February Laments and Random Stuff

After getting geared up for spring training over the course of the past couple of months, right now I'm finding myself hit with a very distinct, Boxing Day day sort of malaise. Maybe this is only something that my fellow bloggers can relate to, but after struggling all winter to quench the thirst for Jays knowledge, suddenly mid-February hits and we're being swept away in a pointless torrent.

The Jays are sequestered down in Florida where only a handful of dedicated, affluent fans can see them. The rest of us rely on the newspapers and other media types, who are each covering the same fairly basic details of camp. The pace at which the ol' hacks have been blogging and filing stories has been frenetic, which is a good thing, and they're doing a fine job down there, it's just... it makes it a whole lot harder for us to find anything useful to say.

Sadly, nobody had the balls to pony up the coin to send us down to Dunedin on some sort of gonzo mission.

During the winter, all the action is online. In the summer, it's at the park. Now it's in Dunedin, and we're saturated with the basics already. There's hardly any room to slide in our own twist. I tell you, it's a bitch.

OK, enough pissing and moaning. All I'm saying is, you can figure out on your own that the Jays picked up Shannon Stewart or that the Sox took a flier on Burrito Colon. Here are some things you might have missed...

That Bad, Huh?
Scott Rolen wanted out of St. Louis so badly that he would have accepted a trade back to Philadelphia if it had come to it. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, it might have happened had the Phillies not been scared off by his wonky shoulder.

Prior to this off-season, the thought of returning would have gone nowhere with the third baseman. Evidently Rolen has been booed every time he's returned to the City of Brotherly Love (which I was sure was the nickname for San Francisco, but apparently not). He explained to the Daily News that "the booing was painful and that he still doesn't fully understand it. He believes he was an ally of the fans."

If he's approaching things the same way around here, that alliance will be tested early in his Jays career, because for most of April it's going to be fucking difficult to tell which team the Rogers Centre fans are cheering for. (Thanks Godfrey!)

Still at the Hot Corner
Spring rituals are no different here than they are in any other places, so it's unsurprising that the folks in St. Louis are also being treated to a whole lot of pointless copy, such as this explanation of the wonderfully cereberal defensive philosophy of Troy Glaus, which we all came to know and love him for...

"I try to make the plays that I'm supposed to make, and every once in a while mix in a good one," Glaus said. "The diving plays — that's great. I love to dive and catch one, but what good does that do if I then miss two hit right at me?"

Sticking with St. Louis...
That Glaus quote, incidentally, came from a St. Louis Post-Dispatch piece on how Tony La Russa (when he's been consious) has stressed defense to his team this spring.

Good luck with that, dickhole. Considering what the Sun's Bob Elliott got some members of the Cardinals to say about their former teammate, you're going to need it.

For example, coach Hal McRae had this little bit of tepid praise: "I saw Brooks Robinson, I saw Mike Schmidt and I played with George Brett. Rolen is the best third baseman I've ever seen." Now put that in your pipe and smoke it.


In Brief
Our friend and prophetic Frank D'Angelo douche bag caller, Neate Sager, has knocked the ball out of the park with his Jays preview for freakin' Deadspin.

Some douche in New York thinks the Jays "could compete in the AL East." I know it's irritating as fuck when Canadians bitch about how Americans don't know anything about our country, but this is just ridiculous. Yes, fuckface, they compete in the AL East.

Wilner has made it down to Florida and announced that his winter is officially over. Hopefully this means more than one blog post a week.

Todd Stottlemyre displays his uniforms from the '92 and '93 World Series facing outwards so that his name doesn't show. I'm going to assume that's not the case with the offical results of this year's Hall of Fame ballot.

After getting DFA'd to make room for Rod Barajas, Rey Olmedo was picked up by the Pirates-- who have now DFA'd him again, to make room for Byung-Hyun Kim. Ouch.