Handicapping AL East Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos chooses status quo: Griffin

NASHVILLE-It's still early in the winter meetings, early in December and, yes, relatively early in the off-season, but even at this early stage, how does the always competitive AL East stack up for 2013? How many teams can challenge 90 wins?

The Jays have made the most startling impact following their 12-man deal with the Marlins. The Red Sox are starting to spend and re-build after their mid-summer salary dump to the Dodgers. The Yankees are crumbling with the news of Alex Rodriguez being out at least until June. The Rays are deep in pitching. The O's wnt to the post-season but repeating is tough. So has all that changed the early view of the balance of power?

“I would say the way the (standings) ended up last year,” Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos said when asked to handicap the AL East. “You have to go that way.

“I don't like to get caught up in what people do in the winter. People talk about Anaheim last year, Boston two years ago. I was here when they signed (Carl) Crawford and (Adrian) Gonzalez. We were all saying wow, nobody's going to win a game again. To me you show respect to the teams that already won. Till we start playing games and guys stay healthy and have good seasons, we're the fourth best team in my opinion because the other three teams haven't gotten worse.”

To use a horse-racing analogy, the Jays are the early speed, the Red Sox have positioned themselves well off the pace as a late closer. The Rays and O's are lurking and the Yankees stumbled out of the gate.

But the Red Sox are the team to watch. Last season their opening day payroll stood at $175.2 million As of Tuesday morning, the Sox had $79.475 million in guaranteed contracts to nine players. They have much money left to spend, even if their intent is not to match last year's bloated payroll. They have added first-baseman/catcher Mike Napoli, outfielder Jonny Gomes and catcher David Ross. They re-signed DH David Ortiz in the days after announcing John Farrell as manager. They need more.

The Yankees are going to have to also spend their way out of their current funk. The news on Monday that their all-contract third baseman, A-Rod, will be undergoing left hip surgery and will miss at least half the 2013 season has stunned them. It showed their age, their fragility and they're not wearing it well.

The only positive with the A-Rod news is that it explains their star player's dismal post-season performance this year. But why did it take this long to make this decision? Derek Jeter will miss the start of the season. Russell Martin is gone. Nick Swisher and Rafael Soriano are on the way out. They re-signed to one year deals Hiroki Kuroda and Mariano Rivera. Yes, GM Brian Cashman has much work left to do.

“I still think it's the toughest division in baseball,” Jays manager John Gibbons said. “That first go-round (as manager in 2004-08) was tough. You were looking up at Boston and New York all the time. Tampa was on the verge of really coming into their own. You could see some young players -- in Baltimore at that time they scored runs so on the nights they pitched they were very tough.

“Boston had a down year last year, but that's not going to last. And Baltimore gets into the postseason (in 2012). Tampa is right there. So it's a tough grind, tough division to play in, but that's why we feel with the trades we made and signing of (Melky) Cabrera gives us a shot. But you've got to go out and do it, but it gives us a lot of excitement.”

The Red Sox are definitely not done dealing this winter. They have a surplus of catchers, led by Jarrod Saltalamacchia who is named in rumours with the White Sox. They have been mentioned on the periphery of the Josh Hamilton speculation. They could even deal an established starting pitcher to the Royals for hot-shot rookie prospect Wil Myers. But that talk has slowed down here in Nashville.

The Yankees will not sit still either. They have an albatross-ian five-year commitment to A-Rod, but they always need to win now and will reach out for a third-base replacement in the short term, whether it;'s Eric Chavez, a free agent who played for them last year or someone else like Yunel Escobar from the Marlins.

“It doesn't really change what we do,” Anthpoulos said of the New York baseball follies. “The Yankees are great. They're good every year. They continue to be good every single year. (Yankees GM) Brian Cashman does an unbelievable job of continuing to sign players to short term contracts that produce, so it doesn't change anything for us.”

Despite what Anthopoulos and Gibbons choose to maintain about the fierce competition in the AL East, the Jays have not been in a position like this of being division favourites since '94, coming off the back-to-back World Series years. There is an added pressure to respond to roster moves by others. The manager can feel it.

“There's always pressure, no doubt about it, because a lot is expected in the baseball world and the country of Canada and Toronto specifically there,” Gibbons said. “But yeah, that's a good thing. That means you've got a good team. But there's always pressure in this business to perform.”

If the season was to begin tomorrow, my projected AL East Division standings would be:

1-Jays; 2-Rays; 3-Yankees; 4-Red Sox; 5-O's. The meetings continue through Thursday. But, as we have said, it's early.

 

 

Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos arrives at winter meetings: Griffin

NASHVILLE-The concept of the Baseball Winter Meetings started out as an afterthought, an add-on to the minor-league annual sessions in 1962.

Why not have all the major-league general managers in the middle of the off-season gather together for a week and make some news, make some trades to keep the game in the spotlight and the fanbase interested? Choose a warm weather climate, make some trades, have a few drinks at the lobby bar, make some more trades, abide by some artifical trade deadlines -- ususally it was for a long time midnight on the Friday -- then head home for the Holidays.

Usually the winter meetings were hosted by a minor-league city, but Dallas seems to be in the regular rotation now and Anaheim and even Toronto have played host to the swapfest. The initial concept was good, but somewhere along the line the concept was hijacked.

My first meetings of the 33 that I have attended was as a public relations person working for the Expos in Montreal. The meetings were in Orlando, FL, in 1978. At that debut session, I handled my first trade, my first winter meetings press release. It was December 7 and I was planning on going to Disney World when the call came in from club president John McHale. The Expos had obtained Bill Lee from the Red Sox for infielder Stan Papi. Make the announcement. That taught me that you don't ever make dinner plans when you're attending the winter meetings.

The hijacking of the trade concept of the winter meetings was gradual. It started with free agency becoming a key to building a winner as opposed to trades. The big player agents like Scott Boras and other figured out early on that with every GM being in the same hotel for a week, it made it a lot easier to sell your clients to a captive audience, especially one looking to make moves to impress the fans.

It reached the point in the early '90s where pulling the trigger on trades was waiting until after the big free agents signed their contracts. The agents would be staging their own press conferences in the lobby and stealing all the headlines meant for the baseball executives. Commissioner Bud Selig even cancelled the MLB portion of the meetings in 1993. The agents were part of it, but the pending strike in '94 was another. Also, tragedy struck at the '92 meetings in Louisville when Marlins' president Carl Barger had a massive heart attack in the hotel lobby and died. The meetings were also not held in '94.

Nevertheless, the meetings still hold tremendous appeal for fans. This year it's all about free agents Josh Hamilton, Zack Greinke, Michael Bourn and others and trades involving Diamondbacks outfielder Justin Upton, Mets' Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey and Rangers' shortstop Elvis Andrus with other moves lurking.

The big news of the morning of the first day was that Hamilton was at the Opryland Hotel in person, likely to meet with prospective employers face to face and convince them that he's not a risk for 7-10 years and $25 million per season and that Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez is scheduled to have a procedure to repair his damaged hip.

Meanwhile, Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos was arriving on Monday morning for his fourth winter meetings ready to make more moves and pssibly add more salary. Last December in Dallas, he obtained backup catcher Jeff Mathis for lefthander Brad Mills and traded righthander Nestor Molina for closer Sergio Santos. And so it begins.    

 

 

 

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons names five coaches to staff: Griffin

The recently appointed Blue Jays manager John Gibbons wisely waited until after U.S. Thanksgiving weekend to announce his revamped staff for the 2013 season. 

Acting quickly on Monday to fill out the Jays' coaching roster, there will be three returnees from former manager John Farrell's staff, Pete Walker, Luis Rivera and Dwayne Murphy, but all will come back in revised roles. In addition, Gibbons has added two newcomers, DeMarlo Hale (bench coach) and Chad Mottola (hitting coach).  

The two most significant coaching changes arrive with Walker taking over from Bruce Walton as pitching coach and Mottola being named to replace Murphy with the hitters. Murphy has stepped away from the hitting instructor role to take over from Torey Lovullo at first base, working with the outfielders. Rivera will be taking over from Brian Butterfield at third and defensively with the infielders, two important roles. 

Hale takes over from Don Wakamatsu, who had been Farrell's bench coach.

Walker, 43, is replacing Walton, who has not been invited back after a difficult year for the staff. The Jays pitching proved a major disappointment, beset as it was by injuries and lack of strike-zone command in the wake of high expectations. It may not have been Walton's fault, in fact it wasn't, but a change always seemed likely.

The Jays had entered the 2012 season believing the pitching had the necessary depth, especially in the starting rotation, but injuries to Dustin McGowan, Kyle Drabek, Brandon Morrow and Drew Hutchison, plus an inexplicable season-long crisis of confidence by ace Ricky Romero and the lack of expected development by top prospects Deck McGuire, Joel Carreno and Chad Jenkins, combined to throw the staff into disarray. Thus the quick Jays' trade for veteran starting help with the Marlins, in Mark Buerhrle and Josh Johnson.    

