Will Randy Ruiz ever be free?

Image courtesy of Flickr user _Topher_

He has all the tools to be a deadly Designated Hitter, yet I can't help but think that Randy Ruiz is going to spend the better part of the 2010 season in Las Vegas instead of in Toronto where he rightfully belongs.

This is same Randy Ruiz who was the 2009 Pacific League Coast MVP. The same Randy Ruiz who posted a 1.019 OPS in 130 plate appearances with the Blue Jays this past season. The same Randy Ruiz who raked in Winter Leagues with 7 home runs and 27 RBI's.

This is the very same Randy Ruiz who is going to have to fight tooth and nail to make the Blue Jays Opening Day roster.

Ruiz has proven himself to this organization time and time again, and has done nothing but exceed expectations, whether it be in the minor leagues or his brief (albeit impressive) stint in the big leagues. No matter how well he hits, the Blue Jays just can't quite commit to giving Randy Ruiz a spot on their roster.

Knowing that he needed to step up his game physically, Ruiz is arguably in the best shape of his career, having lost 30 pounds this off season and continues to impress with his Puerto Rico squad in the Caribbean Series.

Earlier in January, Drew from Ghostrunner on First wrote an excellent piece on Randy Ruiz' uncanny ability to knock just about any pitch out of the park. Some would argue that he's a one trick pony and only built to hit home runs, but if that's the case, then he's the equivalent of Seabiscuit for hitting home runs.

It's fully understandable that no roster position should ever be automatically be handed to players. Especially with young talent like Travis Snider, it should be reiterated that they should have to earn their spot on the team and not feel like they are obligated to make the roster out of Spring Training. The same goes for a career journeyman like Randy Ruiz - you have to earn your stripes on the team.

Despite all that, it feels like no matter what Randy Ruiz does or how well he plays, he is probably going to get overlooked once again. Unless the first baseman position suddenly opens up or if the Jays commit to making Adam Lind the full time left fielder, Ruiz could be banished to Triple A once again.

At 32 years old, obviously Ruiz does not fit into the long term building plans for the Toronto Blue Jays. However, Alex Anthopoulos has a very valuable chess piece in Ruiz - if he convinces Cito to give Ruiz more playing time, that could significantly boost Ruiz' trade value, and down the road he could fetch a couple of prospects. The only way for Randy Ruiz to become attractive to any other team though, is if he actually gets a chance to play.

If Ruiz were to be one of the 12 or 13 hitters to break camp, who is to say that he would even receive a fair amount of playing time anyway? Cito left a perfectly healthy Randy Ruiz on the bench for six straight games back in September 2009, so I could definitely see the manager giving away his at bats to other players once again.

So what do you think - will Randy Ruiz ever be free from the clutches of Las Vegas?

Acid Flashback Friday: The Skydome AstroTurf

The field at the ballpark is more than just a playing surface. Think of that vast area as a baseball player's office - where they conduct business night after night.

Often times, we overlook this aspect of the game and that's why this week for Acid Flashback Friday, we will honour the first incarnation of AstroTurf at the Skydome.

When I think back to the glory days at the dome, I can't help but remember that God-awful playing surface known as AstroTurf. The funny thing is the Rogers Centre is currently in the process of switching the field back to using AstroTurf, albeit a much different form of its predecessor.

After looking through some of the photos of the Skydome, its hard to imagine that at one time people thought that playing surface looked natural. It practically looks like they used a giant green screen as the playing surface, and it remained that way for 15 years until Rogers decided to upgrade to Field Turf.

Back in the day, as many as nine ballparks were fitted with AstroTurf. Now only the Rogers Centre and Tropicana Field are the only two ballparks remaining in the majors with artificial turf.

No matter how you feel about the former playing surface at the dome, the memory of the chroma key "green screen" of the Skydome AstroTurf will forever be burned into our brains ... and retinas.

