5 Misconceptions About Shea Hillenbrand...

We know two things for sure: 1) Shea Hillenbrand is finished as a Blue Jay and 2) we will never really know why. For two days now, the brew-ha in the Blue Jays clubhouse involving Hillenbrand and Jays skipper John Gibbons has been sports talk show fodder. Theories have abounded, leaks have been made, but as the important maxim says, there are three sides to every story, in this case, there’s Hillenbrand’s side, the Blue Jays’ side, and the truth. The reality of course, is that we will never know the truth, but we can at least break the story down and eliminate some of the misconceptions which are shading our understanding of the story.

1) That the Jays should have traded Shea Hillenbrand two months ago… there’s nothing I love more than when players like Hillenbrand go public to the media with claims like, “I don’t want to be here, they should trade me.” (for the record, Hillenbrand said they should have traded him two months ago when, reportedly, his relationship with manager John Gibbons fractured). Without fail, these players are already on the market. The Jays would have traded Hillenbrand two months ago, if there had been a trade that made them better, but there wasn’t; and that’s because…

2) That Hillenbrand is an impact bat… without becoming all statistical on you (I’d hate for you to think I can back up any of my opinions with intelligence), lets look at a few numbers about Shea Hillenbrand. In 2002, Hillenbrand’s OPS before the all star break was .821, after the all star game it was .752; in 2003 .868 in the first half, before dropping all the way to .689 in the second half. In 2004 those numbers normalized, as Shea hit .823 before the break and .800 after, but in 2005 there was more of the same .815 down to .761. This year Shea was good in April (.861) and smoldering in May (.946), but unfortunately the season actually runs six months. In June and July his OPS dropped to .739 and then .652. He is a good hitter in the early months of the season, but for whatever reason, Shea Hillenbrand is not a very productive hitter late in the season; and it is late in the season that the Blue Jays need productive bats.

3) That it matters what happened in the club house… Breaking the debate down to the bare essential, the dispute is over playing time. Hillenbrand felt he deserved more and Gibbons felt otherwise. I have no problem with Hillenbrand wanting to be in the lineup every day, if you don’t want to be in lineup every day and your name isn’t Manny Ramierez, then you shouldn’t be in baseball, but at the end of the day, the manager’s job is to fill out the lineup card with the players who will give the team the best chance to win. Apparently Hillenbrand didn’t like John Gibbons and that’s fine. I’ve had plenty of bosses I didn’t like, you know what I did? Sucked it up and went to work. If Hillenbrand wanted more time in the field, then he should have worked at becoming a better fielder, because he isn’t as good a third baseman as Troy Glaus and he isn’t as good a first baseman as Lyle Overbay. So, why would he start over them?

4) That cutting him will adversely affect his value… The truth is that Hillenbrand is a hot head. When Theo Epstein traded him from the Red Sox, Shea famously used a derogatory word for homosexuals about his former GM. Shea also overvalues his own worth, after the same trade, Shea insinuated that the Red Sox would regret trading him just as the club famously regrets trading Jeff Bagwell. Well, Jeff Bagwell has 449 home runs and a stamped ticket to the Hall of Fame. Bagwell, Hillenbrand is not. Baseball is a small business, other GM’s know about Hillenbrand, they know he’s an aggressive player with a temper. They also know that he hits better in the first half than the second. This spat isn’t going to change anybodies opinion of Shea. Yes, they know that the Jays have to trade Shea and in ten days, but the trade deadline is little more than ten days away anyhow. This means they only would have had three extra days if they’d kept things quiet, it also means that teams who desperately need a bat in their hopes of making the playoffs, will inevitably deal for Shea. The return wont be great, but as noted above, it never would have been.

5) That cutting him will adversely affect the Jays… It has been confirmed by players that Hillenbrand wrote on the clubhouse white board, “Play for yourselves. Play for your paycheck. The ship is sinking." High expectations have distracted people from the reality that this is the best Jays team since the strike, but even so they have occasionally looked listless and given away games they should be winning. In a race with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, you just cannot do that. It might be harsh to term Hillenbrand a cancer, but it’s clear that his attitude wasn’t what the Jays wanted. Gibbons and Ricciardi coming down hard on him is an example to the rest of the team. Intensity is a good thing and trauma and turmoil often bring teams together for a stretch run. With two big wins over the Yankees, the Jays seem to be better off without Shea Hillenbrand in the lineup and the controversy surrounding his departure seems to have brought new intensity into the club. We may not know any more about what actually transpired in the Jays’ locker room Wednesday night, but if the Jays make a run to the playoffs, we will be able to look back at this week as the injection of adrenaline that their season needed.