You sonofabitch. Things were just cruising along too smoothly, weren’t they J.P? So here I am, enjoying my little hiatus, and happy to write about something other sports every day. My 49ers, Bulldogs and Canadiens are all enjoying various levels of success, and I’m enjoying a nice night of drinks after work when the gay accountant strikes again!
Why is J.P. Ricciardi actively trying to ruin my life? And if there’s any facet of my life he’s not trying to ruin, could he let me know which ones those are so I can marry some nagging hag and let her handle those bits?
Let’s have a look-see, shall we? Sure, Frank Thomas can mash. This dude can flat-out hit. And I think he scored an ALDS MVP this year for one two-dinger game. The 39 homers last year was nice, and it may have meant a resurgence for the once feared hitter. Or it may have meant an injury-plagued former superstar was playing for an incentive-laden minimum wage contract. So if Frank plays 260 games over the next two years, is up there in AL MVP talk again, and bangs out a couple more 35 homer, 100 RBI seasons, I’ll be the first to eat crow. But it says here it will be a small miracle for this guy to see action in more than 100 games over the next two years, and we probably won’t see anything even close to an MVP performance.
Furthermore, by giving the Big Hurt (really, he’s so old, his nickname involves the word big) $18 million over the next two years, they Jays are kissing Ted Lilly goodbye. Now, I’m no brilliant Sabrmatrician like the gay accountant is, but hasn’t there been a thinking in baseball since the dawn of the game that good pitching beats good hitting? The word is that Lilly is after about $9 million a year, and he’ll probably get it. That’s probably a bargain, since this guy is one of the best second-tier starters around. He’s been the glue in the Jays’ staff every time Roy Halladay (the honeymoon’s not over till the next season-ending injury) has gone down (he may even be the only Jays pitcher to have a full complement of starts in each of the last five years), and it just doesn’t make any sense to let him walk.
Not when the team is in pretty good shape at the dish (top five in the Majors in hits, total bases, OBP, slugging and total average, plus only three teams had fewer strikeouts), and hurting for healthy pitching (though the stats suggest otherwise). The Jays will start the season with a
On the topic of A.J. Burnett, let’s go back to the day the Jays signed him to a $55 million contract. On that day, Burnett had a career mark of 49-50 and had never won more than 12 games in a single season. Plus there was something about a history of arm trouble.
On the day the Jays gave Ted Lilly’s money to Frank Thomas, Lilly had a career mark of 59-58, has won 12 or more games in three of the last four seasons, and is coming off a career-high of 15 wins. Plus no arm trouble and he is said to want a four-year deal at that $9 million previously mentioned.
Nice work again by the gay accountant.
Moreover, it looks as though the Jays are prepared to let catcher Gregg Zaun walk. While Zaun’s loss won’t be felt the way Vernon Wells’ will be in July when the gay accountant trades him for a ball-bag, Zaun is a productive fan favourite, and those are hard to replace.
All in all, we’re only three weeks into the off-season, and the Blue Jays are already making a mess of it. This has got to be what all those New York Rangers fans were feeling back in 2001 when the Rags were overspending on everyone they could, and going nowhere in return. Until next time…
No comments:
Post a Comment