<%=siteName%>

4:50 PM Eastern

Scott (the Greatest Blue Jay Of All Time) Rolen was the only Blue Jay to get moved at today’s non-waiver trade deadline, going to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for third baseman Edwin Encarnacion, reliever Josh Roenicke and minor-league reliever Zachary Stewart, according to published reports.

The Jays rid themselves (hopefully - we’ll get  more from J.P. Ricciardi at 5:00) of a $15 million obligation to Rolen - though I expect they’re paying some of what remains this year - and pick up two young arms plus a replacement third baseman who is a little bit better than OK.

Encarnacion is 26 years old and under contract through 2010 (in which he’ll make $4.75 million), and he’s really going through it this year, hitting just .209/.333/.374.  He’s a poor defensive third baseman -, so if he plays every day, get used to remembering how good Rolen was - but he has some pop, having hit 26 homers last year (Great American Ballpark alert).  He walks and doesn’t strike out a ton.  Like I said, he’s a little bit better than OK, and one hopes he won’t be the Jays’ starting third baseman for the rest of this year and next.  He’s not eligible for free agency until after the 2011 season.

Roenicke, whose dad Gary played for the Orioles in the ’80s, turns 27 next week and is in his first extended look in the bigs, pitching pretty well out of the Reds bullpen this past month and change.  In  13 1/3 innings, he’s allowed 13 hits, walked four and struck out 14.  He has put up some ridiculous minor-league strikeout numbers, having struck out over a batter per inning in every pro season he’s played, and for his minor-league career allowed 7.8 hits per nine innings with only 3.8 walks and an eye-popping 10.9 strikeouts.

Stewart was the Reds’ third-round pick last year and has already made it to AAA.  The 22 year-old out of Texas Tech had a solid seven starts in the Florida State (A) League and a dominating seven starts in the Southern (AA) League before being moved up to AAA, where he’s been used out of the bullpen.  He was a closer last year in A-ball as well.

If the Jays don’t pick up any money (and taking Encarnacion back may in fact be the money in this trade), they’re getting two good arms for Rolen when his value will never be higher.  He remains an injury risk, and will be 35 next season, but man was he fun to watch while he was here.  He plays baseball the way it should be played, which is about the greatest compliment a player can get.  He had eight great months as a Blue Jay in a season-and-2/3, and he’ll be missed.

Is it a good trade for the Jays?  That depends on what they get out of Roenicke and Stewart, and those returns won’t be known for a couple of years, at least.  It would have been a better trade if the Jays had wound up with first baseman Yonder Alonso, a young slugging first baseman, as had earlier been reported.

Can the Jays still try to “go for it” next year even without Rolen?  They can if Jose Bautista or Encarnacion can be a solid everyday third baseman, but since neither of those guys is likely to do that, they can if they use the extra $6 million they just freed up to go and get some help, or deal some of the excess arms in the off-season.

There was word right at the deadline that Roy Halladay had been traded to the Angels, but that turned out not to be true.

There are a lot of comments in the queue, and I’m sure more are coming, I’ll get to them during the game tonight.

11:50 AM Eastern

Sorry this took so long to get up, fun night with the family last night - took the girls to the drive-in!

I’m as confident as I’ve been since this whole thing started that Roy Halladay isn’t going to get traded - though he might finally want to now after seeing Ryan Rowland-Smith no-hit the Blue Jays over six innings yesterday.  In Halladay’s three starts since the all-star break, he has allowed five earned runs over 25 innings and has one win to show for it, because the Jays have scored all of seven runs in three games for him.

Congrats to the Jays, by the way, on their 11th one-run loss of the month!  They’re 8-15 so far in July despite having OUTSCORED their opposition 103-96 this month.  There’s some sort of sick joke being played on Toronto by the baseball gods.

Here’s yesterday’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

The Jays get back to it tomorrow night in Oakland, with Scott Richmond coming off the D.L. to start against Dallas Braden.  We’re on the air at 9:30 PM Eastern for a 10:07 first pitch.  By then, the non-waiver trading deadline will have passed, and there’s talk of Marco Scutaro going to the Twins before then (Johnny Mac, starting shortstop again?  Cool - as long as he’s not leading off).  After August 1st, trades may still be made, but not involving Halladay.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

2:45 AM Eastern

These one-run losses are starting to get ridiculous.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The Late Night JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

2:45 AM

Fur your listening pleasure!  The Haligonian was pretty funny.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

11:25 AM Eastern

With the non-waiver trade deadline coming up on Friday afternoon, I can’t say much with certainty what the Blue Jays are going to do, but I can say that I don’t believe the group that got on the plane after yesterday’s win over the Rays is going to come back from Oakland next week in its entirety.

This morning, I don’t think the odds are very good that Roy Halladay gets traded.  Yesterday, I thought it was almost definitely going to happen.  Who knows what I’ll think tonight?  Friday will tell the tale, unless something happens sooner, and if something happens sooner, then look out Scott Downs, Scott Rolen, Lyle Overbay, Jason Frasor and maybe even Alex Rios.

Marco Scutaro and Rod Barajas are being shopped relatively aggressively, I think, and their potential departures don’t have anything to do with Halladay’s.

It’s interesting, though, that the fact that Halladay went on the plane out west was kind of a big deal to some.  The thinking being that the Jays wouldn’t make Doc fly all the way across the country and then make him fly all the way back a couple of days later if they traded him, but here’s the thing:  The Phillies, Halladay’s likeliest destination if moved, are in Arizona this week, and will be playing the Giants in San Fran when the Jays are in Oakland.  Of course, that only works if he’s traded to the Phillies.

There was a Halladay trade odds table posted in the Toronto Sun today by Bob Elliott (I haven’t read the rest of the papers yet), and the Brewers were in there at the bottom with a note that said “But will Halladay accept a trade to Milwaukee?” or something like that.  I can tell you that yes, he would.

Here’s yesterday’s super-extendo edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

BODY,.aolmailheader {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a.aolmailheader:link {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:visited {color:magenta; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:active {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:hover {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;}

With the Jays heading out west, it’s a strange, weird-timed week for me, so I’m going to take the opportunity to recharge my batteries.  I’ll post The JaysTalks, and if any sort of trade happens or big trade-deadline-type story breaks, I’ll post about that, but for this week there won’t be any of the regular bloggage.  I also won’t be hosting Baseball Today this week, that honour falls to Roger Lajoie, but I’ll definitely have a presence on the show with a few of my interviews airing, at the very least.

I’ll continue to reply to rational, reasonable comments, though.

12:00 AM Eastern

Because it couldn’t possibly be as bad as today was.

Here’s what’s amazing (aside from, you know, blowing a huge lead late) - the Blue Jays have lost 15 of their last 21 games, and not a single one of those losses has been by more than three runs.

One of the reasons this run has been so excruciatingly tear-your-hair-out frustrating for Jays fans is that of those 15 losses, nine have been by one run or in extra innings, three have been by two runs (in regulation) and the other three have been by three runs.

There is absolutely no question that the Blue Jays should legitimately have won their last seven straight games.  This isn’t excuse-making - they’re full measure for all the losses - this is just explaining why this has been so hard on the fans.  They’ve literally been giving games away.

Here’s today’s brief edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

Tomorrow’s finale of the homestand pits Brett Cecil against Jeff Niemann in a battle of rookies.  I’ll have first-base coach Dwayne Murphy on in the pre-game show talking about Rickey Henderson’s impending induction into the Hall of Fame, and I’ll have Cito Gaston on The Blue Jays This Week to talk about the same thing.  Now I just have to find someone to talk about all the Roy Halladay stuff to lead off TBJTW - it’s not going to be Doc, though.

