Inside Baseball
Mets, Jays run neck-and-neck for landing Herd
So there we have it. Fourteen years of mostly great baseball in downtown Buffalo put to bed by one simple e-mail from Cleveland. The official word came Tuesday that the Indians have severed ties with the Bisons to officially begin the process of fulfilling baseball’s worst-kept secret and moving to Columbus. Now comes a huge decision for the Bisons: Blue Jays or Mets?
I’ve been hearing for several months that folks in Toronto think it’s a done deal for them to be in Dunn Tire Park in 2009. And Blue Jays General Manager J. P. Ricciardi was quick to point out last week — without mentioning Buffalo, of course — that it would be “ideal” to have his Triple-A team close by. But I’m also hearing much more Mets scuttlebutt in recent days, largely that their presumed move to Syracuse is no sure thing and that Buffalo and the Salt City are, in fact, in a two-horse race for the NL East leaders.
Bear with me and I’ll go over some pros and cons of the only two real choices (as much as they may want to, the Nationals and Marlins aren’t coming to Buffalo). But first, a few final points about the Indians.
I didn’t always agree with certain things Chief Wahoo’s Tribe did and that’s to be expected over a long period of time. But let the record show this sad fact for Buffalo fans: No matter who the Bisons sign, don’t expect that parent to treat the Herd as well as the Tribe has since 1995.
The Indians put prospects here. They signed free agents, both during the winter and the season, more than any parent club could be expected to. And we even saw plenty of big-leaguers on rehab, which can be tough on the Triple-A team but is great for fans.
The Bisons almost always had a full roster for games; the Blue Jays have been notorious for short-changing Syracuse some nights. Toronto’s answer has been to give quickie call-ups to New York-Penn League players from Auburn, a made-to-fail decision for the overmatched youngster and the club that won’t fly in Buffalo.
While it’s easy to quickly think of all the player talent we’ve seen since 1995, look at the amazing front office staff from Cleveland the Bisons have dealt with as well. John Hart and current Colorado GM Dan O’Dowd, then Hart’s assistant, were very conscious of doing well here from Day One.
Farm directors are often anonymous to fans but the Bisons got to work with major ones: Mark Shapiro, who built back-to-back champions here and nearly got the Indians to the World Series last year as their GM; Neal Huntington, the new hope in Pittsburgh as the Pirates’ first-year GM; John Farrell, a brilliant mind as Boston’s pitching coach whom many feel will be a manager or GM soon; and Ross Atkins, a former Tribe farmhand well-known for his role with the team’s Latin players.
Atkins was a little less experienced than his predecessors and sometimes that showed but there’s no argument with the effort he made in what everyone knew was a lame-duck year in Buffalo. The Indians kept signing free agents during a losing season to try to help the Bisons, and not many other parents would do that.
Some didn’t work out (see Ensberg, Morgan). But the team’s MVP ( Todd Linden) and most valuable pitcher ( John Halama) were both plucked off the scrap heap in May and June, respectively. The Tribe could have played the who-cares game in 2008 but didn’t on its way out the door.
How does this all play into the choice of Blue Jays versus Mets?
The Bisons are going to want front-office stability with the big club. For all the positives about signing with Toronto, the tenuous status of Ricciardi has to be weighing on the minds of the decision makers at 1 James D. Griffin Plaza. Sign with Ricciardi and farm director Dick Scott in September and see them get bounced out the door in October or November, replaced by people you haven’t negotiated your deal with? Not attractive.
The Jays will have to do more about getting players than they have in Syracuse, which hasn’t won a single playoff game since 1994. Being in Buffalo should help, because free agents routinely inquire about playing here. Can’t say the same about the penny-pinching, stuck-in- 1973 operation in Syracuse.
The Mets have had recent playoff teams in Norfolk and New Orleans and currently have better high-end prospects than Toronto, as players are already shooting all the way from Double-A Binghamton to New York. Binghamton barely missed the Eastern League playoffs this season while Toronto’s Double-A New Hampshire club struggled. It’s believed the Blue Jays, however, are loaded on both of their Class A teams.
Another plus for the Mets: The Jays won’t have any buzz around them in the baseball world like the excitement that will be surrounding the Mets next season with the opening of Citi Field. And what kind of buzz might we feel here in 2009 if the Mets were coming off a World Series season? It would be palpable.
As for TV exposure, we see far more Mets games here via SNY than the few Saturday- Sunday Jays telecasts on CBC. As for fans, it’s much easier, of course, to actually go to games just 90 minutes away than to a new Queens ballpark where tickets will be tough to come by.
I’ve heard from plenty of ALcentric fans who point out they want the Jays because they don’t want to see pitchers hit. A Mets affiliate would have pitchers batting in games against other NL affiliates (there will be five to seven teams in the IL next year).
The Bisons can do far more cross-marketing with Toronto (Welland Night coming soon to a ballpark near you). And how about make-it-a-weekend for season ticket-holders from Buffalo in Toronto and from Toronto in Buffalo?
Don’t discount this factor, either: Folks in Toronto insist that the Rogers moguls who run the Jays understand it wouldn’t be good business to siphon football from Buffalo and then not make sure the Jays do well by the Bisons.
No matter who they choose, look for the Bisons to sign only a two-year deal. Player development contracts come up in even-numbers years and are signed for two or four years, so the Herd could sign for two and re-evaluate for 2011.
It’s a tough call for the Bisons, one they can justify either way. It’s really going to depend on the conversations they have with the Jays and Mets, which officially begin Sept. 18, and on what the Mets hear when they go to Syracuse. This is going to be interesting.
More Tribe talk
• The Indians haven’t told Bisons manager Torey Lovullo he’s coming back next season but they did invite him to the big leagues for September, so that’s a good sign. And it would make sense to put him in Columbus, especially since he was a popular former Clipper in the Yankees days of the early ’90s.
• Hope Atkins & Co. loosen the reins on Lovullo. He was way too beholden to pitch counts this year, clearly on orders from above. No way, for instance, Lovullo lets Aaron Laffey get so beat up his last two starts (14 runs, 27 hits in just 10 1/3 innings) if he wasn’t making sure Laffey got his work in. Turns out Laffey had a sore elbow, which he was probably hiding, and has been shut down.
• The Indians’ official statements have technically been violations of the tampering rules set by the majors and minors because they “signaled” they would be shopping around, before the Sept. 12 date when free agent teams are revealed.
• I got a good chuckle on another signal last week from the Tribe’s PR department, which sends a daily media e-mail with the newspaper and Internet stories about the team from the previous day (stories on the Bisons from The Buffalo News are always included). What was in the package e-mailed last weekend?
A story by the Tribe’s MLB.com intern on the final weekend of games in Columbus’ Cooper Stadium. Hmmmmm.
