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Wednesday, November 10, 2004

To my readers-

I have an announcement to make. After what has been a short but fun ride over here at Blue Jay Banter I have decided to take on a new opportunity. Later this week, I will be joining the Most Valuable Network of writers covering the Blue Jays at the Jays Nest with a writer by the name of David Moro. So it's a sad day as I am not yet sure what I am going to do with Blue Jay Banter. I've spent many hours on this baby trying to figure out HTML as I started this project knowing absolutely nothing about how to run a web site.

I hope you come with me to MVN as it's a great little site that has come a long way in less than a year. There are some great writers and some really cool stuff going on over there.
So, start to look for me over at MVN and don't be afraid to check back into Banter every now and then. As I am not sure what yet I am going to do with this site.

All of you have been great.

Signing off, for now.


-Tyler

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

The rest of the week should be relatively interesting as the General Manager meetings start today in Florida. There will be lots of wild speculation and probably a couple of deals. I think we could see the Jays involved in some minor trades as JP seems to like to strike early. We WON'T be signing anyone until after the December 7th deadline to offer players arbitration though. There is no chance Ricciardi will want to give up any picks.

Latest news I've been able to gather is the Jays are still being linked with Barry Zito or Mark Mulder. I haven’t see anything that makes sense so I'm disregarding this for now. And Baltimore seems to be the favorite to get Carlos Delgado. Though, why they would be spending a bunch of money on another hitter is beyond me. In my mind, there is just no chance Delgado is going to re-sign with the Jays. What will be interesting is if the Jays offer Delgado salary arbitration. If they don't, they will not get draft picks in return from the team who signs him. If they do, there is the danger Delgado will accept it and return next year at a price the Blue Jays can't afford. I think they will offer it to him but not until the very last minute. It would be nice if someone jumped in there and signed him before the December 7th deadline making the decision easy.

Finally, another article on the Jays potentially having interest in Corey Koskie. A couple of additional thoughts on Koskie. I think a lot of the speculation can be attributed to the fact that Koskie is Canadian and the press likes to jump on these things. I don't think he's any more likely to sign with Toronto but because he's Canadian, he gets his name in the paper. Also, I wonder if Ricciardi has Bill Mueller on his mind when he's looking at Koskie? When Mueller signed with Boston he was a little known player who had a history of injury problems. All he did for Boston was win the batting title his first year. Koskie, is another guy not many people know about, has injury problems but is two years younger than Mueller. We know he can hit but he just can't stay healthy. If the Jays could get 140 games out of him, he would be pretty valuable. But, his injured past does not play into the cost certainty the Jays usually keep in mind when they spend their money. Koskie's 25 HR's in only 118 games is pretty good. That is a lot better than the 15 Hinske hit in 155 games. A two year deal with a team option for a third is a possibility. We'll see.

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Congrat's to Vernon Wells who won his first gold glove award. Not going to lie to you though, I was pretty surprised to see him win the award. I mean, the guy missed about a month of the season with a leg injury and came back not fully healed. It was clear he was not 100% the rest of the way. If he was going to win one, I didn't think 2004 would be the year.

There have also been some rumblings about Bret Boone winning the aware over Orlando Hudson. Honestly, I don't really care. I think all of the post season awards (ROY, MVP, CY Young exe.) are crap. I don't really even care. For the most part they are given out based on reputations and the best candidates rarely win them. I'm actually glad O-Dog didn't win the award. Him winning it only would have given him more leverage in contract negotiations, driving his price up. Once a player wins a gold glove most people label them a gold glover the rest of their career, regardless if they are the best defensive player at their position or not. I don't know who should have won it. What I do know, is O-Dog can pick it and I'm glad we have him at 2B. I don't need an award to know a good player when I see one.

Monday, November 01, 2004

The NY Post is reporting the Blue Jays would "for sure" want Barry Zito if we were to become available. I believe Toronto would be interested in Zito but I think Billy Beane could get more in a trade from another team. I believe Ricciardi understands Zito's value and wouldn't go overboard because Zito won a Cy Young trophy. Plus, at this point I believe Toronto is looking to lock-up a hitter and maybe sign a free agent pitcher.

The Post also reports the Jays might be interested in Matt Clement, Troy Percival and Corey Koskie. There's virtually no chance we'd bring in Percival unless he's take a 1 year deal for 1-2 million with a team option for a 2nd year. I don't see that happening. Koskie is interesting but I really don't see how he is that much of an improvement over Hinske. Especially when you figure in health, as Koskie has never proved that he can stay healthy and he turns 32 next year. I just don't see him aging gracefully. 1 year deal, maybe. Long-term deal, no chance. Finally, Clement. This is the rumor that gets me fired up.

For most of the season Clement was the best pitcher on the Cubs roster, until he started to struggle the last couple of months of the season. I have not heard there was an injury involved but you never know if there was something minor he was trying to play through. He is also 30 years old and proven he can withstand the rigors of a full season. The past three years he pitched 205, 201 2/3 and 181 innings with ERA's of 3.60, 4.11 and 3.68. He's also had very healthy K numbers posting a 9.44, 7.63 and 9.45 K/9 over the past three years. All of these numbers point towards a very solid pitcher. The one stat that does not point towards a solid pitcher is 12-11, 14-12 and 9-13. These are his records on what were pretty good Cubs teams the past three years. Because of this, I think some teams might not view him as highly and may instead go after Brad Radke or Carl Pavano. This is a good thing for the Jays. They understand a pitchers won-loss record is for the most part a function of how well the team hit for him that day. If the Cubs do not decide to bring him back, I believe the Blue Jays can swoop in there and pick him up 3 years at about $7.5 million a pop. I'd be completely fine with that.

One thing is certain. When the hot stove season is over I think we're going to find two new impact players on their roster. We'll just have to see who they end up being.