Wednesday Bantering
by Tom Dakers on Feb 17, 2010 4:36 PM EST
in Toronto Blue Jays News
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PrintLast night I went out to see Wilco, great fun, first time I've come out of a concert with my ears ringing in a long time. They were great, in a time when the effort at concerts seems to be to try to duplicate the sound on the album, it was good to see musicians having fun making music.
Watching girls fall on the ski hill is less fun though. There have been some bad crashes this afternoon.
Not much for Blue Jay news out there. Rod Barajas may finally be getting a contract. The Mets are offering him a minor league deal. I'm sure he was expecting more than that after playing 125 games and hitting 19 homers for the Jays last year. But it would be hard for any team to get excited about a player with a .258 on base average.
The Toronto Sun has a nice profile of Cito Gaston. Of course even the Sun has to take shots at on line news sources:
At the chaotic end of last season that wasn’t entirely clear, after a story broke from an online news service prior to the team’s final series in Baltimore that a major player insurrection against Gaston was in the works.
How the Sun can look down at any news service, I have no idea, but there you go. It is a testament to how well liked Cito is, by the local press, that they all down play the players concerns.
The Star has a piece telling us how important Mrs. Marcum and Mrs. McGowan were in their husbands' recovery from injury. Talk about your slow news day.
They also have a story about James Paxton's NCAA troubles. Gotta feel a little sorry for the guy. NCAA doesn't allow the players to have agents but they are allowed 'advisors', the difference between the two is semantics.
And on Bluejay.com Jordan Bastian has a talk with new Blue Jay pitching coach Bruce Walton. He says all the right things. He's got a lot of work ahead of him.
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Something wrong with the system?
Seems to me the market has resoundingly said that Barajas isn’t worth a draft pick. First, the Jays said that a draft pick was worth more by letting him go, then all the other teams agreed with that assessment by passing on him in terms of a major league deal and thus saving their draft picks. All of which makes me wonder if there isn’t something wrong with the system that assigns ranks to free agents when the market then says otherwise. One player does not make a trend, and haven’t paid enough attention to similar free agents to say, but I can’t help thinking that in this something doesn’t add up.
the market said Rod is not worth a draft pick which is essentially what the Jays said as well “we would rather have a draft pick than Rod”. It is not clear to me why think this means things are not adding up. To me, it is indicative of an efficient market.
Isn't Rod a Type B?
which means that the team that signs him doesn’t give up a draft pick (the Jays would just get the one sandwich pick). If that’s true (and I think it is), then the market isn’t saying that Barajas isn’t worth a draft pick, it’s saying he isn’t worth a major league contract in the first place.
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
if Rod makes the team as a starter and thus becomes an MLB player with an MLB contract, would the Jays thus become entitled to a sandwich pick?
by aagoodfella on Feb 18, 2010 11:09 AM EST up reply actions
Good question… if he makes the team out of Spring Training, I’d imagine that qualifies as a major league signing and we’d get the pick. Otherwise, clubs could be signing guys to multi-year, multi-million dollar ‘minor league’ contracts in order to protect their picks and just elevate them to the MLB roster at the end of spring.
Or I just came up with the best loophole for baseball executives to exploit next year.
risky on the players' parts, though
to opt to sign a minor league deal . . . what if they get hurt in the spring?
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
Contract would remain valid. Whether it is major or minor league wouldn’t change the duration or dollar value in the contract. I’d imagine that the MLBPA would jump all over it and the other owners would scream, but if it worked, the first couple of teams could use it to scam some big name FAs without giving up picks so until they changed the rules.
Is there a deadline for a draft pick to still be in play?
Is there a deadline for Barajas to make it to the major league roster and the Jays still get their draft pick? For instance, is it opening day or something like May 1st? Presumably there is a deadline as the draft’s in June.
misread what you wrote
thought you’d said one-year, multi-million dollar, which wouldn’t be guaranteed
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
you guys are wrong
no one is giving up a pick to sign Rod (except for the Jays, if their signing him prevents another team from signing him to a major league deal). What the market is saying is that an older catcher who makes an out 75% of the time he bats isn’t worth your time or money.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
When are pitchers/catchers reporting?
Ahh, the unofficial start of spring.
"I've only been in love with a beer bottle and a mirror" - Sid Vicious.
by craig in calgary on Feb 17, 2010 5:38 PM EST reply actions
Good old Roy
Heard that Halladay has been working out in the Phillies’ camp for weeks already and impressing his new teammates accordingly. Doesn’t hurt that he lives close by. Nevertheless, wonder if his work ethic rubbed off on his former Jays teammates – anyone know if any of our pitchers reported well in advance?
The link to that Sun story
Didn’t see the link, so here it is for Ken Fidlin’s nice story on Cito.
And about this comment on it:
It is a testament to how well liked Cito is, by the local press, that they all down play the players concerns.
Or maybe it’s a testament to the fact that the Blue Jays beat reporters and columnists who follow the team and are in the dressing room constantly might actually know what’s going on, and realize that the whole incident last year was overblown, some players are a bunch of cry babies, or some combination of both. Having worked in and out of the Blue Jays clubhouse for a few years and seen the flow of things, my money is on the local press actually having it right.
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