Richard Griffin, still wrong.

Yesterday we made reference to a Richard Griffin article where he proclaims that Alex Anthopolous was schooled by veteran (and Canadian - like that fucking matters) GM Doug Melvin of the Milwaukee Brewers. A few blogs and forums around the Blue Jays' blogosphere were a little up in arms about the insinuation, and the article became somewhat of a joke when Jeff Blair of the Globe and Mail and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports pointed out that the Jays were told early in the offseason that Greinke would not waive his no trade clause to come to Toronto, thereby making the statement that AA was "schooled" unjustified.

Well Griffin is back at it again today, trying to justify his previous article with this piece in the Star this morning. The article says that AA wouldn't agree to send Snider and Drabek plus others in return for Greinke and that is the reason the deal didn't happen. As Griffing puts it:

He stepped aside, willing to re-enter the fray if Royals GM Dayton Moore ever called back and lowered the asking price. Yes, the Jays were on Greinke's no-trade list, but so were the Brewers.

The Brewers were also on his no-trade list BEFORE the Jays sent Marcum to Milwaukee and made it clear to the league that they were prepared to risk their future for a shot at the division now. Which is exactly what Greinke was looking for. It also couldn't hurt Greinke to dominate the senior circuit for a couple years before he hits free-agency, as his numbers will no doubt be a hell of a lot better in the NL Central than they would be after 2 years in the AL East.

In Rosenthal's article he also names that the Jays were willing to part with Adeiny Hechavarria, Anthony Gose, one of JP Arencibia or Travis D'Arnaud and a young pitcher. I realize that I'm a little bias here, but those prospects look a lot better than what Milwaukee had to send to KC in return for their Ace pitcher.

I wanted to touch on (make fun of) a couple other ridiculous points Griffin makes in this morning's article. I think what he was trying to do was compare the teams that are making a push for winning now to the scenario the Jays are currently in. But just like Monday's article where he compares AA to a texas hold 'em player who likes to see every flop, the thoughts become so convoluted that the reader (me) is left wondering what the hell he's trying to get across. Anyway here's a section of the article that I found particularly retarded:

The three biggest superstar free-for-alls of the current off-season - Jayson Werth, Cliff Lee and Zack Greinke - were all won by suprise teams, believed to be long shots at best.

All three - the Nationals, Phillies and Brewers - are teams that had observed the Giants' unlikely World Series win and decided the future of contending is now, that rebuilding is day-to-day.

For the sad-sack Nationals, signing the free-agent outfielder Werth for seven years and $126 million while he was courted by the Red Sox, among others, was all about contending as soon as their prized No. 1 overall picks are ready for prime time.

So according to this reasoning, the Nationals signed a 32-year-old outfielder in the hopes that when their top prospects are ready for the big leagues he will still be there (and still be good) to help win a Championship. Does anyone else see how backwards that argument is? Why not instead save their money, and spend it on an available free-agent when those prospects are actually contributing in the MLB? Sound like a familiar plan? It should because that's exactly what the Jays are waiting to do.

And when the hell did Carl Crawford stop being one of the top superstars who were available this offseason? You'd think that since he signed the largest contract of the offseason that he sould be included in the argument. But what do I know.