Looking Back At Alex Rios

There are a lot of guys in baseball I just can't help but cheer for. This ranges anywhere from guys who've had ridiculous amounts of success right from day one, like Evan Longoria, to guys who have had to deal with critics from the day they were drafted, like Ricky Romero, to guys with limited skill sets, like John McDonald. The thing these guys all have in common, to me, is their desire to win and, to use a crappy cliche, "make the most of their talent", whether they have enough for two players or barely enough to stay in the big leagues.

That's one reason Alex Rios frustrated the hell out of me when he was with Toronto. He had so much natural talent that it looked like he would inevitably become a superstar, and when he was signed to that seven-year contract a few years back at $10MM/year, it looked like a great deal. Yet, despite some flashes of brilliance, he never lived up to what he could have been.

In 2006, he appeared to be breaking out, before fouling a pitch off his leg and developing a staph infection (despite there being no actual cut or scrape). He had 15 HR by the All-Star Break that year and only 2 afterwards, so it was obvious that the infection had taken a lot out of him. The next season, all looked to be fine in Rios-world, when he hit 17 HR by the break, and although he finished with just 24 on the season, his .354/.498/.852 line was very good, considering his outstanding defense in right field.

His 2008 season at the dish was a large disappointment, as he took a step backwards, finishing at .337/.461/.798. However, it's largely forgotten that he put up staggering defensive numbers - a UZR of 21.7 - and he actually had his best season, WAR-wise.

I think everyone else sensed it too, that there was something missing about this guy. His 2008 season included an above-average bat, 32 SB and outstanding defense. What's not to like, right? Normally, that would be the case, but fans in 2009 got on his case really quickly, culminating in his admission that he doesn't give a fuck. Oh, and his salary dump on the White Sox.

Despite my frustration of Rios' failure to unlock his tantalizing potential, I was quite pissed at that transaction. Part of it was the rumours that Ricciardi had been offered actual prospect packages for Rios. Part of it was my belief that he could somehow get turned around in 2010.

I remember watching his interview with Sam Cosentino in some tunnel in (I believe) Yankee Stadium. He was looking all sad and Sam had just asked him how excited he was to be going to a team in a playoff race. I'll never forget how he answered. I'm paraphrasing because I obviously don't remember the actual quotation, but his response went something like this:

"Yeah... I'm sort of excited to be going to a playoff hunt. It maybe will be fun. I don't know. I've never been in a playoff... in the playoffs before, so, yeah, sure."

He clearly didn't give a fuck about winning. In fact, his face had gone from sad disappointment to utter confusion ("Why is this guy asking me if I'm excited about winning?"). What a waste.

While I'm not sure how much truth there was to the trade rumours, and how much money the Jays would have had to eat to make them work, the second half of my fears began to be realized almost instantly in 2010. He had a remarkable May, slugging 8 HR, stealing 7 bases (against 2 CS) and OPS-ing over 1.100. It looked like he had started to give a fuck. Still, I wondered if he would be able to keep that up for a whole season because, you know, he had half a year to remember that he doesn't give a fuck. Or maybe the change of scenery would be good for him?

Well, it's August now. His Chicago White Sox are 3.0 GB of first in the AL Central. His K-rate is growing back to career norms and he has 8 SB to 9 CS since June 1. He's OPS-ing .632 since the All-Star Break. And I'm starting to think that maybe it was a mirage - specifically, a one-month mirage, as he's OPS'd under .800 in every month not named May.

What does that mean? Well, not much, really. I think the sample size is still small enough to not be able to draw definitive conclusions and things can change in the future. For now though, I'm happy that he left town and gave Bautista a chance to do a... pretty OK job in right field. I'm confident AA will take advantage of the $60MM of his books. And I haven't really watched the White Sox this year, but it looks like Alex Rios still doesn't give a fuck.

Another One-Hitter?

Brings back memories. First, Halladay's bittersweet second ever Major League start. I couldn't stomach the thought of coming so close to history and just failing to see it happen. I remember just staring into the television wondering if time could somehow be reversed for a few minutes there, so that Shannon Stewart may have leaped 10 feet into the air to rob Bobby Higginson of his pinch-hit, 2-out ballbreaker of a home run. Never happened.

Then, Dustin McGowan, taking a no-hitter into the ninth and seeing it broken up by the first batter. It was, to me, a remarkably similar story. A young, right-handed fireballer coming up and shutting down the opposing team until the last second. The only difference that day for me, as a spectator, was that I remember calling my friends in the third inning to tell them that McGowan was going to pitch a no-hitter that day. Never happened.

And then there are all the near-no-hitters and perfect games that the incredible Blue Jays rotation has popped into the boxscores this year, including at least two other times in which Brandon Morrow took one into the 6th inning or later. The most painful of all, of course was seeing Ricky Romero lose his bid in the 8th inning against the White Sox. Alex Rios had been booed all series long and responded by going 4-8 in his first two games against his former team in the first two games. Although he only had one hit in the second game (the one in which Romero pitched), he made it count, by ending the no-hitter with a home run. What bothered me about that eight inning was a number of things. First of all, Rios has been known to not care about - excuse me - not give a f??k. I had the odd feeling that booing him and making him sad and angry inside would bring out his indisputable talent. It's sad that he had to end Romero's chance of being recorded in the history books like that. Second, and possibly worse, is what happened the batter before Rios. A.J. Pierzynski took a ball in the dirt a few inches away from his feet and acted like he was hit by a pitch. This put Ricky into the stretch and the rest is history (or, not history).

