Farewell 2011 Season, Welcome to 2012

After a roaring end to the 2011 Major League Baseball season, the finality of it all has just started to strike us.

The season is long and intense, densely packed with 162 games over 26 weeks, plus the four weeks of postseason. The days without baseball between the spring and fall are few, and the season proceeds so relentlessly that there's barely time to digest the previous night's game and contextualize it. (Try as we might.) We all tend to get a bit lost in the moment.

So it follows that the moment they stop playing the games, the silence gets deafening. The vacuum that is created from the lack of games to discuss hisses and wheezes and begs to be filled. We would be better served to take some of the downtime to relax, recover and salve some of the injuries, including the repetitive stress on on clicking finger as well as the imagined bruises to our ego. But given the fact that being a Jays fan means fixing your gaze to the future on an almost perpetual basis, the start of the wintertime sabbatical is the time when we'll probably kick our hindsight-fuelled recriminations and unfounded speculation into overdrive.

Oh, the fun we'll have.

Thankfully, we haven't had any frost settle on us in advance of the long winter whinge, as the business of baseball cranked up the machine first thing Monday morning, in a hurry with a flurry. (The other flurry, you know.)

The Excercism of Edwin's Option - It was a no-brainer that the Jays should pick up the 2012 option on Edwin Encarnacion, whose bat carried the team for significant stretches in the second half. From June 1st onwards, EE posted a .858 OPS (.360 OBP/.499 SLG) and hit 16 of his 17 homers in the final four months of the season. As a full-time DH, occasional 1B and emergency 3B, Encarnacion could be a steal at $3.5 million for next year. (And apparently, he might possibly play left field, but more on that below.)

We couldn't be happier to see Edwin come back, as we thought that he endured an unfair onslaught of snarkily cynical scorn through much of the first few months of the season. We can't remember who called him "garbage" on Twitter, but we hope that person feels shame that eats away at their soul every day for such denigration.

We don't want to get ahead of ourselves here, but we still figure that Edwin could be a 30 homer, .850 OPS guy in the middle of the Jays lineup next year, even though we said the same thing last year. But this year, we really and truly believe it. For realsies, this time.

If You Like Tony LaCava, and Getting Caught in the Rain: So on the one hand, we hope that the casual fan appreciates the fact that other teams within their highly competitive division are looking at the non-player personnel of the Blue Jays enviously. Boston's potential interest in John Farrell (which we figure was nothing more than someone saying "Sure wish Johnny was still around") and the Orioles' pursuit of Jays GM Tony LaCava should indicate to one and all that the team is not administered by a bunch of nincompoops who stumbled accidentally into their position. These guys know what they're doing.

Moreover, the news from NBC Sports' Aaron Gleeman that O's Meddler-in-Chief and Chief Mediocrity Officer Peter Angelos was unimpressed by LaCava and thought his desire for greater authority over the baseball decisions in Baltimore was overstepping his bounds is a triple shot of happiness because:

1) It means LaCava might return to the Jays;
2) It shows that bad organizations don't appreciate smart baseball people;
3) Baltimore is looking for some stooge with shallow charisma and a desire to be Angelos' hand-puppet through another decade-long cycle of basement-dwelling.

That, kids, is what we in the business (which business?) call a "win-win".

Friday Rock Out - By popular demand

If there's one thing we've come to understand about this blog, it's that you give the people what they want.

Jet!

Speaking of giving the people what they want
We're of the opinion that the news this week that Paul Beeston will take on the President and CEO role for the next three years will actually result in the three things that would make us happiest: A larger budget, new uniforms and a new manager.

With the manager, we get that Beeston is a good pal of Cito's and defended him at the end of the year. But it seems that it is Beeston's nature to calm the waters in those instances. With Beeston working with the "newish" front office, we could see him casting his gaze towards the future, and asking his pal to work as a ceremonial advisor to Anthopoulos and Tony LaCava. Cito really doesn't seem to have any aspirations beyond next year, and he seemed to be getting much less enjoyment out of the position this year than he did in his triumphant return the previous year. (Which is probably a function of winning...but still.)

And by the way: How awesome is it that the Jays retained LaCava? It hasn't been mentioned that much since the reworking of the management team, but it was a pretty important move in our view. Frankly, we could have seen him take over the GM job, but to have him there as the Ant's right hand man let's us sleep a little bit easier at night.