The Jays head-scratching staff in 2012 finished the season 11th in team ERA, 12th in WHIP and 13th in opponent OPS, ahead of only the Twins. It was a stunning development, a step back considering that two sharp pitching minds were together in the dugout, Farrell, a former respected pitching coach with the Red Sox and Walton, who had more success a year earlier in '11 with basically this same group and Farrell in his first season. 

In the second half of the season, the normally outgoing Walton at times appeared stunned by the failure of his staff to respond to any and all fixes, either mental or mechanical. In truth, there may have been too many voices trying to correct the pitching issues, with Farrell and Walton both having strong opinions on what may have been causing the struggles.

The bewildered staff ace, Romero is an example of the difficulties that arise when a slumping pitcher is being pulled from two sides. Walton seemed to be working to try and reenforce and bolster the mental side of Romero's game, while Farrell, intentionally or not, was challenging his ace lefthander to be tougher. Romero visibly sagged.

Walker is no stranger to the Jays' pitching staff. He was bullpen coach in 2012, following a season as the pitching coach at Double-A New Hampshire in 2011. Walker also pitched for the Jays as a swingman, with Gibbons as first his bullpen coach then manager in 2005-06.

Mottola, 41, has been given much credit for fixing the psyches and the swings of many of the players that have been demoted to Triple-A the past two years. Of course part of that was the natural confidence in facing the lower quality of pitching in the Pacific Coast League. Nevertheless, it was thought that even if Murphy returned as hitting coach for 2013, that Mottola could still be added to the major-league staff as an associate hitting coach because of his success at Las Vegas.

Mottola has worked with most of the homegrown hitters as a minor league coach and when Murphy left spring training this year for family reasons in February, Mottola stayed in camp and filled the hitting coach's role. He joined the major-league staff in September under the MLB rule that allows one additional coach in uniform for the final month.  

Murphy, 57, is entering his sixth season on the Jays' coaching staff. He was originally hired as first base coach, but when Cito Gaston managed his final season in 2010, Murphy replaced Gene Tenace as hitting coach and stayed on with the offence for the past two seasons under Farrell.

Clearly, the most difficult aspect for Murphy would have been transitioning from Gaston's aggressive "go to the plate with a plan and look for the first good pitch to hit then drive it" philosophy, to Farrell's patient "work your at-bats and let's build up the starter's pitch count to get to middle relief" philosophy. Different messages, same teacher. Tough for students. Tough for coach.

Rivera, 48, is an important cog to the new coaching staff, not only because he takes over from the local legend, Brian Butterfield at third base, but because of the heavy Spanish-speaking makeup of the clubhouse demographic in 2013. Consider that the top four of the Jays' batting order at the moment stands to be Dominican-born in Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. Communication is a key.

Rivera, a Puerto Rican former major-league shortstop, has coached first base in the majors with the Indians. He also managed the 2010 AA-New Hampshire Fisher Cats and was added to Farrell's staff in 2011 as a coaching assistant, because they were over the allowable limit of game coaches in uniform. He served as an important liaison in the clubhouse with Latino players like Henderson Alvarez, Yunel Escobar, Adeiny Hechavarria and others.

Hale, 51, was strongly considered in a solid interview for the managerial post, the job eventually given to Farrell in 2011. Hale was, with Farrell, also on manager Terry Francona's Red Sox staff at the time as his bench coach. In 2012, Hale moved on to Baltimore wityh Buck Showalter and was poised to return to the O's unless he got the Jays' managerial role, considered as he was in another solid interview, again this fall.

But Gibbons was surprisingly given the managerial post, coming from well off the pace in the handicapping of the derby. Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos followed up by asking Hale if he would still come to Toronto and be the bench coach. Recall that when Gibbons had flown in to discuss a job with the GM, he believed it was to be as Jays' bench coach for someone in his first managerial experience -- like maybe Hale. That role has been reversed.

As for the bullpen coach, a position vacated by Walker, it seems likely that it will be filled internally, perhaps waiting for a decision from someone like Pat Hentgen who had that role before Walker but opted out after one season, preferring to remain with the organization in a job that allowed for more family time with his wife and daughters.

 

 

 

 

Experienced MLB pool for Blue Jays open manager position runs 54 deep

There is a certain train of thought that believes the Blue Jays, with the recent addition of competitive talent that has seemed to make them an instant contender, this line of thinking believes that perhaps GM Alex Anthopoulos should unmistakably change direction in his search for a manager and be certain to hire someone with previous MLB experience.

For those that are interested, whether you agree with this thinking or not, following is a list of the 54 baseball men with major-league managerial experience that do not have their own team at the moment. The list includes just those skippers that have managed one full season or more in the dugout, dating back 13 years to include the 2000 season.

The arbitrary cutoff year for this list seems to make sense since anyone that managed in the back in the 20th century for his last time may have already lost touch with today's players and game. Managers are listed alphabetically by team that they managed.

1-Bob Brenly, D'backs; 2-Bobby Cox, Braves; 3-Mike Hargrove, O's-M's; 4-Lee Mazzilli, O's; 4-Sam Perlozzo, O's; 6-Dave Trembley, O's.

7-Jimy Williams, Bosox-Astros; 8-Grady Little, Bosox-Dodgers; 9-Bobby Valentine, Bosox-Mets; 10-Don Baylor, Cubs; 11-Lou Piniella, Cubs-M's-Rays; 12-Mike Quade, Cubs.

13-Jerry Manuel, Chisox-Mets; 14-Ozzie Guillen, Chisox-Marlins; 15-Jack McKeon, Reds-Marlins; 16-Bob Boone, Reds; 17-Dave Miley, Reds; 18-Jerry Narron, Reds-Rangers. 

19-Manny Acta, Indians-Nats; 20-Buddy Bell, Rox-Royals; 21-Jim Tracy, Rox-Dodgers-Pirates; 22-Phil Garner, Tigers-Astros; 23-Alan Trammell, Tigers; 24-Larry Dierker, Astros.

25-Cecil Cooper, Astros; 26-Brad Mills, Astros; 27-Tony Muser, Royals; 28-Tony Pena, Royals; 29-Trey Hillman, Royals; 30-Joe Torre, Dodgers-Yanks. 

31-John Boles, Marlins; 32-Jeff Torborg, Marlins; 33-Davey Lopes, Brewers; 34-Ken Macha, Brewers-A's; 35-Tom Kelly, Twins; 36-Art Howe, Mets-A's.

37-Willie Randolph, Mets; 38-Bob Geren, A's; 39-Larry Bowa, Phils; 40-Gene Lamont, Pirates; 41-Lloyd McClendon, Pirates; 42-John Russell, Pirates.

43-Felipe Alou, Giants, Expos; 44-Don Wakamatsu, M's; 45-Tony LaRussa, Cards; 46-Larry Rothschild, Rays; 47-Hal McRae, A's; 48-Jim Fregosi, Jays.

49-Buck Martinez, Jays; 50-Carlos Tosca, Jays; 51-John Gibbons, Jays; 52-Cito Gaston, Jays; 53-Frank Robinson, Expos-Nats; 54-Jim Riggleman, Nats. 

 

Blue Jays payroll bump with Jose Reyes and others means no turning back: Griffin

The Blue Jays and GM Alex Anthopoulos have chosen an inexorable path for the franchise in 2013. It is to spend money, to spend money wisely, to try and compete with the big boys for a post-season berth in MLB. What is surprising, but was intuitively necessary for ownership, is that the attendance did not suggest this bump was coming. But what management understood was that a skeptical fan-base was ready to jump ship if Rogers showed it did not want to compete right now. There's no turning back.

The 12-player deal with the Miami Marlins, when completed, will bring them two starting pitchers, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle; a dynamic leadoff hitter and shortstop, Jose Reyes; a speedy utility man, Emilio Bonifacio, and an experienced backup catcher, John Buck. It has added a quick $41.25 million to payroll for 2013 and $163.75 in guaranteed salary for 10 seasons, plus an option. Those payroll numbers do not even include the arbitration-eligible Bonifacio, who earned $2.2 million with the Fish in 2012.

So, how did the Jays actually reach this point of ballsy enlightenment in their franchise history? Consider these major contributors to this monumental moment wherein Anthopoulos was able to pull the trigger on the highest volume deal in Jays history -- with a chance to have the biggest impact. Three major contributors to the decision are Jose Bautista, Miami manager Mike Redmond and Blue Jays fans.

1-Bautista. Ever since Anthopoulos took a chance against the advice of many and signed the 2010 major-league home run champ to a five-year deal, the GM has worked with his star right fielder to guarantee the franchise is moving forward, not tagged as rebuilding. Mr. Bats serves as Anthopoulos' GM conscience. If the fourth year GM wore an inspirational bracelet it might read W.W.J.D. In this case, “What would Jose Do.” Before Bautista it was Vernon Wells and when Alex started as GM it was Roy Halladay.

