Hermida, Hardy and...Halama?

As god is my witness, I thought the stories about the Jays scouting John Halama were just a throw away joke.

Not so funny, though, is it?

Now mind you, we were the ones who for two years defended the low-risk signings of Ohka/Thompson/Zambrano, and we still would. And to be honest, if we hear that Halama has transformed himself into a half-decent LOOGY, and they can sign him for a box of Timbits and a double-double, then so be it.

But Ivan DeJesus on a pogo stick, it sucks the life out of us to hear that two guys on whom we had irrational mancrushes, Jeremy Hermida and J.J. Hardy, are off the market before the Yankees' ticker tape parade has even begun.

Maybe there are better solutions out there for the Jays. Maybe Chris Snyder spends next year squatting behind the plate, or maybe maybe there is a deal in the works to bring some young promising short stop to Toronto. Maybe we just have to believe in The Plan.

There's 100 days until spring training, and they're going to be long, cold, and miserable. May your higher power or believe guide you through this.

The bad news sure can pile up

We've been otherwise engaged in earning a living for the past week, and so here we are, trying to sift through the piles of disconcerting and discouraging news from the past week. Frankly we don't even know where to begin, or whether if we've already whinged electronically about half this stuff.

Twice this week, a professional colleague tried to engage us in a conversation about the Jays, and we pretty much just shut down emotionally and stared off into space, sigh and repeated banalities to keep ourselves together. ("Yeeeeeeep...yep...yep. Somethin' else, eh?. Yep. Not too good. Nope.")

So where to start? How with about the Cito Thing? (That's what we've taken to calling it, even though it's not totally about Cito and it's not just one thing.)

For brief moments, we had these notions that the move to Alex Anthopoulos and his initial moves augured well for a newish direction for the franchise. It's not that they needed to strip everything down or blow everything up, but they needed to make some adjustments to the balance of pro versus amateur scouting and they needed bring in some new voices.

At this point, we're all good.

And we're even vaguely optimistic about the three-year appointment of Paul Beeston, and feeling vaguely regretful about the tenor and tone of some of the bad things we've said about him recently.

And then, the Rogers Baseball Operations, led by The Merry Idiot Beeston, decide to delay any attempt to change the on-field leadership, and put off any decision about managerial succession off until next year. Which is smart, and sends out a TREMENDOUS message to the players on the team and the players who they may be trying to recruit to come to Toronto.

"Look prospective Blue Jay! We are a shit show! A team which is governed by nostalgia! A team which is about to spend a full season indulging a manager who has ostracized his players as a bunch of pussies! Who doesn't cotton to those who don't respect the decision-making of his protruding gut! A man who could give a fuck about losing his clubhouse! And by the way: Fuck those crybaby players! Now, can I offer you a dollar more than the other teams trying to sign you?"

Ask a sailor, and they'll tell you: Some days, the wind is with you and sometimes it's against you, but the worst thing that you can do is to allow yourself to drift.

Oh, we know that some of you are clever cats who wanna say "What does next year even matter anyway, because all the good free agents are coming out in 2011." Well, wouldn't it be ready to right the ship now and bring in someone new who could potentially make Toronto an attractive place to play?

By taking action, and empowering their new GM, the Blue Jays could (and should) be making a decision now about how they want the field level leadership of this team to relate to and govern the players who step between the lines and make the magic happen. Instead, they've decided to sit back, take it as it comes and let tomorrow take care of tomorrow. Which sounds like the decision-making process of a retiree. Too bad Beeston's retirement is on hold for the next three years.

P.S. - Thanks to the Ack for picking up the slack. (You see what WE did there?)

A two-sentence post on....the end of the season

Congratulations to the New York Yankee$, Major League Baseball's 2009 Champions.

But was it just me, or was that one of the coldest, most unemotional post-game celebrations - both on the field and in the stands - in the history of the World Series?

