Comments on: Garzafied Again

By: Neil

Neil — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:01:21 +0000

My apologies Mike for being an a**.

MW: Apology accepted.

By: Macky

Macky — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:11:02 +0000

I don’t see what’s so confusing about Zaun’s lack of playing time, not because I think he sucks, but because they both suck. Really, who cares which one of these dudes is our catcher? I understand that Zaun and his immediate family would care, but anyone other than that should have their head examined. If there’s one guy in all of this who should be upset it’s Curtis Thigpen. It’s time to get our young prospects some playing time. Most of us with any sort of baseball smarts have been screaming for Adam Lind for 2-3 years now and look what he’s doing. Young guys who are studs in the minors come up and have something to prove, a much needed contrast to most of the overpaid bums on the Jays.

MW: Curtis Thigpen should be upset indeed - he’s earned a big-league look with that .223/.270/.313 line in Syracuse.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:59:32 +0000

Well, I guess that depends on how you want to define great?

He was the premier run producer for some pretty solid clubs…he was great in their eyes, I’m sure.

MW: It’s all relative.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 05:53:16 +0000

did you just say joe carter wasn’t a great hitter? lol.

you’re the man, Mike. lol.

MW: He wasn’t. If he was a great hitter, he’d have been on the Hall of Fame ballot for more than one year.

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:14:45 +0000

Mike, is there any reaeson you did not post my comment regarding J.P and his intentions when coming in here vs his intentions when he got in. In that post I did not offend anyone, I dod not use any form of profanity, so why did you not post. Again you not posting a comment that is in no way shape or form offensive goes to show the respect you have for my opinions, as I have suggested in a previous blog post. All I simply said in the post that was not posted was that J.P had plans to build this organization through the draft,then when he get’s the GM Role he starts crying about money and other teazms spending habbits. It’s incredible how low your respect as a broadcaster can go when you disagree with someone.

MW: Ummm, I just hadn’t gotten around to posting any of the comments yet. But I’ll accept your apology once it comes in.

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:19:13 +0000

Mike, it’s funny that there are some including yourself that believe J.P has done good job and don’t notice how much J.P has backtrackes and contradicted himself over the years. Prior to J.P getting the Job as G.M in Toronto, It is on record that J.P had convinced Paul Godfrey that a large payroll is not needed to be competative, JP’s philosophy prior to becoming the GM here in Toronto was building through the Draft. Just as Oakland does.

A few years into his tenure as GM, J.P was singing a different song. He started crying about payroll saying that he needs about 75 million to compete and crying about how much money other teams spend. I wonder What happend to building through the draft.

JP the man who believed so highly in building a team through the Draft has Drafted two decent bats in his seven year tenure. You can talk all you want about who is in the farm, but the fact remains, we have only seen two good bats from this regime’s farm system.

Bob Mcowan sumed it up, He said change renews hope, In the case of the blue jays change at the managerial position, without question renewed hope, if not now, moving foward. Therfore without question it is time for change at the top.

MW: I don’t know how you got a therefore out of that.

By: reyes

reyes — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:46:58 +0000

Ricciardi’s got a big mouth and nothing whatsoever to back himself up with. Good luck to whichever team is dumb enough to hire him. This last thing with Zaun set my teeth on edge because it was so damn’ avoidable. Let the guy blow off steam and don’t make a comment. How hard is that?

You know something you said a while back is going to come into play here soon. You said that the fans don’t dictate the team’s moves. They don’t. But when the team has been moving in the wrong direction for a very long time, then management will feel the pressure to do something to appease the fans because eventually the fans are their bread and butter. Remember when the Raptors boss publicly apologized to the fan after another brutal season? Well an apology won’t be enough this time around. Nor will a free t-shirt, which is what we got in ‘04.

MW: Free T-shirts are cool, though.

By: KD

KD — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:06:02 +0000

Hey Mike,

Zaun: it would “probably be a good thing” if he were traded to a contender.

A “contender” shouldn’t need a catcher that hits .243

A “contender” isnt more of a “contender” after acquiring Zaun

A “contender” doesn’t need a weak arm like Zaun espicially during the post season where there has been a proven knack for more stealing of bases

Please tell me you agree with all 3 statements.

Thanks and have a nice day

MW: I don’t agree with any of them.

Please Explain?

MW: 1 - batting average doesn’t mean much to me, there are plenty of .243 hitters who are offensive assets. 2 - If he’s better than their old back-up catcher, they are. 3 - A proven knack for more stealing of bases? Outside the English, take a look: 2007 World Series, 3 stolen bases. 2006 World Series, 2 stolen bases. 2004 World Series, 1 stolen base. 2003 World Series, 4 stolen bases. 2001 World Series, 3 stolen bases. 2000 World Series, 1 stolen base. I’m assuming your research consisted of watching the 2002 and 2005 World Serieses.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:34:57 +0000

In fairness, Mike, I never said you said the Rays’ success was an accident. (I did say you like picking on them, though.)

But you have been pretty harsh on them all year long. And you did say on the Monday night show about competing in the AL East: “But oh people can think ‘Tampa Bay! Tampa Tampa can change the model. Tampa can compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. Well, 1) we’re not even in August yet. And b) the Tampa Bays Devil Rays were a laughing stock for 10 years. A horrible team for 10 years. A team that never won more than 70 games in a season, which means never lost fewer than 92 games in a season. If you want to do that for 10 years, and then make a run for 4 months, be my guest. I’m not interested.”

“I’m not interested”??? I understand you feel you’re beating your head against the wall with the callers and comments, but that’s exactly the kind of remark that I have no idea how you expect your loyal listeners and readers to respond.

Yes, it may have been ugly getting there, but I think now there are probably 27-28 franchises in baseball that would KILL to be in the position that Tampa is in now–regardless of whether they make the playoffs this year.

I think it’s the combination of your being very rational about the Jays chances this year (which is a great thing) at the same time as seemingly being quick to dismiss teams that are outperforming your expectations (I’ve been arguing with you all year about Chicago, Oakland, and Tampa) that’s causing the cognitive disonnance. How can you basically say, “we can’t write off Toronto yet, there’s still a lot of baseball left” at the same time as you say “well, I don’t expect Tampa to be there in the end so we only have to worry about the Yankees and Red Sox”? Do you not see how that might be problematic for us on the other side??

If that’s not what you mean, tell us. Help me, Mike Wilner. You’re my only hope!

MW: The “I’m not interested” meant that I’m not interested in having a team be a laughingstock for a decade in order to get in the position that the Rays currently find themselves. Nor, I believe do the rest of the teams in MLB although, you’re right, most of them would be thrilled to be where the Rays are now. I obviously have seen how my opinions can be problematic for those on the other side, but I have to be true to the way I see things.

By: jason w

jason w — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:53:58 +0000

JP’s running out of friends, he lost me with the whole Thomas thing. I can’t see how you keep defending this guy. JP has not built a deep organization in the seven years. When Wells goes down we have go pick up washed players like Wilkerson and Mench to fill the void, most teams will have a couple of prospects waiting in AAA to be called up. How many players have talked about being traded or are uncertain of thier future with the the Jays this year? This has been a difficult year not only with the teams performance but the negative comments from players, and a GM with no solution but it looked good on paper. Well at least the Yanks are going out picking up parts to make a run at things, you may not like them but they do try to put a winner together every year.

MW: What negative comments from players?