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Had a discussion with a couple friends and they said the Jays won't be Foreal' until they get a proven power hitter in the batting rotation, i guess thats true but the stats say otherwise.

what do you guys think? should we make a move? and who do we trade, sign, or get?

First post in a while but I think we do need a power hitter in the middle of the line up to take the pressure of of Wells, Rios and Lind. All three are not in there proper spot in a typical batting rotation.

I think you would typically want Wells at 5, Rios at 2 and Lind at 6 or even 3 just because he can cash in the runs.

Adam Dunn would have looked nice in the line up but other then that I don't know who comes to mind.

I was thinking about this a swell. IMO Jays do need a pure slugger like a younger Frank Thomas or Matt Holliday who can hit the long-ball consistently and get those 3 or 4 RBI homers.

It wouldn't hurt that's for sure.

More power in leftfield, 3rd base, or 1st base are the obvious choices...question is what do you do with Rolen or Overbay. The most likely scenario would be that Snider is given more time in AAA and they bring in a big bat to either throw in left field or as DH (Lind to left field in that scenario).

Rios + Romero for Prince Fielder

Overbay + Romero or Cecil for Prince Fielder

Fielder would either play DH or 1st base and Lind would play RF if Rios is traded.

yea, getting a big bat would be nice, but rolen and 0ferbay are solid on D. and also, i would like to see more time for snider/lind at left field. i think lind should get some fielding time to keep him sharp whenever we need him, he's not a true DH kinda guy

its tough cause i'd hate to trade any one of our hitters except barajas

you think Romero + Millar + Barajas could land us Victor Martinez or Joe Mauer?

mad-mo wrote:its tough cause i'd hate to trade any one of our hitters except barajas

you think Romero + Millar + Barajas could land us Victor Martinez or Joe Mauer?

No. Really? Both of those guys are amazing hitters, probably the best hitting catchers in the league, we can't get them with an okay catcher, a 1B past his prime, and an very good prospect, who hasn't really proven anything substantial yet.

ehhh worth a shot, don't really know how much our players are valued in the league.

what about free agency, is there anyone we can sign?

Ideally, I think Vernon would be the 3-spot, not 5th, but I guess it doesn't matter.

I'd be hesitant to give up on Romero or Cecil in a trade, just because they both have the potential to be better than Marcum and McGowan. Still, if we were bringing back Prince Fielder (which won't happen, no matter how we try to delude ourselves), then I'd do it. But again, that won't happen. The Brewers aren't stupid.

mad-mo wrote:ehhh worth a shot, don't really know how much our players are valued in the league.

what about free agency, is there anyone we can sign?

yeah there's no way Joe Mauer can be had that easily... he became the first catcher to ever lead the league in batting average.

barry bonds?? (hey, someone had to say it!)

In the future Snider will probably take over as a power hitter. We don't really have that big of a need for it, it would improve our lineup, to have a good #3/4 guy there who can hit for power and draw walks, but that's what I see from Snider in the not to distant future.

I see our future line up with Hill as #2 hitter, Snider as the #3 hitter and Lind as the #4 hitter, Wells/Rios as the #5 hitter both of these guys are awesome #5 hitters. Lind and Snider could switch roles. We need a true lead off hitter, but those are very rare.

We have a guy in the system who i think would make a very good lead off hitter, but he is a few years away from making an impact. Kenneth Wilson is very fast, steals a ton of bases, and is pretty good at drawing walks. He is coming out of high school so he is gonna take a while to come up, but he could be our future CF/RF.

i would love to bring in a big time power guy but i don't think it is a must. i think at the end of the year wells and rios will have around 45 hrs between the two of them but they also bring speed to the basepaths. right now it seems that the whole team can hit with power if the other team makes a mistake over the plate.

It's probably temporary, but the power surge has been incredible. The Jays are hitting a home run every 28.3 at-bats this year...last year it was every 43.7 at-bats. A 40 HR guy in the middle of the order would be great, but I don't think it's a must-have if we're able to get solid production from the lineup top to bottom; we can't afford the asking price for a big bopper, IMO.

If the Jays had signed Bonds last year, they probably would have made the playoffs. But no, I wouldn't say a power hitter is a main need for them right now with Lind's emergence.

Adam Dunn would look nice in a Jays uniform, batting 4th. Shame JP had to open his trap regarding him.

TorontoSF made a good point; Snider is a guy who has the potential to add another 30 HR to our lineup and if he does that, there isn't much need to add another power guy (obviously, not expecting that this season, but going forward).

Schad makes an interesting point, but I can't for a second believe that Hill and Scutaro will maintain and I have no faith in Rios being a power hitter. That leaves us with Wells (who isn't a top-tier power hitter) and Rolen as our big guns, meaning we need at least one more solid power hitter to get our lineup going... or we need more contact hitters who can run well. I love what Cito/Torrence have done for our lineup but some of it just seems unsustainable, so one more reliable hitter who can get lots of doubles and homers would be really nice.

This sounds like a discussion from last year, when we should have signed Barry Bonds.

For now, this lineup of consistent threats seems to be working. Kinda like the World Series years when Joe Carter was our "power" hitter.

I say leave the team as it is. I mean they have two young guys in the line up who will only get better with experience. Snider and Lind will both be a lot better next year and the years to come - so there is your power. They are the first team to score 200 runs so far this season, why try to fix something that doesn't need fixing?

I say stay the course, get some pitching back (Marcum, McGowan, Janssen etc.) and see where you are at the end of the season. I love watching this team play this year, they never seem out of it - no matter how many runs behind they might be.