Baby steps (you gotta start somewhere)

Discounting the waiver claim of capital-P Project Sean Henn - who might have been worth keeping an eye on under the eye of now departed reclamation king Brad Arnsberg - the Jays began the inevitable (and necessary) roster makeover by claiming middle infielder Jarrett Hoffpauir from the Cardinals organization.

On first blush, it's an intriguing move, as Hoffpauir appears to have solid on-base skills, with a career minor league OBP of .365 (not a typo). The knock on the 26 year old appears to be his limited defensive skill set - and hello there, Brian Butterfield. Glad to see you weren't run out of town.

While Cards writer Brian Walton (see link above) seems to think this is just another Blue Jays "claim 'em & slide 'em through waivers" move (tough to argue the evidence), this addition to the 40-man bears watching for a variety of reasons:

1. These aren't your father's JP Ricciardi waiver wire claiming Blue Jays. It remains to be seen if these are really Alex A's Blue Jays, I guess, but let's give the retooled front office the benefit of the doubt on this one.

2. Outside of Aaron Hill, the entire infield - starters and reserves - is a major question mark heading into next season for the Jays, with Scutaro and McDonald heading to free agency. Jose Bautista and Eddie Encarnacion would be best advised to keep their real estate options open, too.

3. Did I mention the OBP? Oh, I did? How about the .843 OPS he put up in 350+ AAA at-bats last season. Why was this guy available again? Right - defense. Butter!!

Vernon Wells will remove the knife from his back and have it applied to his wrist
Word is that the much maligned Vernon Wells will have his left wrist repaired, after quietly dealing with the problem for a good portion of his brutal 2009 season. While it's certainly not unreasonable to believe the injury contributed to his miserable campaign, I don't think we should all go expecting the 2006 version of ol' Vern to reappear.

But a reasonable facsimile of the 2008 vintage Wells wouldn't be too much to ask, would it?

(No, seriously, I'm asking - what do you think is a reasonable expectation for Wells in 2010?)

Programming Note

Unlike his hacky (see what I did there) weekend contributor, the thoughtful and eloquent Tao is holding off on expressing his thoughts and opinions on all matters Blue Jay until such time as he is able to formulate a clear and concise discussion on recent developments.

That, or he is feverishly working on the blog's direction and long-term strategy.

That, or he is just too damn busy to post until later in the week.

Regardless, our benefactor sends his sincerest apologies for his absence. Until such time as he returns, you're stuck with below replacement-level efforts from yours truly. More to come later.

Playoffs!

Quotable

Cito, courtesy of Bastian:

"My gut is that I think Doc wants to be on a winning team -- whether he comes back here next year or is going to be gone the next year. I'm pretty sure that's what he's probably going to do, because he's probably sitting there looking at A.J. out there pitching, knowing that that's where he'd like to be. It's not about money with Doc. It's about him being on a winning team. I can't speak for Doc, but my gut feeling is if he's here next year with us, then he'll probably leave after next year. Hopefully, if that's the case, then we can get something for him before he leaves."

Uh, Cito? I don't want to spend the weekend piling on here....but shut the fuck up already.

Honestly.

If I'm cringing when I read that you're already sending Doc out of town, how do you think your GM feels?

Playoffs!

Oh wait - you've just informed the fanbase that the Jays won't be a winning team in the forseeable future. Got it.

So much for turning the page

Cito Gaston, the manager who completely lost the clubhouse at the end of last season, will be returning to fulfill the final lame duck year of his contract.

Brad Arnsberg, in the biggest non-coincidence in the history of baseball, will not be.

And to think....I was set to post about "turning the page" this weekend and embracing the new Blue Jays front office regime.

Instead - unless I can bottle my rage - I think I'm taking the rest of the weekend off. It's better for all of us this way.

Fuck this.

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.

How can you not love Beeston?

No really, this is the question that we've been asking ourselves for two days now. We heard him on Monday's Prime Time Sports (just catching up on podcasts), and it just seemed like everything he said seemed reassuring to us. Even when we thought he was lying, we still found warmth in his pants-on-fire.

Then we checked our wallet, and somehow, we were missing a fiver. Beeston!

