I’ve made up my mind: I can’t stand Warren Sawkiuw. It’s hard to imagine, but he’s become even more irritating than St. Jerry. I got so annoyed today that I turned off the game and went out into the glorious Ontario autumn. Much better; but that can’t be what they want, is it?

Saw-cue’s notion of a ‘colour-man’ seems to be that it is his duty/right to offer comments after virtually every batter--maybe even every pitch! He can scarcely wait for Jerry to finish speaking before he jumps in with a rambling, often scarcely understandable, observation. He *loves* instructional jargon, going on repeatedly about rolling over, planes, loading the hands, being inside the ball and such gibberish. Maybe he and Mickey Brantley relish this stuff, but very, very few others give a sweet damn about it. For most it’s just worthless noise.

Rance Mulliniks is a model of judicious and well-timed ‘colour commentary’. He does not feel the need to speak after every play; nor does he feel the need to flaunt his genuine expertise. He knows the game is not about him.

(Don’t think I’ve gone soft on St. Jerry, by the way. Same old blather from him-–but I’ve noticed recently, not for the first time, that he has real trouble with Latino names that have “gui” in them. I forget the earlier Jay whose name he insistently butchered, but now Quiroz is getting the treatment. It’s not “gooli-yermo”.)

I like Jerry in general, but this particular quirk bugs me too... to his credit Jerry now says Vlad "Guerrero" correctly, where he used to say something like "Gewerro".

And yes, Sawkiw must go.

I'm looking forward to not seeing Miguel Batista closing out ballgames for the Blue Jays next season. I like to enjoy the 9th inning, not spend it in a constant state of aggravation.

Hey, you know what? In the end, the Jays scored 16 runs in the series and allowed 17. Against a great team like the Yankees, that's not so bad. A break here and there and the Jays sweep.

</optimism>

Please, please, just let JP have some time to develop a well run team! Be patient, let the man work. After a season of injuries, he went out and got depth. This is a solid ballclub. He went out and has a nice bullpen now. There is a lot of competition for rotation spots, and he can make trades. Before, he had so little to trade, outside the untouchable. His two first rounders are doing well (adams and hill). Let's wait and see what the offseason brings.

Critical notes: I have felt JP has been too patient with some players, but not enough with others. For example, having Joe Lawrence play for months when Hudson was sent down a few years ago. He let Trevor Miller walk, but acquired De la Santos (Miller finished much better with Tampa that year). This year they have not let Gross play enough, sending him down after a few games at the start.

I think that you will not see the jays sign a new closer next year, frasor or speier will fill that role.

I was looking over the "jp sucks post", and I was thinking that this offseson will make or break ricciardi. While I understand why he would want a real #2 starter, the club's offensive woes can't be ignored. If it came to a choice between signing burnett or konerko, konerko should be given the priority. I just can't understand why the club would make burnett the #1 target ...

IMO, jp has made tons of mistakes. The signing of catallanato, lighterfluid, tons of unproductive relievers, letting go of carpenter, lopez, and izturis, and not to mention signing hinske. When he thinks the club needs extra pitching, and gives it priority, it makes no sense to me.

For me, an acceptable offseason with the money jp has to spend would include getting both konerko and giles to sign here ... or obtaining two new #3/#4 of equal value. Why can't we trade rios/chacin/bush to obtain a #2 starter ? The pitching free agent market is thinner than the hitting one.

I just can't understand why the club would make burnett the #1 target

I just can't understand why anyone would assume that Burnett is the #1 target. Has anyone in Jays management ever stated this?

-Still on the bandwagon in K-Town

I was trying to believe that Warren Sawkiw was just growing into the role, but I still find him stilted and irritating.

Perhaps I need to find a recording from the start of the season and compare to see if there's been improvement -- if there has, I'm all for giving him a bit longer to get into gear. If not, I'd be happy for the team to call his season as colour man an experiment and audition someone else next year.

