A group of fans summed up the feelings of a frustrated Jays Nation during last Friday's game against Seattle at the Dome.
Eight days later, their wish was granted. J.P. Ricciardi's 8 year tenure as general manager comes to a bitter end.
I am wishing for a super wealthy Canadian with lots of free time to buy the Toronto Blue Jays. Heck, he doesn't even need to have lots of free time. Just lots and lots of money.
Mr.Balsillie, i'm looking at you.
I'm watching the last game of the year on MASN because no Canadian network is carrying it, and it's interesting to hear other announcers discuss the Jays. Jim Palmer is impressed with Ricky Romero's season and expects he could be even better next year. Palmer noted that Ricky has gotten more DP groundballs than any other pitcher in the league. He is also amazed at how Wells is trying to "jerk" everything and noted that he has only 16 hits to RF all season.
See you all next spring. Enjoy the winter. (Yeah, right.)
So, we now know that the Jays will pick 11th overall in next year's draft, but where will their compensatory picks (for the unsigned players they drafted in the 1st round and 2nd round in the 2009 draft) fall?
If the Jays do let Scutaro and Barajas walk, and they trade Halladay, they're looking at a HUGE haul of prospects in a short time, with the potential for 2 first round picks, 2 supplemental first round picks, and if I'm not mistaken, 3 second round picks in the 2010 draft, plus at least 1 "A" prospect and and couple of slightly lesser prospects for Halladay. Wow. They might actually be good again in 2015! In the meantime, I hope for a strike or a lockout in 2011. I love this game but a lot of changes are needed, starting with the laughable slot system in place now.
I was watching the MLB Network a little this weekend and I'm curious to see what the Jays do with Halladay. After they announced the JP firing, they had stated that the when the Phillies were negotiating with the Jays for Halladay, JP was pushing that if they took Roy, they also had to take Vernon Wells as a throw in to move salary. I'm not sure if that is true or not, but they seemed to indicate that was the reason a deal did not get done at the deadline.
It's funny how the online community of Jays fans and the offline community come to the same conclusion via alternate routes. It seemed that the Fire JP movement went into a new level during the trade deadline with the idea of trading Doc, which would be the prudent thing to do if you can get a decent return. Yet for me the most troubling memories will be his inability to timely release veterans with nothing left (Stewart, Millar, Dellucci, Mench, Wilkerson), silly money decisions (John McDonald contract, paying Bautista a 2.5M bonus for being on the Opening Day roster when Inglett is just a right handed Bautista and costs <1M).
Now, even though the time was right for Ricciardi to move on, I do have to acknowledge that it was the start of his tenure that got me back going to games and really interested in the team on a day to day basis. And if I recall correctly, this place also got started around a similar time. So maybe it wasn't all that bad.
Jim Palmer is impressed with Ricky Romero's season and expects he could be even better next year. Palmer noted that Ricky has gotten more DP groundballs than any other pitcher in the league. He is also amazed at how Wells is trying to "jerk" everything and noted that he has only 16 hits to RF all season.
That's an interesting stat about Vernon. He's always been a heavy pull hitter, but that number seems quite low, even for him.
See you all next spring. Enjoy the winter. (Yeah, right.)
Hey, there's still playoff baseball to watch before the misery of winter, including an exciting one-game playoff for the AL Central title.
Indeed. Speaking of playoff baseball, I'm rooting for the Angels this year. I think the outpouring of feeling for Adenhart, particularly since his teammates only knew him as a green rookie, makes for a situation a disinterested fan can get behind.
Obviously, the Yankees and Red Sox are immediately eliminated from consideration. So too whatever joke of a division winner emerges in Tuesday's one-game playoff. The Phillies and Cardinals (like the Red Sox) have more recent titles than the Angels; the Dodgers have rallied around the man with the Least Defensible Drug Test in History; and I doubt the Rockies would make the World Series any more competitive than the lame 2007 edition.
So go Halos! That said, I have never been more confident this decade in picking who I think will win the Series this year, and that would be the Yanks.