What was the point of this...we were trying to get to some sort of clarity here. But we've got no time these days to dedicate to elucidate our thoughts.

Ah, forget it. Just go read Will Hill's interview with the Beest on TSN.ca.

You couldn't get rid of Paul Beeston if you tried

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

The Globe says the Paul Beeston has decided to remain where he is and remove the "interim" tag from his title. Presumably, so that he can enjoy many years of Alex Anthopoulos' pastel dress shirts.

Not sure what to think of this. Sure, it is nice to know that there's some sense of stability at 1 Blue Jays Way, and that one aspect of the off season equation is taken care of. But on the other side, we've lost an awful lot of faith in Beeston over the past year. (To the point where we've echoed Ghostrunner Drew's assessment of him as a "bumblefuck".)

If the Beest wants to quickly regain the confidence of the fans (and maybe more importantly, the players), he should immediately look to find a harmless consultant position into which he can move his good pal Cito.

It's time to stop living off past glories, and to start creating some new ones.

Long Distance Dedication to Beeston
Because the lyrics seem so appropriate: "The search is over / You were with me all the while." (Also, because this song is now stuck in my head, and I want to share that misery with y'all.)

The Tao's AL MVP Ballot

Hey kids! It's the last in our series of ballots for the Baseball Bloggers Alliance posteason awards.

We've always had some trouble with the whole "valuable" aspect of MVP awards. Mostly because when people start talking about a player's relative value, they point to a whole host of things that are generally beyond the player's control.

Was the player on a winner? A playoff team? Was he on a team that was good enough to get into the playoffs, but not good enough to get there without him? How tangible were his intangibles? And how big of a towel does he need to cover his dong after getting out of the shower?

(Okay, that last one was proabably a step too far. But you get the idea.)

In some ways, this is why we'd prefer to think of these awards as "Player of the Year" awards, so that you can rid yourself of all the extraneous horsepoop. Alas, we'll just play along so as not to be any more difficult than we need to be.

So how do we determine value? Well, as we mentioned in this snazzy interview with the New York Daily News' Jesse Spector, we're more of an OPS dude. Because some of the advanced metrics make our pretty head hurt. So we took a look at the leaders in OPS, then figured it out based upon our particular likes and dislikes and prejudices. (And our apologies to Shin-Soo Choo, who we really tried hard to get into our top ten. Because we think he's awesome. Maybe next year.) Anyways, here's what we came up with.

1) Joe Mauer, Twins - 1.031 OPS, 28 HR,96 RBI, 8.2 WAR: There really shouldn't be any debate about this, because Mauer's year was so far ahead of anyone else's. And if you are so inclined, you can consider the fact that he is a catcher, and heap an extra scoop full of intangible goodness on top. Mauer's season was one for the ages.

2) Mark Teixeira, Yankees - .948 OPS, 39 HR, 122 RBI, 5.2 WAR: There are those who love Derek Jeter, and think the sun shines out his ass, and therefore any of the glow around the new first baseman must just be the refracted light from his glory. But we think that Teixeira's outstanding season stands on its own.

3) Ben Zobrist, Rays - .948 OPS, 27 HR, 91 RBI, 8.5 WAR: In addition to putting up numbers that were stunningly surprising in the heart of a strong lineup, Zobrist also provided unparalleled defensive flexibility. By season's end, Zobrist had played every position on the diamond, save for catcher and pitcher, and provided good defense wherever he played.

4) Miguel Cabrera. Tigers -.942 OPS, 34 HR, 103 RBI, 5.5 WAR: Cabrera is a scary good hitter who more than carried his weight in a Detroit lineup that scuffled for much of the year.

5) Evan Longoria, Rays - .889 OPS, 33 HR, 100 RBI, 7.3 WAR: Longoria's exceptional fielding (14.4 UZR/150) bumps him up on this list.

6) Derek Jeter, Yankees - .871 OPS, 18 HR, 107 RBI, 7.4 WAR: We might hate him and all he stands for, but he had his best season in years, and posted a sterling .406 OBP.

7) Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox -.961 OPS, 27 HR, 99 RBI, 5.5 WAR: Okay, we really hate Youk. And we could make an argument that he should be higher on this list, but we suspect that his OBP is aided by some Fenway calls and his SLG is aided by the the Fenway dimensions. And we hate him.

8) Kendry Morales, Angels -.924 OPS, 34 HR, 108 RBI, 4.3 WAR: One of our favorite breakout stories this season. He has stepped up to the next level, assuming the role of the impact bat in the middle of the Angels lineup.

9) Adam Lind, Blue Jays -.932 OPS, 35 HR, 114 RBI, 3.7 WAR: In the value metrics, he takes a step back because of his dubious fielding and his role as the DH for most of the season. But Lind was the most consistent in the Jays offense, which actually ranked in near the top of the AL.

10) Alex Rodriguez, Yankees -.933 OPS, 30 HR, 100 RBI, 4.6 WAR: Love him or hate him, A-Rod produced in his 124 games this season. In a full season, he would have been in the top three.

Aroldis Chapman, huh?

Let me start by making one thing perfectly clear:

AROLDIS CHAPMAN IS NOT WALKING THROUGH THAT DOOR!

Even still, it is - at the very least - interesting to hear that the Jays are kicking the tires on the live-armed defector. With the Red Sox and Yankees interested, and the unproven Cuban reportedly looking for a contract in the $40M-$60M range (what!?), it's a pipe dream for the Jays to actually be "in" on the player (see what I did there?).....but the fact the team is even being mentioned in rumours has to count for something, yes? Yes.

Is this a peek into AA's money-burning soul? Has Rogers actually opened the wallet? Did this offseason suddenly get a lot more interesting? Are you tired of me extending this post by asking questions we can't possibly know the answer to?

Yeah, I dunno. It's the rumour mill. Take it with a shaker of salt. The team hasn't even set the direction yet - or so we were sorta kinda maybe told by Mr. Tony Viner - so it's difficult to imagine this is anything more than due diligence on a free agent. If even that much is actually fact.

And hey, if nothing ever comes of this, I hear that Kenny Takahashi is available.

Mandatory JP Ricciardi update
So, the Red Sox have offered JP a spot in their front office. Makes sense, right? Of course it does. No, not because Ricciardi is a native Massholian who hated Toronto and secretly made moves with an eye on his hometown team.

It makes sense because the Red Sox are a smart, well run organization. Yeah, I said it.

(And yes, I just choked even typing words of praise to the Sox.)

Alex Anthopoulos is a keener

And trust us when we say that we think that's a good thing.

AA spoke to MLB.com's Jordan Bastian this week, and noted that he's made about 30 phone calls to players and staff since getting elevated to the GM post. You know, just a little chinwag...sussin' stuff out, seeing how people are doin'.

Call us crazy or naive or blindly hopeful, but the idea that Alex is talking one-on-one to everyone in the organization and quietly, privately addressing what was happening with the team and assessing where the players' heads are at makes us think that maybe this team might be taking some steps in the right direction.

We know that the details have been slow to come out, and after a full season of stasis in the front office, we're all a little stir crazy and anxious for the team to start making significant moves. But at the very least, it sounds like the groundwork is being laid for the long winter ahead.

And as much as people have us pegged as a J.P. apologist, we'd like nothing more than to see AA succeed wildly.

Viner speaks, says little
This is ground that was covered well by the Drunks yesterday, but suffice to say that Rogers Media CEO Tony Viner's interview with the Bobcat was something less than enlightening.

That shouldn't be a surprise. It's not like Viner could come out at this point and make any promises about the direction of the team, or promise vast amounts of cash for payroll.

(Although the longer that Rogers types obfuscate and throw out the notion that it could be $50 million, or $100 million or $150 million, the more that we start to think that it will be the middle number and not much more.)

Mostly, is scares us the Paul Beeston is still (allegedly begrudgingly) involved in the decision-making process. Because we've lost a lot of faith in his magical powers.

