MW: The back-up outfielder appears to be Lind, with Snider, Wells and Rios playing every day. The 5th outfielder is Joe Inglett, the 6th is Jose Bautista and the 7th will be Kevin Millar. Then there’s Buck Coats, Jason Lane, Wayne Lydon and probably even Marco Scutaro before you get to Fahey.

game 3 pic:

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i281/slobbaface/1087788363_l.jpg

I get it though. This isnt the place to vent. This is your park. Im sorry.

MW: Thanks. There’s nothing wrong with hating Baltimore. If the Jays had signed Fahey to come in and compete for a job that wasn’t “last guy on the bench” (which they still didn’t even do) your frustration would be warranted.

The key to staying in any race in the American League East is to stay within striking distance throughout the season..If you fall 10+ games behind the Yanks or the Sox at any point during the season, you may very well be out if it in May..

Tampa never fell behind the lead more then 5 games in 2008..If they fall 10+ games out at any point after May, they’re done..In fact, Since 1993 (the last time the Jays made the playoffs..I wasn’t ambitious enough to check beyond that) the only team to come back to win the Wildcard after trailing more then 10 games in May, was the 2007 Yankees..

Its a tough stretch if you fall too far behind teams like the Yanks and Sox..

I was merely pointing out that Thomas got off to a horrific start..I would say 1/3 of a season (55 games) is a long time to not perform when your getting paid just to hit..He had a decent season but far removed from the 39 HR he hit in 2006..Overall he was a major bust..18 million bucks for 29 HR..

As for Burnett..He was paid 31 million bucks for parts of 3 seasons..He didn’t get the Jays over the hump and lets not forget he was booed in July after posting an ERA over 5.00..I just don’t think a few months of good work over a 3 year contract is good enough..

Where was this Burnett the previous 2 seasons?..He finished strong but isn’t that the A.J way?..If he had won 10 games this past season he would have remained a Jay and whined his way through the next 2 seasons..Maybe he would have flipped us the bird a few more times for old times sake..

He was up and down in 2008 like a 20 dollar hooker..He was magnificent in some of his starts and some of the months and horrific at times as well..He gave up more then 6 runs 5 times in 2008..4 of them in the span of 7 starts..

Halladay hasn’t given up more then 6 runs since June of 2007..He was pitching with a busted gut when that happened..

Sorry Mike..Burnett was just good enough in Toronto to earn another contract worth too much..

MW: Comparing anyone to Roy Halladay is useless. I never said Thomas wasn’t a huge bust, he was, what I was arguing was your unfair and incorrect point that he didn’t start hitting in 2007 until it was too late and the Jays were finished. It was May. As for Burnett, for three years and $31 million, he did OK.

P.S. I have never encouraged anyone to stay away from the Dome this year!!
What people are writing on here in most cases makes sense!
Let’s not sugarcoat this anymore!
The organization is not rewarding the fans with a good on field product! This has to change!!!

MW: I can’t agree with pretty much anything you have written. The Blue Jays have been a VERY GOOD on-field product the last three years, and last year they were arguably one of the five best teams in major-league baseball. If you don’t want to see that, then that’s your prerogative. Many people believe that pitching and defense wins championships, and for the last two years the Blue Jays have had the best pitching and defense in the game. One can only do so much.

MW: Sorry, you undid a lot of work with the Fahey thing. That’s one of the things that really gets to me - you go nuts over the fact that they signed the guy who’s going to be their 5th-string shortstop. Why?

Second, i think people expecting JP to sign a pitcher, when theres already going to be a logjam when McGowan gets back. Even if Cecil or Richmond make it to the majors, they only get a couple of months (Assuming Janssen is fine). Why sign more pitchers, and curtail development?

Which brings me to my point to you mike. I said that richmond or Cecil will be expendable, meaning that hopefully they will increase their trade value enough to get something important in return, because we won’t need whoever breaks camp. Im thinking Cecil to the Brewers for Alcides Escobar. they need pitching, and we need a shortstop/leadoff. Even throw in a reliever as well.

MW: Escobar looks as though he’s going to be a heck of a player, but so does Cecil. I’m not sure I’d do that deal, and I’m sure the Brewers would rather part with J.J. Hardy. Also, I don’t know if Escobar is ready to be a big-leaguer yet, let alone a big-league leadoff man. He’s never played above AA except for his nine-game September call-up this year, and his career obp as a pro is .328, though he made quite a jump to .363 this season and, of course, he only just turned 22.

MW: 1 - The Jays are willing to let him go, shown by the fact that they took him off the 40-man just this afternoon when they claimed Brian Burres. 2 - I think Arencibia and Jeroloman both likely start the year at Syracuse, sharing time. 3 - Good question. I’d love to see Overbay being platooned, but I don’t know if Bautista is the right guy for the job. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a lefty-mashing first baseman, and Bautista isn’t that (though he hits lefties well, even a Josh Phelps-type is a far better option). I think, though, that Bautista is going to wind up getting a lot of work against lefties.