Posts Tagged ‘Toronto Blue Jays

23
Oct
09

OK, One More Item on Steve Phillips’ Talent Evaluation Skills

By slanch 5 Comments
Categories: Baseball
Tags: , , , , , ,

WrightCruz One of my favorite baseball writers/evaluators is ESPN’s Keith Law who writes extremely well, is smart, witty, snarky and an excellent judge of talent (even if he doesn’t like Anna’s Tacqueria); I trust his eye. During his time as a special assistant to JP Ricciardi in Toronto he witnessed any number of interesting and bizarre choices by his GM, including passing on Troy Tulowitzki in favor of Ricky Romero. Sure, Romero has come on recently and looks to be a good pitcher, but Tulo is a 30 HR Gold Glove shortstop and those simply don’t grow on trees.

Anyhoo, in his chat yesterday on ESPN, Keith Law dropped this little nugget that absolutely FLOORED me:

Eddie (Milwaukee): What was Steve Phillips thinking? Almost trading a 19 year old David Wright for Jose Cruz Jr.? Ridiculous.

Klaw: I’ve been asked about that trade rumor for three years but never answered while Ricciardi was still GM. The offer was made, though; I was there when the call came in. It was the first time I’d heard of Wright, since I wasn’t with Toronto in 2001 nor had I followed the draft when Wright was in it. JP’s reaction was, “I’m not trading a major league player for some guy in the Sally League.” And that was pretty much that. We had a chance to trade Cruz after that for Rafael Soriano, but JP refused to do it unless Seattle included Clint Nageotte, who, at the time, was a pretty hot prospect. It’s weird; I can’t remember some things that happened last week but I remember those conversations (over seven years ago now) like they just took place.

This makes BOTH Phillips and Ricciardi look bad. I can’t believe Stevie-boy offered D-Wright for Jose Cruz Jr. who had his best year as a rookie and then never followed up on it. This is the same Jose Cruz Jr. who is OUT OF THE LEAGUE, and the David Wright who is a regular pre-season MVP pick and one of the best young players in the game (if he ever gets his power stroke back.) Wow. WOW. WOW.

[ESPN]

16
Sep
09

Posada Takes Exception, Provides “Cheap Shot”

By slanch Leave a Comment
Categories: Awesome, Baseball and Douches
Tags: , , , , , ,

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Toronto Blue Jay Jesse Carlson was never a pretty man, after last night he added a handsome welt to his grisly visage after upsetting Yankees catcher Jorge Posada. After coming around the bases, Posada threw an elbow into Carlson who was covering home plate in a move that home plate umpire Jim Joyce called “unsportsmanlike” and a “cheap shot.”

(video of the whole affair is HERE)

Previously the Yankees had hit Toronto’s Aaron Hill and so Carlson threw behind Posada as retaliation. Carlson didn’t hit him though and while both benches emptied in an empty gesture, there weren’t any ramifications beyond both teams being warned.

It was Posada who started the whole affair the second time by shoving of Carlson and that led to the full emptying of the benches and a full-on brawl. Of course, most of the players were just standing around on the outskirts afraid of being touched. It wouldn’t be a douchey brawl if Shelley Duncan didn’t get in the middle of it. Seriously, this dude doesn’t do anything on the field but always wants to fight SOMEONE. What the hell is his problem, take an anger management class or drink some herbal tea or something.

One player who apparently was eager to be touched was A-Rod, because, after all it wouldn’t be a big piling up of men without him throwing out a super gay-sounding quote: “It got pretty heavy and pretty thick pretty quickly.” Yowzers, you want some more dick with that quote?

[Big League Stew and ESPN]

23
Jun
09

Fake Umpires to Invade NYC

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Awesome and Baseball
Tags: , , ,

fake-umps-jay-gameIf you’ve seen any Blue Jays games this season you’ve probably seen the two fans who sit directly behind home plate dressed in complete umpiring gear, including face-masks, and call the games along with the real umps. The two men, Tim Williams and Joe Farrell are Blue Jays season ticket holders and work as traders at the Toronto Stock Exchange and acquired all their authentic gear from a chance encounter with two umpires at a steakhouse.

