Wednesday 14 November 2012

Oh. My. God.

As of four hours ago, the twitter account Blue Jays Aggregator  had noted over 50 articles about the little ol' trade you might have heard about tonight.but since there's really no point in having a blog if you don't discuss something of this magnitude, here's my run down:

Leaving-

Yunel Escobar: I think this is not a huge talent loss and it clears some drama off the roster, not just because of "The Incident" but because of whispers the teammates didn't like some of his on-field antics.

Jeff Mathis: No big deal, nothing to worry about.

Henderson Alvarez: the kind of guy you have a soft spot for, but limited upside unless he expands his arsenal. At best a #3, but should benefit from pitching in the NL

Adeiny Hechavarria: it's been observed many times that he's more suited to be an NL shortstop.
Should be beloved by the couple of dozen remaining marlins fans.

Jake Marisnick: I love the guy, in a lesser deal it would be a tear-jerker to lose him. Clearly the jays liked Gose better.

Justin Nicolino: his upside is, essentially, Buehrle. But he's 2-3 years or so away from being a major league regular and there are no guarantees. of the Lansing 3, he was always the most likely to be dealt. A loss but not a huge one to a team with eight SP in the top 12 prospects (as ranked by me).

Anthony DeSclafini: if everything breaks just right he might have a middling career as a middle reliever. Forget him.

Arriving-

Josh Johnson: it remains to be seen if he can return to his pre-injury form, but for a guy coming off an injury he did pretty good last year - he had exactly the same WAR as Anibel Sanchez, if that tells you anything, and that's a good sign. the question on everyone's lips is whether he'd be willing to sign an extension but if not, there's draft pic compensation here too (a year from now).

Mark Buehrle: in a rotation desperate fo a big ol' dose of stability, it's hard to imagine a better Rock than Buehrle. He's not an "ace" but he's quite good and very reliable.

Jose Reyes: The jays have the potential of feilding a lineup with 3 guys in a row capeable of stealing 40+ bases. the go-Go Jays? Reyes represents the most excitment in the deal, and the longest contract, but he does have a history of hamstring issues and there's the turf to worry about.

John Buck: a wash with Mathis, of no real import except that he brings with him the possibility that the jays are freeing up their hands to market JPA with the idea that Buck is a better safety net while the work in d'Arnaud than Mathis would have been.

Emilio Bonifacio: they say his last season was riddled by injuries. if we can lok to 2011 as a sign of his talent level, then you start speculating about him doing that at 2B next year, and maybe hitting in the 2 hole behind Reyes....that could be fun. At worst, he brings a lot to the bench and as a bench player he, perhaps, makes Davis expendable.


I'll save the actual calculations for another post when the hour is not so late/early, but if everyone stays healthy and Romero returns to form, there's something like a 22 WAR bump on paper and the off-season isn't done yet.

While i can see the potential for a couple of things to blow up, on the whole I'm a happy girl right now.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Hechavarria and Escobar being Cuban was much of a factor?

Love almost everything about the trade. Our org depth at SS is back to being way shallow but when what depth you have is headed by Jose Reyes then you can forgive that.

phil said...

I agree more with your take than Martin's in this case for the reason's outlined in that thread. Not worried about SS depth, yes the prospect depth is thin until the low minors but both itsuris and bonifacio are excellent back ups to have there