theyd go absolutely crazy when the twins had the bases loaded and nobody out in the 11th and swung at the first pitch twice. two quick outs.

MW: I thought about that after my answer to you, and I think I took your statement to say that the fact that Vernon got hurt made you happy because of his awful season. If that’s not what you meant, I’m sorry for my answer.

That’s true, but were any of those guys in a position to be in contact at the end of the month? I don’t see Rosenthal hanging onto that story. He’d have run with it as soon as he got it. It’s not like he did any in-depth, on-the-record interviews with players first. And I doubt BJ or AJ or Rolen were around either TO or Baltimore then.

Sorry about the cuss words. I’ll try to be clean up my act in future.

MW: It doesn’t matter whether any of those guys were around then, they all have phones and I’ll wager Rosenthal has their numbers.

Post #19

I’m sorry if you resent the accusation, didn’t mean to offend, i was just looking for clarification. I can’t seem to interpret your response any other way.

Mark from Caledonia stated that JP has been lousy at the draft table, and your immediate response was that “there are more players in the major leagues drafted by Toronto than any other team”. How else can i interpret your response, it seems like an obvious attempt to defend JP, and if your statement doesn’t apply to Ricciardi, isn’t it misleading?

Again Mike, sorry to upset you. The past few years i have enjoyed the blog and your analysis of the team more then watching the game itself, i just don’t understand your response to Marks question….

MW: Truth is, I’m sick of going over the whole “Baseball America says……” argument week after week. I thought I’d go with a different tactic.

MW: Then, no offense, you’re an idiot.

This probably should be sent to McCown – but I don’t really care about McCown’s opinion on such topics.

I listened to the McCown interview with Godfrey. It really ticked me off listening to Godfrey kick a guy when he was down and in the process trying to leave the impression that none of the problems were of his making.

He stated that he would have likely fired Riccardi had he still been around in 08 and questioned a bunch of the contracts (Thomas, Burnett). Of course he’s attempting to show that had he been around 09 would have been so much better.

Everywhere this guy goes he leaves a mess (The Sun, The Skydome, the Jays).

I’ve always had the feeling that Godfrey was interfering in the big decisions Riccardi was making. I have no evidence of any kind but it just seemed certain moves made by Riccardi seemed completely out of character (Wells contract). But beyond that what really irks me is that he knows he can take these shots at Riccardi knowing Riccardi has to keep his mouth shut or he’ll be labeled as difficult and disrespectful of his boss.

The best thing to happen to the Jays in the last two years was getting rid of Godfrey.

MW: What I don’t get, and I like Paul Godfrey a lot, is why he would say that he would have fired J.P. last year. He was still in charge last year.

MW: I’d like to have Hill hitting 5th – I don’t think he gets on-base enough to hit 4th, either.

Well I’m glad to see J.P. go. I know where you stand. Although he hasn’t done anything yet I want to say that I don’t think Anthopoulos will do any better. As far as baseball experience (playing) he has little to none (maybe little league or high school…that’s not a jab). Beyond that, all of his front office experience has been under J.P. from what I understand.

At 32 years old with no baseball playing experience or credibility I can’t see him having any clout with the agents or other GM’s. I understand he might only be in place for a short period seeing as the team is still trying to find a permanent president and the new prez will probably want to bring in his own guy.

My short term concern is this….Halladay. He said that he’s not interested in an extension. To me that means we either need to try to win in 2010 or we need to trade him. I don’t know if I’m happy about Anthopoulos being the guy faced with this task.

What do you think?

Should be a good game tonight for the central!!!!

MW: You already know what I think. Theo Epstein had a ton of playing experience, too, right?

I blame the Scott Boras transaction between the Texas Rangers and Alex Rodriguez, for the bloated salaries that are now given to players through arbitration or free agency, in order to compare players to A-Rod.

These bloated salaries have allowed for teams like the Yankees and Red Sox to out pay other teams for free agents, or trade for arbitration eligible talent that will cost small market teams too much.

If A-Rod’s contract had never come into existence (Tom Hicks is to blame), the highest paid player at the time was Conseco at around 7 million/year. This precedent that was set by A-Rod’s contract, threw other players salaries out of whack and thus agents were able to make cases comparing the players they represented to A-Rod in order to get larger sums of money, that in essence only the teams with large pockets and revenue streams could afford.

Had A-Rod not gotten such an obscene amount of money, salaries would not be so out of whack, and thus the trickle down effect would have resulted in teams being able to compete for players based on their actual value pre A-Rod’s precedent.

Thanks Tom Hicks and Scott Boras, for screwing up baseball contracts, causing the chain of events that has now resulted in such a large payroll disparity. And finally thank you A-Rod for inadvertently sticking it to the Jays again, as we have yet to compete on payroll since you single-handedly screwed owners and made the MLBPA salivate.

MW: First, no one put a gun to Hicks’ head to sign Rodriguez. Second, he signed his 10-year, $252 million deal on January 26, 2001. Carlos Delgado signed his $17 million per year deal with the Blue Jays three months earlier, Manny Ramirez signed an 8-year, $160 million deal with the Red Sox a month earlier. Your initial premise is completely untrue.

C. Harvey

MW: The only reason I can think is, as you put it, Alex is such a rising star. I would have been equally happy had LaCava been given the job.