The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The panel was asked this week what they think of the Toronto Blue Jays signing free agent Frank Thomas. Thomas said he came to T.O. because he believes this team can win a third World Series. With signing him and bringing back catcher Greg Zaun, how do you think this improves the Blue Jays? Tanner Brough: The "Big Hurt" has been more like the "Big Hurting" in the past few seasons with the exception of last year with the Oakland A's. He had a great season which saw the A's in the playoffs again. They lost to the Tigers who went to the World Series, but had an unexpected great season. I think this move will help the Blue Jays, Thomas should help with obviously more power, but also some decent average. Troy Glaus was brought in last year and hit a lot of home runs, but that was it. His career average is .252 while Thomas's is .305. They both had similar numbers in home runs and RBI's last season, but Thomas only struck out 81 times compared to Glaus with 134. With Greg Zaun, I think this team has a real leader. He showed his leadership last season with all the different locker room blow ups and took control off the media concerning John Gibbons and Ted Lilly, as well as the whole Shea Hillenbrand fiasco. I'm not so sure this is enough for the Jays to beat the damn Yankees, but it's a start. Pitching is huge, and last year's big free agent was A.J. Burnett, but he got injured early. Hopefully he'll have a healthy year as well as Roy Halladay and Gustavo Chacin, then the Blue Jays should be more competitive in the AL East. Oh yeah, good luck to Emanuel in your new job out in BC. Hope you won't be too upset when the Canucks don't win the Cup. Shaun Strom: When it comes to baseball I'm not really a big fan of the Blue Jays, I'm more of a Mets kinda guy (don't think I like all New York teams....I despise the Yankees with a passion). Anyways, back to the Jays. A couple new guys aren't gonna make the team an instant success. The Jays need more depth in their lineup if they want to have a successful season and a powerful playoff run. What ever happened to the good old days of Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar? Oh right, they're long gone and not coming back. Sorry if that statement made anyone that's in love with Toronto shed a tear.....sorry Brough. I'm not saying I hate the Blue Jays, I'm just saying that I don't have much faith in them anymore. They're a good club, but just not World Series material at this point. Brent Lethbridge: What kind of nut wants to talk baseball when there's five feet of snow outside? OK I will. Frank Thomas or the "Big Hurt" as he likes to be called will add a very heavy bat to the Blue Jays lineup, or will he? That's the funny thing about baseball. Last year he signed with the A's for very little money cause there were those who thought he might be done, now he's with the Jays and he still might be done. The Blue Jays were one of the better hitting teams in baseball last year. There was no trouble scoring runs, I felt any real deficiencies were well... Ted Lilly. One more reliable starting pitcher and a little bullpen help is all the Jay really need. So if you ask me (and you did) the money could be better spent on the pitching staff, but hey, I live in Flin Flon, what do I know about baseball, or anything else for that matter. I do know Emanuel is leaving, sorry to see you go but I do hope Flin Flon will be one of those life experiences to be remembered fondly the rest of your life. So long Dude.
