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According to MLB Trade Rumors the Jays have acquired Zach Jackson from Cleveland, for PTBNL. Fans who have been around a few years should remember Jackson as the most useless of the players we traded for Lyle Overbay. He has been assigned to AAA.

Unless we are dealing some of our pitching prospects, I can't say I get it. We have enough starters for AAA, and he was never an especially highly regarded prospect, so it doesn't strike me as a Morrow type move. Maybe AA wants to keep as many young arms in the minors as possible, as sees Jackson as the guy to call up for injuries?

Just beat me to it. I don't know much about Jackson, but in general the more young arms you have, the better your chances are of finding useful ones. This strikes me as a "couldn't hurt" type of move, as the team's basically giving nothing up.

Ya, I assume we are giving up nothing, but a PTBNL could be some low minors flyer that we can't deal yet. And I agree with you about young arms, except Jackson isn't really young, and has never, even in the minors, been impressive.

Minor league depth and possibly another "failed prospect turned reliever" that the Jays have been having some success with in recent years (Downs, Tallet, Carlson, Camp, etc). With that said, he's been pretty bad in his pro career thus far, majors and minors. Doesn't miss bats and his command is not good enough to make up for it. Very hittable. I guess this is one of those "call him up so we don't have to rush Drabek" type moves, in case of injury.

Another draft pick failed that we pick up. We also signed OF Chris Lubanski former 5th overall pick to a minor league deal

This is rebuilding- trying to accumulate as much assets as possible, giving them opportunities to play and see what happens. I remember Downs was like this- a lefty who wasn't doing well at the major league level. Now, he could actually net the Jays something good.

Even his scouting report on TSN.ca sounds like Downs, especially his flaws:

Scouting Report
Assets Has good movement on a low-90's fastball. Also boasts good command of that heat, as well as a circle change and slider.
Flaws He's not overpowering, so hitters make a lot of contact so he needs good defense behind him. Needs to improve his stamina.
Career potential A back-of-the-rotation starter or reliever.

Did you really just quote TSN? TSN knows less about baseball than they do about basketball.

I suppose there might be some similarities in their careers in the majors, but in the minors Downs had a WHIP is 1.26 and a K/BB of 2.7. Jackson's are 1.46 and 2.1. Those are worlds apart.

Curious who the PTBNL would be, as there really aren't many prospects bad enough to be swapped for Jackson.

Schadenfreude wrote:Curious who the PTBNL would be, as there really aren't many prospects bad enough to be swapped for Jackson.

lol...do we still have Russ Adams?

Adams signed with the Mets