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11:30 PM Eastern

Believe it or not, I planned to write this for LAST Monday, but it was a late Sunday night getting in from the Annual Blue Jays Production Crew Tom Cheek Memorial Money-Losing Adventure, and then I spent the week helping my sister-in-law move.  Well, not so much helping her move as sorting through the things I’d left in storage at her place when I got married nine years ago.  It turns out I have almost 2,500 comic books, mostly DC and mostly from 1975-1995.  Some valuable, most not so much, and I have no clue what I’m going to do with them now.  I also came across some old play-by-play tapes from Welland, New Britain and Watertown, and some of my old Graham/Shaw/Rogers 10 phone-in TV show from the early ’90s.  Fun stuff.  Didn’t find my Bumper Stumpers or Test Pattern appearances, though - good thing, those is some bad memories.

I also found something called “The Blue Jays Rap” by the Wham Bam Blue Jay Gang.  I haven’t got a clue what it is, and I haven’t worked up the nerve to listen to it yet, but I think I’ll be giving it away as a prize for “Cheesy ’80s Trivia” at some point this week.

Anyway, I figured that it was time I write something here, mostly because I should really throw in my two cents about A.J. Burnett signing with the Yankees.

Also, though, because I’m back on the air this week!  It’s that “it’s Christmas, bring in the Jews”  time of year, so I’ll be hosting on the FAN590 four times this week.  Monday night from 7:00 to 9:00 pm (all times Eastern) before the Raptors’ next loss — I mean, game — Tuesday from 7:00 to 11:00 pm, Wednesday (xmas eve) from 1:00 to 4:00 pm and Friday (Boxing Day) from 4:00 to 6:00 pm.  There’ll be at least an hour of phones every day, since all those shows fall within the regular call-in hours at the station (7-8, 1-2, 4-5), so if anyone wants to do the “live chat” thing, let’s do it on the radio!  I haven’t thought much about what guests I’ll have on, but I’m thinking maybe I’ll bring in the big brother for an hour of sports movie talk at some point.

As well, I’ll be on the Grill Room tomorrow (Monday) night, on SUN TV at 11:00 pm.

OK, so on to the A.J. Burnett thing.  I didn’t think he was going to wind up with the Yankees.  I figured he’d sign with Atlanta, St. Louis or Baltimore, but the Yanks came up with the most cash and with the fifth guaranteed year (good luck to them on that).  It’s funny to think back a few months when the slings and arrows were out in this very space and both my intelligence and sanity were questioned for daring to suggest that Burnett would get a five-year, $80 million contract as a free agent.  It got so bad that a few times I actually thought about changing my stance, that I might be overstating his market value.  As it turns out, I was wrong.  I was understating it (but not by much).  Apologies will be graciously accepted in the comments section.

Here’s the deal with A.J. - he has all the talent in the world, but he’s never been able to put it all together for a full season.  He’s only had two seasons in his entire career in which he’s made at least 30 starts, and both have been seasons in which he was pitching for a free agent contract.  That should make alarm bells ring like crazy, but the only way the Yanks were able to get him to sign was to offer up that five-year guarantee, so they did it.  The Jays, three years ago, at least left it up to him (more on the opt-out later).

Would it have been a good idea for the Jays to sign Burnett, given the terms of the contract?  Of course not.  A team that’s operating within their $80-$100 million payroll can’t afford to have so much money tied up in a guy who simply can’t be counted on from a health standpoint.  Never mind the fact that Burnett, in what was his “career year” (yeah, I know, 18 wins, but come on, people!) wasn’t as good as Jesse Litsch and barely outperformed David Purcey once Purcey became a regular in the rotation.

Just to save you from looking it up - Burnett had a WHIP of 1.342 and allowed his opponents an OPS of .710.  Litsch had a WHIP of 1.233 and a .761 OPS allowed (but his ERA was half a run better - figure that).  Purcey, discounting his first two “one-off” starts, had a WHIP of 1.353 and allowed an OPS of .752.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Burnett’s WHIP in his “career year” was higher than Litsch’s CAREER WHIP.

Granted, none of the above numbers are overwhelming, but then remember that Litsch and Purcey will COMBINE to make less than $850,000 next season.  Was it worth it to the Jays to pay Burnett 20 times that for EACH of the next five seasons?  Of course not.

Some of you fell under the “A.J. loves Toronto, loves Roy Halladay, loves to hug Blue Jays, won’t leave his best buddies” spell towards the end of the season as well.  I don’t want to turn you into cold-hearted cynics, but no matter how one feels about one’s surroundings and fellow employees, no one is inclined to turn away close to thirty million dollars for one extra year of work, unless there are extraordinary circumstances.  A.J. Burnett is not an extraordinary human being.

