Comments on Drunk Jays Fans: Stoeten Answers Griffin's Mail Bag

Fuck off Parkes.

2008-09-04T22:31:45.564-04:00

Fuck off Parkes.

I like your Hardy Deal, but League, Mac, and a Cat...

2008-09-04T20:35:14.723-04:00

I like your Hardy Deal, but League, Mac, and a Catching prospect should be offered to Texas for Young!

^^^We'll see how you like Matt Devlin, moron.

2008-09-04T17:01:25.405-04:00

^^^
We'll see how you like Matt Devlin, moron.

Anyone who thinks Swirsky rocks is the kind of fuc...

2008-09-04T15:04:23.997-04:00

Anyone who thinks Swirsky rocks is the kind of fucking moron fan we don't need for Toronto Pro Sports. The Raptors broadcasts were dumbed down to the point of cretinism.

Answering some questions sent in by retards once a...

2008-09-04T12:51:45.814-04:00

Answering some questions sent in by retards once a week in which you repeatedly make fun of bloggers and those that take a "new" approach to baseball analysis (i.e. combining old school insight with useful advanced statistical analysis in an attempt to predict a player's future success) doesn't make one "on top of" the changing face of sports coverage.

Indeed, if we've learned anything in the last few years, it's that reporters like Griffin are dinosaurs for refusing to acknowledge that there's more to baseball analysis than stuffing your fat face with free food at the park and interviewing a player after the game.

So the journalists 'in the know' are right. It takes balls to publish mindless, error-riddled drivel that has no logical argument once a week and then face the mocked individuals knowing that you're a foolish dinosaur wishing that you can build a DeLorean, go back in time and do lines of free coke with Tim Raines.

Smith puts WAY more work into the raptors blog tha...

2008-09-04T11:33:36.990-04:00

Smith puts WAY more work into the raptors blog than Griff and his lazy mailbag bullshit.

I think the whole "AAA coach noticed a problem wit...

2008-09-04T10:30:16.847-04:00

I think the whole "AAA coach noticed a problem with Marcum's mechanics that our major league pitching coach didn't" thing is nothing more than a PR move orchestrated by JP to turn public opinion (and media) against Arsnberg.

At the very least it's purpose is to give JP something to defend himself with when Arnsberg walks (is pushed) out the door at the end of the season. I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way either. Perhaps there are problems with Arnsberg, we have no way of knowing. The point is JP realizes that he'd take a lot of (possibly) unwarrented flack from people like Griffin and McCown if "the best" pitching coach in the league leaves. I can see it now:

"Here's a GM that let the best pitching coach in the league go. He obviously has no plan and everybody in baseball hates him."
-Richard Griffin

Make no mistake JP/Cito/Cigarette Smoking Man wants Arnsberg out but the optics would have been too bad to just cut him loose.

Also, did anyone see that CUJO interview last night? Fucking nails! Go Leafs!

Delgado will only be a free agent if the Mets scre...

2008-09-04T10:19:27.782-04:00

Delgado will only be a free agent if the Mets screw up and decide to roll the dice on Teixiera. They owe Carlos 4mm anyway, his option for 2009 is only 8mm more. Why not pick up the option of the guy that will end up with at least 110 Rbi and 35 hr's this year? Without Delgado these last few months the Mets are nowhere.

Pick up his option and trade him if you can't get Teixiara.

Too many Toronto fans think Delgado would be cheap based on the first couple of months but he's having a pretty big year. He wouldn't be less than ten million a year.

Congratulations Stoeten, you managed to say absolu...

2008-09-04T10:12:34.551-04:00

Congratulations Stoeten, you managed to say absolutely nothing in 8 paragraphs.

PS Swirsk fucking rocks

2008-09-04T09:33:21.688-04:00

PS Swirsk fucking rocks

There are no cheaper, younger players than Delgado...

2008-09-04T09:33:03.529-04:00

There are no cheaper, younger players than Delgado available as FA. It's going to be a 37+ year old, and I doubt you had Burrell/Abreu in mind there, because both will probably cost more and won't want to DH.

Pat Burrell is not an option because he is too good and (if even hits FA) will be given a deal that is right out of the Jays range either in terms of money or length. Same goes for Adam Dunn, Mark Teixera, and, possibly, Manny Ramirez. The upshot of this is that the teams that can afford said players will be bidding over said players, giving the Jays first shot at the lesser FAs.

