I suppose there should be some righteous indignation that Jesse Carlson got the same 3 day suspension as Jorge Posada and yeah it is stupid that they both get the same. But then I'm not sad that Carlson gets 3 days, well actually 4 days off with this off day. Carlson was being used every day, he has been great but over work would hurt at some point and it isn't that bad that Cito has to learn to use some of the other guys in the pen.
Of course, we lost out other lefty in the pen yesterday. Every time Scott Downs starts pitching well again he gets hurt. I imagine we won't see him again this year. Oh well, I hope he comes back strong next year. And it looks like Brian Tallet might miss a start or two. I think he only had 3 starts left this year. I wonder if the Jays will Fabio Castro up for a start or two. Likely not. Watching yesterday, I get the feeling Shawn Camp could go 5 innings in a start.
Jeff Blair in his Unwritten Rules blog had a nice congratulations to Jesse Carlson paragraph. Blair is a little grumpy most of the time but I really liked this bit:
People who think baseball teams "send messages" when they brawl with another team are likely the same people who worry about "momentum" or a team "developing an identity" or – another hack cliché - "gelling (jelling?")
I thought all baseball writers had to believe in 'developing an identity' what ever that is. It's just something they say when they can't just say a winning team has better players. Saying a team wins because they are good is too easy. After listening to Rod Black and Pat Tabler talk about chemistry for 5 minutes last night was more than I could take. Teams win, they have chemistry, teams lose, they don't. Sports announcers love to talk about junk like that because they want us to think there is some magic to winning. Sorry, winning is good players playing well.
Over at SI.com Jon Heyman and an agent and a GM took guesses at what this season's free agents will be getting for contracts. Ones of interest to us:
Jason Bay
Agent: $147 million, 7 years.
GM: $60 million, 4 years.
Heyman: $80 million, 5 years.
Well if Bay is going to get that much, I don't want him.
Chone Figgins.
Agent: $40 million, 4 years (or $30 million, 3 years).
GM: $35-40 million, 4 years.
Heyman: $50 million, 4 years.
But $10 a year for Chone doesn't seem unreasonable.
Marco Scutaro
Agent: $18 million, 3 years (or $14 million, 2 years).
GM: $20 million, 3 years.
Heyman: $20 million, 2 years.
3 years and $20? I'd sign him to that in a heart beat.
Anyway, you can take a look at their guesses and see which ones you would sign if you were GM for the Jays. Who knows they might hire you.