Thursday Links: Thigpen & Holliday discover Twitter

On a slow news day, what better way to waste valuable company time than to peruse what's happening on Twitter? Doing exactly that, I just so happened to stumble across Matt Holliday's Twitter account, and for some reason or another he praised former Blue Jays catching prospect Curtis Thigpen:

"With some of my friends at ut, lookout for Curtis Thigpen this year, that swing is NICE"

After Thigpen was traded from the Jays to the A's last March, he has seemingly fallen completely off the map. He didn't play a single game with the Athletics, and I can't find any 2009 minor league stats for him - not with the A's Triple A affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats, or not even their Double A affiliate in the Midland Rockhounds.

By all indications, Curtis Thigpen didn't play a lick of baseball after Spring Training 2009, and yet Matt Holliday is touting Thigpen's abilities as if he were the next big thing for the Oakland A's. He is on the Triple A roster for the River Cats, but it's going to take much more than Holliday's "ringing" endorsement to bring Thigpen back to the big leagues. Oh, and apparently just like his buddy Matt Holliday, Curtis Thigpen also has a Twitter account.

Speaking of interesting folks on Twitter, I recently starting following David Brown of Yahoo! Sports (or as the Twitterverse knows him, AnswerDave). I highly recommend you give him a follow - he always manages to scavenge the internets for the best links of the day. Heck, he even wrote a piece yesterday about Dirk Hayhurst's surgery. That's pretty cool considering Hayhurst's surgery isn't a story that really resonates outside of Toronto, but very cool that Big League Stew picked up on it because us Blue Jays seamheads that live North and South saw the value in the story.

Lastly, if you're curious to find out a little bit more about The Blue Jay Hunter, check out my interview piece over at the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. Daniel Shoptaw, the founding member of the BBA is interviewing each member of the Alliance, and took a few minutes to ask me some questions specific to this blog and the Blue Jays in general.

Live Chat Returns Next Wednesday

It's hard to believe that pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in just a mere two weeks. Only 14 more days until the winter baseball drought will finally be over!

Sounds like a reason to celebrate: in honour of Spring Training being just around the corner, I'll be firing up the live chat once again this year, starting with the inaugural chat of the season next Wednesday at 8pm EST.

The live chats will continue each Wednesday until we reach Opening Day or when people start getting sick of it ... whichever comes first. If you're like me and extremely forgetful, feel free to sign up for the email reminder below. I hope to see you then!

Golly Gee, do the Blue Jays really need Kevin Gregg?

Trust me, I was just as surprised as you guys when information leaked earlier today that the Blue Jays were the front-runners to land free agent reliever Kevin Gregg.

The club already has a surplus for relievers, yet for some reason, the Blue Jays have reportedly agreed to a deal with Gregg which could earn him upwards of $12 million dollars.

At first, the only two logical explanations were that the Blue Jays were trying to make up for the fact that they have sorely been lacking a Gregg with two G's on the team since Zaun left. Either that, or the Blue Jays front office decided that the team needed a reliever with funky glasses to fill the shoes of Brandon League.

Now here we are as the Blue Jays are on the verge of bringing in the former closer for the Florida Marlins and Chicago Cubs. It doesn't make much sense, because either Jason Frasor or Scott Downs was supposed to be the closer for 2010.

I realize that Alex Anthopoulos is trying to stockpile plenty of arms in hopes that he can build some assets for the future, but at what point does it become overkill? If AA is trying to monopolize the reliever market for the upcoming trade deadline, he's going about it in a very strange way.

Kevin Gregg could become a Type A free agent once again, and the Blue Jays could receive a first round pick for him in 2011. Unfortunately, as we saw with the pick that they received by letting go of Marco Scutaro, the draft pick can easily be bumped to the second round.

The other school of thought is that the Blue Jays will try to build Gregg's value so they can flip him for prospects at the trade deadline. While it seems like there are always teams in the hunt for closers come mid-season, it seems like a strange risk to take to net a couple of prospects.

This all is a very backwards way of doing business.

Unless Kevin Gregg is 20 for 20 in save opportunities and holds runners to a .230 average before the trade deadline, I'm afraid the Blue Jays won't get much in return for him. If he performs about as well as he has the past few seasons, it could just be money flushed down the toilet.