In this case, the Bautista influence on the Marlins deal doubles up, because after the injury to their star player, after the team limped home with 73 wins, after a leadership void in the clubhouse was exposed during Joey Bats absence, after the organization was embarrassed by Yunel Escobar's eye-black and John Farrell's dream of a dream job, the Jays realized that if they did not act right here, right now, that the next knock on the GM's office door might be Bautista asking out. Anthopoulos and Bautista had promised each other they would win during his tenure and the GM tries to be a man of his word.

2-Redmond. The first question that popped up when Redmond was given permission to interview with the Marlins was, “Why?” I remember three years ago, before Redmond officially retired as a player, Anthopoulos talked about “great young baseball minds” and in the course of that chat mentioned the former MLB backup catcher. When Redmond retired, he was quickly hired by the Jays to handle A-Lansing. Last year it became A-Dunedin. It seemed that logically Redmond would have been a candidate for the Jays. Instead he was gift-wrapped and handed over to the Marlins. Why?

The unintentional method to Anthopoulos' madness shines through with this trade. The Redmond influence was clear in the package of prospects the Marlins settled on in the deal. Outfielder Jake Marisnick played for Redmond at Dunedin. Justin Nicolino pitched for him late in 2011 and because the minor league clubs train together at the Mattick Complex, Redmond was able to see a lot of Nicolino, plus Adeiny Hechavarria and Anthony DeSclafani, who debuted at Lansing in '12. The deal would not have been made without the influence of Redmond, very familiar with the players coming back in return.

3-The Jays fans. The fan-base in the first four months of the regular season, through the trade deadline, showed Rogers careful ownership, president Paul Beeston and Anthopoulos what was possible with a winner. Don't underestimate the influence of the Jays' fans on this deal, a reflection of their support the first seven months of 2012.

The big factors were the return to the World Series roots in terms of logos and colours, which became a clear hit with fans. There were the smart offerings of savvy blog sites, the positive TV and radio numbers, the youthful enthusiasm clearly reflected on early season road trips, from Cleveland to Milwaukee to Boston, to Seattle, plus all of the visual and verbal feedback at the Rogers Centre. The clear enthusiasm showed Jays Nation was ready for a winner, that under the right circumstances the support was there.

Recall that Beeston had head-scratchingly said last December that when the fans came back the money would be spent. It made no sense. Well, until the injuries and the collapse in August and September, the fans were there if anyone had cared to notice. A wise man once said the closest emotions are love and hate. Jays' fans obviously hated the final two months, but at least they cared. Jays' management noticed and understood.

The following Jays' payroll numbers are compiled using the authoritative site, Cot's Baseball Contracts. This is the most expensive roster ever put together by the Jays, topping the $97,983,900 in 2008, the penultimate season of former GM J.P. Ricciardi. That year, the Jays were 86-76, but ownership was expecting more and forced Ricciardi to slash payroll to $80 million in '09. He did not react well and was gone by the final weekend.

How far ahead of any payroll in the 37-year history of the Blue Jays' franchise is this group? Already, the 2013 payroll for 15 players stands at $100.6 million in guaranteed salary. In terms of futures, the Jays are on the hook for $300.9 million in salary to those same 15 players. Here's the payroll in descending order for 2013. That first number is followed by guaranteed years and guaranteed money.

Bautista $14 million; 3 years-$43M. Johnson $13.75 million. Buehrle $11 million; 3 years-$48M. Reyes $10 million; 5 years-$96M. Edwin Encarnacion $8 million; 3 years-$29M. Brandon Morrow $8 million; 2 years-$17M. Ricky Romero $7.5 million; 3 years-$23.1M. Buck $6.5 million. Adam Lind $5.15 million; 1 year-$7.15M (option buyouts).

Casey Janssen $3.9 million. Maicer Izturis $3 million; 3 years-$10M. Darren Oliver $3 million. Sergio Santos $2.75 million; 2 years-$8.75M. Rajai Davis $2.5 million. Dustin McGowan $1.5 million; 2 years-$3.5M.

Add to that committed payroll, key arbitration-eligibles Bonifacio, Colby Rasmus and J.A. Happ who will by the time they settle combine for about $12 million and the 2013 payroll already stands at $112 million for 18 players, even with the knowledge that the injured McGowan and Santos will likely not open the season in the majors.

And it says here the Jays are not done dealing yet. Ideally, they could still use a strong bat in the outfield and have not settled on a starting second baseman.

Bonifacio is a Mike McCoy type, times two, while Izturis could be considered a younger, more complete Omar Vizquel or John McDonald. Maybe another MLB team covets one year of Josh Johnson so much so that they will make it worth Anthopoulos' while in MLB talent. But this Marlins deal is a great start and has energized the fanbase at a time when they were likely deciding how to spend any future entertainment dollars.

 

 

 

 

 

Farrell contradicts Jays' GM on timing of first Red Sox discussion: Griffin

The apparent misremembering of the chronology of events and discussions by Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos is what stood out most in the lovefest that doubled as a press conference. It was manager John Farrell's official introduction to the Boston media on Tuesday afternoon at Fenway Park. It's his dream job but when did he let his boss know? 

The question needs to be asked because on a Sunday afternoon conference call, Blue Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos had stated emphatically that the first time that Farrell's desire to move to the Red Sox was discussed between the two men was 2012 in the week leading up to the trade that sent the 50-year-old former pitching coach back to Boston. On Tuesday, Farrell recalled it somewhat differently.

Farrell insisted that before the Jays even sent out their infamous 2011 press release spelling out a new club policy for no lateral moves for non-playing personnel, he had had a conversation with Anthopoulos a year ago about Boston the gist of which is as follows:

"(Boston) is a place that I cut my teeth as a major league coach, experienced a lot of success, had a lot strong relationships that still exist . . . and I was very candid and honest with them. And, when it came up again this year on the heels of two very extensive days of conversations in a (Jays) year in review I expressed the same interest again. And, fortunately, all parties were able to work out this trade."

Anthopoulos responded to his mis-rememberance on Tuesday, finally supporting the Farrell memory that the two indeed had had that discussion following his first year as skipper.

“I think when that story broke last year (regarding Sox interest in Farrell)," it was dealt with, I think within three or four days," Anthopoulos said on Tuesday after Farrell's version of events came out in Boston. "After that it was done. Never talked about it again. Never talked about it at all during the season, off-season.

"One time (in 2011 is the only discussion). It was addressed, it was handled, it was put to bed and then obviously the story started up again late in the year when the Red Sox started to scuffle. Obviously John's name came up again. The story came up again, but even at that time there was no need to talk about it. We were going through our own issues with the club. The first time we talked about it, again, was after that Canadian Thanksgiving weekend is when we first started to talk about it again."

This is not exactly the way Anthopoulos originally remembered the chronology of their discussions. He had said on Sunday in response to a direct question and then reiterated it on a follow-up query, he said that the first time the Boston issue was actually discussed between the two men was last week. The young GM is correcting himself now but what does that say about other aspects of the Jays-Red Sox narrative.

So it turns out that the Jays were already well aware of how Farrell felt about Boston and the possibility of him returning to the Red Sox even as the 2012 season played itself out. 

The bottom line, the end result, the short term negative for the Jays as a major-league organization is that letting Farrell go to Boston is embarrassing and affirms the club's position as a second-rate power, not only in the AL East but especially in the AL East.

Of course, that's the small market way the Jays have been perceived by the American public, at least since the strike in '94 when they emerged looking and sounding markedly smaller than the proud franchise that had won back-to-back World Series in 1992-93.

The Jays have really never recovered in the ensuing 18 seasons and this sand that has been kicked in their face by the Red Sox is not going to help a current perception of the Jays as being the Houston Astros of the American League...oh wait, that's right, the Houston Astros are now the Houston Astros of the American League.

In any case, Farrell tried to be gracious regarding Toronto and his two years there as manager, but the conference with the 50-year-old Farrell sounded more like a debriefing following one of those Cold War prisoner-exchange things. Relief and gratitude to be free.

It makes no difference what Farrell said about the Jays on Tuesday, the perception of the Toronto organization being second-class had already been there before and will be there long after the slap-in-the-face Farrell choosing Boston issue recedes into the mists of time.

The only way the Jays and their fans can get a sense of satisfaction is by finding a solid managerial replacement for Farrell (and the bar has been set at a reachable height), by winning next year's season series against the Red Sox and by paying gleeful attention in the press and on fan blogs as all of New England is forced to watch Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and other Sox stars hurtle over-aggressively into useless outs at third base with the tying run at the plate, foul off safety squeezes one run down on the road or get thrown out across the diamond on a line drive to an infielder straying too far off the bag.

Good luck to John Farrell in Boston. We barely knew ye. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Sox set to announce John Farrell as manager: Griffin

Reports out of Boston on ESPN.com are that the Red Sox and Blue Jays have worked out a trade for Toronto's manager John Farrell and that a press conference will be held early next week. The player compensation will be announced later, but they are saying that Farrell has agreed to a multi-year contract extension to return to Fenway Park where he had been the pitching coach under Terry Francona from 2007-10.  

