An entertaining week for all of baseball
After the Blue Jays’ crazy week of trades, it would be awesome if media reports could be summed up like the reviews on movie posters.
“All in” screamed the web headlines. “Blue Jays make Big Score” said CBSsports.com “Hello, postseason,” crowed USA Today.
Is any of that any different from the countless report cards that will be pecked out after Friday’s deadline ended? Beyond the impact on the field, which will be dissected and analyzed the rest of the season, it was a really entertaining week to watch.
Here are our sports media winners and losers from the wild week that was:
WINNERS
Baseball Insiders: NBA Basketball fans have “Wojbombs” — the breaking tweets about deals from Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski who owns the beat — but this week we got a Hey-maker. CBSsports.com’s Jon Heyman was the first to report the David Price deal was getting close, so he gets kudos from this corner. But it’s not just him, as there is a spirited competition between a number of top guys, including Fox’s Ken Rosenthal, and Jon Morosi, Yahoo’s Jeff Passan and Jayson Stark of ESPN, who all have been must-follows this during this very busy week. Alex Anthopoulos trade ninja master status: With the Troy Tulowitzki and Price deals, AA’s mastery of the dark art of general managing remains as sharp as ever. Both deals were jaw-dropping ones, with the first coming out of nowhere and the second generally thought not to be a possibility because of the team’s philosophy against rental players. The Jays GM once again wowed the faithful and may have even bought himself more time in the gig with these moves. Emojis: When things are good, Toronto baseball twitter is pretty awesome, and the elation after both the Tulo and Price deals was really fun, especially with all the players chiming in with an explosion of emojis. Josh Donaldson tastefully only used four symbols but Danny Valencia took the cake with almost 20. Most of the players stuck to the silly symbols, while many fans exhibited a very strong GIF game. It was close, but we have to give this high-five to the emojis. Rogers: By giving Anthopoulos the green light, in particular the addition of Tulo’s salary, it gives the team a bit of ammunition to fight off the perennial criticism of the Jays’ budget-conscious ways and should buy them some goodwill. Of course, that only lasts until the next time you take a look at your cable or cellphone bill.
LOSERS
There’s no crying in baseball: Sure, there is. The New York Mets’ Wilmer Flores cried Wednesday night after being told he was traded, but the deal was then rescinded. He wound up actually being traded on Thursday to the Houston Astros. The 23-year-old had been with the Mets organization since he was 16 and was clearly overwhelmed by the news. No knock on a guy showing his emotions, but that famous Tom Hanks line from A League of Their Own deserves a toe-tag now. The pitchers going to Colorado: You have to feel a bit bad for the Blue Jays’ pitching prospects now heading to the Rockies and the notoriously hitter friendly park at Coors Field. Former top prospect Jeff Hoffman reportedly has a great curve, but it likely won’t have the same action there. Even more troubling were some of the hurt feelings reported by Yahoo’s Jeff Passan on the team’s poor handling of the Tulowitzki trade, which likely won’t engender warm feelings in that clubhouse. The haters have some fuel: Despite all the “The Price was Right” puns about the deal, what happens when the team’s new ace leaves next year? Will we feel the same pangs of ‘what if’ remorse watching Daniel Norris as some have watching Noah Syndergaard on the Mets? The Jays traded away part of a potentially bright future to win now. The consensus is it’s worth it to end the longest playoff drought in all of the four major North American sports. But if that post-season skid is extended, the critics will come out of the woodwork. Managing expectations: This is something the Jays generally are not very good at, particularly if you think about the disappointment amongst fans and in the clubhouse at the inaction a year ago at the trade deadline. Expectations are now sky-high, but the Jays still have a tough road ahead. Looking at it conservatively, the Jays pretty much need to win two-thirds of their remaining games.
Not impossible, but definitely a tall order.