In any case, that sucked. I could go on for hours about how much of an asshole Pierzynski is and how much of a waste of talent Rios is, but that's not the point. With all of the no-hit teases we, as Blue Jays fans have been subjected to, it hurts to see such a magical start by Brandon Morrow ended because a weak dribbler found a hole (in the infield defense and, apparently, Aaron Hill's glove). Sportsnet said during the broadcast that there have been 18 one-hitters in Blue Jays history and just the one no-no by Dave Stieb. That's a rather unfortunate ratio, considering how many times in recent memory they have come to repeating the feat, not even including the one-hitters.

A few last thoughts before I finish the less happy part of my rant:

Evan Longoria is a damn good hitter. In fact, I think he's such a complete player, a true 5-tool talent, that if I could pick any one player in baseball, regardless of contract or age, to start off a team, I'd pick him first. For that reason, I was almost yelling at my TV after Ben Zobrist's walk, knowing that Carl Crawford would not hit into a double play, and knowing that Evan Longoria would be due up in the inning. It really, really sucks, however, because, with all his talent, "Don't call me Eva" Longoria had to hit a ball about as softly as he can muster and find a hole - OK, I've been there already.

Anyways, the positives. There are a lot of them and I'm finding it hard to accept them because of all the damn teasing:

1. Brandon Morrow recorded 17 strikeouts. That is by far the best non-PED-assisted strikeout total in Blue Jays history (Roger Clemens got between 15 and 18 on 4 separate occasions, I believe, according to Sportsnet).

2. The Blue Jays swept the Rays, winning the games by incredibly-varying-from-day-to-day scores of 2-1, 17-11 and 1-0. First time they've even taken a series from Tampa since 2008! They now sit 8.0 GB of the Wild Card. Still unlikely, but, you know, you never know.

3. The first guy I mentioned in this post, the one in 1998... he eventually got his no-hitter in perfect game format. Sure, that was bittersweet, because it happened just about right after he left the Jays, but the path he took to get to it was quite interesting. I can't count how many one-hitters he posted, but I can say without looking anything up that he's had a decent career since that heartbreaking no-hit bid.

Putting the "Dead" in Deadline

There was so much hype going into the trade deadline that the Blue Jays might be baseball's biggest seller. So much, in fact, that I was actually losing sleep because my mind was running over all the possibilities. What big-time prospect will they get for Downs? What kind of young player could they get for Buck? Who's going to be stupid enough to give up something for Gregg?

Most of all, I was excited to see some of our young guns knocking on the doorstep come up and get their feet wet. Two months of everyday MLB action could only help when the team comes back in 2011 with a shot at contention. Then Wallace got traded and I still haven't been able to wrap my head around it enough to rant about it. I don't think I dislike that trade at all, but it was such a weird move for a team that's almost ready to compete that it was a mind-boggler. I was also anxious to see some of the veteran bullpen arms get shipped out so that guys like Josh Roenicke and Jeremy Accardo get back up here and be given a real shot. So much for that.

But, you know, with a few days to get over the let-down of no action at the deadline, I've fully come to terms with it. Sure, it was disappointing not only that the Jays couldn't add to their quickly deepening minor league system and it was disappointing not to be able to watch some fresh blood up here when the games in the last couple of months will be otherwise meaningless. I guess I can accept what's happened because of the organization's philosophy. They're looking to add players with very high ceilings any way they can. When teams did not offer some of their best prospects, the Blue Jays rightfully said no and will wait until their veterans, many of whom are Type A's and B's walk in free agency. The high-round draft picks that they will get next June will take much longer to reach the MLB than a Double-A guy that could have been had, but it's the ceiling that they're looking at, not the timeline.

There is possibly no better example of this than in the Wallace-Gose trade. The Blue Jays gave up a sure-fire MLBer - who was pretty much immediately called up by the Astros - in Wallace for a guy who will likely be no more than a fourth-outfielder. Although he's struggled with making contact and drawing walks (and hitting for power [and not getting caught stealing this year]), Gose is still 19 and supposedly has insane amounts of speed and if he develops properly, he can be a guy around whom empires can potentially be built.

So that's that. I haven't stupidly lost faith in the Blue Jays front office for failing to make a trade for the sake of it and acquire new, mediocre prospects for us to drool over and watch turn into mediocre MLB players. That's not how you'll ever win, especially in this hell of a division the Blue Jays have been damned to inhabit. We've already waited 17 years for a taste of the playoffs. Getting back there isn't a process that can be rushed. Quality still rules over quantity. That said, I still believe that next year, the team will be strong enough to have a legitimate shot at contention. They probably still won't make the playoffs in a division with three of the top 5 teams in baseball, but they've been consistently in the top 10 for most of the last decade and are improving.

Updated: I was pushed off the computer between the fourth and fifth paragraphs for long enough that... J.P. Arencibia will be called up after all. I feel bad for John Buck, who's been everything we could have hoped for as a $2MM catcher (and seems like a good person, unlike that f?ckhead who juicedly fouled the ball off of him), but I'm definitely really excited to see him play Cito bench the penguins out of him. Here's hoping to that not happening, as he figures to be a big part of our future, whether it means he stays on as catcher for a few years or gets traded for other stuff.

Oh yeah, and maybe they make some trades in August.

Jose Bautista, Utility Player

Title says it all.

Actually, that's what it says on Wikipedia. Seriously. The MLB HR leader at the end of July, with 30. Hopefully, whoever wrote that meant "utility player" in the sense that he can play multiple positions, not in the sense that he was mostly a journeyman bench player for most of his career.

But who the heck is this guy? I don't think anyone knows for sure, probably not even Jose himself. This is a guy who I was somewhat upset to see traded for Robinzon Diaz, who I thought was a pretty good catching prospect. This is a guy who came over in August 2008 from Pittsburgh and immediately (and darkly humorously) became the Blue Jays' HR leader with 12. This is a guy whose best asset at the time was his ability to change facial hair four times a week.

