Tom Verducci on L'Affair Halladay

"The Blue Jays came out of the trading deadline with the best pitcher in baseball, not only for the rest of this season but also next, and yet the consensus among media pundits was to assign them to the "losers" column in their unofficial scorekeeping. Why? Because the media pundits were made to expect a trade of Roy Halladay, so their days of speculation went for naught?"

over 2 years ago hugo 7 comments 2 recs |

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Also from that article: "Expect more... Bobby Abreus."

Good news for us, because he’s exactly what we need.

They're not just hitting home runs. They're doing the little things, like hitting doubles.

by Torgen on Aug 4, 2009 4:57 PM EDT reply actions

Once again, another reason to ignore the msm completely

The more I read these blogs the more the msm pundits look like idiots. I don’t even visit sport news sites anymore.

by solace on Aug 4, 2009 5:19 PM EDT reply actions

And it is ok, because if you browse through this site everyone posts anything important in a fanshot.

'But I don't want to go among mad people' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that' said the Cat 'we're all mad here'.

by JohnnyG on Aug 4, 2009 7:06 PM EDT up reply actions

Heading into the trading season, I thought JP orchestrated the Doc situation marvelously. It seemed like he prepared Jays fans for a Halladay departure on a reluctant but amicable basis. Analogously, speaking, JP piloted a drive downfield, deep into the red zone, but ultimately could not complete the final pass for the touchdown. Fans were prepared for the emotional loss, but alas it never came to pass. In the end, I cannot help but feel that there was some failure somewhere.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Roy. I think it would be great if the Jays re-signed him and he kept playing for five more years. But Roy, being the character guy he is, has already indicated he would like to test the free agency market. And of course, why should he be deprived of that opportunity? In the free agent market, the Jays have, at best IMHO, a 10% of re-signing Roy. So, the Jays should have done what is in the org’s best interest. And, to that end, Roy, in another character move, indicated that he would waive his trade request, if asked. The ground work was laid.

Now, I do not think that Jays should ever have accepted a Lee-like trade for Roy. But, it just seems that a big opportunity was missed. Working under the most realistic assumption that Roy would no longer be a Jay after 2010, the Jays should have contemplated a trade versus that value. Of course, I will continue to enjoy watching Roy play, and will remain a Doc fan no matter what uniform he dons, but I cannot help but believe that a key opportunity to optimize the org’s interests has been lost.

by aagoodfella on Aug 4, 2009 5:49 PM EDT reply actions

Love that quote.

'But I don't want to go among mad people' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that' said the Cat 'we're all mad here'.

by JohnnyG on Aug 4, 2009 7:10 PM EDT reply actions

Verducci bang on, as usual

Thanks to Verducci for being the voice of reason and objectivity against the majority of ignorance and intellectual laziness that plagues baseball discussion in and about this city’s ballclub. We find that year over year, the highest-salaried clubs (NYY, Bos) tend to be able to contend for the post-season more often than middle or small-market teams and are more able to retain home-grown talent when such players are eligible for free agency.

The middle-market Jays also have to contend with the unbalanced schedule that has been in existence since 2001 that sees them play the high-salaried Yanks and Red Sox a combined 38-39 times while Central and West Division clubs only have to do so 14-20 times per season. Yet, all non-first place clubs in the league compete for the same wild-card spot – with schedules of clearly-differing difficulty.

Unfortunately, far too many “fans” and columints will have nothing to do with these clear facts, willfuly ignore the dominating pitching Toronto has featured these past 2 completed seasons (3.75 ERA – tops in MLB) and fall back on the easy arms-crossed-bossman-I-could-run-this-team-arrogance option: blame J.P. Ricciardi for the failures of the batters on the field and refuse to give him a scrap of credit for assembling and retaining the solid arms on the pitching staff.

Kudos to J.P. for not giving in to low-ball offers for the best pitcher of the decade.

by adrian-pie on Aug 4, 2009 9:55 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs