Beating a Dead Horse with Very Little Enthusiasm

So I did something today that I wasn't looking forward to all weekend, I read this article on BlueJays.com about Gose. It wasn't as bad as I thought and worse than I thought all at the same time. All it says of course is Gose is somebody atos really wanted, and that he's not doing so great in High-A but they have high hopes and Wallace is really great but that's the price you have to pay. I then went and read this blog entry by Wilner on the trade and got the same feeling. Add that to all the entries at djf and tao of stieb, including this one about the lack of action and at the trade deadline and well....

Look it's all great to feel good about the future, but you know whats always true about the future, it's coming. So what are you planning to do about it? Because I see some nice talk about how all this is going to come together some day, but nobody at all is putting any how or when to it. It's all beginning to sound very Underpants Gnomelike to me. Draft Picks->?->Contention!!!

Something I keep seeing and hearing coming up in defense of the Gose trade is that all the scouts and advisors agreed that he was just super, so that makes it ok. What I don't hear or see anywhere, and maybe I'm just missing it, is that any of the scouts and advisors thought it was a great idea to trade Wallace for Gose right now, and that really is the issue isn't it?

And here's the "little enthusiasm" part of the title. I really don't have it for going on an on about these things, and I'm open to the fact that I might easily be wrong about this. Maybe atos is some kind of genius who can build a contender in the next 2 seasons while still trading away some of the parts to do it for players who may not be ready for 4 or 5. It just seems to me that if you want to make a team competitive in the near term, you should mostly ignore the long term and focus all your efforts on that near term. Part of doing that is actually putting parts of that plan to the test, making decisions on them, and adjusting accordingly. Yes the whole idea of this blog is that I don't pay attention to the media, but if It is important to this team to say that they have some kind of timetable they are working on, you'd think I would find it when i went looking for it.

Or to put it another way, atos seemed to keep saying that he had to act on Gose now because in the future he would not be able to get him, because he would be too expensive. I think this is a little bit ridiculous and proves too much. After all if Wallace is as good as you keep saying, maybe you could have just traded him 2 years from now straight up for Gose anyways once he actually starts to prove it.

Trade Deadline Roundup

I wanted to get to this earlier but given the long weekend and the no internet, drinking, boating, camp fires, playing with the kids and other various things that distracted my attention, I just couldn't. Also there was the fact that they JUST DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!

Well they did do one thing and that thing was freaking unbelievable. How exactly it makes sense to trade a player that is knocking down the door to play right now for a player that may not play for 4 years mystifies me. I understand that atos has wanted this guy forever and when he saw his chance he felt he just had to take it, but maybe he needs to learn some impulse control.

Hard on the heels of this mystery, we get the news that none of Overbay, Downs, Gregg, Frasor, Buck or Bautista could be moved for something acceptable. Look I am convinced on Bautista, since next year he's under control and even if he falls all the way back to pre-2010 levels, he's still an acceptable 3B and a plus utility player, just probably very expensive. Downs has a pretty good chance at being type A, though a lot of things have to fall into place, and the payoff isn't for years, so maybe it's worth the gamble, though I say no. Everybody else on the list, they should be gone for whatever they can get. The team cannot by hurt by moving any of them, and players like Arencibia, need to be here, Snider and Lind don't need Overbay in the player rotation taking away at bats and playing time at 1B, and how many pitchers from the minor leagues could see some innings over august if these relievers weren't here. I for one would like to see more Purcey.

Very disappointing. Maybe the wallet is going to open over the next 2 seasons and there will be some FA signings to make up for this loss of opportunity to improve the team for 2012 contention. But there is no reason this team can't compete then, and this was a golden opportunity to move in that direction. Right now it looks like the plan is to acquire as many prospects as draft picks as possible and look really tough and then compete - who the hell knows when???

Yankees up next to start the august beat down, but don't worry it will all be good because Draft Picks!!!

Thinking about the Trade Deadline

Well the non-waiver deadline again fast approaches, and what to make of it? The Jays are in the lucky position to have at least 5 useful players (Buck, Overbay, Downs, Frasor, Encarnacion and Gregg) that they really have no interest in keeping that could bring varying degrees of something useful back. They also have 1 thing that could bring something really good back (Bautistsa), that it's a toss up as to whether they want to bring back, and a bunch of things (everybody else in the bullpen, a starter if the price is right, Wells?)  that could be traded as well. There is every possibility (hope? Wallace and Arencibia and Snyder oh my!) this could be a very different looking team by the time the deadline comes and goes.

