Maddux Sports Blog

Sometimes you really have to shake your head. Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi set a deadline today of July 28 for moving Roy Halladay. He says he has yet to see a deal he likes, and he says that dealing Halladay is now unlikely. Ricciardi is a moron. If he doesn’t manage to get this one right then he doesn’t deserve to be in charge of a big league team. Of course, nothing he has done in the last three years has made us think that he deserves that. I like th Jays, and if you read this blog then you know that I think Halladay is the best there is. I’d love him to stay in Toronto forever, but there are a couple of unavoidable facts – this team is not going to be a serious contender for the next couple of years, and Halladay can’t last forever. The Jays need to get rid of him, and they need to use this opportunity to add to the young talent they are already developing. This is a once in a decade opportunity for the Jays, and this moron Ricciardi is going to screw it up. The only thing they will accomplish by keeping him this year is to significantly reduce the haul they get back for him when they inevitably dump him next year in the last year of his contract. There is no issue here – nothing to debate. I hope that Ricciardi figures that out before it is too late. With enough contending teams in good markets desperate for pitching there is a big deal to be made, and Ricciardi needs to buck up and make it. He’s a disgrace to guys with initials for names.

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Okay, baseball fans, we are just about there—baseball’s midpoint. Actually, the All-Star break comes a bit past the midpoint of the season. Each team has already played over 81 games. It’s been an interesting season (to say the least). Here are a few observations.

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I can’t wait to see Tim Wakefield pitch in the all-star game. He’s a pleasure to watch, and he deserves to be there for the first time. There isn’t a high profile knuckleballer in the NL right now, so it could be fun to see some of these big guys facing a knuckleballer – perhaps for the first time ever. It’s the little stories like this that have to be relied upon to make the all-star game interesting, because as a whole it’s not a great event in my eyes.

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I was sad to see yesterday that Dontrelle Willis was held out of his next start. Nobody is saying it, but you have to imagine that it will be very hard for him to find his way back into the rotation. He showed some promise in his early starts, but he’s been getting increasingly ineffective since then. He’s clearly not a major league pitcher at this point. It never fails to amaze me to see a guy totally lose his game like that. It’s like what has happened with Fausto Carmona – a couple of years ago he was the next big thing, and now he’s toiling down in class A.

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I couldn’t be happier for any player than I am for Dontrelle Willis after last night. In his second start of the year he earned his first win in almost 20 months. He was pretty spectacular, too – allowing just one hit in six and a third shutout innings. His first start, six days earlier, was pretty ugly, but this was one heck of a bounce back. Not only did he pitch well, but he did it against the incredibly hot Texas Rangers as well. It’s obviously way too early to trust him, but it will be fascinating to see how he does in his next couple of outings. I’m no psychologist, so I have no idea if this is relevant or not, but I can’t help but make a comparison between Willis and Zack Greinke . Both are stunningly talented pitchers who had their career derailed by an anxiety disorder. I don’t know if the conditions were even remotely related, but Greinke certainly bounced back well, and Willis has more than enough talent to do the same. I’m pulling for him.

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