Conflicting signals about Wells
Vernon Wells has been the subject of many trade rumors lately, but up until today I had taken them all as just that, rumors. However the Star-Ledger is reporting that the Jays "made Wells available" on Thursday and that Omar Minaya managed to fit in a quick conversation about Wells with Jays' GM J.P. Ricciardi [...]
The Fenway Bird
With the Winter Meetings having occupied the minds of most baseball bloggers this week, I thought it might be nice to post something totally unserious just to remind ourselves that at it's heart, baseball's best quality is that it's fun. With no futher ado, I present The Fenway Bird, a funny series of photos [...]
J.P. loses another arm
First he lost Lilly. Now it appears that J.P. Ricciardi and the Jays have also missed out on righty Gil Meche. So much for J.P.'s confidence that he could reel in both pitchers. Where does this leave the pitching desperate Jays on the last day of the Winter Meetings? Earlier this week, Ricciardi mentioned Jeff [...]
Jays missed a chance
Ted Lilly is getting some tremendous attention at the Winter Meetings. I agree with the comments over at MLB Trade Rumors: the market for pitching this off-season is ludicrous. Lilly is good, but he's not worth $12 million/year. I am kind of hoping that J.P. loses out on Lilly and then pursues another arm. There's [...]
Nationals in the hunt for Manny?
I was pretty surprised to hear last week that the Padres were a frontrunner to acquire the services of Manny Ramirez. San Diego needs bats, true enough, but I just didn't think that they could put together a package that would satify Theo Epstein while simultaneously not ravaging the Padres' farm system. Also, I'm not [...]
Jays go with Clayton up the middle
Just as I was typing out this statement in my previous post, "[Counsell] could have provided excellent mentorship for the Jays' young infielders", a press release was being written on the other side of the continent to inform the baseball world that veteran shortstop Royce Clayton was signed by the Blue Jays today. A hat [...]
Bad day in the press for agent Lozano
It hasn't been a great day in the press for sports agent, Dan Lozano. Both Rod Barajas and Tony Graffanino reportedly have lost deals due to Lozano's efforts. Barajas apparently signed a 2-year deal with the Jays only to back out shortly before his physical. The defensive catcher made the agreement while under the advisement [...]
Signing Acta is one of Bowden's best moves
While I haven't been a big fan of Jim Bowden and his style of running the Nationals, I haven't written him off completely. In fact, I think he shows some real moments of baseball intelligence at times. Signing Manny Acta as the Nationals' new manager is an example of one of Jim's best moves with [...]
Han-Ram caps hot season with top rookie honors
Hanley Ramirez has emerged as the winner of the NL Rookie of the Year award, narrowly beating the Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman by just 4 points. It was one of the tightest races in the history of the award, highlighted by the presence of three Marlins in the top 4 (Ramirez, Dan Uggla and Josh Johnson). [...]
Padres risk publicity fallout if Baker is hired
I'll start by being completely upfront: I don't know very much about Dusty Baker's managerial style. He seemed to do alright as the Giants' skipper, but Cubs fans grew to despise him. Now that Baker has parted ways with the Cubbies (who tapped Lou Piniella as their new manager), and Bruce Bochy has made his [...]
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