Time for Roy Halladay Suitors To Line Up

by Ian Hunter… It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but I’m come to grips with the fact that Roy Halladay is likely not going to be a Blue Jay for much longer. The poor guy was dangled like chum in front of hungry sharks at the trade deadline, and now Alex Anthopoulous has the daunting task of trading away the franchise’s best player.

By this point, I’m sure Alex Anthopoulos and Paul Beeston have narrowed down the candidates to which they are willing to trade Roy Halladay to. Ultimately, Doc has the final the say the matter so that means any potential suitors must be contendors and give him a chance at winning.

Below is what I believe to be the short list of candidates for Roy Halladay:

Los Angeles Angels

The Angels seem to be the front-runners on the short-list to land Halladay in a trade. They have handily won the AL West the past five out of six years and would give Doc arguably the best chance to pitch in the playoffs.

Whether or not John Lackey walks away from the Angels, they could definitely benefit from having Halladay in their rotation (then again, who wouldn’t?) Plus, Mike Scioscia knows that if he has to yank Roy Halladay from a game, that he won’t give him lip like Lackey did.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers are no longer high on Chad Billingsley, and Los Angeles needs a bona fide ace to anchor their starting rotation. A deal swapping Halladay for Billingsley makes perfect sense…not to mention, Halladay would rack up the wins facing teams in the NL Central. No more of this playing second fiddle in the Cy Young voting.


Philadelphia Phillies

At the trade deadline, the Phillies went home with the second-best looking gal at the prom (Cliff Lee) but now they have an opportunity to bring in the valedictorian of the pitching class in the majors.

Luckily for the Blue Jays, the Phillies still have many of the players they were hoping for initially at the trade deadline. If the Phils would part with J.A. Happ and Kyle Draebeck, this deal could happen and would immediately give the Phillies the best starting rotation in baseball.

Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox probably have the deepest farm system and young major league talent to offer up to the Blue Jays to get Halladay. Whether they would be willing to part with Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson, Michael Bowden, or others remains to be seen.

New York Yankees

Out of all the places that Roy Halladay could be traded to, this would be my biggest nightmare. If traded to New York, not only does Alex Anthopoulos give the Yankees an even better chance at repeating as world champions, it also means the Blue Jays would have to face Doc at least three or four times in divisional match ups. Great for television ratings, but bad for our souls.

The Blue Jays’ Man Behind the Curtain Goes to Work

by Ian Hunter… Occasionally it’s best not to know what’s going on behind the scenes. During last season, the disarray and inner workings of the Blue Jays organization were revealed for all to see. Unfortunately. Now Alex Anthopoulos has the dubious task of taking his place behind the curtain and starting the magical Oz machine once again.

Anthopoulos didn’t waste any time this during this relatively busy weekend. First, there was the “state of the franchise” conference call on Saturday. Lately there’s been rumblings about the Jays wanting to trade Lyle Overbay to the D-Backs for Chris Snyder.

According to the Arizona Public , trade talks were well underway but were put to a halt when the Jays realized that Snyder’s back wasn’t all it was cracked up to be (sorry…I couldn’t help myself).

It appears as though A.A. is making good on his word that he would be active in the trade market this off-season. The wheels are already set in motion because a move like this would benefit the team two-fold:

1. Without any other major injuries from Snyder, the Blue Jays would have a full-time catcher until the end of 2011. Hopefully by then, J.P. Arencebia will have made his triumphant debut and will be well on his way to becoming the future star-catcher of this team.
2. Trading Overbay also sets in motion a search for a long-term first baseman. It sounds like A.A. does not want to move Adam Lind to first base, no matter what (even though the move makes perfect sense). This must mean that he’s working on something else entirely to bring in a long-term first-baseman. Your guess is as good as mine on this one.

Moving on to the other big deal that didn’t happen late last week…it appeared as though the Blue Jays all but missed the boat on the J.J. Hardy trade, and that the Minnesota Twins cashed in on this blog’s biggest man-crush.

