Last Call: Mourning Scott Rolen
It was quite the non-waiver MLB trade deadline today, with the White Sox picking up Jake Peavy, the Red Sox landing Victor Martinez and Casey Kotchman, and the Tigers dealing for Jarrod Washburn, among other deals.
However, it was a pretty rough deadline for many of us Blue Jays fans; not only did general manager J.P. Ricciardi trade star third baseman Scott Rolen to the Reds, they also apparently agreed to pay part of his contract and made the trade because he was unhappy in Toronto, making things even worse. Moreover, Ricciardi failed to deal Roy Halladay, the most-discussed potential trade piece; I argued a while back that the team should hang on to Halladay and go for broke next year, but the Rolen salary dump makes it clear that the Jays’ corporate masters are in full fire-sale mode, meaning Halladay’s likely to be traded in the winter. In my mind, it would have been better to deal him now and maximize his value with a year and a half left on his deal than hope you’ll get something later on when he’ll be a one-year rental.
Anyway, there’s plenty of other baseball fans who share our pain at the moment. The Indians traded Martinez one day before his bobblehead night, which is just embarrasing. The Pirates have stocked up on prospects, but proved that it’s going to be a long road back to respectability. In fact, most clubs’ fans probably won’t be too happy in the short term with how the day turned out, unless they were one of the lucky few to add some talent in hopes of contending (and then, there’s always concerns about the price). In honour of our communal doom and gloom, I present some depressing music and alcohol, plus some non-depressing links. We can all commiserate together in the comments below!
Song of the Night: Iron Maiden, “Run to the Hills”
Because a song about violence and slaughter seems appropriate. Also, running to the hills might be a good move for fans of many MLB franchises today.
Alcohol of the Night: Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters
“Like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick” These are actually offered in some places in Canada, including the legendary Zaphod Beeblebrox club in Ottawa!
*If you don’t have access to ingredients such as the tooth of an Algolian Suntiger or a measure of Qalactin Hypermint extract, I’ve heard a bottle of tequila can have a similar effect. Here, have three!
Intertube Links of the Night:
- Ian from The Blue Jay Hunter plays Rolen off in appropriate style.
- Adam Best of Fansided got a bunch of influential bloggers (and me!) to give their “Last Supper” lists of 12 celebrities (alive or dead) they’d like to dine with.
- Rany Jazayerli has some interesting thoughts on the trade deadline. [Rany on the Royals].
- For the hockey fans (or fans of legal fights!) in the crowd, James Mirtle has a good take on the Jim Balsillie/Phoenix Coyotes mess. [From the Rink].
- lowercase has everything you ever wanted to know about the Western Athletic Conference [The Phoenix Pub].
- A day in the life of John Daly [Style Points]
.
Our stuff:
- TDD on why he roots for the Bills.
- A group effort: Where in the World Is Kyle Farnsworth?
- Rock on Ron Artest’s latest craziness.
- Myself on annoying fan traditions.
- A LWBH/Rock debate on if we should feel sorry for the Mets.
Finally, if you’re interested in the CFL, feel free to stop by my site for a B.C. Lions – Hamilton Tiger-Cats live blog tonight. Kick-off is at 7:30 Eastern.
Party it up in the comments, guys! One more song to set the mood:
About The Author
Andrew Bucholtz
Other posts byAndrew Bucholtz
Author his web sitehttp://www.sportingmadness.ca
Ha, that sucks about the V-Mart bobblehead night. Maybe that means they will now be a collector’s item!
The Rolen trade still makes no sense to me because the Reds are nowhere near to being in contention for a playoff spot in the NL Central. That’s why I’m suspicious it might just be a salary dump, but the Jays only actually save like $5 million next year.
Either way, I’ll miss Rolen. Too bad, because he was the odds on favourite to win the 3B Gold Glove award.
Yeah, that’s what bothers me too. It’s a salary dump, but not really an effective one, and the “personal reasons” is ridiculously sketchy (especially when you consider that that was also used in the Glaus trade).
Yeah, unless those “personal reasons” are your wife left you for another teammate.
/Eckersely’d
The “personal reasons” thing is very sketchy – one can only imagine what that means. And you can bet that the money the Blue Jays actually saved in this trade probably won’t even be used to sign another free agent. Damn Rogers.
Yep. Talking about “bringing expenditures in line with revenues” is never a good thing, especially when your average attendance is one of the worst in the majors. Small-market status, here we come!
Hey,
So we’re talking about baseball? Carry on.
