Moffatt is such a tool. I can say that whether sober or not.

Moffatt is such a tool. I can say that whether sober or not.

You lose 100 million points and win a picture of the DVD cover of Battlefield Earth for being mean:



Good work identifying the song Sober by Tool, though. :)

I like how they clairified the artwork so you won't mistake it for Battlefield Earth: The Opera.

Battlefield Earth: The Opera

There's no such thing. It'd violate the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons.

http://me.woot.net
I have only two hopes for the hockey work stoppage: that this coming hockey season is utterly lost, and that the Jays can capitalize on the enormous window of opportunity it gives them. The worst possible outcome, in my opinion, would be a re-start of the season midway through, which leads to a later Stanley Cup final.

If the (Hockey) Fan 590 can just be torn away from talking about the fact there's no hockey about 2 months in to the stoppage, our FIghting Jays might have a fighting chance.

And now for diversion. If you're upset about the rioting last night in Toronto, visit Oolong the pancake rabbit. (There is a link to the original Japanese site from that English site.)

By the way, I may be a bad person: I liked Battlefield Earth: The Book in addition to the very pulpy Mission Earth series. Any day now I may be looking for thetans.

I missed rioting? Was there looting, too? Because I need new speakers.

Poor Barry Pepper, thank God that movie didn't kill his career; even the poster looks terribly hokey.

Poor Barry Pepper, thank God that movie didn't kill his career; even the poster looks terribly hokey.

It looks like the millenium equivalent of 70's Atari video game art:

If Ted Rogers got off his wallet and bumped next year's payroll by some $8 million, then maybe Ricciardi could offer Delgado a contract that would pay him about $8 million to $9 million a year. At those numbers he may do more than listen.

I disagree with this.

The Jays could have a $50 million payroll and pay Delgado $10 million next year. Where it'd get trickier is in the years beyond that.

I was playing around with Gwyn's excellent salary spreadsheet today.

Consider this for 2005:

Rotation	
Halladay	10.500
Batista	         4.750
Lilly	         3.100
Towers	         0.750
Miller     	 0.320
Bush	         0.310

Bullpen	
Ligtenberg	 2.500
Kershner	 0.325
File	         0.310
Chulk	         0.315
Frasor	         0.315
Speier	         1.600

Catchers	
Zaun	         0.750
Quiroz	         0.300

Infield	
Delgado	        10.000
Crozier	         0.300
Hudson	         0.350
Gomez	         0.750
Menechino	 0.500
Adams	         0.300
Hinske	         3.000

Outfield/DH	
Wells	         2.900
Rios	         0.320
Cat	         2.700
Johnson	         0.330
Gross	         0.300
Total	        47.895

That gives you Delgado at $10 million, and still gives you $2 million more to use in other areas if the budget were to be $50 million.

Also, that list is 26 players (although you probably should assume you'll always have one player on the DL).

That gives you Delgado at $10 million, and still gives you $2 million more to use in other areas if the budget were to be $50 million.

Assuming you can get Delgado at $10 million (which I don't think is a great assumption), I still don't think it's worth it. The team above has an incredibly weak bullpen and even weaker pitching depth.

I'm not saying you can get Delgado at $10 million, but the assumption that the payroll needs to be bumped by $8 million in order to offer Delgado $8-9 million is way off to me.

If you have Menechino and Adams, why would you need Gomez?

Spend 2 million on a decent reliever and get one of your minor leaguers to contribute out of the pen and Pistol's team figures to be pretty good.

The question is, can you get more value for your 10 million by getting 3 players off the trade or free agent market than you'll get from Delgado. My sense is - yes.

If you have Menechino and Adams, why would you need Gomez?

Are you comfortable having Menechino play shortstop? I'm sure not. Then you need someone else to back up Adams.

Yes I am - you're talking about 15 games a year if Adams is healthy. If he gets hurt, then Aaron Hill gets called up.

Yes I am - you're talking about 15 games a year if Adams is healthy. If he gets hurt, then Aaron Hill gets called up.

Fair enough. Then Gomez really wouldn't have a spot on this team.

Pistol's list is almost exactly my preference. I'd like to see Chacin be given a chance against File/Chulk/Kershner out of spring training, but otherwise those would be the guys I'd like to see out there. The bullpen is not great, but the options out there in the price range the Jays can afford don't give great hope for improvement. I'd personally prefer to see how League, Vermilyea, Peterson, Arnold, Rosario and Banks are doing, rather than tapping the free agent market.