Little did we know, Anthopoulos was apparently working behind the scenes and the Blue Jays were one of the teams in the hunt , according to Jeff Blair. Reports indicate that it would’ve taken Adam Lind or Travis Snider to land J.J. Hardy. If that’s true then it’s no surprised the Jays balked at that proposed deal.

Maybe most surprising of all is that Russell Martin is another name being tossed around as a possible replacement behind the backstop for the Blue Jays.

Martin could be an integral piece of a trade with the Dodgers which might ship Roy Halladay to Los Angeles. This is a theoretical trade, but since this is just a sliver of information that’s been leaked out, who knows what A.A. could be cooking up.

Whether or not any trades come to fruition this week at the General Manager’s meetings, it’s refreshing to see a GM take a different approach with this ballclub. Although it’s uncertain how this team will finish in 2010 or even 2011, I am confident that Alex Anthopoulos is putting together a winning team.

In the meantime, may he work his magic from behind the curtain and hopefully he won’t come back out unless he has something spectacular to show us.

The Solution To The Toronto Blue Jays Problems Is Simple, New Owners

by Chase Ruttig… Well it has been another ho hum season for Canada’s team, the Toronto Blue Jays. This marks the 15th straight year the Blue Jays have missed the playoffs. The last time they made the postseason was 1993, when yours truly was sitting in diapers and sucking his thumb.

The Blue Jays have had good players come through the franchise in this time and have had some solid ballclubs in that time, but they have just not been able to get over the hump and make that step into October baseball.

There are a laundry list of problems in Toronto, but there seems to be one solution that will solve the majority of them.

Rogers Communications needs to sell the team.

The Rogers ownership era has been disappointing to say the least and has been filled with bad decisions, whether it was the obvious conflicts in interest by giving their company an absolute monopoly on everything Toronto Blue Jays, to their horrible front office decisions and the ridiculous J.P. Ricciardi era.

First off Rogers basically bought the Blue Jays to put them on their sports network Rogers Sportsnet and they have basically ruined watching Blue Jays baseball. Their presentation is subpar and Jamie Campbell may be one of the worst announcers in baseball.

They also renamed the SkyDome to Rogers Centre, likely at no cost at all. I am not saying that ownership groups shouldn’t be able to take advantage of their team, but Rogers Communications has absolutely no desire to make the Blue Jays a winning team, and fans have been showing up steadily every year.

But the problem is that this year the Jays set a record for lowest attendance at the SkyDome and it is obviously apparent that Toronto sports fans are drawing the line in the sand and are refusing to pay to go see a losing team.

Also the front office situation could not get any worse. They have hired two moneyball guys as GM when it is obvious that moneyball is dead and does not work. The fact that Oakland has been struggling since they let their three highly paid pitchers go is no coincidence.

They have overpaid the wrong guys and have let go of the right ones, they brought in random middle of the road veterans who were going to be the “key’ addition every year. None of those lasted.

They had to let Alex Rios go for nothing, Vernon Wells is overpaid and on his way out. And arguably the best Blue Jays of all time, Roy Halladay is likely forcing his way out of town, and considering The Doc’s loyalty the Jays must be really bad.

The Jays do have good young arms, but they are often injured. If they can stay healthy they can maybe build on that hot start they had last year, but you can’t coach durability.

And they haven’t hired a good manager in forever. Besides bringing Cito Gaston back, they haven’t made a smart decision yet, and they have even found a way to screw that up.

The Jays organization is one of the worst in baseball and the ownerships hirings are a big part of the problem

This situation could get ugly quick and most Jays fans are not very optimistic about the future. I think that it is time for Rogers and the Jays to go their separate ways for the best interest of the team and for Canada as we don’t want to have another Expos situation.

So please for the good of the loyal and long suffering Blue Jays fans, sell the team and end the monopoly and mediocrity that your ownership regime has created.