LOST Without Answers

Whether I like it or not, being a rabid (and bordering on somewhat obsessive) fan of the television show "Lost" and the Toronto Blue Jays is a very similar experience.

Often tortured and teased, we receive very few answers and more often than not, once we actually do receive an answer, they just end up unearthing even more questions.

You're probably wondering how in the hell all if this relates to the Toronto Blue Jays. Well, just as J.J. Abrams has yet to answer many unanswered questions on the final season Lost, the Blue Jays have yet to make the final decisions on quite a few key areas before Opening Day.

Who is the closer?

Neither Alex Anthopoulos or Cito Gaston have given us a concrete answer on whether it will be Scott Downs or Jason as the official closer for this team. Both have indicated that the position is up for grabs, and Cito even mentioned that Jeremy Accardo could be a dark horse candidate to reclaim the job he held down back in 2007.

To add another layer of complication to the issue, apparently MLBTR has reported that the Blue Jays have stated that Scott Downs and Jason Frasor will be available, as the Chicago Cubs have already kicked the tires on both relievers.

Who will hold down the corner outfield spots?

As of now, the only player who's spot is guaranteed in the outfield is Vernon Wells. It sounds like left and right field are entirely up for grabs, with as many as seven players vying for both positions (Lind, Snider, Bautista, Gathright, Reed, Lubanski, Padilla).

I'm guessing that either left/right field goes to Snider, and the remaining spot is platooned between Bautista and Gathright. Cito would be mad to play Bautista as the everyday leadoff man/corner infielder, but we have already assumed that's exactly what he's going to do. Hopefully management can talk him out of it.

Who will be the ace?

Obviously whomever steps into the number one starter's role in the rotation will have some big shoes to fill after the departure of Roy Halladay. In late December, I threw in my vote for Shaun Marcum to be the new ace for the Blue Jays, but that title could just as easily go to Ricky Romero, Marc Rzepczynski, or even Dustin McGowan. When it comes to the starting five, there are so many question marks that it's incredibly difficult to gauge who will come out on top.

Some would argue that at this point, the Blue Jays don't have a true "ace" and are more so comprised of number two and number three starters. I would tend to agree with that statement, but anybody could come out of nowhere and surprise us all - as Marc Rzepczynski did last season. 

Who will manage this team after 2010?

Speaking of everyone's favourite manager (who happens to confuse his relievers and lobby for players to be signed), who is going to replace Cito Gaston? Alex Anthopoulos said he would prefer someone who has at least some coaching experience at the major league level.

I'm not completely sure if that means all the current members of the Blue Jays coaching staff are up for consideration, but Nick Leyva and Brian Butterfield seem like a couple of possibilities. And even though he ended his tenure with the Blue Jays on a bad note, don't rule out a return by Ernie Whitt.

One would also have to assume that any mid-season firings will automatically be at the top of the list for candidates to replace Cito. It's not like a Mike Scoscia falls into your lap every day, so after 2010, the Blue Jays may have to survive on another team's leftovers in the interim.

Keep Cito away from the microphone

I couldn't help but notice the parallels between the Blue Jays "State of the Franchise" meeting and last night's repeat episode of The Office entitled "Shareholder Meeting".

Both are very similar scenarios - in both instances, the faces of the company are put on display to assure the fans/shareholders that all is well with business and that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Just as things couldn't be going any worse, Michael Scott chimes in and riles up the crowd and builds them up with hope and false promises of a 45 day plan to guide the company out of financial insecurity.

And that's exactly what Cito Gaston did at the State of the Franchise.

Cito was guilty of a huge faux pas when he reignited the fires of the Carlos Delgado signing rumours. Last week, Alex Anthopoulos clearly stated that the Blue Jays were out on any Delgado talks. Then good old fan-friendly Cito does a complete 180 and tries to appease the fans by filling them with false hope of bringing back one of the most beloved players in franchise history.

Then Cito blabs on that he believes the Blue Jays have seven hitters in the lineup who could potentially hit 25 home runs a piece. That's great and all, but realistically I think it would be optimistic to think that the Blue Jays might have two hitters who could crank 25 home runs.

