Spring Training Is Over, You Can Pay Attention Now

The longest month in baseball - March, is over, thankfully bringing an end to Spring Training, and a return to meaningful baseball.

From a fan's standpoint, the dog and pony show that is Spring Training is pretty useless. You can't watch the games, and even when you can, you don't want to. Managers and GMs may find it useful to jerk around the hopes and dreams of a bunch of aging reserve utility men and career minor leaguers, but really, the whole thing is largely a waste of time.

The Jays were particularly bad this spring, posting a batting average that ranked only ahead of Florida's - good for 29th. It doesn't matter though. March success has as much to do with regular season success as actual vocal talent has to do with winning American Idol.

The Jays have a lot to live up to this year. They are coming off an 87 win, 2nd place finish in one of baseball's toughest divisions. Last season was their, "Hey, look at us!" season, as they tried to remind the baseball world that there were more than two teams in the AL East. Unfortunately, our Jays will be in tough to challenge Boston and New York again.

Unlike baseball's twin Evil Empires (face it Boston, if you can pay $100 million for a pitcher who has never played in the MLB, you are an Evil Empire too), the Jays did not improve in any noticeable way. Born again Frank Thomas was the only headline grabbing news, the rest of JP Ricciardi's moves were more of a back-page blurb nature.

Veterans Royce Clayton is our new starting short-stop (which means our favourite Jay, John MacDonald is back on the bench), and aging Canuckle outfielder Mat Stairs will contribute depth.

On pitching, the Jays missed out on free agents Ted Lilly (unfortunately) and Gil Meche (thankfully) which left spots four an five open. Ricciardi went with the, toss everything on the wall and see what sticks approach. On said wall he tossed a motley crew of youngsters and vets looking for a second, or third chance, including Victor Zambrano, less than a year off Tommy John surgery, John Thompson, oft injured, Tomo Ohka, the Jays' embittered answer to Dice-k, Josh Towers, who I kinda thought would never ever pitch for Toronto again, Casey Jansens, who mildly impressed last year as a rookie and Shawn Marcum, who still has time to turn into something special.

Ohka and Towers stuck, with Zambrano putting up a good fight. Whether a rotation of Halladay-Burnett-Chacin-Ohka-Towers is capable of stringing together any number of wins is questionable, and the result of which will entirely determine the fate of this team.

Offensively, Toronto is more or less the same. The Big Hurt will provide more homers (speaking of Thomas, the man is huge. I used to think Troy Glaus was pretty big, but after seeing the two stand next to each other, Glaus seriously looks like he's made of matchsticks), and more strikeouts as well. Scoring runs isn't where these guys will run into problems.

I don't really care for the '07 Blue Jays, they are just a paler version of last year, but if you're not optimistic on opening day, than you really shouldn't be watching this sport. I predict the Jays will take the AL wildcard in a daring late September push.

Other predictions:

American League

EAST: Yankees win the division as the team becomes healthy at the right time of the season, that is, the end of it. Boston's pitching staff implodes, and Daisuke's gyro ball actually kills a man. Baltimore still sucks, but less so, and Canadian ace Eric Bedard makes it really, really hard to cheer against them. Tampa Bay still really sucks, except for that Kazmir guy, and their so called best outfield in baseball.

CENTAL: Detroit gets it right this time and wins baseball's new toughest division. The Indians still aren't as good as everyone wants them to be, and Minnesota and Chicago continue to be good without being great. Kansas City continues to bolster every other Central team with easy wins.

WEST: Los Angeles of Anahiem wins the division as they get all of their pitchers healthy, and Gary Matthews wins the AL MVP (Hah, just kidding). Oakland does nicely, and makes Mike Piazza a very rich man in the off season, but with another team. Texas quickly regrets their Sammy Sosa experiment, and Seattle gives no reason for Ichiro to re-sign next year.

WILDCARD: The Jays win it in the final days of September, beating out strong pushes from the Red Sox, White Sox, Twins and Oakland. No, I'm serious.

CY YOUNG: Roy Halladay pitches a full season, which as per the terms of his contract, automatically ensures him a Cy Young. Sorry Santana.

MVP: Alex Rodriguez wins another one, and Yankee fans are only too glad when he doesn't renew his contract.

National League

EAST: The Mets win this one, of course, but Philadelphia makes it close. Atlanta gets to reflect on life outside the postseason for one more year, while Washington treads water, and Florida comes no where near repeating last season.

CENTRAL: St. Louis wins this division again, but it's more because no one else is good enough than because the Cards deserve a chance at repeating. The Cubbies do not live up to the hype - gasp - Milwaukee, Houston and Cinncinati are all in the wild card hunt and Pittsburgh... still has Jason Bay.

