Hoopstarr wrote:Considering that many 1st round picks don't even make it to the majors, and that Russ Adams looked pretty solid up to and including his 2004 call-up, I'd say the Tulo horse has been beaten to a pulp. KC and Seattle needed a SS even more than the Jays, but Keith Law didn't formerly work for them so no one makes a big deal about it.
Ricciardi while he was still employed with the Jays admitted that it was a mistake to pass on Tulowitzki. I can't seem to find the article on Google, but it is out there. When the GM himself makes that claim (nevermind the fact that Romero was still on the team when he made that statement, so he was undercutting his own player at the same time) says quite a bit.
Need was evident, but Tulo was also regarded by many as the BPA at the time the Jays selected. In 2004, Russ Adams made 33 errors at SS and had a .759 OPS in AAA (2nd best OPS of Russ' AAA career to date), so if he was the reason why Tulo was passed on, then that was a pretty damn stupid reason. Now, if Hill was used at short and Hudson was at 2B, then at least it would look somewhat passable. But Hill was moved to 2B and the Jays have had a revolving door of crap (Scutaro-2009 aside) at short since then, to the point where AA is begging for a SS with any type of upside on the trade market (any SS with Tulo's upside is probably untouchable).
This is one horse that deserves to be beaten.