lose last year?  There are some things in baseball I will never understand, and most of them revolve around the people who write about it.

Regardless of the award, Johan has, in my opinion, been the best pitcher in the AL for three straight seasons.  How many people in the history of MLB have lead the league in ERA+ three years in a row? 

There's Grove 29-32, Seaver 69-71, Clemens 90-92,  Maddux 92-95, Unit 99-02, and now Santana 04-06.

Pedro, Johnson and Mathewson all came very close, but as far as I can tell, these are the only six pitchers to accomplish this feat.  Pretty damn fine company, I'd say!

According to boston.com:

Former Red Sox shortstop Alex Gonzalez has received a three-year $15 million deal from an undisclosed team.

Major League sources indicate that the team could be either the Chicago White Sox, who are looking for an alternative to Juan Uribe, or the Cincinnati Reds. The Red Sox did not make an offer, nor did the Toronto Blue Jays, who also covet Gonzalez.

After Lugo and Agon, there is absolutely NO ONE to play SS. It's gonna be a secondbasemen.

Don't know who JP is gonna get for SP, and I hope he gets Zaun at a reasonble price rather then crappy hitting and overrated Barajas. Will his slowness and sub 300 OBP hurt this already slow and powerful team or what?

Mlbtraderumours.com mentiones that the Indians will be making a bid on Japanese pitcher Kei Igawa. If they do acquire him, they will be six deep in their rotation.

I know they have a little more money to spend this offseason, but in lieu of Paul Byrd's up and down 2006, I wonder if they would be willing to trade him and take on some of that contract. I think it's definitely an opportunity the Jays should explore.

I think Jason Phillips is a better hitter then Barajas anyway. His career OBP is 40 points higher and thats what matter. The logic is get the good hitting DH, and the SS and C don't have to hit. Thus, OBP is a virtue in these spots...and Barajas career a big hole in the lineup. But they can platoon I guess.  Defensively Barajas is a little better. Phillips had a .192 a couple of years ago in a full year, which is pretty bad...but that was in the NL which was probably a lot faster.

I think its the pitching that are the big question marks. Does JP dare and not sign anyone????

Blech. its 2:50 AM.

-Barajas has a .280 career OBP.
-Phillips had a .192 throwing base runners out rate (approximately).

If rumours are correct and it is the ChiSox pitching to Gonzalez, maybe the Jays can trade for Uribe. He isn't great, but he should also come cheap.

I'm not expecting a lot of you gents to be in agreement with me on this one, but never mind the bollocks...heres an idea!

Trade Reed.

Sign Juan Pierre.

*waits for tomatoes to be thrown his way*

Juan Pierre has exactly two skills: he can hit singles and can run fast. He doesn't draw walks, he doesn't hit for power, he doesn't throw well and he's a mediocre defender (despite his speed).

For that wonderful package, someone will no doubt be paying him $10M to be their "legitimate" leadoff hitter, since that's what he kinda, sorta looks like if you squint hard and turn your head to the side a bit.

He's definitely Cub material and I don't know what's taking them so long to re-sign him. Of course, he's also the type of  player the Orioles covet (overpaid, not very good) so could wind up there.

Pierre is likely to be poor value.  He is an interesting case study, though.  Here are his THT stats. The last 2 years, his line-drive rate has been good and with his speed, you'd think that he would be able to do better than a BABIP of .300.  He's like Lance Johnson or Ozzie Smith (as a hitter).  Just a little push and he could be a good hitter, as he was in 2003-04.  I wonder if he would do better on turf, but nothing in his park splits indicates that he would.

Rotoworld says Juan Pierre was offered a three year deal for $30 million by San Francisco. How ridiculous is that?

I certainly like the idea of trading Johnson, but only for starting pitching. 

Johnson:  Selling high.
Chacin:  Selling high.  He's currently a 23-14 starting pitcher with a 4.05 ERA who's controlled for four more years.  Not counting last fall, he'll never have higher trade value in my opinion.  And my opinion was that he should have been traded last fall.  (He has arm problems that will probably get worse and his peripherals suggest he's overachieved thus far.  He's more suited to the bullpen anyway, since he gets smoked 3rd time through the lineup and is average at best the 2nd time through.)
Adams:  Selling low.

