The Star's Richard Griffin does a good job of summing up Ricciardi's Blue Jays in answering the mail bag:



Meanwhile, Roy Halladay pitches a gem, a complete game 3-1 victory at home over the Red Sox.

Interesting stat from ESPN.com: No pitcher has a better winning percentage during day games than the Blue Jays' Roy Halladay.

Pitcher Win Pct. Record
Roy Halladay .727 56-21
Pedro Martinez .718 74-29
Whitey Ford .713 57-23
Ron Guidry .711 54-22
Randy Johnson .708 92-38

All kinds of trade rumours continue for Halladay. If he is not traded by this Friday - I will be at what will quite possibly be his last home start as a Blue Jay against the Rays as that will be his last home start before the July 31 trade deadline. A friend who has a private box that night has invited 15 of us to join him. I'm sure it will be one of the few times that one of the corporate boxes at the Rogers Centre has hosted 16 gay guys at once. lol

I heard something like 12 teams had scouts or other management personnel at the last start for Halladay.

Updated - This story just appeared on the Toronto Star website saying a Halladay trade is now unlikely according to Ricciardi.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/article/669660

He can say that for public consumption but if a team makes a suitable offer, even if it's on July 30th, and if Halladay is willing to go, Ricciardi will make the deal.

C'mon Phillies (and Dodgers)... why are you not dangling your top prospects in exchange for Roy Halladay?! Dingle, dangle!

LOL! Enjoy.

Halladay apparently says he will become a free agent after 2010. If he's not willing to work out an extension, guaranteeing a team will get to keep him for more than a year-plus, that to me will drive down the price. Bargain bin!

Hey, how much is a World Series worth to you? Bid high!

Roy is 11-3 with a 2.73 ERA this season on a team that is below .500.

He has a career 143-69 record(!).

He doesn't know a lot, but even George W. Bush knows that Halladay is the best pitcher in baseball, someone you can build your team around.

Arizona's Dan Haren hasn't pitched fewer than 6 innings all year. He's allowed more than 3 runs only once (when he gave up 4 homers in, of all places, Oakland), and since then he's had 10 starts in a row with 7-plus innings allowing 2 runs or less in each. Plus he's signed through 2012 with a team option for 2013. If Arizona is willing to part with him and the price is right I'd VERY seriously consider him instead of Halladay.

Dan Haren's career numbers (3 teams in 7 years): 75-57, 3.52 ERA, 9 complete games and 2 shutouts. Most wins in a season (16). Number of 20 win seasons (0). Most losses in a season (13)

Roya Halladay's career numbers (1 team in 12 years): 142-69, 3.46 ERA, 44 complete games and 12 shutouts. Most wins in a season (22). Number of 20 win seasons (2). Most losses in a season (11).

That could mean Haren's got more of an upside. Even after he gave up 4 runs in 5 innings to the Pirates yesterday. Definitely means he's younger. His contract status makes him cheaper. He wouldn't have to adjust to NL pitching because he's already in the league.

Philly.com: Jays want Drabek, Happ, Brown for Halladay

Without a contract extension, I tend to think that's too high an asking price.

I don't know anything about those guys, but 3 prospects sounds reasonable. If Kyle Drabek is anything like his father Doug, I'm interested.

In what could be his last start as a Jay, Roy Halladay goes 9 innings and leaves with a tie. He's now tied with Randy Johnson for the most 9 (or more) inning starts since 1998 with 44. Halladay's line:

9.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K

Halladay lowers his ERA to 2.62, 4th best in the AL. He's also 4th in innings pitched (despite missing a couple of starts) and 5th in strikeouts.

Apparently the Phils agree with me, at least according to ESPN's Jayson Stark.

I had the sports-talk radio station on earlier. According to the hosts Halladay last night denied saying he wouldn't sign an extension, as Ricciardi had stated, and that ownership has essentially put Ricciardi under a gag order until the whole thing is over with.

