Scott Carson

Stats man Scott Carson is now in his 17th season as "third man in the booth" during Blue Jays telecasts.

Which jersey will Roy Halladay be wearing on opening day in 2010?

Between now and when the 2009 Grapefruit League schedule starts up, the old stats-man will be paring back his columns to once a week on all things baseball. Until that time, you might see me at an NHL or CHL hockey rink near you. But before that …

The Doc Debate

It's going to be in the news until he takes off his Blue Jays uniform -- if, in fact, he already hasn't -- for the final time, but teams have started to jockey for position in the Roy Halladay sweepstakes. New Jays general manager Alex Anthopolous is right to play his cards close to the vest and speak nothing of any potential deals that he's mulling over. I can't remember hearing anything about the deals that Pat Gillick made until they were announced.

The first question is whether or not GM-AA should trade Halladay to a team within the A.L. East. His answer -- and, if anyone cares, I concur -- was that if the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees were to make the best offer, he'd have to take it. But if a team from outside the division made an equally-attractive offer, he would have to take that instead.

Let's face it: when the time comes to send away the best pitcher ever developed by the franchise, getting the maximum in return should be the first consideration. I saw nothing in his 2009 performance to lead me to believe that Halladay's skills are eroding in the least, so the trading partner would be receiving a veteran ace at the top of his craft. The groin injury in the middle of June derailed his 10-1 start, but all the B.S. that flew around after the previous GM decided he needed to see his name in USA Today was the real reason Doc didn't win his second Cy Young Award. That means any deal being talked about has to involve a return commiserate with a pitcher of Halladay's total package of skill, intensity, professional demeanour and will to win.

Everybody involved realizes that trading Halladay within the division would not sit well with the dwindling fan base, already upset with the way that the Ricciardi era ended. And exposing them to possibly facing Halladay six times a season isn't going to help in the standings. But if GM-AA's best deal, receiving exactly what he has asked for, comes from either Brian Cashman or Theo Epstein, then the deal will have to be made to (re)build this organization. And hopefully, by the time Halladay is calling it a career, the team will be on the verge of being a perennial playoff contender again.

Remember, the house GM-AA inherited was treated like a grow-op by the previous tenant. A whole bunch of fixing up is needed, along with an equal amount of patience.

Let's take a closer look

I find it almost laughable how quickly the general managers accepted Bud Selig’s assertion that there was no reason to change the current rules governing the use of instant replay. I realize that the majority of playoff games ended past his bedtime, but did he not see the numerous goofs and gaffes by the current crop of umpires? The use of instant replay to overturn wrong or missed calls is something worthy of proper debate to improve the game going forward. Blatantly blown calls, which happen more often than you think, should be sent to replay to get it right. And it doesn't have to take forever to make the right ruling. As we saw in the playoffs, usually no more than two angles show exactly what went down.

I guarantee you one thing: if the same number of bad calls occurs again next post-season, we won't even be having this debate. Doing things to protect the time-honoured traditions of the game is one thing; burying your head in the sand and not reacting to calls that were shown to be wrong is something else.

Step to the mic, Mac!

Let's get this over with as quickly as possible. For whatever reason, legend-in-his-own-mind manager Tony LaRussa brought Mark McGwire back into the game by hiring his former slugger to be the St. Louis Cardinals new hitting coach. Big Mac has rarely been seen or heard since dropping off the radar in March of 2005 when he refused to answer questions about steroid use at a congressional hearing into performance-enhancing drug use in the major leagues. Since then, his now-famous "not here to talk about the past" line has hung around his neck like Flavor Flav's clock. If and when he's re-introduced to the game at a media conference, rumoured to be any day now, the time has come for McGwire to stand there and answer the hard questions, coming clean as it were. Anything short of that and he'll continue to be a cartoon-ish, muscle-bound representation of the steroid era.

Random thoughts

I'm hoping that the 2010 season is used as an encore for Ken Griffey Jr., with all the tributes afforded to one of the greatest players to ever play this game clean. Over the last decade, some of baseball's most cherished offensive records have been eclipsed by alleged dopers. And through it all, Junior always played the game right and, although injuries robbed him of many games in the latter part of his Hall-of-Fame career, he should be celebrated as one of the greats in the history of the game, the same as when Cal Ripken Jr. stepped away in 2001 ...

I sure wish there was an easily understandable statistical formula to pick the Gold Glove winners. Nothing against Derek Jeter, who has been an above-average fielder for most of his career but when you look at his range factor per nine innings and his total chances this season, there were nine other shortstops who could have won the award at short in the A.L. ...

What next for Josh Towers? He managed to parlay a 13-win season with the Blue Jays in 2005 into $5.2 million over the next two seasons and then fell off the map until having a cup of coffee with the Yankees this season, which will probably land him a World Series ring. He refused an outright assignment to the minors on Wednesday and is now a free agent again ...

Glad to read the glowing early reviews on GM-AA from his first general managers meetings in Chicago this week. And it was equally enlightening reading comments attributed to other GM's like "better prepared than most" and "when you called (the previous general manager) it wasn't like he had a lot of guys around.” Comments like that show that the perception of the team is starting to change around baseball. Also makes one wonder just what exactly was going on for the last eight years, other than the usually allotted time for early BP being taken up by children acting like it was the batting cage down off Route 122 ...

With so many teams not having the cash on hand to chase free agents (Blue Jays included) I'm thinking that the off-season swap meet will hopefully come to a head at the winter meetings where most of the action used to take place. In recent years, player movement via the trade-route -- especially upper-echelon players -- has slowed to a trickle. Sorry to continually hearken back to the glory days of yore, but Pat Gillick's franchise-altering Alomar/Carter/Fernandez/McGriff deal at the 1990 meetings was the type of news that also kept the team on the front of the sports page during hockey season. Not that the Jays are close enough to be pulling off that level of a deal, but I'm hoping they are in on two, maybe three, trades in early December when the leaders of the game reconvene in Indianapolis.