Finally someone in the media can put aside the crying and whining that their predetermined blockbuster story was spoiled by mean ol' JP Ricciardi.
In his column today for SI, Verducci nails it on every point. He points out that many in the baseball media, including normally more rational and respectable voices, noted the Jays as "losers" because they didn't cave and take less than they wanted for Halladay. without spoiling his fine column, which you should read for yourself, he draws the absolutely correct conclusion that the Jays made the right choice at the deadline.
Let me go beyond his conclusions a sec and add this thought: The media collectively WANTED Doc out of Toronto and on to a high profile team from Day One. The collective opinion of the great majority of sports writers has been that the Jays missed a great chance to get better by moving Doc. For a perfect example, listen to Yahoo writer Jeff Passan being interviewed on the Fan590.
What they would deny, but what is painfully obvious is this: they had and have a bias. From the day that Ken Rosenthal (unwisely and unprofessionally, IMO) titled his column which broke the story "Halladay as good as gone" he and many of the rest of his peers were openly lusting to break the story of where Doc was going, to cover the big blockbuster deal. The problem is that Rosenthal did EXACTLY what he blasted that blogger for doing on the Ibanez story - printed his own speculation as if it had the credibility of fact (and, by the way, the blogger wasn't out of line but that's another matter). Rosenthal CREATED the firestorm that has surrounded Doc for the last five weeks and professional curtesy (or something) kept any of his colleagues (except Mike Wilner) from calling him on it.
They wanted, nay DEMANDED a deal.
Since he "broke the story" reporters have been laying awake nights hoping to cover the blockbuster deal and then turn the spotlight on the best pitcher in the game as he joined the playoff chase. So it's only natural they got their collective knickers in a knot when JP screwed them over by not selling short on Doc.Unless, of course, they wanted to be professional about things.
Too damned bad. Maybe these fellows wouldn't get so offended (I refuse to use the term "butthurt" - sorry) if they would just report the deals which happen instead of rooting for deals to happen.
As an aside, a couple of revealing interviews with Jays management are up on the Fan: JP spoke with Jeff Blair yesterday and Alex Anthopolous was on with Don Landry this morning. Some good stuff there, including Alex's take on the players we got for Rolen. Nothing stunning but confirms that the Jays see Stewart as a starter, that they think Butter has something to work with in fixing EE's defense, and that Roenicke does have the stuff to close.
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So, I’m just wondering what the likes of Passan thought was out there? I mean, if 1/2 a season of Holliday in a down season was worth a top 25, near-ready prospect, plus 2 very useful parts, why aren’t these people dumping on Cleveland for going quantity-not-quality? They got zero front-line talent back for a year and a half of a pretty good #1 starter. A meh Holliday brought back a higher top-end, and still a decent amount of depth. Halladay SHOULD have brought back a Bedard-esque haul. Heck, Lee SHOULD have brought somewhere near that back (discounting for Bavasiness, of course). Good on Philly for getting something close for a lot less (go Fish, go! I’m not bitter…). I still think that, in the end, an offseason Halladay deal will still bring in more than that haul, and front-loaded, where it counts.
Contact link seems to be broken.
Anyways I have a cool writing opportunity with Bleacher Report, alongside what you’re doing here. Get back to me max@bleacherreport.com if interested.
Thanks,
Max
Spifficus – pretty much everyone agreed Shapiro did get a poor return on Lee. I like Knapp, but Shaprio clearly went for a quantity package which was the wrong approach. He’s still a tremendous GM, but I think he clearly undersold Lee.