Ricciardi was trying to put the blame for a trade not going down on Halladay. Halladay never asked for a trade. Ricciardi was the one to announce that the Jays were entertaining offers. He does this just prior to the All Star Game, putting Halladay on the spot. Rather than being praised as the starting pitcher, he's grilled about whether he thinks he'll be traded or not. Then Ricciardi says he doesn't think a deal will go down, perhaps because few teams showed legit interest. I think the Red Sox and Yankees realize that it would be PR suicide for the Jays to trade their best player to their divisional rivals, so they didn't bother offering. But with only the Phillies and Dodgers showing serious interest, Ricciardi was unable to set up a bidding war. Then Ricciardi says that Halladay forced his hand, saying that he would test free agency... implying that he wouldn't sign an extension wit a team that acquires him (thus lessening Halladay's value). Halladay has denied this. He told the Jays that he was not going to *now* sign an extension with the Jays, but wanted to wait and see how the team was doing in 2010. But Ricciardi is trying to make Roy, one of the most upstanding players in team history, into some kind of villain. But this is Ricciardi's M.O. He tried to make Carlos Delgado a villain before he ran him out of town. Now he's trying to make Roy a villain while he's trying to shop him around. The guy is not only incompetent, he's a low life sleeze.

Doesn't seem like any fans are falling for Ricciardi's painting of Halladay as a villain. That's good. Maybe it'll get him fired sooner.

There is no way Ricciardi will succeed in convincing Jays fans that Halladay is the bad guy in this sad story. He is probably one of the most loved players in franchise history.

I was at the game on Friday night and what the fans on TV did not see - was that not only did the crowd give Halladay loud standing ovations as he came off the mound after the top of the 8th and 9th innings - but in the 9th that standing ovation just kept getting louder and louder right through until the first pitch of the bottom of the inning with a few fans near us even wiping away some tears.

Looks like the Phils have told the Jays to do something that Dick Cheney once told Sen. Leahy. They've reportedly agreed to a trade for Cleveland's Cy Young winner Cliff Lee and outfielder Ben Francisco. The Phils are giving up 4 players, none of whom are the players the Jays were asking for (Happ, Drabek, Brown). What happens to Halladay now?

This is great news, the Phillies gave up a lot less to get Lee and got a bat off the bench to boot. I wonder if JP will now be more desperate and trade Halladay to one of the remaining interested teams for less than he wants.

From what I'm reading, no. It now seems highly unlikely that the Jays will trade Halladay (who lost to the Mariners today in a 3-2 game where the Jays could muster only 3 hits). I really feel bad for the guy. The chance at being traded to a division leading team (Phillies, Dodgers, Angels...), play meaningful games, be in the spotlight, likely pitch in the post season... and now he may be stuck pitching for the Jays (now 4 games under .500 and 13 games out of first) for the rest of the season... and maybe even next season (some have suggested that the Jays will hold Halladay to his contract and not move him at all). A dismal prospect for a guy who signed the 3-year extension because (a) he was loyal, and (b ) he was promised that the team would contend.

Two more starters got traded, but not Halladay. It seems to me like the Jays are going to get less than they think if and when they finally do trade him.

Halladay stays, but Rolen goes.

Jays send Scott Rolen (.320, 8hr, 43 rbi in 338 ABs) plus Rolen's 2009 salary to the Reds for Edwin Encarnacion (.209, 5hr, 16 rbi in 139 ABs) and pitchers Zach Stewart and Josh Roenicke. Apparently Rolen asked to be traded and the Jays accommodated him.

So there you go. After his big announcement about entertaining offers for Halladay, J.P. fails to move him while other name starters (Lee, Peavy, Washburn) are moved.

Really? Wow, so he's three for three!

The Jays are at the Expos tipping point. Either Rogers has got to spend some money to try to contend in the very tough AL East - or the slow decline in interest in the Jays will continue just as it did for the Expos.

