Will chicks dig the pitching, as much as they dug the long ball? Only time will tell.
With all the steroid cheats having been, for the most part exposed, the days of "chicks digging the long ball" are a thing of the past.
Sure a player like Jose Bautista can rise up and blast 54 home runs in his first full season as a regular, but it sure seems like the offensive side of the game has had its’ clock turned back to the pre-steroid era.
Removing Bautista’s career year from the mix, the most home runs hit last season was 42 by Albert Pujols which is back at the level that the game was in the late 1980’s when the standard was between 35 and 45.
As baseball turns the calendar to 2011, there’s an industry-wide belief that pitching and defence is now the way to compete for championships. This is why the Phillies snookered the Yankees and Rangers to land Cliff Lee, to give them arguably the best rotation since the Orioles foursome of Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar and Pat Dobson who all won 20 games and combined to go 81-31 with a mind-boggling 70 complete games back in 1971.
The Brewers are also going that route, first trading with the Blue Jays for Shaun Marcum and then sending four prospects to the Royals to land 2009 A.L. Cy Young award winner Zack Greinke. It’s the same formula that the Giants rode in 2010, climbing on the backs of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez and Madison Bumgarner to win the World Series.
So where does this leave the Blue Jays at this point in the off-season?
Dealing Opening Day starter Marcum to Milwaukee for their top prospect, Canadian Brett Lawrie, was a nice score for the future but they have the 2011 season fast approaching. As it currently stands, their rotation consists of left-handers Ricky Romero and Brett Cecil and righties Brandon Morrow and Kyle Drabek.
The fifth spot in the rotation will be one of the battles to watch this spring. Marc Rzepczynski, Jesse Litsch, Brad Mills and Robert Ray will get ample opportunity to secure the spot but I’m expecting that a couple of more names will be added to that list, as Alex Anthopoulos continues to look to add arms before spring training begins in February.
The one area that I do have some concern about is the back end of the bullpen. With Scott Downs, Kevin Gregg and Jeremy Accardo gone, Jason Frasor is the only pitcher with experience at closer. He was the man to start last season but Frasor blew two of his first five save opportunities and was replaced by Gregg, who went on to convert 37 of 43 save chances the rest of the way.
That tied Jonathan Papelbon for fourth most in the A.L. and was also fourth best in franchise history. But you wouldn’t know it, based upon the grumbling reaction of those in attendance, who treated Gregg like he was the second coming of Larry Murphy.
Back at the start of the free agent season, I was hoping that the Jays might have some interest in Kerry Wood, Bobby Jenks, Dan Wheeler, Jesse Crain or Matt Guerrier to fill the holes in the back of the pen.
But the Red Sox, whose bullpen combined with injuries throughout the rest of the roster kept them out of the playoffs last season, signed Jenks and Wheeler to help set-up Papelbon.
Wood returned to the Cubs for a low base salary, Crain signed with the White Sox and Guerrier with the Dodgers. Any chance of replacing the defected relievers was now gone and none of them signed for money that would have crippled the Jays payroll.
As has been said many times, we must remember that the Jays rebuild is a work in progress. But with the countdown to the 2011 season just 100 days away, the pitching has been weakened and that is worrisome, especially with the Yankees and Rays not exactly having a stellar off-season.