Assuming that Riccardi chooses to hold on to his first round pick, Abreu and Ibanez are ruled out because they are type As. This leaves the Jays looking at trying to get one last year out of an old guy (Thome, Giambi, Delgado), or hoping that they can coax another healthy season out of Milton Bradley.

Then there is also the possibility of DHing Lind and having a defensive LF a la Wilkerson which would still be an effective upgrade over the Stairs/Eckstein/Mench carnival of mediocrity at DH for too much of 2008.

And let me guess - the Jays didn't bid against themselves for Frank Thomas either

Oakland offered the same first two years, Jays offered the vesting option.

Which, strangely, worked out fairly well for Oakland in the long run.

hth

best regards

johN

Someone asked why not to take anything a player/co...

2008-09-04T08:55:14.798-04:00

Someone asked why not to take anything a player/coach says about mechanics or coaching seriously, and that is because

a) the players will never say anything bad about the coaching.
b) what does get said is such a small % of what goes on
c) they don't want to give away any info whatsoever to their competition

The Star's baseball blog is not updated daily. Ug...

2008-09-04T07:59:42.945-04:00

The Star's baseball blog is not updated daily. Ugh.

Free Cathal Kelly.

Listening to Raptors games without the Swirsk WILL...

2008-09-04T04:35:16.826-04:00

Listening to Raptors games without the Swirsk WILL be weird, because I will no longer be faced with the desire to kill myself. Repeatedly. Fuck that homer. Let the monkey dance somewhere else.

^^^^^
I hate people like this. They can't appreciate what they have until it's gone. Enjoy Matt Devlin's boring monotone voice for the next 5 years, douchebag. If you want to know what a real homer is, watch the fucking Celtics. Chuck just loved the city and the team, and there ain't nothing wrong with that.

oh and...the current ranks after the most recent p...

2008-09-04T04:29:32.674-04:00

oh and...the current ranks after the most recent posts.

Stoeten(obviously)>>>>Yoshi(he fucking nailed that post above)>>>>SP(this guy just annoys me, I'm still waiting for the Halladay injury, fuckface)>>>>>>>>>Parkes (obviously)

Ari fits in there somewhere, but I'm too lazy to figure it all out.

Ari, question....what the fuck is wrong with an op...

2008-09-04T04:26:23.579-04:00

Ari, question....what the fuck is wrong with an opt-out clause? It's just a fucking player's option, and those are given out all the time. It's just in this case it was a 2 years option, but it was hardly a bad contract.

And while the Jays obviously bid the most for Frank Thomas...there were other teams after him. He was one of the top 20 offensive players in 2006.

-anonymous brad fullmer fan

I'm wrong, you didn't actually say that other team...

2008-09-04T03:29:35.125-04:00

I'm wrong, you didn't actually say that other teams offered that opt out, but your implication is that without it he doesn't come - maybe it was just the 5th year?

"but not so much if there are cheaper or younger a...

2008-09-04T03:27:07.018-04:00

"but not so much if there are cheaper or younger alternatives."

There are no cheaper, younger players than Delgado available as FA. It's going to be a 37+ year old, and I doubt you had Burrell/Abreu in mind there, because both will probably cost more and won't want to DH.

"A Ricciardi screw up? He doesn't get the player if he doesn't include the clause, so that is kind of a moot point."

You do realize that you are trusting Pinocchio for that assumption? I don't understand why everyone
keeps saying that the other teams were offering the opt out too - if they were, there's no fucking way he comes to Toronto. What I remember is St. Louis and Baltimore offering 4 year deals, and I think the Cards were willing to add an option 5th year. Stop parroting Wilner, who also mentions that other teams were willing to offer the opt-out all the time.

And let me guess - the Jays didn't bid against themselves for Frank Thomas either? It's pretty easy to just say these offers were out there without actually proving it.

Dude seriously? By that logic, Cito and Walton are...

2008-09-04T03:00:13.282-04:00

Dude seriously? By that logic, Cito and Walton are idiots too. And how do we even know if there was something wrong in the first place? After all, he wasn't explicitly sent down to fix his mechanics. Who knows if Langford's just pulled some shit out of nowhere. You don't even know what he saw and what he recommended yet you claim that he fixed him!! You clearly just dislike Arnsberg for some reason and I don't get it.

Are you joking? Yes, we know he was sent down to fix his mechanics-- or do you use another word for "whatever it is that's keeping him from being able to command his pitches"? And no, Langford isn't pulling something out of his ass-- Marcum said that stuff. And when the hell did I say that he was "fixed"? All I said was that, according to Marcum, Langford saw something immediately that he thought was wrong.

And if I'm not mistaken, it sounds pretty fucking damning that Arnsberg was not consulted on the demotions (presumably, in Marcum's case) and that immediately another coach-- the one they specifically sent him to go work with-- wanted to correct something he was seeing in Marcum's delivery. No? (And again, how the does that mean I'm saying he's now "fixed"?)

Also, OK... the Law argument on AJ is not overwhelmingly strong, but you can hardly say that AJ's been as good as *potentially* advertised-- and it was supposed to be Arnsberg's job to help him put it all together. Is it not fair to chalk that up as a failure? AJ has been good, but there's still as huge a gap between his talent and his results as there was when he was in Florida. No? Arnsberg was entrusted with bridging that gap.

Anyway, no, I don't dislike Arnsberg at all. I just think most reasons fans cite for liking him are almost certainly bullshit. Nobody outside of the clubhouse knows what he does or how much his input translates into the success the Jays pitchers are having. And why was he not consulted on the Litsch or Marcum demotions? Why are the people who are way fucking closer to the goings on down there bypassing him like that?

Obviously, we don't know. We can't know. But simply looking at staff ERA and concluding that the pitching coach is a genius is brutally simplistic-- is it not?

Sure a big component is scouting and game plans, but again... why does that success necessarily get attributed to Arnsberg? I'm sure he's a part of what's made them successful, but it's not NEARLY as cut and dry as everyone thinks that the guy is great and its a travesty that he might be on the way out.

Maybe it is! But my point is, we don't know, we can't know, and the people who'd know a lot better than us are giving off signs that they're not happy with him.

Why would you doubt their actions more than you'd doubt your assumption that he's great?

MY GOAL FOR THE JAYS is for them to make up the 5....

2008-09-04T02:29:49.828-04:00

MY GOAL FOR THE JAYS is for them to make up the 5.5 games that they are currently behind the White Sox, while also overtaking the Twins and Yankees - this would mean that they'd finish 4th WHILE STILL MISSING THE PLAYOFFS

I wonder what kind of dipshit arguments we'd hear from RG at that point - I'd like to see that dickless, homeless, clueless fucker not admit that the division is why the Jays dont ever have a legit shot at the playoffs.

Lets consider the fact that teams play teams within their division 19times (meaning we play 76 games against NY, BOS, TB and BAL). These games have to be .500 (there can only be one winner/loser) so factoring this into which division is the strongest actually makes the shittier divisions look better than they are. So I am factoring that out...

The AL East is 40 games over .500 vs the other 2 divisions, and 14 games over 500 vs the NL.

The AL Cent. is 24 games BELOW .500vs the other 2 divisions, and 26 games over 500 vs the NL

The AL West is 20 games BELOW .500 vs the other 2 divisions, and 6 games over 500 vs the NL

First off, clearly the NL is the inferior league by a longshot. As I've said before, the Jays would be very well off in that shit league.

The Cardinals have run a shitty organization for the last 3 or 4 yrs and have a WS to show for it (a yr in which they went 82-80 in the reg season). The Jays could easily do this in the NL. I'd also like to point out the dumb luck they've had with Ludwick, Ankiel and even Pujols who have all come out of obscurity to play like all-stars. Give JP some luck like that and he'd kick some ass. If Chip Cannon and Brian Dopirak become the new generation of the bash brothers, we'd all be getting shitfaced with Matt Stairs on Younge St. The Cardinals have drafted terribly and yet they have a chance every yr cause they play in a shitty league.

The Padres do the same, so don't give me this shit about Kevin Towers being an awesome GM; he has paper thin talent thanks to shitty drafting, plays in the most pitcher-friendly environment in the league and a shit division.