I wanted to say, too,  that the vast majority of the comments that I went through during the game today were well thought-out, rational and reasonable. I really appreciate that.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:45 AM Eastern

For the second time since the crapstorm of Halladay trade talks hit full force at the all-star game in St. Louis, Roy Halladay went out and pitched a beauty.  Sunday it was a complete-game win over the Red Sox, in dominating fashion, and tonight it should have been the same thing, except against T-Bay.  Nine innings pitched, one earned run, four hits, three walks, ten strikeouts.  At one point Halladay retired 16 consecutive Rays’ hitters - they probably had flashbacks to yesterday afternoon in Chicago.

That should have been enough, but it wasn’t, because Matt Garza completely muzzled the Jays’ offense outside a two-out rally in the third, and Scott Downs had trouble throwing strikes and walked a pair ahead of Evan Longoria’s two-out flare double in the 10th.

Halladay deserved a win tonight and he didn’t get it.  He also deserved a great send-off from the city of Toronto if this was, indeed,  his final home start as a Blue Jay.  He didn’t get that either.  Only 24,161 people showed up to pay tribute to arguably the best long-term player this franchise has ever had.

I made the comment on The JaysTalk that it was shameful, and an indictment of the sports fans of Toronto, that the attendance was so poor tonight, and I believe that to be so.  I know there has already been a lot of negative reaction in the comments section, but I’m sticking by that.  I know times are tough economically, but I also know that it’s cheaper to go to a Jays game than it is to go to a movie.  And are not field level seats at Rogers Centre less expensive than the cheapest seats at a Leaf game?  There’s no excuse for not showing up, especially given the fact that there’s such a huge population base from which to draw.

And the fans who did show up? The overwhelming majority were great, but a couple really stood out to me as having crossed the line huge, which I also mentioned on the post-game.  Standing in the camera bay for the bottom of the ninth and the 10th, I heard one guy who screamed “You idiot!” at Scott Downs every time he threw a ball.  A strike was received with “Thank You”.  And after Vernon Wells struck out in the 10th, some preppy-looking guy in a sweater-vest no less came running down to the Jays dugout, leaned over and screamed “You Suck” three times - basically right in Wells’ face.

Maybe it’s been too long since I’ve actually sat in the seats, but is that what going to a ballgame has become?  I really hope not, but it does explain a lot of the calls I get on The JaysTalk and the comments I get here.

I have to tell you, I’m sick of going over all the same tired, old arguments again and again.  I understand fans are frustrated, that the best player in franchise history may well be on his way out of town, and that the Blue Jays haven’t really even been in a pennant race in 15 years and more than likely won’t be in one again this year.  I get that that’s brutal, and I know many of you need to find a scapegoat, but I’m not interested in dealing with the overwhelming negativity here anymore.

J.P. Ricciardi is not the devil.  He’s a good G.M. in a bad situation who has been more unlucky than most.  He’s not the best G.M. in the game, and he’s made his share of mistakes, as any first-time executive will, but the number of positive things he’s done far outweighs the number of negative things he’s done and he’s put together a good collection of players, many of whom haven’t performed to their capabilities.  This isn’t up for debate, nor will I argue about it anymore.  I know there are many of you who see the negative and claim there are hidden agendas in everything he says and does, and there’s no convincing you to see what’s actually happening, but know that you’ll never convince me to see things the skewed way you do - and please stop trying.  I’m sick of it.

Halladay was all class in his post-game news conference - most of which can be heard during The JaysTalk below, since we played a whole lot of it - and I would have expected nothing less.  He said that he’d prefer to stick it out here and wait until next winter to make a decision on whether he stays or goes, and that he doesn’t really want to go now.  He said the atmosphere in the Dome was terrific tonight and it was one of those games that he was really excited to be a part of - though he’d have obviously preferred to win it.  He also said that he thought the Jays were a team that was moving in the right direction, and that he had a lot of faith in Ricciardi and what he’s done and - believe it or not - he mentioned the division in which the Blue Jays play as one of the factors as to why the team has fallen short of a post-season berth.

