The announcement by Roy Halladay's agent didn't go over great with the bloggers:
But seriously dude. This dumb ass comment, which is probably completely untrue, does no one any favours. It handcuffs the Blue Jays, giving key information to the other side of the bargaining table, and makes Halladay look like he's only looking out for his best interests, something that he has never appeared to be, in all of his time in Toronto.
So those deals where the Jays are getting more than the other teams want to give are pretty much off the table. Rid your mind of Buck Holes or Phil Hughes and start thinking Buck Swope or Phil Coke. Stop thinking of a front line player to solve a need, and think of a marginal and flawed guy who's outlived his time in Triple-A. Start thinking in terms of what the Minnesota Twins got back for Johan Santana. Start rehearsing the following sentence: "At least it's not as bad as the Sirotka trade."
You get the idea. And yeah, they are right, anything that limits options hurts us in trying to get the most we can for him.
More after the jump.
Alex Anthopoulos tries to spin it best he can:
"I don't know if it changes you're ability to make a trade one way or the other," he said. "If trades mean they need to occur now or later or a month or two months from now, we'll make those evaluations. This is the offseason. We've got the Winter Meetings coming. It's a time where more and more clubs are talking to one another. Free agency is starting to settle in a little bit more. "Most times when trades do occur, this is the month and the next month that they do end up occurring one way or the other. Apart from that, in the spring you don't see too many deals, other than at the end of the spring when teams are trying to get down to their 25-man [roster]. "We're going to continue with our offseason the way we always planned."
In the MLB.com story about the Jays offering Marco Scutaro and Rod Barajas arbitration there was this:
"We talked to Marco about a deal," Anthopoulos said. "There was a time when we offered a two-year deal. Unfortunately, we couldn't come to terms. Through no fault of his agent or him or ourselves, it was just one of those things where we couldn't come to terms on a value. We would've liked to have had the player back, but there's no question it had to be at the right price for us knowing the opportunity cost.
It will be nice to have more early draft picks, though we have a bunch already, numbers 11, 38, 44, 69 and 75 in the first three rounds. Depending on where Scutaro and Barajas end up, we could have 3 more. The important part is to actually sign the guys you pick.
Alex continues to say the right things:
"Right now, though, my focus isn't necessarily on one season, whether it's 2010, '11 or '12, or whatever it is. It's more an organizational view and on getting this organization back to the point where it's a sustained model and it's a sustained model every year where we're a competitive club."
But then, how often do you hear a GM say 'what we are trying to do here is build a one year wonder, who cares about the future'. It is easy to say we are going to be competitive every year, hard to do.
On the list of people that could shut up, AJ Burnett ranks very high:
"I think it's time for him to get a fresh start," Yankees starter A.J. Burnett told the New York Daily News this week, discussing the future of his friend and former teammate in Toronto. "He's paid his dues there, been the face of the organization, done everything they've asked him to do and more. At this point in his career, I think he just wants to win."
To quote Apu, "Why are you not shutting up?"
To show how much baseball has changed over the years, when I was young the drug of choice was cocaine, then it became steroids, now it is Ritalin. From Rob Neyer's blog:
Baseball granted 108 therapeutic use exemptions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder during the year ending with this World Series, according to a report released Tuesday by MLB's independent drug-testing administrator. That was up from 106 a year earlier and 103 in 2007.
Who would have thought so many players are ADHD? Or do you think they might believe there is some performance enhancing quality to the drug?
For anyone that was hoping the Jays might sign Billy Wagner, the Braves signed him to a one-year $7 million contract with a vesting option for a second year. $7 million sounds like a lot to me for a guy that has thrown 62 innings in the past two years. Teams still love to overpay for that 'closer' tag.
And to end with the best baseball story you'll read in a while, the Angels voted Nick Adenhart (or more correctly his estate) a full playoff share. Very classy.