Deep in December, it's nice to remember ... baseball.
It's been so long in Toronto since the off-season mattered that I’m out of practice in following the rumours any more.
It used to be that all the speculation about decent players coming to the Jays turned out to be just that, pure speculation. So, you stop paying attention because there’s so seldom a payoff.
That's changed since Ted Rogers started dropping manna from heaven into J.P. Ricciardi’s toy box.
Not only have the Blue Jays landed B.J. Ryan, who is clearly the real deal at closer, but they’ve also signed everybody's favourite bobble of late, A.J. Burnett.
He sounds like a lot more of a reach. Let’s hope that the initials of this guy, who sports jewelled nipple rings (now that would distract a batter), don’t stand for Adolescent Jerk. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, suspending judgment until at least the middle of May.
It’s weird to see the Jays thinking about trading home-brew Corey Koskie already, or Shea Hillenbrand who was, day-in and day-out probably their best hitter last year. You win championships with guys like that, guys who keep grinding all the time. Last year, for the first time in many seasons, you didn’t want to turn the set off if they were down by three or four because they seemed to have the will to win, if not the horses to do so.
How weird is it to see the Jays shopping for a first baseman, with the latest speculation on Milwaukee’s Lyle Overbay?
Say, it seems to me that there was somebody around here not too long ago who could have done that job. A character guy, loads of power, Latino name I believe.
If only Mr. Rogers had come to his spending senses earlier and kept Carlos Delgado in the neighbourhood, life as a Blue Jay fan would be really, really good this coming year.