The Music City Miracle
NASHVILLE — That’s the only way to describe my journey from Toronto to Nashville today.
Making up for all the chaos (you loyal readers have heard plenty of my nightmarish traveling tale) was the view from my room at the Opryland Hotel. I took the picture on the right tonight from my balcony here. This place is ginormous. A personal GPS dohicky would certainly come in handy. All I know is I found a sports bar somewhere in this place (Lord knows if I can find it again) and I was able to watch some of the Bears game. Man, they’ve been terrible. But I digress…
I originally was supposed to fly out of Toronto and connect through Newark late tonight, when I’d land in around 10:30 pm. Well, that big stinkin’ snow storm had other plans. My flights were canceled and I managed to get on to a 6 am flight out of TO through Houston. Sure, I’d be flying out of the way, but it’s warm down there with no snow hindering my travel.
My flight was on time, but I was stuck downtown. I got up at 3:30 am and spent about a half hour trying to get a cab company to pick up the dang phone. I called four airport car services and none agreed to come get me because of the snow storm. One guy actually said, "You’re best bet is driving yourself." To which I replied, "If I could drive myself, why would I be calling a cab?" To which he laughed and hung up. Nice.
Finally, Mrs. Bastian came through in the clutch, rolling out of bed and finding some cab company I had never heard of online, calling them and getting me a taxi in about 10 minutes. I was about to run out in the snow and flag down a car myself — good thing I have a better half. So, after dodging spun out cars, tow trucks, and other various emergency vehicles, my cabbie got me to Pearson in about an hour (usually takes about 20-30 minutes).
Other than a slight delay to de-ice the plane, my flights went smoothly and I got here early afternoon, but maaaaan was I stressed out and in panic mode this morning. I’m far from being the only one who had an adventure. You can read about Mike Wilner’s (Fan 590) travel woes at his new blog. Anyone coming from the East coast, specifically the New York area, probably had some crazy problems, too.
BUT, the moral of the story is I’m here and the Winter Meetings are about to begin. Keep checking back here for updates and rumors and all that jazz. I was suprised to hear that the Red Sox might agree to include Jacoby Ellsbury in a potential deal to land Johan Santana. Obviously, the Santana sweepstakes is going to provide the bulk of the buzz down here. I doubt the Jays’ search for pitching depth or a backup backstop will generate much excitement.
Stay tuned for more…
Major League Bastian 
Thanks for the link to wilner’s blog, Jordan. I wouldn’t have known he had one if it wasn’t for that. (though i am sure he would’ve mentioned it on the fan sooner or later)
Personally, I don’t understand why Boston is willing to give as much as they are offering when they have a solid rotation as it is. I know that part of it is to keep him away from the yankees but at worst if they yankees do get better Boston still has a wild card calibre team with a good chance to repeat as champs.
It’s going to be interesting who gives up the most to get Santana, Boston or New York.
I wonder how either of them would feel if they gave up two or three of their best prospects and Santana got injured and needed Tommy John surgury.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Santana as much as anyone else, but I don’t think I’d give up Ellsbury, and either Jon Lester, or Clay Buchholz-and possibly both for him.
Assuming LA win out in the Cabrerra sweepstakes and do the deal, Figgins should be available. LA might be more amenable to trading Figgins for Thomas and someone else.
If we are so fortunate to do this deal, we could move Glauss to DH, have Figgins at 3rd. Imagine that lineuep.
I really think that if the Angels get Cabrera, it will probably include Kendrick going the other way. As a result, they wouldn’t have a 2B. The angels would then be reluctant to trade Figgins. As good as Wood, Izturis & Aybar are…the only one that “might” project as a 2B is aybar..and I think they’d rather not have him play there.
Also, I think the Bosox included Ellsbury with the condition that they wouldn’t include Lester anymore (and definitely not Buchholtz)
Jays are flying under the radar only underscores the fact that duringJ.P.,s time.He has been unable to master the BIG deal. Several other Gm,s seem to be able to acquire talent without giving up much in return.
Now I see why J.P. says its so difficult to compete in the AL east. These teams just have so many resources that they can bring in whoever they want whenever they want.
Guys what do you think of Bay in Left Feild, and what would you give up for him. I think Bay would prolly come here and if we get figgins or someone else that’s lead-off then i think bay would be the way to go, especially since he is canadian. I know he had a bad year but he is still pretty young.
Think about it.
For anyone who’s interested, here’s what radio guy Mike Wilner is saying the Jays should do this off-season:
http://blog.rogersradiointernet.com/mikewilner/2007/12/02/ok-were-here-now-what/
I dunno, daveward, we gave up Shea Hillenbrand (he just fired another agent), and got Accardo. We traded Hudson for Glaus, and ended up with another second baseman that was just about an equal. We hired Burnett and Thomas off the free agent market. You have Halliday and Wells inked through 2011 at less than market value, with Rios and Hill soon to follow. I think those are pretty big deals. When you see that this team is a done deal through 2011, with plenty of talented minor leaguers to fill in the gaps, I think that’s huge.
Take all of this for what it’s worth:
According to Keith Law of Espn he asked a representitive from Baltimore if they would be interested in Mcgowan, Travis Snider, and someone along the lines of an Accardo for Bedard and he responded with a definitaly.
According to Steve Phillips Jason Bay and Bedard are both available but that the jays don’t really see Bay as a fit and will only explore the Bedard sweepstakes.
So there you go, just some stuff i heard today.
Also, don’t know about any of you but I like the new road uni’s alot. It was also great that they brought the powder blue for flashback Fridays.
