Posts tagged AlexRios at FanHouse

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.

We're coming up on that crossroads season for the Blue Jays. For years they've had a team that, in the prism of the AL East, was merely OK. And each year they were also the team that was expected to break that Red Sox/Yankees stronghold on the division. But those two teams were also the built-in excuse for the Jays when they didn't break through. They have been pretty consistent with their win total over the last 10 seasons (in the 80s every season except for two), but it was never good enough to approach the upper echelon. "Well, the Red Sox and Yankees are in the pantheon of baseball ... who's going to beat them?"

Umm, it was the Rays. And now that the Rays have busted through, the pressure is on the Jays to finally kick this franchise into another gear and make their move. There's no reason to think they can't do it, as the club went 51-37 after replacing John Gibbons with Cito Gaston as manager ... a pace that would have placed them just a hair short of the Sox for the wild card. That's a significant stride, but not enough to be a playoff team quite yet. And with the imminent departure of A.J. Burnett, there will be some work to do to get there.

Obviously the fantasy season is past the halfway point, but you gotta work with me here. There aren't any games that count for the next few days, so it's the perfect time to formulate these teams. Unlike the actual All-Star game, there are different parameters for judging who makes the fantasy All-Star team. Value matters. For example, Hanley Ramirez is obviously the best fantasy player in baseball. He was a high first round pick in every draft, though, so he's not really exceeding expectations.

There's a reason you make the fantasy All-Star team this way ... owners don't win leagues by drafting Hanley Ramirez first overall. You do, however, win your league by loading up on value picks like Josh Hamilton and Geovany Soto ... while you lose your league by taking some of the big names I'm going to list on the "bad" team.

I've named each team after their backstop. Why? I felt like it.

Let's have fun.

TEAM GEO (these are the fantasy All-Stars)

C - Geovany Soto -- You can convince me that you thought Geo was a top ten catcher and that he'd hit 20 home runs coming into the season. You can't convince me that you had him top three and on pace for almost 30.

There's been a lot made of the drop in offense in the American League this season with reasons ranging from weather to a paucity of good young players used to explain why the bats aren't thumping as they have in the past. There's been another reason tossed around as well, the presumed disappearance of steroids in the post-testing game of baseball.

Jeff Blair of the Toronto Globe and Mail picks up on this during a look at the scuffling Toronto Blue Jay offense in general and Alex Rios in particular. He describes J.P. Ricciardi watching Rios take a called third strike and say, cryptically, that we'll see a lot less balls in the seats.

If you're J.P. Ricciardi, you can't just attribute it to the Mitchell report or anything like that, because you're an employee of Major League Baseball and, well, he just can't go there, you know?

I think if Ricciardi could use something like that to explain away his team's offensive production, he'd be wise to do it actually. Wouldn't make it true but it might give him an out.

Using PED's to write off the decline in offense makes no sense. It doesn't take into account that the players using weren't just power hitters, weren't just hitters and didn't just play in the American League. It doesn't explain why the National League is outpacing its 2007 performance to this point in the season and it certainly doesn't explain why Rios and the Jays can't hit.

It was a stellar debut year for a few young pitchers last year. Most notable, despite Clay Buchholz's incredible no-hitter on Sept. 1, was probably Giants hurler Tim Lincecum's debut season. It's rare for a young pitcher to get so much work in his first season, but Lincecum responded to the challenge with aplomb and, you know, really nasty stuff. 2007 proved it: Tim Lincecum's future is bright.

But it looks like the Giants are not all that interested in that future. Jayson Stark reported today on ESPN's winter meetings blog that San Fransisco is actively trying to deal Lincecum for the Blue Jays' Alex Rios:

• The Giants and Blue Jays have a deal on the table that would send outfielder Alex Rios to San Francisco for pitcher Tim Lincecum. But the Blue Jays appear to be more motivated to make that trade than the Giants. Two baseball men who spoke with the Giants describe them as being "indecisive" about whether they really want to move Lincecum for a big bat and, if they do, about whom they should get for him. Toronto has decided its best strategy to survive in the loaded AL East is to stockpile as many power arms as possible. So the Blue Jays would sacrifice offense if they could pick up an arm like Lincecum.

Rios is an awfully big bat to trade, but Lincecum is a potential world beater. The Jays want him to be a Red Sox and Yankees beater, too, though that might be a bit too much to ask.

Last question(s): What are the Giants thinking here? Isn't it time to rebuild? Barry's gone ... isn't youth the thing? Why trade Lincecum now, when he's just beginning to broach his talent?

The Yankees and Blue Jays got into a bit of a bean ball war earlier in the week, and Roger Clemens and Joe Torre are the ones who will pay the price: Clemens got nailed for five days while Torre will be forced to miss one.

I'm sure this isn't going to go over that well amongst Yankee fans, but it had to have been expected. Tempers flared after the Blue Jays threw behind Alex Rodriguez in Monday's game, so much so that my FanHouse colleague Red literally predicted some more extra-curricular activities would happen later in the series. Lo and behold, after Rodriguez was plunked on the calf in Tuesday's game, Clemens retaliated by hitting Alex Rios square in the back, earning an immediate ejection for both him and his skipper.