In case anyone is wondering, Deadspin is reporting that we won the Revolutionary War. Thank GOD that’s been cleared up.
The historical one or the end of Deadspin? Either way, no shit sherlock.
Their reports haven’t been exactly timely lately is the gist of what I’m getting at here.
They must have linked to Slate who wrote in 2005 that Joe Lieberman was secretly a Republican. Like anyone without their head up their ass didn’t know that in 2000.
HAHAHAAAA! Did you see my bumper? I tried to be succinct…
Evening all. First….Sculptor? that girl getting hit in the face made me smile. Thank you very much.
Second…I have officially denounced my fandom of everything Indians. I talked a good game after they traded Cliff, but I probably would have been there at opening day next year. But after seeing the heart and soul of that team reduced to tears in his post-trade interview…I’m done. Victor and Lee are two of the best, classiest guys that have ever played here. To see how they have been treated, whether it’s the same old news or not, is crap. And I won’t give them any more of my fucking money.
I couldn’t have explained it better myself. There’s more to a team than payroll or “rebuilding”. Fuck, they’ve been “rebuilding” since 19-fucking-48. All we had was heart and grit, and now they’ve thrown that out too.
The other day someone said this town would burn if we won a championship. Well I think I see smoke somewhere around the lake. They thought attendance was bad to this point. They haven’t seen anything yet. My buddies mom actually called me at work and told me she hasn’t seen or heard anything like this around here since we traded Colavito in 1960. She didn’t watch or listen to an Indians game after that until 1994!!!
HA! I was just arguing with hubby about the fact that this is as devastating (emotionally, at least) as the Colavito trade. He says no, I disagree. Thanks friend’s mom!
Yeah it’s different in the fact that free agency has made it really hard for anyone to LOVE a player the way Colavito was loved. (So I hear…I’m not THAT old!) But he has to remember the way Cleveland treats the good guys. And we loved C.C., but also understood that we couldn’t keep him. We love Cliff because of the amazing obstacles he overcame to have a cy young year. And Victor….there is honestly no way to describe the guy. Nobody felt worse than him about the season he had last year. And he made that known. This was his home now. Seriously if you can find it…it’s hard to watch, but worth watching his post trade interview. Kinda heartbreaking. He loved this place. We haven’t had too many athletes around here that feel that way lately.
True. Last one of them was Thome. The difference in that situation was that is was off-season, and they were in pre-FA / contract extension discussions. As opposed to “Hey you, you’re outta here”.
Yeah Thome was loved. But he jetted. Not that I completely blame him. But he wasn’t tossed out. Oh well. I am a huge Red Sox fan as of today. I would love to see Victor win it all someday.
You’re not the first person I’ve seen renounce their Tribe fandom today.
Me? Oh, my team just downgraded at 1B for no reason whatsoever, bringing back a player that I wish died in a fire the FIRST time he was a Brave.
And the Royals actually didn’t tear down their team in an effort to get minor league talent to use in future trades for utility infielders. Funny how that works…mildly shocked they didn’t try to send Bannister to the Yankees.
Peavy going to the White Sox, I guess they decided they had to make some noise with the Tigers getting Washburn.
I see it the same way. At least San Diego will also be a AA team for the near future too.
And I’m watching the X games. Paraplegic Moto X. Wow.
I just don’t know how I would feel if I were a White Sox fan though. Getting a pitcher who will be ready at the end of August the earliest and may not resign with the team. Screams panic to me.
Scratch that last comment, for some reason I thought he was a free agent. Didn’t realize he was still on the books until 2012.
If they saw themselves as only 1 pitcher away from the division…then ok. But they haven’t had any interest at all until Washburn went to the Tigers.
Evening Last Callers… what’s good on the telly tonight? Have basically been stuck on MLB channel for the gamecaps
Um I seem to have chased everyone off with my melodramatic romps. Sorry about that.
nonsense. i’m just trying to do four things at once. and fridays tend to be slowish.
Yankees and White Sox on WGN – I don’t know what else is on because I stuck a ball-point pen in each of my eyes after happening upon that.
/sorry ChiSox fans, but I’m not a Hawk fan
It really is the mix of an announcer I loathe (Hawk) with one I love (Stone)… but the suck is much greater and brings it down to ear drum shattering levels.
I went to X-games… I like the best trick events
See, I think Stone actually makes the Sox broadcasts tolerable…but only just. As in, when the Royals are on, I’ll watch and not keep the TV on mute.
