The poking and prodding is done and the Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals have new third basemen. Light a candle for both teams.
The Blue Jays are expected to unveil Scott Rolen and the Cardinals Troy Glaus on Tuesday afternoon after a deal between the teams was finalized Monday. Ambulances are waiting and operators are standing by .. OK, that's it. Enough talk about how hurt these two guys (always) are. I'm just going to use this blog to say that I sincerely wish Glaus good health, because I'll admit it: I've been around clubhouses and dressing rooms and locker rooms since 198 - oh forget it! - and I have seldom seen a guy move around in such discomfort and still play. This is a guy, remember, who volunteered to play shortstop when the Blue Jays were caught short a couple of years ago. Not too many big-time Major Leaguers with a World Series MVP award on their resume would volunteer to play a position they hadn't manned since college since (trust me) few of them would like to risk looking like a doofus on the field. Glaus could be a pain in the ass to deal with - at best he was a grumpy old man - and he could treat a two-minute interview like root canal surgery but he'd also answer questions and was by and large a stand-up guy. There's nothing wrong with being a challenging interview.
He got lousy advice from his agent when his name was linked to steroid shipments last year - I'm still waiting for a return call from the agent and I don't know about you but if I was a player I'd like my agent to have my back with the press - but he also met voluntarily with the commissioner and whatever he said must have worked because he dodged a suspension.
Rolen should come to Toronto with a clean slate. He didn't get along with Larry Bowa and Tony LaRussa? So what. That's a pretty big club. His injured shoulder is his left shoulder - his non-throwing shoulder - and the difference between his production against right-handed pitchers and Glaus' might almost be akin to adding a left-handed bat to the Blue Jays lineup. OK, make that half a left-handed bat. And, as an aside to the person on coxbloc who wanted to know if I voted for Todd Stottlemyre ....
GIVE ME A FRIGGIN' BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~!
That said, let's go get us some mail ....
Hey Jeff,
I think you are one of the best baseball writers in the mainstream media today (I read
www.baseballthinkfactory.org
so see a lot of different baseball writers) and wholeheartedly agree with you voting for Tim Raines and Mark McGwire. They are among the only people deserving to be enshrined on this ballot. However, I am wondering why you didn't vote for two players who I do think are deserving: Bert Blyleven and Alan Trammell. Admittedly, Trammell isn't an inner-circle hall of famer, but he is better than many of the SS's in the hall of fame. He is a much better hitter than every SS in the hall of fame save for Luke Appling, Lou Boudreau, Joe Cronin, Ernie Banks (who was a 1b for half his career), George Davis, Cal Ripken Jr, Arky Vaughan, and Honus Wagner.
That seems like a lot of SS's but it is only about half of those in the hall of fame. All the others are noticeably worse than Alan Trammell. Arguably, you could say that the defense of Ozzie and Aparicio make up the difference but that still leaves Trammell a better hitter than 1/3 of those in the hall of fame.
By OPS+ he was a 20% better hitter than the average player during his time. Considering that SS's are below average hitters on average Trammell is worth a look from you.
