The Win Now Crowd

I have been meaning to write - if you are nice enough to consider this crap writing - about the the 2012 Toronto Blue Jays off-season for quite some time now. Every person I seem to talk baseball about this winter has had a strong opinion. Even the self described casual fan who only reads what they see in the newspapers. Some of the conversations have been downright unbearable. Some of them could only be described as angry. The same points have been perpetually brought up. And whether they are fair points or not, they have been embraced by most of the fan base as reality.

I don't feel it's my place to tell you what you should think about any topic. But I do feel like there are a few things that should probably be considered prior to flying off the handle and deciding your Toronto Blue Jays are a waste of your time, money and interest.

First and foremost a blanket statement:

Management personnel who work for any sports team are professional liars.

This is true across the entire spectrum of sport, which obviously includes your Toronto Blue Jays. President Paul Beeston's job entails telling you whatever he thinks you want to hear in order to get your ass in a seat at the SkyDome. I remember the infamous statement he made regarding the payroll at the State of the Franchise event circa 2011 well.

"What we've got to do here is we've got to build this team up and we raise our revenues and we raise our expenses at the same time and our salaries. We should be able to do with this stadium with this city with this country with our market we should be a city that can have a 140, 150 million dollars in the way of salaries. We would support that. And you know that's the direction that were headed to."

Hat tip to Ian from the Blue Jay Hunter for still having the audio and being kind enough to share it free of charge.

  


The only emphasis he made in that entire statement was on the first should. It was convenient that he neglected to give us a timeline on this grand vision.

I can understand why the win now crowd would expect this to happen now since it clearly did not last year. That's kinda their thing.

More proof of this is a topic that's near and dear to my heart:

The Albert Pujols fiasco.

You see, I had the balls to disclose some info that I heard about King Albert and his crew being in town. Now I already said pretty much all I have to say about it right here but the quote below only furthers my blanket statement about management personnel being professional liars.

One question to draw a reaction from Anthopoulos was a sarcastic query about where he and Dan Lozano, the agent for free agent slugger Albert Pujols, had lunch this week. Some blogosphere fiction suggested Lozano was in town to visit the Jays, which drew a smirk from Anthopoulos, who struggled to maintain his policy of not replying to rumours and speculation.
"I've read all kinds of reports and again, I'm not ceased to be amazed about some of the false things that come out," he said.

Hat tip to Shi Davidi for the original article.

Based on the conversations I had at the State of the Franchise circa 2012 most people chose to believe me. For those that still don't, naturally I saved the smoking gun till now.

Notice the 2011 World Series Champion crest. Logic would dictate that this jersey was signed after the 2011 postseason and prior to my passing along the news that he was in town.

Point being, AA is full of shit as well and he's learning the game from a master. In fairness the general manager's job also entails being able to answer a direct question without actually saying anything. But in the quote from Davidi above, AA lets his guard down and flatly denies it. Gotcha.

I guess what I'm ultimately trying to say here is that one should not take what the brain trust of this ballclub has to say at face value, at anytime. Trying to make someone in the win now crowd understand this is a crucial first step in the process.

So when Beeston says he expects to make the playoffs 2-3 times in the next 5 years, you have to literally laugh it off. Does he actually believe this to be true? Maybe he does. But he immediately gives himself an opt out clause when he follows up with:

"Could start this year, could start next year."

The only thing he forgot to include was now go buy some fucking tickets.

Where am I going with all this? I'm not what you would call a half glass full type fellow. In life in general but specifically when it comes to baseball. It's a ridiculously long season and there are many ups and downs. After 162 baseball games are completed the best teams will rise to the top. Your Toronto Blue Jays are not one of these teams right now. A whole bunch of shit would have to break our way for this to happen. Does that mean they suck? No it certainly does not. Does that mean we are a couple of big players away from closing the gap? Not in my opinion. I believe this team hasn't even learned what it's going to take to win. They want it very badly but they haven't developed the attitude or swagger if you will just yet. Currently the way we are set up, we don't even have the horses - in their current state of development - to play in October.  Name me one pitcher that will have anything left in the tank when playoff time rolls around. Can't do it.

But they are on the right side of the curve and that my friends is very, very good news. The alternative looks a little something like this.

As I like to put it, this version of the Blue Jays closely resembles the 1983 squad. A team that was young and had talent coming out the ears. A team that was ignorant to the harsh realities that faced them. A team that went out and played hard no matter what. A team that won 89 ball games and finished in fourth place. A team that would look very different than the one that would eventually - almost a full decade later - win the big prize and fill the city with joy.

Listen, I love the win now crowd. I really do. I think it's imperative that a certain segment of the fan base will not accept losing at any cost. I'm just not sure that now is the time to release the hounds because you will only end up disappointed and have no one to blame but yourself.

If you need something to focus your rage at I do have a suggestion. Balance the schedule so that every team plays every other team the same amount of the time. If that were to happen, then I think we got a shot at the promise land right now.

1BJW 25 Man Roster Challenge

It's about that time to get the 25 Man Roster Challenge up and running again! This will be our 3rd annual competition and we have yet to have a clear winner decided. This is due in part to not having a kick ass tie breaker. That will hopefully change this time around.

The rules for the challenge are simple. All you are required to do is pick the 25 names that you think will be on the 2012 Opening Day Roster for your Toronto Blue Jays by the start of full camp workouts, which is February 25th. That's it. You can provide as much or as little explanation as you see fit. And you'll need to pick a tie breaker in the event there is one. More on that in a moment.

This years challenge will no doubt be a very competitive one if you choose to enter a ballot. This is a credit to the strength of the Blue Jays roster, meaning there is much fewer jobs up for grabs unlike previous seasons. We have a feeling that the winner will need to nail all 25 names AND the tie breaker which will be the teams Spring Training won loss record.

That's right, you heard us correct. The unmeaning-full silly season will now have some significance. From what we can tell, your Toronto Blue Jays will attempt to play 33 games this spring. That includes all the split squad games with the exception of the one against Team Canada on March 13th. Now as you all know some of these games might be rained out and won't be made up. It is also possible but not exactly probable that some of these games will end in a tie.

For your reference, here is the record of the last six spring campaigns:

2011 16-14

2010 12-13

2009 13-17

2008 13-16

2007 12-14

2006 12-18

It is our hope that a single winner will be crowned this time around based on this gong show of a tie breaker. Please note that if you do not select a tie breaker, we will not be hounding you to do so. In the event of a tie and you did not choose to include a tie breaker with your ballot, you will lose.

The prize will once again be the coveted limited edition Randy Knorr autographed 8x10 photo. Behold in all it's glory!

(Frame not included)

We do reserve the right to add additional prizes as we see fit. This will most likely depend on the number of entrants for this years challenge. We have a bunch of old school baseball cards just burning a hole in our pockets.....just saying.

A few things to consider while compiling your ballot:

It doesn't matter who plays where, only if they make the Opening Day roster.

Do we roll with a 4 man rotation to start the year? Maybe an 8 man bullpen? Or perhaps a short bench?

What do we do with the guys that are out of options? All of them would all have to be on the Opening Day roster or potentially be lost on waivers. Unless of course they start the year on the DL with an "injury".