I think that Halladay might be trying to pressure the Jays’ bean counters to step up and do what’s necessary to compete in the A.L. East, and that he hopes that instead of trading  him, they’ll open the purse strings and give it a real shot in 2010 and beyond.  I don’t see that happening, though, whether a trade happens or not.

I change my mind almost hourly on whether I think a Halladay trade will happen.  Right now I’m thinking it’s less than a 50-50 shot, but I’m sure in the morning I’ll feel differently.  The Blue Jays have painted themselves into a corner, though, and if they make a deal that doesn’t blow people (who know what they’re talking about) away, then all the rhetoric and posturing of the last couple of weeks was just that.  I’m hoping to get Halladay for the pre-game show tomorrow to delve a little deeper into tonight’s comments.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

Tomorrow, Brian Tallet returns from his shift to the bullpen, out of which he was never used, and will take on super-lefty David Price.  We’re on at 12:30 PM Eastern for a 1:07 first pitch.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome, but I have to tell you - if it keeps up like this, I don’t know how much longer I’ll be answering them.

4:40 PM Eastern

It was one of those rare games that the Blue Jays gave away with their gloves - losing a one-run game in which they allowed the opposition three unearned runs.  Truth is, it was really FOUR unearned runs, but that silly rule that doesn’t allow an official scorer to assume a double play meant that the Indians got an extra earnie.

In the top of the 5th in a 1-1 game with a runner on first and one out, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a shot to third.  Hard hit, but a double play ball that should have ended the inning relatively easily.  It went right through Bautista’s legs for a two-base error.  The Tribe wound up with three in the inning, and Marc Rzepczynski hit the showers after Shin-Soo Choo followed with a two-run triple, instead of sitting in the dugout as they headed to the bottom of the 5th in a 1-1 tie.  One of the three Indians’ runs in the inning was earned, because the scorer can’t assume the DP, but come on.

Shawn Camp threw away a pickoff attempt in the 6th, negating Kevin Millar’s nice play on a Jamey Carroll bunt to force the lead runner at third.  That led to yet another unearned run.

So the Jays drop two of three to the worst team in the American League, and both losses are because of the failures of the defense.  That’s new.

Millar had a terrific game today, by the way.  He takes a lot of abuse here, especially in the comments section, but credit where it’s due.  Batting in the clean-up spot, Millar doubled and homered and drove in a pair, and played flawless defense as well.

Lost in the morass that is the Blue Jays’ recent glovework might be the double play the Jays turned to end the second inning.  It was sensational, with John McDonald going deep into the hole and sliding to come up with a Ben Francisco grounder, then firing a strike to Aaron Hill at second, whose strong throw to first got Francisco by plenty.  Just gorgeous, make sure to find the highlight.

As for the bad takes, well, some of you may believe those come right here on the ol’ blogaroo on a regular basis (if so, why are you reading this?), but I’m referring to the two called strikes that went by Lyle Overbay in the bottom of the 9th when he was well ahead in the count at 3-1 with two out and the tying run at third.  There is a time where the walk is not your best friend, and that’s the time.  Overbay has a fantastic knowledge of the strike zone, and the fact that he took that 3-2 pitch makes me believe it was actually a ball - if someone wants to check the pitch f/x, let me know.  Regardless, you can’t take a pitch, even if you’re ABSOLUTELY SURE it’s a hair off the plate (or three inches, whatever) in that situation.  Flick the bat at it and foul it off so you get something better - or something farther off the plate.  Borderline pitches must be swung at in that situation.  Period.

Just as an aside, though, after that ill-timed strikeout, Overbay is now hitting.310 this season with runners in scoring position and two out.