I’m liking the throwback uniforms! But I’ve got to say, I’ve never liked the grey uniforms. Why not go blue, instead of that kind of bland grey?
Another move of stupidity.
We lost Ty Taubenheim to Milwakee today-the very first day of the meetings-probably the first pick. Why, well he wasn’t protected on the 40 man roster; but Towers, Jean Machi and Tracy Thope were.
This is the second pitcher we’ve lost, without getting anything back in return. I don’t know about Thorpe or Machi, but I do know Ty is one **** of a lot better pitcher than Josh Towers-fact is a 10 year old is a better pticher than Towers.
What the **** is wrong with Riccardi for keeping Towers on the protected list and letting Ty go-is he nuts or just incompetent.
Why do we have this infactuation with Towers-like what is it? Am I missing something.
Bull ****-plain bull **** move
enigma
If they traded McGowan, Snider and Accardo for Bedard, they’d be crazy. On the other hand they let Ty go without any compensation what so ever-so they’d probably also include Jannsen and McGowan.
Idiots
I don’t understand the thinking in keeping josh and letting Ty go either. It’s 3 million dollars probably better spent elsewhere. Heck sign a backup catcher with Josh’s money.
I’m not sure why it’s such a big deal to lose Ty Taubenheim. Sure, you hate to see any pitcher get picked up for nothing in return, but this is a guy who’s never had much success above AA and who seems to be projected (at best) as a possible long reliever. Thorpe, Machi, and Taubenheim all seem kind of interchangeable — mid to low level prospects who might get a cup of coffee in the majors if there’s a bunch of injuries.
I dunno. Doesn’t seem like much of a big deal to me. But I do agree that keeping Towers these days seems kind of odd….
Sorry for the error, we lost Ty to the Pirates not Milwaukee.
If we weren’t going to protect Ty Taubenheim and Lee Gronkiewicz, why didn’t we trade them for high quality lower level prospects. Why let Boston and Pittsburg eat our lunch and have us pay for it?
Maybe less time should be spent worrying about uniforms and more time spent taking care of our assets.
hem-the point is we never got anything for them in return. They could have been packaged and traded-for something or someone.
That is my point
There is way to much talk about Taubenheim goin on, he wouldnt have brought this team anything valuable in return.
Forget about him, we have some good young pitchers on the way like David Purcy, Ricky Romero, and in a few years Brett Cecil. Not to mention there all lefties. out with the old, and in with the new!
I totally agree that losing Ty to waivers…was not a smart move. Just based on the fact that both Lee and Ty are younger and cheaper than Towers, I would keep them on the roster. I don’t think they are even arbitration-eligible either. One can make the argument that Lee and Ty may not have been in the future plans as stars,and they might not have fetched much in a trade but they would have been nice bullpen pieces. Regardless, if you don’t protect Towers, NOBODY takes him and you don’t have to worry about losing anyone.
joe
They could have left Towers, Thorpe and Machi off and not lost anyone. Loosing Ty was stupidity, as we shall see from his record this year at Pittsburgh.
I think it’s also be **** funny if Boston play Lee Gronkiewicz against us and he puts zeros on the board.
gsumner:
I’m just curious, but what do you think the Jays possibly could have gotten in return for Ty Taubenheim and Gronk? Gronk’s a career minor leaguer (albeit a successful one) and Taubenheim has never shown much promise at either the Major League or AAA level. I really don’t see either of these guys being hot commodities. At best, they might be a throw in in a multi-player trade. I think Josh Towers, who at least has big league experience and one successful season, might even get a Taubenheim or a Gronk or both in a trade to an N.L. team.
Also, there’s only so many guys the Jays can protect. Other than Towers, who would you drop from the 40 man roster to protect Taubenheim and Gronk? I dunno, I guess I just think it’s part of the game to lose mid to low level prospects. You lose some, you pick some up, and occasionally something works out for everyone. No biggie.
The jays supposedly dropped Ty in order to make room on the 40 man roster for the rule 5 draft. All things considered they can probably find another Ty in there somewhere if they wanted to.
enigma: Exactly! Those are my thoughts exactly. Minor league middle-relief/long relief guys with average stuff are a dime a dozen….
enigma/hem
Obviously Pittsburg belive Ty is ready for the majors-or they wouldn’t have selected him. With pitching at such a premium this year, I think we could have packaged these guys and got a good AA infield prospect or two which is where we have very little depth.
My case in point-we let Boston sign Gronk for nothing and in AA Boston have guys like Bates, Granadillo and Suarez-none of which are on their 40 man roster. Boston would have likely parted with one or possibly two of these guys to get a guy like Gronk who’s MLB ready. Do me a favor and check these 3 Boston players out and tell me if youd do the trade-if you were JP.
If Pittsburg feel Ty is a major league ready starter, do you not think they’d have parted with Neil Walker (AAA)and Andrew McCutchen. Of course they would have.
The point is, they could have left Towers, Thorpe and Marchi off the roster and NOT lost them.
OR they could have dealt both of them and filled our upper minors with a guy or two that add depth and potential.
What good is it to have an overstock of pitchers if you simply give them away for nothing-particulary this year.
It’s stupidity-nothing else.
I think it would be possible to if the the Angels miss out on Cabrera, to possibility package Glaus, Johnson, and or a pitcher like Brain Wolfe for Figgins, and Willits. Johnson and Glaus are both from the west coast so I’m sure they would be happy to be close to home. From there you could package Burnett, Litsch or Jannsen, with Travis Snider together and make a pitch for Bedard. Just putting that out there.