Get Over It

I was reading a baseball rumor website today and saw a post that said the Boston Red Sox were looking into acquiring Felix Hernandez from the Seattle Mariners in the off-season. As a Red Sox fan I was pumped to read this because King Felix is a solid young pitcher who would be an excellent addition to the Red Sox rotation.

As I continued to read the post I saw there was a section where people could leave comments. I started to read the comments and became instantly frustrated as every comment seemed to be along the lines of 'Red Sox and Yankees ruining baseball' and 'small market teams can't compete anymore.'

To everyone who feels this way I have only one response...shove it.

I have so many problems with these people that I don't even know where to being but I guess there is no better place to start than the payroll.

People constantly try and lump the Red Sox in with the Yankees when it comes to spending money. Yes the Red Sox have a high payroll but so do a lot of other teams. Here is the top 10:

Yankees - $201 million

Mets -$149 million

Cubs - $134 million

Red Sox - $121 million

Tigers - $115 million

Angels - $113 million

Phillies - $113 million

Astros - $102 million

Dodgers - $100 million

Mariners - $98 million

The Red Sox are 4th. Not 2nd and they aren't anywhere close to the Yankees so anyone who lumps the two teams together is a moron. The Sox do spend a lot of money on their team but that is because the team generates so much revenue from ticket sales and merchandise.

So basically that means the fans spend money which means the team has more money to spend which in turn leads to success. Therefore if fans want their team do spend more money try GOING TO THE FUCKING GAMES!

I love hearing Jays fans bitch about the Jays need to spend more money yet they don't help their team out at all. They only go to Jays games when it is a Toonie Tuesday game and they don't buy merchandise. The jays have the SkyDome which can hold like 50,000 people yet it is only sold out on opening day and that's it. So stop you're bitching.

I also love to hear Jays fans whine about how they are a small market team and can't compete financially with the Red Sox and Yankees. Are you kidding me? Do you know which company owns your team? The Toronto Blue Jays are owned by the Rogers Corporation which is Canada's largest telecommunications company. The annual net income of Rogers is $1.26 billion. Your team is owned and operated by the richest company in Canada. Just because they choose not to spend the money on the team, probably because no one goes to the games, doesn't make you a small market team. It makes you cheap.

It really boggles my mind when people try and condemn the Sox and Yankees for spending a tonne of money. As if they should approach baseball like the majority of other teams and penny pinch only to wind up 15 games out of the Wild Card every year (Pirates, Nationals, Reds, Royals, and Orioles). The team has money and chooses to spend it. End of story.

Forget about the whole idea of money for a second and just look at the original subject of the post, that being Felix Hernandez. Why wouldn't the Sox go after this kid? He is 16-5 this year with a 2.45 ERA and 196 Ks and he is only 23 years old. Every team in the league should be pursuing him if he is available.

The condemnation of teams that have money and choose to spend it needs to stop. Is the economic system in MLB perfect? Obviously not. Is the system going to change anytime soon? Of course not so teams and fans need to either accept this fact or quit. All I know is fans crying because their team is cheap is not acceptable and needs to stop.

Get over it.

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Diamonds in the Rough

This year marks the 15th year in a row that the Toronto Blue Jays will not be playing baseball in October. The team started off strong going 27-16 and taking the division lead but since then have gone a pathetic 39-64.

To make matters worse the team has been surrounded with negativity all season as "star players" Vernon Wells and Alex Rios (who was shipped off to the Chicago White Sox for nothing in return) vastly under achieved. Add to the this the fact that ace pitcher Roy Halladay was involved in trade rumors for half the year and you have yourself a real problem.

The Halladay trade deadline talk really hurt not only the team's play but also the Blue Jays as an organization as it made them look foolish and very unorganized. Many fans were calling for GM JP Riccardi's head and even other baseball executives around the league were scratching their heads at the way Riccardi was handling the team.

Despite all of this negativity some players have managed to have amazing seasons providing the Jays with some optimism moving forward.

