Yosemite Dan wrote:MajorDad wrote: you guys should like Lawrie. he's the type of hitter who could advance to the majors from AA. his defense is suspect. and he's probably a better third baseman than second baseman. but hey ... he's a prospect.
We won like 85 games last year. Is it that unrealistic to assume we can be a real contender in 2012 (or even next year?). How could it be bad for us to have a guy like Marcum in our rotation in 2012 or 2013. Especially if we get Grenke because that would tell me that AA wants to go for it in the next year or 2 and you can never have too much pitching so why throw away a proven starter for a prospect.
With the same team + halladay and rolen jays won 10 games less. Last year's 85 wins mean squat until we establish a core of this team. We dont even know what the jays have in Hill and Lind - supposedly team's 2 best hitters coming into the season. Dont fool yourself thinking that this team is ready to compete.
JP fell into the same trap repeatedly and look where that got us. This division has potentially 3 95 win teams ahead of us, which means jays need a lot of top level talent. That is what AA is trying to address.
If people liked AA's moves last year, they really have no right to be upset with this move because he is following the same MO.
Marcum is a middle of the rotation starter; If people think he is going to take the jays to the promise land then prepare to be even more befuddled over the coming year.
Like Pat Gillick said in an interview with mccown last month, Jays are not ready.