Farrell had one year remaining on a three-year Jays contract that he had signed in November 2010. In two seasons as the Blue Jays maager, Farrell had a combined record of 154-170. The Jays' win total has gone down every seson since Cito Gaston managed the team to 85 victories in 2010, which was GM Alex Anthopoulos's first year at the helm. Gaston was allowed to finish out his contract signed under J.P. Ricciardi, before Anthopoulos conducted an extensive search for a manager to lead the Jays into the future.

Other candidates under consideration two years ago were Sandy Alomar, Jr., DeMarlo Hale and third-base coach Brian Buttertfield. Also on the Jays' current coaching staff with managerial potential are Don Wakamatsu, Torey Lovullo and Luis Rivera. The Jays have high regard for AA-New Hampshire skipper Sal Fasano and A-Dunedin manager Mike Redmond. The Jays had asked to interview Tim Wallach but were denied.  

Recall that last October, when manager Terry Francona was fired by the Red Sox for apparently losing control of his clubhouse -- beer and chicken -- and allowing his team to collapse down the stretch and miss the playoffs, the Sox asked permission to talk to Farrell, who had just completed the first of three seasons with a record of 81-81.

It was at that time, president Paul Beeston and Anthopoulos amended the club rules that personnel could not leave the organization to accept a lateral move, which it would have been for Farrell. He had no comment at that time regarding the opportunity that had been lost to go back to Boston, only to say that he was "committed to the Blue Jays." It's a mantra he repeated this September, although never denying interest.

The Jays believed at the time, last Octiober, that Farrell had the clubhouse credibility, the charisma, the presence and the managerial ability to quickly lead the Jays into contention. Plus, the Red Sox were a division rival and the optics were not good.

When it became apparent in August and September 2012 that Sox' manager Bobby Valentine would not be invited back for the second year of his contract, sources within Red Sox management started quietly letting it be known that they would make another run at Farrell. This time, the Jays were more willing to listen and apparently the deal is done.

Farrell has a history with GM Ben Cherington and with others in the Red Sox front office, plus a friendship with Dustin Pedroia and other players that remains from when he was pitching coach. And it should be noted, on a personal basis, that even though he was with the Jays already in 2011, it was the Red Sox organization that helped set up the difficult radiation treatment for Farrell's son Luke last Fall in Boston that was thankfully successful and sees Luke back in school and pitching again at Northwestern University. 

Why were the Jays willing to listen this time and willing to let Farrell go, when a year ago it would have been regarded as bowing and scraping in the direction of Red Sox Nation?

First, if the Jays insisted on keeping Farrell and refused to let him go this time, they would have likely had to offer him a multi-year extension. He has not earned a multi-year extension and the feeling would have been that the new contract had been forced on them.

Second, the Jays' on-field discipline from Day 1 of the 2012 season was questionable at best. You had the incident with Brett Lawrie charging the home plate umpire and bouncing his helmet off a shin, with no apology -- even if it was just for the mere act of htting him with the helmet, even if it was unintentional. Throughout the first two months, as the Jays' star player Jose Bautista struggled, his flashes of anger towards umpires did not reflect well on the organization and the team. The Jays were getting a bad reputation. Farrell was in charge.

Just as the Farrell chatter to Boston was starting to heat up late in the season, more discipline issues unfolded. Shortstop Yunel Escobar played a full game with a homophobic slur handwritten in Spanish on his paste-on eyeblack. The manager and all the players denied they saw anything, but a sharp-eyed fan that traditionally takes photos from a couple of rows behind the dugout, went home and blew up a couple of shots, Tweeted about it and the rest is history. Farrell was unconvincing that nobody could have seen it.

The Latin players argued that the Escobar slur is common in their culture and was just supposed to be lighthearted and in jest. The shortstop was suspended for three games by the Jays, with the input of the players' union and MLB. Nevertheless, the Jays were embarrassed. The Jays don't like to be embarrassed.

Farrell later on in the final week was forced to call a team meeting after the retiring veteran Omar Vizquel called him out on his preparation, teaching and discipline with young players. Anthopoulos love affair with Farrell was undermined on many levels.

Then there were the mistakes in fundamentals, the baserunning gaffes, guys thrown out because of over-aggressiveness on the basepaths, at the wrong time and in the wrong game situations. There was Lawrie stealing home with Bautista batting and two strikes, because "I thought I could make it." That was not only dumb, but potentially dangerous. Bautista never knew he was coming and if it was a strike would have had to swing. 

There were guys doubled off third base on line drives, thrown out at third to end an inning, a lack of execution of the bunting game that did not stop bunts from being called. The same mistakes were being made more than once and corrections seemed to be made only after the fact, which in major-league baseball, with the pace of the game, is too late. 

Then there was the demise of Ricky Romero. It's difficult to blame the manager for the collapse of an ace who seemed perfectly healthy, but from the moment Farrell called Romero out with the challenge, "We're just looking for that same tough kid from East L.A." the relationship started to sour. The more Romero struggled, the more suggestions and public theories Farrell had. In his final start, a disgusted Romero watched Farrell emerge from the dugout to hook him, did not look at his manager as he arrived and walked off missing the handoff of the ball having to go back and give it to Farrell, again without looking. Farrell stared Romero off the field. The optics were not good, once again.

The Farrell mystique that was present in October 2011 when the Sox made their first arrogant attempt to steal the manager away from a division rival had largely disappeared by October 2012. The fact that Farrell did not tell Beeston and Anthopoulos he indeed wanted to stay in Toronto with the organization that gave him his first chance to manage in the big leagues, combined with the fact they were not ready to give him the extension that would have been required to keep him made the response to Boston different this year.

Face it. Without the Red Sox presence in this equation, Farrell would likely have been asked to work on the final year of his three-year deal to show that corrections had been made in the clubhouse and on the field. Speaking of which, Anthopoulos had never announced Farrell's contract was a three-year deal, but late in the season when the Sox rumours began, it was the manager that answered a direct question with a direct answer. Yes, he had one more year on his contract. Again, Anthopoulos was not pleased.

In any case, the compensation for Farrell is rumoured by ESPN.com to be infielder Mike Aviles who would move to the head of the class in terms of second-base replacements for free-agent Kelly Johnson. That's not quite Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard or Rubby de la Rosa, but it's enough to keep to the letter of the Jays' law that there are no lateral moves -- without compensation.

As soon as the announcement is official, the Jays will have to interview candidates, at least one of which must be a minority, according to MLB rules. This time it should not take the Jays as long to find their man.

As for the Jays' fans, one would have to believe that the feeling is not that all is lost. In some circles it might be that depending on the choice of a replacement, the Jays may well be better off. Can Farrell handle the insatiably invasive Boston media? Time will tell. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bullpen: Hectic offseason ahead for Blue Jays' Yan Gomes

For the first time in its brief history, the World Baseball Classic has an expanded field of 28 countries, with 16 of those national teams playing in qualifiers for the final field of 16 to be staged in March 2013. A dozen teams were given automatic byes out of the last tournament in 2009, but the four countries that were winless in the double elimination tournament were placed as the top seed in four-team pools that were forced to compete for one spot, rounding out the field.

Already there has been one change to the field, as Spain went to extra innings to beat Israel 9-7 in the championship game of Qualifier 1 in Jupiter, Fla. The host team that had been to the first two versions of the WBC was South Africa, now eliminated. Israel's line-up featured former Jays outfielder Shawn Green who came out of retirement to DH and was 1-for-4 in the final game.

In Qualifier 2, Canada plays host-country Germany in the championship game on Monday afternoon in Regensburg. Earlier in the tournament, Canada beat the hosts 16-7. Manager Ernie Whitt's team was relegated to a qualifier because of losses to Team USA and Italy in '09 at the Rogers Centre. Whitt's team was handicapped by the fact the qualifier was in September, thus forced to use minor-leaguers, rather than any of the 17 Canadian major-leaguers that will be available should they win the pool. There are 147 Canadians in baseball's minor-leagues.

PREVIOUS BULLPEN BLOGS:

Baltimore Orioles top Oakland A’s as AL’s surprise team, Sept. 17

Jays manager John Farrell wants Chad Mottola as associate batting coach, Sept. 10

Meanwhile there was one player in the Jays clubhouse looking forward to his kick at the WBC can. Catcher Yan Gomes spoke enthusiastically about his upcoming experience as a member of Team Brazil, entered into a Nov. 15-20 qualifier with Colombia, Panama and Nicaragua. Brazil is ranked 33rd among baseball countries in the world, making them the long shot in Pool 3.

“It's going to be a huge honour, just kind of how it was being the first Brazilian in the majors – even bigger, just representing the country on the stage of the WBC,” Gomes said on the weekend at Tropicana Field. “I still have a lot of friends down there in Brazil that played and get in contact with me a lot. They kept up with me and my career.”

