A CITIZEN'S BLOG

Short post today ... I just wanted to comment on a piece in today's ESPN.com about the 2005 Blue Jays, our nemesis in the 1993 World Series. The Jays are the fourth MLB team to explicitly endorse the Moneyball philosophy in designing a team, after the A's, Red Sox and Dodgers. GM J.P. Riccardi is a disciple of Billy Beane and has a formitable task before him: compete with the two largest payrolls in the MLB and Baltimore, a team that - if it ever got its act together - would be a formitable foe. Third place seems the best the Jays can shoot for. (And they did finish third for six consecutive years from 1998-2003, before falling to fifth in '04.)

I think the 2005 season will be a real test for the Jays. Letting Carlos Delgado go and rebuilding around younger players is a necessity for them, but if the Jays can roll past the Yankees and their bloated payroll wouldn't that be a tremendous blow for Moneyball cause? Money really can't buy you a pennant. The success that Billy Beane has had in Oakland can be replicated elsewhere. If the Jays fall to fifth again the critics out there will sharpen their knives and complain that Moneyball really doesn't work, that you can't beat baseball's city hall.

I know we don't want to root for the Jays after the '93 World Series, but let's root for them to win some games in 2005. A 90+ win Jays team would be good for baseball's health. (What's bad for the Yankees is good for baseball.)

More tomorrow, I hope. Thank you to everyone who sent along their words for my wife taking the bar today and tomorrow. I appreciate it.