Now, they are taking their act on the road, having followed their Jays to Washington DC for the recent series with the Nationals. They intend on traveling to Oakland for a series in August and during the upcoming series with the Yankees on July 3-5 the Yankees’ own broadcasting arm, YES, is bringing the two down to sit behind home. Amazingly they didn’t have to bump anyone out of the seats, because no one ever sits there anyways. What does it say about the Yankees that in their first season at their new home the only way they can get people to sit behind home in their exorbitantly expensive seats is to GIVE THEM AWAY TO THE OPPOSING TEAMS’ FANS?!!?

[Fanhouse]

23
Apr
09

Oh What a Day for Darren O’Day

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Baseball
Tags: , , , ,

The old adage in baseball is that you can NEVER have enough pitching, unless you’re the New York Mets and your pitching rotation after Johan is a mess and so you drop two useful pitchers over a couple days. First, the Mets put Darren O’Day on waivers; now O’Day isn’t going to remind anyone of a young John Wetteland, but he was a serviceable bullpen arm, and had pitched solidly in the spring and to start the season.

odayO’Day, after being picked up by the Texas Rangers off waivers had quite the day yesterday, at home in Panama City, FL, he received a call from his agent that the Rangers had picked him up and wanted him to make his way to Toronto to meet the team. Getting onto a flight to Memphis and then a connecting flight to Toronto, O’Day landed around 9:45 pm, expecting to go to the hotel and meet up with the team after their game. The plans changed though, “The travel secretary was texting me back and forth,” said O’Day. “The original plan was to go to the hotel, but he said, ‘Go to the field, we might need you.'” As the game went into extra innings O’Day arrived at the stadium at the beginning of the 10th, except there was another problem, the team didn’t have a jersey waiting for him.

Apparently, the club’s equipment manager doesn’t bring blank uniforms with him, but does maintain a stash of uniforms for players who MIGHT be called up. So, O’Day donned a spare Kason Gabbard uniform — who is currently in AAA — and headed to the bullpen. Alas, O’Day only got the chance to face one batter, Kevin Millar, who promptly welcomed O’Day with a hit to the left-field gap, winning the game.

Then, to show that the Mets are the smartest team in baseball, today they designated Nelson Figueroa for assignment, I guess because he was too useful in his role as a spot starter on Sunday. Don’t worry though, come June the Mets won’t be desperate for pitching… Blech.

[MLB]

18
Jul
08

Maybe She Was Trying To Spark the Jays’ Offense (UPDATED)

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Awesome and Baseball
Tags: , , , ,

The story of the topless blonde in the Rogers Centre Skydome box just keeps getting better. The 26 year old spoke today with the Ottawa Sun paper, the initial publisher of the photos of her, saying that she thought the windows were tinted and no one would be able to see through them.

“The [bachelor party hosts] told me that no one could see in,” she explained. Looks like that’s the last time she trusts a bachelor party crew. You’d think she’d have done her research and seen what these affairs could be like.

The young woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, is in grad school and works as a “hostess” to help pay for her school costs. I feel like I’ve heard that one before, maybe from every other hooker ever. I mean, not that I have a lot of experience with hookers. Unless paying women to have sex with me is experience. In that case I may need to change my response…

“I am not ashamed of what I do, there’s nothing wrong with this…but not everyone knows I do this,” she said. Unfortunately for her, the Blue Jays do see something wrong with it and, since her photo is out there, it looks like everyone is going to know what she does.

President and CEO of the Blue Jays Paul Godfrey said that her comportment went directly against the strict code of conduct for the erstwhile Skydome.

