Now, 11 games does not a Blue Jays career make, but in less than two regular season weeks with the team, Scott Rolen may prove to be the best trade that general J.P. Ricciardi has made.
Late in Wednesday night's game with the suddenly upstart Rays of Tampa Bay, Scott Rolen showed Blue Jays fans why he was brought in.
Already the team's most decorated veteran, and having missed most of the first month after a freakish fielding mishap in spring training broke off the tip of the middle finger on his right hand, the seven-time National League Gold Glove third baseman and five-time 100-plus RBI guy is proving to be a calming influence of the Jays' scuffling offence.
With starter Shaun Marcum spinning yet another gem, but clinging to a 1-0 lead as the offence continued to stumble, Rolen stepped to the plate in the bottom and keyed a rare five-run inning by lining a 2-0 piece of cheddar into the bleachers in left-centre. This triggered a bat around inning with the Jays scoring five runs to turn yet another tight one into a laugher, something that has been sorely lacking to date. Then in the top of the ninth, Rolen's solid gold fielding came was on display for all to see, his one-out diving spear of a Gabe Gross grounder that had double written all over it and subsequent one-hop throw from his knees was an instant web gem.
Now, 11 games does not a Blue Jays career make, but in less than two regular season weeks with the team, the personable native of small town Indiana may prove to be the best trade that embattled general manager J.P. Ricciardi has made in his seven-years as chief button pusher. None of the previous problems that Rolen had in his first two major league stops, where former managers Larry Bowa and Tony LaRussa butted heads with the five-time All-Star, have surfaced. Judging by the limited exposure that I've had with Rolen, he seems like a hard-nosed veteran that plays the game right and, in interviews with Sportsnet, a witty and mischievous type. And on a team full of young veterans that don't seem willing to assume a leadership role on any level, Rolen might be just the man for the job.
There's no doubt that the team has played much better since he made his Blue Jays debut in the middle of that forgettable road trip through Orlando, Kansas City and Boston where they lost seven of nine and clutch hits were about as rare as sub-$1 litre of gas. All Rolen has done is get hits in nine of his first 11 games, five doubles, a pair of home runs, but most importantly, of his eight RBI, three have put the Jays ahead and two have been game-winners. It's this type of clutch of hitting that the Jays have sorely missed through the first six weeks of the season.
But his stellar defence -- behind, arguably, the league's best and deepest pitching staff -- is even more valuable now that David Eckstein and John McDonald are out until further notice.
Few players, in this era where a majority of players care more about how they look instead of how well they play, can be called 'throwbacks', in reference to a time where it was team first and personal adulation second. With that in mind, Scott Rolen is definitely a breath of fresh air manning the hot corner in Toronto.
THIS & THAT
*** Tuesday night may prove to be one of those watershed moments in the Blue Jays decidedly uneven 2008 campaign. It was as if some higher power was sitting sticking pins into a voodoo doll. In the span of 30 minutes, both of the Blue Jays shortstops - starter David Eckstein and super-sub John McDonald - went down with hip and ankle injuries, respectively. Could the injury bug that crippled the 2007 season and kept the team from any serious contention be at hand again?
*** I find it interesting when the MLBPA starts whispering collusion during a time when most of their membership is receiving obscene amounts of money. This latest episode came about because a group of free agents - Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Kenny Lofton, Jose Mesa, Mike Piazza, Sammy Sosa and David Wells - were not made offers of any substance to this point. What they fail to realize is that due to various alleged indiscretions, Bonds and Clemens are no longer worth the hassle and circus-like atmosphere that follows them around, while the other five are over 40 years old or will turn 40 during the season. Let's face it, baseball is quickly becoming a young man's game and, quite frankly, none of these players - and the salaries that would command - would fit into any team's budget at this time. It's pure economics, plain and simple.
*** Speaking of Clemens, other players who have taken short cuts by allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs might want to use his continuing troubles as a lesson. If you get caught, fess up and get on with your career. It's not like Major League baseball is going to kick you out and keep you from earning your millions. By continuing to act like he was above all this, Clemens allowed the media and investigators to turn over all kinds of rocks. Now we know why 'The Rocket' looked so sheepish and had a case of the cottonmouth when he stood in judgement before Congress.
*** The Blue Jays go on another three-city road trip starting on Friday in Cleveland with a pair of top-shelf pitching matchups in the four-game series. They open up on Friday night with a pair of Cy Young Award winners locking horns as Roy Halladay faces C.C. Sabathia. And the series closes out Monday night with Shaun Marcum, the Jays best starter, statistically, this season opposing Cliff Lee, who has won all six of his starts this season with an almost undetectable 0.81 ERA. All games in the weekend season series can be seen on Rogers Sportsnet.
