Thanks Blue Jays! Now the hard work begins

 The World Series is about to begin and I do not have a horse left in  this race.  The Royals beat out the Blue Jays so it is a little hard to start rooting for them now, even if they may well have the most balanced team and are probably the favorites going in. The Mets have some great young arms but that KC lineup is very dangerous and can strike at any time. The Mets order is probably not as intimidating and  after a lengthy layoff may well have cooled down.

The dream match up I was hoping for was a Cubs vs Blue Jays World  Series. The Jays are my favorite AL team and the Cubs, well they are the Cubs, the lovable losers.

So now more focus goes to the off field game of baseball and there is  always. Much speculation on how teams will look to improve during the off-season.  Free agents, claims and trades come to the forefront during this time become topic of conversation and discussion. Who should stay, who should go and what upgrades can be made at a  reasonable cost (both in money and talent).

Normally this would be the time where I would start looking at The Atlanta Braves and begin feeling out what I think they need, where to get it and how they should go about it. This year is different.This year there are some extenuating circumstances that  very few could  have foreseen given the landscape of baseball in Toronto for the past 20 some odd years.

The Toronto Blue Jays had a great season, a winning season., a season  that saw them go 93-69. They won a divisional round series and just  came up a little short in a comeback that could have sent them to the World Series. How could focus go anywhere else?

The one good thing with this club is that there is a good chunk of the team that remains under club control.  The majority of those players will likely be back to for what proved to be a formidable offense and  provide stellar defense.  Turns out depth and a shaky bullpen proved  to be the team’s ultimate undoing.

With a relatively potent offense still intact the focus this off- season will be arms, both in the rotation as well as the bullpen. Well that and likely some bunting practice from some of the top of the  order guys.

The big question right now is what will the rotation look like going into next season. There will almost surely be an overhaul and what parts are left standing is anyone’s guess. The Jay’s have some good  young arms that could vie for a job as a starter but as for those who ended the season there will not likely be returning.

The club has an option on RA Dickey at a relatively team friendly salary. Not a top of the line guy anymore but an innings eater with a history of decent health so he is probably in the back end of the rotation. Mark Buehrle, Marco Estrada and David Price are all free agents. 2 of those guys will be looking to cash in this off-season and  1 may just retire. That leaves a lot of options and flexibility for the Jays to go in any number of directions.

Right now the only 2 Aces that the Jays
have is Marcus Stroman and this guy 

Here is the big thing on the pitching front, and this is where things  get murky. David Price will likely want somewhere in the ballpark of  7 years and near $200 some Million he is over 30 and as history will
show you are paying for about 4 maybe 5 good years before that  contract looks terrible and he is unable to throw to near that value. Marco Estrada has had 7/8 of a full year as a top end starter and entering the season was not even in the rotation. Giving him a big free agent contract based on 1 good season and one VERY good post season is a very risky proposition. The question now is Do You Feel  Lucky? Well do you, punk? The third member of this triad is Mark Buehrle. The decision may well be made by him and not by the club. He may want to return (but would have to do so at a very reduced rate) he may opt to retire or maybe he is just interested in moving on from the Jays altogether.

Oh, there is one other issue when looking at who or how this rotation  will be built. The GM, Alex Anthopoulos himself is going to become a  free agent on or near the completion of the World Series. So the current head decision maker and architect of this club may not be part of this club. Or, maybe he will be. Or, maybe there will be a sharing  of power in baseball operations with incoming Mark Shapiro as  President and CEO.  These are the most crucial decisions the Jays face  at the beginning of the off-season. After that it is all the easy  stuff like: Who is your second baseman Ryan Goings or Devin Travis who  will be returning from injury. What are you going to do at 1st base Smoke, Colabello or another? Do you need to trade a bat for an arm and  who can or are they willing to move? What young arm is ready to make the jump into the rotation? How and who are you going to set your bullpen and where are you going to find the ‘power arms’ that seem to  be a necessity?

And not unlike the Conservative Party of Canada attack ads.."and the budget will balance itself”. So too for the Blue Jays "the roster will fill out itself ’ right?

RA of Hope?

 Over the last three seasons, the Mets are 53-39 on the days that 

R.A. Dickey pitched, and 177-217 on the days he didn't.

Not saying this as an endorsement but maybe a reasoning for Alex Anthopoulos`s position. Perhaps he just feels the need for a Dickey extension. Ok that was a weak low brow joke but still funny.

There are just 2 worries for the Jays to pull off a deal of this nature – one or both of Travis d'Arnaud and Syndergaard prove to be real stars not just from a Jays perspective but also as a fan of a team in the NL East. 

The other is that RA, rightly or wrongly reminds me of Tom Candiotti in terms of him being an old pitcher that chucks the Knuks. That worries me giving up top baseball prospects, not just Jays prospects but like top 10 in all of baseball.

Just recall one deal from a team just a bit to the south in the late 80’s – Det. Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz. Doyle went 9-0 for the Tigers during his time and help win the Division but flamed out in the ALCS and went 14-11 the next year and retired the year after that...Smoltz went on to be Smoltz and a Hall of Fame career.

The flip side is there have not been a sniff of the playoffs since the early 90`s in Toronto and with the possibility of a vulnerable Yankee`s and Red Sox teams maybe you have no choice but to use the farm system to help your team by moving unproven parts for a better chance to win now.

People have been very critical that the Jays never do anything and they just muddle in mediocrity. The fact that they are even in a position to make a deal like this to put them in an even stronger position must be a welcome change. 

