yeah, I wonder what the Blum re-signing means. I’m afraid it means that he is the backstop in case Chris Johnson doesn’t succeed.

His previous targets were Tal Smith and Ed Wade, but Drayton gave them votes of confidence yesterday, so maybe he’s set his sights on someone lower on the food chain.

He’s probably still a little ticked off that yesterday Alyson Footer called him incompetent on her twitter feed (since removed), and that Richard Justice basically responded to one of JdJO’s tantrum posts by saying:

[A]nyone that tries to tell you this mess should be laid at the feet of Tal Smith and Ed Wade either is clueless or has an agenda.

I noticed all of those sentences from JJO’s article. The first sentence is so incomprehensible that I initially figured it was incompetence. But then I read on to the sentence combining Pedrique’s player development work with the “news” that the Astros have terrible player development. Yeah, that is a cheap shot. And, yes, I noticed the more subtle dig with the Pupura connection. Ortiz seems to be more or less out of control right now. Ortiz in the past has blamed Pedrique for the collapse of the Astros’ Venezuelan academy.

http://www.bluebirdbanter.com/2009/10/31/1108588/lose-brad-arnsberg-for-one-season

Plus, it’s not technically the pitching coach’s job to decide a young pitcher’s innings. If you look at the more proactive organizations like the Yankees and Red Sox, it’s the GM and front office that sets the limits on innings and such. I’m not sure Wade whether Wade sets that same tone, but it may be picking at nits to criticize Arnsberg too much. Something to keep in mind though…

Toronto Star (Oct. 5, 09) “pressing issues for new jays’ manager”

The toughest decision will be with pitching coach Brad Arnsberg, whose special, paternal relationship with his pitchers has made him a cult leader. The fact is, if Roy Halladay is on the way out, Arnsberg may also want out of the final year of his contract. He would be much in demand.

Arnsberg had a close personal and professional relationship with his pitching staff, especially Roy (Doc) Halladay. He had also earned abiding respect from previous skipper John Gibbons.

But Arnberg and Gaston never had the same rapport. Even Houston general manager Ed Wade seemed to acknowledge the problem when he announced that Arnsberg had come to work for new manager Brad Mills.

“We were really excited when we found out [Arnsberg] was available,” Wade told mlb.com . “There were some unresolved issues, and [the Jays] gave him a chance to go out and look around, and he very quickly moved up to the top of our list.”

Gaston and Arnsberg were rarely seen in conversation, even in the dugout during games. In an ambiguous comment Saturday, Gaston said Arnsberg “would pretty much sit down with Doc most of the time.”

Here is a very complimentary article from about midway through Arnsberg’s tenure at Toronto, (“The Arnsberg Influence”) and some quotes:

"He’s so prepared," Roy Halladay said. "He’s one of the guys, more like a teammate. Look at his track record with all the young arms."

"His best attribute is that he’s really good at coming up with scouting reports," Jason Frasor said. "He sits in front of that computer for hours, breaking hitters down to figure out the best way for our pitchers to (exploit) weaknesses."

    "He’s very adaptive," Tallet said. "He can adjust to each pitcher. If we were unreceptive the results wouldn’t be as good."

"These young guys are like his kids, he gives them the best information possible," Barajas said. "His scouting reports on opposing hitters are unbelievable and he helps with in-game adjustments as well."
    "The best thing he did was fix Romero," Barajas said. "I left Dunedin for the World Baseball Classic and saw a completely different pitcher when I came back. In that short span I was away for the WBC, Ricky became a confident guy. Brad told me it took one conversation to fix a mechanical flaw.
    "Ricky’s not here right now, but there’s no reason (performance-wise) that’s he’s not."

Some much older articles from the Marlins era are harder to link because they aren’t fully archived. Clearly, Arnsberg had a bad split up with the Marlins, with the front office blaming him for A.J. Burnett’s need for TJ surgery in 2003. Loria, the owner, and Beinfest, the GM, paid a midnight visit to Arnsberg’s condo to fire him in what is described as a “tumultuous” meeting. Both sides to the meeting described each other as “unprofessional.” Arnsberg is later quoted as saying he knew the firing was more personal than performance related. Burnett is quoted from that period as defending Arnsberg and saying that Arnsberg isn’t to blame for the injury; Burnett instead blames the front office…apparently because he thinks the front office concealed information about his bone spurs. This firing could have ended Arnsberg’s career, but he was promoted by Ricciarelli to pitching coach, knowing his tremendous relationships with Matt Clement and A.J. Burnett, whom the Blue Jays wanted to sign in free agency.

One reaction I have is that Arnsberg would have been a bad fit with Cecil Cooper. On the other hand, his friendship with Mills could lead to a strong relationship in Houston like he had with Gibbons in Toronto. Reading about the legions of admirers among his pitchers, one has to think that Roy Oswalt will love this move.

He’s going to be expensive either way, even with having his former pitching coach.