I don’t think Burnett is a heartless mercenary (though his medical records may indicate something close to that), and I think that if the Jays had been in the ballpark with their offer, that he might well have stayed for a bit of a discount.  But there was a reason that I dismissed all the arguments about his friendship with Halladay and the bond between them, and that’s because while Burnett tried his best to play it up, they weren’t best friends.  Like Cathal Kelly of the Star wrote last week, Halladay’s best friend on the team is strength and conditioning coach Donovan Santas, and it’s not even close.  Halladay comes to work early every day to work out, not to hang out.  He’s not anti-social, but he has work to do.  All the time.  I don’t know if I have ever seen him just sitting at his locker shooting the breeze with a teammate.

The thing is, what have the Blue Jays lost?  A guy who was the fourth-best starter on the best pitching staff in baseball last season (behind Halladay, Litsch and Shaun Marcum), but who has the potential to be unhittable every time he takes the ball.  It’s a big loss, for sure, but is it the reason for writing off the season in December?  Certainly not.

You could argue that losing Marcum along with Burnett and not having Dustin McGowan out of the chute while not improving the offense are reasons for writing off the season in December, and you’d have a good point. But the off-season isn’t done yet.

This is getting to be too long, but before I go I just have to mention the fact that CC Sabathia has an opt-out after the third year of his new contract with the Yankees, and Brian Cashman had to give it to him in order to get the big lefty to sign.  Please don’t change your argument from “J.P. Ricciardi is the only G.M. stupid enough to give a pitcher an opt-out” to “CC Sabathia isn’t A.J. Burnett”.

Also, as far as the Yankees being unbeatable thanks to their signing of CCAJ, remember that all they’ve done so far is replaced Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte and gotten Chien-Ming Wang healthy (they think), but in the meantime, they’ve also lost two of their best three hitters from last season in Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi and replaced them with Nick Swisher.

Remember to tune in all week long and a happy Chanukah to all who are celebrating (first of the eight crazy nights is tonight!).

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

3:20 PM Eastern

Since J.P. Ricciardi’s first Winter Meetings as the Jays’ Grand Poobah, back in 2001 in Boston, he has never completed an entire Meetings without making a move.  It appeared as though that trend would change this year, but he had one signing up his sleeve before he hit McCarran airport, and it’s another back to the future move, signing Matt Clement to a minor-league deal with an invitation to Spring Training.

Ricciardi has never been shy about going back and getting players on whom he’s had an eye in the past, and Clement fits that bill entirely.  He was the belle of the ball in the off-season of 2004-2005, and the Jays and Red Sox went head-to-head for his services, with Boston coming out the winner (or so it seemed at the time).  Clement had an OK ‘05 season for Boston (13-6, 4.57, 99 ERA+, 1.36 WHIP) during which he was hit in the head by a Carl Crawford line drive, then pitched hurt (and terribly) for one-third of 2006 before having shoulder surgery.  He hasn’t pitched in the majors since June of ‘06.

At 33, Clement is exactly the kind of guy I’ve been saying the Blue Jays should be picking up.  It’s a no-risk investment, with a front office source telling me that Clement will be paid a nominal salary if he makes the team.  If he’s healthy, and he says he is (note - the Cardinals also thought he was healthy going into this past season), he steps in and gives the Jays a solid, middle-of-the-rotation pitcher with something to prove, one last big contract for which to shoot.

He has a history with Brad Arnsberg, having pitched for him in Florida in 2001, but Clement blossomed when he went to the Cubs in ‘02, posting three straight years with a WHIP under 1.3 and averaging almost a strikeout per inning while making a total of 92 starts.

If the Jays can collect another two or three of this type of guy (Pedro, Pavano, Penny, Freddy Garcia, etc.) and one or two of them works out, then 2009 looks a lot brighter.

By the way, the reason that the Clement signing wasn’t announced until this afternoon was because of this morning’s Rule 5 draft, in the major-league phase of which the Blue Jays didn’t participate (no Randy Wells, Corey Thurman or Willie Canate this spring, folks).  Had Clement been signed ahead of the draft, he’d have been eligible to be drafted by another team.

Before I go, I want to call your attention to a comment in the Tony Kubek thread that some of you may have missed, since I know you don’t all read all the comments all the time (you should):

“Hi Mike,

Please allow me to thank everyone who voted for Tom again this year. I know that Tom would say that Tony Kubek deserved this award before him ….but, I also think that Tom has all the credentials required to receive this award…maybe next year….thanks to all for taking the time to vote daily and hopefully next year you will take the time to once again get Tom on the final ballot.

