2:20 PM Eastern
In celebration of said chat ending about 24 hours ago, here’s a link to the transcript: Click here.
I’ve enjoyed doing the chats so far- the time passes really quickly, I wish I could get to all the questions - and I’m sure there’ll be another one on the eve of the LCSs. Make sure you tune in for our playoff coverage throughout the post-season and remember that after the ESPN post-game show I’ll be there to take your calls until the next top or bottom of the hour locally in Toronto. Last night we were on until 2:30 AM.
Once we get the games to start late enough so that we don’t have to join them in progress, we’ll bring back the Blue Jay A Day Pre-Pre Game Show, but I’m afraid there will probably only be less than a dozen of them this post-season.
Comments will continue to be answered throughout the evenings and thus, rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!
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michael,
thought about something this morning & wanted to bounce this off you.
it’s in regards to this jays team & the difficulty they’re having obtaining any kind of playoff success in this ever difficult a.l. east.
i was thinking that it’s kind of on the same page it seems to the difficulty that the pirates & the royals specifically seem to have in their respective divisions.
of course entirely different situations for many different reasons. not the least of which is the jays have had some winning record teams & good ones over the last 15-16 yrs. whereas those teams haven’t really had either.
but at the end of the day
each of these 3 organizations ability to compete to the point of being in pennant races are equally troublesome.
and without looking it up & just taking a calculated guess, i’m thinking that the top payroll teams in those 2 teams divisions are similar to the discrepancy between the jays & the usual suspects of the a.l. east.
am i on to something here do you think michael or does it just sound like i’m making stuff up?
MW: I don’t really think you’re onto anything. Look at it this way - in the 21st Century alone, the Twins, Tigers, White Sox and Indians have ALL made the playoffs in the A.L. Central, and the Cubs, Cardinals, Brewers and Astros have all made the playoffs in the N.L. Central. The divisions are wide-open.
- darrell bishopMike….
a) Had a pleasant disagreement with a colleague over who we’d choose for our favourite 1st basemen (not necessarily the all-time greatest but our favourites) and I told him I’ll let Mike Wilner break the tie..I like Don Mattingly and he liked Rod Carew..Help us out Mike, please!
b) This time of year we give thanks for the good things we have like family, friends, health, etc. Happy Thankgiving to you Mike and to your family and I give thanks for your love of dealing with us baseball lovers and giving your all to make Toronto baseball a good thing, not an easy task lately.
MW: A - Picking your favourite is a matter of opinion, there’s no tie to break. B - Thanks.
- chris m.Here is my two cents on trading halladay and rebuilding/retooling…
1) Currently most of the jays’ top prospects are in A/AA and 2-4 years away. Guys like Emaus, Aherns, Cooper, Alvarez, Tolisano, Jackson.
2) The jays have a bunch of high draft picks next year. Potentially more if they get picks for scutaro and barajas.
3) There are some good young pieces at the major league level who will be here for at least the next 4 or 5 years. Guys like lind, hill, cecil, romero and rzepcinski.
4) There is a talent drop off between the A/AA group and the major league talent. further, the talent at AAA does not appear ready to make an impact in majors. Guys like JPA, Castro, Stewart. who knows what to make of dopirak or purcey?
Conclusion:
By trading halladay they can replenish the talent pool between A/AA group and the group at the major league level. Combine that with the infusion of talent behind A/AA group from the draft and they the Jays may be able to set up their minor league system for quite some time.
MW: It’s true.
- jeremyhowcome its always american media that always catches the big news? halladay trade, clubhouse mutiny etc…
MW: Because they’re the ones who get tipped off.
- nikOk, Florida State League (Dunedin Blue Jays) top 10 prospects as listed by Baseball America. Not one Jays prospect in the top 20. So far no Jays prospects in any of their leagues. This Blue Jays system recap brought to you by…. JP Ricciardi and his ultimate scouting dept.
MW: Again, talk to me in five years.
- DannyMike,
can you explain how the addition to the 40 man roster relates to a players service time and ultimately free agency? does that mean that the players service time begins counting even if in the minors and his time to arbitration begins to decline?
MW: No, it doesn’t, but if a guy goes on the 40-man roster he has to start using options.
