In 2008, the Toronto Blue Jays lost 76 games; 58 percent (44 games) of them were by two or fewer runs.

It was obvious early in the season that the Blue Jays offense was scuffling--General Manager J.P. Ricciardi remedied this in early May by signing two players: Brad Wilkerson and Kevin Mench.

In 2008, Brad Wilkerson and Kevin Mench received 209 opportunities to hit with men on base--the vast majority of those chances came while with Toronto. In those opportunities they had a batting/on base/slugging average of .207/.315/.310, hit a single home run and grounded into seven double plays. Were you to look strictly at batting average, the team would have been just about as well off had they pinch hit John McDonald (.210) in those situations.

Now stop and think: what would you have thought about John Gibbons and Cito Gaston had he consistently used John McDonald about 200 times as a pinch hitter with men on base?

On the other hand, last year with men on base Barry Bonds batted .278/.515/.556 with 12 HR in a bit over 200 opportunities. When you consider that the Jays lost almost sixty percent of their games by two or less runs and there were 200 run scoring opportunities given to Wilkerson and Mench rather than Barry Bonds--how many more games might Toronto have won--especially against the Rays, Yankees and Red Sox? Of those 44 losses by two or fewer runs--20 of them came at the hands of those three teams.

It may well have been that the decision not to sign Bonds cost the Toronto Blue Jays a berth in the post season. It certainly affected the standings in the AL East.

They could have gotten him--he was available all season, but it appears that the major league baseball players association has uncovered evidence that MLB came to a decision that no club would sign Barry Bonds in 2008.

This includes the Toronto Blue Jays.

This decision is also illegal. It's a breaking of the rules covering the sport:

"Players shall not act in concert with other Players and Clubs shall not act in concert with other Clubs."--Section E(1) Article XX

I would just like to re-iterate what we covered a few weeks back about collusion:

"They were found guilty ... of colluding not to sign free agents ... no matter how much those free agents would improve their team... It was, undeniably, an agreement not to field the best team possible--which is tantamount to fixing, not just games, but entire pennant races ... The fact that not signing free agents meant not fielding the best teams was revealed graphically when the conspiracy ended ... the Dodgers spent over $36 million on three other free agents prior to the 1991 season. Los Angeles general manager Fred Claire said, ‘The motivation for us is to improve our ball club. It's not a reaction [to the Giants' signing of free agents] but a dedication to try to be better.'"--Marvin Miller on the 1986-88 collusion against free agents in his autobiography "A Whole Different Ball Game.

By not employing Bonds, the Toronto Blue Jays front office was actually helping the Tampa Bay Rays to win the AL East; they were aiding the Boston Red Sox in winning the AL wild card. They had two spots open at left field (later filled by Adam Lind's recall) and designated hitter and Bonds was made available for the pro-rated league minimum so money wasn't an issue. They had the ability and means to make a move to better the team, to improve their chances to win but instead made a deliberate, conscious decision to give less than their best effort in trying to win ball games.

The Jays had the best pitching staff the game had seen in 20 years--do you not think that the Rays and Red Sox were happy that Toronto did not pursue Bonds but chose instead to break the rules thereby helping them reach the post season?

You bet they were; this year's ALCS was most likely brought to you courtesy of Paul Godfrey and J.P. Ricciardi.

Barry Bonds is not a nice person, he has done bad things but one thing Barry Bonds has never done is deliberately give less than his best on the field of play. Fans decry his steroid usage but it was done in an attempt to win--to succeed. What the Blue Jays (as well as clubs like the Minnesota Twins and New York Mets) was akin to the actions of the Black Sox--not doing everything in their power to win and in doing so affecting the outcome of championships.

There is an unwritten covenant between teams and their fans. When fans invest time and money in their team of choice it is understood that the team receiving the money is doing whatever it can within its means to win. A fan should have the assurance that the club would never do anything that would deliberately sabotage their chances of success.

(For the record, a team rebuilding its roster is of necessity not looking to win in that particular season but they are making a good faith effort in that direction. If a small market club hopes to compete it is understood by club and fan alike that they have to utilize their young talent over more qualified players that are available in the free agent market. To sabotage a pennant race, a team must in the position to compete in a pennant race.)

What's ironic in all of this was J.P. Ricciardi's remark to a caller that queried him about the Jays possibly acquiring Bonds on the FAN 590 "I'm not going to trade my integrity to bring people here that don't stand for what we stand for. It's almost laughable that the fans are willing to sell their soul. For a guy we don't even know if he has anything left. We think he is because we haven't seen him, but...I don't know. I don't even want to talk about it any more."

Here a man that is (1) participating in an illegal act that (2) is tantamount to fixing a pennant race is citing his own integrity and unwillingness to sell his soul. If collusion is firmly established, his going along with it meant that the GM of a major league club aided and abetted his competition in reaching the post season going so far as breaking the rules to do so.

Not wonder that he didn't "want to talk about it any more."

That's his definition of integrity; selling out the fans to forward the agenda of Bud Selig--a man that has cancelled a World Series, consummated communities out of billions of dollars that could be used for schools, libraries, health care etc. when consummating his stadium deals, looked the other way for years while steroids ravaged the sport and bold-faced lied to the U.S. Government about the effectiveness of his sport's drug testing program.

Feel free to hate Barry Bonds--I'm not a big fan myself, but make no mistake ... if you're going to be disgusted by players cheating by using steroids, make sure you save some of that vitriol for owners who cheat by colluding. Three division races were undeniably affected by collusion and there's an excellent chance the Toronto Blue Jays stayed home this October because of it.