The David Dellucci era is over.  The Jays probably held onto him a week too long, and he’s designated for assignment having made almost no mark whatsoever as a Jay, going 1-for-25 in his eight games with that hit being a double (.040/.182/.080).  Joe Inglett is back to take Looch’s place, giving even more of an indication that A - thay don’t think Randy Ruiz can hit in the big leagues, and 2 - they don’t want Travis Snider to be eligible for arbitration after next season.

Here’s today’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

Ricky Romero won’t be joining us on Baseball Today tomorrow, but he did promise to come in during the Jays’ next homestand, as did Adam Lind, so that’ll be a good time, for sure.  Lind is scheduled to appear on Wednesday, August 5th, with Romero’s date still up in the air.

J.P. Ricciardi came on Baseball Today today and told us two big things.  The first was that Dustin McGowan had surgery to repair torn cartilage in his knee a couple of weeks ago (nice of the Blue Jays to let us know).  It won’t really affect his rehab since he wasn’t going to pitch this year anyway, but man do you ever have to feel for the guy.  Tommy John, torn rotator cuff, labrum debridement and now the knee?  What else could happen to him?  Sheesh.

The other big piece of news was the revelation that Roy Halladay has told the Jays that he won’t sign an extension with the team before testing the free agent market after next season.  That, says J.P., is why the Halladay trade talk is hotter and heavier this season than it’s ever been.  And you know what?  Good for Roy Halladay.  Were I him, no matter how much I loved it here, I wouldn’t re-sign without at least dipping a toe in the free agent waters.  No matter how much you think you know what’s out there, you don’t know what’s out there until you find out what’s out there.  As I’ve said many times, there are 27 teams that have a better chance of making the playoffs than the Blue Jays do - every year.  Halladay wants to win, and he’d prefer to win in Toronto, but he knows what he’s up against in the A.L. East until the Jays commit to competing financially with the big boys.

I’m still not sure Halladay will be traded in the next week.  I’d say now that I think the odds are a little bit better than 50-50 that he goes (but I change my mind on that hourly, so take from that what you will), but I do believe that if he does go, the Jays will do very well in a trade - they remain in a position of incredible strength.

I also know that tomorrow could well be Halladay’s last home start as a Blue Jay, and I think it would be awesome if he got a packed house as an appropriate potential send-off.  Come on, Toronto, make the guy cry!  And hey, maybe the Rays will get back-to-back perfectos thrown at them - congrats, Mark Buehrle!

Rational, reasonable comments by people who aren’t spoiling for a fight are always welcome!

11:05 PM Eastern

For the first time in a long time, we had a good, old-fashioned slugfest at Rogers Centre, with the Blue Jays pounding out five homers on the way to reaching double-digits in runs, but not in hits, and giving them a chance to take the series from the Tribe with a win tomorrow afternoon.

The five homers was a season high for the Jays, the two homers a career high for Marco Scutaro and for (believe it or not) the third time this season, Vernon Wells and Alex Rios went deep in the same game.  With their solo shot each tonight, Wells and Rios have now combined to hit as many home runs as Aaron Hill and I have combined.  I’m confident, however, that by season’s end Wells and Rios will have far more than Hill and I will.

The Jays took advantage of a pitcher who didn’t have great stuff and was leaving the ball up in the strike zone - they pounded Carl Pavano for seven runs on seven hits over just 4 2/3 innings, and six of those hits went for extra bases.   Ricky Romero did a Brett Cecil-style high-wire act through the first five innings, allowing the Tribe at least one runner in scoring position in each inning but the 3rd, but only allowing one run.  Once the Jays broke it open, though, Romero hit a speed bump - after a ground single with one out in the 6th, he walked Ben Francisco, threw a wild pitch, gave up a three-run homer to Luis Valbuena and then hit the showers.

Romero picked up his 8th win of the season, but for only the second time this year, has had two non-”quality” starts in a row.  The only other time that happened were in his first two starts after coming off the disabled list back in May.  The last time he had back-to-back non-”quality” starts, he rebounded with eight quality starts in a row, and it sure would be lovely to see him do that again - especially since he could very well be the Jays’ number one starter in a week or so.

