Rumors are going to be hot and heavy this week, if you see a good one, or, you know, want to make up a good one, make use of the fanpost or fanshot areas. It should be an interesting week for us Jay fans. Not interesting in the way the Mariners week looks to be interesting, they will be announcing the signing of Chone Figgins today or tomorrow and are talking to Jason Bay.
In Hall of Fame news, the Veteran's committee has announce former Royals and Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog and long time umpire Doug Harvey have been elected to the Hall. Apparently Marvin Miller missed out by two votes. There is no rational reason Miller shouldn't be in, other than the owners hate him.
Richard Griffin manages to take more shots at JP Richardi (he's gone, can we get off of that) complaining that JP was too public about Roy Halladay trade negociations, while Alex Anthopoulos is doing it right by not talking. Then he says:
The Red Sox are downplaying their participation because the more public it is the more the Yankees try to drive up the price of doing business for Sox GM Theo Epstein.
Which one is it? Is it best for us to keep things quiet or is it best for our trading partners to keep things quiet. Let's pick a side.
Richard lists the potential Doc destinations as Red Sox, Yankees, Angels, Phillies, Mets and Dodgers. He figures the Cardinals, Cubs and Rangers still have a shot and that the Brewers, Astros, Rockies and White Sox are "long-shots".
Bob Elliot in the Sun reports that the Jays have budgeted $16 million for signing players from next June's draft.
This summer the Jays spent $4.895 million in signing bonuses. In 2008, the Jays spent $4.359 million. The Washington Nationals were the biggest spenders this summer forking out $11.511 million in bonuses, while the Kansas City Royals spent $11.148 million in 2008.
Since we have up to 9 picks in the first 3 rounds that money could come in handy, though it seems like overkill since we don't have the first pick, but hopefully it means we won't miss out on signing a draft choice because we don't want to spend an extra $100,000.
The National Post has a piece on Paul Beeston, again with the promise the team will spend more on payroll in that mythical future they keep telling us about. I'm in the 'I'll believe it when it happens club'.