Gomes, a native of Sao Paulo, became the first Brazilian-born player in the majors when he made his debut on May 17 vs. the Yankees. In a four-game series in early August in Oakland, Gomes showed his versatility appearing in left field, at first and third base and behind the plate. He will be a huge part of manager Barry Larkin's plans to pull off an upset.

“I think that's really awesome,” Gomes said of the chance to play for a hall-of-fame player. “I'm looking forward to it too. I'll probably get to learn a lot from him.”

Starting at spring training, where Gomes impressed manager John Farrell with his versatility as a non-roster player, through his various stints at the major-league level, it's been an eventful year.

“It's definitely been a huge year,” Gomes said. “To top it off I'm getting married in a couple of weeks. It's just been a great year. It started off last year, just working hard and trying to get something going. I started off pretty good in spring training and just kept going. It's been a great experience.”

The key game for Gomes may have been a March contest in Sarasota against the Orioles. He travelled south with the team and drew a start at third base for an injured Brett Lawrie, banging out a couple of hits and making some nice defensive plays.

“It was big in some ways, but I wouldn't say it was the biggest game,” Gomes recalled. “But it definitely made them think that I can play some third too. That was the first time I had played third in my career. It happened to be in a big-league game in Sarasota. I don't want to take just one game out of that spring training. Just the whole experience, even off the field, while we were training and doing stuff on the side. Just the little things, being with big leaguers.”

In some ways, it was a difficult summer for Gomes, back and forth to the minors, with the travel to Las Vegas and the disappointment of being sent down again both being factors.

“At first I was upset, but it wasn't really that big of a deal,” Gomes said of each demotion.

“No matter how I was doing, it did take me a couple of days to get it going. Me and ('51s batting coach Chad Mottola) would work very hard at trying to get it going, back to where I need to be to get back up here. It worked out all right. To me it was really important (to finish the season back in the majors), not just to get the feeling of being comfortable up here. I know for my fiancée (Jenna) it wasn't nice, she hated the travel back and forth, but it just kind of kept the experience going.”

Yan and Jenna plan on being married in October, at which time Gomes will head south for a month of winter ball in the Dominican Republic and from there straight to Panama City to meet his Team Brazil mates. It will be a hectic offseason for the Jays' rookie.

“I'm sure we have a chance,” an optimistic Gomes said. “It just comes out of who's playing hot. It's just like any kind of match-up is. We'll see how we look. We'll give it our best that's all we can do.

BLUE JAYS WEEK IN REVIEW

SEASON: The Jays concluded a horrible week, losing all six games on the road trip, three at Yankee Stadium and three at Tropicana Field, heading to Baltimore. The Jays had an off-day Monday, then were rained out on Tuesday with a split doubleheader on Wednesday. The Jays were outscored 42-16 in the six games. They scored more than two runs in just two of the games, but the pitching did not respond in kind, losing 10-7 to the Yankees on Thursday and 11-5 to the Rays, Saturday.

The Jays enter the week with a sad 6-14 September mark. Since July 29, the Jays are 15-36 and have scored two or fewer runs in 25 games. Before the streak began, they had been one of the top offences in the AL in terms of home runs and runs scored. How tough has it been? At spring training, Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow were the clear 1-2 starters in the rotation. In the last 81 Jays games, a full half season, since June 23, the two men have combined for one victory.

YUNEL ESCOBAR: The Escobar press conference at Yankee Stadium to announce Escobar's fine, suspension and mandated interaction with the gay community was ridiculous, not in what it was trying to do but in how it was presented. Three days later, however, the follow-up Escobar press conference at Tropicana Field, called informally after manager John Farrell kept him out of the starting line-up his first game back as an eligible player vs. the Rays was far more sublime.

It seemed, at the very moment he was being punished in New York, the Jays' shortstop was totally unaware of the far-reaching societal impact that his stupid, homophobic actions of Saturday at the Rogers Centre had created. He seemed bewitched, bothered and bewildered by the enormity of the moment. He looked confused as he was escorted by club officials down the tunnel to the Yankee interview room on Tuesday.

The first problem was the translator was not good. His choice of words made Escobar look like a  cliché-spouting idiot, but the worst aspect of it was that the inept translator was handpicked by the Players' Association.

The second unhelpful decision was that club president Paul Beeston did not fly to New York, leaving the responsibility of representing the organization to young GM Alex Anthopoulos. This was not a player personnel problem, it was a franchise issue, a societal issue, a community problem over which Beeston should have presided. The Jays are Canada's team. Escobar appeared bewildered, unconvincing, simple and unapologetic. The fact is he was simply overwhelmed and without preparation or the proper support, given the quick turnaround.

But in front of a much smaller group on Friday in Tampa and with three days to ponder his own situation, having flown to Florida ahead of the team, able to go virtually one-on-one with a more familiar group of media and with the writers able to ask more specific questions and able to look into his eyes as he gave his answers in Spanish, translated by Jays' coach Luis Rivera, this briefing appeared to show far from a smug, smirking pro athlete deflecting questions with a wink and a nudge.

Escobar may not fully understand why what he did was so wrong, but he does understand, now, that a large group of people, an important segment of society with which he had been totally unfamiliar, felt demeaned by his actions. Escobar on Friday was still not able to properly express his regret, but that may be because he still has never understood the repercussions that his thoughtless actions of putting Sharpie to eye black patches, a feeble attempt at humour, had created. Farrell met with Escobar on Friday afternoon, deciding he needed another day to regroup. He was right. 

OMAR AND THE BABE: Omar Vizquel will never be remembered as a Blue Jay, but he has had two memorable moments in the last two months that will live forever in his mental scrapbook. On Aug. 15, the future Hall-of-Famer tied Harold Baines for 42nd on the all-time hit list at the Rogers Centre. It came on a hit off Gavin Floyd of the White Sox with Baines sitting in the dugout as a coach. Then on this current road trip, at Yankee Stadium on September 19, at the son of The House That Ruth Built, Vizquel tied the Babe himself at 2,873 with a hit off Andy Pettitte. The bronze bust of Ruth in Monument Park smiled. Vizquel was overwhelmed to have not only tied the legendary Bambino, but to have done it in New York. Vizquel started the final game he played at Fenway Park and will likely do so on Wednesday in Baltimore, if Farrell has the opportunity. He will be a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. 

BUTTER AND BELICHICK: Jays' third base coach Brian Butterfield, a resident of New England, is such a huge Patriots fan that it's believed the Pats consult him before every college draft, or if not, then he calls them and adds to his immense knowledge of all things Pats. On Sunday after the Jays played the Rays in Tampa, Butterfield had plans for the evening when the team charter arrived in Baltimore. He had arranged for a limousine to take him to the Ravens stadium where he had passes to stand on the Pats sideline. He was hoping to make it for the second half. The Pats lost on a last-second field goal.

INJURIES:  The Jays have had 18 disablements this year. RH Dustin McGowan, RH Drew Hutchison, RH Sergio Santos, RH Robert Coello, LH Luis Perez, RH Jesse Litsch, RH Kyle Drabek, 1B David Cooper and LH J.A. Happ are all out for the season.

HUTCH UPDATE: Perez, Drabek and Hutchison were all enthusiastic visitors to the Jays clubhouse in Tampa, with hugs all around. Hutchison spoke to writers in the Jays clubhouse about his rehab.

“Right now I'm just going a day at the time, doing what they say to do,” Hutchison said. “Right now it's just range of motion stuff. Shoulder exercises.”

Hutchison won't even pick up a baseball for about 20 weeks from the moment of the surgery at the beginning of August. Recall that he had at first tried to rehab through exercise and rest before he was forced to undergo surgery, putting him a month behind Drabek on his rehab schedule.

“I'm working with Kyle and the training staff down in Dunedin right now, just taking it slowly,” he said. “There's not very much you can do. Kyle's been through it once already, so he knows what to expect. Obviously if you have any questions, you can always ask him and he has a pretty good idea what's going on.”

When will he be back? “It's early to predict. They're all different. Right now I'm just worried about getting healthy. I don't really have a time frame of when that is. But I'll take my time and get it right and get healthy.”

It would be an obvious, if futile exercise for Hutch to think back and wonder why it happened to him at the tender age of 21, with things going so well in his rookie year. He avoids that self-flagellation.

“It is what it is, it's over with, there's no reason to,” Hutchison said. “It happened it's time to move on and get right and get healthy. You do something and it's what you love to do, it is difficult.”

THE RANT

I consider myself a baseball traditionalist. For instance, I think W's matter for a pitcher and batting average matters for a hitter. But I'm also open minded, unlike some of those that have declared WAR on the game.

But here's where I break away from tradition. The second wild card has been a fabulous idea. Far from ruining the integrity of the game, far from allowing undeserving teams into the mix, the second wild-card has juiced the month of September like nothing before it. It's been great for the game.

In fact, I have this unorthodox theory that the second wild card is why the Jays have sucked so badly in September this year. The Jays are 6-14 in the final month. Recall in past years, the Jays have continued to play hard in September, using a regular rotation and regular position players in the annual period of expanded rosters, while their opponents, the majority of which are usually out of contention, have played minor-leaguers and started Double-A arms looking ahead to next year.