Also, we couldn't imagine that the Beest is going to let the idiotic Godfrey black cap legacy live on beyond the coming season. Even if it means a nostalgic return to the 92-93 era unis, we'd be happy. Anything that helps us ditch the black is a good thing.

Is J.P. about to lose his paisan?

Not to play into a stereotype fed by eight years of the Sopranos, but don't J.P. and Assistant GM Tony LaCava look like they're about to cause some somebody some trouble? All due respect...

The news from Bobby McLeod says that LaCava is being interviewed for the Seattle Mariners GM job, along with four other candidates. This is the second time in as many years that LaCava gets an interview, after being considered for the helm of his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates last year.

We've made barely veiled comments in these parts that the Jays might have a ready-made replacement for J.P. if the organization decides to tie the can to him. Not that we want to begrudge Tony any success, but we'd feel better if he were around to pick up the pieces and maintain some continuity should the Rogers brass decide to sacrifice Ricciardi as an appeasement to the unwashed stupid masses.

Dear Adam Dunn

Hey Adam. How it goin'? We're doing okay ourselves.

We just wanted to touch base with you about all of the monkeyshines that were going on last week, what with the GM of the Blue Jays calling you a slacker and a passionless home run hitting strikeout machine who hates baseball. That's gotta sting a bit, so we don't expect you to necessarily warm up to Canada and Toronto right away. Healing takes time, but let's start the process now.

First off, let us make something clear: we don't share J.P.'s opinion of you. We're Adam Dunn fans. We remember sitting a few feet behind you as you were in the on deck circle back in your Louisville RiverBats days, and we thought to ourselves: That is one big mamma jamma. And then we saw you crush a few balls and we thought that you were exactly the sort of dude that we'd love to see playing for the Blue Jays. We've been biding our time for about seven years, waiting for your Reds contract to expire. And now that it's about to, this whole mess happens. It's really got us worried what you must think of us.

We know that you've probably got, oh, say, 29 other cities where you would rather play than Toronto. And we get that you weren't exactly thrilled to hear what J.P. had to say about you. But let us say that we thought you handled it with aplomb. That "loonies and twonies" line was flat-out comedy gold. That sort of quick wit plays really well in Canada. Canadians would love you.

Sorry...are we coming on to strong? Because we can be intensely laid back, too. Not unlike yourself! You see! Canada is the one country that can truly appreciate you!

(Mind you, it wouldn't hurt if you were to consider changing your name to "Dougie" or "Gordie", because Canadians tend to relate to those guys instinctively. Not that we want to change you. You're perfect just the way you are.)

By the way, can we just mention how much we like to see home runs? We like them A LOT. The ringtone on our cell is of Jerry Howarth saying "There she goes!" Jerry's the radio play-by-play guy. And you know what? He already likes you. Or I know he would if he got to know you.

Sorry, where were we? Oh yeah, home runs. They're awesome. They're like a hit by pitch, stolen base, sac bunt and sac fly, only all wrapped into one without the bother of giving up any outs or getting thrown out. Just BOOM! Runs on the board! And then they play the Quad City DJs' "Ride the Train" at the SkyDome, which makes it all that much better. ("Come on ride the train! And ride it! Toot toot!" Awesome!) So imagine hitting 40 bombs a year (as you have for the past three years...consistent much!?) for the Blue Jays, and how fun that would be for you and for us.

Are we gushing? Sorry. Sometimes, we get all nervous.

Anyways, we just hope that you're able to enjoy your time in Canada, and that maybe you can forgive and forget this whole ugly business.

And seriously: get yourself a handful of loonies and twonies, and go pay for stuff with it. You'll feel like a pirate who has grabbed a handful of doubloons from the booty chest and come ashore! Arrrrrrgh matey!

Oh, and one last thing about J.P.: maybe you'll never see eye to eye with him. Sometimes, we don't get him. He's from Boston, you know. So, he's not really our people.

But maybe you can just introduce yourself to Tony LaCava. He seems like a good bloke.

Looking forward to seeing you...just take it easy on our pitchers this series!

Your Best Canadian Friend Forever,

The Tao

P.S. Did you know that Shania Twain is from Canada? And that she's single? Ponder that for a moment. We're just sayin'...