The Yankees as World Champions: bad for baseball?

by Ian Hunter… Yesterday the Yankees enjoyed a lavish ticker-tape parade down Broadway Avenue celebrating their 27th World Series Championship. While most folks in New York came out in droves to celebrate, the rest of the baseball world basically rolled their eyes and said “not again”.

After watching the continued success of the New York Yankees as the most financially driven team in MLB, it begs the question - are the New York Yankees as World Series Champions bad for baseball?

In a word … yes.

It’s not just because I’m a bitter Blue Jays fan that hasn’t tasted the victory of playoff baseball for sixteen years either. There are 29 teams in baseball I would rather see hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy above their heads other than the New York Yankees.

So here are a few of my reasons in no particular order why I think the Yankees as World Champions are sending the wrong message.

1.) Team payrolls across the MLB are bound to go up

Whether it’s predetermined or not, it seems like teams subconsciously emulate the formula of the previous World Series Champions. In the case of the New York Yankees, most clubs will probably take after their model which is “sign the best free agents at any price, so long as it means winning”.

This means guys like Jason Bay, Matt Holliday and John Lackey are going to rake in especially fat contracts this off-season. It also sends the message that money equals success, almost the exact polar opposite from the Tampa Bay Rays model which was build a team from the minor league system upwards.

2.) It makes even more free agents want to flock to NY

I’m sure a large part of the reason why Pedro Martinez and Raul Ibanez signed with the Philadelphia Phillies was because they had a fairly good shot at winning another championship in Philly. For free agents that are getting close to the end of their careers and want an almost-guaranteed shot at the post-season, they will likely be seeking to sign with the New York Yankees.

3.) It doesn’t promote home-grown talent

There was a lot of hype surrounding the “core four” of Jeter, Rivera, Posada and Pettite that have stuck with this organization since (almost) day one. Aside from those four guys, most of their roster spots are occupied by players acquired via trades or free agent signings (only ten in total came up through the Yankees organization).

The Yankees aren’t notorious for drafting and developing great players, they are known for signing other team’s great players. I realize it’s all fair in love and baseball, but it feels like the Yankees would rather build a winning team with their pocketbook rather than their minor league system.

Again, let me reiterate that I’m not bitter and jaded (okay … maybe a little) that the team I cheer for wasn’t number one this year. However, I would have been happy to see the Phillies win the World Series. I would have been thrilled to see the Dodgers or the Angels win the World Series. Hell, it would even be fun (more so hilarious) to see the Nationals win the World Series. But there’s something about watching the Yankees get their World Series rings that doesn’t sit right.

It’s almost like if the tallest, strongest, and fastest kid in grade seven won every single event at the track meet. Sure, it’s great for that one kid - but for everyone else, it just creates an environment of resentment.

It’s about as exciting as when the team with the highest payroll wins the World Series.

More from Ian at

The Blue Jay Hunter

Most Pathetic Team To EVER Win The World Series

by Jeremy Visser… Alright, the Yankees won the World Series. I’m over it. Just as long as it never, ever happens again. New York jumped on “big-gamer” Pedro Martinez early and often tonight, scoring four times in the first three innings en route to an 7-3 win, earning them their 27th title and first since 2000.

Little Andrew Pettitte didn’t have his finest line, giving up three runs on four hits and five walks in five-and-two-thirds, but it was plenty enough to grab the win behind Hideki Matsui’s three-hit, six-RBI night. For all the ragging I give Little Andy, I’ll give him this: He’s one of the best big-game pitchers of this generation (even if he is roided out). Pettitte’s win tonight gave him the clincher in all three series winners for New York this postseason.

Matsui hit a two-run homer in the second, a two-run single in the third and a drove in another pair on a double in the sixth. For the series, the vet was 8-for-13 with three homers and eight RBIs–  enough to wrestle the MVP from Pettitte, who won two of his four playoff starts in the series. Meanwhile, Derek Jeter had three hits to finish at .407, while A-Rod had a hit, two walks, three snot rockets and scored twice.