Frank Menechino is a fine platoon partner for Cat, as DH, by the way. He hits lefties at about the same rate as Cat hits righties. The DH combo would be the Ballpark Franks.

don't you guys have a fairly large scientology church up in toronto? i'd be careful slagging them...

"battlefield earth" the book wasn't bad...

don't you guys have a fairly large scientology church up in toronto? i'd be careful slagging them

Oh, yeah, what they gonna do? Release the dogs? Or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouth and when they bark, they shoot bees at you?

In all seriousness we haven't really talked about Scientology. Just references to a move that is pretty much universally agreed is a stinker.

They may send Kirstie Alley to eat you.

Sorry Joe, I missed this By the way, I may be a bad person: I liked Battlefield Earth: The Book in addition to the very pulpy Mission Earth series. Any day now I may be looking for thetans.

Mission Earth was great satire. But I read it in high school, doubt I'd be as entertained now.

Travolta saying "man-animal" is one of the most shameful moments in cinema ever. Does the DVD havedirector/actor commentary? That'd be rich.

Jays stuff:
If '05 is going to be another devlopment year, I can't see them bringing Delgado back, only because it will handcuff them beyond then. Better to see who develops in the minors, or becomes available cheap, and save the money to see where holes emerge for '06. There's enough talent in the lineup to be OK without him, but Hinske will have to rebound and Rios will have to start hitting for more power. Adams looks really nice right now, better than I expected, but it's only been a few games, and he's sure to go through some struggles. Hudson and Wells are really the only ones there's an established level of production for. I could see them being really good next year, but I coould also see some long growing pain slumps. They need one experienced power hitter in there, even if he's a gamble (Reggie Sanders, DL White, Cliff Floyd type).

Just references to a move that is pretty much universally agreed is a stinker.

That Travolta did because he's a whacked-out scientologist. They do have goons they send to your house if you try and leave the cult...L Ron's fleet used to toss people overboard if they got too uppity... so i guess, uh, don't get on a boat with them.

If you have Menechino and Adams, why would you need Gomez?

I was thinking that Adams wouldn't be playing 140+ games, but I didn't give that a whole lot of thought. If you chop Gomez off that list (taking it to 25 players) you'd have another $750k to use somewhere else.

I haven't seen too many Jays games lately, how does Adams look defensively at SS?

Thanks Pistol for pointing out that signing Delgado at $10M is difficult but not impossible. I've been on that soapbox for a while now. Whether that is enough to sign Delgado is uncertain but at least it's in the ballpark. But as I've posted earlier, Rogers could increase the budget to $55M without changing the $CDN value of the original $48M budget I agree with Mike Green about what the Jays could get on the FA reliever market. I'm not sure they couldn't do just as well with internal options, freeing up cash to sign Delgado and some other shiny trinket(s).

If I'm going to pick a dark horse next year, I call dibs on Jason Arnold. Something tells me that this is his time to shine: he's injury free and on a mission to prove the doubters wrong. I pick him to lock up the fifth spot in spring training and move Miller to the 'pen, where he will become an uber-closer :) I also see Douglass making it before File will, he's been quite good as a reliever this year, and the long man/clean-up role seems to be working this year for him.

* Rubs hands like giant fly on Family Guy: "good, good"

What about trying to get Trever Miller back... Are we counting upon Jason to bare the load of leftyism???

bare the load of leftyism

I'm not exactly sure what that is, but I'm positive it's something I definitely DO NOT want to see...

how does Adams look defensively at SS?

Way more range than I expected. He's gone out into medium LF near the line to grab a popup, and crossed the 2B plane into shallow right to flag down a couple of grounders. He did try an impossible throw on one of those when he should have eaten the ball, but that's rookie exuberance. He also airmailed one throw when he had plenty of time and set up well; that's the only play so far that concerns me. I thought he looked very comfortable on a couple of plays from the 2B side with the shift on, tagging out a runner on one and making a nice feed to "shortstop" Hinske on another. He appears to be smart, and the game up here isn't too fast for him.

Quiroz, on the other hand, needs some work. I don't care what the box scores say, a couple of those "wild pitches" should have been blocked. If you can't call a curve in the dirt or a splitter without risking it going through the 5-hole, you're not helping your pitcher or his confidence. That's not to suggest it's hopeless; he may simply be raw, but it's likely he's also "trying too hard" to make a first impression. Remember, Rios looked completely lost for a while, until he relaxed and trusted his talent, which is pretty good.