Adam Lind has had a MONSTER season. He is one of only 3 players in the MLB to be hitting .300 or better with at least 30 HR and 100 RBI. The other two are Derek Lee and Albert Pujols. Lind is also tied for 2nd in the league in doubles with 46 behind only Brian Roberts. These are crazy numbers for a guy who is in his 3rd season in the big leagues and really only his 1st full season. He will only get better as he moves forward and he is the kind of player that the Jays can build a team around.

Aaron Hill is another guy who has had a breakout year. He currently leads the Blue Jays and all second baseman in the league with 32 HR and 98 RBI. He is also hitting a healthy .285 and is playing his usual stellar defense. When Hill first came into the league I was pretty down on him but he has grown on me and time after time he has produced when called upon. The guy is a great baseball player and at 27 he should provide the Jays with stability at the position for years to come.

Marco Scutaro is another guy is producing. Granted his numbers have tailed off a bit after his crazy start but they are still pretty solid. 12 HR 60 RBI and a .285 average from your lead off man is pretty good. He also leads the team in OBP with a .382 and runs scored with 100 (9th in MLB). It would be nice if he could steal a few more bases, only has 14, but he gets the job done nicely. The problem with Scutaro is that he will become a free agent at the end of the season and might want some big bucks.

As always Halladay has been amazing. He leads the team in wins (15), ERA 3.03, inning pitched (214), strikeouts (189) and complete games (7). The man is an absolute beast who can eat up innings and win games on his own. Now he does have 9 losses but that is because he didn't get much run support at the beginning of the season and he also struggled a bit near the trade deadline when rumors were swirling. The Jays may trade him in the off season but if they decide to keep him then he will be solid again next year.

Going into next year the Jays will also have an abundance of young pitchers to choose from. Robert Ray, Brett Cecil, Mark Rzepczynski, and Ricky Romero have all shown flashes of brilliance this year. While their stats may not be very impressive they are all still very young and very talented and should provide some good competition at spring training.

As always the Jays bullpen was solid this year with Jason Fraser and Scott Downs splitting time as the closer nicely. Jeremy Accardo had himself a pretty nice year as did Shawn Camp. The Jays will need to get themselves a solid closer if they want to compete next year however as no one they have right now is a stellar closer. They have guys who can fill in nicely but no one that can come in and just shut down the opposition.

So while it may seem like the Jays suck there are reasons to be positive. If Travis Snyder can have a full season in the majors and the new stand outs on the team can continue their success then the Jays can build. Sign a couple of free agents in the off season, maybe dump Vernon Wells and his fat head and contract and you might have something.

I also must remind everybody that Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan should be back next year adding some much needed stability to the Jays rotation and allowing the team to trade some of their young pitchers for some solid bats.

Maybe 2010 could be the year the Jays finally get back into the playoffs.

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Big Bats Are Big Busts

62 games into the season the Toronto Blue Jays are 34-28 and sit just 2 games back of division leading Boston. The Jays have managed to surprise everyone with their excellent pitching and out of nowhere offense which was not expected to be very potent. Everyone in the line up is hitting well, everyone except Vernon Wells and Alex Rios.

Both Wells and Rios have struggled mightily this year and combined have only 12 home runs and 55 RBI. To put this into perspective Adam Lind has 12 home runs and 45 RBI alone. Rios is currently hitting .261 while Wells is batting a pathetic .250.

The supposed "big bats" just aren't getting it done and it is starting to cost the Blue Jays games.

So far in June the two have been the worst hitters on the team as they are both batting below .150 and have just 1 HR and 5 RBI between them. Rios is having a particularly bad month as a few days ago he went 0-5 with 5 strikeouts against the Angels and was then caught cursing at a young fan outside a charity event.

Rios and Wells are the number 3 and 4 hitters and are supposed to be the guys who can drive in the runs. Both players have shown in the past that they can hit the long ball as Wells has a career high of 33 in 2003 while Rios career high was 24 in 2007 yet neither of them is playing particularly well.