The X factor this year appears to be Carlos Villaneuva. He is a valid candidate for both the rotation and the bullpen.

Who wins the LF battle between Travis Snider and Eric Thames? General Manager Silent Assassin Alex Anthopoulos has already gone on record as saying Thames has the inside track for the job. That was before he gained 20 pounds of pure muscle and worked out with a pitching coach to improve his throwing arm this off-season.

How about the utility infielder gig on the bench? As many as three players have a legit claim on the job. Could be an interesting little battle to watch develop. Maybe the decision is made to go with two of these players and Ben Fransisco gets bumped down to Vegas.

If after the deadline to submit your ballot a trade or signing happens there is nothing that can be done to change it. If this is the case - it has happened in the past - then we are all wrong together. Unless you somehow find a way to predict it.

If you want to play you have a 3 options on how to get your ballot in:

1: Send us an email: 1bluejaysway@gmail.com

2: Make a post on your blog, if you have one and send us a link

3: Add your ballot to the comments section of this post or the reminder post we'll do before the deadline

In the interests of full disclosure, we have included a complete list of most the players that are under contract for the 2012 season. Just for fun, we attempted to predict what level we think they will begin the year at. Consider it a guideline. The rosters are shown in age from oldest to youngest with left handed pitchers going first. It took a while to complete and we are positive you will disagree with some of the placements but we really don't want to hear it at this point. Short season teams were not included for our own sanity. If you truly think ours is that bad then you should check out this joke.

Notes:

• Players on the 40-man roster are indicated in BOLD.

• # indicates player out of options. We don't know and have no real way of finding out if Oliver, Frasor or Cordero have any options left and we really don't think it matters much at this point. All of them have jobs on Opening Day in our eyes.

• $ indicates rule 5 draft eligible. There could be more - Jon Diaz for example - but again this is only the players we've been able to confirm were Rule 5 eligible this winter.

• * indicates left-handed batter

• ** indicates switch-hitter

•  % indicates non-roster invite to spring training

• We used data from Baseball Reference for the league specific Minor League average ages and from FanGraphs for the elite and "old" ages noted below.

Toronto Blue Jays (MLB)

RF Jose Bautista 1980-10-19
2B Kelly Johnson* 1982-02-22
SS Yunel Escobar 1982-11-02
DH Edwin Encarnacion 1983-01-07
1B Adam Lind* 1983-07-17
C JP Arencibia 1986-01-05
CF Colby Rasmus* 1986-08-11
3B Brett Lawrie 1990-01-18

LF Eric Thames* 1986-11-10
LF Travis Snider* 1988-02-02

Bench

OF Rajai Davis# 1980-10-19
OF Ben Fransisco 1981-10-23

C Jeff Mathis# 1983-03-31

IN Omar Vizquel**% 1967-04-24
IN/OF Mike McCoy 1981-04-02

IN Luis Valbuena*# 1985-11-30

Starting Rotation

LHP Ricky Romero 1984-11-06
LHP Brett Cecil 1986-07-02
RHP Dustin McGowan# 1982-03-24
RHP Brandon Morrow 1984-07-26
RHP Henderson Alvarez 1990-04-18

LHP Aaron Laffey% 1985-04-15
RHP Carlos Villanueva 1983-11-28
RHP Kyle Drabek 1987-12-08

Bullpen

LHP Darren Oliver 1970-10-06
LHP Luis Perez# 1985-01-20
RHP Francisco Cordero 1975-05-11
RHP Jason Frasor 1977-08-09
RHP Casey Janssen 1981-09-17
RHP Sergio Santos# 1983-07-04

LHP Evan Crawford 1986-09-02
RHP Chad Beck 1985-01-17
RHP Jesse Litsch 1985-03-09
RHP Trystan Magnuson 1985-06-06
RHP Danny Farquhar 1987-02-17
RHP Joel Carreno 1987-03-07

Las Vegas 51's (AAA)

Pacific Coast League average ages in 2011: Hitters 26.9 Pitchers 27.1
Elite level prospects age: 22
"Old" for the level: 28

3B Kevin Howard* 1981-06-25
DH David Cooper* 1987-02-12
RF Moises Sierra 1988-09-24
C Travis d'Arnaud 1989-02-10
SS Adeiny Hechavarria 1989-04-15
1B Mike McDade** 1989-05-08
CF Anthony Gose*% 1990-08-10
2B
LF

This team will be stacked with position player prospects and will be an interesting one to follow. We have to wonder if loading up this team for a deep run in the playoffs is because the contract with the 51's is up at the end of this season. If this team does well, it will be a lot easier to get a coveted spot with a AAA affiliate in the International League.

Bench

IN Chris Woodward% 1976-06-27
OF Ricardo Nanita*% 1981-06-12
IN Brian Bocock% 1985-03-09
C Brian Jeroloman*% 1985-05-10
1B Koby Clemens 1986-12-04

Starting Rotation

LHP Willie Collazo 1979-11-07
LHP Bill Murphy 1981-05-09
RHP Nelson Figueroa% 1974-05-18
RHP Tim Redding 1978-02-12
RHP Randy Boone 1984-08-06

Bullpen

RHP Scott Richmond% 1979-08-30
RHP Jerry Gil% 1982-10-14
RHP Jim Hoey% 1982-12-30
RHP Garrett Mock% 1983-04-25
RHP Jesse Chavez% 1983-08-21
RHP Robert Coello% 1984-11-23
RHP Andrew Carpenter% 1985-05-18

Something just has to give here. It's great to have depth and all but once you factor in the guys who don't make the Opening Day 25 man roster, this pitching staff will be bursting at the seems. We guess some of them will be cut, some of them will be injured or some of them will be traded. We are thinking besides the guys protected by the 40 man roster that Hoey, Carpenter and Chavez will be tough to part with. Figueroa is a nice story.  

WILDCARDS

1B Gabe Jacobo 1987-04-14

RHP Javier Avendano 1990-11-06
C Hector Alvarez 1991-02-14

AAA portion of the Rule 5 guys. Each pick cost the club $12,000 and the players can't be demoted below Triple-A without first being offered back to their original team.


New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA)

Eastern League average ages in 2011: Hitters 24.3 Pitchers 24.6
Elite level prospects age: 21
"Old" for the level: 26

SS Jon Diaz% 1985-04-10
LF Brian Van Kirk 1985-08-10
CF Brad McElroy* 1986-04-24
3B Mark Sobolewski 1986-12-24 (see injury details below)
RF Brad Glenn 1987-04-02
1B Yan Gomes% 1987-07-19
DH Sean Ochinko 1987-10-21
2B John Tolisano** 1988-10-07
C A.J. Jimenez% 1990-05-01

Bench

C/IN Kyle Phillips* 1984-04-03
OF Kenen Balli* 1985-01-25
OF Danny Perales* 1985-03-18
IN Ivan Contreras** 1987-01-03
IF/OF Justin Jackson$ 1988-12-11

There is a lot of versatility on this roster with over half the players being able to play multiple positions. Skipper Sal Fasano will have fun mixing and matching the lineup card all season.

