woolf wrote:Mustard_Tiger wrote:woolf wrote:I think we 100% should be focused on the playoffs...what should be this team's concern right now?
Developing young players. They don't have a good enough roster to beat the Red Sox or Yankees this season. 6 wins in 8 games doesn't change the plan for this season.
Mustard_Tiger wrote:First of all, who cares whether it appears to be working out right now? They've played 8 games in a 162 game season. It's meaningless.
Secondly, I never said they should rebuild. If you can trade Overbay or Rolen away, then yeah, you do that, though.
Don't move away from the plan of the season just to attempt to make the playoffs with a team that isn't as talented as their competition.
If our plan this season is to develop young players then isn't that essentially rebuilding? If we stumble until June then Doc is sure to be gone and then that would signify our rebuilding phase would it not? I would assume a new GM would be brought in...we would try to trade vern and Doc and our older players to teams competing for a playoff spot.
We have youth coming up but with the offense we have right now, with the mix it is of youth and vets, it has a chance to compete. Sure its only been a "meaningless" 8 games and I guess I'm jumping the gun thinking of October...but I wouldn't right this team off yet...(at least I'm not going to since its too much fun thinking of the possibilities right now...especially after a terrible raps season
)
The problem is whether or not to make some moves now or wait. I guess the plan will be to wait until this team is either out of it or competing through June. If we are competing, then I don't see a problem in trading some offense for pitching to put us over the edge.
Rebuilding in baseball is not the same as in basketball.
In baseball, because players generally spend so long in the minors, they are expected to be productive players within a year of their call up, really. Most won't hit their peak for a few years after that, but they are never expected to go through the slower development you see in all but the highest picks in basketball. So playing the Jays young guys this year is gearing them up for next year. Rebuilding a baseball team happens through the draft and acquiring minor leaguers, and is probably a minimum 3 or 4 year process.
And since both Cito and JP have said about 800 times that they plan to contend next year, there is no reason from that perspective to deal Roy this season. (And so really almost no reason at all, as the most recent noises coming out of the team say there is money to be spent if they think it would be worthwhile.) As for Vernon, nobody is taking him off our hands any time soon even if we wanted to deal him. Which we don't, again because he will be useful next year.
I'm not saying here that they Jays don't have some shot at competing this year. The point I am trying to make, as I think MT also is, would be that if you get the young guys their playing time this year, the team has a better chance at being a contender next year and in years beyond.
