The Other Deuce Drops

With all the pointless fury of an incensed drunken hobo screaming at the bus shelter at the corner of Richmond and Dundas, Bob Elliot let'er fly today with what I hope is the final salvo of the JP-Scott Richmond-Team Canada affair. I expected this diatribe immediately after the loss to Japan that ended Canada's medal hopes, but I suppose that hacks work on their own timelines.

Now, I do appreciate Elliot's attempt at a Trailer Park Boys reference:

Only arrogance or a failure to understand this country, or both, would allow management to not know they were walking into a sandstorm, or whatever it is Mr. Lahey and Randy say every 10 minutes on the Trailer Park Boys.

but it's the "winds of shit" that he meant to write. I'd expect better from the second drunkest denizen of Sunnyvale Trailor Park. Elliot later overestimated the population of Canada by 3 million, though in his defense I haven't read the paper today and it is entirely possible that we annexed Lithuania in the middle of the night.

As expected, the second Moron Brother who marches lockstep with Elliot ripped into JP again over Richmond in his mailbag today:

As for Richmond and his hosing by Ricciardi, it’s a disgrace. He was called up on the eve of the Canadian team’s trip to Asia. He was promised this wasn’t just for one start – and they were right, it was for three. For those that said Richmond’s major-league experience would be far preferable to going to Beijing and pitching against amateurs, that’s total crap. Richmond watching his Canadian teammates flame out from a motel room in Syracuse rather than the Olympic Village surely ruined his major-league experience. Richmond’s presence with the Jays instead of at the front end of Canada’s Olympic rotation meant that not only was the starting pitching weaker, but the trickle-up effect made the bullpen weaker as well. Anyway, it helped the U.S. gain a spot in the medal round. “O Canada. Our home and naïve land.”

As someone who did watch all of Canada's Olympic baseball games I conceed that they would've been a better team with Richmond and might have actually beat Cuba or the United States with him on the hill in place of the roster filler they threw out there. Yet they still would've been a long shot hopeful for a bronze at best and really, does that matter? Does, say, finishing ahead of Spain but behind Britain in the final medal tally really mean one flying fuck to anyone in this country?

So far as baseball is concerned, the Olympics are not a best on best showcase and never have been. The real prize--for those who care about international baseball, and not everyone does--is winning the mlb-sanctioned World Baseball Classic that actually does showcase the best players in the sport. The most talented young members of Team Canada (Nick Weglarz and Mike Saunders) will get another kick at the can in more stylish uniforms. Rest assured that JP will not hold Richmond back then for the sake of a few spring training innings, but by that point the talent level on Team Canada might be such that he's not needed. Wrap your heads around that, fellas.

Elliot and Griffin have got their knickers in a twist over a second-rate international tournament that wasn't even televised in Canada. We get it, the game has changed much since the wonder years of the 1980s and early '90s and you don't like it, so you shit all over someone who you've chosen to associate with Change . JP is, in my opinion, a relatively easy mark for someone who wants to make a coherent, rational critique of his GM-ing, but taking major offense to the Richmond affair just reflects the bitterness of two old men whose tenures as "local baseball experts" are drawing to a close.

Elliot and Griffin need to get over it and get over themselves. They're supposed to be elder statesmen in the Jays media, but they sure don't carry themselves as such.

Dismissed.

***

Of note, sort of:

The Oracle has noted that JP will make a hard push for Brewers ace Ben Sheets in the offseason numerous times on JaysTalk and on the blerg, but Jordan Bastian at mlb.com counters that "If Burnett does opt out, Ricciardi said that Toronto doesn't intend on replacing the pitcher through free agency."

Which is it?

-- Johnny Was

Guess who's back?

According to bluejays.com, Litsch is back in the Jays starting rotation, Richmond is in the pen, and Parrish was optioned to AAA.

The move to call up Richmond was a mistake from the start, and this series of moves still doesn't fix that mistake. As I pointed out earlier, there were (and are) several options that could have been used to let Richmond play in the Olympics, and at the same time made the Jays a better team. The Jays could have used any of Brian Wolfe, Davis Romero, or even Jesse Litsch, instead of calling up Richmond.

Now Litsch is back in the rotation. I don't like him that much going forwards, but a 4.46 ERA from a 5th starter is not that bad. He wasn't pitching well, but considering his replacement, as well as the other options available, he really didn't deserve a demotion.

So at least he's back with the Jays now. Course, it might be worth looking into his service time, to see if keeping him down for a few weeks may have changed his arbitration/free agency years, but I doubt that's the reason. Hell, I doubt it was even affected much, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.

