The O-Dog and Joe Crede are probably the two free agents available this year that I thought would prove to be the best players to sign, considering possible production for dollars paid. We shall see, of course, but the first part is in place: that is, they look like bargains so far. The big IF is physical condition because the back (Crede) and hand (Hudson - wrist, actually) seem to be areas that take a long time to come back from. All in all, these are two contracts I expect to pay off.

Looks like Marcum's throwing is better than expected...might he be back later this year? Only the Shadow knows. (For you youngins the Shadow is a 1940s and 50s comic book crime fighter - you know you're getting old when you have to explain all the idioms you use).

Also, looks like Overbay had THREE hernia operations over the winter and will be getting "in shape" during spring training - instead of comming to spring training in shape - great (not). Apparently, Cito is going to take it easy - early on - for Overbay AND Rolen as Scott plays himself into shape - Rolen has decided his "new lower arm angle when swinging" is for real and he's going to work on perfecting it this spring. Good luck Scott!

On the O'Dog - the Jays didn't get him back because he refused to promise JP he wouldn't call him a pimp again.

Cito is NOW saying Snider will have to be "real bad" to NOT make the team and Accardo will "have to play himself off the team."

IF - Halladay, Litsch, Purcey, Richmond and either Cecil or Clement win as starters, then Janssen will battle for a crowded pen spot... Lefties Ryan, Downs, Carlson and Tallet are "for sures" that leaves Accardo, League, Janssen, Wolfe, Frasor and Camp fighting for 3 spots - yikes! Looks to me like a trade is gonna' be in the works before March is over.

Curt Schilling speaks to the O-Dog issue on his blog 38 pitches on WEEI today....

Game changer? You bet. 02.20.09 at 8:05 pm ET
By Curt Schilling | 1 Comment

When you see a signing like this you can’t help but think where the game must be economically.

Not that we don’t already know it’s just a staggeringly bad time for this country but a signing like this, on this date, is a clear indication of how far things have gone.

Brian Butterfield , in addition to being a dear friend and one of my favorite coaches of all time, knows baseball. When Orlando was first in Toronto I asked Butter about most of their players, often more than once. Over the course of the season Orlando was a guy Butter thought highly of, and as the season went on, that opinion rose.

Described as a defensive ‘game changer’ Orlando brought a swagger and a chatterbox to the field not many young players did. As a pitcher I won’t lie, it was annoying, but the kid played, played hard, and was damn good to boot.

This, and there will be a few others, signing is one that won’t get the ink it should, but could have a very significant impact on the NL West this season. A division that is already very tight can swing with the signing of just one player, especially one of Orlando’s caliber.

What is not being said is a) Orlando Hudson is not the O-dawg anymore and b) the salary and the draft pick made Hudson very, very, unattractive as an asset.

I bet the players union will flight hard to change the FA compensation in the next contract. Many teams will want to change the system too. This is the one message this (now thankfully almost past) hot-stove season has said to me.

Only a few more days until ST games! Huzzah!

But next year's free agent crop will cause an entirely different reaction, I would think. There don't seem to be nearly as many players to get excited about, so the competition will probably be fierce again - unless, of course, the baseball economy has gone down the drain by then.

So is it just me, or- despite the lack of offseason drama- do others also think this could be one of the most "interesting" seasons for the Jays in a while. Consider:

On the positive side:

• Will Purcey and Cecil show us the future?
  
• Is Snider is good as he looks?
• Is Rios finally ready to break out?
• Is Wells the 30/120 guy he used to be (and to which he was trending last season)?
• Can Janssen, McGowan and Hill return to form?

On the dramatic side:

• Will Rogers sell the Jays given the death of their namesake, the falling dollar and now quarterly losses?
• Will this be exacerbated through attendance decline- due to a poor offseason and the state of the economy?
• Will Halladay leave? Will they trade him if the season is a write off?
• Will JP keep his job? If not will Cito?
• What happens to the season if one of Halliday, Wells or Rios is injured?
• Will a fire sale happen if the team tanks?