Now some general observations about the records outside of the division. The AL East isn't slightly better than the other 2 divisions, they are ridiculously better - replace the Devil Rays with the Mariners and it'd still be the best division in baseball. In fact, BALTIMORE IS 2 GAMES ABOVE .500 playing outside of the division in the AL, and 4 games above .500 playing vs the NL and yet they are 13 games below 500 overall. Why? Cause u can only win so many games vs a ridiculously stacked division like the AL East.

The White Sox are 3 games below .500 vs the 2 other divisions and the scrappy fucking Minny Twins are 10 motherfucking games below .500 vs the other divisions. Granted, they are a combined 16 games over 500 vs the NL, but dont gimme this fucking shit that either of these teams is better than our Jays cause they're 13 fucking games below .500 combined vs the other 2 divisions. The Jays are a respectable 27-26 vs the AL East, while the Sox are 13-20 and the Ecksteinesque Twins are 9-18. Lets see these fuckers fuck with the AL East for a while and watch them get raped.

The Jays are 7 games above .500 vs the other 2 divisions, and 2 games below .500 vs the NL. This is one place where they have sucked in the last few yrs and they need to rape the NL like everyone else. Only two teams in the AL are below .500 vs the NL, us and Cleveland (-8).

Also of note, the Angels are +20 vs the other 2 divisions and +2 vs the NL, so as much as their run differential does not correlate with their wins, at least they are not only benefitting from an easy division.

Overall, I'd more or less say that the numbers bear out that the Rays, Red Sox and Angels are the top 3 teams when factoring out the division, with the Jays and Yankees battling for 4 and 5; thus, FOUR OF THE FIVE FUCKING BEST TEAMS IN THE AL reside in the AL East.

Mind you, the point of this isn't to show that, for example, Baltimore is better than the White Sox, cause even though they do better than the White Sox outside of their division, their out of division games obviously dont factor in 4 of the top 5 teams in the AL, so they have an advantage in this sense

So, basically, FUCK U to richard griffin for being a motherfucking dipshit tool and for all u fucking moronic TO fans that call for JPs head, how bout try giving him some head and be thankful that u have a fairly decent team. FIRE BUD SELIG!

The 3 stupidest people here:parkes, SP (although s...

2008-09-04T01:33:12.678-04:00

The 3 stupidest people here:
parkes, SP (although stoeten does seem to blindly hate arnsberg), and yoshi.

And it's quite clear that Yoshi is worse them all of them.

-anonymous brad fullmer fan

More of Yoshi's fucking bullshit. People come here...

2008-09-04T01:30:14.344-04:00

More of Yoshi's fucking bullshit. People come here to read Stoeten's rants, not yours. You're nothing more than a pair of shoes from a Mario game.

-anonymous brad fullmer fan

Seriously Stoeten, i love this feature and all but...

2008-09-04T01:28:30.954-04:00

Seriously Stoeten, i love this feature and all but why dont u start shitting on RG's arguments instead of the people asking questions - maybe not on every question, but a select few - cause the questions are getting worse every week...

See Parkes' version of the mailbag.

Fuck this mailbag (Griffin's version) was such a p...

2008-09-04T01:21:49.351-04:00

Fuck this mailbag (Griffin's version) was such a piece of shit -seriously, the only reason that vagrant fuck has a job is because of the idiot TO fans. He rarely actually makes good arguments about JP's lack of skills (and there are enough to make)

I should send that hobo dipshit another question on run differential or even adjusted RD when factoring in the division.

I read that BS about the Twins being a model for the Jays - what a fucking idiot - the Twins wouldnt do shit in the AL east - I'd agree that if they spent up to our payroll that theyd probably be better than us - but lets switch divisions and see how badly the Twins get raped

And that shit that keith law said...i hope everyone realizes that he clearly doesnt like JP at this point so hes gonna shit on him; when Law (erroneously) said in 2006 that VW said to JP that he'd never sign in TO, JP said "now that Law is in the media, he is officially an idiot" -and frankly, he does the same shit that griffin does - he makes JP out to be a totally clueless GM (aside from this, I find Law to be very good at his job)

Seriously Stoeten, i love this feature and all but why dont u start shitting on RG's arguments instead of the people asking questions - maybe not on every question, but a select few - cause the questions are getting worse every week...

"stoeten I wouldn't put much stock into anything a...

2008-09-04T01:12:38.579-04:00

"stoeten I wouldn't put much stock into anything anyone in baseball says about mechanics or coaching for that matter"

Why not?