Starting Rotation

RHP Ryan Tepera% 1987-11-03
RHP Chad Jenkins% 1987-12-22
RHP Asher Wojciechowski 1988-12-21
RHP Deck McGuire% 1989-06-23
RHP Drew Hutchison% 1990-08-22

Bullpen

LHP Aaron Loup 1987-12-19
RHP Bobby Korecky 1979-09-16
RHP Dumas Garcia 1983-07-07
RHP Yohan Pino 1983-12-26
RHP Clint Everts 1984-08-10
RHP Wes Etheridge 1984-08-12
RHP Ronald Uviedo 1986-10-07

All of these arms in the bullpen with the exception of maybe Loup could/should be pitching in AAA but since it's such a clusterfuck up there with respect to sheer numbers, we have them slated to pitch here. Ditto for Mr Wildcard.

WILDCARD

RHP Vince Bongiovanni 1983-01-11


Dunedin Blue Jays (HiA)

Florida State League average age in 2011: Hitters 22.7 Pitchers 22.9
Elite level prospects age: 20
"Old" for the level: 24

DH Kevin Nolan 1987-12-13
SS Ryan Goins*% 1988-02-13
2B Ryan Schimpf* 1988-03-11
1B Jon Talley* 1989-02-18
3B Kevin Ahrens$ 1989-04-26
LF Marcus Knecht 1990-06-21
C Carlos Perez% 1990-10-27
RF Michael Crouse 1990-11-22
CF Jake Marisnick 1991-03-30

Bench

IN Matt Nuzzo 1987-03-18
C Jack Murphy* 1988-04-06
IN Oliver Dominguez**$ 1989-04-23
OF Kenny Wilson** 1990-01-30

Starting Rotation

LHP Egan Smith 1989-03-16
LHP Sean Nolin 1989-12-26
RHP Andrew Liebel$ 1986-03-22
RHP Casey Lawrence 1987-10-28
RHP Marcus Walden$ 1988-09-13

Bullpen

LHP Matt Wright 1987-05-07
RHP Matt Daly 1986-08-14
RHP Scott Gracey$ 1986-10-15
RHP Steve Turnbull 1986-11-25
RHP Casey Beck 1987-03-28
RHP Dustin Antolin 1989-08-09
RHP Danny Barnes 1989-10-21

WILDCARDS

RHP Anthony DeSclafani 1990-04-18
RHP John Stilson 1990-07-28

Both of these players were college picks from the 2011 Rule 4 draft. In keeping with the previous years philosophy (McGuire/Wojciechowski) we think they have a good chance to begin their pro careers at this level.

Lansing Lugnuts (LoA)

Midwest League average age in 2011: Hitters 21.6 Pitchers 21.8
Elite level prospects age: 19
"Old" for the level: 23

C Luis Hurtado 1988-11-04
LF Kevin Pillar 1989-01-04
CF Jon Jones 1989-08-02 
DH Balbino Fuenmayor 1989-11-26
2B Jonathon Berti 1990-01-22
SS Peter Mooney* 1990-08-19
RF Markus Brisker 1990-08-21
1B K.C. Hobson* 1990-08-22
3B Bryson Namba 1991-01-31

Bench

C Joe Bowen*$ 1987-09-25
OF Eli Boike* 1987-12-26
3B Andy Fermin* 1989-07-27
SS Garis Peña 1992-03-10

Starting Rotation

LHP Tyler Ybarra 1989-12-11
LHP Justin Nicolino 1991-11-22
RHP Ajay Meyer 1987-07-19
RHP Aaron Sanchez 1992-07-01
RHP Noah Syndergaard 1992-08-29

Bullpen

RHP Matt Fields 1986-07-10
RHP Shawn Griffith 1987-05-24
RHP Brandon Berl 1988-04-09
RHP Aleson Escalante 1988-08-29
RHP Dayton Marze 1989-01-01
RHP Tyler Powell 1989-02-16
RHP Drew Permission 1989-02-24

This level is a total crapshoot. We hit up our boy Jesse for his thoughts and this was the best we could come up with.


The Best Of The Rest

Position Players

C Aaron Munoz 1988-12-24
C Santiago Nessy 1992-12-08
1B Kevin Patterson* 1988-09-28
1B Art Charles* 1990-11-10
2B Jorge Vega-Rosado 1991-12-05
3B Kellen Sweeney* 1991-09-14
3B Matt Dean 1992-12-22
3B Gabriel Cenas 1993-10-16
SS Dickie Joe Thon 1991-11-16
SS Gustavo Pierre 1991-12-28
SS Shane Optiz* 1992-01-10
SS Christian Lopes 1992-10-01
SS Dawel Lugo
OF Nico Taylor 1990-02-09
OF Christopher Hawkins* 1991-08-17
OF Eric Arce* 1991-11-29
OF Dwight Smith Jr.* 1992-10-26
OF Jacob Anderson 1992-11-22
OF Dalton Pompey** 1992-12-11
OF Derrick Loveless* 1993-03-07
OF Wuilmer Becerra

Starting Pitchers

LHP David Rollins 1989-12-21
LHP Griffin Murphy 1991-01-16
LHP Mitchell Taylor 1992-05-11
LHP Daniel Norris 1993-04-25
LHP Jairo Labourt 1994-03-07
RHP Milciades Santana 1989-01-20
RHP Randall Thompson 1989-05-18
RHP Tucker Jensen 1989-08-03
RHP Kevin Comer 1992-08-01
RHP Deivy Estrada 1992-08-22
RHP Joe Musgrove 1992-12-04
RHP Jeremy Gabryszwski 1993-03-16
RHP Mark Biggs 1993-05-10
RHP Tom Robson 1993-06-27
RHP Adonys Cardona 1994-01-16
RHP Yeyfry Del Rosario 1994-04-27
RHP Greylor Conde 1994-06-25
RHP Roberto Osuna 1995-02-07

Relievers

RHP Bryan Longpre 1987-07-13
RHP Jonathan Lucas 1987-12-12
RHP Brian Slover 1988-06-10
RHP Andrew Sikula 1988-12-21
RHP Eric Brown 1989-02-23
RHP Myles Duvall 1989-04-23
RHP Nicholas Purdy 1989-10-02
RHP Steven Romero 1990-08-02

Walking Wounded

RHP Alan Farina 1986-08-09
Tommy John July 2011
In the last week of March look for this guy to get placed on the 60 day DL thereby opening up a spot on the 40 man roster. (cough Vizquel or Laffey cough)

RHP Stephen Marek 1983-09-03
Tommy John May 2011
Recently signed to an Minor League contract, when he's able physically to pitch he should be in Vegas.

LHP John Anderson 1988-11-09
Tommy John July 2011
Check out the video of the exact moment in time when his elbow ligaments actually snap right here. Spoiler alert: it's not pretty

RHP Sam Dyson 1988-05-07
Tommy John Nov 2010
He should be just about ready to rock. Not sure if the team views him as a starter or a reliever at this point nor are we sure what level he would start at. If we had to guess, we'd say Dunedin.