Pining for Manny Acta

The G&M's Jeff Blair dropped two shots of happy into our drink yesterday when he suggested that it was somewhere withing the realm of possibility that the Jays could make a run at former Nationals manager Manny Acta.

We should probably check ourselves here before we get into some irrational thoughts about what Manny Acta could actually do to make this team better. There is a bit of a Cult of the Manager amongst baseball types (mostly writers and broadcasters), who inherently pass along the credit for any team that appears to be outperforming expectations to the bench boss.

This is why we think that the Manager of the Year Award (or the "Wow, That Team Did Unexpectedly Well Award") is kind of a crock of poo.

At the same time, Manny Acta would bring some very tangible assets to the Blue Jays that we think can only help the club. For instance: He's not Cito Gaston. That's a good start.

Acta is also a young man (40), and while we don't want to be ageist, the MLB season is an eight month grind for which a younger man may have more stamina. Also, Acta can speak Spanish, which in this day and age is a huge asset. Can you imagine how he much more effective Acta could have been in yelling at Alex Rios: "Hola amigo. ¿Por qué es tu cabeza en el culo?"

Mostly though, we're focusing on the whole "Manny is not Cito" aspect of things. That gives us a little hope.

Our 2009 Roy Halladay Award ballot (Formerly the Cy Young Award)

If you ask us, they should just give Roy Halladay the Cy Young award every year, and then let him decide which pitcher in the league he deems most worthy of winning the award. Because you know he'd always pick exactly the right guy, with his trademark precision.

Alas, that's not the case, so indulge us as we go through our charade of a shadow ballot for the Baseball Bloggers Alliance:

1) Stupid Zack Greinke of the Stupid Kansas City Stupid Royals and his stupid excellent numbers (2.16 ERA, 242 Ks / 51 BBs, 1.07 WHIP, 9.4 WAR): There's no question that we want to give the top spot on our ballot to Roy Halladay, but Greinke's numbers across the board are just thatmuch too amazing to ignore. Those are Bob Gibson or Pedro Martinez numbers, so it would be a touch hard to defend our homerism if we were to ignore his great season. (Although having said that, we would note that Greinke's numbers probably wouldn't look nearly as shiny if he toed the rubber ten times against the Yankees and Red Sox.)

2) His Roy-al Docness, Harry LeRoy Halladay, Toronto Blue Jays (2.79 ERA, 208 Ks / 38 BBs, 1.13 WHIP, 7.3 WAR): Truth be told, there isn't a single pitcher in the Majors that we'd rather have than Doc. And if at some point in the next few years, if he should go to some other division where he's notfacing the Yanks and Sox and Rays all of the time, or if he should go to pitch in the Quadruple-A National League, he'll post numbers that will make people nauseous. We'll give the nod to Greinke because we're having a hard time quantifying the difference between their stregnth of schedules. (So essentially, we can't give Doc the award because we suck at math. We're sorry Roy...we've failed you again.)

3) Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners (2.49 ERA, 217 Ks / 71 BBs, 1.14 WHIP, 6.9 WAR): King Felix's ERA and win totals were better than Doc's, but most of the other relevant numbers are on par and we really could give a shit about wins. Plus, Doc plays in a man's game in the AL East. So we keep Hernandez in third for this year.

Honorable Mention: Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers (3.45 ERA, 269 Ks / 63 BBs, 1.18 WHIP, 8.2 WAR) : We're pretty certain that lots of bloggers will point to Verlander's value metric as justification for him to be on the ballot. But he just got too many easy innings this season in a pitchers' park and a pitcher's division. The big numbers he posted versus the White Sox, Cleveland and Kansas City don't impress us much.

Interesting fun facts!
Although the three non-Halladays mentioned above had good seasons, they were no match for the mighty offense of the Blue Jays this season. Each of them got two starts against the Jays this season, and posted some of their worst ERA numbers against the Toronto Nine:

Greinke: 5.25
Felix: 6.59
Verlander: 10.97

Who knows? Maybe the Jays were trying to put a dent into their Cy Young chances for Doc.