Good lord, yes!  I still follow Vlad Guerrero's games and I understand he isn't based in Canada any more.

 BTW, is anyone keeping track of former Expos? I'd sure like to know when we're down to the last few still active.

I still follow Vlad Guerrero's games

I never did before this year, and now that I see him up close and personal in North Texas, I regret missing the earlier part of his career more closely. I knew the reputation but never really knew it to be true until this year -- the greatest bad-ball hitter since Yogi Berra, and maybe better than that!

Here's a story in one of the Atlanta papers about Collins' outing, and some Braves fans comments.  It doesn't seem like they are talking about Jo-Jo's near not hit game.

I'll still follow Collins because he's an amazing human interest story, and he has a chance to defy the conventional wisdom of baseball scouts that only really tall and big pitchers can make it.

JP Arencibia, #27 tonight.   That is all.

JP's selections of position players in the 2007 and 2008 drafts were as bad as anything I have ever seen.

Well he only selected three, and one was JP Arencibia and another was the type of high risk prep bat people had been longing for.  The other was David Cooper, who seemed like a decent, if not uninspiring option at a poor place in the draft.  JP bashers like to ignore the fact that the Scouting Director made all the picks after the first round in the JP era.

I Think that AA will be looking for high ceiling young talent - which means he will probably need to package our

veterans with some of our B/C prospects. With the B-type FA, if AA doesn't get quality offers then he will probably

be better off holding on to the player and collect those 1st. rd. supp. in a deep 2011 draft - the beauty with those type

B FA is that the signing team doesn't lose a pick so it isn't a consideration in signing.

The only moves by AA that I've had some issue with are his treatment of EE

Have you watched the Blue Jays play since the All Star break? Do you still think E5 is capable of being a starting MLB 3B? Funny how we both have some issues with the treatment of EE, but for entirely different reasons.

JP's selections of position players in the 2007 and 2008 drafts were as bad as anything I have ever seen. A drunken monkey throwing darts at the draft board could not have done worse.

This is just too much. The Blue Jays 2007 draft was widely regarded by the "experts" as one of the best in baseball, if not the best. Even if he missed entirely on position players, who the heck cares? You don't draft for need, and the 2007 draft has already brought Brett Cecil, Marc Rzepczynski, and Brad Mills to the majors, 3 LH arms likely to be around for awhile (Mills doesn't get enough credit for what he's doing in the PCL, even if he's only a #6/7 SP swingman RP type). Sure, it would have been nice if the Jays went for Travis D'Arnaud at 16 instead of Kevin Ahrens as some people were speculating, but you really are discounting the crapshoot aspect of the draft, and the fact that they almost nabbed D'Arnaud anyway instead of Cecil at 37. Heading into the draft it seemed like consensus they were going after JP Arencibia, who looks like a guy that will provide them some nice pre-FA value, but here's some of the other names that were being thrown around for the first 2 Jay picks at 16 and 21 - Matt Dominguez, Pete Kozma, Beau Mills, Devin Mesoraco, and Nick Noonan. It's not exactly a who's who of prospects. Day 2 in 2007 brought Brad Emaus and Darin Mastroianni, 2 guys who might provide the Jays utility bench value in the near future. It's true that Ahrens, Justin Jackson, and Eric Eiland look like duds, but when you add in Trystan Magnuson and John Tolisano to Arencibia, Cecil, Rzepczysnki, Mills, Emaus, and Mastroianni, you have the makings of a damn good draft.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6327

As for the 2008 draft, equally ludicrous. People were hoping Brett Wallace or Brett Lawrie would fall to the Jays at 17 but it didn't happen, so they chose David Cooper over Ike Davis, which was pretty well liked around these parts, considering Cooper flashed better power and K zone control in college. Fangraphs writer and BB commenter Marc went so far as to say he would puke if the Jays selected Davis. The only decent position prospect remaining in the first round seems to have been Lonnie Chisenhall, but everyone was scared away by the whole stealing computers thing (a shame, he'd be nice to have). When you dig deeper into the draft you see Tyler Pastornicky in the 5th, a nice pick which definitely helped the Jays land Yunel Escobar, followed by Eric Thames (7th) & Daniel Farquhar (10th) who are having solid seasons at AA, and A.J. Jimenez (9th) who might turn out to be the crown jewel of the draft as a 20 year old C (.301/.350/.431) at Lansing.

I guess the Richard Griffin reading crowd will just never accept that much of what Ricciardi did in his time here was positive, and that he left the team in pretty good shape for Anthopolous. It's hilarious to see the rippage of two JP drafts that occurred within the last 3 years, as if other teams around MLB are flush with regulars coming from those classes.

Not quite - it was Jim Duquette.

Spifficus had Steve Phillips and Bernie Madoff implicated in all this. I will add Dan Duquette's name to the list of those somehow involved. And Jeff Gillooly.

Yes, it was quite the conspiracy.

get to play the dreadful Mariners and Rangers

Really? You're using present tense "get to play the dreadful ... Rangers" about a 53-39 team with the biggest division lead in the major leagues, also 9.5 games ahead of Beane's A's and having must taken three of four from the Red Sox?

These Rangers are, Vlad Guerrero aside, also one of the *youngest* teams in the major leagues. I don't think *anyone* sees them as a team they "get to" play ...

a better SS than Andrus

Respectfully, uglyone, he absolutely is NOT that. I think you can make an argument that Excobar is better (though I think you'd be wrong) but keep in mind, Andrus is six years younger  -- he's not even 22 yet!  The Rangers would have, quite rightly, laughed at the idea of Marcum and Gonzalez for Andrus.

That said, it was a hell of a deal for the Jays to get Escobar at that price. Well done and all that.

Signing bonuses.

Whilst holding on to players, letting them leave and get picks may make sense in a deep draft, there is the economics of the situation too.

If you deal a Buck or a JBau then you save the money on their contracts (could be $3m dollars total this season) plus you don't pay the signing bonuses of the prospects you get. (could save another $1.5m)

You can then use that $4.5m to plough into the international market (as we are doing) or to pay people who slip in the draft (Dickie thon Jr)

If you can get equivalent talent in a trade you have to consider it for this reason alone - becuase it gives you the money to go and buy some other draft or draft-like players.

Holding on for picks is effectively a double tax in this sense.

Respectfully, uglyone, he absolutely is NOT that. I think you can make an argument that Excobar is better (though I think you'd be wrong) but keep in mind, Andrus is six years younger  -- he's not even 22 yet!  The Rangers would have, quite rightly, laughed at the idea of Marcum and Gonzalez for Andrus.

Well, he IS better than Andrus.

True Andrus is younger, and might catch up, but Andrus has yet to reach anywhere near the level that Yunel has.