Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 04, 2004
Waiting for a Break

Greg Auman of the St. Petersburg Times look at how the Blue Jays are getting better despite spending less money.


In a division that is home to baseball's biggest spenders, the Blue Jays have spent the past two seasons going in the opposite direction of the Yankees, Red Sox and Orioles.

Not in the standings, but rather in the checkbook. The Yankees' payroll now tops $180-million, the Red Sox also clearing nine figures, and the Orioles spent big to bring in free agents Miguel Tejada and Javy Lopez.

The Blue Jays, meanwhile, have trimmed their payroll from a projected $88-million when J.P. Ricciardi became general manager in 2002 to a svelte $50-million for this season. And despite those cuts, last year's Jays finished 86-76, eight games better than a year earlier.

"This is probably going to sound foolish, but we don't really pay attention to what the Red Sox and Yankees do," Ricciardi said. "We pay attention to addressing the things we need to do, and we think we have a better club than last year."


Ricciardi appears to be patient enough to wait for good things to happen:

"We'd like to be better than the year before, and every year if we can do that, it's all we can ask at this point," Ricciardi said.

"Hopefully, we're good enough that when that little break happens, we can take advantage of that opportunity."


Ricciardi knows that luck can play a big role over the course of a season. If he can keep the Blue Jays near the 90 win level, luck can take that total to 95. And that's in the range where injuries to the Yankees or Red Sox would put his team in the playoffs.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:12 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Of course, while I agree with Ricciardi's strategy, I do have to wonder how long Blue Jays fans are going to be willing to come out and support a team expected to be an also-ran, barring one of the big boys faltering?

Cheering on a perpetual third place team is only fun for so long, even if they do win 85 to 90 games a season.

Posted by: John Y. at March 5, 2004 12:26 AM

Wouldn't it be a great story if the O's or Jays could actually win this division, maybe next year? From a dramatic perspective, it's probably best for the Yanks and Sox to fight it out this year again, and then have a surprise team take one of them out in '05. This is of course just a storyline, a plot, not a prediction.

Posted by: Robby at March 5, 2004 09:21 AM

Re: John Y's post: Just ask Yankee fans from the '80s.

Posted by: Cliff at March 5, 2004 11:53 AM