As for Richmond - he's not going to be used that much, if at all. He'll probably eat some innings when the team is out of it, but beyond that it's pretty obvious he isn't pitching any meaningful innings. I don't know why the team called him up, because he wasn't very good. It'll be interesting to see who gets used in a game first - Frasor or Richmond.

Parrish gets jerked around once again - he has a 109 ERA+, so he's been average at worst. He didn't deserve to get demoted, but he has to be the fall guy since the Jays can't demote Richmond without pissing off the Canadian Olympic team.

I guess I'm sort of happy Litsch is back, if only because Richmond's out of the rotation. But I don't know what inspired them to decide they wanted to see if Richmond could make it as a major leaguer. And in all honesty, would it have killed them to give him a spot start in Sept if they really wanted to see him pitch?

Twitchy.

Deadline Drama

Nothing to report Blue Jays-wise so far in the final hours before the deadline, so it's going to be a long, lonely 4000-calorie breakfast for Mr Gregg Zaun this a.m. as he sweats out what might be his last day in Toronto.

The Oracle aptly pointed out in his blog yesterday that those two consecutive losses to the Rays that but the Jays squarely back at .500 might be enough to induce JP to reconsider the untouchable label he's put on AJ Burnett. But, as you're no doubt aware, JP has yet to pull off a single major deadline in his entire time in the captain's chair, though he's an expert at doing the minor ones that clear off superfluous veterans to cut costs. I'm figuring nothing big gets done, though Eckstein should get moved--because there's more cash saved there than by dumping Zaun and Eck is most clearly redundant--if anyone is willing to take him.

The Yankees pulled off the big deal of the day yesterday afternoon by acquiring Pudge Rodriguez from the Tigers to fill the hole vacated by Jorge Posada, who's off for season-ending surgery, for nothing more than the extremely-tight-pants-wearing reliever Kyle Farnsworth. Farnsworth is a shit-baller plain and simple whatever his recent numbers might tell you, so the Yankees really gave up nothing of long-term value.

Pudge hates walking more than the terrorists hate our freedom, but he's still a better than average hitting catcher and brings a reputation as a strong (if no longer elite) defender. And a bonus did-you-know: should he stay healthy and average about 140 hits over each of the next 3 seasons, Pudge will be the first catcher to record 3000 hits. He's a slam dunk Hall of Famer, fellas.

I'm highly skeptical that this last-minute three-way deal that would send Jason Bay to the Bosox, Manny Ramirez to the Marlins and a bunch of prospects to the Pirates gets done. It's been left too late in the day and all parties are astute bargainers with no real need to get something wrapped up quickly/sloppily or suffer the consequences. It would be a real gut shot seeing one of my favourite players in the game patrolling left field at Fenway, but should something happen here at least we know that Manny is assuredly a free agent at the end of the year as that $20 million club option gets ripped up by the cheapo Marlins. Lemons into lemonade...

One of the more curious acquisitions was the Chisox trade for Ken Griffey Jr. that's being finalized as we speak. Paul Konerko has been hurt or playing hurt and bringing Griffey on board means Nick Swisher can play first with Jr. taking over in centre, but the Chisox have the 4th best offense in the AL and probably could've made due with a cheaper glove man who can play proper defense. And it's not like Griffey's been much with stick this year either despite playing in one of the best hitter's park in the game. Go figure.

Jeff Blair is a bit grumpy about the timing of the Jays call-up of Canucker Scott Richmond, which presumably dashes Canada's hopes of baseball gold (ok, more likely a long shot run at bronze) at the Olympics.

Olympic baseball? I can't recall ever having found a game on television in past years; do Asian baseball countries like Japan and South Korea even release their best players for the tournament? While it would be thrilling to pitch in front of a few hundred confused Chinamen in Beijing later next month, baseball has never had a proper international "best on best" tournament that pretty much every other sport on earth does. The World Baseball Classic has attempted to fill that void, but has made too many compromises to really satisfy the hunger of fans who know how a World Cup is really supposed to work. That's not JP's fault and it's got nothing to do with Scott Richmond, so there's no need to get your panties in a bunch.

And seriously, if you're so myopic that you think anything to do with the Canadian contingent is one of the more intriguing story lines of an Olympics set in the heart of a heinous communist dictatorship engaged in cultural genocide against its long-suffering Tibetan and Uigher populations, then I really don't know what to say to you. No, I'd say something really biting and witty, like donate your loonie to RBC to support Canada's Olympic athletes and feel good about your contribution to international goodwill and harmony, you're part of the solution!

Sorry to get a bit off topic there... check back in later this afternoon for a recap of the day's (in)action.

-- Johnny Was