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| Anthopoulupagus |
What can you even say, man, what can you even say? When the news of this Ironborn-reaving of a trade began to trickle out last night, Twitter was awesome, and not just because of the cackling of my bros; there was a broader cackling, too: Bruce Arthur suggested Jeffrey Loria be jailed; Jose Bautista shared his feeling that it was a good day to be a Blue Jay; and Buster Olney argued that MLB's worst fears about the Marlins had been realized, effectively killing Miami as a market for baseball. That is how you know your guy has really pulled something off that is legitimately historic in its proportion: when the other team isn't just looking bad for a couple years, but no longer viable as a major league franchise. Robert MacLeod's Globe and Mail headline this gave me a pretty nice feeling, too: "Blue Jays Plunder Marlins in Blockbuster Trade."
May I begin by recalling the last true Blue Jays blockbuster trade, in fact the only one they'd ever had until yesterday? Not the Vernon Wells deal, mighty though that was, and upon which I have reflected previously in these very pages, but the 1990 trade with the San Diego Padres that brought us Joe Carter, who would later hit a home run you have heard about, and Roberto Alomar, the greatest player we have ever had. At the time, I was like eleven, and with basically no knowledge of any west coast players on account of bedtimes, I was sure we had been robbed, because Fred McGriff had this cool upright stance and Tony Fernandez threw the ball sidearm. How wrong I was on that day! And so I know all too well that judgments made too soon after a big trade can be foolish.
That said, this trade is ridiculous and I love it and Alex Anthopoulos is the greatest general manager ever and I want to kiss him on his face like all over it. So we got Jose Reyes, who is speedy and neat, Mark Buehrle, workhorse of workhorses, Josh Johnson, who was not awesome last year but who is without question a guy, and Emilio Bonifacio who is no less certainly a guy and in fact just the kind of guy I would like to have thank you, and all for Yunel Escobar who we hated he is the worst the middle-infield needs to be a queer-positive space, Adeiny Hechavarria who is probably going to be good, sure, Henderson Alvarez, of whom I am actually quite fond, and Jeff Mathis, who I don't understand why they extended last year anyway. Also prospects: I will not pretend to know anything about Justin Nicolo and Anthony DeSclafani other than that people who pay attention to prospects think they are good ones of those; I neither know nor care at the moment, if I may be perfectly frank with you on this matter. And oh yeah they are making us take John Buck back.
But this is just completely awesome. I have absolutely no reservations about any of this and I have serious doubts about anyone who does. If anybody goes like hrrrnnnn I don't know that's a lot of payroll to take on hrrrrrnnnnnn I suggest you stop listening to them immediately: Rogers are as rich as anybody who owns a sports team in North America (also Croesus), and they got the team and the building for a song, and nobody should care about baseball business stuff anyway because it's dumb and the worst and if you choose to sully baseball the greatest and weirdest game ever by talking and thinking and writing about it as though it is best viewed as a place to enjoy more capitalism because you don't get enough of that during regular business hours fuck you not because there is something pristine and pastoral that you shouldn't be sullying but because it is really boring to talk about those things you should be more interesting than that.
In short, and in summation, I am exceedingly glad about this, mostly because of how we got all kinds of good players.
Thank you for your time.
KS
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| Yikes. |
It was unfortunate that the Blue Jays' streak of seven straight wins in games started by Brandon Morrow came to a crashing halt against the lowly Baltimore Orioles last night, but what was really worrying was the 0-2 fastball that drilled Jose Bautista in the head and put him out of the game. Seriously, it sucked, but he was back in the lineup Wednesday night, so in the end, no big deal.
The three-way deal that landed Colby Rasmus in Toronto, however, is totally a big deal. The particulars:
To the Blue Jays: Colby Rasmus, Trevor Miller, Brian Tallet, P. J. Walters, and Mark Teahen.
To the Cardinals: Edwin Jackson, Corey Patterson, Mark Rzepcynski, Octavio "Don't Ask" Dotel, and three players to be named later (or cash)
To the White Sox: Jason Frasor, Zach Stewart
My first reaction to this trade was "oh man awesome," and I have yet to see anyone suggest that this was anything but an excellent deal for the Blue Jays, another totally solid Alex Anthopolous move. "Worst Trade Ever! Cardinals Send Colby Rasmus to Toronto for Spare Parts," writes Aaron Schafer of the Riverfront Times. Keith Law, to whom I look for guidance in all such times of change, said on the Baseball Today Podcast today that this is a horrible long term move for the Cardinals, sacrificing a potential star player (who is already not exactly bad) for a better rotation this year (he was on the Fan590 today, too). But you can kind of see why that might be: this could very well be their last season of Albert Pujols, so you go all-in to win your not-so-s-hot division and make this a championship year regardless of what this does to your team in the medium-to-long term. Also apparently Tony LaRussa doesn't like Rasmus, who is probably a bit of a jerk with a loudmouth dad who is probably an even bigger jerk, but Law was like, Tony LaRussa isn't exactly a part of the long-term future of the club either, so who cares? As has been pointed out at Drunk Jays Fans, the Blue Jays are clearly not averse to picking up players with lousy reputations: Escobar, Morrow, Lawrie. It's a chance to get potential star players on the cheap, basically. All reports are that Lawrie is no longer a dick; Bautista has by all accounts straightened out Escobar; and I actually didn't know Morrow had a bad reputation until like a minute ago.
What did the Blue Jays give up? Chiefly Zach Stewart, whom Baseball America has rated as Toronto's sixth-best prospect, and whom Keith Law thinks could be a number two or number three big-league starter someday (though he is by his own admission a Zach Stewart optimist). Beyond that, it's Corey Patterson, who is pretty terrible, Rzepcynski and "Don't Ask" Dotel, who are both serviceable bullpen arms (and Scrabble is maybe a fifth starter), and Jason Frasor, who if I'm remembering this right is the longest-serving Blue Jay and a guy who was on the cusp of setting the all-time Blue Jays record for appearances. I am fond of Frasor, but he is another pretty basic bullpen guy, you know? And in return, they get Rasmus, who will be the everyday centre fielder immediately and who has the potential to be at least pretty good for a pretty long time for basically no money; Mark Teahen, who is a Moneyball guy who is a total bust; and a bunch of bullpen arms. I am not going to pretend to know anything about P. J. Walters, but Trevor Miller we've seen before, as we have Brian Tallett, regrettably:
But whatever, man, I will take it. I can't see this as anything other than another good move from Alex Anthopolous, and one that nobody saw coming. This Alex Anthopolous is my kind of guy to the extent that he is making things happen, and those things that he is making happen are awesome.
KS