Not anymore. I remember watching this guy and cringing when he first came over because he looked like he was wildly (and unsuccessfully) swinging for the fences EVERY SINGLE PITCH. 0-2 count when leading off the third inning? Swing wildly for the fences. Down by 3 runs with bases empty in 9th inning? Swing for the fences. Using a fungo to hit ground balls to infielders during practice? Swing for the fences.

In 2009, his stupid-looking swing continued, and although he hit well against lefties, he sucked against right-handers, posting OPS's of .919 and .664, respectively. And then he went off in the last month and crushed 10 home runs. That put a few thoughts in my head. First, I didn't mind the trade so much anymore because Robinzon Diaz hadn't become much of anything. Second, I thought his versatility could mean something to the team, and I thought the sudden showing of power might be useful off the bench in 2010. I really didn't want to see him non-tendered, as many people thought he might be.

When talk came out of him becoming a regular, I was dumfounded. Most pitchers are right-handed, and he's proven that he can't hit righties at all. Then talk that Cito wanted him in the leadoff role? Shit. As I let that idea sit, however, I started warming up to it. I was thinking that, maybe, in the leadoff role, he might learn to stop swinging for the fences on every single pitch and try to make solid contact more. And, just as they let Marco Scutaro hit in the leadoff spot for a year (which netted them two high draft picks), I thought maybe the same could be done with Bautista, or he could be traded for a nice prospect at the deadline.

I didn't see this coming, however. Apparently, what has happened to Bautista boils down to just two things, which he mentions every time he's interviewed.

1. Regular playing time. Makes sense; it worked for Marco Scutaro, utility player extraordinaire, didn't it?

2. "Getting started earlier". Bautista has said that getting ready to swing the bat ahead of time has helped him. And, what do you know, his stupid wild-looking swing is gone.

So, what does this mean? I, for one, was not at all convinced that he was for real when he started off strong this year. He was available for at least a month on the waiver wires in each of my four fantasy leagues and I passed every time. I knew that he had the potential to hit 15-20 HR with regular playing time, but not 45, which he's actually on pace to exceed. Ridiculous.

He's still under control for another year and I do believe that the Jays have a chance of competing next year, so I'm in no rush to trade him. I would be disappointed if he didn't post another OBP north of .350 next year with 25 bombs, and any team can use that from a guy who can play so many positions. But what if the best possible deal comes along now?

All I can say is that I've never felt so confident in the Blue Jays' GM that the right move will be made. If two top prospects can be had for Bautista, I wouldn't be against a deal. Anything less, and I don't see Anthopoulos giving up on the guy.

Whatever happens, Bautista has been one of many bright spots on this season. From his massive home runs to his laser beam shots that I hope no one tried to catch bare-handed, to his rocket for a right arm, he's living proof that a team can be fun and exciting to follow even when buried beneath the filthy excess of the American League East.

Lifting Tallet

Yeah, I can't say I didn't see that coming. When Cito leaves his starter in there until his pitch count runs dry or he gets really deep into trouble, I don't think that's a huge deal. There probably is something to be said for developing confidence and an ability to "battle". But in game 2 of the Detroit double-header, the starter, Jesse Litsch, had been pulled after 5.1 good innings and replaced with mop-up reliever BBrian Tallet. That move was perfectly fine, considering the fact that they only had Tallet, Frasor, Janssen and Purcey available that game.

Tallet did an OK job getting out of the inning, allowing one of the 2 runners he inherited to score and getting the last two outs of the inning. Miraculously, he also breezed through the 7th without giving up a baserunner. With a 4-2 lead going into the 8th and three relievers left in the pen, that would have been a great time to get the innings-eater out of there in favour of, um, a good pitcher. Sure, you don't want to have to use two pitchers in the 8th and 9th and go into extras with just one guy left who can go 2, maybe 3 innings at most. What's the probability of a 2-run game going into the 12th inning though? Besides, if that was your worry, then why not bring in Janssen or Purcey to finish the 6th and 7th, then have the other one do the 8th and 9th in combination with Frasor? That way you have Tallet if you think the game will go into the 14th inning.

Gaston clearly blew this one. BBrian Tallet's ERA now sits at 6.27 (a number lowered by his several starts this year). And Jason Frasor's inability to help Tallet out of his mini-jam couldn't have helped his trade value, but that's another story.

Uninspiring

When was the last time we had a closer this uninspiring? A huge, 6'6", 250+ lbs. guy with glasses staring down batters in the ninth inning who's able to intimidate the heck out of other grown men. For about 5 seconds, which is the amount of time before he throws his first warm-up pitch and they realize he throws like a girl.

Sorry, that was rude. No self-respecting girl playing professional baseball would go about their business walking more than a batter every two innings. No self-respecting baseball player, PERIOD, goes and shows up his manager on the mound after getting pulled for walking THREE BALTIMORE ORIOLES in less than an inning. Kevin Gregg. He of the triple-G, double-B, full-of-suck, needs-to-be-traded... thing. He does that. And that's only half of why he's the least inspiring closer I can remember.

Giving BJ Ryan $47MM was moronic. It was, by far, JP Ricciardi's stupidest move. Even if he had stayed healthy all five years, stayed as unsustainably dominant for all five years, he would have pitched 350 innings at most. And although we knew he'd never stay that good and would quickly turn into the waste of money that he was, he at least got people excited for a time, what with his stupid-looking delivery and sometimes-unhittable sliders. Downs after him was a trustable closer because of his groundball tendencies and good walk-rates. Heck, Frasor had that split-fingered changeup going for a while, and even Accardo and Miguel Batista had pretty dirty splitters that could be counted on once in a while.

