JP Tempting Fate in Nashville
Ricciardi is again rumoured to have placed All-Star Alex Rios on the trade block to get starting pitching from the San Francisco Giants.
TSN is reporting that Giants’ 23-year-old Tim Lincecum who in his rookie season had more K’s than IP should be a stud for years to come. And Alex Rios, who is a little more established has proven that he could be a Dave Winfield type player and good for 25HR 100RBI and a .300 average with a rocket of an arm in RF.
However, this doesn’t make sense for either team. And letting two idiot GMs at each other can only lead in disaster. The Blue Jays really don’t need help (this off-season) at the starting pitching position. The Jays 1-2-3-4 spots are locked up and their 1-2 are established if not injury prone Major League starters.
The Giants should be entering the post-Bonds era as a rebuilding team. And in the NL West the need to have a good pitching staff to compete in the big parks. The Giants can depend on Lincecum, Matt Cain and Noah Lowry (all under 27) to be the core of the pitching staff for the next five years. All have great potential. Even free agent white elephant Barry Zito will be only 30 this year. While Matt Morris and Russ Ortiz are dinosaurs. The Giants outfielders last year averaged 36yrs old. Randy Winn, Dave Roberts could be augmented by Rios.
This trade doesn’t seem to make too much sense. Rios was the Jays best player last year and still has star power enough to negate a trade for a 3-4-5 starter especially while fans and media are being told THIS is the year in Toronto.
Wake up JP.
Lincecum is a stud, I wouldn’t freak out if this deal went down, though I’d rather have Cain (the rumour is it is Rios for either Lincecum or Cain). Cain is already very good, with a chance to be great. Lincecum is good, with a chance to be very good.
It would give the Jays potentially four number one starters in Halladay, Cain, Burnett and McGowan, with Marcum or Janssen as the number five, which is arguably the best starting rotation in baseball.
Granted, if this deal happens, the Jays will have to find some offence. I have to say, though, that a middle of the line-up that features Wells, Glaus, Overbay, Thomas and Stairs hitting 3-7 in whatever order should provide more than enough offense. Of course, it should have last year, too.
Taking Rios out puts a MAJOR hole in their starting 9. Having Matt Stairs play 150 games in RF is a disaster waiting to happen. Jays had the second best pitching in the AL last year, it isn’t what needs a boost. Every AL team (except the Tigers) is scratching their heads at 3-4-5 and the Jays are solid at 1-2-3 at least and all Lincecum would do is have them soild at 1-2-3 and leave holes in RF, top of the lineup and on the basepaths. Unless JP was going out to get Torii Hunter or Miguel Cabrea (which he didnt do) Rios should stay put.
PS
A team with Cain, Burnett or McGowan as their number one starter are a last place team or in McGowan’s case a minor league club. A team with Halladay as their starter are lucky to finish within 10 games of first place.
Platoon Reed with Stairs in left and offer up a package of say… Lind, Thigpen and Chacin for J-Bay and toss him in right.
Boner!
No way in hell, ever, will this happen. This rumor existed last year, Rios for Cain. It wasn’t going to happen then and it won’t now.
Personally, Rios is a stud but I wouldn’t trade either pitcher for him. Cain & Lincecum are $15+ million arms on the FA market. Rios may get close to that but it’s far easier to replace a RF then it is a legitimate #1 or #2 MLB starter.
If the Tigers put Cabrera at 3B instead of LF, would the Tigers be willing to deal Inge? He is only one year removed from a 27HR season and plays the hot corner with panache. I would like to see him there much more than broken down Glaus.
They may keep Inge as a supersub. In 2004 he played games behind the plate, in centerfield and at third. I’d have to assume that he could play at 1st as well. With much of the roster having a history of injuries, it would be prudent to keep Inge around unless they can get a good arm for him.
Supersub!!! I love him in that position. Perhaps too many Ks to be used PH much. Maybe too much $$$ there too.
THIS TEAM CANNOT STAND PAT.
Position by position it comes out second or third against the Bosox and Yanks. Rios and Wells being the only two favourables head to head. They must do something. Rios and Halliday are the only two tradeables vis a vis talent/salary
JP at the end of the year was counting on a healthy team and the starters maintaining their last season performance.
You just know that come next August there will be the lament that “who could have forseen that McGowan and Marcoum have gone bad and Arcardo didn’t follow up on his ’07 season. Pitching pitching pitching.
The rumour after Rios is gone that the jays would then go after Bay.
The Jays have to get better players than the Bosox and Yanks. period and end of story. Right now they do not have them.
I think JP may have “blew his wad” in terms of $$$ last off-season. Of of the top of my head, the cheap years of Ryan & AJ are over, as the backload is starting to come around.
Getting Jason Bay is an improvement over Rios. Rios is a strength the Jays have over both the Red Sox and the Yankees. And only by a sliver over Abreau. Toronto seems to love the gamers like Stairs, Zaun, JohnnyMac. These are the players that they are WAY behind every other AL contender. Stairs cannot repeat especially playing 150 games. Zaun and JohnnyMac are sub .250 hitters McDonald makes up for some great defense but he still isn’t head and shoulders above other AL SS in diving to his right and throwing across the field. Zaun is good at pitch selection and can be counted on for a clutch walk when the game is on the line (yuck).
JP cannot stand pat yet he cannot trade star for star if he isn’t going to replace the position players with another star. JP should be looking at his underdeveloped and underskilled MiL talent pool to get a hitting catcher and a hitting shortstop and maybe a lefty pitcher.
In the last two seasons it is the day in and day out hitting that have kept the Jays contending with 80-89 wins. Other teams in the last few years with their kind of make up that make the playoffs are in that same 80-89 wins, ie SD, StL, Arz etc. Jays need to win 95-100 games to think about playing important games in September let alone October.
Check the right sidebar widget, maybe Buck Coats is the answer to all of the Jays problems. Way to go JP!!