Friday Bantering: Prospects and Impatience

by Tom Dakers on Nov 13, 2009 2:49 PM EST in News Comment 8 comments

There are a bunch of Blue Jay stories out there at the moment.

Hardball Times have their Top 10 Blue Jay prospects up. It is almost a whole new list, since Snider, Cecil and Rzep have graduated to the big leagues. It is nice to see a couple of outfielders on the list.

Tao of Stieb, yesterday, made the Case for Impatience. I agree with him. We keep being told that we'll compete in a couple of year. 2008 wasn't to be our year. So when we released Thomas, we couldn't pick up a good bat to fill the slot, we had live with Wilkerson/Mench. 2009 wasn't our year, because we had Marcum and McGowan hurt, so instead of getting a real player we have Millar and we can't sign a pitcher to fill one of the rotation slots left empty by AJ and the injuries. 2010, we are already told, won't be our year, so we can't sign anyone to fill the obvious holes. "Can't sign anyone, cause that would be mortgaging the future".

Well, no, if you signed someone like Cameron to a two year deal, why would it cost us when the mythical prospects start appearing. Lots of teams, last year, signed good free agents to one or two year deals. Yeah, it is great that Anthopoulos is planning for the future. I like they are signing scouts and fixing the development side. But someone has to play the positions where we have holes, why does it have to be 2010's version of Wilkerson/Mench/Millar.

If Rogers is, apparently, willing to put in money, when needed. So why not put a little money in now. Yeah we might not win, but we might not win in two years too. And when you tell the fanbase you aren't going to win yet again, what do you think going to happen to attendance? If you go into this season planning to win just 60 games, you might as well close the doors at Rogers for the last couple of months of the year, no one will be trying to get in anyway.

No, I'm not saying spend $70 million for 4 years of Jason Bay. But how about a few million so we don't have to watch Kevin Millar again.

There is a nice profile of Alex Anthopoulos in the New York Times. They like him. Everyone likes him.

The Jays have added to their scouting staff.

And everywhere you look there are Roy Halladay rumors. I'm not going to link to them because there are too many and they are all just rumors. The neat thing about Halladay rumors is: if we put up a post that says Halladay trade rumor, we get double the visits that day. I'm sure it works the same for other sites. So whether they have something real of not there is a strong incentive to talk about trade ideas.

And Vernon Wells had the surgery on his wrist yesterday, all went well.

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Get well Wells

some of us Jays fans still believe in you

by aagoodfella on Nov 13, 2009 3:03 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

VW

2010 AL comeback player of the year.

You heard it here first.

Johnnie Morton: The Man. The Myth. The Legend.

by craig in calgary on Nov 13, 2009 4:07 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

VW Comeback Player of Year

LOL

by hugiman on Nov 14, 2009 10:26 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Quite possible

Considering if he was an adequate MLB player, he’d probably win in a landslide. And even Vernon can do that, for $100 mil over 5 years.

by Jevant on Nov 14, 2009 1:10 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I don’t know if I actually think AA is backing completely off the FA market. I think this is more an admission that the important free agent market is not going to be a factor, so people pushing for Bay or Figgins know right from the start that they aren’t an option. The more I read this, the more I’m feeling that what he’s trying to do is sell the idea that contention isn’t going to be coming from the outside until we’re in the position that a couple of big names are enough to make up those last steps.

There’s also a position there for the agents; we’re looking for opportunities, but try to hold out or soak us, and we’ve already said we’re not players on this market. It’s not a bad position to have, especially when getter closer to Spring Training and seeing who’s still out there and looking for a roster spot. It wouldn’t be out of character for the Beest to have said ‘the money is there when you ask, just make sure you understand when you ask, they’ll expect a return’. 2010 isn’t likely to be much of a return, so holding out for good deals is a decent strategy.

Last year, the Jays could have picked up Abreau with the same approach instead of Millar. Just saying…

by dexfarkin on Nov 13, 2009 4:36 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

AA so far sounds like the anti-Ricciardi. Well liked and respected by peers (so far anyway), willing to listen to the ideas of others, increased emphasis on scouting, etc. Although it is early, and I’d like to see how he handles the Halladay situation, I’m starting to like the guy. I’d be interested in seeing how his first draft will be like next year.

by Frag on Nov 13, 2009 7:07 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Snider, Cecil, Rzep and Romero = 4

Players on most Top 10’s that graduated this year.

by ayjackson on Nov 13, 2009 7:31 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

On Wells wrist surgery - JP admits wrongdoing!

While emptying the Blue Jays GM’s office wastebasket last spring, Rodney Flabergaster – a 5’ 11’ 213 pound, left handed on-call janitor, uncovered a coffee stained document signed by JP which said (in part):

“…F*ck, peckerhead Wells wanted to see what 23 million looked like so I gave him Ted Rogers monthly petty cash fund and he nearly broke his freakin wrist counting all 1,150,000 $20 bills. SHIT! I hope it doesn’t effect his play this year. 2009 is the year we make the BIG PUSH…I gotta have all the pieces in place for my last year in 2010…good thing we got Rolen and Rios, I KNOW I can sleep soundly now!”

by Mylegacy on Nov 13, 2009 8:20 PM EST reply actions 0 recs