3B Mark Sobolewski 1986-12-24
Skin Cancer Jan 2012
What was thought to be simply a mole or a pimple turned out to be melanoma. Get caught up to speed here. It's unknown whether he is able to get it going in a month or not but if he can play, he starts in New Hampshire.

Nearly Recovered, d'Arnaud Looks Forward

Back in October, we reported on a thumb injury that top Blue Jays prospect Travis d'Arnaud suffered while competing with Team USA. The reigning Eastern League Most Valuable Player felt a pop after "catching a ball wrong". The 22-year-old was soon diagnosed with a ligament tear in his thumb.

d'Arnaud, who was acquired from the Phillies in 2009 as part of the Roy Halladay trade, required surgery and has been rehabbing the repaired hand ever since, to get ready for the upcoming season.

According to the All-Star catcher he'll be ready for spring training and doesn't expect to miss a beat in 2012.

"My hand feels great," d'Arnaud said. "Rehab went well. I went to (the Sports Medicine Institute) in Anaheim, California and went for about two months of rehab. My thumb feels normal. Now, I just need to get accustomed to catching bullpens and such."

d'Arnaud was Philadelphia's supplemental first round draft choice (37th overall) in 2007.

En route to helping the Double A New Hampshire Fisher Cats lock down the EL championship, in 2011, d'Arnaud posted a .311 batting average with 33 doubles, 21 homeruns, 78 RBI and a league leading .542 slugging percentage.

The southern California native is already focused beyond recovery, as he's looking forward to having another big offensive year with hopes of more championship hardware.

"I'm feeling amazing and ready for the season to begin."

__________________________________________________

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Name That Photo Contest!

It's about that time for our latest installment of the NTPC. I'm leaning towards: "I wish this fucking guy would stop calling me already!" (unless my name is John Daniels)

Alex Anthopoulos has acquired 38 players in total if you include that guy cash considerations we picked up on the 25th of May as a player. Roll by here and see for yourself.

• Change the team to: Toronto Blue Jays
• Change the transaction type to: Trade
• Change the start date to: 10/03/2009

Have at it. The floor is yours.

Quotables: 1BJW's Top Soundbites of 2011

On a regular basis, we here at 1BlueJaysWay bring our readers exclusive interviews/features with various minor league players and organizational personnel. We've browsed through our Q&A's from the last season to bring you the ten best 1BJW interview quotes of the year.

Check out the teasers below and click each link to take in the full interview that we brought your way over the past year.

Blue Jays outfielder Colby Rasmus talking about his transition, after joining Toronto via a mid-season trade: "It's been good. All the guys on the team are awesome. I like the staff...all the coaches are great. Just all the way around, it's definitely a different environment than St. Louis. You know, St. Louis is a little uptight, but (Toronto is) a little more fun. I have more fun going to the field everyday."

Highly ranked catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud discussing the depth at catcher in the Blue Jays' organization: "The (catching) in the Blue Jays organization is unbelievable...the best catching organization I've been in. Shoot, you look at every level and we've got top prospects. At Triple A they've got Jeroloman, here (at Double-A) we've got me and Yan (Gomes), at High A you've Jimenez, in Low A you've got Perez. Even in the GCL you've got Nessy. I mean, it's just unreal how good of catching prospects the Blue Jays have."

Pitching prospect Deck McGuire chatting about alumni of his college, Georgia Tech, helping to prepare him for his professional career: "Mark Teixeira always came back every year for a football game and he'd come in the locker room and we could just ask him questions. And a lot of the questions, even though he's a hitter and I'm a pitcher, it was just, 'What can you learn from a guy that does it for 162 games a year at the highest level?' And then there are guys like Matt Weiters, who handles a pitching staff as well as anybody in the big leagues at a young age. And he's a guy that's always accessible and you can ask him questions. And there are just a tons of guys, big leaguers, guys that have that time that are at the highest point in our profession that you can always come to with any kind of questions to help yourself get better."

Former 1st round draft pick Chad Jenkins talking about his impressions of New Hampshire as his home for the 2011 season: "It's awesome. I've never been in a place where the fans love the team so much. We have a great fan base up there. They show up, sunshine, rain, no matter what, they're there and they're cheering us on."

Outfield prospect and two-time minor league stolen base champion Anthony Gose answering a fan question about the improvements he made to reduce his caught stealing numbers: "(I just tried to) be smarter. Last year I came in real big-headed and cocky after the year I had before in Lakewood. Last year humbled me and basically just being smarter. I had it the whole time and I should have known this last year and not went through that trial and error process, but you know, I'll take the good with the bad and here I am and I'll just keep moving forward."

Jays minor league coach Danny Solano translating for top SS prospect Adeiny Hechavarria, as he discusses the opportunity to learn from rehabbing big leaguers like Rajai Davis, when they spend time in the minors: "He said he tries to learn from as far as what those guys are doing, and how they're disciplined, how those guys swing, how those guys act outside of the lines like in the clubhouse, how those guys have a routine every day. So he tries to see all those little things."

Double-A Fisher Cats manager Sal Fasano talking about first baseman Mike McDade: "He's probably been our most consistent hitter. He just keeps improving daily. It's fun to see him get a little bit of notoriety, because he's kind of worked his way into prospecthood. He wasn't a highly touted guy, but he keeps producing every year."

Mid-Season All-Star Marcus Knecht on where he grew up: "Right in the city about 10 minutes north of downtown, north of the Rogers Centre."

On a rehab assignment  Jesse Litsch explains how he got the dream job of every little kid, that being a Big League bat boy: "One thing they gave me credentials to be in the clubhouse so they were always looking for me and they found me in the clubhouse so that's why they initially gave me the bat boy job."

All world catching prospect Carlos Perez gives us his thoughts on the weather in Lansing early in the season: "Yeah, here is too cold."

Some other great interviews we had this past year include Zach Stewart, Henderson Alvarez and hitting coach Justin Mashore.

AA Doesn't Do Free Agents

We're not sure how we could be any more blunt about it.

Our faithful leader - who will no doubt one day have a street or a school or both named after him - just doesn't get down with the free agents. He's said it time and time again. 

• He doesn't like the term or dollars required to lock down the player. 
• He doesn't do performance bonuses. 
• He doesn't do not trade clauses. 
• He doesn't do player or vesting options. 
• He doesn't do contracts over 5 years for players.
• He doesn't do contracts over 3 years for pitchers.

Period. 

End of discussion.

For whatever reason most of the people that follow the team the closest seem to have forgotten this over the past couple of weeks. The cries for Prince Fielder were still are only slightly less annoying then how deafening the cries became for Yu Darvish. The Carlos Beltran sweepstakes was a nice little cherry on top. All of them big name, high profile guys who simply do not fit in with the teams current views. This is how it is and this is how it will remain, until further notice. You, I and all the other children in this crazy game cannot change this no matter how hard try.

It's just not how the plan was drawn up.

For the record: the most expensive free agent signed by your Toronto Blue Jays since Alex Anthopoulos took the reins of the team was

Jon Rauch for a whopping 1 year at 3.75 million dollars. If you factor in the buyout it climbs all the way up to the 4 million dollar mark.

And you know what else? He doesn't owe ANY of us a God damn thing let alone an explanation. How he chooses to do his job is none of our concern provided he gets the job done. 