Gregg? Well, pretty much the only thing you can say about him is he should have a decent chance of getting a double play every time he toes the rubber. Because he's always walking people or leaving hittable pitches up in the zone that even bad hitters will jump all over for singles. And what's his out pitch? It seems like he can't even decide how he wants to get guys out, let alone hit his spots once he's made his pitch selection. He throws (at least) a cutter, 4-seamer, 2-seamer, a curveball, a splitter, and a slider. I'm pretty sure I've never seen a ball with changeup velocity + movement, so I'm not sure if he's thrown that this year, but still: 6 different pitches, all of which he can't consistently throw for strikes or rely on to fool batters to strike them out.

At least he ended the game quickly enough tonight, even if it was by letting the lowly KC Royals whack him around for 3 hits and have a guy on first distract him into a 4-pitch walk.

He's Breaking Unwritten Rules!

If you had told me before the season that the Blue Jays would be leading the league in home runs for most of the year, I'd have said, "Sure, why not?". If you had told me at the same time that they'd also go without a grand slam for the first half and have their salami-less streak ended by Yunel Escobar, then -

Well, anyways, I'm glad we got this guy and all, even with the possible headcase baggage, but I'm really starting to get worried about him. He bunts the pitch he sees in a Jays uniform - a clear no-no under Cito - and then bunts again two days later?! And then decides to end his season-long homerless drought by depriving all of his longer-tenured teammates, including the MLB leader in home runs, of the opportunity to hit the team's first grand slam this year? Way out of line. Next thing you know, he'll be hitting for average and drawing walks, becoming a positive OBP force at the top of the lineup.

He was kicked off of the Braves for "not playing like a Brave", whatever the heck that means. Well, he's not playing like a Blue Jay right now. He's overstayed his welcome. Good thing there's still two weeks until the trade deadline.

Misdirected Anger

Kevin Gregg is becoming a tired act with Jays fans has been getting on our nerves for a while now sucks. I know, he's third in the AL in saves, or whatever, but clean innings aren't his thing, which always makes people nervous. He was (inexplicably) incredible in April, barely walking anybody, but BBecame a BBad pitcher not too long after that. That reached its climax in that disgusting game against the Rays, in which he nibbled and nibbled, walking five(!) guys and blowing the game in spectacular fashion. Then he blew up at the ump, even though he was clearly sucking all on his own.

Tonight? Almost the same. Three walks in the ninth before being pulled by Cito while the Jays were still up. This time, it looked to me that Gregg didn't have a remotely fair strikezone (Camp, who took over, got a strike call on a pitch much farther outside than pitches Gregg didn't get), but I guess he was afraid of getting ejected again. I'm glad he didn't yell at the umpire this time, as having a reputation for being a hothead can never help you in any way, but having words for your manager after being pulled for sucking? That's weak.

Good for Cito too. Or is that him? The Manager used three pitchers in the 8th and had Camp ready if Downs hadn't gotten a DP to end the inning. Matchups, eh? I thought keeping your players' confidence up was the key to success? In any case, you can't argue with pulling Gregg in that spot. He now has a very unprofessional-looking 21 walks in just 36 innings. That's mopup man stuff right there, not closer material by any means.

For those of us sick of Gregg, we won't have to wait long. The deadline is only 2 weeks away, and with Gregg slated to be a Type B free agent in the offseason (and a low-ish salary), there's got to be some desperate team willing to toss us a few prospects for him. He also has some wacky options tied onto that contract of him for 1 or 2 years at over $4MM a season. Maybe some special GM will see those as having some value. I'm quite excited to see what guys like Purcey and Roenicke can do in high-leverage situations with some of our expiring relievers heading out the door in the next two weeks. Hopefully Gregg is one of them, because that's one walk I don't mind seeing Gregg doing.

What the Hill?

Last year, Blue Jays fans were all wondering what the heck was up with Wells and Rios. They had come off of decent although unspectacular 2008 seasons with a fair recent history of being stars. For all of the first half, I was hoping that they'd snap out of it, that they would join guys like Hill and Lind (who were mashing opposing pitchers like boiled potatoes) and create a very deep, potent offence.

Never happened. Rios ended up being given away for free to the White Sox, unloading the remaining $60MM of his long contract from the Jays' books. He ended up sucking harder than ever in the Windy City, posting an OPS of .530 (you read that right). Although I was pissed as heck at Ricciardi for giving up so quickly on a young star, seeing Rios take his "I don't give a f&ck" act to Chicago and produce slightly less than a cornfield irrigated with seawater alleviated some of that annoyance.

Wells, meanwhile, continued to suck in Toronto. I remember going to a game in September and yelling at him to not suck next year (this year) and got a lot of confused looks from fans around me. I still stand by what I said (it's not like I was booing him pointlessly or insulting his family), and hey, maybe he listened. He hasn't sucked this year. Neither has Rios, for that matter. In fact, Rios has probably been one of 2010's most dangerous hitters. I'm not even going to bother checking on his stats because that will just confirm all of our suspicions that dumping him FOR NOTHING was an idiotic idea. Especially when they were offered prospects for Rios at the deadline. And now they've traded for another young player with similar mental issues as Rios. But I digress.

I was wondering when Rios and Wells were stinking it up last year if this kind of thing could ever happen to Hill and Lind. People around me were telling me that was impossible; their mental game is much stronger. But look at Wells - he's always managed to keep a straight head and play hard, even if it didn't look like he was doing it last year. The thing is, hitting a baseball is such a difficult task that if one little thing goes wrong, everything can go wrong. If your mechanics are off by an unnoticeable sliver of a toenail, a would-be line drive can turn into a harmless grounder. Even worse: an unlucky draft of wind that blows the ball down by 1 cm before it makes contact with the bat can do the same thing, and there's nothing you can do about that. All you can hope for is that, over time, it all evens out. You expect to get a stray draft to blow the ball just onto the barrel of the bat just as often as it will knock it off.