I may not have exact numbers, but the feeling is always that the Jays in the past have been playing to win September games much harder than have their opponents. This year there is a difference.

With more teams in contention, three from the AL east and seven overall in the league, teams are not in cruise control. The Jays are competing vs. teams that are still playing to win and, in Toronto's specific situation, with injuries having wounded their offence and a rotation still missing two of five starters, the Jays are being crushed. With one wild card they would have already met teams playing out the string and competed hard to get as many wins as possible. Even John Farrell admits that September is no longer like September where nobody takes performance seriously preferring to evaluate young players.

“In the case of our schedule this month, everybody we played has been a contender so it's not like we're seeing guys make starts against us as we're evaluating our hitters,” Farrell said, referring to the usual plethora of AA and Triple-A studs they normally face. “It's not like we're seeing guys come out of AA and start against us. We're seeing their regular turn in the rotation.

“We're seeing playoff intensity thrown at us and the game played like that at us. (The Jays have) done a solid job in competing against that and competing with it. The fact is they're getting valuable repetition and experience this month.”

There's one wild-card possibility of which MLB is totally scared but that I would love to see. It is primarily a possibility in the National League wild-card race.

As of Monday morning, there remained the mathematical possibility that there could be a six-way tie for the second NL wild-card spot at 84-78. How, you might ask? Here are the necessities for the remainder of the schedule to create MLB's deliciously uncontrolled chaos: Cards 2-7; Brewers 5-5; Dodgers 5-4; D-backs 7-3; Phillies 7-2 and Pirates 9-1. Just looking at those numbers, maybe a six-way tie is a long shot, but the possibility of a 2, 3 or 4-way tie for the new wild-card is not beyond the realm of possibility. Baseball better start explaining how that's going to work. Halloween is coming soon.     

MLB POWER RANKINGS        

Last Week's rankings in parentheses   

1. Washington Nationals (1)

Just like happened to the Rays in '08, finishing last often enough pays off 

2. Texas Rangers (2)

Are using September to sort out pitching rotation for playoffs

3. Cincinnati Reds (4)

Taking advantage of being in a bad six-team division but hanging in

4. Oakland A's (3)

Emerging as this team's MVP is Cuban rookie Yoenis Cespedes 

5. New York Yankees (6)

CC came back strong in last start and they'll need more of that to advance  

6. San Francisco Giants (7)

Nice call on batting crown. If you're caught cheating on exam they don't give you that mark

7. Baltimore Orioles (4)

Showalter easy call as manager of the year. Maybe Duquette as executive

8. Atlanta Braves (9)

Locked in at WC-1 and no chance at division, so nobody paying attention

9. Detroit Tigers (11)

Cabrera shouldn't win MVP 'cuz his 3B defence helps cost Verlander Cy Young

10. Chicago White Sox (12)

Ventura proving Sox genius for letting Ozzie swim with the Fishes

11. Los Angeles Angels (10)

Critics questioning whether Scioscia will be back. It should be his decision

12. Milwaukee Brewers (17)

No Prince, no Greinke, inconsistent Ax, no problem. They surged anyway

13. St. Louis Cardinals (14)

Carpenter comeback is feel-good story. This year they have spot and are holding on

14. Philadelphia Phillies (15)

All they needed was a little offence. Manuel must have become smarter 

15. Los Angeles Dodgers (13)

Magic Johnson has gone underground after promising championship post-trade 

16. Tampa Bay Rays (8)

Pitching staff sets AL record for strikeouts. Unfortunately hitters lead AL too

17. Seattle Mariners (16)

This is an organization with no major stars other than Felix but plenty of talent

18. Arizona Diamondbacks (20)

D-backs not making a move when the door was opened to them 

19. Kansas City Royals (24)

Will be a lot of off-season interest in some of their young arms

20. San Diego Padres (19)

Another organization that received no attention but on the way up

21. Pittsburgh Pirates (18)

Didn't Travis Snider say how great it was to be traded to a contender? 

22. Boston Red Sox (22)

Valentine developing a knack for putting his players in a position to fail  

23. New York Mets (23)

Nice ballpark, great baseball town, not a very good team 

24. Toronto Blue Jays (21)

Have never seen a Jays team deal with so many embarrassing moments

25. Minnesota Twins (25)

They can't give up on this roster because of promise to fans when Target Field built

26. Miami Marlins (26)

Girardi was let go after NL Manager-of-the-year. Where does that leave Ozzie?

27. Cleveland Indians (27)

Once promising starting pitching has been shredded as season goes on 

28. Chicago Cubs (29)

Anthony Rizzo will become a big-time player. But they need more 

29. Colorado Rockies (28)

Could this be the end of the road for manager Jim Tracy as well?

30. Houston Astros (30)

'Stros take heart looking at Nats role model of building through losing 

ONE FOR THE ROAD:

I regret, for myself, that I missed this week's trip to the Big Apple because of another conflicting assignment from The Star back in the GTA, that unfolded mostly on Wednesday as the Yankees series was Tuesday to Thursday. Staying home, as part of a team of seven Star news reporters, I found this week's GTA assignment for a future special section in our paper very rewarding. Upon further review, as I outline the day, to the casual observer it may seem this pleasure with the 24 hours is because I'm a little different than most people and sleep and food are an afterthought. Hey, life is too short.

Consider that I left home on Tuesday evening at 11:35 p.m. I drove to Greenwood in Scarborough for a 12:40 a.m. interview, then to Keele and Sheppard at 2:15 a.m., then to Black Creek and Eglinton for 4 a.m., then to Appleby and the QEW for 6 a.m., then to Acton for 7:10 a.m., then to Brampton for 9:30 a.m. then to Keele and Lawrence for 11:15 a.m. then to Kennedy in Scarborough for 6:00 p.m. I had five Tim Horton's medium coffees, black, one iced cappuccino, one large Monster energy drink, four bottles of water, one bag of pretzels (cuz I had to use the washroom at a Shell station at 3:45 a.m.), a Burger King Devil Whopper and a piece of apple pie. The breakfast of champions, is I believe what they call it. I got home from this odyssey around 9:45 p.m. making it a 22-hour tour of duty, logging a total of 540 km without ever leaving town – except for Acton, which was worth the drive.

In any case, I missed on TV most of the Jays' split doubleheader in New York, although I did see the Escobar saga play out on Tuesday. I caught up on the baseball action via late night highlights and the fine reporting of Mark Zwolinski in The Star. I physically caught up with the Jays in Tampa on Friday.

Ah, Florida. Other than Tropicana Field being such a joke of a ballpark, the trip to Tampa is usually quite pleasant. My modus operandi is to rent a car at the greatest airport in the world, Tampa International, stay at a hotel just across the Courtney Campbell Causeway on Gulf to Bay in Clearwater and make the 20-25 minute commute straight down I-275 to the Trop for games. Life is good.

The personal preference of staying in Clearwater is pretty much for the familiarity of being in the Jays' spring training sphere of influence, plus the occasional need to drive up to the Mattick Complex to see some minor leaguers, or some rehabbing major leaguers, or, one time, it was some guy named Vlad Guerrero, who looked like a pretty good prospect at the time but who ended up being too demanding.

Friday, I landed in Tampa and rented a 2013 Ford Escape. A review of the Escape? Too many blind spots, a sound system slanted at a weird 80-degree angle and one of those difficult computer screens that make you want to wear sunglasses at night when you turn it on and likely could lead to a Thelma and Louise cliff dive while you're trying to find a local hip-hop station or sports news using the seek buttons which are disturbingly flush to the console and hard to spot. Plenty of get up and go.

This is probably the easiest MLB ballpark to access if you have a car. South on I-275, veer off on the exit to old St. Pete, a quick right along Martin Luther King and another right on Central. I always try and get there early enough before a night game -- around 1 p.m. -- to be able to stop at historic Ferg's on Central Ave. for lunch. Clam chowder and a chicken wrap, all live sports on TV and always an available parking spot right in front of the popular pre- and post-game venue, especially at that late-afternoon hour. Oh and you can leave your windows down and the motor running because it's right across from a bustling police station. Parking lot, just flash your press pass, walk across the street into the press gate, elevator up one floor to the press box, ready to go. Did I ever say life is good?             

