Land of the Leaf

… it’s time to retire.  Bastian reported yesterday that Matt Clement officially retired from baseball.  The 34-year old Clement hadn’t pitched in the majors since 2006.  He had signed a minor league deal with Toronto, but failed to make the club and was assigned to Triple-A Las Vegas.

J.P. Ricciardi on Clement:

“His heart wasn’t in it, you could just tell. He’s come back from so much. He’s come a long way, and I give him credit for that. I think he was just tired of fighting, to be honest with you.”

Jeff Blair posted a brief message to Twitter this morning stating what most Blue Jays’ followers thought would be coming: Jays cut Matt Clement.  More on this later, or not.

Jays’ Rotation No More Clear After Clement Throws Stinker
By most accounts, Matt Clement appears to be finished competing for the last spot in the Jays’ rotation.  Before you say “give the job to Scott Richmond because he is Canadian”, it’s time to see what Ricky Romero has got.  Romero will start today against the Reds and the drunks are right: Spring Training is finally interesting for Jays’ fans.

Kick ‘Em When They’re Down!
Why play hard in November when it matters when you can play spoiler to the Montreal Canadiens? Eyebleaf takes some consolation in that, I guess we all can… it’s not much, but it’s the best we got.

You Knew It Was Coming
Don Cherry had to chime in on Ovechkin’s scoring celebrations, specifically his rad 50th goal celebration. Most literate hockey fans, for the most part, continue to not give a rat’s ass.

Argos Make Difficult Decisions
Not really, some “celebrity” judges chose the 2009 Toronto Argo Cheerleaders. Now we just need some people to put a team on the field to cheer.

Raps Could Muscle-Up Next Season
Dinoblogger is impressed with Nathan Jawai’s stint in the NBDL, and he could bring more of the aggressive physical play that we see from Pops Mensah-Bonsu.

It’s Shawn Bradley’s Birthday!
Celebrate with the Top 10 Dunks on Shawn Bradley. (With a nod to Deadspin)

J.P. Ricciardi continues to roll the dice on pitchers with injury-riddled careers.  Add Shawn Hill’s name to the list of pitchers that the Jays hope can contribute to their rotation at some point this season.  The Mississauga native has had a lot of trouble with the elbow on his throwing arm for the past 3 seasons, but in limited work with Washington in 2007 Hill had a 3.42 ERA and a nifty 1.14 WHIP.  Hill also starred for Canada in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

Hill’s ability has never really be questioned, he could have been a reliable mid-late rotation pitcher on most teams, but his durability has kept him from really developing.  With Matt Clement currently competing for a spot in the rotation, and Wade Miller working in minor-league camp, Ricciardi hopes that one or two veteran arms can ease the load on their younger pitchers:

“We wouldn’t be signing him to come in here and make the major-league staff… We’d have to get him up to speed, kind of like Wade Miller. We’re just trying to get as many arms as we can in here. We know the young kids are going to struggle. … We’re trying to put them in spots they might not be ready for. We get some veteran guys here and they can hold the fort down. … It gives us enough experience where we can just ease them in as opposed to throwing them in.”

(Hat-Tip MLBTradeRumors)