So, there you have it — the New York Yankees, your 2009 champs. They brought it this year, and as much as it makes my blood boil to admit it, the best team won. Mind you, if Charlie Manuel knew how to manage a team and Brad Lidge had an ounce of confidence (or was inactive, for that matter) it may have been a different result. Or maybe not. The Yankees were good.

And such ends another year of baseball. Is it winter meetings time yet?

That’s what I’m saying, guy…

The Alex Anthopoulos Game Plan: What Will Blue Jays Do with Roy Halladay?

by Ian Hunter… Alex Anthopoulos has a plan for the Toronto Blue Jays. The problem is that he can’t reveal the full details just quite yet.

He’s been in the midst of attempting to rebuild this team, solidifying the coaching staff last week. Now the next thing on Anthopoulos’ agenda is the players.

Last week on Primetime Sports , Paul Beeston assured us that fans would have a better idea of what kind of expectations to have when it comes to total payroll by the end of this week. It looks like he and AA just might deliver in time before next week’s general managers meetings.

Anthopoulos dropped a few sound bites about particular free agents and whether or not they would return next year. John McDonald, Rod Barajas, and Marco Scutaro were names that he mentioned and could not say whether or not they would be back next year.

My suspicion is that at least two out of those three players will leave via free agency, with Johnny Mac almost certainly out the door. It simply doesn’t make sense to pay McDonald over $2 million a year to play 30 games at shortstop

Of course, the giant, glaring elephant in the room that Anthopoulos needs to address is what to do with Roy Halladay. Whatever happens with this team in the next three to five years basically hinges on whether or not Doc is traded this offseason.

The longer that time goes on and the more and more Halladay sees his former teammate A.J. Burnett pitching in the World Series, perhaps he’s developing a little bit of resentment towards the organization that has failed to make the playoffs the past 16 years.

Not only would Halladay be looking for a winning team, but he could also very easily find a suitor that would be willing to pay top dollar for him. Regardless of whether the Phillies win the World Series, many teams have seem the impact that adding an ace like Cliff Lee to the pitching staff can do to solidify themselves as a contender.

Teams like the Dodgers and Angels will be looking for that added insurance to get them over the hump, and Halladay could be that player who gets them over the edge.

We will have to wait and see if that happens under the watch of Alex Anthopoulos or if Doc just walks away via free agency at the end of 2010.

Either way, the gears of change are in motion, and things in Toronto are going to look a lot different next year.

We’ve Got A Little More Of A Series

by Jeremy Visser… A ninth inning save situation and Charlie Manuel didn’t call upon Brad Lidge. Surprising? Not this time around, and I could’ve advised him not to go to Lidge last night either. But enough of that — Philly took Game 5 tonight 8-6, clawing back to a 3-2 deficit and forcing the series back to the big city for at least one more.

Allan James Burnett was back in form, coughing up three runs in the first on a Chase Utley bomb and three more in the third, getting the hook after just two-plus innings. Solo homers by Utley and Raul Ibanez made it 8-2 in the seventh, but Philly’s bullpen sans Lidge had its share of trouble, allowing three in the eighth and another in the ninth before putting it to bed. Ryan Madson got Lidge’s assignment and paid tribute by giving up a leadoff double to The Rat and an RBI single to Hideki Matsui, but forced Derek Jeter to ground in a double play and fanned Mark Texeira to end it.

A satisfying win, even though I’m still pretty sure the Phillies aren’t going to end up taking it anymore. Burnett’s performance was a relief — I’d mentioned before the game if he picked up the win he’d likely be the series MVP. I probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep for a week if that had been the case.

Anyway, the series is heading back to Yankee Stadium, with Game 6 going Wednesday night. Young Andrew Pettitte (3-0, 3.24) and Pedro “Daddy Yankee” Martinez (0-1, 2.08) have the ball.

