Promise to Buck impacted Arencibia's starts

[Evermore]

Trading the one year stop gaps only makes sense if the return trumps the potential value of a draft pick. Yunel Escobar, prior to 2010, was a top 5 to 10 calibre SS in baseball (ranked 8th and 5th in WAR for SS in 2008 and 2009 respectively) with three plus years of service time remaining. Getting him for Gonzalez was a gift. That was a case of buying low (the Braves soured on him/his performance dropped) and selling high (Gonzalez was hitting well at the time). Escobar never would have been available that cheaply in a normal situation. With Buck, Frasor, and Gregg, it's likely that the Jays simply did not feel the player(s) they were getting back was worth giving up the compensation pick for. That remains to be seen.

I too would have preferred trading Buck and letting JPA play in August and September, but if the return for Buck was not going to be better than a top 50 draft pick (in a deep draft), then no sense in pulling the trigger.

Perhaps then...the return would've been 200 more at-bats worth of experience for JPA...not to mention the added games behind the plate

[Schad]

Trading the one year stop gaps only makes sense if the return trumps the potential value of a draft pick. Yunel Escobar, prior to 2010, was a top 5 to 10 calibre SS in baseball (ranked 8th and 5th in WAR for SS in 2008 and 2009 respectively) with three plus years of service time remaining. Getting him for Gonzalez was a gift. That was a case of buying low (the Braves soured on him/his performance dropped) and selling high (Gonzalez was hitting well at the time). Escobar never would have been available that cheaply in a normal situation. With Buck, Frasor, and Gregg, it's likely that the Jays simply did not feel the player(s) they were getting back was worth giving up the compensation pick for. That remains to be seen.

I too would have preferred trading Buck and letting JPA play in August and September, but if the return for Buck was not going to be better than a top 50 draft pick (in a deep draft), then no sense in pulling the trigger.

Agreed on all counts. I'd never suggest taking the comp picks over a guy like Escobar, but they're a great bit of value-added when dealing with middling players who aren't in the long-term plans. I'm really looking forward to seeing what AA does with the bullpen this year...if one of Francisco/Dotel/Rauch are putting up great numbers by the start of July, we could see another 'how the **** did that happen!?' trade similar to Gonzalez/Escobar.

[WpgPage]

I would guess that you guys are right and AA is protecting Cito, I'm not as big of a JPA fan as most on here are so it didn't really bug me that he got limited playing time. In some ways it might be better as a C to really start your time in the majors at the bigging of the year, when you can workout with the pitchers and learn the game plan and how to prepare for a start with each individual pitcher.

[ItsDanger]

Cito wanted him to get 20 homers in order to boost his FA value. This whole "start to finish" bit is somewhat tainted with BS. Could have squeezed JPA in there 2-3 more times at least. Obviously a promise should be kept but Im just talking about a few games. He barely played in September at all. Who cares if he struggled. Its about the team's future, not Buck's paycheque. Where's our commission?

[J-Roc]

I don't think AA is protecting Cito, AA is protecting JPA, who just wasn't good enough last year.

[darth_federer]

I don't think AA is protecting Cito, AA is protecting JPA, who just wasn't good enough last year.

But that doesnt explain why JPA was facing the best pitchers while Buck had it easier. I dont think Buck would have minded in September if he sat for a couple of games.

[The_Hater]

Cito wanted him to get 20 homers in order to boost his FA value. This whole "start to finish" bit is somewhat tainted with BS. Could have squeezed JPA in there 2-3 more times at least. Obviously a promise should be kept but Im just talking about a few games. He barely played in September at all. Who cares if he struggled. Its about the team's future, not Buck's paycheque. Where's our commission?

You're not looking at the big picture though.

Player's talk. Agent's talk. Agent's also represent more than just 1 player. Here you have a brand new GM giving his word to a player and an agent, if he decides to break that word when his reputation isn't yet known or developed in the baseball community, I'm willing to bet that the long range negative repercussions to the organization and AA's rep would more than offset the positive impact of the 100 AB's he would have given JP.

[The_Hater]

I don't think AA is protecting Cito, AA is protecting JPA, who just wasn't good enough last year.

That makes zero sense. JP was already tearing up AAA ball so the only place left to prove himself is the majors. And just because he struggled in limited AB's doesn't mean he wasn't ready. There was absolutely no reason to hold him back so AA's comments make complete sense here.

[J-Roc]

I don't think AA is protecting Cito, AA is protecting JPA, who just wasn't good enough last year.

That makes zero sense. JP was already tearing up AAA ball so the only place left to prove himself is the majors. And just because he struggled in limited AB's doesn't mean he wasn't ready. There was absolutely no reason to hold him back so AA's comments make complete sense here.

Keeping a promise to John Buck rather than invest playing time in a young player is what makes zero sense.

[GoRaptors]

The Jays could have played one of the catchers at DH and the other at catcher for some of the games too.

[ItsDanger]

I was talking about playing JPA 2-3 more times during the last month. Big deal. If that spooks the agents then the **** scrubs can go sign in Kansas City.

[Hoopstarr]

I don't think AA is protecting Cito, AA is protecting JPA, who just wasn't good enough last year.

That makes zero sense. JP was already tearing up AAA ball so the only place left to prove himself is the majors. And just because he struggled in limited AB's doesn't mean he wasn't ready. There was absolutely no reason to hold him back so AA's comments make complete sense here.

Keeping a promise to John Buck rather than invest playing time in a young player is what makes zero sense.

The promise to Buck has nothing to do with Cito playing JP only against the best pitchers. That's where he got screwed, not really with the lack of playing time. The promise to Buck had nothing to do with avoiding the Felixes and Sabathias.

[The_Hater]

I don't think AA is protecting Cito, AA is protecting JPA, who just wasn't good enough last year.

That makes zero sense. JP was already tearing up AAA ball so the only place left to prove himself is the majors. And just because he struggled in limited AB's doesn't mean he wasn't ready. There was absolutely no reason to hold him back so AA's comments make complete sense here.

Keeping a promise to John Buck rather than invest playing time in a young player is what makes zero sense.

Read my other post in the previous page. A brand new GM breaking a promise to JBuck and his agent would have quickly sealed his rep as a GM that shouldn't be trusted.

Sometimes your word and your rep are far more important in the big picture.