JP Riccardi annouced yesterday that the Jays are virtually out of the Ted Lilly sweepstakes. The $40mil for 4 years deal that the Yanks and Cubs are offering is much more than than Jays can offer. This does not worry me and I think anyone who followed the Jays last year cannot be impressed with Lilly.
Lilly and his agent said that Ted’s primary goal is to pitch in the playoffs. So Ted must be going to the Cubs (dead last in the NL) because they are going out and spending money on prime pitchers like himself (yikes). The signs come opening day at Wrigley will be saying “Maybe 2011”.
Lilly is not going to get any better, his bender only worked half the time. Maybe working with Lou Pinella might straighten him out. Wonder how long it will take for him to leave Lou “bloodied”.    Â
Their better off without him, this contract will climb up to $48 for 4 years. Sounds like Meche is out too, which is also good. Looks like they’ll need to trade for a starter. Santana is out with the signing of Matthews Jr. Maybe they can steal a starter from Flordia, but the Jays really only have Lind & Cannon that have any trade value. Lind plays a piss poor OF and will end up at DH, and Cannon is a 1st/DH type player. So this is gonna make it difficult to send these guys to the NL, or even to most AL teams. As of now, the rotation looks like;
Doc
Burnett
Chacin
Then a choice between Marcum, Janssen, McGowan, and maybe FA bum Matt Kiney. Romero isn’t ready yet. At this point, they should trade or get some long relief help in the bullpen. With the injury history and probability of the top three, the Jays better be prepared to score a ton of runs if they want to win. Even the bullpen is weaker, as Speier is gone and I doubt that BJ can be counted on for another 1.37 ERA (car avg 3.19).
PS: I hate to harp, but More tag Early, even if your post is short. If you don’t, it will screw things up.
My bad, Lilly went for the Early quote. I thought he would get more.
If the Cubs can stay healthy (big if), then they shouldn’t be too bad. They can mash, with a top 4 in the batting order of;
Soriano
Murton (probably)
Lee
Rameriez
The rotation is kinda weak (Zambrano, Lilly, Hill, can’t count on Wood or Prior), but the bullpen is deep in the middle (3 pitchers with ERA’s under 3.40). They’ll probably be like the Jays, at .500 or slightly above but in tough when trying to gain a playoff spot. But if they can get anything out of Prior or Wood they could surprise.
I agree with your prognosis for the Cubs, as we have seen in the last few years an NL team with an average a hair over .500 has snuck into the playoffs. Cubs have spent a tonne this offseason so far. Almost $300 million so maybe Tunnel Time Ted is right in going to the Cubs. Reports are now saying the Jays matched the Cubs offer. JP must have deep pockets.