Jays Mail: On Vladdy, Ricky and haters
May 25, 2012, 3:16 PM

From Ricky Romero’s late-night, deep thoughts, to Vladdy Guerrero hype, Blue Jays fans have had plenty to get worked up about of late.

And with the team off on Thursday, earlier this week we dropped a line to Steph Rogers (@tenrowsofpearls), she of Nine Innings of Glory fame, and our old pal Tao of Stieb (@taoofstieb) to get their unqiue takes on Ricky, Vladdy, haters and more…

On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 2:38 PM, Mike Cormack wrote:

OK, so it looks like the Blue Jays won’t be playing double-A ball in Ottawa for the foreseeable future.

Tao, do you think Ottawa would support a Blue Jays farm team any more than an Expos one, i.e. how many games do you think the Taos would attend? Do you even care if a team heads there?

Steph, when I say Ottawa road trip with your BFFs to see Blue Jays double-A baseball, you say…?

On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 4:35 PM, Tao of Stieb wrote:

When I saw the announcement this morning about the Jays going back to New Hampshire, I was a little sad, but it made complete sense. It sounds as though the fixes on the stadium were not going to be done in time for a team to come in for the 2013 season, and the Jays couldn’t twiddle their thumbs for a year waiting for Ottawa to get its act together, even if they desperately wanted to come to the capital. And that’s no sure thing.

I absolutely think that affiliated ball can work in Ottawa, and the ideal situation is that it’s a Jays affiliate. That way, people like Steph and her merry band of hoodlums and ne’er-do-wells could descend on the stadium to see the next generation of Jays, and to belligerently stagger around the Byward Market with what we’ll call “sun stroke” and “heat exhaustion.”

Incidentally: The ballpark in Ottawa is next to a large, iconic Canadian hardware and tire retail outlet, and last weekend, I stood and looked sadly into the empty stadium while I was getting my winter tires swapped off my car.

(No…YOU’RE late getting your tires changed!)

On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 7:35 PM, Steph Rogers wrote:

Tao, at first I thought you were going to were going to say that you looked sadly into the stadium and dreamed of being its first professional YOLO streaker. I have no idea how you knew that I didn’t have my tires changed yet, but I’m more caught off-guard that you called my mum a “hoodlum.” She is a wonderful woman who drove me home from a Tigers game in Detroit when I had real, live sun stroke.

Not that seeing the changing of the guards or that weird cat sanctuary behind the parliament buildings in the same visit as a baseball game doesn’t sound appealing (IT DOES!), but I’d rather drive on my winter tires that I’m not planning to change, to a nearby American city where I can go to a large, iconic American retail outlet with cheap DVDs and candy that I can’t buy in Canada and watch a major league game.

I want to skip through the aisles with $1 bills in my hand before buying pizza, hot dogs, and sodas at the exit (of the retail outlet, not the ballpark), and then I want to yell “This isn’t the Olympics!” when a ‘U-S-A!’ chant inevitably breaks out when the Jays are behind.

It was ideal (geographically) when Ottawa triple-A baseball was an affiliate of the Expos, and it certainly made a lot less sense when the team was a Phillies farm team.

Are Ontarians going to flock to Ottawa to see just any minor-league team? What if it was a Twins minor-league affiliate? I would totally go if Ryan Doumit got demoted and I could see him not know where balls were when they were popped high and back in an intimate setting.

Also, I keep thinking about all of the 19-year-old, double-A players showing up hungover to games after being at the Byward Market Hooters.

O Canada!

On Wed 23/05/2012 10:52 PM, Tao of Stieb wrote:

Point of clarification, your honour!

First off, the Lynx spent only one year as the neglected farm team of the Phillies, but it was also the triple-A affiliate for the Orioles for a number of seasons. Those years of futility for B-More? Made in Ottawa. And where is John Maine these days, anyhow?