THIS WEEK IN BASEBALL HISTORY:

9/24/57 The final game at Ebbets Field as the Dodgers pack up and move to L.A. It's a 2-0 win over the Pirates in front of 6,702 fans... 9/24/74 The veteran Tigers' star Al Kaline collects his 3,000th hit off Dave McNally of the O's on a 5-4 win... 9/24/85 The Expos' Andre Dawson bangs out three homers, including a pair of three-run shots in the fifth inning in a 17-15 win at Wrigley Field. He ties Willie McCovey as the only players with multiple home run innings twice in a career... 9/24/92 Jays' DH Dave Winfield becomes the oldest player in history with 100 RBIs, in his 2,700th game at 40... 9/25/55  Tigers' Al Kaline becomes the youngest batting champion in AL history at 20... 9/25/61 a homer off Jack Fisher of the O's gives Roger Maris a tie with Babe Ruth at 60 home runs... 9/25/81 Astros' Nolan Ryan facing the Dodgers tosses his fifth no-hitter, an all-time high... 9/25/86 Mike Scott tosses a no-hitter vs. the Giants the first time a clinching game has had no hits... 9/26/83 Cards' RH Bob Forsch no-hits the Expos 3-0 at Busch Stadium. The Expos are embarrassed when Forsch hits Gary Carter in the butt in the seventh inning and laughs... 9/26/71 O's RH Jim Palmer wins his 20th game, joining teammates Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson and Dave McNally as only the second staff in MLB history with four 20-game winners. First was the 1920 White Sox... 9/26/79 Phil Niekro of the Braves beats his brother Joe Niekro of the Astros to join him as the only NL pitchers with 20 wins. The only other time two 20-game brothers happened was '65 with Gaylord and Jim Perry... 9/27/83 Expos' Tim Raines joins Ty Cobb as the only players in history with 70 steals and 70 RBIs in a season... 9/27/96 Barry Bonds steals his 40th base joining Jose Canseco as the only 40-40 men in history... 9/27/98 Mark McGwire crashes homers No. 69 and 70 vs. the Expos on the final day of the season. No. 70 is against Carl Pavano... 9/28/41 Ted Williams chooses to play both ends of a DH sitting on a .400 average and goes 6-for-8 to finish at .406... 9/28/60 Ted Williams hits the final homer of his career against Jack Fisher of the O's... 9/28/95 Greg Harris of the Expos becomes the first player to pitch with both hands in the same game, facing two Reds right-handed and two left-handed... 9/29/54 The iconic catch by Willie Mays of the Giants off Vic Wertz of the Indians in Game 1 of the World Series at the Polo Grounds... 9/29/68 Red Sox star Carl Yastrzemski, coming off a Triple Crown season the year before, wins the AL batting title with a .301 average the lowest in history. Runner-up is Danny Cater of the A's at .290. It's just one of the reasons MLB lowers the mounds in time for the '69 season... 9/29/71 Expos' pest Ron Hunt is drilled by Milt Pappas of the Cubs, the 50th HBP of the season, a MLB record... 9/30/27 Babe Ruth hits homer No. 60 off Tom Zachary of the Senators... 9/30/72 Legendary Roberto Clemente strokes his 3,000th career hit off Jon Matlack of the Mets. Three months later on a New Year's Eve on a mercy flight to Nicaragua, his plane goes down off the coast of Puerto Rico ending his life... 9/30/88 Dave Stieb of the Jays loses a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth on a Jim Traber double ripped inches over the glove of 1B Fred McGriff.                 

BIRTHDAYS: 9/24 Johnny Mac 38, Kevin Millar 41, Paul Spoljaric 42, Jim Acker 54, Hubie Brooks 56... 9/25 Dave Weathers 43, Sal Butera 60, Phil Rizzuto 95...9/26 Dave Martinez 48, Dave Duncan 67...9/27 Mike Schmidt 63, Gary Sutherland 68, Johnny Pesky 93...9/28 Charlie Kerfeld 49, Todd Frohwirth 50, Dave Rajsich 61...9/29 Warren Cromartie 59, Ken Macha 62.      

AL ROUNDUP

The Rangers have the classic situation in which they control their own fate. The A's are visiting Arlington for a four-game set and with a magic number to clinch the division of seven, a sweep of the A's would do it for them. Even a split would reduce the magic number to three games. OF Josh Hamilton has been dealing with vision issues and was not even in Seattle. He is battling Tigers 3B Miguel Cabrera and Jays' 1B Edwin Encarnacion for the home run title. Wondering how RH Yu Darvish is doing? He leads the staff with 214 Ks and is one the Rangers pitchers that seems to be getting stronger as the playoffs approach. Last year's post-season hero, C Mike Napoli is batting .389 with three homers since his return from the DL with quad issues... The Tigers' Cabrera did not homer on Sunday but his two doubles gave him 40 for the year. He and Hank Greenberg are the only Tigers ever with 40 doubles and 40 homers. If the Tigers make it to the playoffs, MGR Jim Leyland should insist that CL Jose Valverde give up that silly choreography when he enters a game, the dramatic pose, the hop, the dance and sprint to the mound. That's great if you never blow a save, but he lost again in extra innings on Sunday and even to teammates it must be getting old... It's a pennant race and it's Alex Rodriguez, so why else should Yankees rookie Melky Mesa feel bad. Pinch-running at second base he raced around third with the winning run on a 1B in the 14th against Oakland. But he felt he missed third, screeched to a halt and scrambled back to the bag. The Bombers went on to win, thankfully for the kid. A major factor in the AL East race? The O's are 27-9 in one run games and 16-2 in extra innings. The Yankees 21-23 in one-run and 5-3 in extras. Jays MGR John Farrell talked about how the O's are helped in the future by their success in the past. He spoke of the streak of extra inning wins the Jays put up last year at the Rogers Centre: “You would be in the dugout saying, 'Just tie this game up and we'll win it.'...Following Sunday's oh-fer, A's RF Josh Reddick ran his hitless streak to 28 at-bats. He is batting .138 in September. LF Yoenis Cespedes has emerged as the A's MVP. He slammed his 20th homer on Sunday. He and Reddick are the first A's teammates with 20 HR each since Nick Swisher and Jack Cust in '07. The A's brought up RH Jeremy Accardo to bolster the bullpen for the final week. The former Jay was released by the Indians in August and had been pitching in a holding pen in Phoenix just in case, since the Triple-A Sacramento season ended.

NL ROUNDUP

It was a decision of the player, that was presented to MLB by the union, but when Melky Cabrera announced that he would withdraw his eligibility for the NL batting title it was the proper call. Rule 10-22 (a) states that a player can qualify for the batting title if his required plate appearances are shy of the number, however if you were to add the required number of hitless at-bats to his numbers to get him to 502 PA, and his average still leads the league, he wins the title. Cabrera was one appearance shy and would just lose a point from his .346 average. The addendum states that the procedure cannot be done for a suspended player under the Joint Drug Program for PEDs. In 1955 Ted Williams would have won the batting title if the rule had existed. Instead a 20-year-old Tiger Al Kaline became the youngest batting champ in history... After the Giants clinched the division on Saturday, MGR Bruce Bochy announced LH Barry Zito would be included on the post-season roster. He was left off in 2010... Cards' RH Jake Westbrook, a 13-game winner, has been shut down due to discomfort as he was attempting to come back... When LH Gio Gonzalez won his 20th game on Saturday he became the first wearing a Washington uniform since Bob Porterfield in 1953. Tyler Clippard has struggled lately in his role as closer, allowing eight runs in his last seven innings. Meanwhile former CL Drew Storen has 10 straight scoreless appearances and may get his job back... Brewers 3B Aramis Ramirez stroked his 49th double on Sunday. The club record is 53 by former Jays' 1B Lyle Overbay... Phillies' RH Roy Halladay was knocked out of Saturday's start vs. the Braves after 1-2/3 innings. He was examined and told reporters he has spasms in his right shoulder. His status for the rest of the season is to be determined... Reds MGR Dusty Baker returned to Cincy after four days in a Chicago hospital diagnosed with irregular heartbeat. The 63-year-old swung by the ballpark on Saturday but did not stay for the game. Chris Speier continued as acting manager in his place as the Reds clinched their second division in three years. CL Aroldis Chapman returned on Saturday from a club-imposed 11-day sabbatical to keep him rested for the post-season... RH Kris Medlen has been tabbed by Braves MGR Fredi Gonzalez as the starter for the wild-card game on Oct. 5. He is their hottest pitcher. Likely RH Tim Hudson would start NLDS Game 1 if they advance... If Dodgers LH Clayton Kershaw can stand the pain, he can pitch a couple more times as long as the Dodgers are still in the wild-card race. Kershaw pitched five innings Sunday with an injured hip that specialists say will not suffer any more damage if he continues to pitch. It does hurt though.

JAYS MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

The Blue Jays' eight farm teams combined for a 427-395 record.

Triple-A Las Vegas (79-64)  on Thursday the Jays announced that they were ending their affiliation with the '51s and were signing a two-year agreement with the Buffalo Bisons. The Bisons had been courted by the Jays after their agreement with Syracuse ended following the '08 season. But the Bisons, who had ended their relationship with the Indians, chose the Mets' bid, with the New York connection and all that. In four seasons at Las Vegas, the Jays affiliate was a combined 287-288. 

AA-New Hampshire (61-81) ended the EL season in last place.

A-Dunedin (78-55) posted the best record in the FSL's North Division and second overall. Jays lost the first round playoff series to Lakeland. MGR Mike Redmond was named to the FSL all-stars...

