Ford Frick Voting Is Open

I voted for Douchet and Cheek, I encourage everyone to take a look.

Anyone have an update on the budget situation? Does JP know how much he has available to spend in 2007 (with Rogers holding back on an announcement) or is Rogers simply taking its time coming up with the new budget?

It's free agent season, so it would be nice for the front office to know what they have to work with.

I always get a chuckle every year when we get the 'Player X filed for free agency' stories that really aren't stories.  I guess they show up because that's really all there is after the WS for 'news' and to let people know who's a free agent (although if you pay attention you already know this).

I think the Jays will be better off trying to lock up Lilly and Speier prior to free agency (assuming they really want to sign one or both of them which I'm not certain of).  Once those two hit the free agent market they're not going to be coming back to Toronto - the money will just be too big.

Ricciardi has $12.5 million at this moment
Star article

The Star article suggests that the $12M available is based on an $80M budget. But late in the season Rogers conceded that the Jays needed more money to compete in the AL East. Subsequent reports speculated that the budget could be around $85-100M in 2007. But no one has said anything lately. But by now JP must have some idea of what's likely to happen. How else is he supposed to negotiate with Wells or any free agents?

There's no reason for the Jays to make their budget public (although they've tended to do this).  Just because the public doesn't know doesn't mean the Jays don't know.

A) I hope there never is an official anouncement about the budget, and JP just knows. Isn't this better from a bargaining position?

B) Can someone say Mike Piazza? He'd be cheap, so I'd have a catch trio of Piazza, Zaun and Phillips, and Piazza would be the primary DH. Then bring in a defensive minded short stop like Alex Gonzalez once the Red Sox snag Julio Lugo and he starts sucking (but if he's a Blue Jay he would be awesome). And then for cheap you have good defence, improved offence and catching situation. The only thing I worry about is, does PIazza really fit with the fabric of the team? Like, he's kinda old, and the team is young. Perhaps 1 or two veterans would spice things up and give that sense of urgency. I don't know much about PIazza, maybe he's too much of an ego case to deal with over all the young and mostly inexperienced talent on the team.

I'm just throwing this one out there, but what about picking up Gary Sheffield? He's pretty unhappy about being in NYC, and I actually doubt he'll end up as a Yankee. At $13M, he looks like a pretty good bargain, and can probably be had for either a middle reliever, middle of the rotation starter or package of prospects. He could play LF and DH for the Jays, and adds some more good pop to the lineup.

Sheffield would be a great pickup, but I doubt the Yankees would want to trade him to another AL East team.  In the article on Foxsports right now, they even suggested the Yankees want him out of the AL altogether, let alone the East.

The best catcher on the market -- I don't count Piazza as a catcher at this point -- is the one guy in our current "Which current free agent will have the biggest 2007 impact?" poll to receive NO votes, of the 10 listed. Mike Lieberthal -- not a Hall of Famer, but is there something wrong with this former All-Star (health-wise,  long-term) of which I am unaware?

I've always liked Lieberthal, but here's what I had to say about him in the Phillies preview last spring:

Lieberthal has been a fine player, but he just turned 34, he's caught about 1100 major league games, and his offense has been declining these past two years.

He then went out and played 67 games, and his offense didn't exactly bounce back. I still like him, but there's good reason to be a wee bit nervous about him.

Piazza's interesting - you'd want to get him some help, because he couldn't throw out me trying to steal. You couldn't have him catching against Tampa, for example. But get him out of those awful hitter's parks he's spent his entire career in, ease the wear on his body by DHing him regularly... he could be the Frank Thomas of 2007.

To be specific, Lieberthal missed most of the season between injuries to his left knee (recurrent), hip and low back.  After his low back injury, he returned sporadically in September.  As the Phillies were in the wild card hunt, one guesses that he had not been a full recovery; otherwise he would likely have played more than one game in three.