done deal - rolen for glaus

i heard rumblings of this trade a month or two back. i liked it then and i like it now even more. it's a great trade for the jays on paper and i hope that translates onto the field. there's many differing opinions on this trade, much of it centering around the health and durability of the two players. both have nagging injuries and have missed a lot of games in the last two years. at least their equals on that measure. anyone who doesn't see this as a win for both clubs is deluded. while i think the cardinals got the shorter end of this stick (i'm not saying much shorter, but shorter still), it's still good for both clubs. that's not up for debate, both come out in good shape.

here's the career lines on the two players


in every offensive category except home runs (where he is not very far behind anyway) rolen is a better player and easily has glaus beat on defense in the minds of all observers. rolen has two big edges in my mind - he hits for far better average and drives in a heck of a lot more runs. if there's two things the jays need are more men on base and more people to knock them in. well, who doesn't need that, but i'm saying the jays do more than a lot of teams(like the red sox for instance have absolutely no issues in this respect). how many times did their offense lose a gem of a game for halladay (there were a couple complete or near complete games he pitched where the offense didn't support him) due to a lack of run support.

back to the injury which everyone is harping on. not to dismiss it, it is a big issue, but rolen has taken quite a bit of time off to recoop the injury. i and the rest of the blue jays fans hope this means the return of the once pre-eminent third baseman in baseball. i'd like to believe that the team doctors have carefully evaluated this and set riccardi's mind at ease (same with the st.louis gm) that rolen will return to his past playing form or close to it. at the very least we're getting a better injured player than we have. glaus is no slouch, but if both are at the same level of injury proneness, i'll take rolen. we often times see a player who is injured or having difficulty in the clubhouse (or in this case both) flourish in a new setting and i eagerly await that happening here. best of luck to you glaus, you're a solid player, but i'm siding with rolen here.

and in parting, a passing shot at the leafs. it's refreshing to see a gm in toronto actually make moves to improve their team.

the 'mitchell report'

what is one to think when a 400+ page report is compiled naming and detailing some 80+ players allegedly taking performance enhancing drugs? oh wait a second, i seem to have been too fair in assessing an 'allegedly' in there. because george mitchell and the media certainly weren't so fair in what hit the front pages in the last couple days. mitchell for taking the testimony at face value and presenting it aas fact and the media for being so definitive in their accusations and shakedown of the players. particularly roger clemens. i've waited a couple days so i can include some appraisals and admissions in here as well.

i'm not saying this is all a complete load of shit. i do believe there is steroid use, and believe it was quite rampant. what i don't believe is in tarnishing a players name on hersey and saying a player took steroids without hard facts to back that claim up. the article that most closely mirrors my own thoughts on the matter belong to that of jayson stark over at espn.com. the emphasis of his article is to elaborate on the single most glaring omission in this whole debacle - that what was in the mitchell report is mostly devoid of actual fact and credibility.

i'm personally on the fence about whether this whole exercise needed to be conducted in the first place. i don't know if drudging up the past does any particular good. there's certainly a lot of information missing and even if it was to be unearthed, the players can't be punished retroactively anyway. especially for an offence that wasn't technically against the rules anyway. so all this serves is to destroy the names of a number of truly great players and the game as a whole. but i think it was an important illustration of just how pervasive performance enhancers were and the blind eye turned by all sides within baseball. a starting off point for which to change going forward. but we all knew that anyway.

please don't confuse what i'm saying here. i'm not defending steroid users in any way. i think taking steroids is wrong and those who do take them are cheaters. all i want is complete information, and that will never happen. many of these players are heroes to a lot of people and to call them out without hard evidence is unfair to them. i believe that's the definition of slander.

in this situation, there is a big gap in knowledge of what we hear in the media. a lot of people don't know the whole story, all we get is the sensational headlines. yes, steroids are bad, but for instance, human growth hormone is lumped in with them. it's assumed hgh is in the same camp because we don't hear about what these substances are. hgh is not a steroid, nor is it illegal. does anyone hear that? andy pettite came forward and admitted to use of hgh but not steroids. in his statement pettite asserted that he "wasn't looking for an edge, he was looking to heal." that's what hgh does, but to the greater populace, this point gets lost or is understood. they're all just cheaters.

i'm a big fan of baseball and i hope this report works to clean the sport up and bring integrity back to america's pastime. to me the names aren't tarnished because i don't know the whole truth or maybe even any of it. no one does but the players themselves. the game is tarnished and everyone involved at all levels of the game are to blame. the owners, the players, the trainers, the coaches, everyone. they all let this get to the point it is today and are paying the price. i hope the sport can recover and steps are taken to ensure the integrity of the sport is recovered and maintained going forward.

the postseason

tonight is the start of the 2007 mlb playoffs. many of you aren’t baseball fans and don’t think that playoff baseball is any different. but it is. everything changes once the first 162 games are finished.

as an avid baseball fan, i can admit that there can be slow games, maybe even boring ones. not in the playoffs. something magical happens. the baseball gods sprinkle a healthy dose of excitement and energy down on the 8 diamonds fortunate enough to make in. i find moreso than in any other pro sport, the games enhances so much more come playoff time.

take for example the one game playoff between the rockies and padres monday night. two teams fighting for their playoff lives. the game had everything you could dream of: controversy, grand slams, extra innings, blown saves, back and forth lead changes, stolen season records, blown calls, late rallies, defensive blunders and when it was all said and done, you were riveted for 4 hours and 40 minutes and didn’t even know it.

this year’s crop of teams all look to be a gritty bunch who will be battling hard. you have the improbable rockies who had to win 13 of their last 14 games just to get into a tie-breaker situation, the yankess who battled back from 14 games down in the division to almost taking it (and i hate to say anything nice about the yanks), the phillies who hung in and toppled the mets (that was equally the mets fault, but philly still capitalized), the d-backs who seemingly came out of left field (pun intended) and the sweet lou’s cubs who turned it around from 2006 and scrapped with milwaukee all season for their division.

and here’s to a national league team winning it all