Deadline Bonanza

Boy Wonder does it AGAIN

A little before 10pm it was reported your Toronto Blue Jays declined the option(s) on closer Kevin Gregg, much to the dismay of the voters in our latest poll. Of the 18 votes cast 56% of them were in favor of keeping 3G around for another year. He had a buy out attached to his option for $750,000.

Then, even more unexpectedly.....

At 10:20pm the Jays make this press release:

The TORONTO BLUE JAYS have acquired C MIGUEL OLIVO from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for a player to be named or cash considerations.

At 11:50pm they release this:

The TORONTO BLUE JAYS have declined the 2011 option on C MIGUEL OLIVO, making him a free agent.

Olivo was a Blue Jay for an hour and a half at the cost of his buy out, which was $500,000. That is quite the hourly rate of pay! And it could go up if it was cash considerations going back the other way to the Rockies to complete the trade.

So we just paid $1.25 million - maybe more - for 2 players to NOT play for us in 2011.

What we know right now:

We have 2 Type A free agents in relievers Jason Frasor and Scott Downs.

We have 3 Type B free agents in catchers John Buck, Miguel Olivo and reliever Kevin Gregg.

If you don`t know what the difference is click here.

Assuming we offer everyone of our free agents with compensation attached to them arbitration, they decline it and all sign a Major League contract with another team. Then we are looking at 5 sandwich picks between the first and the second round of next years draft as well as 2 extra 1st round picks. For now.

There are 33 picks in the first round and 18 of them are protected, meaning they cannot be lost if the team that owns them signs a Type A free agent. In that case they would surrender their 2nd round pick instead.

It is also worth noting that if a team (the fucking Yankees) signs more than one Type A, then their first round pick in the draft goes to the team losing the highest ranked Type A free agent. Currently Downs has a rating of 76.352 and Frasor comes in at 73.383. 

All of this is really speculation until the next deadline which is November 23rd at midnight. That is when clubs have to decide whether or not to offer arbitration to their free agents.

Some other important deadlines are November 30 which is when players have to decide whether or not to accept arbitration and December 2nd which is the last day teams can tender a player a contract.

It's not until after this date do we get a true list of who is available this offseason and what their compensation will be.

Conclusion:

It is probable that your Toronto Blue Jays will have 10 picks in the first 3 rounds of the 2011 Amateur Draft and possible that we get 8 of the top 50.

Keep building through the draft.

In Alex we trust.

Stand Pat

(Damn I miss both those guys)

In the late 80's and early 90's GM Pat Gillick was running the show in Toronto.  Only two teams made the playoffs back then which meant there were only really a couple buyers.  Your Toronto Blue Jays were in the mix consistently and rarely made any upgrades at the deadline.  Which is not where the term/name/phrase/saying/whatever Stand Pat came from originally but more, what it will always mean to me when I hear it used.  I think of Stand Pat Gillick not getting any help for us via trade and then losing against the Bash Brothers of Oakland.  Kinda negative I know but.....

Modern Day

We are treading around .500 and 11.5 games out of the wildcard race.  We would have to leap frog past 3 very good clubs - 2 of them within our own God damn division - to gain a birth in the promise land.  Not outside the realm of possibility but certainly not "contending" either.

We had a few deals that were not doubt discussed but we chose to Stand Pat.  I must admit that I was hoping for some more prospects to drool over but I trust, in the end, Boy Wonder did what he thought was best.

Which is more than good enough for me

Your mission for the next 2 months, if you choose to accept it, is to stay ontop of the Elias Rankings.  Click on that link so the rest of this post hopefully makes some sense. 

The dynamic crew over at MLBTR periodically put out the current rankings on their site.  You need to take note of this starting right now.  Here's why:

• Scott Downs will be a Type A free agent.
• Jason Frasor is currently just barely a Type A and needs to pitch well the final two months of the year to maintain that.
• Kevin Gregg will be a Type B free agent.
• John Buck is currently a Type B free agent.  He was just placed on the 15 day DL but it still looks like he will maintain this rating.

If everything goes our way in the winter - which would be the equivalent of the stars aligning - than we could possibly net an additional 2 first round and 4 supplementary first round picks in the 2011 Amateur Draft.  Considering the size and talent of our scouting staff, that's really good news.  That is the absolute best case scenario so don't get all worked up just yet.  Worst case scenario is all 4 players return on 1 year deals and we do it all again next July 31st! 

Conclusion:

As much as we all wanted to see some trades get done, I figure those were the 6 reasons why in fact they did not.

 

My Mom has bestowed to me many great pieces of advice in my life but none that I use more in any one day than the following:

Sometimes the best thing you can do, is nothing at all.

My Dad countered with:

Late is OK but pregnant is no good.

Quickly:

Try to keep in mind AA did very well bringing in Esco in the Braves fleecing and made a move for Anthony Gose.  He also got some depth at 1B with the Mike Jacobs acquisition.  All this happened before the trade deadline bonanza so I think it is fair to say he was somewhat active.  

Also worth noting is the fact that there is still an opportunity to make deals up until August 31st.  It's just more complicated.  Check out this link for an explanation on how it works now.  Players currently on the DL can not be put on waivers.  That may explain why Buck was DL'd so quickly.  If he comes back in the minimum 15 days, there would still be time to place him on waivers.

More Quickly:

E5 has already cleared waivers and can be traded to any team, right now.