In case you haven't heard, the Toronto Blue Jays have pulled off a massive trade. A Blockbuster. Very possibly the biggest trade in years, not just for the Jays, but in all of baseball.
Coming to the Jays are RHP Josh Johnson, LHP Mark Buehrle, SS Jose Reyes, C John Buck and UTIL Emilio Bonifacio.
Going the other way are 7 players, 4 of which have seen major league action; RHP Henderson Alvarez, SS Yunel "Gay slurs are funnier in spanish" Escobar, C Jeff Mathis and SS Adeiny Hechavarria. The prospects included are CF Jake Marisnick, P Justin Nicolino and P Anthony Desclafani.
The only guys I am sad to see go are Henderson Alvarez, Marisnick and Nicolino. I think those guys will make some noise on the big league level, but only Alvarez has actually shown flashes of that, so who knows.
Before I start splooging on the screen about how excited I am by this massive deal, let me preface this by saying it sounds like there is an outside shot that some dummy like Bud Selig steps in and puts the brakes on. If the Yankees were doing it, it would be done already, but Bud doesn't give a shit about baseball in Canada, and this deal sets a terrible precedent from the Marlins side. Ownership there just roped the Miami taxpayers into fronting 80% of the bill on their new stadium. The promise of an exciting, competitive team certainly fed into that. Reyes and Buerlhe were signed as free agents in the offseason to big deals, and now it is looking a little bit like a bait and switch on the fans.
BTW these are the same morons who sunk the expos.
I don't see how MLB can step in though. If they do I will personally go find Bud Selig and tell him just what a greasy dick he is.
OK! So, now to how this affects the team!!!
It's a good thing. That's obvious. I mean, Buck was clearly thrown in as a money dump similar to when we had to take Mark Teahen in that multi-player deal for Rasmus. Buck is not worth $6 mil a year, but its certainly not an albatrossian contract to absorb if the Jays can't pass it on to someone else. Jays fans may remember he hit 20 dingers with us in 2010 while hitting .281. Ehhhhh, no, he is a career .235 hitter, and hit .192 with Miami last year. If we can ditch him, we will.
But the rest of these guys are STUDS!
Josh Johnson has top 5 stuff in baseball. When he is healthy, he is utterly dominant. The health is the concern with him, as his shoulder has been problematic in the past. But the guy is 6'7, 250 lbs. He's not Tim Lincecum, there is no reason he can't stay healthy, and in fact was for most of last year, although the stats are a little less impressive, indicating to me he was still recovering from 2011's injury for the first part of the year. His .BAA was .220 for the second half of the year. If he is healthy, he is the ace, unquestionably. The best pitcher Toronto fans have seen since Roy Halladay. He is, however, in the last year of his contract, and if possible, the Jays should try and tie him to a 4 or 5 year deal. He is 28 and in his prime right now, and because of last years slightly less impressive performance, he will be most affordable now.
Jose Reyes is one of the most exciting players in baseball. A far stretch from Yunel Escobar's slow and steady take on playing the game, Jose is a walking highlight reel. The Jay's haven't had a genuine leadoff hitter since Devon White in 1994. Almost two decades. He provides speed without the OBP liability of Rajai Davis. This is a guy fans are going to want to shell out money to see on a nightly basis. His big concern is his hamstrings, and I have no idea how they will respond to the artificial turf in Skydome. He is a guy who has MVP type talent. There are not that many of those guys out there, fewer still who play SS. If he can play 140 games, you are looking at double digit HRs, double digit 3Bs, 100+ runs and 40+ stolen bases. This is a guy who has stolen 78 bases during a single season. Wow.
Mark Buehrle. The guy just keeps getting it done. And health concerns? Nada. 12 straight years of 30 games started and 12 straight seasons of 200 IP. Then there's the pickoffs, which is just plain fun. I, personally, will ensure I go to a game and sit on the 1st base side when he is pitching just to see that filthy move to first. He's not going to get a ton of K's, but he keeps his team in the game, all the time. Not a guy who gets blown up routinely. An ideal 3rd or 4th starter. I feel bad for his dog though... http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-mark-buehrle-toronto-dog-20121115,0,7337754.story?track=rss What a stupid law.
And last but, well, better than Buck, is Bonifacio. A very underrated commodity. This guy, over the past few years, has played everywhere on the diamond except 1B, P, and C. He may be in the lineup almost everyday, and one would assume most of those would come at LF due to the void there, but he is best used as a utility guy; a swiss army knife that is such an advantage to have on your team. He has wheels too; 30 stolen bases in only 64 games last year. 40 the year before that. He can start due to injuries, give people a day off almost anywhere, come off the bench. Great talent to have. He's exactly the type of bench guy that championship teams have.
It is a talented, high calibre group of guys coming in. The vegas odds went from 100-1 to 15-1 for the Jays winning the world series. Nuff said.
One overlooked aspect of this is how this will affect the search for the manager. Not a lot of guys clammer for a job in Canada. If you are a manager with an impressive resume, you are going to get a job somewhere, and Toronto is generally going to be last on the list. Or rather, not even on it. All of the sudden, there is a lot of extra enticement to take a shot up here on an incredibly talented club. Perhaps the list opens up a bit to some more formidable names (how much fun would it be to see Lou Pinella or Bobby Cox down there?).
Every other team has found its manager at this point, and so the Jays have their pick of those still in the market for a gig. This move may bring a few fellers out of the woodworks.
Allright. That's how I feel about this trade. So nice to feel like all the money I've given to Roger's Communications over the years has actually been worthwhile, and that all these years of talking about where the payroll "could be" weren't total garbage. We have a competitive team folks!!!
I will post another one o' these here bloggies discussing how i feel the rotation and lineup should be set up once the deal has been finalized by Fartface Selig. Don't buy your jerseys yet.
What do you think of the trade? Which player are you most excited about? Saddest about seeing leave?
Post these in the comments section and I will tell you why you are just straight wrong.
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