“It may be legal to walk the streets topless, but not at the Rogers Centre,” said Godfrey. Even T-shirts with offensive messages are not allowed in the stadium, he said. I didn’t know it was legal to walk the streets of Toronto topless, looks like it’s time for an action-packed mardi gras vacation to Toronto! Who’s coming with me, they got socialized medicine, street boobs and polite manners, what more could you need?

15
Jul
08

Maybe She Was Trying To Spark the Jays’ Offense

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Awesome and Baseball
Tags: , , , , ,

The Rogers Centre The Skydome (it is and always will be the Skydome to me) in Toronto houses the Blue Jays as well as the Renaissance Hotel which has rooms that overlook the stadium. Over the weekend while the Jays were finishing their series against the Yankees, apparently one guest provided some more excitement than the games itself.

During the 7th inning of one of the games a buxom blonde decided to take in the game topless, wearing only a thong. Thanks mysterious lady! The Jumbotron video guy noticed her quickly, although obviously he couldn’t showcase her on the big board, but he pointed her out to a photographer from the Ottawa Sun who had no such compunctions.

“At Jays games, a lot of people bring binoculars, and some saw us looking over at the box and then looked up themselves,” said Dave Abel, the photographer, after having snapped up several photos.

Of course, being narcs, the Renaissance Hotel immediately went up to the room and put an end to the fun show.

“Our security and duty manager went up and dealt with the guests,” said Dan Woodburn, Renaissance’s director of operations. “When people check in, we have quite a procedure and they have to sign a waiver saying they won’t throw anything or do anything (risque).”

How boring! If I was in one of those suites you better believe the crowd would be getting a show. Of course, the security people would be totally scared of my rippling abs, chiseled pecs and beg for the chance to see me naked.

Of course, several years ago a couple were boning in their hotel room and they put that on the Jumbotron. Apparently, that’s OK, but a topless blonde in a thong is a danger to society. Stupid Canadians, you’re doing it wrong!


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21
Apr
08

In No Longer Appropriate Giveaway News

By slanch 1 Comment
Categories: Baseball
Tags: , , , ,

Frank Thomas was given his outright release by the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday in a somewhat surprising move given that he is a known slow starter and seemed to at least still have something, albeit not his former MVP glory, in the tank. The decision was made more with an eye on the bottom line than anything else; Thomas had a $10 million option that would have been automatically triggered with 300 plate appearances, a very reachable target if he were the starting DH. Now, the Blue Jays are able to play professional hitter Matt Stairs instead and soon, hot prospect Adam Lind. For the future of the franchise, this makes perfect sense, but it is certainly a jones for Thomas who is now out of work. Teams like the Twins and the Mariners should seriously consider signing him as a DH, in fact, he might even be worth it if he were signed cheaply.

It seems though, that Thomas is still in the Blue Jays minds. On May 25th, one day after giving out Aaron Hill bobbleheads, the Jays are planning to giveaway 10,000 Frank Thomas bobbleheads to the fans. Oops…

No word as yet if they are Frank in the powder blues, I can only wish it so. I hope that they have been made already and are sitting in some Toronto warehouse right now. I would be truly saddened if these never got the chance to be in the public’s hands. I for one, cannot wait to find one on ebay!

Now that would be a fun game to go to. Would he show up? Would they still mention anything about it? Will they change the event?

Also, on a semi-related note, why is there all this talk about Thomas getting resigned but at the same time Mike Piazza remains completely out of work. Is Thomas at this stage significantly better than Piazza? One of my friends insists it is backlash against the Piazza being gay rumors and that teams are scared of him. Regardless, I have to think a team like the A’s, the Mariners or the Twins could all certainly use a player like Thomas or Piazza to upgrade their offenses.

ed. to add:

Oh no! The Blue Jays are too smart for me! They have taken down their planned Frank Thomas bobblehead giveaway, and now are announcing it as a “Blue Jays Giveaway.” Double burn for Thomas I suppose, first he’s released and then they destroy all evidence of their ever celebrating him. If I were him I might have someone try all my food, maybe Ricciardi will remove all evidence of Frank Thomas ever existing…!

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