Sounds stupid, doesn't it? Well, maybe not. Think about it - his .180 BABIP is the lowest in the majors, driven largely by a 9.2% line-drive rate (less than half his career 19%). His struggles have admittedly made him more prone to chasing pitches, swinging at 32.4% of pitches out of the zone, compared to 22.9% in his career. But he's still made contact overall 84.4% of the time, which is exactly his career average. This has generated a 14.6% K rate, which is about the same as his 14.1% in his career. Moreover, he has walked at a career high 8.9%.

I'll argue also that he has been ridiculously unlucky on balls he has hit hard. If you've been watching, you'd have noticed a lot of hard-hit ground balls and liners of his have been turned into outs. The worst thing about this is a caught line drive is much more likely to be considered a flyball than one that drops in. I don't have the statistics to back it up, but I cannot believe for a moment that he's hitting line drives 9% of the time. A lot of balls that I am certain would have been scored line drives had they been in the gaps have been snared by outfielders, making them look like simple flyballs. Finally, it seems that he's hit a ton of balls just foul down the lines. With a little more luck, his line drives in play will fall in front of outfielders or between them, and his balls down the line will be just fair. Had he been a little luckier, his line drive rate this year could have easily been 15% or so. Logically, that would likely have made him press a little less and perhaps swing at fewer bad pitches.

Maybe I'm going down a slippery slope with this argument. Fact is, it seems to me that Hill has been just barely missing a lot of pitches or barely missing spots to drop his hits in. When his luck picks up a little, you can be sure he'll be back to his former self. Although their struggles were somewhat different, it happened to Rios and Wells after an atrocious 2009 for both of them.

I'm predicting that Hill will put up a .290/.350/.480 line in the second half. If his luck takes a HUGE correction, making up for his first half, that could go to .350/.420/.580 at best. But that's the gambler's fallacy, if I'm not mistaken, so I'll stick with the first line.

The Marco Scutaro Trade

On Novemeber 18, 2007, The Oakland A's sent Marco Scutaro to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Minor League pitchers Graham Godfrey (34th rd, 2006) and Kristian Bell (11th rd, 2004). Scutaro was brought in to be a utility man, having proven that he can play 2nd base and 3rd base relatively well and provide adequate defence at shortstop and left field.

He had an OK 2008, filling in for various injuries at all infield positions and putting up a mediocre OPS+ of 88. Fine, I thought. This is a decent utility guy who can probably have a good career filling in every once in a while. You can imagine how confused I was, then, when he was announced to be the Jays' starting shortstop and leadoff hitter in 2009.

Boy, was I ever wrong. Not only had I failed to realize that he was well liked by fielding metrics, but he managed a 3.1 WAR on the strength of his good fielding. And then came his career year at the plate, in which he walked at a 13.2% clip and posted 111 OPS+, although his fielding metrics went down considerably. He was entertaining to watch (notably stealing second base on his own walk against Joe Blanton in Philadelphia) and quickly became a fan favourite, with good reason. Best of all, he attained type A free agent status.

...

When Alex Anthopoulos signed John McDonald for 2 years at $1.5MM each year, I thought for sure he'd become the Jays' primary shortstop in this "building" season. A few days later, as you may recall, he also inked Alex Gonzalez (who shares the same name as my all-time favourite Blue Jay) for a $2.75, 1-year deal with a team option for $2.5MM. I didn't really like it but didn't think much of it. Another all-glove, no-bat shortstop for a year, probably won't pick up the option. And it's not my $2MM+, so no big deal. Then I thought of the possibility that Anthopoulos pulled Gonzalez before the Red Sox could re-sign him, as they had thought quite highly of him as a player, having traded for him in 2009. Could it have forced the Red Sox to, in turn, sign Scutaro? Maybe. In any case, that gave the Jays the #34 (Aaron Sanchez) and #80 (Justin Nicolino) picks in the 2010 Amateur Draft. Young, high-upside pitchers.

And then Gonzalez started to hit lots of home runs. By the All-Star Break, he led all AL shortstops with a 112 OPS+, somehow failing to make the All-Star Game. It's too bad, because that would be the last chance Jays fans would have had to see him in a Jays uniform.

...

So now Toronto's left with Yunel Escobar, a cheap, talented 27-year-old shortstop under team control until 2013, and Jo-Jo Reyes, a once-highly-considered prospect who has simply stunk at the MLB level so far. A reclamation project of sorts.

But let's focus on Escobar. This is a guy who the Braves probably wouldn't have traded for Travis Snider three months ago. Young shortstops with career OBPs of .370 with speed, growing power and elite defence don't grow on trees, after all. The fact that he wasn't liked in Atlanta has been spun a number of different ways. Some insist that it is a lack of hustle and too much showboating that made him lose favour with management. Others insist that he just never felt comfortable in Atlanta, and maybe a change of scenery will do him good. The truth, as it almost always is, is most likely somewhere in the middle. Escobar didn't learn much English, which clearly distanced him from his teammates and the media, as well as American culture. But when several sources criticize someone's attitude, it's unlikely that it's being fabricated. This is reminiscent of the Rios scenario with the Jays last year, and the Jays are hopeful that a change will wake him up as well as let him settle down.

Oh yeah, the Jays traded 5'7" Tim Collins of the 15+K/9 ratio and SS Tyler Pastornicky to the Braves. Potentially good players, but you have to give talent to get it.

...

