Shoveling the inches of snow off my driveway this morning, it hit me about as hard as the heart attack I was sure was imminent (dude is out of shape): man, do I miss baseball.That's the thing about the dead of a prairie winter - it makes you crave the things you love about summer that much more. And for me, that's baseball. Even if your team is in full-throttle (re)building. Even if the biggest news of late is the additions of depth arms like Shawn Hill, Zach Jackson, and Merkin Valdez. That's not necessarily a knock on Anthopoulos - nobody could rightfully expect the (re)build to be complete after one offseason.
Even still - and I've mentioned this before - I can't shake the feeling that there's still one bullet left for AA to fire. There have just been too many "mentions" of the Jays young pitching depth (& opposing GM inquiries) and holes elsewhere in the organization. Maybe there's a deal there. Maybe not. I dunno.
I do know this - if the rest of the offseason is going to be filled with speculation about the Jays poking around the dregs of the remaining free agent pool (have at Miggy Tejada, Orioles.....have at him).....then bring on spring training. Like, right fucking now.
Ya gotta feel for Rod Barajas (don't you?)
Speaking of the dregs of the FA pool, look who's pretty much the only free agent catcher out there without a job. Rod Barajas, that's who! I have to say - and hindsight is fantastic - I think we all saw this coming, didn't we? You can't really expect to draw multi-year attention on the heels of a .258 OBP, can you? Evidently not.
Hey Rod - hurry up and sign a god-damned contract, will ya? We've been looking forward to that compensation pick ever since you earned type-B status.
I've said it before: I have a funny feeling that Rod's going to wait too long to sign and we'll miss out on the compensation pick. I hope he ends up catching on somewhere but really, who's going to take him at this point? I'm sure he still expects to be a starter, and it seems that there aren't any teams who value him that way, so I don't see any reason for him to accept a big pay cut and/or backup job until Spring Training hits and he starts to get really desperate.
ReplyDeleteNah, he's going to the Mets.
ReplyDeleteOn our "young pitchers" - I think we don't trade any yet - by June or so AA will have a good feel for which are taking a step forward and which arn't. That's when we'll see a move with one, two, three or twenty seven.
ReplyDeleteOn Rod - I think it's only 50/50 that he signs a Major League Contract. I think we've a good chance of losing his compensation pick when he signs a Minor League contract with some team. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Here in Nanaimo - my wife an I just came back from a walk around the harbour - the rose bushes are sprouting new growth. Life is SO tough here. Tough, tough.
the outfield is what it is, and assuming the young players at 1B and C develop, then the major holes are on the left side of the infield and the Jays have money to spend in free agency.
ReplyDeletei would rather see them develop as much pitching as they can this year and then look to sign a 3B and SS rather than trade away their young pitching for prospects at those positions. the FA market for pitching is always a nightmare with guys like Lowe and Lackey getting 15 mill per year. if the Jays can avoid that mess as much as possible by building pitching from within then they'll have a better chance of competing in the AL East.
of course they wisely locked up JMac for 2011 so maybe they're all set at SS ...
We're going to be watching a shitload of starting pitching develop this year. I originally thought we might be moving some this offseason, but I'm not surprised they weren't getting good offers for them yet. Another season under their belt, and some return to health, should see that change.
ReplyDeleteAnd Free Bird was awesome on Conan. I mean it was horrible, but it was awesome.
@ mylegacy....kind of a catch-22 though, b/c if the plan is to wait on the young arms to see who develops before you trade them....who would be interested in the wash-outs? "Potential" is what makes them valuable now.
ReplyDelete@ Gil....yes it was.
The Zach Jackson era begins now!
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling rod is going to sign this week and then we get our sweet compensation pick
ReplyDeleteI think it's the compensation pick that's scaring people off.
ReplyDeleteWhat's that, you say I'm an idiot because the signing team doesn't forfeit anything to the Jays since he's a Type B?
Well, I would counter that you sir, are the idiot.
What if the Jays ended up using the sandwich pick to sign the very player the signing team had been targeting for the second round? Then they would need to pick the next player on their draft board and feel slightly disappointed by it. It's the slight risk of being slightly disappointed on draft day next year that clearly makes signing Barajas a poor move for any team.
Who's the idiot now?