I found out before the game that the July 28th “deadline” on a Roy Halladay trade is a bit of a smokescreen.  It’s true, in that the Jays want to know what they’re dealing with by the 28th, since they think it’ll take time to hammer out a deal, present it to Beeston and Rogers and, of course, Halladay himself.  But that’s not to say that if a team comes around on the 30th and says that they’ll accept a deal that they’d turned down a few days earlier, the Jays would say “sorry, it’s past the 28th.”  Of course they’d still do it.

I also found out that Randy Ruiz isn’t here because he apparently has a tendency to fatten up on those AAA pitchers who are in AAA because they don’t have big-league stuff, but struggles against the more polished eventual big-leaguers.  I don’t know how true that is, and I still want to see him given a shot in the big leagues, and I think he probably will sometime in the next couple of weeks.  I can’t see the Jays continuing to run Kevin Millar out there, as great a guy as he is, beyond the first week of August or so.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

Tomorrow, the series wraps with a day game, and we’re on the air a half-hour early with a short edition of Baseball Today at noon Eastern on the Fan and this very website.  I’m not sure what’s going to be on that show - I might try to sit down with Gene Tenace and talk hitting.  You’ll be as surprised when you tune in as I will be, I’m sure!

Rational, reasonable comments by people who aren’t looking to pick a fight are always welcome!

11:40 PM Eastern

Well, that was no fun, and I’m sure it will provide a ton of ammunition for all the Overbay-haters who seem to frequent this space so much.

Lyle Overbay made a bad throw at the wrong time, and Scott Downs threw a bad pitch at a worse time, and the Blue Jays fell to 42-2 this season in games they have led after eight innings.

The sad part is that they couldn’t muster any offense (beyond a Scott Rolen solo shot) against a guy who came into the game letting righties touch him up at a .309/.358/.430 rate, with eight righties in the line-up.

Brett Cecil ducked, dived, dodged and any other “d” word you can think of (not you, Drunk Jays Fans) through the first four innings, and then righted himself and was very strong in winding up going seven shutout frames.  The strikeout was a massive weapon for him, he had a career-high nine.  Four of those Ks came with a runner on third.  This kid is going to be very, very good, and together with Roy Halladay (or whoever they get for him) Ricky Romero and Shaun Marcum, the Jays appear to have the building blocks of a terrific rotation for a long time.

J.P. Ricciardi spoke to the media before the game - we came to him, not vice-versa - and said that he believes that the chances of a Halladay deal are “unlikely” prior to J.P.’s self-imposed trade deadline of July 28th.  He said he didn’t want Halladay going into his start in Seattle on the 29th unsure of his fate, hence the deadline, but I don’t buy it.  He wants to deal Halladay early, if he trades him, because a Halladay trade opens the door to deals of guys like Rolen, Downs and Overbay.  The door is currently open to trades of guys like Scutaro and Barajas, who will be free agents at the end of this year.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

The series continues tomorrow with Ricky Romero taking on Carl Pavano - we’re on the air at 7:00 PM Eastern for a 7:07 first pitch, but of course you can also hear me at noon Eastern both here on the website and on the Fan590 with Baseball Today.  We don’t have any guests scheduled yet, but I’m going to try to get a couple of people on to talk about the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies this weekend - Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice will be induced.  Maybe I’ll also try to get Russ Langer, who’s the play-by-play voice of the Las Vegas 51s.

I was planning to do the Hall of Fame stuff on Friday, since the ceremony is on the weekend, but today I went up to Ricky Romero and asked him if he’d like to come into the studio on Friday for Baseball Today for the whole hour to take calls, and he seemed both amenable and actually a little excited to do it.  He said he’d let me know for sure on Thursday (since he’s pitching tomorrow), but just in case he says yes, I wanted to make sure the hour was clear.

Rational, reasonable, unrepetitive comments by people who aren’t spoiling for a fight are always welcome!