My weekly opinions, observations and rants about some Canadian baseball stories:
It’s baffling to me as to why the Blue Jays have done so much to associate themselves with Roberto Alomar (given his legal woes) this season, but so little to reconnect with Carlos Delgado. It seems to me that Delgado, a Roberto Clemente Award winner for his humanitarian efforts, is the type of person you want to have representing your franchise.
For the record, I do believe that Delgado belongs in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. You can read my column about it here: http://is.gd/m1a9w6
So who exactly is “E5” in the Blue Jays organization? Jayson Nix’s fielding percentage at 3B in 2011 is .927. Edwin Encarnacion’s fielding percentage in 2010 was .932 and Brett Lawrie has already made six errors in Triple-A Las Vegas this year.
What I love about Brett Cecil is his fire – the recently demoted left-hander wants to win desperately. What I dislike about Cecil is how hard on he is on himself. Hopefully, his trip to the minors will do him some good mentally and physically.
The Jays recently recalled veteran Chris Woodward. With Aaron Hill sidelined with a hamstring injury, no word on whether the Jays are also looking to bring back Homer Bush.
Victoria, B.C. native Rich Harden once owned the best raw stuff of any Canadian to pitch in the big leagues, and super stardom was predicted for the hard-throwing right-hander. Unfortunately, now on the 60-day disabled list again, the A’s hurler is running out of chances. If he doesn’t come back this year, he may never pitch in the big leagues again.
Another B.C. native, Jason Bay, made his 2011 regular season debut with the New York Mets on Thursday. So far, he has two doubles in eight at bats. He will need to do a lot more than that to win back disillusioned Mets fans who have questioned his heart and durability in recent weeks.
In a country where we tend to lionize our hockey heroes, it disappoints me that today’s youngsters seem to know so little about Canadian baseball legend Fergie Jenkins. If you have a son or daughter under 20, I recommend playing this short video for them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBioKF9ezcI
I read somewhere that Jason Bay is the highest paid Canadian athlete. Does he deserve that distinction?
You’re probably right about Bay being the highest paid Canadian athlete. I think he makes about $17 million per season. He had an injury-riddled 2010 and missed some time with a rib injury at the start of this season. If he returns to his 2009 form, he’ll be an all-star caliber big leaguer. But $17 million is a lot of money.
Bay deserves it! Look at his numbers and consistancy. They are better than Morneau!
Let’s compare!
Bay
AVG: .278, OBP .374, SLG .509, OPS .883
Morneau: AVG: .285, OBP .357, SLG .508, OPS .865
Who’s better?
Bay:4 – 30HR seasons, 4 – 100RBI seasons, 76 career SB
Morneau: 3 – 30HR seasons, 4 – 100RBI seasons, 4 career SB
So who’s the allround better player? JASON BAY
That’s all I have to say.
I’ll give Bay this, he has rebounded much better this season than Morneau. Bay is hitting .391 in six games so far. Morneau is still looking for his first homer.
Kevin, you’re right on the Delgado account – Carlos has never had one iota of controversy, yet it seems like the organization isn’t doing much to honour Delgado’s accomplishment. I also hope he makes it to the Hall, and at the very least the Level of Excellence and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame would be a great honour as well!
Thanks for the comment, Ian. I hope the Jays are secretly planning the Level of Excellence ceremony and I think Delgado is all but ensured of being inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility (2014). I’m still not sure why the Jays haven’t at least made any sort of statement on Delgado.
I agree with you about both Carlos Delgado and Fergie Jenkins. I didn’t know too much about Delgado until late in his career, but after reading about him in one of your posts, I looked at his career accomplishments and think he’s a Hall of Famer. I was a Met fan growing up, so I respected Jenkins in a detached kind of way, but didn’t like what he was always doing to my team. I’m surprised he’s not more well known.