EE DFA'D

[youngLion]

FWIW: According to ESPN he's on pace for 31 homers.

Power without average? Seems like a perfect fit for the Jays offense to me.

[Michael Bradley]

I was never a huge fan of the Rolen trade. It was the right time to trade him if the Jays were giving up (which they were), but it basically came down to two relievers and an underacheiving player who can't defend the position he was going to be used at. Not exactly the highway robbery many people were boasting. Of course if Stewart turns into an above average starter, then that obviously changes, but as of now it looks like a very bleh trade.

Rolen's hitting .303/.364/.571 with plus defense at third. Rios is hitting .318/.378/.555 with plus defense at center. Roy is being Roy for the Phillies. Granted, other than Halladay, there was no way of knowing whether that production would have been similar had they all stayed in Toronto, but makes you wonder just how far away this team could have been. Probably still not good enough to overtake NYY, Tampa, and Boston, but may have been the best team the Jays have fielded in a long time given the development of Romero, Cecil, Morrow, and the return of Marcum.

[Randle McMurphy]

Rolen's hitting .303/.364/.571 with plus defense at third. Rios is hitting .318/.378/.555 with plus defense at center. Roy is being Roy for the Phillies. Granted, other than Halladay, there was no way of knowing whether that production would have been similar had they all stayed in Toronto, but makes you wonder just how far away this team could have been. Probably still not good enough to overtake NYY, Tampa, and Boston, but may have been the best team the Jays have fielded in a long time given the development of Romero, Cecil, Morrow, and the return of Marcum.

The Jays were a very good team with those 3 players, but I think they'd still need more than that to contend.

The most questionable move for me remains giving Rios up for nothing.

[kelso]

I think the Rios thing was the team having to get rid of 1 of Rios or Wells and no one was going to pick up the Wells contract.

Halladay, Rolen and Rios- everyone for that matter- I dont think anyone saw the record at this point in this season coming. Almost at the half-way point we are a mere 4.5 out of a playoff spot and we still haven't had the real Lind or Hill show up, and Snider has missed a month, with us still leading the majors in homers.

This is the perfect time to make a deal for someone big and use some of this youth that has potentially overperformed this year.

[Schad]

This is the perfect time to make a deal for someone big and use some of this youth that has potentially overperformed this year.

No, it really isn't. You say 'only' 4.5 games back, but that's the difference between a .600 winning percentage (on pace for 97 wins) and a .535 mark (on pace for 87 wins), and we've still played fewer games against our own division than any AL team save for Texas and the Angels.

It's also not like we have just one team to track down. We're 6 games behind New York, 4.5 games behind Boston and Tampa, 2.5 games behind Minnesota, and 1 game behind Detroit and the Angels. We're the eighth-best team in a fourteen team league, playing in a division which might end up featuring the toughest three-way race since the Divisional round came into being. We're also 9-11 in our last 20 games as our offense comes down to earth.

[Randle McMurphy]

Yeah, we're not even close to making the playoffs this year. You have to put that out of your mind.