It's a bit of a stretch to say that Graham Godfrey and Kristian Bell, along with Collins and Pastornicky were traded for Yunel Escobar, Jo-Jo Reyes, Justin Nicolino and Aaron Sanchez. But the fact is, despite all that's been made of the Jays' shortstop conundrum of late, all that has turned around, starting with Marco Scutaro's great performance in 2009. After the Jays and Red Sox essentially traded shortstops in the offseason, the Jays won out, receiving a huge first half from Gonzalez (and 2 young drafted pitchers) and spinning that into potentially a great player for the longer term. And the salaries in all of that? Scutaro earned $2.65MM in his 2 years in Toronto, and Alex Gonzalez about $1.5MM in his half season. That adds up to about two fifths of what they're paying B.J. Ryan this year.

Giguere Will Fit Right In

I was just looking over at his W-L-OTL stats. 4-8-5. 5 overtime losses. Awesome. In all seriousness, of course, overtime losses can be a little random, especially with that damned shootout rule they added to appease the rednecks. But still, he'll fit right - hey, he just got a shutout? That can't be right! I thought that the post-lockout rules stated that goalies are not allowed to get shutouts in a Leafs uniform. Wait, you say he wasn't in a Leafs uniform?

I think we should let him keep his semi-ducks uniform until further notice. Yeah, that'll do it. I didn't see the whole game, but the fact that the three new guys were anointed the three stars seems kind of cheesy to me (I don't know if these were the same 3 stars as chosen during the game, but whatever). But I'm sure most Leafs fans enjoy that kind of cheese. New players!!!1 Playoffs!!!1

I'm not sure what to make of the trade yet, except this: their third best forward is... Lee Stempniak? That's not exactly depth on offense. And when you're giving up over 3 goals a game, that could be a problem. If Phaneuf ends up remembering how to be good and stuff, then it'll end up working out, of course. Oh yeah, and they got that prospect, which I guess is good, especially since the Leafs won't be picking much in the first round for the next couple of years.

There's An Asterisk Beside His Confession Too

Mark McGwire finally admitted to using steroids. In other mind-boggling news, Ron Wilson has come out publicly saying that he hopes the Leafs can start winning more.

It's been known for a long time that McGwire used the stuff. Look at the way he dodged the questions that Congress asked him a few years ago, stumbling through some bullshit about "I'm not here to talk about the past." Well too bad, juiceface, the government summoned you to talk about it. Being all rebellious and saying that you'd rather talk about "positive" things doesn't look good.

Should it really surprise anyone now that he's admitting it? Maybe I'm just cynical but when Alex Roidriguez confessed, I wasn't surprised at all. A-Roid's confession was a load of crap and crocodile tears - he only used it for a year or so? Again, bullshit. There was evidence against him based on the drug test from that year, so he didn't really give up much by admitting it and he couldn't man up by saying that he had used it at other times. Anyone who believes that is an idiot or a Yankees fan, groups that clearly are not mutually exclusive.

McGwire today tried to justify his abuse of steroids by saying that he would have hit just as many home runs without it. What?! I mean, he didn't even concede that it may have helped with a single home run. And now he's trying to convince everyone he's a good guy who just made a decision that he had to do... for his health. Again, what?!?! Is it the heart attack at 40 you're looking for or the shrunken balls you want? I can't see much good coming out of this statement - let's just wait for the next wave of boneheads at gyms across the continent looking to poke each other in the butts with needles, "'cuz Mark McGwire said it's healthy". No, I didn't happen to catch his entire statement and learn what he meant with his "health" comment but then again, neither would most of these boneheads.

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or shake my head at how he tried to play the falsely pious/spiritual card by saying that his talent was given to him by God. I don't have a problem with giving credit to the Man Upstairs but if you're that talented, why screw up and mess with your legacy and reputation? And that's what this is all about. Notice that the confession came just after the Hall of Fame vote - during which he was left out again.

I hope he never gets in, actually. I thought the hype around the home run record chase was overrated when it was happening - it was clearly a function of the era, which we now know was saturated with 'roids. Now that I know it was completely dirty - McGwire, Bonds and Sosa all have been confirmed users - I don't think any higher of that era. And McGwire seems like a bigger jerk than ever before with his half-assed, twisted-truth confession.

Link: A Short Piece Worth Reading

Click Here!

Mr. Hayhurst has a career in broadcasting or writing waiting for him when his days as a pitcher come to an end, which I hope isn't going to be for a while. Actually, I think his career as a writer has already started. I'd wish him luck on this endeavour of his but I know he doesn't need any.

His Room Was Always A Mess As A Child

Adam Lind doesn't like hitting fourth. He's OK with any other spot in the order, apparently, but he refuses to be the cleanup man.

That's hilarious.

Here we are admiring a young baseball player who has broken out all of a sudden with 35 HR, 114 RBI and a .932 OPS, a 26-year-old left-handed batter who isn't awful against lefties, who can hit with 2 strikes, who has the patience to draw a walk and a swing that hits for average and power.

And he reveals that he doesn't like batting fourth.

It's bizarre because no matter where you're hitting, the idea is pretty much the same - try not to make an out, and if the pitcher gives you an opportunity, hit the ball hard. I mean it's not like he's talking about lacking protection here - he stated that he'd be fine hitting 6th. The guy in the 7-hole on the Jays isn't usually a guy who'll offer the most protection.

No, it's a psychological issue that he's apparently always had. If he never gets over it and settles into a 5-hitter who can put up a .900 OPS each year, there's not much to complain about. I just hope Cito doesn't incomprehensibly decide to make John Buck his semi-regular cleanup man this year, the way Millar was last year.

