Baseball Views from the North

The Rocket trade

2008-01-06T22:32:00.000-05:00

Roger Clemens is traded by the Toronto Blue Jays to the New York Yankees for Homer Bush, Graeme Lloyd, and David Wells.He broke Jays fans’ hearts…and then did it again to all of his fans (Mitchell Report). After two fantastic Cy Young season with the Jays, the Rocket utilized a clause in his 4 year contract that allowed him to demand a trade. Although he later withdrew the demand, Gord Ash

Batista, Frascatore for Plesac trade

2007-12-23T23:19:00.001-05:00

June 12, 1999: Tony Batista is traded by the Arizona Diamondbacks with John Frascatore to the Toronto Blue Jays for Dan Plesac. I don’t know why this is one of my favorite Jays trades, others come to mind (the Carter and Alomar trade) that were more important in the history of this team. But at the time, I was growing into a more passionate and more intelligent baseball fan (

Stark weighs in, Eckstein signing

2007-12-20T21:22:00.000-05:00

Short update before the holidays, if I have any spare time, I'm going to work on correcting the articles and maybe some new articles...whatever the mood strikes me to do.ESPN.com's Jayson Stark weighs in on the American League, asking J.P. Ricciardi and two other general managers (including one of my personal favs, Mark Shapiro) about what they do to attempt to vault the powers in the AL.

Ricciardi Project Follow-Up

2007-12-19T22:56:00.000-05:00

The Ricciardi Project was meant to be an objective statistical overview of the trades made by Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi in his first five seasons in that position.Of the 27 trades analyzed in the document, 11 players from 7 of the trades them spent time in the Majors with the Jays or the team they were traded to by Ricciardi in 2007.Chad Gaudin : Gaudin became a dependable, if not

Trades! The week's big trades (Haren, Valverde, Tejada)...

2007-12-15T09:44:00.001-05:00

I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that this is one my favorite times of the year because of all the moves being made by different teams. An early Christmas for some teams this week as trades are being made and star players are being gift wrapped for their new General Managers. Let's run it down:Billy Beane's hard on for prospects continued as he took the decision to trade arguably his top

A trade revisited...

2007-12-12T22:36:00.000-05:00

A year ago today, the Rockies traded starting pitcher Jason Jennings along with Miguel Ascensio for outfielder Willy Taveras and two prospect pitchers Jason Hirsh and Taylor Buchholz. At the time, your truly called Jason Jennings "quite possibly one of the best starters on the trade market", let's see what transpired in the first year after the trade.The Rockies ended up going on an unbelievable

Mid-Season!

2007-07-09T11:41:00.000-04:00

Well I debated this weekend about whether I should make the drive down to Toronto for the games or go to a cottage...the races made me decide to skip Toronto and instead I spent two days in the rain without access to watching what I knew would be a great series. This Jays team made a statement throughout the weekend of what they have in them and the run to the playoffs that is not yet impossible

NHL Free Agency

2007-07-04T22:46:00.000-04:00

As previously stated, the past four days have been madness in Canada as everyone is following the big moves being made during the first few days of NHL free agency. The money being spent is stupid...and the terms being given are franchise killers. That being said, I've written a short article looking at the teams that have gone and shopped the much in the early going. It can be accessed here.

Jays beat themselves

2007-07-04T13:33:00.000-04:00

Well, not a good effort by the Blue Jays last night, as they failed their young starter with defensive mishaps and unearned runs. The fun started with the bench not warning Zaun that Stewart was swiping second, and allowing a steal that should have just not been counted as a steal (of course I don't mind since I have him on my fantasy team). Zaun then threw the ball into CF to allow Stewart to

The weekend that was

2007-07-03T12:15:00.000-04:00

Canada Day and NHL Free Agent talk took over the weekend in the Ottawa area. Leaf fans are surprised their hapless GM was able to acquire a winger to help Sundin after picking up a goalie, Habs fans are pissed that their GM threw money around but none of it would stick to any free agents until Monday and Sens fans are anxiously awaiting something, anything.In the end, two of those three teams

Most dysfunctional clubhouse: The Padres!

2007-06-29T02:00:00.001-04:00

Reports are coming out that San Diego has acquired Milton Bradley. Bradley is extremely talented but known to be emotional and sometimes troublesome and was designated for assignment by the Athletics for unknown reasons although it was said to create room for players such as Travis Buck. Milton "The game" has had 5 consecutive season of an OPS+ over 100, he's not quite a home run threat and

June 28th Live Blog During The Game

2007-06-28T13:38:00.001-04:00

End of first inning: Is anything more maddening than AJ Burnett?Single-Hit By Pitch-Ks one of the best young hitters in the game on three pitches-rbi single-Ks last year's MVP on four pitches-Enduces Ground Out.He doesn't even look dominant for full games anymore, just against a couple batters an inning. Glad he got out of that jam without giving back more than one run though.And congratulations

And they're a game over .500

2007-06-26T10:00:00.001-04:00

Unfortunately, I could not catch the game last night but I did get a chance to watch it in about half an hour this morning. The team is a game above five hundred and actually has a 4 game winning streak! Marcum goes tonight against Scott Baker, who is fighting for his job in the rotation.Wells really seems to be getting comfortable in the lead off spot, he'll get less RBI opps but he's bringing

From Goat to Hero?