Second: There hasn’t been a Hooters in the Market for about 10 years. In fact, there are no more Hooters in the National Capital Region. We get our kicks above the waistline, sunshine.

Third: I’m sure your mom is lovely. No offense intended.

But you’re right to say that the interest for fans with a passing interest in baseball from outside of the city might not be enough to motivate them to come to Ottawa with any regularity if this were the home of, say, the Mets’ double-A affiliate.

Even when the Lynx hosted the Syracuse SkyChiefs/Chiefs back in the day, there wasn’t an exceptional bump in attendance, unless A.J. Burnett was making a rehab start. Then they flocked to our little stadium. They may have even taken the opportunity to swap their tires to a more seasonally appropriate model while they were there.

I suppose there’s an argument that the prospect fixation in baseball is rooted a bit deeper now, and maybe the idea that you could spend a weekend watching Jefry Marte or Zack Wheeler would be enough for roto-geeks and dime-store scouts to come out with their imaginary radar guns and stopwatches.

I’m reasonably certain that I’d do that pretty much every weekend. But then, my unhealthy relationship with baseball should come as no great surprise.

On Wed 23/05/2012 11:49 PM, Steph Rogers wrote:

One, two, and three: The last I heard, when you are released from the Red Sox, you start looking for the Hooters in Byward Market. In that way, John Maine and I are very similar. Hooters are very much above the waistline…LOL.

We have all-things-internet to thank for the availability of everything prospect and the fervour of those who take a road trip to blog/tweet/photograph them. I’m not convinced that the allegiance to following prospects is practiced by enough fans to make a minor league team feasible in Ottawa – at least right now.

Maybe you should just invite Matre and Wheeler to your house for dinner, and you can have them throw the ball around in your yard while you hold your radar gun/iPhone. I will obviously come over, because I’d like to ask Matre a few questions about golfing in the Dominican.

For a friend.

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 9:32 AM, Mike Cormack wrote:

Speaking of the Lynx, a man who bypassed them on his way through the Expos system, is one Vladimir Guerrero. How do you guys see the Vladdy era playing out and what is the most you can reasonably expect from him?

Note: Interviews in English have already been ruled out.

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 10:38 AM, Tao of Stieb wrote:

Regardless of his relative levels of loquaciousness in various languages, I can’t really say that I expect a ton out of Guerrero. That’s not to say that I won’t enjoy seeing him suit up in blue. Like Don Draper said: “Nostalgia is delicate and potent.”

But speaking of the pains of old wounds, there’s no player whom I’ve seen decline quite as quickly as Vladdy. I remember seeing him towards the end of his time in Montreal, and then a couple of years later, sitting down the right-field line in Toronto and seeing him walking gingerly with every step on the turf.

To see a player be transformed from an other-worldly physical specimen to a broken down, old man in a matter of a few years was shocking enough that I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing.

Guerrero’s average output over the past three years has been 19 homers, 76 RBIs (hitting in the middle of the order) and a .790 OPS in 132 games. It’s cool that we get to revisit the twinge in our heart from the Expos days one more time, but this is not much more than a stab in the dark.

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 11:27 AM, Steph Rogers wrote:

To some extent, this journey back to the great nation where it all began for Vladdy, a place where he feels a connection to a time when he was most loved, could also be held responsible for his decline (as in, we don’t believe in grass here).

Like Don Draper said: “Now he’s just somebody that you used to know.” Gotye, whatever.

Vlad is expecting to inch a little bit closer to 500 career home runs. I am expecting him to have lengthy conversations with Omar Vizquel on the bench. Guerrero was an all-star and Silver Slugger just two years ago, but in 2011 with the O’s, his numbers were dramatically sliced – namely in RBI and HR production. Once upon a not-so-long-ago, Adam Lind was a silver slugger too.

I love that Vlad evades the strikeout and I think that’s invaluable on the Jays roster. A part of me believes that Vlad can also see the future, wherein he wins a big ring with the Blue Jays. In my dreams, this happens in 2012, but in reality, maybe Vlad and I are both over-romanticizing.

