The Roundup

Finally, some drama. We appear to be at Defcon two when it comes to relations between the Big Sleep and Gibby...

It's hard to fault the manager for seeking to do something about the giant, non-performing hole in the heart of his order, but calling Thomas into his office and telling him he's now a BENCH player "indefinitely"? Thomas, no dullard, is not taking the news well as you might expect.

Unless this move came on JP's directive, and there's no reason to believe that it did, it's solely a baseball move, not an economic one. The Big Sleep doesn't see it that way, though:

"You know what's going on and I know what's going on. We'll see how it plays out. I'm just a little frustrated right now. There are some things going on around here this year that I haven't been happy about."

Yeah, we know what's going on, and it is kind of greasy.

Since Gibby's contract runs out at the end of this season, I see no reason why he'd try to limit Thomas' plate appearences to > 376 to prevent his '09 option from vesting of his own accord. I wouldn't put the cloak and dagger stuff past JP, but both men are in win now mode and have little to gain by making this a running sore during a season that is far from being lost.

The worst of the past three listless losses was the 7-5 defeat in 14 to the Rangers on Wednesday. The lack of urgency was absolutely pathetic and the tempo wasn't much higher on Thursday or last night even.

Something had to be done, and it was decided that that something would be lighting a fire under the ass of a very highly paid and underperforming veteran. After a day or two of riding the pines, Thomas should be reinserted into the lineup, point made. Frankly (no pun intended), I'd love to see him come into pinch hit today or tomorrow if there's a high-pressure late inning situation of the sort where we'd normally use Matt Stairs, who is presumably replacing him as DH.

Incidentally, the "slow starter" talk is kind of bollocks. April indeed has been the coolest month over his career (.283/.407/.513), but it's not like he typically put up sub .200 performances year in year out. And his April BAbip is abnormally low at .286 (almost .20 points lower than any other month), which indicates that he's long been making bad contact in the early going. Cold weather is a plausible excuse seeing as he played all those years in Chicago, but that shouldn't fly in a domed stadium.

If expectations for this club weren't so high, then the whole issue could just be ignored and Thomas allowed to hit his way out of this slump, which he will inevitablly do. Sorry pal, this ain't Bal'mer.

Blair says that JP will not sit by and let the offence "rot" as we wait for Scott Rolen's return, speculating that Adam Lind will get recalled from Syracuse in the near future. (Just about game time here and I see Stewart is taking the day off again because of a sore groin, so it's only a matter of time before Lind joins the club).

Griffin (!?!) sees the club's early road success as reason for optimism. He shits on nothing and noone in today's Star. Mark this date on your calander.

John Lott at the Post checks in on Big Dave Purcey after his debut, reporting:

“I think the anxiety and jitters and nervousness, whatever you want to call it, got to me a little bit,” he said with a shy smile when it was over.

“The walks [were not] what I really wanted but I did make pitches when I needed to, and just tried to keep our team in the game and ended up doing that,” he said. “I’m happy about that.”

Skip gave him a pat on the back and he's still at the top of list the next time we need a starter. Oh, and we DFA'd Josh Banks and called Shawn Camp up. Meh.

Wilner thinks something must be done to shake up the offense, but all roads seem to lead to certain death. Predictably, he preachs patience.

ELSEWHERE:

* Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts is a nifty little ballplayer and an outwardly "good guy" type, hence the surprise and dismay when he was named in the Mitchell Report during the offseason. He talked to the Baltimore Sun about the pressures that led to his steriod use.

* Were the rest of you as unshocked as I was to learn that Shea Hillenbrand's child was attacked by a marmut?

-- Johnny Was

The Roundup

Now that the roster has been set and there are still three more real fake games left to be played, it's getting kind of anti-climactic around here. So here's just a bunch of random thoughts in no particular order:

* Blair checks in on League and Randy David Wells. Expectations for the former are high, the latter got his job by default. I hope RD likes crossword puzzles, because he's going to get bored as hell during the week-long stretch between appearances. JP hints he might be stretched out for use as a spot starter, and you know what? That's a really smart idea if he's just gathering dust otherwise. Wilner does NOT like my nickname R-Dub, which stung a bit, to be frank. I wish I could make up stuff like "Litsch slapped", but then again I'm not gainfully employed in the business (or in any business, really).

* Dave Perkins of the Star likes the Jays' pitching this year, but that's kind of like saying local children enjoy ice cream. You know what I like? Just randomly generating numbers like this:

If Burnett throws up an 18-7 season, he will use his opt-out clause to depart and take someone else's $20 million a season. If he visits the DL and ends up 9-8 in 21 starts, he'll stay here for his $12 million. The Jays could surely live with the first scenario.

Uh, ok.