WEST: Los Angeles wins this division, which is slowly improving as a whole. With Randy Johnson returning, Arizona slowly starts to remember what having a championship team was like, and in San Fransisco, Barry Bonds suffers an unfortunate "accident" involving cement shoes and deep water before he can commit his final act of sacrilege... Meanwhile, Colorado and San Diego continue being teams we know absolutely nothing about.

WILDCARD: Philadelphia takes it, and dreams of a Phillie-Toronto rematch stir up inside of absolutely no one.

CY YOUNG: The NL's winningest pitcher wins more than 16 games this time, and the award goes to Chris Carpenter, who is really the only thing we like about St. Louis.

MVP: Jimmy Rollins, baseball's anti-Bonds, hits a whole bunch of homers, and gets a whole bunch of MVP awards.

Check back in September when you shall be astounded to find every single prediction has come true. I promise.

Jason

"I Love Trade Deadlines. I Like The Whooshing Sound They Make As They Fly By."

We assume that's J.P Ricciardi's take on it at least. Another trade deadline past, another year of no deals. Does J.P Ricciardi have something against the trade deadline? Maybe it was on a trade deadline many years ago that Ricciardi first had his heart broken, or perhaps it was on one fateful deadline day that his faithful dog Sparky ran away to join the circus.

Who knows. We certainly don't. What we do know is that the Jays are in trouble. They've chosen an inopportune time to swoon, as the Yankees and Red Sox continue to surge ahead. The Jays deficit currently stands at six games behind the aforementioned Yankees for first in the division. That's a tall order for a team that considers it a huge achievement if they can string three wins together.

The Yankees made a move though (of course the Yankees made a move), picking up Bobby "I Won the Home Run Derby Last Year, Honest" Abreu and pitcher, Cory "Former Blue Jay" Lidle. They also spanked A.J Burnett around last night, winning 5-1.

The Jays are struggling, and these are the games the Jays have to win. Every game against Boston and New York is huge now, and they can't afford to waste them.

In other news, and you can file this under "There's Something in Detroit's Water", the Red Wings have signed Dominik Hasek. Again. They didn't learn their lesson the second time?

Apparently he's going to get the starters job, which bodes poorly for this franchise. And let's not forget that this is the same team that was thinking of handing Eddie Belfour a contract.

So what, at the beginning of the off-season did the GM sit down and say, "Ok guys, let's go out there and sign the oldest, fragilest goalie we can find!" because that certainly seems to be the game plan.

And what exactly was wrong with Manny Legace? He had, by all accounts, a very solid season. So what the team goofed in the first round, you're going to lay all the blame on Legace?

63 Years is skeptical, to say the least.

Also, Raptors GM Brian Colangelo has fufilled his promise of completely overhauling the roster. He just forgot to mention the part about him building the team to compete for the Euro League title.

Toronto hasn't seen this many European immigrants since they were giving away free land out west.

The Raptors will be better this season, it won't take much to top last year's effort, but we have yet to be convinced that this is a team that will make the playoffs.

Until then,

Jason

Mo' Maurice, Mo' Problems

It was really only a matter of time of course, before the Toronto Maple Leafs made it official.
Paul Maurice becomes the newest schlub to take on the daunting task of coaching in the centre of the universe. He is always described as having a great sense of humour, which is a trait he's going to have to hold on to if he doesn't want to have his soul sucked out by the enormous pressure and ridiculous expectations placed on any Leaf coach.

Pat "Lower Body Injury" Quinn, the last sucker to try to do anything with this team, was adept at handling the swarms of "reporters" (excuse our cynicism) that even the most meaningless of practices would attract.

Will Maurice be able to take that? His last job was after all, in that hockey mecca of Raleigh, North Carolina, where the team was lucky to attract two or three members of the media.

Maybe that's all a little unfair to the guy though. Despite being saddled with crappy Hurricane teams for his entire NHL coaching career, he has managed one Stanley Cup final appearance, which mathematically speaking, is an infinitely greater number than the Leafs have managed over the past forty seasons.

Welcome to Toronto Maurice, the place where ambitions come to die. We only hope you make it out of here in one piece.

In other news, it's time to break out the bubbly. The Jays' whipping boy, Josh Towers, finally won his first start today, dismantling the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 8-3, in a very convincing, 8 inning, 76 pitch outing.

