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September 20, 2007
HEY JP, HOW ABOUT THIS FOR A MINOR TWEAK --GET CARL CRAWFORD Don’t lose heart Jays fans. There may be a way out of the forest after all. I know your favourite baseball club has been floundering around in the swamps of mediocrity for years now, and it never seems like we can see the land through the muck, but before you start hanging JP and Gibby in effigy look at the good that was accomplished this season. The pitching staff has loads of promise, and this is the genuine kind of promise--not the kind of promise that exists only in JP’s mind. This club can actually be very good next year—providing the right changes are made. Here’s the problem exists--JP insists that he’s going to make only minor tweaks to his roster this off-season. Now, if he classifies the finding of a left-handed hitting outfielder that can run and can ignite the offense as a minor tweak—then call it what you want I’m good with it. But if adding that spark at the top of the line-up outside the realm of JP’s thinking then I’m sorry Jays' fans—next season will end heart-wrenchingly similar to the way this one did. While accomplished salesman JP publicly bleats that he will make only minor tweaks, convincing as many people as he can that his original plan simply needs to stay the course, two schools of thought are formed. One is that its just JP’s public posturing to ensure that internal issues don’t arise—it wouldn’t be a very positive move to make a statement that could affect a player’s status, his mood, and his value on the open market. Of course the other school of thought is that JP actually believes that this roster he created just ran into some tough luck this year and will prove itself powerful next year. Now, that second school of thought scares me—and it should scare each and every one who is termed a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club. Let’s look at the first school—it’s much more pleasant. JP realizes that the station to station baseball he desired this season is out of date—even the Yankees, the club JP (being from Boston) most desires to beat, steals bases and can go first to third when runs are at a premium late in games. And remember—with the Angels recent domination—it’s not the team that’s built like the Yankees that ends up beating the Yankees. The Angels peck away at the Yankee holes, they take advantage of the Yankee errors, and they expose the Yankee weaknesses. JP now has a pitching staff deep enough to control the Yankee bats—he’s just missing the proper offensive philosophy to score enough runs to beat the Yankee team. And he now knows that having a line-up of hitters that swing for the fences is not the way to play winning baseball. Being a graduate of the first school of thought JP will make the necessary changes in the off-season, adding some speed, some balance, and some variety to this moribund offense—and he will make the obvious changes and minor tweaks needed to improve the production of this club. This will maximize the strengths of the pitching staff. The development this year of the team’s youth bodes exceptionally well for the future. The success of Casey Janssen, Shaun Marcum, Scott Downs, and Jeremy Accardo—pitchers either drafted or acquired by JP—has given the Jays hope. And for JP it has likely given him another year to get it right. But for the first time in his tenure as baseball head honcho JP now has some depth on his roster—depth that can be parlayed into acquiring the one dynamic player the club desperately needs. The Jays have some young players at the bottom of their roster inviting enough to attract the team the Jays need to attract, and this will enable JP to stop selling us on the potential of his club and begin selling the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on their need for some of that young pitching. Sure, he will convince them, the cost will be high, but the cost will be much higher if they don’t make the move. And then next year we can have Carl Crawford at the top of the line-up, stealing bases, scoring runs and breathing new life into a floundering team. Okay, so here is the much more odiferous second school of thought—the one that has a bewildered looking general manger wondering how this perfect ship he created could sputter so mightily and run aground. I know—it’s frightening, but there is the possibility JP actually believes that having a pair of aging, slow moving, big swinging, strikeout prone, right handed hitters in the middle of the line-up is the way to build a successful and dynamic offense. I know—but he might actually believe it. And if he does, well… …Then you go into next year hoping that the perennially injured Troy Glaus can play 150 healthy, strong and productive games at third because you’re going to have Frank Thomas lock up about 150 games at designated hitter. You will need good seasons from both to stand any chance. You will need Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay to not only return to their normal standing but also rediscover the strike zone, you will need Alex Rios to improve upon the power that he has shown, you will need Reed Johnson to completely recover from back surgery and revert back to his solid form of two years, you will need Greg Zaun to stay healthy and lead this club to a playoff position and you will need somebody, anybody, to emerge and be a productive major league hitter. Other than that—well, if you want to be a playoff club you will also need the pitching staff to perform as well as they have this season. Hopefully, nobody gets hurt, or loses their fastball, or loses their confidence. So, if you’re a Blue Jay fan, for whom hope is eternal every spring, then you better hope that JP is playing coy—that the thought process goes deeper than simply what he says; it’s more the reason he is saying it. The hope is that JP believes in the first school of thought. For if it’s that second school, well…that’s too depressing to even contemplate. Hopefully, that school simply fades away--and doesn’t do any harm anymore.
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