FanHouse GeoffBlum

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While it's entirely possible the Blue Jays do hit a snag, isn't it about time columnists across the internet stopped doing Can the Blue Jays Really Keep This Up? pieces by now? I've seen at least 10 in the past three weeks. There are almost as many The Rangers Are For Real posts. The discrepancy in the media's faith in those two is likely due to the divisions in which the teams reside, but seven weeks isn't a small sample. At some point, you have to start giving credit where it's due.

Over the last few years the idea of Miguel Tejada moving from shortstop to third base has come up on a number of different occasions. As Tejada gets older teams fear that the 34-year-old -- who turns 35 in May -- Tejada will start to lose some of his range at short, and would be better off at third where it's more about reaction time than range.

The problem is that every time somebody's brought the idea up to Tejada, he's said no. Well, Miguel recently returned to Astros camp after the Dominican Republic was eliminated from the World Baseball Classic. He had been playing third base. It seems that Tejada may have discovered he liked playing third because now he's telling everybody he's totally cool with moving there if the team wants him to.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

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Team who refuses to rebuild. Seriously, Drayton McLane, just keep holding out hope you can win the World Series and making your general managers deal every prospect you ever stumble across for the likes of Miguel Tejada and an overrated closer. It just keeps setting the franchise back years at a time. For now, they are solving a broken leg with a band-aid by winning 86 games and treading water.

Somebody, anybody, give Barry Bonds a job. He's an interesting character. He'll bring fans into the stadium and sell merchandise. He'll hit you at least 20 homeruns in your DH or "bench" positions. The steroids and the media circus might be a detraction, but hey, you could add Amy Winehouse to your 40-man roster and get more production in the heat of constant scandal than you'd get from, say, Andy Marte. Andy Marte couldn't hit .200 if he had all season. Barry could probably do it in one game!

Whether or not he's good for baseball is irrelevant. He's good for The Dugout. MLB, pretend you're the NBA for a minute and put him on whatever team needs "stars." While you're at it, put Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame. And come up with about 12 new words that rhyme with "stained" or "game."

Is Barry Bonds retired? I'm not sure! Let's ask him! Tonight's Dugout is after the jump.

(spoiler: no)

Thus says Geoff Blum, new teammate of Michael Barrett and former player for Lou Piniella in the Devil Rays organization. From today's San Diego Union-Tribune:

"This environment will be good for Mike, because Lou Piniella and catchers don't get along, in my experience," Blum said. "I talked to Mike last week. In Tampa, Lou was always on (catcher) Toby Hall. 'Why did you call this? Why did you call that?' Toby had gone over the scouting reports, but Lou took things out on Toby."

That's a bad position for a manager to take with one of the more important positions on the field. It's especially curious because if it is true, he just ran Barrett, a very good hitting catcher, out of town in favor of Koyie Hill (career OPS of .611) and Rob Bowen (career OPS of .703). Bowen was hitting well in San Diego, but if he takes a downturn towards his career numbers when he gets to Chicago, the Cubs are going to have made a serious downgrade at the catcher position for a silly personal vendetta.

As for the Padres, they're happy as can be to see Barrett in town. Just check out the quote from NL Cy Young front-runner Jake Peavy in the same article:

"Michael competes," said Jake Peavy, who pitched to Barrett in the World Baseball Classic in March 2006. "That's the bottom line. He's a fierce competitor. He plays hard. I'm excited because this ballclub has gotten better by getting him. The thing he had with Zambrano – Zambrano took it to another level. As for the fight with A.J. Pierzynski, who doesn't fight with A.J. Pierzynski?"

I have a feeling that at the end of the season, Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella are going to regret this one.

Via Foul Balls