I think AA told him that he is not going to get a raise and he would trade him to Texas, but he won't be "demanded" of it.  He didn't want to set a precident.

There are all sorts of rumors linking the Jays to one more arm in the pen. (Farnsworth,Lyon, K-rod, etc).  Personally, I would like to.  I know what will happen if they don't.  The season goes on and a couple injuries happen and we trade a couple top prospects for another arm.  Let's stock up now and put some of the young guys in Buffalo (we will need them).  And if the season is a disaster, they could help restock the minor league system.

I see Loup making it because it would be nice to have 2 LHP in the bullpen.  So, if they get another reliever, the roster is pretty well set.

There's no way Rogers is "safe". He throws hard but is terrible. He's a pauper's Steve Delabar.

Unrelated to the current thread, but BA is reporting Alan Farina just caught a 50 game suspension for twice testing positive for a drug of abuse.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/2013/01/blue-jays-prospect-garners-50-game-suspension/

It looks foolish. This isn't one of your jobs where you seek a raise on your hourly rate. If Oliver was in a position to seek an extension, he could do that. He could say, "I'm a valuable employee. I think we should talk about investing more into my future." Been done many times. Yet saying, "Give me a million dollars or I am not going to fulfill the last year of my contract" is dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. Wouldn't have happened and never going to happen. There has to be a negotiation where both sides are getting something. What was Oliver offering under this supposedly harmless request for a raise? If he said, "I want to be extended for another year at $6 million to be happy" that would have been a request that never hurts to ask. But "give me more money or I am walking away" makes you look like an idiot.

Kudos to Jeff Frye for having balls. Unfortunately sometimes courage ends up looking like idiocy.

Wilner tweets/twits (or what ever you call it) that A.A. said Sergio Santos, Casey Janssen, Darren Oliver and Esmil Rogers are locks for the Bullpen.

No mention of Cecil or Jeffress, so it looks like they will need to win a spot out of spring training.  I would imagine Cecil was a lock before Oliver announced his return. 

More tweets:

AA – Lincoln will be stretched out a little bit in Spring Training and will be 7th starter, but that could change as ST moves on. #Bluejays — Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness590) January 16, 2013

AA: If Lincoln doesn’t make #Bluejays as a reliever, he will be a starter in Buffalo. Mind changed because of organizational need. #Bluejays

 

Speaking of options, according to Bluebird Banter, Cooper, Happ, Lincoln, Sierra, Carreno, and Nickeas are all in their final option year.  Lind, with 5 years of service time, apparently can't be optioned. 

Question for the box - Dyson has been optioned once, but if he's not promoted to the bigs this year, he still has two options yet?  Calling him up last year still makes no sense to me ... 

Question for the box - Dyson has been optioned once, but if he's not promoted to the bigs this year, he still has two options yet? Calling him up last year still makes no sense to me ...

Dyson comes to spring training on the 40 man roster.  If he doesn't make the team he has to be optioned out thus using an option year and leaving him with one.  Yes, calling him up made no sense considering how he was used.  If he had been kept in the majors for the rest of the season then they wouldn't have used an option year in 2012.

Well my reply just blew up again.  Let's try a second time.

I said from practically the start of the 2012 season that AA and his braintrust were treating the roster and the relievers, in particular, as if they were in a rotisserie league.  I know the Dyson issue is not that big a deal but it's stupid roster management nonetheless.  If they wanted to give Dyson some experience then let him pitch.  Don't leave him just sitting there.  Last season sort of reminds me of this off-season.  Player claimed on waivers and then put on waivers.  Player claimed on waivers and then put on waivers.  Repeat over and over again.

 I know that not many here would accept the projection as a reasonable one. 

Bob McClure.

They won the pennant by battering opponents into submission.

How is that possible?  Didn't they know that baseball is 90% pitching and defense.

Mike and I have historically been at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to Cecil. I think Cecil's future, if there is one to be had, is as a 50-inning per year LOOGY, a role afforded by a 7-man bullpen. Mike has historically seen Cecil's ceiling as a fair bit higher, and perhaps(?) still does.

While seeing someone as a potential longterm LOOGY might be considered a less than flattering assessment (particularly when the player in question is a one-time 15 game winner), it is not meant to be disparaging. There is no shame in being a LOOGY if this means you get to be a major league pitcher.

Now, LOOGYs are fungible, so that career path comes with a lot of travel, but at least it's a major league career. Five to ten years of that sure beats slinging burgers.

Intrigued with AA's comments regarding potential big deal that fell apart before the Marlins deal

AA is a strange cat. As we all know, he's extremely secretive when it comes to negotiations (which is a good thing). Mum's the word. Say nuffink. But when you see him interviewed, when he can speak, he's a Chatty Cathy doll. He's extremely articulate, of course, but an absolute volcano of verbosity.

Semi-divulging the big deal that fell apart is clearly both halves of his personality trying to have their way. I want to talk, but I can't say anything. Here's hoping that he doesn't burst any blood vessels with his Jekyl and Hyde routine.

But when you see him interviewed, when he can speak, he's a Chatty Cathy doll. He's extremely articulate, of course, but an absolute volcano of verbosity.

At the end of the Reyes press conference, as people were getting up to go, someone (I guess whoever MC'd it) said "At last we have someone who talks faster than Alex" 

AA's comments in today's National Post story on the Thole contract suggest there's a lot more than "absolutely NO chance" that Blanco makes the team and Thole doesn't.

What concussion? The facts only please - google/bing/etc Josh Thole injury. Thole should know, the Mets should know. After being hit, while on the Bench September 30, he had 5 ABs in October.

