Requiem for a Russ

And so it comes to pass.

It's probably been three or four years coming, but Russ Adams and the Blue Jays finally parted ways yesterday to make way for marginal bullpen arm T.J. Beam.

(With the departure of A.J., and J.P. Arencibia still a year away, the Jays needed to shore up their strategic supply of initials.)

Adams was J.P. Ricciardi's first pick as Jays GM, and their fates seem destined to be forever intertwined. The selection is still held up as emblematic of all that is wrong with the embattled GM's tenure with the team, and we're reasonably sure that Adams' name will continue to be dropped into to post game JaysTalk rants up to and immediately following J.P.'s almost inevitable dismissal.

We've heard for years about how the Jays passed on Scott Kazmir and Matt Cain and Cole Hammels in order to pick Adams. Realistically, none of those players (all high school pitchers) were going to sign with the Jays, especially if the team adhered to the recommended slot bonusses.

(We're assuming that there were slot recommendations in 2002, but someone feel free to call BS on us if we're wrong on that.)

In his only full season with the Jays, Adams played a somewhat underwhelming 139 games in 2005, posting eight homers, 63 RsBI, 11 steals and a .707 OPS. In retrospect, it's funny to look at those numbers and comapre them to Marco Scutaro's 2008 (7 HRs, 60 RsBI, 8 SBs and a .697 OPS). Isn't it funny how some of the same pundits in the Toronto sports media who hold up Adams as a sign that everything is amiss in Blue Jayland were hailing Scutaro as the team's MVP last season?

A quick glance at the position players picked behind Adams in that draft shows that there weren't a ton of great bats to be had. Nick Swisher, James Loney, Jeff Francoeur came later in the first round, Joey Votto came a the start of the second, and Brian McCann went deep in the third, but most of those players would have had (say it with us) signability issues.

We'll confess to being a bit sad to hear of Adams' departure. It kinda makes us feel as though time's slipped away on us.

Roto-Hoedown Update
Thanks to everyone who wrote in to beg, plead and grovel their way into the 2009 Roto-Hoedown. We're down to a single spot left, and we unfortunately can't expand on the 15-team format.

If you are still interested in playing in the big boys' roto league, then it's not too late to email us (taoofstieb at gmail dot com) and knock our stirrups off. We're going to hold off on filling that last spot until later in the weekend, when someone who really deserves the spot steps up and claims it.

(We probably have enough people to set up a second league as well, so there's always that.)

For those of you who emailed yesterday and haven't heard back from us, we'd recommend writing back and laying it on a little thicker with the grovelling. A hint: we like when people use full sentences with correct spelling. It appeals to our sensibilities. As do pictures of your sisters or signifcant others in bikinis.