Buffalo Boy's Blog

Dear John Gibbons and JP Riccardi,

I as a lifelong Blue Jay fan living in Buffalo have seen the headlines today. Its April 19th and you are pulling the plug on an integral part of your team. Frank Thomas deserves the full time DH role. Im basically asking you not to destroy the chemistry of this team now. Not when things can still go right.  

Look, I know you like Matt Stairs, and we should, he is the poster boy Canadian on the team and I love him like any other Canadian Jays fan, but lets be sensible, he is not a full time player. He will get his playing time as it comes be it in left field, first base or the occasional spot duty at DH, but Frank Thomas is a full time caliber player has 500+ home runs and a .302 lifetime batting average. He got off to a slow start yes, but really what do you consider a start?

By the end of the Red Sox series, 6 games in Frank was leading the team in RBIs and home runs, so he has essentially gone on a 13 game slump since then. Despite the slump hes hitting the ball hard still. Give him time.

You both say the offense is struggling and while I might agree, maybe you haven't seen the stats. Your team is in the top ten in the majors in RBIs, runs, hits and batting average. Maybe you are disappointed in the power numbers, okay lets talk power. Rios up until this week had 0 home runs, why wasn't he benched?

Now that you got him pissed off, play him tomorrow and see how the Big Hurt responds. Just for the love of all that is good in this world, do not tear this teams chemistry up now, its only April and we haven't even seen Scott Rolen in the lineup. Don't flush this team down the toilet by pissing off players and creating cancers in the locker room yet.

Despite this move I still have confidence in you to make the right decision and play the hall of famer tomorrow and give him his full time playing time back.

Sincerely,

Buffalo Boy Mike