That's not all! According to Mike Wilner, Cito confused Jeremy Accardo with Casey Janssen again - that would make it the second time in the last twelve months that has happened. He did the very same thing last March, getting Accardo and Janssen mixed up when asked about who would be starting pitcher possibilities.

Just as the Dunder Mifflin executives on The Office were shocked at Michael Scott's ramblings, I'm sure Alex Anthopoulous and Paul Beeston were hoping that Cito would keep his mouth shut.

Not to over criticize a minor misstep, but if The Manager is going to confuse his relievers in front of fans, who's to say that he won't do it within the context of the game?

Hypothetical situation here: Cito picks up the phone and calls to the bullpen to tell Janssen to warm up. What he really meant to say was to get Accardo warmed up, who has four days rest. Meanwhile, Janssen is a little gassed after having worked out of the bullpen the last two games.

Mistakes like that can easily cost the Blue Jays games. Now, while there is no indication the above scenario has in fact happened, who's to say it hasn't? The decision last year to tell Travis Snider to bunt was a red flag that something might not be right with the manager.

I enjoy a cheerleader as much as the next guy, but at some point you have to step back and realize that the "rah-rah-siss-boom-bah" will only keep the fans happy for so long. Eventually, you have to produce a winning team, and it's not going to happen with this manager at the helm.

Acid Flashback Friday: Dustin McGowan's Sideburns

 

The benefit of a quick week is yet another Acid Flashback Friday! Today, we take a trip down memory lane from just a few years ago to recognize two of the best groomed pillars in Blue Jays history, Dustin McGowan's sideburns.

Now I know that that Dusty's chops don't necessarily qualify as "flashback", but it seems like it has been a few years since they have made an appearance. I also figured it would be pertinent considering that McGowan is throwing off a mound today.

Being a self-appointed aficionado of baseball facial hair, once can't help but marvel at the sheer size and shape of Dustin McGowan's sideburns. I mean, those things rival Ozzie Smiths' sideburns from the late 70's.

I scoff at Joe Mauer's pathetic attempt at so-called "sideburns". Come on Joe, those things need to go at least past your ears to qualify as true sideburns.

We wish Dusty all the best in his mound session today, and hopefully we can see his chops back at the Major League level in the near future.

Remember, if you have any suggestions you'd like to see on "Acid Flashback Friday", feel free to send them to bluejayhunter@gmail.com.

Alomar could try the manager's hat on for size

They say "those who can't do, teach". But is it possible for those who can do and have done, to teach? In the case of Roberto Alomar, I certainly hope so.

Listening to Bob McCown speak with Roberto Alomar prior to the Conn Smythe Celebrity Dinner, it sounded like McCown was giving him a screening interview for a coaching position with the Blue Jays.

It turns out the idea of bringing in Roberto Alomar as a coach of some sort isn't so far-fetched. Alomar spoke to the Toronto Sun and said that he'd be open to returning to the Blue Jays as an instructor some time in the future, but not right at this moment.

After the initial honeymoon period with Cito Gaston, I've learned that you shouldn't let emotions from the past cloud the team of the present. Having said that, how cool would it be to have Robbie Alomar as a hitting coach for example?

If not in some sort of coaching capacity, the least the Blue Jays could do is consider letting Roberto Alomar outfit the team with his new clothing line: Second 2 None.

Because there's nothing better than having your insignia remind Dennis Eckersley of the grave mistake he made in Game Four of the 1992 ALCS.

The Birds and the Fish

On the surface, the Cyanocitta Cristata and the Istiophoridae (more commonly known as the Blue Jay and the Marlin respectively) are two creatures that couldn't be more different from each other. When you look at the major league baseball teams that both of these animals represent though, it turns out they aren't so different after all.

Here are two completely different teams separated by completely different leagues, yet the Toronto Blue Jays and the Florida Marlins face the very same problem. They have the uphill battle of trying to compete with two juggernauts above them within their division where payroll never seems to be an issue.

For the Blue Jays, it's the challenge of trying to keep up with the Joneses - the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Just down the street in the National League, the Florida Marlins have a very similar dilemma ... trying to keep up with the Smiths' - the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets.

