OT - Jays turn down deal for Jason Bay

[cHiNoz]

great no deal..

Bay was not going to help us win the division.

Cecil I could live with getting rid of, but not Snider

[Peteros]

Bay would have cost us. Ibanez on the other hand would have been a good pick up, and he can hit with RISP. He's been tearing it up as of late. I believe the other day he was 3 for 5 with 5 rbi's!

[Geddy]

Glad this didn't go down. Our good quality prospects are too few to be tossing around these days.

[Schad]

That would have been awful, even though Bay is great. Cost-controlled youngsters are the lifeblood of the organization; Bay is up for free agency after next year, meaning he's gonna get paid...either by us, or another team. Like, Vernon Wells money. As he wouldn't come close to putting us into the playoffs, it would be an awful deal. Heck, our starting outfield would be making $40m a year, or close to it.

[Neal04]

Being a casual Jays fan, I would have jumped all over this deal as soon as I saw the name Jason Bay. Some of the posters say the two prospects in the deal have a legitimate chance to be good in the majors soon.

Could someone tell me why they are highly touted?

[Schad]

Being a casual Jays fan, I would have jumped all over this deal as soon as I saw the name Jason Bay. Some of the posters say the two prospects in the deal have a legitimate chance to be good in the majors soon.

Could someone tell me why they are highly touted?

Travis Snider is 20 years old and has successfully moved from high-A Dunedin to AAA Syracuse, hitting well at every level. He was a top-10 prospect league-wide after last season, and he has more than lived up to that billing this year. Snider isn't just a prospect...he's our only potential star hitter, and a guy who could be our offensive anchor within four years (that's not at all an overstatement).

Cecil is our best pitching prospect (with the caveat that there is no such thing as a pitching prospect), a 21 year old lefty who produces strikeouts by the gallon, keeps the ball on the ground, and walks fewer than three guys per nine in his first full season as a pro. Those are the five most valuable tools for a pitcher (young; lefty; strikeout machine; ground ball tendencies; developing good control), and if he can stretch out to throw 100 pitches with ease while maintaining his splits, he's going to be an important part of the rotation for years to come.

The most important thing, though, is that both guys are cost-controlled...the Jays hold all the cards for the next few years. The trend seems to be handing out cheap, long-term contracts to youngsters, and if the Jays can coax a below-market deal out of Snider and Cecil (assuming both succeed at the major league level, of course), they become invaluable.