You can't tell me that a team in this big market - with almost all their games televised to a fan base all across Canada - can't somehow be generating enough revenue to be spending more money. To me it was a real reminder of just how popular the Jays are - or can be if they were actually competitive- all across Canada when watching the games from Seattle earlier this week. Of 26,000 fans there the one night I think it is safe to say that at least half of them were obviously down from BC and cheering on the Jays. Sometimes Jays games in Minny likewise have thousands of Jays fans who drive down from Winnipeg.

You can't tell me there is not some way for a team with that kind of national appeal to be able to generate revenues to support them being able to spend at least a little more on their payroll - so as at least to have a chance against the huge $$$ Yankees and Red Sox.

The Toronto Blue Jays have brought back members of the 1992 and 1993 World Series teams (video here), for Alumni celebrations this weekend. The players include Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar, Devon White, John Olerud, Kelly Gruber, Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, Jack Morris, Pat Hentgen, Todd Stottlemyre, Dave Stieb, Tom Henke, Duane Ward, Candy Maldonado, Alfredo Griffin, David Cone, Tony Fernandez, Pat Tabler, Rance Mulliniks, Woody Williams, Dave Stewart, Jimmy Key, Pat Borders, and more.

Edit to add: found this YouTube video of the 92-93 players being introduced on field.

The Chicago White Sox picked up Alex Rios off waivers thereby saving the Jays $61 million as part of the 7-year contract he signed with the Jays in 2008. Of course, this was a deal that J.P. Ricciardi signed, and now Rios leaves and we get nothing in return. This, of course, is plus since we're not paying the other team to take a player off our hand--such as with Scott Rolen, a former All Star and Gold Glove who was hitting .320, yet somehow we had to pay Cincinatti to take him off our hands. And it's better than the B.J. Ryan deal, where we've released him outright but still how him $15 million.

Rios was a frustrating character. A five-tool player, he showed promise, but never realized it (like the Raptors' Joey Graham). His "breakout" season was in 2007, where he hit .297, 24 hr, 85 rbi. That was what earned him the big contract. Yet are those numbers all that great? 85 rbi in 643 at bats? At least Vernon Wells (who has an even more untradeable contract), had some seriously big years: 215 hits, 33 hr, 117 rbi and .317 batting avg. in 2003. But since signing his big deal he's been a dud: 80 and 78 rbi in '07 and '08, and only 47 rbi this season. His former Gold Glove defense has also declined. Would that some team would claim him off waivers.

"Five tools" and triple crown stats -- not to be trusted, ever.

I would assume that the only way Wells will be traded is if the Jays agreed to pick up a chunk of his salary, or if a team is really desperate. The fact that the White Sox took Rios, thus taking that salary off the Jays' books, is a break for Toronto.

Finally, J.P. Ricciardi taking some blame for the Jays' miserable season (59-73).

Roy Halladay is back. After a few shaky starts, he turns in a gem tonight: complete game one-hit shutout over the Yankees.

With Roy Halladay on the mound tonight the Jays drew the smallest crowd in Rogers Centre/SkyDome history.

So guess which 2008 World Champion team is spending 2010 Gay Pride weekend in Toronto? I'm sensing a trend.

Maybe there are lots of closet homos on the Phillies.

Well - if there are some closet homos who think they may be in town for the big final weekend events of Toronto Pride (which runs for 10 days now) - they are going to be disappointed.

Usually the last weekend in June is the climax with all the BIG events of Pride festival - including the three day closure of Church Street with all kinds of beer gardens and outdoor stages and of course the two parades (Dyke March and Pride Parade). But next year everything is being backed up a week because of the G8 happening just north of Toronto on the last weekend in June - when the Phillies are in town. So for that weekend 90% of the hotel rooms in Toronto have already been booked for that weekend by bureaucrats, media and proably a bunch of protesters that always tag along for that event. So the Phillies may need their bats to battle protesters that weekend.

