Morning Roundup

In a somewhat surprising move (to me, at least), former Jay RF Shawn Green has decided to hang 'em up after a pretty solid 15-year ML career. He'd been declining gently over the last five seasons, but hadn't fallen off a cliff by any means. He had a pretty decent .291/.352/.430 line with the Metropolitans in 2007.

Green says he had been planning to retire at the end of his last contract all along unless something "close to home" presented itself from a California team. I assumed the lack of Green talk over the winter was due to team's being scared off by the $9.5 million he made last year, but I guess it looks like he'd been gearing down for retirement all along.

Green finishes a .283/.355/.494 hitter with 328 HR. Some career highlights included a 30-30 season with the Jays in 1998, two all-star selections, one gold glove, a four home run game, and most importantly, $100,000,000 in salary.

Hardly anything of note on the 2008 Jays in today's papers. Rolen drinks coffee (and is planning to take on a leadership role this year), no one has got hurt yet, and League and the Beej are looking good.

Rock Solid Wilner post today. He's almost always good, but he was really, really in the zone here. And no way! Did he read my post on clogging the bases yesterday? I'm sure he has much better things to do with his time, but here are his thoughts on the very same issue:

I firmly disagree with the notion that Frank Thomas being on base is a bad thing. Anyone who moves an inning forward by not getting out is doing his job, whether or not he can be timed running the bases with a sundial. I have seen Thomas score from second on a single, and I have seen him score from first on a double. He may not be able to beat Bengie Molina or John Olerud in a footrace, but he’s by no means 90-feet-and-that’s-it when he’s on base. I would argue, too, that the percentage of the time that he scores relative to how often he’s on base has MUCH more to do with the people hitting behind him in the line-up than his lack of footspeed.

Continuing with these truth nuggets...

Just because [Reed]'s scrappy and he hustles doesn’t mean that he doesn’t get out about 68% of the time, which is not good.

More, I want more!

Name a winning team that had a mediocre catcher? Hmmm, how about the Toronto Blue Jays? Pat Borders may have been a World Series MVP, but he wasn’t very good at either hitting or throwing out baserunners. Blocking balls in the dirt, though, at that he was awesome. Honourable mentions since - A.J. Pierzynski, Damian Miller, Joe Girardi.

You just nailed it Mike. Boss!

ELSEWHERE

Are the Bosox trying to imitate our ZTO Pitchwagon (Zambrano, Thomson, Ohka--props Jay K.!) experiment of 2007? After signing Bartolo Colon to a minor league deal, it looks like the boys in red have now set their sites on Freddie Garcia, who probably won't be ready to pitch until July at the earliest. Garcia had been packing on the pounds with reckless abandon prior to missing most of 2007 with rotator cuff and labrum injuries that required surgery, leading some to question his work ethic/focus...

I've made a concerted effort NOT to talk about Roger Clemens' legal woes because a) it's boring, b) I'd like all of this steriod bullocks to just go away quickly and quietly, and c) his legal woes have no real effect on on-field baseball matters. Maybe I spoke too soon on the later, though.

Andy Pettitte is a different sort of bloke and had to deal with some pretty heavy moral issues over the offseason as he had to come to terms with not only his own PED use, but that of his close friend. And the Clemens saga isn't going away any time soon. It appears that the Justice Department will likely launch an investigation into whether The Roids Rocket (TM) perjured himself during his recent testimony in front of Congress. If this proves to be the case, Pettitte would almost definitely have to testify in Washington at some point this season, which one can assume will weight heavily on him. Let's see if he can hold up under the pressure...

Note to Lastings Milledge: do shut up, please. All the talent in the world and a brain the size of a peanut. Still, I reckon he's going to become a fine ballplayer when given a chance in relative anonymity of Washington.

No comment on Scott Spiezio.

-- Johnny Was