I agree that Rance has been exemplary on Sportsnet. I'd like to see him in that role full time next season. Sorry to the other three, none of whom were genuinely bad (though Candiotti didn't sound like he was having quite as much fun this year, which was a shame -- he had this little twinkle in his voice that I enjoyed). I think that a game every week or other week with Darrin Fletcher would be a scream, just for some comic relief, if Rance didn't want the gig full-time.

<i> Has anyone in Jays management ever stated this? </i>

The first words out of Paul Godfrey in the broadcast today, when asked about FA acquisitions, was that they looked for a pitcher. JP said it as well previously.

Because of all sorts of rumours from the past, I assumed it's burnett.

And to defend the Ligtenberg signing, nothing in his history suggested that he had a degenerative hip ailment that would effectively end his major league career.

J.P. has said that no one aside from Halladay is untouchable and that the team needs a couple of bats and a #2 starter. So he knows what to do and has announced that he's going to do it, all that is left is for him to do it.

I didn't hear Godfrey on the broadcast... what was the question? I don't quite get what he said by your account above. And even if a pitcher is the top FA target, that doesn't mean it's a bad idea. It might even just mean that they plan on trading for bats rather than signing them. What I've heard from JP is "a couple of scary bats and a starter". Giddyup, I say.

I generally assume that Jays management is smarter and better-informed than me when it comes to baseball. Part & parcel with that is that I don't assume they'll screw up this offseason before it's even started. They didn't have a great offseason last year, but it wasn't too bad under the circumstances. And I thought they had a great offseason after the 2003 season, and even many of the general naysayers were excited at the time. Not that they'll admit it now.

But it's not just Warren on the radio. I believe last year he hosted the Blue Jay broadcasts on Sports Net. Even then I found myself reacting negatively to him. I really do hate to say this, because it seems like a personal shot, but maybe he is just a guy who rubs audiences the right way.

"And to defend the Ligtenberg signing,"

Baltimore could have had ligtenberg for 1.2 million a season, jp chose to sign for 2 years at 2,2.5 million.

From johny german: "a couple of scary bats"

nope. On WWJP he said the bats he will probably get are not scary ... If it is meant to lower expectations, that's fine. But I hope he doesn't mean another average player like hillenbrand, cat., etc.

Baltimore could have had ligtenberg for 1.2 million a season, jp chose to sign for 2 years at 2,2.5 million.

What's your point? That he had to be paid more to lure him to Toronto and then had his career ended by a degenerative hip ailment, so therefore the signing was bad?

I'm frankly bored to tears by cries of "overpayment", as if by signing Ligtenberg for a million dollars less the Jays would suddenly have a high-powered offense. If they were close to signing some megawatt hitter for eight million bucks but he wanted nine and the team couldn't afford it, then it'd make some kind of difference. In the absence of that scenario, what difference does it make?

Similarly, if those bats come to Toronto and cost more than they would have somewhere else I will not care one tiny little bit, provided they are functional power bats. If they go out and sign ace Yankee centre fielder Tony Womack to big dollars, I'll cry.

I didn't hear Godfrey on the broadcast... what was the question?

IIRC - the question was what were the jays off-season trade/FA priorities, Godfrey replied a starting pitcher and a middle of the order hitter.

I think JayFan0912 is right, I accidently paraphrased Wilner rather than Ricciardi when I said "a couple scary bats". But I still don't see the point of getting all worked up over speculation on what the Jays might do this offseason... I see them as having some good pieces in place, a good chunk of money to spend, and quite a bit of talent on the farm. I think contending in '06 is well within reach at this point, and I'm not going to panic about the sky falling until they've actually gone ahead and shipped out McGowan & League & Hill for Joe Randa.

Good post JG.

Everyone's gonna yell at me but...

Burnett will sign with Boston. Guaranteed.
No other starter is a REAL SIGNIFICANT upgrade for us.

JP will try to get a stopper, BJ maybe? But if we can't we're OK.

JP knows we need TWO power bats. He'll be able to get one. I predict D. Young, look at his splits away from Detroit.

With improvement from Adams, Hill, Gross and Wells AND better pitching 1 through 12 or 13 than most any other team in the AL we'll challenge in 06 for a playoff spot.

