Guy Spurrier of the National Post kindly invited us to take part in a Blue Jays preview roundtable thing for many of the Blue Jays bloggers, and some of us took him up on it. The article is in today's Post, and can also be viewed online at http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/postedsports/default.aspx (spread over several posts). Go check it out!
"Hill may be the best all-around second baseman in the league, maybe the game"
-- Jeremy Sandler, National Post baseball reporter
Maybe the game??? Wow. Just wow. I hope this Sandler cat is an intern and not a paid employee.
He meant maybe as in "maybe Chase Utley died in a car accident this morning and we haven't heard yet"
Utley's initials are CC. The whole CC Rider cool thing just won't work when your given names are Chase Cameron, and you were born in Pasadena. Heckuva ballplayer though.
So is Will on the roster now? Did I miss this announcement? Will there be a reception with speaches? A ceremonial first post? Or did he just get roped in to the ever popular Friday night MLU?
To me Ricciardi was all about work ethic. I think he believed that if the team worked hard enough it would win. He's not the first nor the last to think that way - but the entire
history of baseball puts the lie to that. In order to win over the long
term, you need to have the horses, though it is not a sufficient
condition of course (a team can have the horses, but underachieve).
Ricciardi loved "dirtbags" and his love was reinforced by his success with those types of players - Reed Johnson, Mike Bordick and Marco Scutaro springing to mind as examples. But you can't win pennants with a bunch of dirtbags.
Ricciardi's core concept crystalised in my mind when I found myself in a dugout conversation with him about the differences between Felipe Lopez and Miguel Tejada. I pointed out that their minor league performances had much in common, so how to explain Lopez' struggles in the majors (to that point) and Tejada's all-star level of play? His answer was that Tejada was a tireless worker.
Simple as that. And of course he was right, up to a point. But winning in baseball is a combination of hard work and talent.. You can't turn John McDonald into Troy Tulowitzki.
Ricciardi was working on a slim margin of error and the fact is he did a pretty good job given the context (i.e the unfortunate division the Jays have to compete within). But the only way to compete was to significantly increase the talent level in the organisation (something the Rays have accomplished, and not simply due to a high number of high 1st round draft picks). Ultimately he was not able to do that.
Ricciardi loved "dirtbags" and his love was reinforced by his success with those types of players - Reed Johnson, Mike Bordick and Marco Scutaro springing to mind as examples. But you can't win pennants with a bunch of dirtbags.
Ricciardi's core concept crystalised in my mind when I found myself in a dugout conversation with him about the differences between Felipe Lopez and Miguel Tejada. I pointed out that their minor league performances had much in common, so how to explain Lopez' struggles in the majors (to that point) and Tejada's all-star level of play? His answer was that Tejada was a tireless worker.
Simple as that. And of course he was right, up to a point. But winning in baseball is a combination of hard work and talent.. You can't turn John McDonald into Troy Tulowitzki.
Ricciardi was working on a slim margin of error and the fact is he did a pretty good job given the context (i.e the unfortunate division the Jays have to compete within). But the only way to compete was to significantly increase the talent level in the organisation (something the Rays have accomplished, and not simply due to a high number of high 1st round draft picks). Ultimately he was not able to do that.
Like many Bauxites, pithiness has never been my strong suit. As evidenced by my annual 5,000 word season previews on such enthralling teams as the 2006 Milwaukee Brewers and 2008 San Diego Padres.
That 2008 Padres preview included this gem, "I enjoy Zaun, but I’d trade him and Barajas in a heartbeat for Bard and Barrett, who give the Padres perhaps the deepest catching tandem in the majors." Well, two years later two of those four are still starting catchers and the other pair has one Triple-A catcher and one who didn't sign with a team this year, as far as I can tell. I don't think I'll be pinning that quote on my wall.
So is Will on the roster now?
Kind of an associate member I guess. I openly discussed shutting down The Southpaw at the start of the year and got an invite but then i got propositioned to network on Yardbarker and maybe make a little scratch from that and waivered.
So I guess it's kind of like being in the Legion of Substitute Heroes or some such....
Kind of an associate member I guess. I openly discussed shutting down The Southpaw at the start of the year and got an invite but then i got propositioned to network on Yardbarker and maybe make a little scratch from that and waivered.
So I guess it's kind of like being in the Legion of Substitute Heroes or some such....
"the entire history of baseball puts the lie to that."
Hyperbole, surely... because well that's a ton of history to know and I believe out-thinking (Billy Martin, The Ol' Perfesser, Reggie Jackson, Ty Cobb, and Roberto Clemente) is out working.
Hyperbole, surely... because well that's a ton of history to know and I believe out-thinking (Billy Martin, The Ol' Perfesser, Reggie Jackson, Ty Cobb, and Roberto Clemente) is out working.