$17MM Reasons Why Michael Saunders Is Leaving Your TBJ's

The Power of Canadian Fans

First off, Saunders had an amazing first half; he did deserve an All-Star nod this year.

But what happened in the second half?

First half: 298/.372/.551 with 16 home runs and 42 RBI in 82 games and 305 at bats.

Second half: 185 ABs= .178/.282/.357, 8 HR, 15 RBI, 7 doubles.

Talk about a slump! So bad we had to bring in MUJ!

So the long story short on Michael Saunders is that he's set at 17.2 million for next season (assuming the QO doesn’t get removed in the CBA talks). 17MM for a bench bat with poor D. Sure, he's a lefty, but he's a liability on the corners, has poor speed, and too prone to epic slumps. Chill your maple boner. Michael Saunders is gone.

Thanks for the first half. Good luck elsewhere.

Brett Cecil's Market (Over) Value

His nickname is "Goggles"... Get it?

There's been a lot of hand-wringing amongst some fans over the idea of re-signing long-time Blue Jay Brett Cecil, AKA Goggles (I never liked that nickname), but you can forget about another one year deal, as he enters free agency for the very first time, and as according to Ben Nicholson-Smith:

“I’ve asked a lot of people about this in the last few weeks just how many years Brett Cecil is going to get,” says Nicholson-Smith. “And it’s surprising at first glance, but the answer I keep hearing from people is that he won’t have trouble getting three years.“I know he’s struggled at times this year, but I’ve become convince that he’s not going to have trouble landing a three-year deal and I think it’d be north of $20 million.”

- Sportnet's Ben Nicholson-Smith

I think many of us view Cecil through rose-coloured goggles (see what I did there?)... Yes, he's been with the team for 10 years, he played alongside Halladay through lean years, and he often did the Winter Tours. Hey, he was even an All-Star one year! (so was Steve Delabar).

But realistically he has had a very up and down career with the team, compounded by on and off-field injuries (remember the chicken and blender incidents?), which leads me to hope that he signs elsewhere. He ended the year great, but was terrible in the first half. I don't trust him anymore. 7MM+ for 3 more years seems like a lot of cake for this old unreliable lefty.

Go get paid Brett, go get paid, somewhere far, far away. Thanks for the memories.

Requiem for A-Rod

So last week the Yankees forced A-Rod to retire. The final chapter in the sorry saga that was A-Rod's time with the Yankees.

Yes, there was the Little League antics against us. Yes, the steroid scandal has tainted his career. I do want to point out that he did his time, the longest suspension from baseball of any mlb player. A suspension that had as much to do with the Yankees wanting to get out of paying a year off his ridiculous 10-year contract (it was the first one, IIRC).

Thanks Yankees. That's what made me start to think of him sympathetically.

I started to look around at all the vitriol being sent his way and saw that so much of it came from resentment of his contract. A contract that the Yankees were arrogant enough to sign. (You want to talk about the evils of passionate fan ownership? Hello. Boras wasn't getting what he wanted from the FO so he went over their head to the owner and negotiated directly.) I've seen over and over again the statement about how he has all the money in the world so people don't feel sorry for him.

Studies have shown that once a person gets past a monetary threshold that means they are no longer in survival mode, the amount of money one has has no relation to happiness and in fact, having a lot of money can be detrimental. I won't argue that A-Rod doesn't have a good life. He does, in part (and this is one of the things I admire about him) because he indulges his flights of whimsy. Get a picture painted of him as a centaur? Why not? We all have our fantasies about a larger-than-life representation of ourselves. He had the means to do it. Kissing himself in a mirror? That was poking some fun at his reputation during a photo shoot. Want to share how baseball was a part of your childhood? Write a book! Lots of people share their stories. He just happened to have the profile to make a book deal.

A lot of it seems to come from envy more than anything else. He's attractive and talented and enjoys himself. For a lot of people who don't share this experience, rather than look upon him to see things you might want to emulate in your own life, it's much easier to try to tear him down to your level. That's something that the NY press has made into a science. Trashing A-Rod sold papers, so that's what they did.

What about the epic failures in the playoffs? Well, he wasn't the first star to not have great post-seasons, and he won't be the last. One can't deny that he was a large part of why the Yankees got there so often in the first place. The players who make an impact in the post-season so often are guys who just happen to get hot for a week or just happen to be really good against the particular opposition team.

Pat Borders, anyone?

I think he suffered from playing with the sainted Derek Jeter, who was an asshole for not moving off of shortstop when A-Rod arrive, since he was the better player. (Team captain my ass.) And he suffered from being compared to the great Reggie Jackson as a force in the playoffs. Without those influences I think we'd see him more for who he really is - one of the most talented players of his era, a man who made some mistakes and bad choices, but truly loved the game. You could see from his press conference how much it's hurting him to be taken away from the field.

The truly sad thing is that most other players would be able to continue on for another year or so. He's still got some in the tank. But because he had the huge contract and he's on the wrong side of the youth movement in New York, he's being forced out. That's gotta hurt.


Oh, and for you guys who love that moment when all the assholes flashed the pictures of Madonna? Fuck you for celebrating using a woman to shame a man. She had absolutely nothing to do with his performance on the field and was used by the NY press to sell papers. Thanks for celebrating taking away a woman's agency. Again.

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If anyone can point me to vid of the pre-game ceremonies at yesterday's game I'd really appreciate it. I saw the short clip Sportsnet has up but I want to soak in the whole thing.

10 Potential 2017 Free Agent Targets for the Blue Jays

As I mentioned in my post from yesterday, the Blue Jays have a lot of their core group of players in place for the 2017 season. Aside from R.A. Dickey, Brett Cecil, Jesse Chavez, and Drew Storen, the majority of the team’s arms are under club control. The big loss after this year is in the middle of their line-up, with long time Blue Jays Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion looking to test free agency this summer. This post is not meant to build a case against the club re-signing them, simply listing some options that are slated to hit the market.

Looking Ahead: Your 2017 Toronto Blue Jays

In my first series of posts at Jays In The House, I’ll move past the excitement (or disappointment) of the current season and take a look at the upcoming free agent class of 2017, spinning it from a Jays perspective. In part one, I will break down the Blue Jays committed contracts and arbitration-eligible players under contract for 2017, and in the second part I will look ahead to the free agent class of next summer. When analyzing the free agent market I’ll be working under the assumption that the Jays have signed none of their impending free agents as I feel like there will be plenty of articles focusing on these players and their contract situations.

Contract negotiations are none of our goddamn business

In my post the other day, I found myself saying a couple of times in the comments this title phrase. So I'm going to say it again.

Contract negotiations are none of our goddamn business!