I was checking rotoworld, and it looks like in addition to a WhiteSox pitcher and Angels pitcher, a Braves pitcher (possibly Hudson) may also be available via trade, as well as possibly Westbrook and Jennings.

Apparently three AL East teams have asked about Tomo Ohka.

Apparently three AL East teams have asked about Tomo Ohka.

Why?

The guy was 4-5 with an ERA near 5 and not terribly pretty peripherals. He's a fifth starter on his best day.

Buehrle would be a tremendous addition. He would be superior as a third - or perhaps second - starter and would give the Jays a formidable rotation 1-3, and his left-handedness would complement Halladay and Burnett nicely. I like the idea of Burnett and his tremendous, but unpredictable, stuff following in the rotation someone who is a bit of a crafty lefty. A threesome of Halladay, Buehrle, and Burnett in a series, in that order, would be hell on opposing hitters.

Of course, the problem with Buehrle is that Kenny Williams is no doubt asking the world for him, and JP isn't likely to be willing to trade any of the team's major league assets (besides Reed and/or Chacin, neither of whom could net Buehrle).

If the White Sox go in a different direction at shortstop, then picking up Juan Uribe could be an excellent short term solution. I've followed him closely over the last few years (a holdover on my fantasy squad) and while there are certainly big concerns about his OBP, he has significant power for a shortstop, and if he bounces back to even a .300 OBP, he will be a huge upgrade over Adams or McDonald.   Also, my recollection from the 2005 playoffs is that he is an excellent defender.  Do the numbers back this up?

I am not sure what it would take to get Uribe--does anyone have any thoughts? Would a bigger trade for Uribe plus some pitching be a possibility? I doubt that the Jays have enough young talent to get a SS and a pitcher from the Pale Hose, without giving up Rios or Lind. If they had any interest in Purcey, I wouldn't be averse to giving him up, along with Adams and something else, but 3 dimes for 2 quarters isn't usually the kind of trade Kenny Williams makes.

Uribe is, depending on the metric one looks at, in the above average to very good range defensively.  My guess is that he'd slide in at the top of that range. 

Buehrle is an interesting pitcher.  He has just had an off-season, and his decline was no fluke.  His K rate was way off.  On the other hand, he's been a very good pitcher over his career to date- much better than Burnett was prior to his surgery.  Buehrle's age 27 comps are pretty damn good, and if you believe the ERA+ he's been better than any of them. Given the Sirotka history with Kenny Williams, "due diligence" has a special meaning for a team wanting to acquire Buehrle this off season. 

Kei Igawa, a lefty starter, has been posted by Hanshin. He's an interesting pitcher, who could very well post an ERA in the 3.8-4.4 range in the American League.  Here are his numbers through 2005 courtesy of the Baseball Cube. Here are incomplete numbers from 2006.

ESPN.com has a little more detail on the contract: 

Thomas gets a $9.12 million signing bonus that is payable January, a $1 million salary next year and $8 million in 2008. The deal includes a $10 million vesting option for 2009 that would become guaranteed if Thomas has 1,000 plate appearances in the next two seasons or 525 plate appearances in 2008.

Payroll games!

With the signing bonus Thomas will count for $5.56 million on the books next year and $12.56 million in 2008.

I was surprised that the PAs were so high.  I thought it might be in the 400 range.  Vernon Wells averaged 4.4 PAs this year.  So using that Thomas would need to average 114 games over 2 years or 120 games in 2008 to get the option picked up.  (And it'll likely be more than that since the Jays are more likely to pinch run for Thomas than Wells.)  If he hits that another one year deal would be likely anyway.

Are there any catchers over in Japan who we can bid on?

Sadly, that market might actually bare more fruit than the current one if we don't resign Zaun.

