Ironic Detachment has the Day Off

Unfortunately, my anger is subsiding quickly. I don't even think I was angry, I was actually anxious. There was a weird feeling in my chest, like reading the last twenty pages of The Road. But those feelings are fading and I'll likely have some postive and cogent thoughts on all this noise tomorrow. Or Wednesday, whenever the details finally surface.

But now I'm a little annoyed. Consider this a preemptive hatefisk. The matter of touristy baseball analysts got my Irish up in the summer, the Roy Halladay trade is only going to make it worse. I'm not talking about the badly outdated business model Bob McCown espouses; believing there's a straight line to draw between money and success. This is about an innocent tweet from The Fan's Eric Smith.

Look, I respect the way Eric Smith competently regurgitates the Raptors information and analysis. It's a thankless job on the road and he's a fine fit. On his radio show The Gameplan, he's really good at getting to the :20 minute sports updates. As many times as I've heard him calling for baseball to expand the playoffs, I should know better than to consider what he thinks about baseball.

My anger isn't with Smith; he's just going to end up as my proxy. When Smith tweets he's underwhelmed by the reported packages coming back for Halladay, why exactly am I supposed to care? Is Eric Smith familiar with the Phillies and Mariners farm systems? The players involved? Is he underwhelmed because he had never heard of a single one prospects before today? Why would he? It isn't really his job to know that stuff, just like it isn't really his job to comment.

Basketball and baseball are very, very different. I hope Smith wasn't, like Score buddy James Borbath of Dino Blogger, comparing getting a truckload of baseball prospects with players in the NBA D-League. Holy fuck, those two things couldn't be any more different. You know this, I know this, hopefully media members would realize this if they spent a few seconds thinking about it.

There is no way the Jays are getting Roy Halladay II back in this trade. But they have a good chance of picking up some future rotation pieces, a starting outfielder this year or next, and maybe a starting shortstop in 2011. That is the way this works. The Jays were one of the league's oldest teams last year, depending on the haul they could be quite young by Opening Day. That's a good thing. (unless Brandon League goes to sweeten the pot. Expect a ritualistic suicide live on webcam in that case.)