Blue Jays Hot Stove Talk

Now that the dust has settled from the removal of town hero, and club Ace Roy Halladay, let’s see what the Jays have gotten back in return. First we have Pitcher Kyle Drabek; a kid who possesses a mid nineties fastball, and a pretty decent curve ball. He will not be a Halladay replacement however could be a good number two option for our rotation. Having gone through Tommy John surgery does make some Blue Jays fans worried and that is understandable, however Drabek has since changed up some of his mechanics to keep it a simpler motion.

Next is catcher Travis Arnaud, more than a couple years away from the big leagues, this kid is really our future catcher. The Jays are so confident in his skills that they are already trying to include our former best catching prospect JP Arencibia to the Mariners along with Brandon League for Brandon Morrow. Not a bad move as Morrow is a really good pick up for the Jays will be a good set up man or possibly a closer. However the real meat of the trade is our next prospect.

The next prospect is a point of interest, Brett Wallace. We had Michael Taylor in the bag, the Phillies best power hitting outfielder. I would have loved to keep Taylor for one of the corner spots or maybe if his range was good enough right in CF and shit Vernon Wells who has seemingly lost some of his range over to one of the corner spots. However the Jays went in a different direction and chose to swap prospects with the Oakland Athletics and pick up third sacker Brett Wallace. While he is billed as a third baseman, he is a very big boy who will more than likely be pushed over to first base.



Let’s look at the possible line up of our 2010 Toronto Blue Jays

C John Buck
1B Lyle Overbay
2B Aaron Hill
SS John Macdonald/ Alex Gonzalez
3B Edwin Encarnacion
LF Travis Snider
CF Vernon Wells
RF Jose Bautista
DH Adam Lind

Rotation:
1. Ricky Romero
2. Kyle Drabek
3. Shaun Marcum
4. Scott Richmond
5. Jesse Litsch

(Closer could be Scott Downs or maybe Brandon Morrow)

I see an immediate need for a leadoff hitter and Joey Gathright is not the answer. Possible free agents the Jays should take a look at who are not going to be demanding the big dollars.

If they could sign:

Hank Blalock to play third base, Encarnacion just does not satisfy me at all at the hot corner.

Coco Crisp to take over for Vernon Wells at CF and become our leadoff hitter. Or sign Xavier Nady to play RF over Jose Bautista. Or perhaps Jays’ fans would like a defensive specialist like Reed Johnson.

Sign Starting pitcher Vincente Padilla to eat innings so our rookie arms don’t have to in the dog days of summer.

Then try to unload Lyle Overbay for anything promising, a utility player, or another arm in the bullpen could never hurt.

That would make the new line up

C John Buck
1B Brett Wallace
2B Aaron Hill
SS John Macdonald/ Alex Gonzalez
3B Hank Blalock
LF Travis Snider
CF Vernon Wells (Or Reed Johnson/Coco Crisp)
RF Xavier Nady(Or Vernon/Reed Johnson)
DH Adam Lind

This would be a much more entertaining team to watch as they could explode for runs on any given night, just don’t expect them to be defensive wizards on the field.