As for who's going to slot in around him, I'm not going to spend too much time speculating now. However, I will say that I do like Aaron Hill hitting third. The guy in the 3-hole often comes up in the first with 2 out and none on, meaning a quick ding-dong would do a team a lot of good, both psychologically and scoreboard-ically. And he'll have lots of opportunities throughout a game to hit with runners on, assuming that the top 2 guys have the ability to get on base, and use that power. I think that seeing him as a lock for 30 HR year in and year out is a little foolish, but there's no question at all that he has the power to be consistently near that mark. What I think he will end up doing is being a little more conservative with his swinging. In his rookie season, he walked 34 times while having 361 AB, a far better rate than his 42:682 last year. Seeing as how players tend to become more patient as they mature, there's no reason why he can't get back up to a respectable walk rate. All this will mean is that by chasing fewer bad pitches, Hill will make fewer outs without compromising his power numbers, as those are fueled mostly by hittable pitches.

I don't know if that will be the long term plan for him but I won't worry too much. They Jays seem to have good options in Snider and Wallace (maybe even Encarnacion and Wells, if they get back to doing what they've shown in the past) to fill out the rest of the heart of the order and it's a certainty that Anthopoulos isn't done looking for more pieces to help round it out. This is a comfort rarely experienced in the past few years with the Jays and makes it really easy to poke fun at Lind's phobia.

As Sarah Palin Would Say, "We Should Get Him"

I don't know if she would say that. Whatever, ignore the title.

Maybe it's because I'm looking in all the wrong places, but I'm not seeing a lot of mainstream media attention here in Canada on Aroldis Chapman. I can understand TSN and their "let's go all hockey-saturated and mention only in passing the Halladay trade when it occurred" mentality (well, kind of... no, not really actually. Even hockey fans would care about Halladay being traded, right?). But at the exciting beginning of an era for the Blue Jays and Rogers - and the potential signing of a potentially really really exciting player in Chapman - why isn't Sportsnet creating any noise about it? At the very least, the publicity that the Jays are going hard after a high-risk, high-reward player can't hurt. And it's exciting stuff that makes for good television.

With regards to the player - a young, left-handed 100 mph pitcher? And you say that he might be controllable through 2018? And at $5 million/year for the first 5 years? That's very, very reasonable, no matter how you slice it. Brad Penny is getting $7.5 million this year. He of the 1.53 WHIP while with the Red Sox this year. The Jays' unspectacular starting SS next year, Alex Gonzalez, is set to make around $3 million. Boring players who are barely good enough to have a regular job filling out a major league roster are costing teams millions and millions - and below-average pitchers are easily making more than Chapman's estimated high-end of $5 million a year. If he could turn out to be anything like another lefty fireballing starter, then the deal will have been a ridiculous bargain, costing a few spare dollars (less than half that was remaining on Rios' salary, to put that in perspective). If he ends up "meh"-ing and turns into a pretty average innings eater, it'll STILL be a good deal.

Now let's say he completely busts by 2014. His major league numbers are making Josh Towers giggle and his minor league stats could be bested by his pitching coach. For one, his potential will still have generated enough publicity that it wouldn't have been completely worthless. And even then, he'll still only be 25 and I'm sure some other GM somewhere would be willing to take a chance on a guy still under control for a few seasons - dealing maybe a prospect or two.

Thing is, you can't really worry so much about things not working out that you don't take a chance on greatness. That's one thing that the Ricciardi regime never did too well, avoiding major international signings and drafting high-school players in early rounds (they did get Snider and, well, that's not looking like a bad gamble so far). You don't win in this division by signing average players for $5 million/year, knowing that they are likely going to give you what they always have. You win by taking advantage of rare talents, especially if they'll cost you only $5 million a year. It's pretty straightforward, pretty exciting and the media should be hyping it up just a little more.

Watching The Leafs Can Be Entertaining

I can still remember the days when the Leafs fought for first place in the conference, when "playoffs" weren't merely part of a Leafs joke punchline. I remember the energy of the crowd, the excitement in the atmosphere that could be felt even through the television screen, the hundred-dollar tickets that were almost kind of worth buying.

Opening Day seems like such a distant memory. And the earlier part of the decade when the Leafs were allowed to make the playoffs feels like a different lifetime. I'm not old enough to remember 1967.

Still, it can sometimes be entertaining to watch the Leafs. I'll admit, I haven't really been watching them too often recently, and when I have, they've lost. I'm looking right now at a 2-0 game, Leafs trailing the Philadelphia Junkmail. 3-0 now. OK, that's something to add to the list before the list even starts - pretty goal there by the other team. That can sometimes be kind of enjoyable when you don't have much hope for your own team to begin with.

Why no hope? Well, they've sucked this season, for one. But they've sucked even more when I've watched:

Oct 1: OTL 3-4... Oct 3: L 4-6... Oct 10: L 2-5... Oct: 13 L 1-4... Oct 24 L 1-3... Oct 26 W 6-3... Oct 28 OTL 3-4... Nov 3 OTL 1-2... Nov 13 L 2-3... Nov 19 OTL 5-6... Nov 30 L 0-3... Dec 5 L 2-7... Dec 9 W 3-2... Dec 10 L 2-5... Dec 16... L 3-6... Dec 21 OTL 2-3... Dec 26 OTL 2-3... Jan 2 L 1-3.

Tally it up and they're 2-10-6 when I've watched. A total of 10/36 possible points. That's kind of depressing...

---

OK, I took a break from writing this, and between then and now, the Leafs took advantage of a 5-on-3 by learning which net to shoot on (aiming at it once or twice) and promptly forgetting (after Gustavsson strangely headed a puck, Stempniak appeared to try to knock the rebound in, much to the pleasure of the vacuous Philadelphia Adware fans (I'm not referring to the attendance). Sweet. Another kind-of-interesting thing to watch.

Other things of note: not sure who the TSN announcers are, but one of them seems to insist on anglicizing every European player's name. I can see why you'd say, "Alex Ponikarovsky", but "Rick Wallin" is stretching it a little, especially when followed by "Michael Grabovski" and "Nicholas Kulemin". And a big semi-demi- truly halfhearted laugh at how he declared Jonas Gustavsson "by far the best Leaf tonight" and then calling "Rick Wallin", just minutes later, "the best Leaf tonight by far".