That puts his record on the long path to recovery, now an only slightly less unsightly 1-7. If you wanted to be a Gloomy Gladys about it, you could point out that he got his first win against one of the worst teams in the league, and that manhandling the D-Rays hardly qualifies as an accomplishment. But that would also make you a jerk. Just savour the moment. Josh Towers is back baby.

In other, other news, the Ottawa Senators have choked. Again. They were eliminated from the second round of the playoffs in a depressing five games by the Buffalo Sabres (doing their best impression of the Toronto Maple Leafs).

The most ridiculous thing that we're hearing though, is that owner/jillionaire Eugene Melnyk wants major changes made to the team.

Major changes? What? Are you kidding?

You have one of the undeniably best teams in the league, and you want to blow it all up just because you were undressed in the playoffs?

Talk about fickle.

As a fan of a team that has only topped the 100 point mark once in it's 70 or so year history, I find it hard to believe that people are so negative on the Senators.

Of course, even if they wanted it, the Senators brass would be hard pressed to keep this team together. All-star defensemen Wade Redden and Zdeno Chara are both free agents, and the best bet is that the Sens will only have money for one of them (A sudden image of Redden wearing a Leafs' jersey has filled my head). Martin Havlat has another year on his contract, but he may be on his way out anyway. And we'd be a little surprised if Emery was the starting goaltender next year.

Not because he isn't good enough, because he is, but because Ottawa fans are notoriously capricious. Nothing short of absolute and total success will ever be tolerated by Senator nation (which, come to think of it, is a pretty weak criticism. Sure beats the laissez-faire apathy of Leafs fans).

And in one last tidbit (we promise) of news, this guy seems to be surprised that Yankee pitcher Randy Johnson is, get this, struggling.

Umm, when you're approaching your 93 birthday, I hardly think it counts as struggling. This is just the way Randy Johnson is now.

Where did people get this idea in their head that Randy is still in his prime? The man is, by sports standards, ancient. It's unfair for people to assume he's the same pitcher he was ten years ago, or even five.

We've long been critical of the Yankee's move to make Johnson their so-called ace.

"So, what, exactly, is wrong?" asked Mr. Klapisch, in the above referenced article. What went wrong? I'll tell you what the problem is. He turned 42, that's what.

Get off Randy's back people, his best days are in the past. Just appreciate him for what he can still do.

Later,

Jason

How 'Bout Them Blue Jays?

So the Major League Baseball season got off to a start the other day, but much more importantly, the Toronto Blue Jays season started on Tuesday, with a convincing win over Minnesota. The Jays have an incredible buzz around them right now; anything is possible for this team.

For good reason too. The Jays' general manager, J.P. "Moneyball? What Moneyball?" Ricciardi finally decided that there was more than one way to win the World Series and dusted off the ol' cheque book, landing some free agent fish in the offseason. A.J. "Tommy John" Burnett, "Hammerin'" Troy Glaus, Lyle "The Other Guy" Overbay, and Bengie "Don't Forget About Me" Molina, to be exact. With those boys, plus Roy "Dr. Cy Young" Halladay and Vernon "I Don't Need No Carlos" Wells, the Jays have their first shot at doing something since the glory days of the early 90's. We should be so hopefull.

But if ever there was a year to break up the 1-2 Yankee-Red Sox stranglehold on the AL East, it's this one. The Yankees, while fielding a starting nine that could take on any all-star team, have a pitching staff with a combined age of approximately 250 years (180 without Randy "I Ain't Never Touched My Sister" Johnson). The Red Sox on the other hand, with the departure of Johnny "Stylin' In Pinstripes" Damon have returned to being those lovable losers we used to know and love (And another thing: What's holding Curt Shilling together? My guess is duct tape).

So things are looking up for the boys from up north. The general consensus among those whose business it is to know is that the Jays will be very much in the wild card hunt come September. Do the cards hold a World Series in the Jays future? Well, let's not go over board here, but hey, why not? Stranger things have happened.

And one more thing. I'm really surprised that no one else has picked up on this story, because it seems pretty obvious to me. With their opening night win, that puts the Blue Jays at 1-0 on the season. Going to my calculator quickly, that puts them on pace for...carry the one... multiply the denominator... add pi... a 162-0 season. I don't mean to beat the Jays' drum too loudly, but that's pretty impressive.

"Touch 'em all Joe"

Jason

ADDENDUM: So it appears I was a little premature in predicting an undefeated season for the Jays. Whoops, my bad. With their spanking at the hands of Minnesota last night, that puts the Jays on pace for a mediocre 81-81 season. And I had such high hopes for this team too... So you can call off the parade down Yonge St. I really thought this team could do something special this year. Sigh... maybe next year.