April 21, 2008...7:11 pm
Let’s Bring Sammy to the Jays!!!
So, the Jays got rid of Frank Thomas’ $10,000,000 clause. No matter what management says, of course it was all about money. Forget about a slow start and all that nonsense, money is all that matters in professional baseball. The First and Only Commandment in the majors is: “Spend as little as you can while still making a nice return on investment on the team”. Wins, losses, batting averages, ERAs, attendance numbers, new ball parks, game day experience, records, sportsmanship, steroids, etc, only being important insofar as they have some relation to the bottom line.
Anyway, now there’s a free spot for a DH in Toronto and, again, independently of what JP Riccardi might have said about filling the spot from within, if there’s a good bargain to be picked up somewhere, they will pick it up. As far as I know, the Jays may have already signed Barry Bonds by the time I finish writing this post; at least one blogger thinks it can be a good idea. Signing Bonds may end up being, as another blogger said, the circus coming to Toronto, but that, of course, it’s only secondary to management.
The reason I think the Jays will not sign Barry Bonds is that Bonds will be probably too expensive. He made $15 million last year and we all know he has an stratospheric ego that won’t let him go down enough. Besides, he might be just fine out of the spotlight nowadays.
Mike Piazza is also free, but as pointed out here, it is suspicious that he hasn’t signed with anybody already. The “Piazza is Gay” rumours I suppose, or at least hope, are irrelevant for Toronto. Piazza, however, might be also too expensive. He also made a lot of money last year with Oakland.
That brings me to the real bargain out there: Sammy Sosa. He’s actually 2 months younger than Piazza (and 9 months younger than Matt Stairs), had a better slugging season than Piazza (21 HR as opposed to 8 just to point out to a single statistic) and made only $500,000. He probably didn’t sign with Texas again because they wanted him to agree only to a Minor League deal. I’m pretty sure Sammy would come to Toronto for not a lot more than half a million if given a Major League contract and the opportunity to play at least part time as they supposedly wanted Thomas to play.
So, let’s call him down to wherever he is sunbathing in the Caribbean and bring him to Toronto!!
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