Winter Meetings Roundup and Where The Jays Go From Here

Before I get into what happened this week, there is something important that I neglected to mention during the madness of trying to keep up with all the rumours flying out of Nashvile-- Wilner, I should note, had his priorities straight and devoted a full post to it even while in the thick of the Winter Meetings. I'm talking, of course, about the announcement of the final ballot for the Ford C. Frick Award, which once again will include the late, great Tom Cheek.

Thanks to everyone who voted by following the link that had been at the top of our page (and I seriously hope you didn't vote for Joe Morgan). Tom wasn't one of the candidates added based on the fan vote, but the powers that be did the right thing and put him on the ballot regardless. Now let's just hope they go one step further and acknowledge his tremendous career the way we all know they already would have if it weren't for a certain imaginary line through the Great Lakes and along the 49th parallel.

The winner will be announced on February 19th (oh, and longtime Jays TV man Tony Kubek is on the shortlist, too!).

On to the meetings...

Rios for Lincecum
We've all known about this proposal for almost a week, but for some reason yesterday George King, who I'm sure has his finger on Ricciardi's pulse and who works for the extremely trustworthy New York Post, declined to quote or name the Jays source he bravely claims says there was "nothing to the reports" that the Giants and Jays were even talking.

For now, though, I'm just going to pretend that King is pretty much full of shit... considering that Andrew Baggarly the San Jose Mercury News is reporting that Giants' GM Brian Sabean spoke of the deal today on radio station KNBR.

"By the end of the weekend, maybe the first of the week, we're going to have to flesh this out one way or the other," Sabean told the station. "We are juggling some other things and we want to get on to other business if we're going to pass on this."

Sabean hinted that he was trying to finagle another pitcher to "lessen the pain" of losing Lincecum. While it's rumored that Detroit is looking to deal newly acquired left-hander Dontrelle Willis, the Giants probably don't have the chips to get the Oakland native.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure it would surprise Giants fans-- like the ones losing their shit over at McCovey Chronicles-- to know that Jays fans are split about 50-50 on this trade idea.

Similar to their Frisco counterparts, some Jays fans are horribly skeptical of anything their GM does. But unlike Giants fans, Jays fans aren't skeptical because of a history of gut-wrenchingly awful moves, like Nathan, Liriano and Bonser for some Polack douche. Or how about getting burned by these very Jays in the Accardo for Hillenbrand deal?

No, Jays fans are skeptical because, well... not because they're morons. Just misguided, I guess.

On one hand, it doesn't help that there are plenty of blowhards like Richard Griffin out there, beating the drum of petty hatred for the GM, seemingly more interested in slagging everything Ricciardi does than in providing useful analysis. I mean, you can piss and moan about a mythical "five year plan" all you want, but you're not really being useful if you're not also pointing out that the team now is in about a much better position than they were when JP took over. You're actually just kind of being a douche.

Anyway, there is also the "fairweather" segment of the fanbase, who see no playoffs for years and the name Rios and two straight All-Star appearances and the fact he was easily the Jays' best hitter in '07, and they figure Ricciardi must be retarded for thinking of moving him for "potential".

Thing is, he's not. So let me take a second to soften the blow by reviewing a few things before you get your panties in a bunch...

Alex's value will never be higher. Another year won't convince teams he's "for real" any more than they already are, all it would do is put him closer to free agency and decrease his value. The Jays have a couple excellent outfielders in the pipeline who will be cheaper longer that they'll eventually need to find a place for.

On the pitching side, AJ Burnett is all but gone after next year, and while the Jays have a few nice young pitchers in behind Halladay and McGowan, I hate to tell you, but they're nowhere close to a guy like Lincecum-- who is McGowan-like on the mound, but younger and without any concerns about his frame of mind (remember those?).

As for this year, the fact of the matter is, the Jays are screwed if Wells, Glaus and Overbay don't bounce back anyway. If they do, the difference (offensively) between Rios and his replacement won't matter so much. But even if those guys don't, it's still smart to be looking beyond Burnett and to their man-child, Travis Snider, who is starting to look like he'll be ready to go for '09.

I'm kind of thinking, if the Giants thing falls through, they'll make a similar deal somewhere else. But I'm also thinking that the Giants would be dicks to take this much time thinking and still pass.

Steroid Stuff: Glaus Can't Be Suspended, Bonds Testifies, and Word from Senator Mitchell
Major League Baseball has Troy Glaus has been "cleared" of a steroid violation because "there was insufficient evidence of a violation of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program in effect at the time of the conduct in question." Riiiiight...

So Glaus (pictured with his Days of Our Lives co-star, a shaved monkey that vaguely resembles Rick Ankiel) is "cleared" because baseball had no policy at the time? He must be so relieved.

I've actually heard a few Leafs fans posing as Jays fans wondering aloud whether this might make Glaus more marketable, but that's just stupid. Unless, that is, he's also been "cleared" of having an enormous contract and a body that's breaking down.

In other steroid-y news that turned up this week, Barry Bonds pleaded not guilty of lying to federal alligators about his drug use-- because, I mean... he's come this far, why stop now?

Also, the Mitchell report is expected to show up on Thursday, which despite the fact that Senator Mitchell is in the Red Sox board of directors and therefore begging to have his credibility questioned, should be extremely interesting. At the very least there's no way it could be a bigger letdown than the fucking Winter Meetings.

Paul LoDuca
I've seen reports that the Jays are really close on LoDuca, I've seen reports that LoDuca is just using the Jays to drive up his asking price. Frankly, I don't care.

There are a number of Jays fans who incorrectly believe that LoDuca would eventually overtake Gregg Zaun as the starting catcher, but that's unlikely. I'm pretty sure people just recognize the name because he had been an All-Star and played in New York. He's not better than Zaun. Also, his facial hair needs work.

Zaun, in an off-year and with 100 fewer at-bats-- and hitting in the American League-- had more home runs, only two fewer RBIs, three fewer runs scored, more doubles, twice as many walks, and half the number of double plays grounded into. He had a higher OPS by sixty-three points, with an on-base that was thirty points higher.

LoDuca only threw out nine more runners than Zaun, but either way the whole base stealing knock on Zaun is horseshit-- and not just because the Jays' pitchers don't hold runners. I mean, for fuck sakes people, if you're one of only four teams to give up fewer than 700 runs, and you gave up the second fewest runs in the American League, are steals really your problem? And doesn't that say something about the guy calling the game for you?

Buck Coats and Randy Wells
So, yeah... I guess the Jays also picked up a couple of minor players during the meetings. I kind of feel obliged to mention it, but I don't really care and I really would rather just wrap this fucking post up already. I mean, if these guys actually play next year something will have had to have gone horribly, horribly wrong.

I guess I'll mention that Nick Kendall over at Bugs and Cranks figures the Jays misunderstood the offer and thought they'd be getting buckskin coats-- which generally look pretty sharp if you ask me.

The Randy Wells thing they have no excuse for.