Saturday, October 11, 2008

Thanksgiving turkey

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I talked myself into it. Saying all the right things and riding a feelgood wave of support as the season ended, AJ Burnett had me believing that he wasn't ready to end his budding bromance and say goodbye to our Toronto Blue Jays.

But now the love-in is over, and safely away from Doc's powers and the hometown crowd, we're seeing the true intentions of Huggy Bear, and it probably doesn't involve a future in Toronto.

Darek Braunecker, AJ's true BFF, informs us that with regards to discussing an extension with the Jays, "he isn't going to waste their time with that" until AJ decides if he is going to exercise the opt-out (100% probability) or not (0% probability).

So, in other words, get in line JP. Yeah - that line right there. That's right, that one - Brian Cashman's there in front, and Theo's saving a spot (he'll be there when the playoffs are over) - no cutting.

Well, maybe we still have a shot, you say? Didn't JP prep an opening offer of a 2 year-$30M extension? Consider these quotes from Ricciardi:

"Our money's not going to change," he said. "We're only going to have so much money that we feel that we can go forward with. If it's not enough, it's not enough."

- and -

"If it gets to a point where he opts out, we're still in the running but I think at that point we're going to have to start going forward with putting our team together," said Ricciardi. "We can't sit there and just wait and say, 'Hey, we're waiting on one guy.' We'd probably have to have a little more of a definitive answer at that point."

JP's propensity for "truth"-telling notwithstanding, I believe him when he says the Jays only shot to retain Burnett is by locking him up before he exercises the opt-out, and if (when) he does exercise the clause, Toronto won't be joining the bidding war. In other words...if AJ exercises the opt-out (he will), it's o-v-e-r. That's not to say I blame the guy, though. Let's face it, the Jays reported offer would give Burnett 4 years and $54 million, whereas exercising the opt-out will probably net him a $75 million deal. Like you'd do any different?

By the same token, I think JP's playing this one the way it needs to be played also. An additional 2 years - $30M is at least a reasonable offer - at the very least, a save-face offer - and I can probably think of a better way to spend the $75M or so it'll take. I mean, for a measly $25M more, we could have Manny! (That's right, I'm talking myself into that one too - gotta love the offseason...)

Housekeeping
The Tao has extended my term through the offseason (tough break for you, suckers), so I'll probably be around with a post per weekend, probably more as the winter meetings approach and the rumour mill heats up. I know, I know - you'll sleep easier now. I do what I can.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

As long as Manny stays happy, having him in a Jays uniform would be sick! With the small SkyDome and historically being a hitters park he could put up some crazy numbers.

I would attend more games if he was signed and wearing a Jays uniform day in and day out.

Darren Priest said...
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Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

First of all, I had no idea there was such thing as a homo Jew blogging fix.

Second of all, it does certainly look like A.J. "played" us. Said all the right things and once we gave him our number, he didn't bother calling. And I agree with you Ack, JP is handling the best way he can. It's a lose-lose situation for him.

And Darren makes a good point, Burnett's "stock" has never been higher. Usually when the market is so hot, it's a bad sign, and the stock is going to tumble.

The money would be better spent on a bat, especially Manny's bat, but I'm just worried that we'll have trouble replicating the pitching season we had this year.

I'm scurred.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Oh, and congrats on the new contract Ack. Well deserved. I heard you were on the trading block and I inquired within, but the Tao quickly squashed that rumour.

The Ack said...

@Priesty - have you been leaving comments anonymously again?

@eyebleaf....well, there's no guaranteed money involved, so my status is still tenuous at best.

Anonymous said...
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Tao of Stieb said...

Uh, guys...

Think you could maybe lay off with the racial/sexual putdowns? Even the allegedly ironic ones?

How fucking depressing is it that the first thing that we see on our blog after a weekend away is this shite.

You fuckers disappoint me.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, dude. I know it's a joke, but totally not that cool.