Jolt Country

OK, so they resigned Matt Stairs.

WE'RE ON OUR WAY UP!

Seriously, where this team is going, I have no idea. Do you, RobB?

Bugs wrote:OK, so they resigned Matt Stairs.

WE'RE ON OUR WAY UP!

Seriously, where this team is going, I have no idea. Do you, RobB?

It was hilarious to see the pitching develop while the hitters completely cooled off. That was great in a ha-ha way. I still don't think New York has a better team than we do, but hey, now Minnesota gets to throw Lirano and Santana out twice, so even if New York struggles the wild card is going to take 90+ wins.

We need a left fielder, and hopefully that guy is Adam Lind. Because man, we really have no plan if he doesn't pan out. You can't put Stairs out there.

I really like Halladay - Burnett - Marcum - McGowan - Litsch. I love having Chacin as the 6th guy because, while he has absolutely no business winning as many games as he does, the ball has consistently flied off the bats when he's on the mound for three years now. I read something that indicates that Chacin is great the first time around on batters and then gets significantly worse as the games goes on, far beyond what is normal for pitchers. I'll take it.

I feel as good about the pitching as I did the hitting last year. Which means I should not feel as good as I do.

I really did think the 2007 season came down to injuries and throwing games away with Ohka, Towers and Zambrano early on. But the way the Blue Jays are built, not a single core guy (Glaus, Wells, Hill, Thomas, Overbay, Stairs, Rios, the starting pitchers, Accardio & Ryan) can get worse and some guys like Wells and Overbay need to get better from where they were in 2007. That's expecting a lot.

Ahhhh, I am a random mishmash of comments and opinions on the Blue Jays. Let me formulate something better. But I think it's fine that Stairs got resigned. I assume it was for Towers money. I'll go check.

Yeah, two years 3.25 million dollars is very reasonable. Great signing.

Oh snap, I forgot we had BJ Ryan. Is he on track to be ready by spring training?

Yeah, unless his back acts up! MOO-HOOO-HOOO-HAH---

(For anyone not a Jays fan, the general manager of the team said that B.J. Ryan was having back trouble before he blew his arm out and required season-ending surgery. His back was never an issue.)

(Dammit, I am going to make BLUE JAY BASEBALL entertaining for all!)

(To do this, I won't crab about salary cap and floors for the 2008 season.)

(OK, that's it.)

Well they'll at least need to pick up a new relief pitcher

OHHHhhh, too soon!?!?!?!

Cazart. This shit, I'd expect on a place like Fark... But here on this cozy little internet-nook? Ouch.

Twins working out a deal so that Johan Santana, the best pitcher on the planet, can go to the Yankees.

Way to go you idiots. You'll have to face him if you ever again plan on going to the World Series. Although I guess we should just be thankful that this Minnesota GM isn't trying to move the best player he has to Boston.

If the Twins can't afford Santana then something is broken in baseball. The rest of the owners need to force Carl Pohlad to pony up the fucking money. The Twins owner is the 107th richest guy in the United States, according to Forbes, and that asshole is running his team on a shoestring budget. Absolutely kills me. He's 91, you'd think he'd want to be fondly remembered, instead of being thought of as a fucking punchline.

I have a quick question for BUGS!

Okay, the Devil Rays got a little better with their trade of Delmon "stab some white foke" Young. They have enough guys to play in the outfield, they really needed Garza.

My question is: does a strong TB team (and, if it ever happens, would a stronger Baltimore team) HELP or HINDER the Jays? Meaning, if TB and the Os could win more games against the Yanks and Sox, would that be better for the Jays, or do you anticipate the Jays losing more games as well and it therefore not making things more interesting?

Personally, I think the Jays already lose plenty to the Orioles and Rays, but I don't see them necessarily losing more if the Rays trot out an actual, legitimate 3rd pitcher.

Hinder. They can never seem to GIT-R-DONE against Tampa Bay, so I can imagine it'll only get worse as TB gets better.

I've been sensing that there is sort of a backlash against Joe Carter, because he dared drive in a lot of runs. People who believe they are really into baseball on the Internet hate runs batted in. They also don't think there is any such thing as hitting in the clutch. So you can see how a guy like Joe Carter might get caught in the crossfire, as he batted in several hundred runs and hit the most clutch hit in baseball history.

Jayson Stark, an ESPN columnist, apparently includes him in a book of his, detailing the most overrated players in baseball history. How a guy who was removed from HoF eligibility in his first year could ever be overrated is kind of beyond me... but okay.