No s*it! So calm down girls don't get your panties in a knot. The sun will shine again. Amen

Saw-cue’s notion of a ‘colour-man’ seems to be that it is his duty/right to offer comments after virtually every batter--maybe even every pitch! He can scarcely wait for Jerry to finish speaking before he jumps in with a rambling, often scarcely understandable, observation. He *loves* instructional jargon, going on repeatedly about rolling over, planes, loading the hands, being inside the ball and such gibberish

Sawkiw has caused me turn off the radio many times this season. (Are you listening Rogers???)

My biggest pet peeve is that he's incapable of forming complete thoughts (or at least communicating them). He'll start off making a comment about a player, and before the sentence is over he gets distracted and finishes off with something completely unrelated to the point he was trying to make.

And I agree on the technical jargon. It adds very little to the broadcast unless it is accompanied by a clear explanation. Which unfortunately Sawkiw does not not seem to be able to provide.

Browsing the interesting site prosportsdaily.com, I noticed an article by the Trenton Times advocating strongly that the Phillies need to give first base to Ryan Howard and, in order to clear up some payroll, trade Tome while eating half his ontract.

"Jim Thome has $43.5 million left on his deal (counting the $3M buyout after 2008) and it would make tremendous sense for the Phils to pay half of that if they can find a taker that meets Thome's approval (he has a no-trade clause)."

If this were possible, I would be very pleased if JP would make a move like this. I would be very wary of Thome's full contract, but for 3 years of Tome at around 7 million a year, I would be estatic.

Man, it really irritates me when I make silly spelling/typing errors.

Hopefully Mr. Tome will forgive me...

Having money doesn't mean spending it just for the sake of spending it. I certainly won't be satisfied if JP ends up paying Jarrod Washburn $8 million a season. Sure, JP is going to have to overpay free agents to sign here, but if he does, it should be for impact talent, not marginal talent.

I think Rios is done with the Jays after this season. With Ricciardi trying to compete over the next two seasons, I don't expect Rios to be playing everyday in the outfield when the team has to HOPE he provides an OPS over .750. Considering he should still have high value in a trade, I could see him traded for a Huff or Wilkerson type player.

I actually see Ricciardi moving both Rios and Hudson in the off-season, while plugging Gross in an outfield spot and Aaron Hill at 2B. It wouldn't be a good off-season for PR (Hudson at least is very popular), but JP has accumulated the chips, now he has to deal with them accordingly.

""No s*it! So calm down girls don't get your panties in a knot. The sun will shine again. Amen""

How do I untie them? That is the question. And hurry I have to get to class... Damn panties.

I can only imagine the venom that would be being directed at JP right now had he acquired Huff (.733 OPS) or Wilkerson (.759 OPS) prior to this season...

Which is not to say I don't think these two are good players who will likely bounce back and should be considered as possible acquisitions this offseason. Just sayin', the typical fan is only satisfied with good process AND good results, most are not willing to accept that good process doesn't always net good results.

And before we hear about pitcher's parks in TBay and Washington, allow me to point out that Huff has a .709 OPS on the road, Wilkerson .764.

Of course, the converse is true. Does anyone really think that J.P. thought Gregg Zaun would have performed quite as well as a Blue Jay as he has? People are perfectly willing to give J.P. credit for a great pickup on that one, though.

Of course, Zaun isn't even really performing *that* much better than could be expected... it's sad that I can't think of anyone else on the team that is having a "surpisingly good" season... (okay, Chacin or Towers, I suppose)

Didn't JP say that Hudson isn't going anywhere? He's also said that "we like the group of guys we have right now."

I think trading Hudson and using Adams/Hill at SS/2B is a bit premature. You're giving up terrific defense and consistent (if average) offense. Hill is a good athlete but he's been looking a lot like Joe Lawrence since his torrid start (his july/aug/sept ops are 574/701/464). Adams, who has also cooled down massively of late, plays respectable but hardly stellar SS. Finally, Koskie hasn't impressed this year; if Hill does start to get in a groove, as we're all hoping, we may need him at 3B before too long, not second.