- JMike,
You said that you think the Jays are not going to add payroll. Have you been hearing rumours/rumblings, or is that a guess on your part?
IF the Jays don’t add major payroll (to the $65MM they have committed for 2010), will they stand pat again (other than dealing Doc)? If they do, do you think they’d be a better team than 2009 with
Bautista RF
Overbay 1B
Hill 2B
Lind DH
Wells CF
Snider LF
Encarnacion 3B
Chavez C
Angel Sanchez SS
Romero
Marcum
Zep
Cecil/Litsch/McGowan
Richmond/Purcey/Stewart
Downs
Accardo
League
Carlson
Tallet
Frasor
Camp
Can this be a .500+ team, in your opinion? It would be quite cheap, and the farm would be stocked with the 9 draft picks (including our first round -11th- pick, 1st rounder from Scoots, and our carry-overs from 2009 + Barajas’ supplemental) plus the haul for Doc.
OR
Do you think the Jays keep a payroll of say, $75-80MM, and make some big trades with a small/medium FA signing or two?
On another note, how would the Jays look with Dan Uggla at 2B and Hill at 3B?
One more…
Do you see Dopirak ever making a splash in the big leagues? Could he be playing some 1B for the Jays in 2010?
MW: I think that if they deal Doc, they likely deal Downs as well and maybe deal or non-tender guys like Frasor, Bautista and Tallet. I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by going with a $75-$80MM payroll again - either go to $60MM or $120MM. Uggla is solid, though his defense is questionable, and there’s still the matter of the nearly $5 mill they own Encarnacion. I don’t know on Dopirak, I’ve barely seen him play.
- andy mcHi Mike,
Was the Tiger/Twin game considered a regular season or playoff game? What would happen if someone broke a record because of the extra game?
I’m assuming you are against a 1 game tie breaker. How would you resolve the tie? The head to head record?
Thanks as always.
PS - The anti spam word was onenerate. I googled it and the only other usage was a previous commentator on this blog commenting on it (in August). Now I know a stickler such as yourself would never allow an anti-spam word that isn’t actually a word. So you get to define it however you want. A new Wilnerism on the way perhaps. Your contributions to the English language truly do embiggen me.
MW: The Twins-Tigers game was indeed a regular-season game. I don’t mind the one-game tiebreaker, probably because it’s been that way for so long - there’s really no fair way to break that tie. I’ll see what I can do vocabularically.
- CarsonMike….I feel your pain..The sciata thing comes and goes with me, but I was really laid up for 2 weeks a few years back. I’m more of a retro guy, so it was “All in the Family” “Twilight Zone” and M*A*S*H* that got me through it. And Vernon Wells’ homer off Mariano Rivera topped it off and was probably the best medicine. Hope you’re feeling better!!
- chris m.Michael,
We’ve seen Manny Ramirez cool off significantly this year, perhaps some of that is because of the PH issue and/or his age.
But is it possible players going from the AL (a superior league) get an initial boost when they go to the NL from facing better pitching in the AL and over time this advantage wears off when they don’t get to see that level of pitching to keep them as sharp?
MW: Interesting. I don’t know about that. There’s still some pretty good pitching in the National League, it’s not like guys going back to AAA.
- Uncle BenMichael,
It looks like you might have to retire that old joke about a ground ball to Jeter’s left being a hit:
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/OConnor_How_Jeter_got_younger_at_age_35.html
MW: I know! It’s amazing that Jeter has managed to make such strides defensively at his age. Good for him.
- Uncle BenHi Mike. Who’s on your wish list in a potential Halliday deal? I know that this is a very broad, very hypothetical question, but I think that broad and hypothetical can be fun, don’t you?
MW: Sometimes, yes. That’s too much so, though.