In AA we trust.

Final Thought On Yu Darvish

 
















Every year I play in a uber competitive big money AL only fantasy baseball league. I consider two or three of my rivals friends and the rest are merely acquaintances. Just before the season is about to start all 12 managers get together and have an auction style draft. It's good fun and the beers flow. A salary cap of $260 is in place which must cover 14 hitters and 9 pitchers. As you would imagine this auction plays out like a episode of Storage Wars. The premium players will not be had for less than 40 bucks. If a manager thinks he's about to get a smoking deal - say Konerko for $29 - someone jumps in and jacks the bid to a more acceptable price even if they ultimately have no interest in the player. Where it gets truly interesting is when it's time to bid on a hot shot rookie. All of your trusted methods of evaluating talent - and your sanity - go straight out the window at times.

Example 1: Evan Longoria circa 2008 draft

I remember it well because it was my first year of playing in the league. I was the new guy and I had no idea what I was doing. All these players were going for prices that I thought were completely outrageous and then somebody nominated Longoria. Obviously he had some talent with the stick and his face was on the cover of every fantasy baseball publication known to man. As the bidding started I figured a double digit bid is where I would back off. To my and the chiseled league vet's I was sitting beside surprise he went all the way up to 26 bucks. I remember him turning to me and saying: "that's a lot of money to spend on a guy that's never faced a major league pitcher before."

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
2008	22	TBR	AL	122	508	448	67	122	31	2	27	85	7	0	46	122	.272	.343	.531	.874	127	238	8	6	0	8	4	*5/D6	AS,MVP-11,RoY-1

Example 2: Austin Jackson circa 2010 draft

Coming to the Tigers in what can only be described as a blockbuster deal in the winter of 2009 Jackson was the centerpiece and a much hyped Yankees prospect, like every other damn Yankees prospect. He was going to play CF everyday and there were rumors that Leyland was going to try him out at leadoff in a pretty dangerous lineup on paper. I figured his glove was going to keep him in CF and therefore keep him in the lineup. Again, I set my limit at double digits and again he climbed out of my price range to 12 bucks. In retrospect that's a pretty fair price to pay for an everyday player in this league.

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
2010	23	DET	AL	151	675	618	103	181	34	10	4	41	27	6	47	170	.293	.345	.400	.745	102	247	5	4	3	3	4	*8	RoY-2

 
Example 3: Lorenzo Cain circa 2011 draft

Involved in the Zack Greinke trade over the winter, Cain wasn't guaranteed a job on the big league roster but had had some success in the Majors the previous year. He was blocked in CF by the Melkman who had signed a one year deal with an option with KC. In a somewhat brazen alcohol induced move, yours truly made a play at Cain figuring he would be up a day or two after the Super 2 date had passed in early June. I had some extra funds to burn and it was late in the draft so I bid him up to 7 bucks and won. In doing so, I missed out on free agent to be and seven year veteran Josh Willingham who ended up being had for 6 bucks.

Cain:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
2010	24	MIL	NL	43	158	147	17	45	11	1	1	13	7	1	9	28	.306	.348	.415	.763	105	61	1	1	0	1	0	8/79
2011	25	KCR	AL	6	23	22	4	6	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	4	.273	.304	.318	.623	73	7	0	0	0	0	0	/98

Willingham:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
2004	25	FLA	NL	12	29	25	2	5	0	0	1	1	0	0	4	8	.200	.310	.320	.630	68	8	1	0	0	0	0	/27
2005	26	FLA	NL	16	28	23	3	7	1	0	0	4	0	0	2	5	.304	.407	.348	.755	107	8	1	2	1	0	0	/2D7
2006	27	FLA	NL	142	573	502	62	139	28	2	26	74	2	0	54	109	.277	.356	.496	.852	121	249	13	11	0	6	2	*7/D32	RoY-9
2007	28	FLA	NL	144	604	521	75	138	32	4	21	89	8	1	66	122	.265	.364	.463	.827	115	241	11	16	0	1	1	*7/D
2008	29	FLA	NL	102	416	351	54	89	21	5	15	51	3	2	48	82	.254	.364	.470	.834	117	165	7	14	1	2	2	7
2009	30	WSN	NL	133	502	427	70	111	29	0	24	61	4	3	61	104	.260	.367	.496	.863	127	212	11	12	0	2	2	*79/3
2010	31	WSN	NL	114	450	370	54	99	19	2	16	56	8	0	67	85	.268	.389	.459	.848	129	170	8	9	0	4	3	7/D
2011	32	OAK	AL	136	563	488	69	120	26	0	29	98	4	1	56	150	.246	.332	.477	.810	121	233	6	11	0	8	3	7D

Conclusion:

Bidding and subsequently winning these types of players is a clear lose lose situation. In order to win them you have to overpay for them relative to their real value. The only way it works out for you is when they preform above or well above their projected level, which in turn is based on nothing in the way of real experience.

For a quick reality check to all you stupid, ignorant, the sky is falling, hockey crazed, Rogers hating, moron, upset at your life, looking for the simple answer, management hating, stathead, dickholes that just can't seem to let this God damn topic go please click here

Something To Consider

PLEASE NOTE: this post was written prior to finding out that international broadcast revenues are shared amongst all MLB teams equally. The agreement can be found here and it expires at the end of the 2015 season. If your Toronto Blue Jays do win the auction AND sign Darvish you'd have to think that they would have a major say on what the next deal looks like. That's if this guy turns out to be as good as he's been advertised. It is possible that there is a clause within the current agreement that allows teams to place a premium on their games specifically for situations like this. We attempt to explore that concept below.

If you read this blog, you're well aware that Darvish mania has hit a fever pitch in this city.

One thing that has been stuck in our minds was a note from the Toronto Sun's Bob Elliot post the other night saying that Rogers told the Jays brass to get Darvish "Whatever it costs, sign him". All we've been hearing since the bomb was dropped on all Jays fans during the Winter Meetings was "payroll parameters". How do we make the jump from we'll spend money when the fans start showing up to sign him at all costs?  Sounds like to us a group of business analysts over at Rogers sat down and started to run some numbers and have realized that this Darvish kid might actually make them some money. How's that possible when we're talking about a pricetag of $125 million once the posting and the contract are settled.

First lesson learned here at 1BJW was, apparently we're quite ignorant when it comes to the actual population of Japan. 128 Million potential Rogers "customers" over there just waiting to watch their Major League playing Rock Star of a pitcher on beautiful HD feeds straight from Sportsnet Central.  Another thing we learned was that the Japanese community here in Toronto wasn't quite as large as we might have thought, only about 19000.  How many of that number can be either Jays fans or even interested in seeing Darvish pitch at the Rogers Centre. We'll look at that later.  But this 128 million is a big number, let's dig a bit more into that.

What kind of tv viewership numbers can we be looking at in Japan we wondered.

Well, here's a look at those numbers.

95 percent of Japanese watch TV daily and that nearly 60 percent of daily viewers watch for three hours or more.

127,000,000 population

120,000,000 total viewers

72,000,000 watch for three hours or more.