Jays Resign To Another Year Of Losing, Bring Back Gaston

The 2009 MLB Playoffs: So Far So Bad

by Jeremy Gibson… The 105^th World Series began on Wednesday with the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies defeating the powerful (and highly paid) New York Yankees 6 – 1 in a cold and wet Yankee Stadium. The Yankees were an absolute beast of a team during the regular season and had little trouble advancing past Minnesota and Los Angeles, but were thoroughly dominated by mid-season acquisition Cliff Lee. Regardless of how one-sided Game 1 appeared, this series has all of the ingredients to be a classic. New York boasts a ferocious lineup, with AL HR and RBI leader Mark Teixeira, AL Wins leader CC Sabathia, the always dangerous Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Johnny Damon, along with the greatest closer of all time in Mariano Rivera. Philadelphia is also rich in talent, with stars Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Jimmy Rollins leading the way, not to mention Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth. On paper it looks like a dream series for Major League Baseball: two evenly matched teams, two passionate fan bases, two proud, historical franchises, and two large markets.

MLB now must hope that it lives up to its classic potential, because to this point the 2009 postseason has been terrible. There are times when the 162-game regular season seems to drag into eternity, but the entire point of the long schedule is to set the tone for the crown jewel event of the season – the playoffs. Regular season play is an appetizer to the main course, a Caesar salad to the postseason’s steak and potatoes. Unfortunately this year the salad tastes better than the meat. All six playoff matchups have been brutal, failing to deliver much drama or excitement. The baseball itself has been dreadful, and is not helped by cold, wet weather and long, drawn out games. Despite some wonderful storylines, such as Alex Rodriguez exorcising his playoff demons, and Brad Lidge shaking off a disastrous regular season, 2009 is shaping up to be the worst edition of the playoffs in recent memory. Here’s why:

Closers

A team’s most dominant reliever is the closer, the man responsible for shutting the door on close games and keeping ninth inning leads safe. Usually, a huge difference between playoff and non-playoff teams is that playoff teams have dominant closers. This year is no exception. But what we have seen is a dreadful display of finishing. Below is a comparison between regular season and playoff stats for the six closers who have been eliminated:

		Regular Season		Playoffs
Name	Team	Saves/Opps	ERA	Saves/Opps	ERA
Joe Nathan	MIN	47 / 52	2.10	0 / 1	9.00
Jonathan Papelbon	BOS	38 / 41	1.85	0 / 1	13.50
Brian Fuentes	LAA	48 / 55	3.93	3 / 4	1.93
Huston Street	COL	35 / 37	3.06	1 / 2	13.50
Ryan Franklin	STL	38 / 43	1.92	0 / 1	0.00
Jonathan Broxton	LAD	36 / 42	2.61	2 / 3	4.05

Five of those six closers were All Stars this season, but none of them pitched like an all star when the games mattered most. Each and every one of them blew a postseason save, and in the playoffs, when every loss is crushing, that is unacceptable. Nathan was called upon to protect a two run lead in the bottom of the ninth of Game 2 against the Yankees, a chance for the massive underdog Twins to steal a road victory, but he blew it. Papelbon imploded in the eight and ninth innings of Game 3 to hand a series sweep to the Angels. Street was just plain awful against the Phillies, including single-handedly blowing the clinching game, and Broxton couldn’t hold a lead in the hugely important Game 4 of the NLCS. Only Fuentes and Franklin had lower ERA’s in the playoffs, but did they really pitch better? Fuentes unraveled in the 11^th inning of ALCS Game 2, blowing the lead for the Angels, and came dangerously close to collapsing again in Game 5. He was so ineffective that manager Mike Scoscia skipped over him entirely in key situations. Franklin blew Game 2 against the Dodgers, and while it was Matt Holliday’s egregious error that started the downfall, it was Franklin’s inability to get anybody else out that ended it. Only two closers in the 2009 playoffs have not blown a save, and fittingly they are the two left standing – Mariano Rivera and Brad Lidge.