And just when I try to stick up for the Hawk, he comes in with a “Get foul! Get foul!” Not. Helping. Matters.
I don’t mind Hawk as a homer, actually… I just think he’s a terrible announcer. That said, as an announcer who’s a homer, he’s better than the bloody awful Brewers announcer who try to be “neutral” but fail, and are just horrible on top of it.
Hawk at least makes ZERO effort to be neutral. I respect that. You know, but not watching.
To me, the most ironic thing was they had Hawk and DJ who I never enjoyed on TV, but Rooney and Farmer on radio who I’d actually enjoy listening to a ton.
By the way, Afino, I’m totally perplexed by this move, too. They’re so similar by nearly every measure. The only thing I can think of is that LaRoche has a little bit more pop, so maybe they’re going to start playing for three run homers or something.
We’re going to finish like three games out of the wild card. I know it.
I think he just broke his ass, literally. Forward flip on a motorbike. unfuckingbelievable.
Apparently I have ESPN360 service – nice surprise, since I thought it wasn’t going to happen until tomorrow.
Anyone know if they do HD broadcasts on 360, or is it 4:3 all the time?
Travis Pastrana is only 25 years old? Good fucking lord I feel really old now.
I believe that. Look how fucking stupid he is. He ain’t gonna live to see 30, he keeps this shit up.
Uh huh. Look at him, he’s moving like he’s 80.
He already walks like a 60 year old…
Brutal sports day here. First, J.P. Ricciardi deals Rolen for no apparent reason, then the B.C. Lions get plastered by Hamilton and drop to 1-4 for the first time in ages. Also, first time they’ve lost twice to Hamilton in a season since 1992. I need another Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster!
No one cares about Canadian football.
Except, apparently, you and me.
Indeed. Disappointing: it’s a great game. You’re an Esks fan, right? Nice win for them yesterday.
He is more of a flopping prima donna than all of the soccer leagues put together. He is worse than Steve Young. I hate that kid. Ok. I’m just cynical as hell today huh? Sorry.
Am I the only one waiting in suspense to see who could possibly be worse than Steve Young? He’s one of history’s greatest monsters!
To be fair, I have no idea what he’s talking about.
I’m talking about….oh nevermind. Bad day. Sorry I bothered.
I don’t think I will see anyone as bad as him for as long as I live. I don’t know about you…but I’m dead ass serious. I hated that guy when he played. And I hate him even more for being on my tv now that he is done playing. Fuck him in the mouth.
Steve Young over John Elway? I thought all Browns fans used Elway stills as dartboards in their rec rooms.
Elway killed part of my childhood. I won’t deny that. But Steve Young was always flopping around after every play and acting like a dick. At least that is my opinion. But my opinions don’t seem to be coming out right tonight. So fuck them both!!!! And the Indians. Fuck those bastards.
I don’t want to be picking on you while you while you’re claiming a down night, but I’ve always gotten the impression that Steve Young was an alright guy. He’s very intelligent, and I like him as a analyst. He’s the only guy I’ve seen that doesn’t simply get on his knees and open wide whenever oh-so-precious Peyton comes up in discussion.
Point taken. You are actually right about that. But for the most part I really don’t think he’s a very good analyst. Anybody will look good sitting next to Emmitt.
My dad answers the phone, and the person on the line asks if its him (my dad) or me. He says its him and finishes the call. He turns to me and goes, “I didn’t know, maybe it was your cougar.” My dad is so funny in such a sad way.
That is several sorts of frightening.
Ok… enough fun for one night… y’all have a good night and catch some of you this weekend I’m sure.
Laterz
Yo whut up lollicocks????
Sorry again to all you (former?) Indians fans, if it helps we still won’t be making anything close to playoffs of any kind. Just don’t see it happening.
So what else is up on this way-to-depressing-to-actually-be-a-friday?
/and what’s this i hear on deadspin about vice prez aaron burr shooting somebody ‘n whatnot??
//piling on
I really think we should be able to challenge each other to duels in todays society as well.
storms in, picks up a chair, hurls it across the room, gets hit over the head with a bottle, full-scale roadhouse brawl ensues.
Evening all. I’d just like to say fuck Larry Dolan in the neck.
That is all.
Great name.
Thanks. I was going to get worse with it, but I decided to keep it light.
Damn, with the scorched-earth av ‘n everything. Sorry again you guys.
/oh the humanity
Ah, you know. After 30 years of this, I should be used to it already.
I’m drunk and have made enough of an ass of myself this evening. Good night all.