There are really no catchers that have any significant offensive ability available in Japan right now.  With the arrival of Kenji Johjima, the two best offensive catchers are Yomiuri Giants' Shinnosuke Abe and Chiba Lotte Marines' Tamoya Satozaki who started at catcher for Japan during the WBC.  Abe is a below average defensive catcher but a decent hitter while Satozaki is slightly above average in both.  There are quite a few excellent defensive catchers in Japan but like here, they can't hit at all.  Quite a few of them hit in the low .200s.

I actually have followed Igawa for many years... he's got great stuff but he has had issues with attitude, focus and preparation.  Would I take a chance on him at 10% of the posting price of Matsuzaka?  Yes... because he's wanted to pitch in the bigs as long as Matsuzaka has.

And please... don't call Matsuzaka D-Mat.  Baka.

An interesting thing, the Star lists their estimates of Jay salaries for 2007 and has John McDonald at $800k.  Why on earth would you even tender him a contract if you thought you'd have to pay that much for a no-hit good-field shortstop?  McDonald is worth the major league minimum and that is it.  1/2 a million could be saved to use towards something else. 

Jason Phillips at $600k?  Seems odd too as he was a AAA player who had a few games as a ML backup who should be at or near the ML minimum as well.  Between him and McDonald you could free up almost $1 million by replacing with ML minimum AAAA players who might actually be better players.

At first I was going 'gulp' also to Scott Downs at $1 million but given how pitching is going this winter he is worth it.  After all he had a 100+ ERA+ the last two years over 171 IP total.  He is no starter (9.39 ERA in 5 starts last year, much like good ol' Towers) but a solid left handed reliever who can spot start (he did have a 4.30 ERA in 13 starts in 2005 - gotta love those splits at BaseballReference.com eh?) would probably get $5 million in this.

Towers and his $2.9 the Jays just wish someone would take off their hands in the Rule 5 draft but somehow I seriously doubt that will happen.  He did pitch well in the 2nd half - 3.52 ERA .... OK, forgot to mention that was over 7 2/3 IP  In Tampa Bay he had a 2.25 ERA so maybe they'll take him.

I think Jason Phillips could be a platoon catcher easily. He's a better hitter then Barajas, and would be more then an adequate back-up to Zaun.

Good article by Blair in today's Globe and Mail. He reiterates that Hill will be playing short next season which makes sense because there's more second basemen on the market than shortstops this year. He speculates that the Jays have $ 90-95 million to spend and JP's #1 target is Ted Lilly

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061117.wspt-blair-17/GSStory/GlobeSports

With the rumors circulating that Alex Gonzalez is close to signing a 3-year deal for $5 million per year, it makes Johnny Mac, at $800,000, look like a bargain.  Wow.

Allan Ryan of the Toronto Star wrote something today that I found interesting.  He said J.P. was looking for a #3 starter, a middle infielder, an experienced bullpen arm, and a 4th outfielder.  I guess I just assumed that if Johnson and Wells weren't traded that Lind and Johnson would platoon, and Johnson would become something of a super 4th outfielder.  Even if they wanted Lind to get AB's in AAA, there are other in-house options for a 4th outfielder.  I sometimes jump to conclusions, but perhaps J.P. is looking at 4th outfielders incase a possible trade involving Johnson or Wells was discussed at the meetings and it comes to fruition in December.  Who knows, but it's fun to speculate.  I love this time of year, I think I've written up 45 potential lineups and 50 rotations.

Even if they wanted Lind to get AB's in AAA, there are other in-house options for a 4th outfielder.

Who?

I actually have followed Igawa for many years... he's got great stuff but he has had issues with attitude, focus and preparation.  Would I take a chance on him at 10% of the posting price of Matsuzaka?  Yes... because he's wanted to pitch in the bigs as long as Matsuzaka has.

Imagine that.  A lefty with issues of attitude, focus and preparation.  I am not familiar with such a creature!  Perhaps a trip across the ocean to "The Promised Land" (mister, I aint no boy, I am a man) is just the cure for what ails him.  Thanks, Elijah.

One SS off the market:  Alex Gonzalez to the Reds for 3 years, $14 million.

And please... don't call Matsuzaka D-Mat.  Baka.

Here I thought you were offering "Baka" as the actual nickname.

Then I looked it up.