Scott Carson Misses The Mark

I understand that this has been one of the quietest baseball off seasons of recent memory, but seriously, are all baseball writers paid on a per story basis with bonus dollars thrown in for the more vague and rambling their articles are?

I ask because between Marty York's source spots and Richard Griffin's sexual tension with P.R. Ricciardi, we've become a little more corrosive than usual at DJF to the baseball stories currently being churned out. Or maybe we're just all responding to the loss of Fire Joe Morgan in different ways.

Add Sportsnet's Scott Carson to the list of incompetent opinion blasters. In his latest blog entry, Carson suggests that due to the Jays inability (thank you economy) to sign free agents this winter, they should blow up the team and start anew, keeping only Travis Snider and Roy Halladay.

For the time being, let's ignore how thrilled Halladay would be over the prospect of more rebuilding seasons. I still don't believe it's in the best interest of the Blue Jays to blow up the team. I also don't think that without major improvements to the squad, the Jays will be remotely close to competing for a playoff spot this coming season. I'm more of the mind that if the Jays truly want to build a winner, they would scratch this season and reload for 2010.

However, I'm open to the argument of rebuilding. In fact, I prefer it to Griffin's earlier suggestion to start trading prospects to bring in some decaying talent. Unfortunately, Carson's rebuilding plans sound like little more than a caller phoning in to a late night edition of Jays Talk.

At present, there are only two current Blue Jays that I would deem untouchable: Halladay and Travis Snider. Everyone else should be dangled for trade when the General Managers get back together for the annual baseball winter meetings, scheduled this year for December 8-11 in Las Vegas. To get something of quality, you have to give up something of quality and, with that in mind, that means some prospects have to be exposed along with Vernon Wells, Alex Rios, B.J. Ryan, Lyle Overbay and Scott Rolen - all with multi-year, multi-million dollar deals - have to thrown in to the trade mix if the Jays are ever going to become more than a third place team in baseball's toughest division.

Wow. You don't say. Now, as the third man in the booth for Rogers Blue Jays telecasts, Mr. Carson must see a lot of baseball games. However, even accounting for the loss of brain cells that is bound to occur from regular proximity to Jamie Campbell and Rance Mulliniks for long stretches of time, how can anyone with the slightest mind for baseball make such a pinheaded suggestion?

First of all, trading away "some prospects" in order to rebuild really isn't going to get you too far into the process. It's like feeding a cow its own shit. Eventually you're going to run out of cow shit, cow food and then the cow.

Secondly, how on fuck's earth can you possibly imagine that any team in its right mind would embrace being saddled with Wells or Rolen's contract? You know that whole economic downturn that's affecting the Jays, well it also happens to be affecting a shitload of other teams out there too. Thus the lack of free agent movement you dickhead.

In order to move those guys you're suggesting, the Jays would have to agree to pay a large chunk of change for multiple years to any team willing to take them. There's no true unburdening themselves of those contracts. Even moving Lyle Overbay would likely include some contract eating.

While shopping Alex Rios, the team's best player last season, is all fine and dandy, I don't think the return is going to be quite what you expect. I can agree with you that giving up B.J. Ryan makes some sense, but this off season is also working against the Jays in other ways. It has to be the worst winter in years to try to move a closer because there are so many available through free agency. The only potential plus for acquiring Ryan is that he only has two years left on his contract while the big name free agent closers are looking for much longer deals.

In other words, now is not the time to blow up this team. It would honestly set this franchise even further back. The best thing to do is try to throw another season of mediocre baseball at the fan base and hope that attendance and television ratings don't slip too badly.

Look to 2010 when the team's prospects from the great drafts of 2006 and 2007 have another year under their belt, the pitching staff will hopefully be healthier and the veterans of the team will be in the final year of their contracts. We can call the season The 2010 Jays: Ricciardi's Last Stand.