Well holy shit we say, there's a lot of "customers" just waiting for Rogers to push their product to. In Japan there is just one public broadcaster and that's the folks at NHK so it'll make negotiating a broadcast deal with much easier as it's just 1 deal to make.

After a bit of digging we found that the Leafs charge broadcasters $1.25 a month per tv set to get their games and the NFL Network charges $0.81 a month for their product. Ok, that's a bit high for Blue Jays product lets be honest and while we're fans of our team, would these new "customers" in Japan want to watch all our games or just the games staring their National Hero? We here are leaning to just Darvish's starts. Let's start running some numbers here.

Let's start real cheap with charging just a penny a Darvish start, typically he'll get 5 starts a month, here's hoping anyway. 

$0.01 Per Start

$0.05 a Month mulitplied by 72,000,000 possible viewers to watch a ballgame.

At this point, you're thinking, that's got to be a high number and you'd be right.

$3,600,000 a MONTH or $21,600,000 a SEASON! 

I don't know about you, but a penny a start seems damn cheap, I couldn't imagine if they could actually could get a whopping nickle a start. Being the math wizards we are here at 1BJW, we can tell you that equals $108,000,000 a season!  Yes, that's a lot of zeros. What could you charge if he pitches against the Yankees or Red Sox? What could you charge if he lines up against Dice-K? The money is truly endless.

Say what you will about our teams owners, but Rogers is in the business of making money. They do it very well, hence they just ponied up $533 million dollars to buy a stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs. We know the rates we pay here in this country for our Rogers Services and how so very kind they are to us. So what if they can even get a penny a start for him, that'll cover 86 percent of his salary and posting before a fan even steps in the building.

Let's look at that now for a moment shall we? We here at 1BJW don't generally buy the argument that the fans will come to just see a certain player. But maybe, just maybe the curiousity is high when/if Darvish starts here and fans flock in to see his first few starts to see what the deal is. Is the hype real? Maybe, just maybe some of the 19,000 Japanese people that live in the Toronto area will come to see one of their countries own. Maybe. Might happen, we really don't know.

So let's just say, that on the night's that Darvish pitches that the Blue Jays are lucky enough to get an extra 3000 per home start. I'm guessing the first game he pitches here is a sellout and maybe the first few are up there.  So an extra 3000 a home start averaged over the season doesn't seem like a strech to us. With this signing, the buzz in the city is sure to build. Will that translate into people in chairs? Maybe, maybe not. But winning sure will and we've all got hope that this will.   

But let's just say the average price of a Blue Jays ticket is $40 and you can't go to the ballgame without getting a pop or two and something to eat. So on average another $40 per person. Average. 

So, 3000 people at $80 bucks a night is:

$240,000 extra a home start night.

Hopefully Darvish makes 15 home starts throughout the season.

$3,600,000 million a season.

Well wait, just a second here. $21,600,000+$3,600,000 is: 

$25,200,000, again we say, that's at a penny a start.

We haven't sold a jersey yet and we're already about $200,000 ahead.

The buzz this potential signing has created has been huge the last few days. Will they sell more seasons tickets because it appears that the Jays are actually taking risks and are attemping to put that competitive team we've longed for, for so many years. Maybe. The number of people that are saying that they'll buy more tickets this season just because it appears that Rogers actually cares about winning with this team. The numbers speak for themselves, what Rogers really cares about is making money.

The Blue Jay Rally Call

I'm not even certain that I want the braintrust to win this ridiculously stupid blind auction or not. But hey, what the fuck else are we doing?

Ball Hall’s Tip O’Neill award up for grabs

St. Marys – The 26 Canadians that donned major league uniforms in 2011 was the largest number in more than a century, and that means the voting for the Tip O’Neill Award is going to be as challenging as ever. The annual recognition stems from the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum and is given to the player judged to have excelled in individual achievement and team contribution while adhering to baseball’s highest ideals.

The Ball Hall is seeking input prior to the decision being announced on December 14th. Please send your top three choices in order by emailing baseball@baseballhalloffame.ca or you can vote on our website at www.baseballhalloffame.ca (there is a poll on the bottom right hand corner)

Larry Walker is the all-time leader in “Tip” awards with nine. Jason Bay sits second with three, while Justin Morneau and Eric Gagné, with two each, are the only others to win more than once. 2010 recipient Joey Votto has a chance to join the club of multiple winners after another stellar season, but he is up against some strong competition from the likes of John Axford, Erik Bedard, Jesse Crain, Russ Martin and Brett Lawrie.

The following is an alphabetic summary, from Axford to Votto, of the Canucks who played in “The Show” in 2011, along with a pair of candidates from Team Canada’s men’s and women’s teams:

John Axford (Port Dover, ON) – Led the Milwaukee Brewers to the playoffs with a National League leading 46 saves, won the NL Rolaids Relief Man award and finished ninth in Cy Young voting. The 6’5”, 195-pounder’s single season save total ranks third in Canadian history, trailing only Eric Gagné, who chalked up seasons of 55 and 52 saves. The moustachioed right-hander compiled a 1.95 ERA with 86 strikeouts, 25 walks, and 59 hits over 73 innings. Beginning April 24th, he converted 43 consecutive saves, and overall converted 46 saves in 48 save opportunities. His ERA after the All-Star Break was 0.84. In six playoff appearances, Axford had a win, three saves, struck out nine in seven innings, and landed a 1.29 ERA.

Jason Bay (Trail, BC) – After a late start due to injury, the 2009 Tip winner smacked a dozen homers, 109 hits, 19 doubles, 57 RBI and a Canadian-leading 11 stolen bases for the New York Mets. Won NL Player of the Week on September 12th. OBP - .329, SLG – .374, BA – .245.

Erik Bedard (Navan, ON) – Won five games in 24 starts with the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox. Struck out 125 hitters in 129 innings pitched, ERA – 3.62.

Megean Cornellsen (Grand Prairie, AB) – Team Canada outfielder was named MVP in the USA Baseball Women's International Friendship Series, with six hits in six games, seven RBI and four stolen bases. OBP – .421, SLG – .353, BA – 353.

Jesse Crain (Toronto, ON) – Appeared in 67 games for the Chicago White Sox, collected eight wins, 2.62 ERA, struck out 70 and allowed 50 hits in 65 innings.

Ryan Dempster (Gibsons, BC) – The Chicago Cubs opening day starter amassed 10 wins, threw 202 innings, striking out 191, and had a 4.80 ERA in his Canadian-best 34 starts. Nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award.

Scott Diamond (Guelph, ON) – Had seven starts for the Minnesota Twins, winning one, striking out 19 over 39 innings, and had an ERA of 5.08.

Jeff Francis (Vancouver, BC) – After injuries limited him to just 19 starts in 2010, the tall left-hander rebounded to start 31 games for the Kansas City Royals, winning six, pitching 183 innings, striking out 91, and amassing a 4.82 ERA.

Taylor Green (Comox, BC)– Milwaukee Brewers third baseman appeared in 20 games as a September call-up, batted .270. Was Pacific Coast League All-Star and Baseball America 2nd-Team Minor League All-Star. At Triple-A, 120 games, 141 hits, 22 HR, 36 doubles, 88 RBI, BA – .336, SLG – .583, OBP – .413.