* Bastian makes his preseason predictions, as do the dudes at ESPN (84-90 wins, only Olney really likes us but still doesn't think this is a playoff team). Rest assured folks, we are still a dark horse contender.

* As a pseudo-stat geek, I'm openly admit to being a fan of Billy Beane and the A's, so it was quite nice to see them come away with a split with the Bosox in Japan. Yesterday it was all Rich Harden, who will most likely be traded at some point this summer if healthy (to us?), and they put up 5 runs in an exciting season opener. Don't be surprised if the A's rebuilding period turns out to be quite short, which would please me to no end. (I hate the Angels NL-style of play). And with yesterday's Bosox loss were back in a tie for first place! Woohoo!

* It's looking grim for ex-Jay whipping boy turned stud Kelvim Escobar, who may end up losing the season. He always drove me crazy as a Jay because he seemed to lose focus and suck Josh Towers-style whenever he had a lead. He didn't transistion to the bullpen well, either, and seemed destined for bust status before resurrecting his career with the Angels. One more reason to dislike them.

* Now it seems as though the Orioles are backing away from trading Brian Roberts to the Cubs, which seems counterproductive. A team that won't see .500 again for three years at the least surely doesn't need a highly-paid and somewhat scandal-tinged 30-year-old second basemen, even if he is all-star calibre, right? Nevertheless. Another step backward for a once proud franchise.

* In an ominous sign of things to come, the hapless, antique-riddled SF Giants lost 4-3 yesterday. To their AAA affiliate. Brian Sabean is simply one of the worst GMs in the sport (trading away Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano, Jeremy Accardo and Boof Bonser away for magic beans, compiling the most ancient and crappy collection of position players imaginable, etc.) and his continued employment defies common sense. His handling of the Rios-Lincecum talks was embarassing, just embarassing, and I will take pleasure in seeing his team lose 100 games this year.

* Sexual harassment scandal in Deeeetroit, but it has nothing to do with any players, coaches or management. There are two parts to the story. There were very sombre accusations of innappriate touching/comments directed at one female employee by a male coworker (bad). And then there were claims that Tigers photographers shot "softcore videos" and displayed them on the centrefield scoreboard. What this really boils down to is someone prudishly objecting to a cameraman zeroing in on some fine young thing in tight/revealing clothing in the stands (frivilous), which is a time-honoured baseball tradition. And cameramen also zero in on people doing goofy dances. And people with babies. And couples. And the aged. Really, come on... do you want to ban hot dogs because you find them too suggestive? And for the record, Comerica Park is a wonderful place to watch a game, even if it is in one of the most godawful cities in America and it's near impossible to get tickets anymore.

-- Johnny Was

Morning Roundup

In contrast to the more triumphal back-slapping at mlb.com, Geoffrey York does an illuminating feature on how the first China Series was received in Beijing over the weekend. York has been my favourite Canadian journalist since he was on the Globe's Moscow desk years and years ago and he's capable of providing a sober, sports-cliche free look at the Herculean effort of selling a foreign, alien sport to the world's next superpower.

The average Chinese spectator found the sport incomprehensible, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Both spring training games between the Padres and Dodgers were sold out or nearly sold out, but it would seem that a good number of tickets were handed out free. Visiting Korean fans were clearly the most-chuffed about the whole thing, mostly because their hero, Chan Ho Park, was there with the LA contingent. Andruw Jones was was either enthralled or baffled by the Chinese cheerleaders, none of whom appears to be bigger than a size two.

I find the MLB's Chinese strategy simultaneously weird and cool, so I do hope they repeat it again in the future. If the Jays are involved I'd gladly volunteer to go along and help translate or serve as a tour guide. Call me!

Back in North America... that I fully agree with Richard Griffin is probably a good indication that the apocolypse is upon us, which is kind of sad since I was looking forward to a massive St. Patty's day hangover tomorrow.

Uncle Griff implies that we shouldn't be worried by The Big Hurt's Manitoba cold spring (2 for 28 so far), because he's been working hard, getting more ABs than usual, and is fully healthier than in recent years. Griff writes:

"They don't need to be worried about me," Thomas said. "They have other things to be worried about than me. I've been down this road many, many times before. I've had slow springs. I know exactly what's wrong and I'm speeding up everything right now. I'm being a little bit overly aggressive and not getting enough balls in the sweet spot."

As if a reminder is necessary... spring training is a time of experimentation as much as it is one of preparation. Guys are tinkering with their swings, trying out new pitches, and so on. Spring stats are pretty meaningless as a result. Moving along.

Mike Rutsey of the Sun is the worst kind of hack sports journalist and I only mention his name to let you all know that I'm ignoring anything from him in the future. He first drew our attention a week ago when his lede for a piece was: "Brandon League has the best set of teeth this side of Silken Laumann." What that little attempt at humour had to do with baseball I don't know. Purple prose of the flamboyant sort runs throughout his work.

