Something really non-political

The Blue Jays, official Favourite Team of Bed A of 411 Radical Bay, have missed out on Ted Lilly and signed Maritimer Matt Stairs to a contract. The early judgment here is that the sentimental returns on the second item aren't enough to make up for the calamitous implications of the first.

It's been a funny offseason. The team, coming off a pretty-good-but-not-great 87-75 season, went out and signed Frank Thomas, which was cool if risky, and then proceeded to fill the hole at shortstop with...Royce Clayton? This guy? Eek. I think I'd actually prefer to start John McDonald, who can at least field. Now the rotation goes Halladay, Burnett, loss, loss, loss. Which is probably mildly unfair to the comedic stylings of Gustavo Chacin, Casey Janssen, Shaun Marcum and Josh Towers, but not by much.

To be sure, the Jays are still in the hunt for Gil (ga) Meche, but I'm not terribly optimistic about their chances of signing him, and if they sign him I'm not terribly optimistic about his chances in Toronto. The guy has yet to post a non-mediocre season, and he'd be moving from a great pitchers' park to the launching pad we call SkyDome. So I don't know. That said, we need some kind of pitching help-that I'm upset about Ted Lilly's departure after all of the times I wanted to throw things at the television during his starts is telling.