He might not be more than R.A. Dickey's personal catcher, and spot catcher, but he's better than anyone not named Arencibia. OBP can always be important, but if you can't hit OPS is meaningless.

One of the greats has died--Earl Weaver. 

Indeed.

The memories... cobbling an all-star out of Lowenstein/Roenicke... smoking nervously in the dugout hallway, hiding because he couldn't bear to look while Stan the Man Unusual was making every save more adventurous than was reasonable (Stanhouse walked 103 men in 147 IP as an Oriole)... the temper tantrums that evoked a petulant schoolboy... his ongoing fued with ace Jim Palmer... and, most significantly of course, his adoption of sabermetric thinking long before it was even called that.

His closest modern day parallel in aptitude, I'd say, is Joe Maddon. Extremely different temperaments, of course.

With a Guaranteed spot (4): Sergio Santos (RHP), Casey Janssen (RHP), Darren Oliver (LHP) and Esmil Rogers (RHP). Bullpen spots open: three.

With options left: Steve Delabar (RHP) and Aaron Loup (LHP). Without options left: Brett Cecil (LHP) and Jeremy Jeffress (RHP).

Starting in AAA: J.A. Happ (LHP) and Brad Lincoln (RHP). That much is known.

Cecil, Jeffress and Delabar occupy the three Bullpen openings and Loup joins Happ and Lincoln in AAA. Baring injury, this shouldn't change.

Short-sighted nitwits know all, apparently.

This seems to be the "general" thread at the moment so...

Interested in taking over Alan Ashby's old job? Here's the job posting

Some excerpts below. This doesn't seem designed to encourage an Ashby-quality applicant; just someone who is "Able to execute the sports entertainment format."

We are a personality-driven radio station that uses sports as a foundation to create an entertaining, compelling, engaging and interactive forum for sports fan

[looking for]... intelligent personalities who know and understand sports, life beyond sports, and life experience for a 25-54 year old Toronto guy. The characteristics of our personalities include but are not limited to witty, genuine, self-deprecating, informative, thought-provoking, positive, insightful, observant, curious, well-rounded, instinctive, and opinionated. Show hosts must 'play the hits' which are the topics and issues that appeal to the broadest segment of the audience. Show hosts must be able to execute sound fundamentals including tease, plot and pay-off to maximize ratings. They must create a sense of urgency, a sense of anticipation, back up opinions with facts, be a fan and embrace the fan experience. They must be proficient with all aspects of social networking and be able to integrate the use of twitter, facebook, text messaging in all shows. Personalities are also required to write a daily blog. All this in order to further audience growth and loyalty for the radio station and themselves.

I follow the Jays on radio. I don't know if I'm really looking forward to 2013...

The characteristics of our personalities include but are not limited to witty, genuine, self-deprecating, informative, thought-provoking, positive, insightful, observant, curious, well-rounded, instinctive, and opinionated

The job posting reads like parody (and a grammatically challenged parody at that). I wonder if they had an intern write it. A drunk intern. Who dropped out of high school.

Must be able to sufficiently prepare for each game and deliver a fresh product to the listeners each day.

Fiber in your diet. Always a good idea.

Love to hear the explanation for "Show hosts must be able to execute sound fundamentals . . . “

The real reason Ashby is gone? Refused to hit behind the runner and make "productive" outs.

I am with a few others here (seemingly a minority) in that I, too, am no Howarth fan. I'm sure he's an extremely pleasant person, but his broadcast style is way too pollyanna for my tastes. Ashby served as a reality-based foil, making the radio broadcasts listenable and will be extremely difficult to replace. This could easily go sideways.

I'd like to think that when Ashby expressed an interest in returning to Houston and doing television that Rogers gave serious thought to offering him Tabler's job.

 I liked Ashby because I felt he would call it as he saw it and he would criticise players when they deserved it.

Exactly. You'd hear Howarth say "And the pitch gets by Arencibia and rolls to the backstop, and the baserunners all advance." And then Ashby would say something like "Arencibia should have been able to block that pitch; he tried to backhand it instead of sliding his body over."

Howarth, reluctant to disparage anyone, would more or less convey what transpired. Ashby would weigh in with some insight.

Boring. They will hire whomever they hire.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/01/details-on-arbitration-process.html A.A. is asked to speak.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb_mashup/ Interesting site.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot Another interesing site.

So far it's 23 days to Pitchers and Catchers Reporting. Another 10 days until Toronto at Detriot - Joker Marchant Stadium - 1105 to 14:05.

"I had been hoping that Wilner would start taking shifts from Howarth away over the next few years as he got integrated into the booth with Ashby, but now that Ashby's gone I think Wilner won't get his fair shake and that he'll have to wait until Jerry is finished before he has a chance."

I appreciate your parsing of the differences between Wilner as broadcaster and Wilner as studio personality, but I wouldn't want him near the Jays radio booth on a regular basis. As much as he may have kept his professionalism before (I've only heard him in very limited doses, so I'll defer to your opinion), I just feel like his smugness and smarter-than-thou attitude would pervade his radio broadcasts before too long. It's much easier to control those in limited exposure than it would be over the course of a couple of weeks or a month or a season.

I quite like Jerry, but I do recognize his weaknesses that others have pointed to here. I thought he and Ashby made a fine pair and it was disappointing that it wasn't a more permanent partnership. One thing I don't want is a carousel of partners for Jerry, as while I didn't mind that on the TV, I feel like it's much more important for a radio partnership to be in sync and develop a rhythm, particularly when you'd like the new party to assume a more critical role. This dynamic can take time to establish, so I wouldn't want to hear a new partner for every series, for example.