On second thought, I kind of wish the Leafs were competitive once again. If I wanted to make observations about crappy announcers, I wouldn't have cheered when Jamie Campbell got demoted. And if I wanted to sort of laugh at things that aren't really all the funny, I'd go rent a garbage John Hughes movie.

---

Another break, and the game has ironically become truly interesting. A bunch of quick goals traded between the two teams, some fights (to me, looks like the Philadelphia Phisher players generally got the worst of that). And the Philadelphia Spam just scored again. Apparently, some idiot Philadelphia fans (yes, a redundancy, which is grammatically incorrect, but whatever) threw their hats onto the ice. You guys gotta wait 'til one guy scores three times in one game. That's the rule, like it or not. I'd like to give them mthe benefit of the doubt and assume that they can count to three. Or '93.

Pepsi™ Cheer Nation® ©PepsiCo Canada ULC, 2009

Can we get all of Canada to fall in line, march to the beat of a drum pounded by the sticky fingers of an American - fine, multinational (but that's not any better, is it?) corporation?

In fall 2009, I laughed at the notion that a mega-corporation could successfully convince a proud hockey nation that we're less united than Australia or the United States, both of whom have their own cheers that everyone's supposed to know. I laughed because it was a ridiculous proposition for a nation that is united by our love of hockey. I found it stupefying that anyone could cheer proudly when the cheer is followed by the small font of

All slogans and chants are property of PepsiCo and may not be reproduced without prior written consent

And you know what, quite frankly, I made fun of how bad the "finalists" for corporate cheer to unite a clueless nation® were.

But wait a second. Now Pepsi is telling us that the first million fans to register get to have their names written in the Hockey Hall of Fame? Million fans. That means that not only are they expecting us to fall in line to their demands, but they're also letting us know that there'll be a lot of people doing it; why aren't you?

Now I'm starting to think, even though I still hate the idea of having my national cheer be a freaking marketing ploy initiated by a company with origins in New Bern, North Carolina, that this may turn out to be quite the effective marketing initiative. They've clearly put a lot of thought into this. By noticing that there's no obvious "Canada" cheer (other than Ca-na-da, I suppose) attacking our supposed American inferiority complex by displaying the U-S-A chant, and then enlisting the help of a figure of hockey authority - the Hockey Hall of Fame, a lot of pressure is being put on the zombie television-watching army. While public opinion may still ultimately turn against this strategy, the fact that opinions are forming must mean something. All publicity is good publicity, right?

Maybe this Pepsi Cheer will catch on eventually. Personally, I think they'll be successful in getting people to write their names so that they see it when they visit the HHOF. But honestly, I wouldn't be caught dead at a sporting event even whispering a crappy Ramones rip-off chant: "Eh O' Canada Go® or © or ™". A friend of mine found the phrase too unwieldy with all its syllables. I don't share that opinion, but I think I'll have trouble pronouncing the ®, © or ™ part.

Best and Worst Toronto Sports Moments of the Decade; Grading Toronto

To be honest, I nearly forgot that we’re fast approaching the end of the decade. That being said, I’m glad it’s coming to a close. So you can sort of see that I started writing this before the new year, but I’ve been busy and there are more important things to do on new year’s eve. What’s another day or two anyways so I’m going to review how Toronto fared this decade. We had our share of good moments and lots of bad moments so I’ll go over our sports franchises, other than the Argos, cause I couldn’t care less about them. This past decade has shown us the franchise draining powers of our friends at MLSE and lacklustre performance by the Jays.

Leafs

Without a doubt, the first half of the decade was a lot better than the latter half. At least we were somewhat competitive. We even had a 100 point season way back in 2000 if anyone still remembers. Also, I loved watching the Leafs beating those damn Senators every year despite the odds. The turning point of the decade though has to be the NHL lockout. In addition to missing out a whole season, the new rules destroyed our now illegal defence. We haven’t made the playoffs in four years now, soon to be five unless you believe in some sort of miraculous surge. We’ve also been missing a captain for more than a season but on the plus side, we seem to be trending up under Burke and making the playoffs next season doesn’t seem too farfetched.

Grade: C

Raptors

It seems that the Raptors also peaked early, with the team getting to the second round of the playoffs in 2001, and almost the third round against the 76ers. Of course, in 2003 we ended up drafting Chris Bosh, our current (and hopefully future) franchise player. The thing that still haunts the Raptors though, is the trade of Vince Carter and his play towards the end. He played without motivation and effort, and the same could be said our GM in trying to trade him. We received two very average players and a washed up pro that didn’t even show up for arguably the best player in franchise history. The past few seasons have been up and down, Bargnani was an ok pick and we won in the Atlantic Division title in 07 but lost to the Nets led by Vince Carter and then Orlando the next year. Missing the playoffs last year was disappointing, but this season looks somewhat promising at least.

Grade: C+

Jays

I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about baseball, but no playoffs in 10 years even with baseball’s screwed up playoff system is a disappointment, even though we had one of the best pitchers in the game for several years. Of course, we ended up trading him to the Phillies and we seem to like letting some of our other better players run off, such as Burnett and Lilly. We also liked signing some terrible contracts as evidenced by the contracts to Frank Thomas, BJ Ryan and Vernon Wells. I think the Wells contract is one of the worst of the decade, he’s now a below average player making over 20 million for the next 4 years. In fact, I might have to mention this again at the end of this decade.

Grade: D

The Rest

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t really want to grade the Argos, but there are still other Toronto teams, like the Rock and Toronto FC. I haven’t been paying attention, but I will assume there is a reason for that, and assign a grade appropriately.

Grade: F