He won't sell his soul...

... and he won't sell his roster. I’m still amazed.

We know the economy is in the tank, sponsors are pulling out, companies' and fans' priorities are being reassessed and questions about where to devote precious dollars are being scrutinized in a way that hasn’t been done in a very, very long time.

There is going to be competition in the entertainment marketplace in a big way as various entities will be fiercely vying for consumers’ disposable income. Your average, everyday person will be looking to get maximum bang for their bucks when they decide to fork over a few denarii for an outing.

In the midst of this, J.P. Ricciardi is doing his level best to let the marketplace know that the 2009 Blue Jays are nothing to get excited about—the offseason buzz has been decidedly negative. For every move made by teams they’re expected to compete against, Ricciardi counters by saying in effect “Well, it sucks to be us.”

I realize that J.P. has his orders and has little payroll room etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum ad nauseum but is there so little creativity in the man’s soul (his recent work seems to affirm this in screeching fashion) that he has no idea of how to sell what he has in his possession?

For instance, the biggest offseason downer is the fact that A.J. Burnett is gone, Shaun Marcum is out for next season and Dustin McGowan will not be back until May and nobody knows how effective he will be upon his return. Ricciardi’s solution is to say they cannot afford to be in on the C.C. Sabathia sweepstakes, Derek Lowe is too expensive, A.J. is gone and he’d have to clear payroll to add the punch line to a joke in the guise of Carl Pavano to the roster.

Wow, way to get folks excited J.P-Brain.

Why not try a different approach? When asked about the pitching, point out “Hey, would you like David Price in the rotation? Well guess what--check this out…

Age   IP    H   BB   K   ERA BB/9  K/9
22  109.2  92  32  109 2.30 2.63 8.95
21  118.2 100  41  129 2.88 3.11 9.78

…the 21 year old? That’s our boy Brett Cecil and he’s a year younger than Mr. Price--suffice it to say we think he’ll be a lot better than Derek Lowe possibly as early as next year and he’ll work for a lot less.”

If the subject of Burnett comes up:

“Uh guys, when we gave Purcey a full time job last season he posted a BB/9 of 2.81, gave up about a hit per inning pitched and struck out close to a batter an inning--A.J. walked about 3.5 per nine and gave up only a little fewer hits to innings pitched (than Purcey) and the difference in their K/9 was 9.4 to 8.6; Purcey is five years younger, a lefty and will make about $16 million less per year--I’m willing to bet he’ll be almost as good as Burnett and toss more innings in 2009 so why do we need him?”

Then I’d wrap up with: “On top of all that, we have an embarrassment of riches that will be vying for starting jobs--we have a couple of vets in Matt Clement and Mike Maroth and let me tell you…they’ll be in tough this year since they have to beat out the Romero boys, Brad Mills and Scott Richmond--speaking of whom, did you know Scotty gave us 27 pretty solid innings and walked two guys last season?--if they want a spot in the rotation.

In case you’ve forgotten, baseball’s best bullpen is gonna be better this year so they’ll have plenty of support. Not only that, they’ll be backed by one of the better defences in the league--they’ll have the assurance that balls in play are gonna be turned into outs. When you have that, why blow eight figures and a long term commitment on guys whose biggest asset is a bunch of years of big league service? How many pitchers on Tampa’s starting staff did you know a lot about this time last year?”

If the offense comes up: “Fellas, I goofed; Gary Denbo is a terrific hitting coach but was a bad fit on the Jays. What we saw under Cito and Gene is a lot closer to our true talent level than what we saw in the first half of 2008. Overbay and Rolen are fully healthy with no lingering affects from their injuries, we have Aaron Hill back, we have a couple of guys that mash lefties that we didn‘t have when we started 2008 in Jose Bautista and Michael Barrett that can help out Lyle and Adam Lind should they need it. Travis Snider is a stud and I expect him to break out soon if not this season”

“Scutaro can probably get on base at a .350 clip and that ain‘t bad, Hill has Joe Inglett to help him against righties if he needs it, Wells/Rios/Overbay/Rolen/Lind/Snider may not have a 40 HR hitter in the bunch but there isn’t a lightweight among them either--I’ll tell you something, Cito can’t wait for the season to start, he loves the lineup and thinks they’ll open a lot of eyes. If it turns out it is a little light then we can revisit it before the season gets too old but I don’t think we’ll need to do so.

We’ve had different teams in 2006, ‘07 and ‘08 and all of them played tough within the division and will continue to do so--our biggest bugaboo was against second division teams but under Gaston we played .625 ball over the final 40 games against them.

Yeah, money is nice to have but if there was ever a season where the kids would be the best option for reloading--this is it. My only concern is inexperience but I swear--we have the talent.”

That is how you sell the Blue Jays’ offseason--let the fans know what you have rather than pointing out what they cannot have.

Sadly, it’s probably too late--wouldn’t it be ironic if the Jays did really well in 2009 but attendance was down since folks assumed the team wasn’t worth the bother after an offseason of Retardiisms?

Best Regards

John