The Jays could look quite different 12 months from now. For better or for worse.

Why would the competition be fierce next year? I'm starting to think we've witness a sea-change in that enough teams are willing to pass on FA that don't represent significant upgrades over internal options (I do believe that if Crede hadn't come down, the Twins would have gone with a pretty sad 3B platoon). I know we ought to just wait and see, but I think the league has turned a corner and has tipped the balance toward refrain from signing FA unless they are sure to wring more value from said FA than the 1st round pick.

I agree Chris, free agency is almost certainly going to be scraped in the next CBA. In the past, the question was why would the MLBPA be willing to let this go without getting anything in return. Now, it makes sense for both sides. The owners can do whatever they feel like to the draft without the MLBPA's consent and baseball players won't be stuck without a team due to the compensation that would need to be paid (a sacrifice which is being committed for non-members of the MLBPA). In the end everyone probably wins.

I think with Purcey, the future is now. He's going to be 27 a couple of weeks into the season.
Yes, he's a lefty and they always are tantalisingly inconsistent (see Ted Lilly) but I think he deserves a full shot. I know in past posts I've said that if he's stinking it up after two months to dump him, but I've changed my mind. I think we NEED to see him through a full 32 starts and see how he reacts/performs. It might be a long season like the ones Edwin Jackson has turned in in the past but I think that if you're going to have a number 5 guy with league average ERA, you may as well have one who's got the potential to break out... and this guy's got the pedigree and minor league success.

I think the next CBA is going to be interesting. This year a lot of free agents are trapped in a purgatory of sorts because they're Type A free agents and no one wants them because of the pick they lose. So maybe we might see more players forego free agency and agree to arbitration. Hell, this might make more players willing to sign long term deals that covers their arbitration years, which would be a plus for small market teams that happen to draft a real stud.
As for the whole concept of free agency, it appears that too many teams are losing... i.e, they must trade away talent because they can't afford them. These same teams are starting to lose in the draft too because the draft has sort of become free agency as well as small market teams can't afford to draft good talent because of high bonus demands.
I think that there's going to be a lot of serious negotiations which might be bad for fans because we might face a lockout. The MLBPA would probably not be pleased if there was a maximum contract for rookies/draftees.
It'll be interesting to see what happens!

I like Crede to the Twins.  I think he's a better option than Punto.  He's a longshot to regain his power stroke, but i'd bet on him posting an OPS+ of 90 - 100 before I'd bet on Punto doing it.

Hudson at 2B gives the Dodgers an above average offensive MI, provided Furcal can make the majority of starts at SS this year. If they can just sign Manny they will have the best offence in the NL West.

My apologies for going off topic, but I value the opinions of the batters box community so much that I figured that this is the best place to ask this question. Any personal advice is appreciated. I have a small problem in that I don't have a working tv with any connection to cable, satellite, etc... and I need to get my blue jay fix this summer. I was thinking of going with mlbtv internet package, because I do have a fairly decent computer with high speed internet. I know that they have a package that's about $80 for the season. I know that they also block all live bluejays games anywhere in canada, which sucks, because I'm on PEI and don't really think I'd be able to get to the game,      :( Anyway, just a question for anyone that uses it or has used it. When the games are archived, do they show the score in the link to the game. In other words, is there any way for me to watch the game the next morning or later that night, without knowing the outcome of the game. It wouldn't be as much excitement for me if I knew the outcome before watching the game. Not saying it wouldn't satisfy the cravings, but just want to know what I'm getting myself into. Any info would be appreciated.

you have my vote!!!

honestly, your best option might be less-than-legal.  justin.tv streams or tvu player streams are usually workable options, though they are a bit of a hassle.  MLB really needs to remove the blackout from all of Canada. 

Jeff Blair reports that Lyle Overbay underwent surgery for a couple of hernias and will miss the 1st week of Grapefruit League action. 

Dr. Phil, check out www.myp2p.eu.  Lots of free sports streams there though you may need to install a free player like Sopcast or TVU.  Jays games aren't always listed there but often they are.