The Red Sox had the same problem with David Ortiz as his horrible numbers started costing the team games when he would come up to hit 3rd and would strand runners like it job. Eventually Ortiz was moved out of his line up spot and has responded by showing some signs of life. This tactic could work for the Jays as maybe shaking up the batting order might do some good.

The worst part is that Wells and Rios are two of the highest paid players on the team with Wells in year 3 of a 6 year $126 million dollar deal and Rios in year 2 of a 6 year $64 million dollar deal. Both players are getting paid the big bucks but play like they don't deserve a dollar of it.

Often times watching Jays games you can see Wells and Rios look so disinterested as if the last thing they want to be doing is playing baseball. Vernon never smiles and I mean why should he right? He is hitting .250 and is being compared to Barry Zito in terms of contract busts. Rios also looks bored and often looks like he doesn't have a pulse.

Both these guys need to get called out publicly by either Cito Gaston, a teammate (preferably Halladay), or by a sports writer with more credibility then me. They need to be embarrassed and made examples of so that maybe they can turn their seasons around. It may not be the most ethical solution to the problem but more often then not when guys get called out they step up.

Don't get me wrong I am a Red Sox fan but I also grew up watching the Jays and having to sit there and watch these 2 scrubs half ass everything they do is a real piss off. I mean Wells contract is the 11th largest in MLB history and he plays like just another guy. He used to hustle and try but now he is just out there going through the motions.

Wells and Rios are currently among the worst 3 and 4 hitters statistically and are dragging down the Jays in the worst way possible. While everyone else on the team is out there trying to win games these 2 clowns are out there just earning a paycheck. They are the perfect examples of players who try during contract years and then just coast once they get paid.

Something needs to happen with Rios and Wells if the Jays want to catch the Yankees and the Red Sox. No team is going to win the AL East with their 3 and 4 hitters being the worst on the team.

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The Real Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays have finally come back down to earth after their crazy start.  The Jays, who are 27-19, have now lost 5 straight and are starting to look like the inept team that they were last season.

The Jays started the season by winning 6 series in a row and fans all across Canada wouldn't shut up about how great they were.  They were a completely different team than last year.  They were getting hits with runners in scoring position, getting hits with 2 outs, and coming back from behind late in games.  They were a team that looked as though they were never out of it.

Over the past week this dream has been shattered.  The Jays went into Boston and were swept by the Red Sox and have now lost 2 straight to the Atlanta Braves bringing their losing streak to 5 games. 

The reason for this losing streak?  Lack of scoring production.  Over those 5 games the Jays have managed only 8 runs.  In a 10 inning game against the Braves on Friday night they were shut out over 10 innings ruining an amazing pitching performance by Roy Halladay.  

So far this season the Jays have relied on their youngsters.  Players like Adam Lind, Travis Snider, Chris Ray, Ricky Romero, and Brett Cecil have all been crucial.  Unfortunately these players are starting to show their inexperience.  Cecil gave up a home run to the corpse formally known as David Ortiz and Snider was so bad he was sent down to AAA (huge blow to Steve Wilkin who took him in the 7th round of our baseball draft this year).

The Jays were also successful thanks in part to guys playing out of their minds for the first 50 games.  Aaron Hill is batting .348 and has 11 HR.  No way he keeps this pace.  Adam Lind has 35 RBI and Marco Scutaro has an OBP of .394.  Guys have been way overachieving and it had to end sometime.

They have hung in their for awhile but their inability to have a consistent starting 5 is finally catching up to them.  Injuries to McGowan, Marcum, Litsch and Romero are devastating and will in my mind be the eventual downfall of the team.  When Scott Richmond is your second starter you know that you are in trouble. 

It is also a major issue when the 3 highest paid players on your team are terrible.  Vernon Wells, Alex Rios, and BJ Ryan are all having crappy years and are dragging down the team.  Wells and Rios have 10 HR and 50 RBI between them and are both batting well under .300.  Ryan is a train wreck and lost his closing job to Scott Downs and is now the set up man.  If the Jays want to turn it around they will need these 3 to stop playing like Scottie Smalls and be more like Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez aka Benny the Jet.

