Last week, Batling BatBandwagoner sent Batgirl an article from the Toronto Star about the new direction of the Blue Jays. As anyone who has read knows, Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi, besides being a Corey-Koskie-stealing blackguard, is a protege of one Billy Beane. Or at least was; according to the article in the Star, the Blue Jays are going to eschew Moneyball in favor of Minnyball, which is all very interesting, because Batgirl thinks...

...wait. Haven't you read ? You haven't? Why on earth not? Well, it looks like we have our next Batgirl's Book Club selection:

That's . The book club will commence Monday, April 18th. As you read, please consider the differences between Moneyball and Minnyball.

To read the full Toronto Star article, click below.

FORT MYERS, Fla. - The inexplicable "cult of J.P." appears dead. Baseball Prospectus, the Bible of stats seamheads, has come down hard on the Blue Jays in its sophomorically written 2005 edition.

The honeymoon is over. The Jays front office is accused of abandoning
its reverence for the three-run blast. GM J.P. Ricciardi's own stats
geek, Keith Law, a former Prospectus contributor, is viewed as a
traitor.

As if to confirm what the Prospectus suspected, Blue Jays manager John
Gibbons confirmed last week the Jays will no longer sit around waiting
for the big blow. Gibbons insists he wants his team to play more like
the small-market Minnesota Twins, who on a similar budget, have been to
the playoffs three straight years.

"They're aggressive and they play all-out all the time," Gibbons said
yesterday, prior to the Jays' Grapefruit League opener vs. his new role
models from Minneapolis.

"They hustle on everything. They take the extra bases and they do all
the little things. They sac-bunt at certain times when they need to.
They hit and run. They steal some bases and they're a very good
defensive team. Their pitchers throw strikes."

Hmm. The fact that Gibby has the blessing of Ricciardi for this change
of direction must mean the fourth-year GM, a long-time disciple of the
Rev. Billy Beane, has wrestled himself free from the spell of Moneyball.
Somehow, he's been de-programmed.

One man who seems excited about the change in philosophy is Brian
Butterfield, third-base coach in charge of baserunning.

"Running the bases, (the Twins) are the benchmark in the American
League," Butterfield said. "They do it right. They move up on balls in
the dirt. They're a good two-base (advance on a single) team. That's
what we're striving to be.

"There's clubs we play, we know aren't nearly as aggressive. It takes
the pressure off the middle infielders. They don't have to hold runners
at second base. You can play your first baseman behind some runners. It
gives a team the advantage when you can sit back and concentrate on the
ball off the bat."

What Butterfield described as comfortable opponents they like to play is
the way the Jays were on the bases the last several years. They're
working on changing that.

But there's more to being the Twins than just what goes on in the three
hours of a game. There's a distinct organizational philosophy that
cannot immediately be implemented just because you say it's so. It comes
from the support of ownership and takes a few years to settle in.

"Over the last three or four years I've heard a lot of people say, 'We'd
like to follow the Twins or the Oakland pattern, with the mid-range or
the lower-quarter payroll teams,'" Twins general manager Terry Ryan
said. "Milwaukee, Kansas City and even Texas, I've heard it from. Now,
when I hear Toronto say that ... well, we used to emulate the Blue Jays
back in the '90s. It's come full circle."

Ryan has solid advice for the Jays' decision-making triumvirate of owner
Ted Rogers, president Paul Godfrey and Ricciardi, if they intend to take
a serious stab at changing direction.

"It takes patience from the top, because it's not easy," said Ryan,
entering his 11th season as architect in Minnesota. "You're going to
take a pounding for a while if you're going to go that path. And if the
owner will let the GM and the GM will let the manager and the managers
let the players and the players rely a little on scouting and
development, it can work. But it gets a little dicey, because nobody
wants to take that type of length or patience to get it done.

"(The Jays) have a number of good players coming up from Syracuse and
New Hampshire. You'd like to see a couple of those guys hit. If they do,
all of a sudden you get on a little bit of a roll. Now the fans start to
take notice and maybe things are going the right way you want."

The Jays turnaround won't be immediate, but Baseball Prospectus
objections aside, it seems the Jays are finally headed in the right
direction.

Posted by Batgirl at March 16, 2005 05:49 PM