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Provincial Bird Talk

A Question of the Offseason

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by
Foster
, 02-07-2011 at 10:31 PM (8465 Views)
Alex Anthopoulos certainly has made a lot of changes in Toronto this offseason. We lost the big contract of Vernon Wells, re-worked the bullpen, and added some young talent. How good was it though?

Hardball's top-to-bottom offseason rankings - NYPOST.com

THE BEST OFFSEASON!!!

I ain't gonna bite, we didn't have the best offseason.

Sherman adds a lot of value to the loss of Vernon Wells. I understand that there is a lot of money saved by trading away Wells. His contract was voted the worst in baseball at one point, a relic of the previous GM. Anthopoulos was able to find a desperate Angels team to off load the big deal. A result of this move was Sherman making the Jays #1, and giving the Angels #30.

What Sherman forgets is that Rajai Davis isn't Vernon Wells. He is a platoon player that gets thrown into a starters position on a team void of a true centre fielder, with a career line of .281/.330/.383. He has speed on the base path something that was lacking this pass season. This is the only upside that was brought on by the trade, and subsequent movements by the Jays.

Sherman values the subtraction of Wells, but does not take a look at who takes over the role as the starter. I like what the Jays did with Lawrie and the bullpen, but can't give the Jays the top spot based on the one trade alone.

Updated 02-07-2011 at 10:51 PM by Foster

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Comments

  1. realmofotalk's Avatar
    Wasn't it not too long ago that J.P. was hailed as a savior for managing to dump Raul Mondesi's contract onto the Yankees?
  2. Foster's Avatar
    Could be. That was before I found that there were people talking on the internet about baseball.
    J.P. however parlayed the new found savings into what?
  3. Kingdom's Avatar
    Not the best, but maybe one of the more underrated off seasons by moving Wells and selling high on Marcum. And Davis is a decent replacement, but I think any time you can get rid of the contract Wells had, it's worth using a Davis/Rivera/Poo Poo Platter in the interim.
  4. Foster's Avatar
    I like the underrated angle you got there. Especially considering they compete in the AL East, the moves that everyone else made, and the euphoria that resulted.
  5. love_that_reefer's Avatar
    I think the Jays are in the top three with the A's and Red Sox ahead of them. The Jays did a lot to both compete for this year and to prepare for the future. The Jays have a lot of draft picks coming their way and if the Jays are out of it by the deadline (which I don't see) they can flip a lot of those relievers like Rauch, Frasor and Dotel furthering helping the future. Shedding payroll was huge for this team and will bode well for the future. Its been a great offseason but not the best.