If Clemens was merely retaliating, shouldn't at least one of the Jays been suspended, as well? Maybe in a perfect world, but they managed to just barely stay on the good graces of the umpires, which makes all the difference in the world when commissioner's office starts doling out punishment.

Something to take into consideration is that this is probably the most expensive bean ball of Clemens' career -- not being paid for five days is almost like taking one million dollars out of his bank account. Granted, I'm not sure Clemens even balances his checkbook to within six digits, but still, I'm guessing his accountant will see the missing dough.

Update: three Blue Jays were fined, but not suspended: Josh Towers, Matt Stairs and third-base coach Brian Butterfield.

So after Monday night's Jays-Yanks mash-up, which saw the Jays throw behind A-Rod, Jorge Posada and Matt Stairs get plunked, and a couple hard slides, I predicted further high-jinks for Tuesday. And the lads didn't disappoint.

For those keeping score, the bad blood runs back to May, when A-Rod pulled his now-classic "Mine!" manuever in Toronto. The Jays were perfect gentlemen during their next series in New York, apparently choosing to wait till the Yanks were up in the Great White North to exact their revenge.

During last night's game, things got ugly fast, with Josh Towers drilling A-Rod in the leg to kick off the third, causing the benches to empty as A-Rod tried to advance toward the mound before being restrained.

"It was heated," Joe Torre said. "I'm just glad we didn't come to blows; it could have gotten ugly. I guess yesterday wasn't a mistake. [A-Rod] got thrown behind yesterday, so this other thing probably set him off a little bit."

A few innings later, Roger Clemens, never one to shy away from retailiation, hit Alex Rios in the back, earning an instant ejection while the benches cleared yet again.

Interestingly, one of the most animated characters on the field was Yanks base coach Tony Pena, who spent the better part of the game jabbering at Towers, prompting a post-game war of the words.

"I was like, 'What is this guy running his mouth for?' He's a quitter," Towers said. "He was managing a team (the Royals in 2005) and he quit in the middle of a season, because he couldn't hack it. Hey, he's going to run his mouth at me? It had nothing to do with Alex."

"I don't care," said Pena when informed of Towers' comments. "I have no comment. Just let him talk."

Don't miss Part Three, kids. Tonight at 7:07pm.

The Home Run Derby is not perfect. It lasts too long, Chris Berman makes my ears want to bleed, most of the best players aren't participating, and the players all look really stupid in their team hats and All-Star warm-up jerseys. But you know what? No one's expecting perfect. Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard were both born for this kind of thing and they're here, along with one of the best hitters any of us may ever see (Albert Pujols, of course). There will be lots of home runs hit, there will be lots of people doing stupid things in boats, there will be a lot of fun had, and no one will try to make it more important than it really is. That can only mean one thing: live blog. Anyways, the whole thing kicks off at 8 PM and I'll be here, so follow along with the live updates after the jump.

Whoever said that the home run derby was for the fans, they were wrong; the home run derby is for the gamblers. With that in mind, I would like to present the odds for this year's home run derby. According to Bodog's sportsbook, at 2/1, Ryan Howard is the favorite to defend his title. Here are the odds:

1. Ryan Howard 2:1
2. Prince Fielder 3:1
3. Albert Pujols 7:2
4. Justin Morneau 9:2
5. Vladimir Guerrero 6:1
6. Matt Holliday 10:1
7. Magglio Ordonez 11:1
8. Alex Rios 12:1

Given the recent history of the derby, I would be inclined to go with one of the hitters you would least expect to win it. Think about it, aside from last year when Howard took home the crown, it has been non-home run hitters who have dominated the derby the past few years. Bobby Abreu won it in 2005, Miguel Tejada in 2004, and Garret Anderson in 2003. Those three players have combined for 15 dingers this year. Every player in the derby has at least that many, except Vlad (14) and Mags (13). Taking a look at those stats, and it's almost a curse to win the derby. Anyways, my money's on Rios, he has the sweetest and easiest swing of them all. Of course, I'll be sitting here with my head in my hands when he fails to go ya-ya, but for now, that's my pick.

Previously at FanHouse:
How to Improve the Home Run Derby

Is this what Aaron Rowand gets for slamming his face into a fence and breaking his nose? Trade rumors have been following Rowand around lately, from the one about the White Sox for relief pitching, to the one about the Blue Jays with Jon Lieber for Alex Rios. How is Aaron handling it?

"I've only been traded once in my career," said Rowand, who was a supplemental pick for Chicago in 1998 and came to Philadelphia in 2005 in the trade that sent Jim Thome to the Windy City. "I've been in three or four rumors each winter. There's nothing you can do about that. It's kind of flattering that another team wants you and that (the Phillies) want me and will only trade me for the right deal."

It had better be the right deal for the Phillies' sake, and not one of those Bobby Abreu for a ham sandwich type deals like the one Pat Gillick made last season. Alex Rios might turn out to be a special talent ... or he might not. And the Phillies could sure use the middle relief that the White Sox would offer. But Aaron Rowand planted his face in a fence, and subsequently had the best selling merchandise in Philadelphia for a while. Guys like that don't grow on trees (they are, however, manufactured in a remote steel mill in Pennsylvania). The Mets were never the same after trading Lenny Dykstra to Philadelphia many moons ago, so the Phillies of all teams should realize the value a guy like this has.