A very charitable Richard Griffin calls the Jays the best team in the East, dollar for dollar, and talks with J.P. about the game's changing fiscal landscape.
"I flew down with all the Red Sox guys," Ricciardi said of his flight from the family homestead in Boston. "They all looked miserable, to be honest with you. All these guys being talked about as being dealt are all the big-money guys. Teams are finding out that outside of the Red Sox and Yankees, who can handle those contracts? They strap you so much financially. Maybe they'd rather have the flexibility more than one player. You can ask (Yankees GM Brian) Cashman and Theo (Bosox counterpart Epstein)."
Because Griff isn't being controversial or provocative here, I don't expect the usual heated discussion about the column, which is worth reading.
Among the several free-agent shortstops who might be offered employment by the Jays are Denny Hocking, Royce Clayton, Rey Ordonez and Chris Gomez. Of the four, Hocking, a 33-year-old switch-hitter, is the only one who bats left-handed.
Nice little additions. Unfortunately for the Jays, just as in boxing, a good big man will beat a good little man every time, so in baseball will a good big team beat a good little team every time. That's why the Jays are still looking at a third-place finish in the wacky world of daily one-upmanship that is the AL East.
That's exactly what most of us are saying here too, while clinging to the fan's dream of being the next Angels, the next Marlins. For a refreshing change, Griffin doesn't try to spin this reality as a bad thing. He also drops two names among the free-agent relievers: Roberto Hernandez and Mike DeJean.
Both have closed before, but Roberto's almost as old and almost as round as me, so I definitely prefer DeJean. Keeping in mind that there will be other possibilities on the market a week from Monday, and that the interest may or may not be mutual, as with Mr. Worrell, Mike might be the guy. He was really very good in 2001 and 2002, but slipped a little last season. The last time he had an off-year was 1999, and he bounced back fairly well.
19 saves for the Cardinals last season filling in for the injured Jason Isringhausen.
This is why writers have to do that extra bit of research sometimes, if they aren't paying attention. As most of us already know, 18 of DeJean's saves were for the Brewers, before St. Louis traded for him as a setup man and bullpen insurance. Of course, I'm just nit-picking; I've been known to be lazy and make the odd mistake myself.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20031213111114999