Today's been something of an annoying day. I had to wake up at a reasonable hour as if I have a real job. Then I found out that my move to another apartment is being bumped back to a much more inconvenient date. And all day I have been working on an assignment and it ain't going well.
Long story short, I am in a ranting move. So here goes ...
A few days ago, Keith Law mentioned that when he was with the Blue Jays, JP Ricciardi turned down a trade of Jose Cruz Jr. (retired centre-fielder) for David Wright (current perennial all-star and MVP candidate). Now, in hindsight this was an abysmal decision, but it was at least kind of defensible at the time when Jose Cruz was viewed as being a strong defensive player who might develop his plethora of tools.
I'm not here to apologize or pile on JP; I'll leave that to others. But I do want to know why Keith Law had to confirm this rumour. Does he just hate Jays fans? I mean, the rational side of me (small as it may be) is trying to argue that these non-trades happen all the time, and prospects are always a bit of a gamble.
Unfortunately, the sports fan in me wants to go on table-flipping rampage (which has been shown by science to be the second best kind of rampage after the Rambo-like rampage). DAVID WRIGHT!? REALLY?! Keith Law, why must you taunt me? It's bad enough that the team this year was terrible, but you just had to poor the salt that is David Wright on those wounds? Next, you'll remind me about the Lincecum for Rios non-trade and that Roy Halladay is probably leaving. Or that the Leafs are 1-7-1, Toronto FC just got embarassed in a do-or-die game, the Argos are a disaster, and the Raptors may go games without getting a single rebound. I really don't need this right now, Keith Law, I really don't.
I also don't want to kick Steve Phillips while he is down, but this is just more evidence that he was a terrible GM. At least JP can say he wasn't familiar with Wright --- Phillips doesn't have that luxury. And yet, when he goes on television as a baseball analyst, I'm supposed to take his opinion seriously?
But let this be a lesson for new Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos. Alex, do yourself a favour. Determine who are the worst GM's in the game (I suggest starting with that fella in San Francisco), and get on their good side. Then call them weekly with ridiculous trade offers. Particularly, offer aging players whose skills are degrading for shiny young prospects. Somehow these trades happen far more often than they should, and its about time the Blue Jays benefitted from the stupidity of other teams.
Monday, October 26, 2009
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5 comments:
In today's "Is this 1993 again, or am I just caught in a time warp" Toronto sports moment, Paul Beeston is our permanent CEO.
p.s. If the new GM is going to do what you're prescribing, let's hope he doesn't ALWAYS make trades with ONLY Oakland, like the other guy. I'm tired of always getting their hand-me-downs. Pick a new team.
Well, that's the thing. Oakland has a good general manager who is difficult to swindle and is also less likely to trade for an aging player. I want Mr. Anthopoulos to look for bad GMs to take advantage of.
As for the Beest, I'm still not entirely sure how the President affects the onfield product and that is first and foremost what I am concerned with.
Rios shouldn't have been traded ever, so the non-trade was a smart move. August 10th's disaster - not so much.
What if Anthopoulos IS a bad GM that others take advantage of? Dun,dun,dun.
The prez affects the on-field product by swindling as much cash as possible from the owners to be able to spend on talent. So it's much more of an indirect impact, as the money he swindles could very well be wasted on players who lack talent (like B.J. Ryan, or Kevin Brown or Mike Hampton, etc.)
Look Mrs. Rios, you would have been sad to see your boy go, but I'm pretty sure you would have fallen for Lincecum, what with his goofy haircuts, violent delivery, and more importantly, his Cy Young.
And if Alex Anthopoulos turns out to be a bad GM ... well, it is going to be a long few years, and no amount of my wisdom is going to change that.
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