Monday, December 29, 2008

Holiday Recap (Ack edition)

It's been a while between posts on the ol' blog, what with the Tao taking a well deserved holiday break, and yooouuuurrrrr Toronto Blue Jays not giving us much to chew on.

It hasn't been completely uneventful, I suppose, in that the Jays have locked up Michael Barrett to a lucrative (read: minor league) contract, with the requisite "invite to spring training". Not a bad little signing, in that the Jays now have the low-cost veteran backup they were looking for. I'm already looking forward to the team's first trip to Comiskey Park, and a potential run-in with uber-douche A.J. Pierzynski. Should be fun.

The Ack's outlook - 2009
With time to kill over the holidays and some deep thinking moments of clarity, I've come to a revelation.

Yes, I've seen the light.

Life's too short to piss and moan about the Yankees (and Red Sox) free spending ways and bloated payroll. It is what it is. Besides, it'll all be deemed irrelevant when Sniderman belts 30 HR in his true rookie season, and outfield (DH) running mate Adam Lind adds 65 extra base hits of his own. Right? RIGHT??

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fuck off, Ack.
Just kidding.
I'm still going to piss and moan about the Red Sox and Yankees, because the only way evil will win is if the good do nothing(or something like that). And while it's debatable as to how much an effect raging away to my friends and on the internet(and in my mind) have on fighting evil, it still makes me feel better for a second or two.

Darren Priest said...

Here's another way to spin it: let's say this happens. At least Jays games versus the Yankees will be a cavalcade of stars. It will be like the All Star game is held 10 or so times at Rogers Centre this year. Definitely worth the trip to Toronto when the Yankees are in town!

Anonymous said...

Yup, it'll be like the 2009 all-stars(Yankees) against the 2004/5ish all-stars(guess who). Good times.
I've heard things here and there that the Yanks can't sign Manny Ramirez even if they wanted to. Something about a rule against signing more than 3 type A free agents. Anyone know if this is true? It doesn't sound true, to be honest.

Anonymous said...

Just looked it up myself, here's the rule:

If there are 14 or fewer Type A or Type B free agents available, no team can sign more than one type A or B player. If there are between 15-38, no team can sign more than two. If there are between 39 and 62, there's a limit of three. However, teams can sign as many Type A or B free agents as they've lost, regardless of the limits above

have the Yanks lost, or are they going to lose, a type A? If not, they can't sign Manny.

Anonymous said...

The Jays just went lower than Ponson , Pavano , or even Colon! They just signed Maroth! Man sidney would look so good in that Baby Blue and a Molson in his right hand. Colon would be so happy hitting all the food joints. Pavano would be playing for a contract... Instead , JP signs the worst of the worst! Or more like the most blackened crumbs from a burnt black piece of toast. Barret, Maroth and Clement...LAYOFFS!
Bruno Von Rottweiller

PS Darren priest good to see you back mate! Happy New Year.....

Warbo said...

Go Barrett!! A minor league deal for a guy who's not afraid to let fly with the dukes (even with team mates...) and who has shown his toughness in the past.
In 2006 he took a ball off his nutsac in the defensive 5th inning of a game. He stayed in the game to bat in the 5th before asking to be pulled because he felt sick. Felt sick?? Think so? He ended up on the DL with an intrascrotal hematoma. HIS BOYS WERE BLEEDING.
Maroth is a poor excuse for a pitcher, when the upside is a record of -5 (say 9-14?) and an ERA in the low 5's expectations seem to be very low.

Anonymous said...

Look, Ponson and Colon actually pitched in the AL east last year and JP picks up total garbage? This is becoming a joke......

Drew said...

Get some perspective anon, Mike Maroth isn't going to pitch a single inning in the big leagues. no chance

Anonymous said...

I think JP is looking for SP options for Vegas because he doesn't want to shatter the confidence of his prized prospects. Litsch made the jump from AA, it's a good league, maybe that's where Cecil, Romero and Mills will be.

Tao of Stieb said...

Yeah, all you naysayers are going to be licking our salty nuts when Michael Barrett hits 15 homers this year.

Believe it!

(And if that's a little overly optimistic, it may be because we are still a bit goofy from all the tropical diseases and pressure changes over the past day or so.)

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Michael Barrett hopefully means no Curtis Thigpen, and that's something I can definitely get behind.

Merry Christmas, friends at The Tao of Stieb. Here's to 2009. Cheers.

Jaywalker said...

Barret is a good pick up. At least they have a guy who can hit the ball. Riccardi had eight years and the money to build a winner. He failed and should go back to his accounting books. When he said he was going for retreads and has beens, he wasn't joking. He signed Clement, hasn't pitched in two years. Maroth is the last guy to lose 20 in a year and Colon, Pavano, etc are probably at home hoping riccardi phones them. At least all isn't lost. With Halladay, Litsh, and three guys to fill uniforms, it might make the fans appreciate the efforts from Romera, Richmond, Cecil. At least their pitches won't end up in the next county. Only two months to spring training and at least three guys can throw batting practise. Wow, what a way to enter the year.