- jimmichael,
you’re probably right there re: your response to my last post. but certainly a couple teams in each of those divisions with significantly higher payrolls than the royals or pirates yr, in yr. out. ie. cubs, cardinals & tigers, white sox. and 2 teams that have slipped in on an occasional basis like the brewers, indians. similar to the rays getting in once in the a.l. east.
but i guess the question i was pondering is, has there predictament in trying to get to the playoffs been more or less difficult than the jays trying to push thru the fray of the a.l. east?
i know one thing, there’s certainly been a couple yrs. where the preseason forecasts gave the jays a legitimate shot to push thru for an october appearance (kudos to j.p. for that perhaps to even assemble a team that was in the conversation vs. the yanks & bosox) whereas those teams i suppose for the most part haven’t been deemed the same in a long long while it seems.
so maybe that answers the question… as tough as it is for the jays in the a.l. east it’s even tougher for those 2 in their resppective divisions due mainly to the financial climate (payroll) that they work from.
i don’t know….
MW: Here’s the thing - I showed you all those teams in those other divisions that have made the playoffs and yet in the A.L. East only ONCE in the last 11 years has a team other than the Yankees and Red Sox made it.
- darrell bishopHey Mike, unless I missed them, I haven’t seen your picks for the LDS!
Red Sox in 5. Tough one (Sox will need some huge breaks).
Yankees in 4. (no brainer)
Cardinals in 5.(Pitching will prevail)
Phillies in 5 - tougher one. (Rockies never say never)
For sure it is going to be tough for the Bo-Sox despite their winning playoff ways against the Angels. The Angels sending two lefties out to start games 3 & 4 in Fenway make it even tougher.
I’m (hoping) heading out to game 4 in Fenway to hook up with a couple of bleacher buddies and hoping beyond hope there will be one! Beckett with plenty of rest for game 2 however should almost guarantee there will be a game 4!
Thanks Mike - keep on doing what you do best and let’s see your picks!
MW: It’s pointless to make picks - you might as well just get a monkey to throw darts at a board.
- Bob (from Burlington)Two guy hypothesizing above about trades and/or stockpiling picks for future year here.
The problem with that scenario is that as recently as this year, the Jays have shown zero commitment to pay the price to sign even their high draft picks.
If the plan is to trade Doc and let Scoots etc go for picks, that makes that recent reality even more apalling.
- GaryMike
While you complain about the division do you think back to the days of labbat’s ownership of the Jays and realize how much of a contrast it was. The Blue Jays’s of the mid 80’s to the early 90’s were a marketing machine and caught the attention of millions of fans regardleess of the leafs in this market. The Blue Jays on the radio side like red sox and yankees on the TV side with NESN and Yes monopolized back then the fan 1430. At the start of every jays season from the mid 80’s I remember Toronto Blue jays calendar’s being given away at shoppers drug mart.
The Jays of the mid eighties to the early 90’s were the equlivalance in this market place of today’s Red Sox and Yankees in their market place.
Labbat’s invested in great baseball people Effie Gurrero(the king of international scouting), Pat Gillick, Paul Beeston, And Bob Nicholson.
Well obviously times have changed. There are devifinetly more revenue streams as a result of the internet, mobile devices and Digital cable. Have the Yankess and Boston taken advantage of the evolution of media. The answer is without question Yes. Has Rogers Media taken the torch from the previous ownership and capitalized on the cult following that the Jays had in this city. The answer is without question no. They hired mediocrore baseball minds who have in turn composed mediocre baseball teams. The Rogers mission statement coming in as owners, was the usual we want to contend and bring this team back to the glory years something you hear in all professional sports. However beneath that lovely right thing to say mission statement was the” This is a great sports property to promote the Rogers brand. Property later became properties when they purchased the dome. Every thing Jays today in contrast to the previous owners is Rogers. I say simply let the jays be the The Toronto Blue Jays and not the Rogers Blue Jays. The Jays today are so complely synconized with the Rogers Brand they get lost in that empire. Rogers is not Try to compete in the AL east they are try to compete with Bell and Ctv Globe media. Here in is the problem. Not the division. The division is a reality but is used as an excuse to protect the motive Rogers has for purely using the jays to advertise the Rogers Brand.
MW: There’s no question that Rogers could invest more money into the Blue Jays and if they built a winner, baseball might return to the prominent level that it held from the mid-80s through to 1993. Yes, I remember those days - they were fantastic. You conveniently forget the Interbrew era, though, and it’s pretty significant. When Rogers bought the team in 2001, it was hemorrhaging money and they needed to get that under control. Also, it’s Epy Guerrero.
- Thomas