I wanted to write an article on the Jays for awhile but I decided to wait until they played a real team, like the Red Sox, before I started singing their praises.  Sure enough I was right and the Sox smashed them and brought out the brooms.  The best part was that the Sox have the worst starting pitching in baseball this year, ERA wise, and yet they used this starting pitching to shut down the Jays offense.

Now that the Jays are actually playing good teams it is no surprise that they are losing.  I mean when you get to play crap teams like the Indians, A's, and Orioels you are bound to put up some wins.

This is not to say that the Jays are complete flukes however as Halladay is for real and overall they have improved from last year.  I just think it is too early to start saying that they are going to win the division, which many people already have.  

The worst part about this whole thing as that even though the team is doing well the fans still aren't going to the ballpark.  The Jays average about 23,000 fans a game but could be doing so much better.  Jays games are a solid time and there is nothing better than being drunk and heckling players at the Skydome (I refuse to call it the Rogers Center).

They still have the division lead as they are currently .5 games ahead of the Red Sox but with the Yankees continuously winning games and the Sox close behind they may not be atop for long. If they can get healthy and stay healthy they may have a chance but in this blowhards opinion the team popped it wad prematurely much like [insert your name here if you are a male friend of mine.  Trying to make sure I burn everyone].

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What's the Deal With the Toronto Blue Jays

Tonight the Jays laid a beatdown on the Chicago White Sox as they blasted 21 for 14 runs in a 14-0 skunking.  The Jays got to Chicago early and often as in the early innings they had White Sox starter "Fat" Gavin Floyd in trouble never letting him go three up and three down.  Floyd allowed 6 runs in just 4.1 innings ruining both the White Sox night and mine as I watched my fantasy ERA balloon. 

The Sox on the other hand could do nothing against Hays starter Brian Tallet who was replacing Jesse Litsch in the rotation.  Tallet allowed only four hits in 5.2 innings and seemed to have the potent White Sox lineup figured out.  

The crazy thing about this game is that it is not unusual as this season the Jays have been dominant and have been feeding it to teams on a consitent basis.  This has fans in Toronto excited as currently the Jays sit atop the AL East with a 13-5 record and lead the league in runs.

So far this season the Jays are yet to lose a series and with their over the Texas Rangers on thursday night became the first team since 2004 to start a season by winning 5 series in a row. Butlooking at the teams that they have beaten in order to accomplish this feat it takes away from the luster of the stat.

So far this year the Jays have beaten the Tigers (8-8) Indians (6-11) Rangers (7-9) Twins (8-9) and the A's (5-9).  This is hardly the cream of the crop as all of these teams have gotten off to bad starts and really probably won't be competetive this year.  This isn't neccesarily bad however as over the past few seasons the Jays always had problems beating weaker teams so it seems that is no longer an issue.

That is the only glaring hole in the Jays success so far this season though as other than the lack of elite competition the Jays have been nearly flawless.  If they hadn't trotted out the cropse of BJ Ryan so many times their record would be even better as would some of their stats.

This season the Jays have been doing everything right and fixing a lot of the problems that cost them a lot of games last year.  They have been getting hits with 2 outs, not stranding as many runners on base, and giving their pitchers run support when they have good games.  Last year it always seemed like either the pitching or the hitting was on but never together.  If a pitcher had a good game then he would get no offense and likewise if the offense showed up the pitching staff would take the night off.

The turn around seems to have occurred once the Jays brought back fan favorite Cito Gaston as manager.  Gaston lead the Jays to back to back World Series titles in 92 and 93 and seems to have not lost a step in his managerial skill.  Since taking over the Jays mid-season last year the Jays have been the best team in the AL East. 