Today Rutsey writes that Shannon Stewart has the edge on Reed Johnson in the battle for a spot in left field as Matt Stair's caddy. Ok. It's the Sun, so it's not like we should be expecting anything intelligent, but this throw away line is positively Griffin-esque:

Then there is Ricciardi's never-ending lust for offence and Stewart is a career .298 hitter with more pop. His defence isn't as good as Johnson's, but defence has never been a major issue with the GM.

Is there something wrong with offence? Doesn't scoring more runs than the other team help win games? Stewart is indeed a career .298. The only problem is that he's 34 and hasn't exceeded his career norms since an injury-shortened 2004 campaign. If the club needs a right-handed hitting platoon partner for Matt Stairs, shouldn't recent splits against lefties be of greater relevance than overall career numbers? And JP doesn't care about defence? Are you serious? After acquiring Scott Rolen? Leaving Aaron Hill at second when he proved himself a gold glove-calibre defender there? Because he's given J-Mac's starting job to David Eckstein so we don't have the equivilant of a National League pitcherin the lineup? Really?

I bite my thumb at you, sir.

On a related note, Reed Johnson is still a Blue Jay.

ELSEWHERE:

* Anyone in Yankeedom expecting the right of primae noctis with CC Sabathia when he becomes a free agent at the end of this season is getting ahead of himself. The big lefty is non-plussed about the idea of playing in New York and really, who can blame him with the scoundrels and miscreants running roughshod through that organization?

* Ex-Jay Kevin Cash is the Bosox backup catcher this year after Doug "I catch knuckleballers" Mirabelli got cut. Cash has been a pretty miserable hitter as those of you who remember him know, so any long-term injury to Jason Varitek means the Beantowners are basically inserting a National League pitcher into their lineup. This of course brings us back to a pretty atrocious early season 2006 trade by Theo Epstein that sent Josh Bard, a good-hitting catcher, and Cla Meredith, a pretty solid young reliever, to the Padres for, hrrrrrm, Doug Mirabelli.

* The Cubs still believe they can pry Brian Roberts away from the O's before the end of camp. We thought Giants GM Brian Sabean was slow on the draw, but the McPhail/Angelos regime is absolutely glacial. Each veteran dump brings the O's closer to a 100-loss season. Earl Weaver would be spinning in his grave...

-- Johnny Was

Morning Roundup

SPIKE LEE: "Would you like to subscribe to my newsletter on the White Man's Evils?"

ECKSTEIN: "I feel asleep during Inside Man."

In one for the history books, the Yankees apparently threw a perfect game against the Jays yesterday that was called early on account of a lack of players. Not liking the weather, players and fans alike gave up the ghost on this one around the fifth inning. Just keep that in mind before you put too much stock in spring numbers, sports fans.

JP will not go about saying this player has that role locked up, it's just alien to his DNA. When asked the seemingly innocuous question of whether Accardo fills the set-up role for us when BJ's healthy, Gibby said yes and JP said "woah woah woah." That's fine by me, not letting anyone get complacent seems like a pretty good idea. To think that resident leper Jason Frasor is going to take high leverage innings away from Accardo strains belief, but do what you have to do. Blair also reiterates that money is top of the list when it comes to bench construction, which means Stewart should have a definite edge over Sparky when it comes to our little LF duel.

Wilner seems to think Gibby could slot Rios in as our number two in the lineup.

The Yankees are an old creaky bunch that played bad baseball for about 3/4 of last season before going on a Zeus Hercules end run to clinch the Wild Card. Just how vulnerable are they this year? If you've got a very short attention span, Ken Fidlin answers that question for you in about 400 words. I'll have a look at some numbers and revisit this over the next few days.

ELSEWHERE:

Add Jonathan Paplebon to the list of rising stars disgrunted by their pre-arbitration salaries. Guys, you get millions for signing your first contract, before even playing a single pro game, and you'll become millionaires when you hit your arbitration years. The bigger question for Hamels, Fielder and Paps is whether their first free agent contracts will have eight or nine digits. As a thousandaire, I think I know a bit about money.

Are the O's going to trade Brian Roberts or what? They're apparently weighing a package from the Cubs that would likely include a shortstop who can't hit and a pitcher who can't throw strikes. Ok, ok, I'm being a bit facetious. If you're going to blow a team up, you might as well blow the whole damn thing up and trade everything you've got that isn't part of the future.

It might have been funny when David Spade did it in Black Sheep, but this is just discomforting. I mean, it's a plausible excuse, right? How many times have you got out of the shower in your hotel room, had your towel fall off, tripped, and landed completely naked in front of the window over-looking the pool with your dick in your hand?

-- Johnny Was