With the line-up the Jays have right now, which I am convinced is not where it will be by the start of the season, a rotation as it stands now is a huge bonus. If you can exchange Dickey for JA Happ in the rotation and roll out. Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, Dickey, Brendan Morrow and Ricky Romero and have Happ your guy out of the bullpen you are doing ok. Especially when you have to face a lineup like what the LA Angels are going to be able to throw out there in a series.

Cost/benefit analysis is tough to do. 

Should be interesting to see if this deal happens and what happens between now and seasons beginning.

Exciting times in Toronto regardless. Maybe the best time for all this with no NHL an no Maple Leafs. A great opportunity to take over the headlines and help grow the fan base and team loyalty.

Robbie Alomar- Fact or Fiction?

I am sure that many sport and Blue Jays fans are familiar with former second baseman, and Hall of Fame member Robbie Alomar. He was a great player for the Jays and also for many other teams including the Orioles and the Indians.

Alomar was known as being a versatile player with a solid bat, good speed and spectacular range and defensive prowess. He was what every team would love to have at the top of a lineup and up the middle. He hit for average, had some power at the plate and could turn a double play as well as just about any other player to ever play his position. A truly deserving inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame and a key member to the Blue Jays World Series Championship teams. He can be put right up there as one of the best second basemen of all time with the tools he had in his prime.

All of this is common knowledge and known by most, that is far from the interesting part. I am sure that both sports fans and regular people are at least familiar with hearing that back in 1996 Alomar was involved in a spitting incident involving an umpire.  Alomar got into a heated argument over a called third strike with umpire John Hirschbeck and spat in his face. He defended himself by saying Hirschbeck had uttered a racial slur and that Hirschbeck had been bitter since one son had died of ALD and another had been recently diagnosed as well. Upon hearing this public disclosure of his private life, Hirschbeck had to be physically restrained from confronting Alomar in the players' locker room.

This is where the un-proven and never verified part comes into play, and is part of a bigger part of the story that I had not heard before just a few days ago. Like I said before, I remember the story but never this version and now that it was mentioned it kind of makes sense and is a very interesting theory. This is all just alleged but is a somewhat plausible explanation. It was said that Alomar had heard a racial slur from Hirschbeck. Perhaps it was not a racial slur but maybe it was a sexual preference slur. If this was the case it would help validate the second part, the part that was a little more interesting.

Alomar joined the Mets in 2002 and it was in this time period that It was during this era that the "Mike Piazza is Gay" rumors began -- somewhat as a result of comments that Bobby Valentine made about Major League Baseball being ready to accept an openly gay athlete. This was a big deal at the time, so much so that it forced Piazza to hold a press conference to make a formal announcement with his model girlfriend saying he was not gay, that he was heterosexual. No active player has come out as being openly gay and to have to hold a press conference to state your orientation was big news. It was because of this that many still believe that Piazza is gay and he was just trying to get get ahead of a possible story. What was news to me was the possibility that Valentines comments were possibly made in regards to another prominent Met at the time...Robbie Alomar. He too had a prominent, beautiful, and famous girlfriend in tennis player Mary Pierce. Apparently there were whispers for years about Alomar's "preference" but it was Piazza who bore the brunt of all that crap at the time. Most people now have no issue with a persons personal preference, but in pro sports, especially team sports, there is still a stigma and an announcement of that nature would be a very difficult to do. There is also allegations of HIV and AIDS linked to Alomar (which do not help by any means either) and has been sued by a former girlfriend and his wife.


Weather or not any of this is true or not is up for debate, but because I had not heard this theory/story before I found it interesting that a lot of these pieces fit together and is at least plausible. It is up to the reader to decide what they want to believe. To many Alomar is and always be that Blue Jay who was a vacuum at 2nd to others he will be that Mets player who's skill almost disappeared overnight and was more of a train wreck then a ballplayer. It just makes it more interesting that it was his time in New York that all this happened and at the same time his play began to erode.

What a Game / Games!!!

Now that was a game! It had everything you could want. Drama, intrigue, great defence and extra time!! As a Canadian during playoff time you'd think I was talking about the Montreal Canadians playoff game versus the Capitals....I am not. Although apparently that game was interesting and did go to OT ending on a quick strike goal by the Caps. I slept through that game and by all accounts am just as pleased that I did. I Will always have a soft spot for the Habs, they were my favorite team as a kid but now they have slid down my list. For the most part it is because of their fans and not the team. The majority of fans are just two faced which makes them insufferable. They will bash their own players to cover themselves when the team is bad then at the first sign of a decent of significant play that same player is elevated to legend status. Bash, Bash, Cheer, Bash, Cheer, Cheer. you jut want to slap the poutine from their mouths. It is worse when they actually win and they think that a minor victory means plan the parade! And since we are here they can take their soccer song and stuff that in a sack...it is annoying and should stay where it belongs..on the pitch. Just because the players fall down easier then an English Premiere League player doesn't make it right. If you are going to sing Ole Ole at least learn when to use it. Nothing better then the fans singing that song and having them shut right up after a comeback from the other team.

Wow, that was not where I was planning on going with this post, kinda went off on a tangent.
The game i was referring to was the baseball game with the Mets and the Cardinals. I only saw 4 innings of it and by all accounts that was all I needed to see. In that short time I saw an overthrow and a throw out, hit batter, a caught stealing, an intentional walk, 3 sick defensive plays, 2 position players pitch 3 innings for the Cards and 3 runs. Not bad since I saw it all after 10pm...THE GAME STARTED AT 3:10 pm - the length of the game was 6 HOURS and 53 MINUTES and ended in the 20th inning it was 0-0 through 18 innings and that is Awesome! That is 2 full games and 2 extra innings It went right through prime time for FOX. There must be some bitter people who missed Cops and America's Most Wanted.