Monday, November 3, 2008

Hotstove, Volume 1

This just in from Major League Baseball's annual GM meetings: the Toronto Blue Jays addressed two glaring needs on Monday by acquiring a shortstop and some pitching help. Welcome to the organization, Angel Sanchez and Kelvin Jimenez!

For those keeping score at home, you can add Messrs. Sanchez and Jimenez to the growing list of offseason acquisitions for the Jays, along with RHP Dick Hayhurst and IF/OF/definitely not a LHP Adam Ankieloewen (see what I did there?). Now, I'm only busting balls a little bit here, because I know these are just basic organizational moves that every team makes at this time of year....but if you think these claims and signings will make me forget about the loss of Mencherson, well, you're crazy.

Zaun files for free agency
So long, Zaunie old boy. Oh sure, there's an outside chance that the veteran catcher could come back at a discounted price to be the Jays backup behind the plate, but not much of one, I'd say. Odds are the team will go with former prospect, current AAAA player Curtis Thigpen as the primary reserve.

For my money, though, I'm hoping Brian Jeroloman shows enough in camp to earn the backup spot, as his skills behind the plate and propensity for taking a walk make him seem like an ideal backup. Why not break the kid into his future role playing caddy for JP Arencibia?

In case you haven't noticed....
...by the complete lack of professionalism in this post, the Tao is away for the first part of the week, so it's extendo Ack-talk for a few days. Now, I'm not at liberty to divulge what's keeping the Tao from this space, but let's just say that it may or may not involve a resume and a meeting with Paul Beeston. Hmmm?

7 comments:

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Once again: Fuck Curtis Thigpen.

Angel and Jimenez = playoffs!

I was reading over at Out Of Left Field that Burnett is off to Baltimore, and we're ending up with Milton Bradley and Brad Penny.

I can't say I'd be disappointed with that.

The Ack said...

what I want to know is....how the hell did they get pictures of those two in Blue Jays gear already? IT'S A CONSPIRACY!

So, I'm reading that Braunecker is giving the Jays a few more days before AJ officially opts-out, to give them a "fair shot"? ie: establishing a base price to drive up the bidding....

And, I dunno, I'm just not sharing the Milt Bradley love.....people are complaining about Butler's power, but what's Bradley's career high HR total?

And for the right price, Brad Penny....hmm...

Nichols said...

I was reading this Yahoo! article and it said that Coletti might pick up the option on Penny. By doing so, he could trade Penny for a 3B and move DeWitt to 2b.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AgH5Rg6ekBJAnV_HGbXpWIURvLYF?slug=yhoo-timeondodgerssideinmannyrac&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Translation: Don't get your hopes up yet.

Anonymous said...

I'd rather get Furcal then Bradley anyway, I know its a long shot.

Torgen said...

I like how AJ said he'd decide on his opt out yesterday and now he's giving the Jays a few days to make an offer. I think AJ wants to stay and his agent is being forced to try to wring an extension out of the Jays so he's not leaving all the free agent money on the table.

Anonymous said...

Nah the ack is dead on when he says about starting out the bidding point

Darren Priest said...

I hope JP isn't as dumb as Hank Steinbrenner and actually bids against himself for AJ's services.