Sincerely,

Shirley Cheek”

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

2:20 PM Eastern

If Tom Cheek couldn’t win the Ford C. Frick Award, gaining entry into the broadcasters’ wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., I guess Tony Kubek winning it is probably the next-best thing for Blue Jays fans.

Kubek was the original colour analyst on Blue Jays CTV broadcasts (from 1977-1989), working with Don Chevrier and Fergie Olver, and he worked with Tom Cheek for a few games in the early ’80s on First Choice or Superchannel, whichever one carried eight or ten Jays games for a couple of years.

Kubek is the first Frick winner who was exclusively an analyst, and he did help to introduce the game to a lot of fans here in Toronto in the early days of the franchise.  I remember him as a good colour commentator, who worked well with Chevy, and I remember thinking that the Cheek/Kubek combo working those few TV games was as all-star as we could get for Blue Jays’ broadcasters.  A big memory is NBC doing the 1985 ALCS, and feeling so happy that the Jays would have “one of their own” up there in the booth broadcasting the games to a U.S. audience that was really unfamiliar with the team.  I also remember, like a lot of Jays’ fans back then, thinking that Kubek seemed to go too far the other way in his criticism of the Blue Jays in that series - but Royals fans felt the exact opposite, so he must have done a really balanced job.

Does Kubek deserve the Ford C. Frick award?  Sure he does.  Does Tom Cheek deserve it more?  No question, and we’ll be back at it next year, trying again to get the Cheek name the honour it so dearly deserves.

A whole bunch of comments should be going up within the hour - rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

5:21 PM Eastern

Well, I’m back from a week of cruising through the Eastern Caribbean, and sadly, can barely get out of bed.  The room just won’t stop spinning.

I should ask the Drunks how best to handle it, but chances are it’s mostly to do with the head cold/sinus infection I came down with on the ship back on Wednesday night, after a lovely tour of Grenada during which we checked out a lovely waterfall and the Grand Etang Crater Lake - up there, my wife got to feed a banana to a wild monkey, very cool.

The highlight of the trip came on Tuesday, when we stopped at Dominica.  The poorest island of the five, and ugliest, city-wise, but we went up to a twin waterfall (Trafalger Falls) and actually got to go into a shallow pool at the bottom of the falls - warm water, just beautiful, and the scenery was outstanding.  It was a really great trip, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to sail the Caribbean.  St. Thomas had a fantastic beach (Emerald Beach - I think we piggybacked onto a Best Western resort), as did Aruba (Palm Beach - sadly no Sidney Ponson sightings) and I was too sick to see much of Bonaire at all.

As far as the boat went, we wrapped up the cruise by winning the final game-show rip-off of the week, their version of Jeopardy!, by being the only ones not to wager everything on the final question, and cashing in when all nine teams got it wrong (no one knew Louis Washkansky’s claim to fame - no fair googling).  Thanks to my old high school teacher Richie Stoll for the advice:  If you’re not leading going into Final Jeopardy, the only way to win is to have the leader answer incorrectly, so wager accordingly.

It was nice to finish off in the winners’ circle (and with a set of lovely tote bags) after having been on the losing end in the ship’s version of The Price Is Right, losing by two in Movie Trivia (big brother would have been so disappointed), and failing to qualify for the final in either the Blackjack or the Slot tournament.  Oh, and don’t play three-card poker.

So the sinus thing is one reason that I’m in rough shape right about now, the other is probably combining that with the flight back from Puerto Rico (via Atlanta yesterday - Hartsfield airport in honour of the Blue Jays’ first manager, don’cha know).  I’m pretty sure I’ve got some sort of an inner-ear thing going on right now, Ken Dayley style, just hoping it doesn’t last three years.

I’m keeping as much of an eye as I can on the Winter Meetings from afar, though I won’t be as prolific writing about anything unless the Blue Jays do something or I start to feel better.  I can’t say I’m terribly excited about Gerald Laird going to the Tigers, and I’m not going to get into the rumours as much from home as I would had I been there.  Though just remember I told you that the Cardinals would eventually be in on A.J. Burnett.

There are about 50-60 comments in the hopper right now that I’ll get too as soon as I can sit long enough to deal with them, and I’ll be checking in with a post at least once a day through Thursday, when the meetings wrap up with the Rule Five draft.

Tomorrow, the Ford C. Frick honouree will be announced, so everybody keep your fingers crossed that the voters finally made the right decision this time!

Reasonable, rational comments are always welcome.