The big weekend is the following weekend for 2010 with the Pride Parade on the 4th of July.

Well, that's disappointing. Stupid G8.

Globe and Mail: Victorious Blue Jays remain a pitiful draw

Finally JP Ricciardi is fired. Let the celebrations - led by Canmark - begin!
http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/article/705012

Ding, dong, the witch is dead! I can be a Blue Jays fan again!

Jays GM is now 32-year old Canadian Alex Anthopoulous. Good luck to him!

I don't know how hard they looked, but the Blue Jays have made Paul Beeston, their interim President and CEO, their official President and CEO.

The Jays pick up two Silver Slugger Awards: 2B Aaron Hill and DH Adam Lind.

Reports are saying that Roy Halladay will not re-sign with the Blue Jays after his contract expires at the end of the 2010 season.

To paraphrase Hall & Oates:

He's gone
Oh I, oh I'd
Better learn how to face it
He's gone
Oh I, oh I'd
Pay the devil to replace him
He's gone
What went wrong?

Sounds like Halladay deal is going down with the Phillies, although it's still not clear who we get. Happ or Drabek, and which other prospects?

I'm fairly happy at this point because (a) I did not want Halladay to be traded to the Yankees or the Red Sox, and sending him to the NL means Jays fans can still cheer for his success. ( it sounds like we may get decent prospects which will, obviously, save salary.

Not sure why the Phillies would go further and move Lee to get prospects in return. A Halladay-Lee 1-2 punch would be awesome.

They can't financially keep both Halladay and Lee. Lee was unwilling to sign an extension and will be a free agent after 2010 because he wants a giant CC Sabathia-type contract.

The Phils are giving up 3 prospects and getting 3 back. Without knowing how the 6 prospects' careers will turn out, it's essentially a Lee-for-Halladay trade, with Halladay (reportedly) agreeing to a 3-year extension with possible options for 2 more.

I should probably create a new thread for the 2010 Blue Jays, but I'll do that later. In the meantime, the latest news is that Jays reportedly bid $23M for Cuban.

This is old news, but I just found out that Buck Martinez will be back doing play-by-play for the Jays on Sportsnet. Yay! Jamie Campbell--nice guy, but didn't really have it. Buck is a good broadcaster and has history with the team as both player and manager.

Why is Roy Halladay wearing red and not blue?

Red is where it's at!

Q&A with Kyle Drabek:

Q: What's the No. 1 tune playing on your iPod?
A: Akon ... just the guy.

Q: What would you be doing if not playing baseball?
A: I'd try to be playing golf. I'm not the greatest but hopefully I could work on that to get up there.

Q: What do you do to relax away from the field during the season?
A: Just hanging out with friends and travel and go see them and stuff.

Q: Last movie you saw and a rating of that movie out of four stars?
A: I saw Valentine's Day and I would give it 3 1/2.

Q: What MLB player, past or present (non-Jays) do you admire most?
A: It was always fun watching Josh Beckett pitch. He's a competitive guy. I watched him when he was in high school (in Texas).

Q: Favourite city on the road, major or minor league?
A: I'm not sure. Major league I'd want to go San Diego, though.

Q: Major fear or phobia?
A: There's not much. I don't know.

Q: What game system do you own and what's your favourite game?
A: XBox360 and Call of Duty.

Q: If given the choice what would be your favourite uniform number and why?
A: No. 4. I've worn it every year since I've been in the minor leagues.

Yesterday the Jays faced their former ace, Roy Halladay, in spring training action... and beat him, 5-2.

Jason Frasor has been named the Jays' closer. In 2009, he was 7-3, 2.50 ERA, with 11 saves in 14 save opportunities.

Following a breakout season last year (.305 avg, 35 hr, 114 rbi), the Jays have given DH/OF Adam Lind a 4-year $18 million deal, with options for the following 3 season.