Some commenters raised some interesting points last week when the rough numbers were revealed for the Blue Jays 2010 payroll. I myself wondered if it was at all possible for the Toronto Blue Jays to employ the Florida Marlins strategy of buy low/sell high baseball to make it to the top of the American League East once again.

Not exactly being an expert when it comes to the National League, I decided to reach out to one of my fellow Baseball Bloggers Alliance members - Michael Jong of Marlin Maniac. Wanting to speak with someone knowledgeable on the fish, I asked Michael what his thoughts were on the similarities between the struggles for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Florida Marlins.

"I agree with you that our teams are in similar circumstances (as are the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals) in that our ballclubs have limited budgets and face teams that have significantly better spending power.

The solution when a team cannot spend to get talent is to provide surplus value through player development and shrewd contracts and trades. Unfortunately, this method of building a team is very difficult, as one can tell from the numerous small market teams that have difficulty punching through.

For every one Florida season in which we see great success, there are three seasons like the ones Oakland has witnessed the past few years where certain things do not pan out and the team bottoms out."

Michael raises some good points here. Just as J.P. Ricciardi attempted to apply the Moneyball model to the Toronto Blue Jays, other teams around the league look at clubs like the Florida Marlins and most recently the Tampa Bay Rays as examples where low payroll can lead to success.

For the Tampa Bay Rays, it took ten seasons of accumulating high draft picks to build a winner. Unfortunately, the Blue Jays don't have the luxury of being able to piss away another decade ... though some would argue that is exactly what they have done since 1994.

Compared to the Blue Jays, I think the bar has traditionally been set much lower for the Florida Marlins. It seemed like even after they won two World Series, the fish were never perennial favourites to repeat as champions, or even make the playoffs for that matter.

However, Marlins management was clever enough to realize that their star players would bog down the payroll once they were no longer under team control. Since 2006, they have not let spending get too carried away in a division that traditionally spends over $100 million dollars to field a playoff team.

Aside from adopting the "Tank Nation" mentality and hoping for high draft picks in the future, there aren't many other options in the short term for teams like the Blue Jays or the Florida Marlins. The best plan of attack for both of these teams is to stay the course and continue to develop young talent, while not getting too carried away by signing players to big money contracts. Michael also offers a few suggestions:

"The alternative is to do what teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals have done for years, which is to supplement their teams with average-costing free agent talent and never get anywhere.

As a small market team, if you want to succeed, you cannot go this route. So if there is a shot for teams like Florida and Toronto, it is in investing in player development and markets outside of free agency to build that future surplus value."

Although the Florida Marlins have not seen much success in the way of playoffs since their last World Series title, it seems like they always keep it interesting into the final months of the season. Seeing how the Blue Jays and the Marlins have similar struggles, I asked Michael whether he thinks the Blue Jays can achieve similar success to the Marlins by adopting a similar strategy.

"On the Blue Jays in particular, I do not know if they can employ the same strategy the Marlins have. Consider how lucky the Marlins have been this decade. The teams of the early 2000's were built from a massive fire sale in 1998. Of those trades, four or five players panned out as a solid, above average contributors. The 2006-present model got lucky on Hanley Ramirez and a couple of scrap heap pickups along with some developed talent.

The Jays finally traded Roy Halladay to get some talent into their minors system, but the odds of stumbling onto a Hanley Ramirez-type talent are very small. However, the alternative is so grim that if the Jays want to compete, they'll have no choice but to do this. In short, it is possible, but it's definitely an uphill climb, and being stuck to bad contracts from the past regime is not going to help."

As with any comparison, there are a lot of similarities between these teams but there are also quite a few differences too. What would be interesting to see is if the Blue Jays and Marlins swapped places, and how each team would fare respectively. Unless the new commissioner decides to really shake things up, I guess we'll never know.

For the time being, it's comforting to know that the Toronto Blue Jays aren't the only team in baseball that has to use alternative strategies to win against teams with $100+ million dollar payrolls.

Thanks again to Michael for his perspective from the Florida Marlins point of view. Make sure you check out his blog, Marlin Maniac.