Errors

If defense wins championships, then nobody in this year’s playoffs wants to win. From Chase Utley suddenly turning into Chuck Knoblauch and not being able to throw the ball to first, to the Angels morphing into a little league team, failing to properly field a sacrifice bunt (twice in a row!), the fielding has been downright comedic. Of the eight playoff qualifiers, only the Cardinals were ranked in the bottom half in errors committed during the regular season. The other seven teams were ranked in the top ten. Fielding should be a strong point for these clubs. In the playoffs, however, every team but the Dodgers has committed multiple errors, lead by the Angles with an unsightly nine! Overall the number of errors per game in the playoffs for these teams has increased almost 10% over the regular season average.

But those numbers only include errors that make it into the boxscore. There have also been an absurd number of mental errors on the basepaths. Minnesota’s Carlos Gomez overran second base costing the Twins a run, and teammate Nick Punto did the very same thing in the very next game. The Angels were even worse: Bobby Abreu was caught between second and third, Erick Aybar forgot to touch second base while turning a double play, and Vladimir Guerrero was inexplicably doubled off first base on a shallow fly ball to the outfield. Without those mistakes, who knows if the Angels could have turned the series around?

It’s bad enough that a large number of errors are being committed in the first place, but worse is that these errors are occurring at critical junctures in games. Think of Matt Holliday dropping a fly ball that would have ended Game 2 and given the Cardinals a series tie heading to St. Louis. The Angels gave away two games in the ALCS, when Maicer Izturis threw a ground ball into the outfield in extra innings of Game 2, and Scott Kazmir and Howie Kendrick botched back-to-back sacrifice bunts in the eighth inning of Game 6. Fans are supposed to be seeing the best baseball of the year at playoff time, not mistakes reserved for spring training.

Umpiring

The issue with umpiring in this year’s playoffs has been well documented but is worth mentioning again: the umpires have been atrocious. Baseball umpires take a lot of heat in the best of times, and normally do a very good job. Missing a bang-bang play at first or the location of a 98 mile-per-hour fastball are forgivable offenses. But their performance in the playoffs is an entirely different story. Standing fifteen-feet from a ball landing 15-inches in fair territory yet calling it foul? Calling a baserunner safe when he is tagged with the ball while standing 18-inches off the base? Inexcusable.

By the count of Sports Illustrated, there have been at least six blatantly incorrect calls to this point. MLB supposedly reserves the biggest games for the best umpires, those who have performed the best over the course of the season, but they might have missed the boat this year. What’s worse is that the umpires are escaping punishment from the league for their incompetence. The poor decision making is threatening both the quality and integrity of the postseason, and it’s only a matter of time before a bad call decides the outcome of a game. The umpiring crew did a good job in Game 1 of the World Series, including correctly awarding Jimmy Rollins a double play. Let’s hope the good work continues.

Lack of Drama

For some, the notion of saying that the 2009 MLB Playoffs have lacked drama is ludicrous. They will point to the following stats:

• 11 one-run games
• 3 games decided in extra innings
• 6 ninth inning rallies to tie or take the lead
• 14 lead changes in the 7^th inning or later

It is true that numbers like that make for exciting games, but one or two exciting games do not make a postseason – exciting series make a postseason. To this point the playoffs have offered six fairly dull series. The Division series round resulted in three sweeps and a four game set, while the NLCS and ALCS ended in five and six games respectively. Teams facing elimination were a combined 1 – 6. Not a lot of magic or drama.

In order for a postseason to be special or memorable it absolutely must contain either one or two 7-game series, or at the very least a few intensely fought 6-game battles. The 1975 World Series between Cincinnati and Boston is widely considered to be the greatest ever played – seven dramatic, nail-biting, and close games. But if that series had been decided by four dramatic, nail-biting, and close games, would it still be considered a classic? In 1986, if that weak ground ball to first would have trickled through Bill Buckner’s legs in the fourth game of a five game blowout, would we still remember it as one of the craziest moments of all time? Doubtful.

So to this point, the playoffs have been a bust. But thankfully there is still hope, one more chance to salvage the conclusion of what has been a wonderful baseball season. It’s time to sit back and see if the Phillies and Yankees can deliver.

When in doubt, hire yourself as President

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