From that first group I would say to atos, trade them for whatever you think the best deal is, with the only potential keep to think twice about being Encarnacion. The haul already seems to be pretty good from the Gonzalez + parts for Escobar + Part trade, so I don't think there is any reason to not roll the dice a little, just squeeze whoever for everything you can get right up to the last minute. Encarnacion is a little more tricky, as you probably have to eat salary to trade him, and he still may develop into something, and is (I believe) still under control for some? years.

The really tricky guy here is Bautista. I think the answer here is trade him if somebody offers you a good everyday player, or a good starting pitcher or closer (though those things are highly unlikely), or the mother lode of prospects (what idiot would do that?). I have no faith at all that Bautista can repeat this year again, but what I do have faith in is that he can be a 750-800 OPS 3rd Baseman who hits 7-8th in the lineup and plays stellar defence and chips in 15-25hr. Any team that is going to contend needs a player that like, and finding one to play 3rd is not that easy. Unless you can trade him for a guy who's going to take over 2nd and put Hill at 3B, or for a crazy haul of stupidity, then I don't see the benefit of a trade.

The really interesting thing to see is if atos can do something completely out of left field, like swoop in and snatch a Haren from a trade between a contender and dumper. That would be pretty cool, and something that I just don't understand why it doesn't happen more often at the trade deadline.

In conclusion, what I see is a lot of parts coming back, and those parts being packaged up with some other stuff that's already here over the winter, for the couple of parts that really need to be added for the future. With everything else hopefully being depth. I really doubt any kind of "franchise" player is coming back in these deals. Really that's good, but one can dream.

Catching up

Been a little bit rough in the recovery department the last couple of days so I'm just catching up on things. It looks like nothing has happened so we are all even.

First thing first, Bastian has now written a number of articles without having to start by reminding us that Roy Halladay is no longer a Jay. Yay to that.

I see that Lyle Overbay has finally gotten the gist of this "baseball is a business" thing. Good for Lyle. I really hope he has a monster of a season, gets traded for some good stuff, and can sign another contract somewhere. He really got robbed with the hand injury.

Vernon wants to take on more of a leadership role, or just rambled on about it in an interview about the only polite topic of discussion you can really have with him that doesn't involve "hope your wrist feels better". I wonder who's going to be "gritty" on this team now that we have the leadership issue covered for the time being.

Brandon Morrow is looking forward to a season where he doesn't have to guess whether it's starter or bullpen. Nobody wants to say he's guaranteed the job but you have to believe If he doesn't go out to the mound and forget to throw it to the catcher he's in. Especially since none of the guys who came back in the Halladay deal seem likely to be starting the season above AAA. I'm actually pretty excited about Morrow, I'll have to post something about that later.

There's an article about atos spending a week in the DR at the new digs and talking in circles about drafts and international players and cubans oh my! I really like the parts about the "high risk/high reward" stuff. Dude they are all high risk/high reward, unless you get guys who you know are lousy and won't ever amount to anything. Anyways I do like that they say they are going to be looking at everybody, sounds good, but it will be better when we start seeing some results. Besides he's got to do something with the 1,255 scouts the Jays now have. Funny thing is I thought I remembered at least 1 if not 2 of these being announced already, but i'm not going back to look.

Even the pretend games cannot start soon enough.

Sometimes it's not OK to just be looking

I don't want to be demeaning, because atos is pretty much doing exactly what I said he should, and at least representing that he's doing everything he can, but the "looking" at Eric Gagne thing is a little silly. I'm all over Ben Sheets, but this is giving up the game. What exactly are you going to do with him even if he's back to 2004 form? You aren't going to sign him for more than a year, and even if he somehow finds a way to prove that he's awesome again on your lousy 2010 team, your only chance to get any value for the endeavor is to trade him. While he's trying to prove his worth he's probably eating up innings for future players who will actually help you post 2010. As crowded as the potential starting picture looks, the bullpen might actually be worse (and if 3 or 4 of the starters can actually find a way to be decent early in the season, nothing is going to get accomplished). How do you see what all those guys can do if you're trying to get Gagne every opportunity he's going to want. Then against all that you have to add in the chance for some pretty big media disasters.

Hey if you want to pay Ben Sheets a lot of money to suck this season, I can see him still helping out 3 or 4 years from now. Even if Eric Gagne pays you money to pitch and is great, I can't see how it helps.

Other than that I'm fine with the long list of minor league signings/invitees. Who cares but them and their families who want them to be employed in the their doomed search for a mlb career. I mean if your 30 year old kid was determined to pursue their PhD in Medieval Theatre are you going to tell me you wouldn't want them to have that Barrista job at Starbucks so you didn't have to foot the whole bill. Minor League ball is a lot more lucrative than that. And I can try and dream big for Shawn Hill, he's from my hometown.