The problem with dropping Gomez and not replacing him with another infielder is that you then have Menechino as the only backup at 3 positions. And if your first baseman is Delgado (or some other lefty-swinger) there aren't going to be enough at-bats available available to bother having Crozier on the big league roster.

Coach, Quiroz was very, very good at blocking pitches in Syracuse. I'm quite sure that it's nerves, just like Rios.

The problem with dropping Gomez and not replacing him with another infielder is that you then have Menechino as the only backup at 3 positions. And if your first baseman is Delgado (or some other lefty-swinger) there aren't going to be enough at-bats available available to bother having Crozier on the big league roster.

Well said, Jonny.

Pistol's salary expectations also don't factor in a potential slight bump to salary budget. The media have been throwing around $52M in various articles, which may or may not prove to be true. If true, that would leave $4M to play with, which would be enough for a potential non-tender signing.

Additionally, not that it helps in the long term, maybe Carlos would be willing to defer some salary into future (read retired) years.

As far as the above budget goes, Lightenberger's salary sticks out like a sore thumb. If they are able to dump him in trade - even at the halfway mark next year - that would free up some cash as well.

I also think Kershner is toast given his performance in AAA after his demotion. For salary purposes they may have to spend a little more to get a LOOGY type of any reliability.

I would be real nervous with a Delgado 3 or 4 year deal at $10 million per. It really takes away flexibility. If anything ever happened to Doc and Carlos injury wise, the Jays would be hooped.

I know people expect that the Jays should fill DH and/or 1B by the spring with a couple of major bats but I am less convinced. Given the number of rookies likely to play, and the improvements needed to the bullpen, it will be mid season at the earliest before the Jays are playing as contenders. Two big bats are not going to put them into wild card contention. I would be more inclined to develop the young guys and when they hit their stride plug in a few sluggers to put you over the top.

Then again I don't have to put up with the BS media in TO or tickets

Damn, I wish I had gotten here (way) earlier. Tool is my favorite band, and I might have actually gotten some Roundup Points for once. IS this the first time a Roundup song came out of the 90's? ;)

Adams has looked good defensively to me, he has a strong arm and pretty good range. His only problem right now is accuracy, but that can be fixed.

What a mess the Mets are in: first, before the team could fire him, Art Howe announced he'll "stay to the end of the season." What does that mean? "He'll be here for tonight and we'll address whatever needs to be addressed tomorrow," said Jim Duquette. Now the reports are saying that the Mets fired Howe today, but the firing doesn't take effect till the end of the season. So is he fired or did he quit? And in either event, why is he still running the team?

Is there a franchise in more disarray right now than The Other New York Team? The Kazmir trade could wind up as one of those infamous deals people look back on for years. I love their infield, but that's about all there is to look forward to at Shea these days.

My understanding of the Howe situation is that the Mets decided to fire Howe but we're going to wait until the end of the year. Word got to Howe that he was going to be fired, so he came out with the 'if you're going to fire me, do it now' statements to the press. Then apparently yesterday he met with Duquette & Co and it looks like they decided to wrap up the season with Howe managing.

For a couple weeks I don't think it matters who manages.

IIRC, the Giants did this last year with Jim Fassel.

Is there a franchise in more disarray right now than The Other New York Team? The Kazmir trade could wind up as one of those infamous deals people look back on for years.

Rub it in why dontcha? :>

The other part they lost that will hurt is Huber, who was positioned to take over catching from Piazza, or, even if shifted to 1B, solidify the infield. He'd kept his OB% above .400 at AAA, and was starting to show power there. Wright-Reyes-Matsui-Huber would've looked nice. They dealt Wiggington at the right time, but he would've been nice to have around as a supersub. Zambrano was hurt when they got him and everyone knew it. Benson they could've gotten as a free agent after the season, and now they're committed to signing him to a Raul Mondesi above market deal. Too bad because for the first time in a while we had hope- Cameron made the pitchers better, Glavine turned it around, Wright may wind up being he best of all the stud 3B, Matsui was coming around before getting hurt, and Reyes will move back to SS next year.

Having money and playing in a big market can be an asset, but for the Mets it has been a liability.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1882054
Interesting little tid bit I found surfing the ESPN site.

COMN for a brief story on Lansing, currently a class A affiliate for the Cubs, becoming a part of the Jays minor league system.

Anyone notice yesterday that Rogers spent $1.7 BILLION dollars yesterday to reacquire AT&T's stake in the company?

Point for raising payroll:

With hockey possibly going on strike for the year, the Blue Jays have a golden opportunity to recapture the passion of Toronto. Spend now, improve drastically for next year, and it will be Maple Who?