Drabek: UCL tear, seeing Doc Andrews, Cecil starts Sunday

[torontoaces04]

Well...let's hope for the best.

[Kurtz]

The Jays did not have to trade Halladay. They could have tried to win in 2010, and either re-signed him (it's not like he was unreasonable) or gotten two draft picks for him. One more season of Halladay + two overslot draft picks was the WORST case scenario if they kept him. That doesn't sound so terrible. Trading him for three prospects was unnecessary (and also a lie by Beeston, who promised the fanbase that 2009 was a bridge to 2010).

As far as the trade, if D'Arnaud and Gose (who AA shrewdly turned Taylor and Wallace into) pan out, then the deal looks a bit better despite Drabek's injury/struggles, but I'm sorry, there is no way to rationalize trading the best pitcher of this era for three non-elite prospects (though D'Arnaud could end up being elite if he keeps up what he is doing). Halladay is not only the best pitcher in baseball but also the easiest-to-deal-with superstar in baseball. Put a 90-win team on the field and there was a chance he would have re-signed. That was a risk they didn't want to take, and maybe they were right, but I didn't agree with it at the time and it looks worse in hindsight.

I agree with the vast majority of your post, except for the part about Doc possibly staying.

He gave us nearly 10 great years, we failed to put a team together around him, and he was gone. He did us a favour of telling us that he wasn't going to re-sign so we could get something for him. I don't think that there's any possible way that he would have stayed, short of Rogers promising that we'd match Boston and NYY in spending, which would never happened.

Given that fact, I think that moving Doc for 3 good prospects and also out of the AL was a solid move by AA. Far from spectacular, but solid. And while Drabek turned into a bust, D'arnaud being one of the top prospects in baseball and Gose looking promising I think is a worthwhile return for what would have been only 1 more year of Doc on a rebuilding team.

And agreed...best pitcher of HIS generation (I'd say Pedro/RJ owned the generation before Doc's)

[akakalakin]

shame like Drabek

hard to find guys with movement like that

[Randle McMurphy]

If the Jays had continued to put money towards winning and built a contender in 2009 and 2010 (as they pledged they were going to coming off that very good 2008 season), there's no reason to think Halladay wouldn't have stayed. His only goal was playing on a winner. If the Jays were a winner, staying would have been more than fine for him.

Instead, they stopped building and spending all together after 2008. At that point, he knew that he needed to move on to have a real chance to win and the Jays did what they could to get something for him before he did.

[Garmfay]

Drabek might have to return as a reliever at this point

[RapsFanInVA]

Who will return to pitching first, Drabek or King of the Setback McGowan?

[Michael Bradley]

I agree with the vast majority of your post, except for the part about Doc possibly staying.

He gave us nearly 10 great years, we failed to put a team together around him, and he was gone. He did us a favour of telling us that he wasn't going to re-sign so we could get something for him. I don't think that there's any possible way that he would have stayed, short of Rogers promising that we'd match Boston and NYY in spending, which would never happened.

Given that fact, I think that moving Doc for 3 good prospects and also out of the AL was a solid move by AA. Far from spectacular, but solid. And while Drabek turned into a bust, D'arnaud being one of the top prospects in baseball and Gose looking promising I think is a worthwhile return for what would have been only 1 more year of Doc on a rebuilding team.

Halladay would have re-signed if the Jays built a contender. While that would have been difficult in 2009 without Marcum and McGowan, they could have easily added talent for a run in 2009 and definitely 2010. It was three prospects vs. one more season of Halladay and two draft picks (worst case). To me, that's a no brainer, especially given AA's philosophy of going over slot in the draft. If the return ended up being one more year of Halladay + Daniel Norris and Kevin Comer (for example), are we really any worse off as a franchise? Trading him (and $6 million) just to say they didn't lose him for nothing is incredibly insulting to the fans, IMO. You have one more season of the best pitcher in baseball at a well below market rate. Put all your resources into winning in 2010, and if that fails, you go for the draft picks and start the rebuild. They had holes at 3B, RF, and LF, so Bautista likely still finds a way to start in 2010 given that Cito liked him, and there were one year deals attached to good players readily available that off-season (Beltre, Thome, Putz, Soriano, etc). The Jays could have tried to put a contender on the field for one more year but chose not to. They still choose not to.

I still feel what Beeston and Rogers did in 2009 was incredibly insulting and embarrassing. At the end of the day, they sabotaged Halladay's final season in Toronto to justify moving him and then proceeded to spend the next few seasons spending as little as possible. This goes beyond Halladay. The organization lied to the fans and rail-roaded the best pitcher they ever developed to save some coin.

[dagger]

Drabek's surgery scheduled for tomorrow.

[Moxie]

If the return ended up being one more year of Halladay + Daniel Norris and Kevin Comer (for example), are we really any worse off as a franchise?

Yes.

[Holmes]

What a disaster. Drabek has pitched his last game in the MLB. No matter how good d'arnaud is now, it will never hide the fact that the centerpiece of the return for one of the greatest pitchers ever to pitch the last decade was a complete and utter flop.

[BigLeagueChew]

kyle drabek @kyledrabek4

Doctor Andrews did a great job! He said everything went real good! Although I look like a mummy I feel great.. Gotta love docs

[UN-Owen]

What a disaster. Drabek has pitched his last game in the MLB. No matter how good d'arnaud is now, it will never hide the fact that the centerpiece of the return for one of the greatest pitchers ever to pitch the last decade was a complete and utter flop.

Again, the Jays traded the best pitcher in baseball without taking on the other team's best prospect

Whether or not Dominic Brown ever lives up to his initial hype is not the point


I remember thinking at the time of the Clemens deal that the asking price should have been Soriano and Pettitte

[Hamyltowne]

What a disaster. Drabek has pitched his last game in the MLB. No matter how good d'arnaud is now, it will never hide the fact that the centerpiece of the return for one of the greatest pitchers ever to pitch the last decade was a complete and utter flop.

What always gets me is just how calm you are in your trolling. Short, little sentences—very even-tempered.