Team loyalists will be also be intrigued to read Stark’s rankings of the most overrated and underrated players from each franchise. Fans will be stunned to see their beloved heroes such as Ernie Banks and Joe Carter labeled as overrated and the nicknames tagged on them by Stark. The Stark Truth finally brings closure to this classic debate.

Fine, whatever. The part I found amusing was the next part of the publisher's blurb.

This is his first book. However, his writing has appeared in Chicken Soup for the Baseball Soul, The Phillies Reader, and Worst to First: The Story of the 1993 Phillies. He lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife, Lisa, and three children, Steven, Jessica, and Hali.

Ha, ha, ha, a guy who loved the 1993 Phillies is going to tell us how much Joe Carter sucks. I would now like to make you all aware of my upcoming novel, "A Thousand Poles Joe Montana Has Smoked." Gray Griffon Press, 2007 release. I think it really gets into the nitty-gritty of how Montana wasn't even THAT good.

What a goddamn douchenozzle. I always knew there was a reason I hated that prick and his constant use of italics for emphasis as if he invented font formatting.

The only good to come out of the 1993 Phillies is that their spectacular collapse in the WS directly led to the decline in popularity of the non-ironic mullet.

From battersbox.ca:

In Jays news, Jeff Blair writes that the Jays have a Rios for Lincecum offer on the table and the Giants are considering it, although it's expected that nothing will happen on that front in the near future. Of course, Jones signing with Dodgers might make the Giants more likely to make a move with one less CF available now.

Wow, this totally makes us worse for 2008 if the Giants accept. Unbelievable. Rios was by far the best hitter on the team last year and has a bright future ahead of him. His splits are also not as miserable as they were for Glaus, Wells and Overbay last year. No idea what the Jays are thinking on this one.

They're thinking they need a(nother) power pitcher in the AL East. Good pitching is harder to find that good hitting outfielders. What did Rios do last year? 27/90/.280ish? I think we can make up for that elsewhere.

What troubles me about Lyceum (Halcyon? Linensnthings? whatever) is his delivery. He's like a Roy Oswalt. Small, fragile looking dude, only with a violent delivery that looks like it could make his whole arm fall down

David Eckstein signed for a 1-year, $4.5mill contract.

I love it. He's a sparkplug. He's a dirty little shit who's not afraid to give it his all. Not necessarily a defensive upgrade over Johnny Mac, but fuckit. Wherever Eck goes, good things happen. (EYE E The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California of Earth, EYE E The Saint Louis Cardinals)

When I saw how Eckstein has batted recently - with my own expectations for a shotstop gauged by John MacDonald -- I flipped my shit. It shows how low expectations have been for that position in Toronto (he'll be like our 7th new starting SS in 7 years) but I don't care. You can honestly say that if everyone hits their career average and Lind gets better that there isn't a black hole in the lineup.

Reed Johnson signed a one-year deal for this season, avoiding arbitration. I assume he will platoon in left with Matt Stairs, leaving Adam Lind to start the season in Syracuse.

Ain't nothing wrong with that. His season was shortened last year because of injury, right? Lind could use some more time to develop, plus I assume there are free agency year implications with Lind- wanna keep him down as long as possible to be able to lock him up for as long as possible at the big league level.
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Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:From battersbox.ca:

In Jays news, Jeff Blair writes that the Jays have a Rios for Lincecum offer on the table and the Giants are considering it, although it's expected that nothing will happen on that front in the near future. Of course, Jones signing with Dodgers might make the Giadnts more likely to make a move with one less CF available now.

Wow, this totally makes us worse for 2008 if the Giants accept. Unbelievable. Rios was by far the best hitter on the team last year and has a bright future ahead of him. His splits are also not as miserable as they were for Glaus, Wells and Overbay last year. No idea what the Jays are thinking on this one.

I forgot to mention... A few weeks ago they had the jays' asst GM on XM radio for an interview. I forget the dude's name, but he sounded very young. Anyway, he basically said the Lincecum deal was never more than, alcohol-fueled speculation from the winter meetings.

Bugs wrote:Ain't nothing wrong with that. His season was shortened last year because of injury, right?

Yeah, practically after the second game Reed was out because of his back. We got ONE GAME out of our lineup (which would have been awesome). Christ, a whole healthy year out of RJ, Rios, Wells, Thomas, Glaus, Overbay, Hill, Zaun, McDonald would have been entertaining. I guess the only way that ever happened was like in MLB2K7, or whatever baseball game was out on the market and didn't suck.