Dare to dream, Vlad. Me gusta tú sonrisa.

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 1:52 PM, Mike Cormack wrote:

Vlad’s decline last year with the Orioles was undeniable, but… I keep thinking back to some other banged-up DHs that had big years at 37 and beyond.

Dave Winfield missed all of the 1989 season as a 37-year-old, but he bounced back to post an OPS of .814, .798 and .867 in 1990, ’91 and ’92 respectively.

In 1993 with the New York Mets, 37-year-old Eddie Murray hit 27 home runs with a line of .285/.325/.467/.792.

Remember Harold Baines? As a 37-year-old with the Chicago White Sox in 1996 he hit 22 homers with a line of .311/.399/.503/.902.

And finally, 37-year-old Paul Molitor posted a juicy line of .341/.410/.518/.927 with the 1994 Toronto Blue Jays.

I have a feeling Vlad’s poor 2011 had far more to do with the wonky right knee he claims to have healed this past off-season, than a slowing bat.

I’m not saying he’s going to post an OPS over .800, but in the words of Lloyd Christmas, “I’m saying there’s a chance…”

Now, what do you guys make of Romero’s deep thoughts on Twitter Wednesday night?

On Thu 24/05/2012 2:20 PM, Steph Rogers wrote:

I hate talking about 1994, but let’s give Paul Molitor a Booster Juice.

The first time I set my eyes on Ricky Romero, I just got that old-fashioned romantic feeling that I’d do anything to have him be the ace.

From my own experience, “haters” are people who have 22 followers and are still mad about the Jays not signing Prince Fielder. In my other experiences, sometimes you have a bad day at work, and the difference between Ricky’s work and the rest of ours, is that ours don’t affect someone else’s fantasy team.

Hey, great strategy to send out those tweets of frustration. Now over 100,000 people have responded with messages of support. In Romero’s own words, he’s married to the game. When things don’t go perfectly, and you issue a career-high in walks, certainly you’re going to sleep on the couch.

I hate to see the faceless fiends of the internet getting to Mary Swanson like this. Ten out of 10 anonymous commenters have bigger balls on the internet. I made that stat up, but I’m totally right.

It’s easy to add an @-reply to a misguided remark about how you think a professional baseball player should do his job. I’d love to see them show up in a scrum and say whatever they said in 140 characters to Ricky’s face.

Best of luck with your internet balls, everyone.

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 3:18 PM, Tao of Stieb wrote:

I wonder sometimes about what the players are reading and why they feel the need to respond. There are times where I figure they would be better off not reading or responding, and just keeping it to themselves. But then again, I’m always shocked at the crappy comments that I see people making with the player’s Twitter handle included, with the full intent that they read them.

Occasionally, someone feels the need to RT something crappy I’ve said about a player and include his handle so that he can see it — which is the worst. If I’m going to say that Ricky Romero hasn’t had really great command of his breaking pitches since late last season, or that something looks askew as he steps through his delivery, I’m not going to say that to him. He doesn’t need to hear that from me.

As for aging DHs, yes, it’s a rich tapestry of old men and big moustaches. And maybe Guerrero just needed to rest and get healthy again. But most of the names you mentioned never really had as significant a dropoff as Vladdy. I remember Molitor and Winfield playing the field on occasion, and nothing they did looked even remotely as sad as Vlad’s appearance in right field in the World Series against the Giants. That was sad.

And if I hadn’t mentioned it before: Please don’t mention Harold Baines to me. He used to kill the Jays on a regular basis, and even the sight of him now coaching first base for the White Sox makes me hide behind my couch.

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 10:52 PM, Mike Cormack wrote:

Sweet-swinging, unnamed, bearded DH was indeed a menace. Apparently Adam Lind has just gone yard again in Vegas (cue the music from The Nautral), so I have feeling we’ll have something to chat about again very soon…

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