His name is Rios and he dances on the sand

What was all this 4-year/$40 million tomfoolery we were spreading last week? That's the last goddamn time we quote the National Post on anything.

We know we're the last to mention this, but Blairsy reported on the weekend that Alex Rios (seen above with noted artificial turf expert David Beckham) is looking for $5.65 million for 2008, whilst the Blue Jays are offering $4.535 million in return.

Obviously, with those sorts of numbers on the table, there's no great impetus for the Jays to break open the bank for the second time in as many seasons on an outfielder. Because it worked so well the first time around, right??

Neate-O Linkage
Out of Left Field's Neate Sager (who is retiring from sports blogging, just as soon as Jay-Z lives up to his retirement announcement) has two great posts up today. The first is an email exchange with the Great Wizard of Brunt, who 'splains hisself for not voting for nobody in this year's Hall of Fame balloting. (And as per usual, Brunt's email was engaging, poignant, and challenging...we bet that dude's post-it notes and grocery lists are better than our blog posts.)

The other is a takedown of an Ottawa Pet Trainer Citizen columnist who is perpetuating the myth that the Jays' AAA franchise has an icicle's chance in hell of moving to the Nation's capital next year.

Now, we'll admit that we've advocated for this in the past, and we'd love to see the Jays set up their AAA shop in Ottawa. But as Neate astutely points out, that would only work if Rogers were willing to cough up the cash to buy the International League franchise, move it to Bytown and eat the losses. That becomes much less likely when you consider that the very successful AAA franchise in Buffalo will likely need a dancing partner in 2009, and the Buffalo market would be as attractive (if not more so) than Ottawa to the pointy heads at Uncle Ted's Inc..

There's an argument to be made that moving a Blue Jays affiliate to Ottawa would work. (A New York Penn League team, perhaps.) But unless there's someone in the International League that is looking to unload a franchise - and remember that there was a franchise to be had on the cheap in Ottawa for the past five years! - there's no chance that the "Ottawa Blue Jays" will ever take the field on Coventry Road. No matter what sort of facile spin the crayon-eaters at the Citizen and the Sun try to put on it.

Minor League Musical Chairs

There’s some chatter coming from Syracuse (specifically, the Post-Standard’s Matt Michael) that they’ve had enough of their affiliation with the Blue Jays, and their tradition of losing AAA teams. Moreover, they are salivating at the possibility of hooking up with the Mets for the 2009 season.

The Jays’ two-year deal with Syracuse expires after next season, and there will be a brief window in September when MLB teams and minor league cities can renegotiate their affiliation agreements. While many clubs have maintained their affiliations for decades, there has been a significantly higher degree of turnover in these agreements as of late. In 2007 alone, the Phillies, Yankees, and Mets all severed ties with their longtime AAA cities (Scranton, Columbus and Norfolk, respectively).

According the Post-Standard’s report, cities in play for 2009 may include Columbus (Washington), Buffalo (Cleveland), New Orleans (Mets), Rochester (Minnesota), Indianapolis (Pittsburgh), and Syracuse.

Obviously, the best fit out of those cities for the Jays would be Buffalo, but given the long-term success that the Bisons have had in that market, they might not want to hitch their wagons to a franchise which has produced 22 losing AAA seasons over their 30 year history.

If the music stops and the Jays are stuck with New Orleans in 2009, it would be nothing short of disastrous. A move to the Pacific Coast League would leave Jays prospects without exposure to their chief rivals’ prospects, and the expense and inconvenience of shipping players back and forth between New Hampshire, New Orleans and Toronto would be significant.

Then again, there is a AAA-level ballpark in a city with dozens of flights between it and Toronto that may well be vacant in 2009. Right Carl?

New Hampshire on our minds

Given that Art Martone at the ProJo Sox Blog has sent some New Englanders in our direction today, we have a few Jays-related items on the fine state of New Hampshire.

Jays AA affiliate in Ottawa? In the Sun chain's articles on the decline and fall of the Ottawa Lynx, there have been vague mentions of the Jays relocating their Eastern League affiliate to the nation’s capital. We think this is an absolutely brilliant idea…except that we don’t see how it will happen.

At present, the AA Fisher Cats draw more than three times as many fans as the Lynx do, and they play in a relatively new ballpark (the rather clunkily named Merchantsauto.com Stadium). We can see how if Rogers Media were to purchase the team and move it to Ottawa that attendance would be less of an issue. We figure that attendance would likely increase if Toronto’s farmhands were in the capital, and, as we noted in the comments at Neate Sager’s blog months ago, this would further expand the Jays’ brand (not to mention Rogers’) into the closest major media market in Ontario.

All of this supposes that someone in Manchester is selling. And if they're not, this is all just wishful thinking.

Fisher Cats promotions, The Good: Maybe it is the PoliSci geek in us, but we love the fact that on August 25, the Fisher Cats will take the field as the “New Hampshire Primaries”. The team was originally named the Primaries for a few days before a petition was circulated to change the name. It’s a pity, really, but that’s democracy in action. (BTW, dig that awesome logo!)

New Hampshire promotions, the Bad: When looking at the list of promotions on the Fisher Cats’ schedule, it’s hard not to get the feeling that the AA club is selling the parent club out, and buying bad juju by the truckload. How else to explain multitude of Red Sox related giveaways at the ballpark. David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis bats? Curt Schilling and Mo Vaughan bobbleheads? Yikes.

New Hampshire promotions, the Absurd: July 7 was George Weston Bakeries Salute to Bread Night. We salute bread every day, in every way.