The Feb 23 team (Happy birthday, dad):

C-        Elston Howard
1B-      Bobby Bonilla
2B-      Ron Hunt
SS-      Rudy Hulswitt
3B-      Ken Boswell
LF-      Rondell White
CF-     John Shelby
RF-     Roy Johnson
DH-    Jim O'Neill

Bench- John Morris (OF), Jim Anderson (UI), Mike Tresh (C), Lynn Myers (UI), Billy Lauder (3B)

SP-     Ray Brown
SP-     Scott Elarton
SP-     Lou Lowdermilk
SP-     Ulysses Grant Thatcher
SP-     Luke Prokopec
RP-     Edgar Gonzalez
RP-     Dave Maurer
RP-     Juan Agosto
RP-     Don Shaw
RP-     Phil Haugstad

Mike, pretty off-handed of you to do that for your dad's birthday. "Many returns, dad -- here's the worst defensive team in the history of the game, but to balance that, there's no real talent in the pitching staff, either!"

 

Odalis Perez has been released by the Nats because he wants more money (he deserves it) I hope the Jays sniff around and offer a better, but not much, 1 year deal and tell him he's got a decent shot at cracking the rotation (which should please him because apparently the Nats deal was attractive to him because of playing time until he realized that objectively worse pitchers received much more money).

Dr. Phil - The archived games DO have the scores on them, so they aren't of much help if you are trying to watch the game later without wanting to know the score. If you asked the moral police what to do, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be too fond of you streaming the video illegally from the internet. An option that is probably also illegal but feels better on my moral compass is to pay for the MLB.TV package and use a proxy IP address, which basically makes the program think you aren't in Canada (but rather international or the US) and allows you to watch the Jays games even in PEI. As a college student in NYC with no TV but a subscription to MLB.TV I used to do this any time the Jays played the Yankees - I myself didn't feel it was stealing to enable myself to watch something that I in essence had paid for. But technically, it was.

An interesting note from Rotoworld...

It initially looked like Cecil was destined to begin the season at Triple-A Las Vegas but now it appears that a solid spring training could get him on the Opening Day roster. "Hey, we need pitchers here, and if we have to shut him down at the end of the season, we'll do that, but if he's good enough, he's pitching up here," manager Cito Gaston said.

That actually sounds really good to me.  Cecil has a shot at the majors, but if his innings get up there he will be shut down.  Thus the Jays have a plan for how much use he will get and if he can handle the majors we shouldn't see 200 IP or something else that could blow his arm out.

I think the most beneficial thing to do for Cecil (if he's ready) is throw him in the bullpen to start the year. The Jays already have 4 lefties down there, though.

I know, Mick.  My dad was a big Elston Howard fan, although Lou Boudreau was his all-time favourite.  He doesn't mind rooting for the underdog, and with this club, you'd get that opportunity four days in every five (i.e. when Brown wasn't starting). 

I know that was an old theory, let kids work out of the pen to start, but it is hard to say what the best method is.  With the rotation Cecil would know every 5th day he is pitching and if they go on a strict pitch limit I don't see why it would have to be a problem.  A rotation of Halladay-Litsch-Purcey-Richmond (or another RHP)-Cecil could be interesting.  Two lefties, 3 right handers, no pressure on Cecil at the end of the rotation, and once McGowan comes back whoever is doing the worst of the group goes to AAA.

 

Thus the Jays have a plan for how much use he will get and if he can handle the majors we shouldn't see 200 IP or something else that could blow his arm out.

 

I'm fairly certain they've stated publicly that Cecil is on a 170ip limit this year.

170IP is not really that much of a cap for Cecil. That's 30 starts of 5.2ip, and I'm not sure you want Cecil pitching into the 7th anyway after barely going past 5 last year. I would think that that is the reason why if he's ready he will make the team, without a concern for having to shut him down later in the season - they will just remove him earlier from games so that won't be a problem. And with their bullpen it's not a bad idea.