Rich Harden (Victoria, BC) – Limited service with Oakland A’s due to injury, 15 starts, four wins, 91 strikeouts in 82 innings, 5.12 ERA.

Blake Hawksworth (North Vancouver, BC) – Relieved for the LA Dodgers, hip problems limited him to 49 games, two wins, 43 strikeouts in 53 innings, 4.08 ERA.

George Kottaras (Toronto, ON) – Back-up catcher with Milwaukee played 49 games, batted .252, five HR, SLG – .459, OBP – .311. Hit for the cycle in Houston on September 3rd, the first major leaguer to do it in 2011, and the first Canadian to hit for the cycle since (who else?) Tip O’Neill did it twice in 1887. 2011 CBHFM inductee George Wood (Pownal, PEI) also hit for the cycle in 1885.

Brett Lawrie (Langley, BC) - Charlie Hustle attitude brought electric atmosphere when the third baseman was called up to the Toronto Blue Jays, playing 43 games, batting .293, with 44 hits, nine HR, 8 doubles, 25 RBI, seven stolen bases, SLG – .580, OBP – .373, and a memorable extra-inning walk-off HR against the Boston Red Sox. The right-handed slugger was just named to the Topp’s 2011 All-Rookie Team. At Triple-A, played 69 games, 103 hits, 18 HR, 61 RBI, 13 SB, BA – 353, SLG – .661, OBP – .415. Was Pacific Coast League’s Player of the Month in May, named Baseball America 1st Team Minor League All-Star, and Baseball America Triple-A All-Star.

Chris Leroux (Montreal, QC) – The 6’6”, 225 lb right-hander appeared in 23 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates, winning one, striking out 24 batters in 25 innings, and compiling a 2.88 ERA.

Adam Loewen (Vancouver, BC) – Completed the remarkable transition from major league pitcher to major league position player due to arm injury. Called up to the Blue Jays in September, played 14 games, six hits, one HR. At Triple-A, in 134 games, smacked 159 hits, 17 HR, 46 doubles, stole 11 bases, BA – .306, SLG – .508, OBP – .377. Recently signed with the New York Mets.

Trystan Magnuson (Vancouver, BC) – Pitched in nine games with the Oakland A’s, striking out 11 in 14 innings, 6.14 ERA.

Jonathan Malo (Joliette, QC) - Shortstop led Team Canada to bronze medal at World Cup and gold at Pan Am Games. Named to World Cup All-Star Team (quite a rarity for a Canadian middle infielder), batted .382, collected 13 hits and played exceptional defence while starting every game for Canada. Batted .316 at Pan Ams. Team Canada improved to 6th in world ranking. Batted 226 at Double-A and Triple-A in NY Mets system.

Russell Martin (East York, ON) – New York Yankees everyday catcher was an American League All-Star, finished first in assists, and in 125 games had 99 hits, 18 HR, 17 doubles, eight stolen bases, BA – .237, SLG – .408, OBP – .324.

Scott Mathieson (Vancouver, BC) – Limited action attempting comeback following third elbow surgery, including two Tommy John elbow ligament replacements. Pitched in four games, five innings, struck out five, 0.00 ERA.

Justin Morneau (New Westminster, BC) – Former AL MVP with Larry Walker career-like potential still feeling effects of concussion, playing only 69 games, with 60 hits, four HR, 16 doubles, 30 RBI, BA – .227, SLG – .333, OBP – .285.

Mike Nickeas (Vancouver, BC) – Back-up catcher for the New York Mets saw action in 21 games, 10 hits, .194 BA.

Pete Orr (Toronto, ON) – Utility infielder for Philadelphia Phillies played in 46 games, 21 hits, three doubles, three stolen bases, .219 BA.

Scott Richmond (Vancouver, BC) – Hampered by injury, only had one outing with the Toronto Blue Jays. Closed out the Pan Am Games gold medal game with three innings of sparkling relief against the USA to hold Canada’s 2-1 lead, and striking out the game’s final hitter to give Canada its first ever gold medal at the Senior level.

Mike Saunders (Victoria, BC) – Seattle Mariners outfielder played 58 games, 24 hits, five doubles, six stolen bases, .149 BA.

Matt Stairs (St. John, NB) – Ended incredible MLB career having played for a record 13 teams. The power hitting outfielder who hold the major league record with 23 pinch-hit homeruns. Saw limited action, mainly pinch-hit, in 56 games with Washington Nationals, totalled 10 hits and a .154 BA. Ironically, despite the left-handed slugger’s sure-fire future Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame career numbers, Stairs did not win a Tip O’Neill Award in any of his 19 seasons. Arguably could have won or shared the Tip in his best season, 1999, with 38 HR and 102 RBI, but Larry Walker knocked 37 HR and 115 RBI in 20 fewer games, and won the batting title with a .379 clip, and a superb OPS of 1.168, while Stairs batted .258 and had an .899 OPS.

Mark Teahen (Canadian Citizen, father born in St. Marys, ON) – Third baseman traded from the Chicago White Sox to the Toronto Blue Jays, played in 78 games, 32 hits, four doubles, 14 RBI, and a .200 BA.

Rene Tosoni (Toronto, ON) – Minnesota Twins outfielder played in 60 games, chalking up 32 hits, five HR, seven doubles, 22 RBI, and a .203 BA.

Joey Votto - (Etobicoke, ON) – NL All-Star and Gold Glove winner finished sixth in MVP voting. The 2010 NL MVP batted .309 including 29 HR, 72 extra base hits, and a Canadian record 110 bases on balls. The Cincinnati Reds marquee player led the NL in BA on the road (.334) and BA with runners in scoring position (.383), and led all MLB first basemen in games (160) and innings played, total chances, putouts, assists and was second in double plays. Had 185 hits including NL-leading 40 doubles, 103 RBI, scored 101 runs, and stole eight bases. SLG – .531, OBP – .416, OPS – .947 (9th in NL).

The award is named after Woodstock, Ontario native James 'Tip' O'Neill, who was one of Major League baseball's first legitimate stars. With the St. Louis Browns in 1887, the outfielder set major league records in hits, doubles, slugging percentage, and total bases that season while compiling his astounding major league record .492 batting average, and SLG-691, H-225, D-52, T-19, HR-14, TB-357, R-167, RBI-123. Bases on balls were included as hits in 1887, but if O'Neill's average was calculated by today's standard, it was .435, the second highest in major league history to Hugh Duffy (.438).

Past winners of the James "Tip" O'Neill Award:

1984 TERRY PUHL
1985 DAVE SHIPANOFF
1986 ROB DUCEY
1987 LARRY WALKER
1988 KEVIN REIMER
1989 STEVE WILSON
1990 LARRY WALKER
1991 DANIEL BRABANT
1992 LARRY WALKER
1993 ROB BUTLER
1994 LARRY WALKER
1995 LARRY WALKER
1996 JASON DICKSON
1997 LARRY WALKER
1998 LARRY WALKER
1999 JEFF ZIMMERMAN
2000 RYAN DEMPSTER
2001 LARRY WALKER (tie) 2001 COREY KOSKIE (tie)
2002 LARRY WALKER (tie) 2002 ERIC GAGNÉ (tie)
2003 ERIC GAGNÉ
2004 JASON BAY
2005 JASON BAY
2006 JUSTIN MORNEAU
2007 RUSSELL MARTIN
2008 JUSTIN MORNEAU
2009 JASON BAY
2010 JOEY VOTTO

On a personal level, my write in ballot looked like this:

1. Brett Lawrie
2. Brett Lawrie
3. Brett Lawrie

After some heated debate, it was accepted. Exercise your right and vote now!