2007-06-25T23:54:00.000-04:00

Frank Thomas had a fabulous weekend and it showed when looking at VORP, his Value went up 3.6 from Friday morning to Monday morning. One away from 500, let's see if he can get that and get on a roll, came close tonight against MinnesotaBiggest VORP gain this weekend? Matt Stairs jumped 7.2 to go up to 15.7 value. Is anyone (non-arbitration) a better bargain in MLB than this guy? If so, I'd

Why the Jays aren't in first...the offensive part

2007-06-21T18:28:00.001-04:00

Welcome back...after a busy NHL playoff season working sales for a Stanley Cup finalist followed by relaxing over at Lynx Stadium and actually catching Jays, and so many other teams', games on TV. Great game to catch on Sunday, I actually turned to my friend during the 2nd or 3rd inning and stated "McGowan looks filthy today"...good call...too bad my opponent in the pool had him.So as of

Big update SOON!

2007-06-20T15:11:00.000-04:00

BVTN is coming back...big update coming up, you'll notice the stats are already updated!

The New Style of the Draft

2007-06-17T11:22:00.000-04:00

Major League Baseball took a huge step in the growth of the popularity of the draft and in the exposure to top prospects. The first ever televised draft was a big deal for MLB and it should lead to positive growth for baseball as a whole. The lead-up to the draft had more mock drafts than I have ever seen available on the internet, and the draft itself provided a good look into the different

Draft Day One

2007-06-07T21:57:00.000-04:00

Day one of the MLB draft is complete and the Blue Jays organization added 10 new players in the first five rounds. The players were varied in both positional and their level of experience. Here's the top 5 picks from the first round and supplemental:16th pick: High School Shortstop Kevin Ahrens: 6'2, 180 pound Texan switch hitter who played shortstop while in high school but will probably end up

Heartbreak...and movin on

2007-06-07T08:53:00.000-04:00

Well...after two long months of working 12 hour days and having your emotions fully invested into something, I shall have some spare time to get back to working on this great site after last night's dissapointing loss. We will be back on board A.S.A.P. and with a lot of content so stay tuned! A great day to be back on board also as the draft is on at 2pm, stay tuned...lots of different names

Phewwwwwww.....wait....darn!

2007-04-16T19:22:00.000-04:00

Well first the Good news...stud closer B.J. Ryan will only miss 4-6 weeks with an elbow strain, much better than the worse case scenario. Then the bad news...Troy Glaus is going on the D.L. Tuesday with his heel problem. This puts a severe hole in the Jays lineup and will mean Lind/Hill batting second a lot and Overbay staying at the fifth spot. Ryan Roberts gets the call up from Syracuse and

Injuries, Injuries, Injuries

2007-04-16T12:09:00.001-04:00

So I didn't want to post when I hadn't had a chance to watch a full game except Friday night...things are a little crazy as the Senators make their way through the playoffs. But what a horrible week it was for the Jays aside from the standings where they are currently tied for first...Closer B.J. Ryan is gone...and we should find out today for how long. The bullpen had been great early on this

McGowan Watch '07

2007-04-11T15:16:00.000-04:00

Dusty had his second start of the season with Syracuse and impressed again last night. He allowed his first ER of the season with a home run by Ryan Sweeney (2 spots behind Travis Snyder on the Baseball America Top Prospects list at 55). In ten innings this year, McGowan has struck out 17 batters and walked only 3. With Towers so-so performance, as previously discussed with no help from the

April 10th, 2007...questioning the manager

2007-04-10T23:46:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you don’t even have to look deeper into the boxscore. You just look at who is listed in the boxscore and it makes you realize all you need to know about the game. Matt Stairs in left field is something meant to make you cringe, certainly with the knowledge that the starting pitcher needs all the confidence he can get after a horrible season last year. Having Jason Smith at SS and

Inside the Box Score - April 9th 2007

2007-04-09T23:00:00.000-04:00

What a long...long game it was tonight. First thing to look at on that boxscore is the time of play: 3 hours and 8 minutes, although it seemed much longer at times. As I write this, Orlando Hudson just caused his team a run with his 'great defense' as we sometimes saw with the Blue Jays, check the box score for a sacrifice fly to the hitter by Cody Ross. Hudson backed up to right field to make

Inside the Boxscore 04/02

2007-04-04T10:20:00.000-04:00

This is a new thing that I've always wanted to do because sometimes, a boxscore can tell a great story...hopefully this will become a recurring thing. But first of all, check out the official boxscore on MLB.COM.-Reed Johnson had an 0 for 4 day at the plate but he did draw 20 pitches and walked once. He stole second after this walk and scored. Even with his speed, last season he only had 8