Hopefully this trend can continue and the Jays can prove that they are no fluke and don't just beat up on crappy teams.  Only time will tell if Adam Lind can continue to be an offensive force and if Scott Rolen has risen from the dead and remembered how to hit a baseball.  The Jays had very low expectations coming into this season but they have put the rest of the AL on notice that they don't suck anymore.

You have been warned.

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The Corpse of BJ Ryan

Sitting at home tonight watching TV.  I know that both NHL and NBA playoffs are on but instead I am concentrating on the Jays game.  They are playing the Rangers and even though it is somewhat of a meaningless game I am still drawn to it.  Maybe it is because I have Ian Kisnler on my fantasy team or maybe it is because even though I am a Red Sox fan I still love the Toronto Blue Jays. 

Either way I am sitting there watching the game and seeing the Jays build a 7-4 lead heading into the 9th.  David Purcey pitched an alright game and the bullpen was solid.  Some clutch hitting helped the Jays build the lead as did 2 Rod Barajas home runs.  I know that the Jays have this game in the bag.  Then I see BJ Ryan run out and my heart literally skips a beat as I know it is all over.

I am sure it was not just me as Blue Jays fans all over the world were thinking the same thing. Ryan is a liability and when he walks out there fans know that he cannot be trusted to get the job done.  Tonight seems different though and Ryan runs to the mound with confidence and takes his warm up pitches like he knows he is gonna get these guys three in a row.

Then the first batter steps into the box and Ryan looks like a deer in the headlights.  It is as if it is his first game in the majors and he is overwhelmed by everything around him.  He gets this look on his face like Henry Rowengartner in Rookie of the Year when he reinjures his arm and can no longer throw gas.  The look is one of 'oh god they are going to find out I have no business being here.' 

It all happened so quickly.  Chris Davis was hit on the wrist and Jarrod Saltalamacchia drew a four-pitch walk.  All of a sudden Ian Kinsler stepped up as the potential tying run.  Kinsler hit into what should have been a double play but an Aaron Hill throwing error allowed Davis to score and Kinsler to move to second.  From there Kinsler stole 3rd and was eventually driven on a Josh Hamilton grounder.

So the score is now 7-6 Bule Jays with 2 outs and Michael Young coming to the plate.  Ryan proceeds to lob one in which Young quickly and efficiently smashes over the center field wall to tie the game.  The sad part about all of this was that I was not surprised.  BJ Ryan could blow a 15 run lead and I wouldn't be surprised.  He is a terrible pitcher who has no confidence and throws garbage.

The worst part about all of this was the next guy up after Young got struck out on 3 straight pitches as Ryan finally decides to throw strikes.  I don't get it.  How can you strike a guy out on 3 pitches but struggle so mightily against all the other batters.  It was as if he was waiting to blow the save before he threw any real pitches.

This isn't an isolated incident either as Ryan has already blown a 3 run lead this season when on April 11th against the Cleveland Indians BJ had another epic collapse and had to be bailed out by Jason Frasor who once again bailed him out tonight.

At least he knows he sucks as after the game he said, ''I was terrible out there, I was brutal,'' Ryan said. ''Not pitching ahead, not pitching aggressively, making stupid pitches at bad times, just a bad night.''

It is so hard to watch Ryan come out and just ruins games consistently as I can still remember when the Jays first signed him and he used to come into games and just shut the other team down.  He would come out, work quickly, throw only strikes, and throw fast.  Now he tries to be fancy and struggles to hit 90mph on the radar gun. 

So far this season he is 2 of 4 in save opportunities and is sporting an ERA of 11.12.  In his 6 appearances he has given up 7 runs and has 5 walks to only 4 strikeouts.  He is a useless scrub who the Jays need to bench.  I understand that they may have been trotting him out there to increase his trade value but in the end it is only hurting the team.  There are lots of other guys waiting to be the new closer.  League, Carlson, Downs or Frasor could all close for the Jays no problem.

Last year a friend of mine, Draper, tried to defend BJ Ryan saying he was a good closer.  I haven't spoken to Draper in awhile but I doubt he will be defending him anymore.

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