A-Lansing (82-55) posted the best overall record in the Midwest League.

A-Vancouver (46-30) won second straight Northwest League championship.

A-Bluefield (29-37) finished last in their division.

Rk-Gulf Coast Blue Jays (22-38).

Rk-Dominican Summer League (30-35).

Anthopoulos joins Blue Jays in Tampa with words of optimism: Griffin

Blue Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos is consistent in one thing. Whenever there is trouble in the organization, whether it is in the clubhouse or on the field, the young GM joins his team, wherever it may be just so no one can say that he's hiding. Such was the case on Saturday afternoon as he emerged into the visitors dugout late afternoon after meeting briefly with embattled shortstop Yunel Escobar in the clubhouse minutes earlier.

Nothing had changed on that front. Yes, Akex confirmed Escobar will meet with Patrick Burke, son of the Leafs' GM, Brian Burke next week when the Jays return home, as reported by The Star's Rosie DiManno. The younger Burke is the founder of "You Can Play" an organization promoting inclusion for gay, lesbian and transgendered athletes.  

Anthopoulos wants to be visible to his players and will fly with the Jays to Baltimore following Sunday's game. He spoke to reporters in the dugout on a variety of topics including how to make Blue Jays fans believe in this team again as quickly as possible.

“I know this is a year that we've had more (injuries) than we've ever had in this organization," Anthopoulos began. "It reinforces the notion of continuing that depth, moreso than ever, even when we have young players and young prospects, if we can, even if we think they can come up here and do a good job and be solid, if they have options left we can stockpile that depth and make them all just wait."

This suggests a far different strategy than what the Jays have had under Anthopoulos, to this point, finishing up his third season as GM. He is suggesting that minor league options attached to contracts for young Jays' players will mean more to roster moves next year.

Here's an easy guideline. Instead of stockpiling veteran arms to pitch at Triple-A in case of injury to the youngsters, as he did unsuccessfully this season, he will stockpile young arms at the Triple-A level (now Buffalo)in case of injuries to the veteran talent he plans to reach out for as free agents and in trade this coming off-season. It's a huge difference.

“I remember years ago when J.P. (Ricciardi) was here," Anthopoulos began. "I think it was the year (Shaun) Marcum and (Dustin) McGowan came up, maybe (Jesse) Litsch came up the same year. But we had guys like (Victor) Zambrano and (Tomo) Ohka and obviously those guys didn't work out, not that they were the right signings because obviously they didn't perform well enough, but knowing you had those (young) guys waiting in the wings as your insurance as your backups, that's something you can look back on.

“Sometimes you want to give kids the innings, you want to give kids the opportunity, but it's not the worst thing in the world if they're sitting down there and they're ready to go because guys are going to get hurt. Guys aren't going to perform and you're going to need to make a change."

Anthopoulos denied that he needs to begin re-shaping a winning roster as soon as the World Series is over in order to re-capture fan interest that has been shaken not stirred.

“I don't look at the timing of it," Anthopoulos said. "We need to get better. For the fanbase they just want to see a better team, a better product, a team in contention. If you told the fans we'll provide that for you on Jan. 1, rather than November 1, I don't think they'd really care. I think it goes without saying, like with a lot of teams we'll try to be aggressive and get things done. There's no question the focus is going to be on getting better. It's impossible for me to try to operate that way, but if we're looking at big league players and getting better, it can only help things."

Last winter, the Jays' aggressive GM may have overstimated the depth of the coming and almost ready major-league talent that he had behind his 25-man roster at Triple and Double-A. Guys like Chad Jenkins and Deck McGuire regressed and others like Jesse Chavez, Joel Carreno and Robert Coello were never ready.

“I think we felt we had bodies. Looking back, what you learn from it is just the reliance on young guys. Then again, you can look at Oakland and they have all these young guys in their rotation. We've had it. You look at 2010, I think we had Morrow, Romero, (Brett) Cecil, Marcum and the fifth starter was a combination of guys, (Brian) Tallet and so on. And they pretty much made all their starts.

“The first two months of the year, pretty much – Drew (Hutchison) was up after two or three weeks -- Drew, Kyle (Drabek), Brandon (Morrow), Henderson (Alvarez) and (Ricky Romero), those five guys we were leading in starters ERA," he suggested. "And then again, that's not to say that would have gone on for six months, but relying on health is probably the biggest thing. Relying on health with young guys is the biggest thing."

Earlier in the summer, Anthopoulos said that only Morrow and Romero were assured of jobs in the rotation. That was before Ricky went completely in the tank. Has that changed?

“The only guys we've promised, and it's just because of I don't know how the off-season will go," Anthopoulos said. "But I definitely want to add as much depth as we can in the rotation. So, we only locked in to Brandon and Romero, they both have guaranteed contracts. That's not to say we don't have guys that are frontrunners. Obviously Alvarez, if he continues to perform well, but he has options left.

"I just don't want people coming into spring training assuming they have a job lined up, or we make a trade in the off-season or we sign someone and then I have to make a phone call and go, 'Ah, you know what, I changed my mind.' The only two guys with guaranteed conracts are them and everybody else, there's guys that will put themselves in a good position, that will comepete, but you know what, depending on what we do they may get jobs by default, but the goal's going to be to add as much depth as we can."

Baseball is a copycat industry and the O's are a good role model for Anthopoulos, plus the A's, White Sox, Nationals and Reds who all finished below .500 last year and who are all locked in post-season battles a year later. Just do it.

 

 

Blue Jays Escobar sits another game on Farrell decision: Griffin

ST. PETERSBURG - At around 1:20 p.m. Friday afternoon Blue Jays manager John farrell sent a text message in reponse to a question of whether Yunel Escobar, suspended for the previouus three games, would be in the starting lineup vs. the Rays.

"Yes," was the simple one-word answer.

At around 3:45 p.m.when the Jays' clubhouse at Tropicana Field opened to media, there was no lineup posted, which there usually is, and Farrell's office door was closed.

Inside was the manager, plus Escobar, plus coach Luis Rivera, plus a few other members of the Jays' front office staff. Minutes later the meeting was adjourned and Farrell walked purposely by in the middle of the clubhouse. "He's not in the lineup," he said without breaking stride.Farrell spoke at his usual time as the full team stretched on the field.

“When we met earlier today, it became increasingly clear during that discussion that he needs another day to get back and be ready to play a major league game," Farrell said rather cryptically. “It wasn't his choice. It became very clear through our discussions, all that has taken place, all that has potentially anticipated going forward, that he needs another day."

Escobar sat and chatted with Jays' media later in the afternoon, using his usual interpreter Luis Rivera, who, in fact, would have been far better than the one provided for him at the press conference in New York on Tuesday. Was he lookig for his name in the lineup?

“I always come to the game thinking that I'm going to be in the lineup," Escobar said. "But after I spent some time in the clubhouse there were other things going through my mind. It was better for me not to play tonight.

“I'm living with a tough situation. I put myself into it. I know it's going to take a little while. I spent three days and today. I just took groundballs yesterday and took groundballs today. I'm going to start getting my mind back in the game today so I can play a major-league game."

Escobar flew from New York to Florida the morning after the press conference and has been waiting for the team with minimal in the way of baseball activity.

“It's been real tough. I haven't slept well in the last three or four days," Escobar said. "I've been receiving a lot of calls from friends and family and they're giving me support. Things have been hard for me knowing that I made a mistake and I hurt some people. Things have been real hard for me right now."

The question becomes what changed in the three hours between Farrell saying Escobar was in the lineup and then him not being in the lineup. Could it have been Farrell meeting with his player and perhaps feeling the entire lesson had not been learned, the full impact not absorbed and that maybe another game -- this one paid -- would be good for his player.

"I don't think he fully understood the ramifications at the time of doing what he did," Farrell explained of perhaps lingering fallout from the Saturday "man in eye-black" episode. "So all this is a first for him. Regardless of intent and all the things he's expressed, all these experiences and the backlash that's taken place, I can tell you on his part (things) have been unanticipated.

“There's (no follow-up meeting) scheduled tomorrow. It's anticipated and expected he'll be ready to play tomorrow, but if the case exists that he needs another day to get through this we'll be open-minded to that and move on."

Escobar only missed two days of game action in New York and that is not an unusual break for major-league players with minor nicks and scratches that immediately get back into action when they are ready. This was more of a message to Escobar from the manager. Just because you've served your three games does not mean that you have to play.

If there is a lesson there from Farrell, hopefully Escobar will learn from it.  

“Consequences exist for every action," Farrell said. "These are the consequences that he's dealing with. That doesn't mean that we're turning a cold shoulder to him. But at the same time he's coming to grips with the fallout and the backlash that's taking place.

"If that means dealing with others in the organization that are available (to hep him from a mental standpoint), if in fact that is determiend to be needed, we'll provide that for him, but we would expect in short order he'll be back on the field."

Once again, the Jays' explanations lead to more questions than they provide answers.