The winner will be announced tomorrow. 

Blue Jays Acquire Francisco From Phils

The following piece appeared today on PhoulBallz.com, a Phillies site run by 1BJW's own Jay Floyd.


The man known to Philadelphia faithful as “Benny Fresh” is heading north of the border, as the Phillies have dealt outfielder Ben Francisco to the Toronto Blue Jays for minor league left-handed pitcher Frank Gailey.

Francisco, was acquired by Philadelphia in a July, 2009 trade that initially brought star hurler Cliff Lee to town in exchange for four prospects.

In his time with the Phillies, Francisco batted .260 with 16 HR and 61 RBI in 225 regular season games played. The 30-year-old is likely best known for his homerun in game 3 of the 2011 division series against St. Louis that locked down a win for Philadelphia. In 17 career postseason games, the California native has tallied a .105 batting average.

Gailey, a 26-year-old lefty, was born in Philadelphia and attended West Chester University. In 2011, Gailey split time between Class A Advance Dunedin and Double A New Hampshire. In the Florida State League, Gailey was strong, going 4-2 with a 1.84 ERA and a .168 batting average against in 26 relief outings, earning himself a promotion to the Eastern League. Gailey wasn’t as sharp with the Fisher Cats, as he sported a 1-4 record, a 5.70 ERA and a .286 batting average against in 19 games.

Originally a 23rd round draft choice by the Blue Jays in 2007, Gailey has posted a 2.45 ERA overall in his 5 professional seasons.

The 5-foot-9-inch 190-pounder has never pitched above the Double-A level. He projects to be developmental depth, much the way veteran minor league relievers Justin Friend and Les Walrond were at multiple levels of the organization last season.
_________________________________________

Image- Philly.com

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The Week That Was

Image courtesy of Minor Leaguer via Bluebird Banter

Exactly one week ago today we stated that agent Dan Lozano and his associates were headed to Toronto. The name Albert Pujols was liberally thrown around as being in attendance but never once confirmed by us.

Didn't really get the chance.

The biggest dog on the porch, the mighty Drunk Jays Fans and their crazed monkey army jumped all over it and away it went into retard land. In fairness, the post itself was written in a somewhat complementary tone while the comments section was predictably a gong show.

The overall reaction was naturally mixed and since we weren't prepared to disclose the source of this information - still aren't/never will/stop asking - it was quickly scrutinized and for the most part discarded. The main stream media did their best to disproved it while team officials totally denied it.

Case closed.

Courtesy of Jon Heyman

told no truth to internet reports pujols/lozano visiting toronto today. #stlcards look like his best (only?) $200M chance

Courtesy of ESPN

Pujols not meeting with Jays #bluejays #cardinals #mlb http://es.pn/sjM1tA

Courtesy of Bob Nightengale

No truth to talk that Pujols and Lozano are or were in Toronto. Lozano in LA office Tuesday

Courtesy of You Don't Know Dick

In an interview with the Star just last month, Jays president Paul Beeston expressed lingering bitterness over the way similarly high-priced free agents used his Jays as a negotiating tool back in the ’80s — before they had won anything. Beeston singled out free-agent reliever Rich Gossage and his agent Jerry Kapstein allowing the Jays to think they were in the running, then using that offer to bump up the price elsewhere. The long-memoried prez insists the Jays won’t get fooled again.
He proved it last year when the anticipated Blue Jays bid for the much-coveted and seemingly undecided Cliff Lee, the cream of that free-agent crop, failed to materialize. The same professional disinterest espoused by Beeston, on behalf of the Jays in dealing with top free agents in non-contending winters, is expected with Pujols and Prince Fielder. It’s a philosophy he passed on to GM Alex Anthopoulos. 

Courtesy of John Lott

“We’re not doing anything for a short-term fix … We’re not going to buy a team,” Beeston said. 

Courtesy of Shi Davidi

One question to draw a reaction from Anthopoulos was a sarcastic query about where he and Dan Lozano, the agent for free agent slugger Albert Pujols, had lunch this week. Some blogosphere fiction suggested Lozano was in town to visit the Jays, which drew a smirk from Anthopoulos, who struggled to maintain his policy of not replying to rumours and speculation.
"I've read all kinds of reports and again, I'm not ceased to be amazed about some of the false things that come out," he said.

Every single one of them refuted our claim and there are some heavy hitters on that list. All except Jeff Blair. We love Jeff Blair. He hasn't yet lost his ability to think outside the box.

Courtesy of Jeff Blair

The GM managed to get Beeston to overcome a significant aversion in getting him to sign off on a five-year contract extension for pitcher Ricky Romero in 2010, but it would be an even neater trick getting Beeston to think big, bigger, biggest in the free-agent market. That leaves the Blue Jays not even on the periphery for the likes of sluggers Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols – unless Beeston and Anthopoulos are working some kind of ruse.
All’s fair at this time of the season, folks. They might have us all exactly where they want us.

Here's what the message boards and comment threads had to say about it. Spoiler alert: not very positive

Courtesy of BlueJays.com (skip to page 6)

Courtesy of Pro Sports Daily

Courtesy of Sportsnet

Courtesy of Drunk Jays Fans

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd finally our personal favorite Mike Cormack

Hopping on Fan 590 with @JeffSammut590 after 9 to talk #jays, #mlb & ridiculous Pujols rumours.

The Pujols bit was the lead story and was quickly whisked under the rug. To paraphrase the conversation - as it happened on the fucking radio - it went down a little something like this:

Sammut: What's the deal with this Pujols rumour?

Cormack: It's just some silly blogger. They like to throw a bunch of stuff against a wall and see what sticks. Next question please.

It was at this point in the game we decided it was best to fold our hand. A memo went out to all staff: maintain full radio silence until further notice. The hate mail piled up while we just sat back and took names. Nobody believed us. And frankly, why would they? With this much evidence pointing to the contrary it was fairly easy to move right along to the next rumour.

What we took away from this entire exercise can be summed up like this: unless your name is known and respected in the baseball community there is absolutely zero point in trying to share a little snippet of juicy news you heard about your favorite team.

Even if we revealed our sources and told the other 90% of the story that we are privy to, it would have remained an extreme uphill battle for the good guys (us) to reclaim our honour that in the end just isn't worth the headache. We consider this an extremely valuable lesson learned. From this day forward there will be no more of this type of goodness from us.

Most of you reading this still probably think to this day we are a total joke and that's honestly completely cool with us. For those people we counter with just one simple question:

How did we possibly get our hands on this bad boy?

There's that and a FULL WEEK LATER there's this.

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