We've done our best to avoid any discussions of Richard Griffin lately. Really, who needs that level of aggravation?But Griff's assessment of Frank Thomas as the team's worst ever free agent pick up seems a bit daft to us. Thomas wasn't great last year, but he was certainly good enough that he shouldn't rate as the worst when compared to Erik Hanson's execrable three-year tour.
Plus, Griff's supposedly authoritative top five list of the worst pick ups seems to skew a bit too much towards the J.P. era. Really: Is it fair to call Dougie Burnett a monumentally bad signing?
What about Mike Stanley? Dick Schofield? Ken Dayley? Frank Viola? Danny Darwin? Lance Parrish? Mike Flanagan? Benito Santiago? Doug Bair? Darnell Coles? Mike Huff? Ozzie Virgil? Juan Samuel? Are you trying to tell us that A.J., er, Dougie, and Frank were worse signings than those?
Hell, we could even make a case that A.J., er, Gord Burnett was a better signing than Dave Stewart over the course of his contract.
We know that those signings don't necessarily fit Griff's ongoing narrative ("J.P. is the Devil! Ruining baseball in Toronto! Nor respect for the good guys! Je me souviens des Expos! Vas-y Youppi!") But this article seems to be a pretty opportunistic hatchet job on a move that was really for the best.
UPDATE: Griff's decided to open up the mail bag two days early, because there were so many reactionary douchebags - you know, Griff's peeps - who wanted to pass judgement on this move immediately.
(*Editors note: We accidentally published an early version of this post with all sorts of grammatical errors and nonsense, and have been scrambling to fix it. So if you read this once and it didn't make any sense, or if there were more fautes d'orthographe than usual, we hope we've been able to fix it to your liking. We sincerely regret the error.)
Um, Dick? Frank did his job last year, and came almost exactly as advertised. He will prob do the same thing this year, the Jays just decided they couldn't wait. Or didn't want to pay him next year. So, not that bad, as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps ill-advised, or a little silly. But worst? Bitch, please.
ReplyDeleteNice pickup on the Ken Dayley.
ReplyDeleteDayley might be the worst of the bunch (well, after Hanson).
ReplyDeleteMike Flanagan? Check your stats. 26-27 with a sub 4 ERA over a couple of years was pretty good value for a former Cy Young guy who made $2 million over three years.
ReplyDeleteSub-4.00 ERA didn't mean as much in those days...he was over the league average in each of those years.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't get us wrong...we liked Flanagan, but he was as flawed a signing as Thomas was.
No Joey Hamilton?
ReplyDeleteSigning a .500 pitcher for $500,000 even in those days was a reasonable move for a club trying to round out the rotation. Not sure where the flaw is in that.
ReplyDeleteOk, anonymous (if that is your real name)...
ReplyDeleteIf you want to put Mike Flanagan's numbers up against A.J.'s and decide who was a better or worse free agent pick up, then be our guest.
As for Joey Hamilton, he came in a trade.
From the mailbag:
ReplyDeleteBarry Bonds? You have got to be kidding. Just what we need, a huge barcalounger in the clubhouse in front of Barry’s locker, his own Plasma HD-TV, personal lackeys running around the clubhouse and IRS and DEA agents behind every pillar. Can he get a work permit for Canada if he is being investigated by a grand jury. Just what the Jays need. A guy that walks every time there are runners in scoring position, leaving it up to the other guys that have been failing with runners in scoring position. The Jays will not do that. They want to keep the payroll under $100 million. Besides, the Giants averaged 73 wins per year the last three seasons with a younger Bonds in their lineup.
So, to recap, the Blue Jays should not sign Barry Bonds because (1) he gets on base too much and (2) the rest of the hitters are not as good as the shitty San Francisco Giants. Outstanding. Keep up the work, Griff, you are doing a job.
Yeah, "clogging the bases" with all those walks is a real bitch.
ReplyDeleteBased on these comments and earlier ones about the character of Jays with whom the organization parted ways due to ability, it's clear Griffin wouldn't sign Zombie Hitler if he could put up a .480 OBP.
ReplyDelete