Brett Lawrie: argument to trade him?

[UN-Owen]

No, selling low on a young player with his talent level is exactly what AA should not do.

And "getting by" with guys like De Rosa/EE (both of whom cannot play the position even adequately) is also not appealing at all.

The Tigers are doing just fine "getting by" with Cabrera at 3B

Personally, I'd have no problem with EE shifting across the diamond with Lawrie moving to 2B

Lawrie can't play 2B and EE can't play 3B. Why would we do that?

Then again, you also wanted to make Lawrie the franchise player and pay him 100M.

Personally, I would look to deal Bautista while his value is at its highest, add 2 or 3 stud prospects to the mix, and build this team around Lawrie as the franchise player

100 million x 15 years = $6.66 million per year

The mark of the Beast

Lawrie is the chosen one

I was using the term 'franchise player' more in the way of "face of the franchise"

Someone to replace Bautista in the TV and print ads, etc.

The Jays would have been a young, exciting team but far from a contender, so a true franchise player (MVP candidate) at the big league level wouldn't have been immediately necessary

I never expected Lawrie to surpass Bautista in terms of skill, just popularity

[flatjacket1]

I was using the term 'franchise player' more in the way of "face of the franchise"

Someone to replace Bautista in the TV and print ads, etc.

The Jays would have been a young, exciting team but far from a contender, so a true franchise player (MVP candidate) at the big league level wouldn't have been immediately necessary

I never expected Lawrie to surpass Bautista in terms of skill, just popularity

So you want a franchise player who bats .200 in the first half of a big season? Imagine what a mockery that would make of the Jays?

I don't see how we aren't contenders still next year. We have Morrow, Happ, Hutch, Drabek all coming off the DL, and identified weaknesses over the course of the season which we can fix in the off-season.

I disagreed with a lot of what the Jays did this past offseason but I can't possibly argue we are in bad shape for 2014.

[MikeM]

Looks like he's putting himself back into the core of Reyes, Bautista, Encarnacion and Rasmus.

Now to find a LF, 2B, C and DH...

[Avenger]

who could have thought that putting faith in a players talent and track record was better than relying on meaningless sample sizes?

[Schad]

who could have thought that putting faith in a players talent and track record was better than relying on meaningless sample sizes?

The sample size wasn't terribly meaningless...he'd posted over a full season's worth of plate appearances with an OPS south of .700. Rather, the more meaningful bit was his age: Lawrie's still rather young for a full-time major leaguer, and struggling to translate skills into results at age 22 isn't unusual. Most players aren't Manny Machado.

[Santoki]

For everyone saying that Lawrie is back, we should probably just give him the Rasmus treatment and leave him alone until he's done it for more than a month. Then, I'll be ready to judge him either way.

[flatjacket1]

For everyone saying that Lawrie is back, we should probably just give him the Rasmus treatment and leave him alone until he's done it for more than a month. Then, I'll be ready to judge him either way.

He's obviously made some mechanical adjustments since the start of the season, and they are working for now.

Nobody is saying to move him up in the order, but rather he is doing better now than before. This is EXACTLY why you don't trade guys when they start doing poorly.

[Schad]

He's obviously made some mechanical adjustments since the start of the season, and they are working for now.

Just realized what his swing, with its kinda closed-off front foot, reminds me of...Derek Jeter:





Jeter makes it work because he doesn't try to pull everything; he gets his hands inside the ball and sprays a lot of balls the other way. Lawrie was trying to pull every pitch, and so he rolled over pretty much every ball from the center of the plate out. He isn't doing that at the moment, and he's powering the ball into the right-center gap as a result.

[Randle McMurphy]

For everyone saying that Lawrie is back, we should probably just give him the Rasmus treatment and leave him alone until he's done it for more than a month. Then, I'll be ready to judge him either way.

You're right that we should wait much longer than a few weeks, but you shouldn't be judging what this guy is (or is going to be) at his age. With the skills he has, he's got a lot more time than the next two months to figure that out. The important thing right now is that he's showing positive signs at the plate, which is something he can build on.

Even with all his struggles this year, though, he's been pretty close to a league average hitter at the plate when healthy while also being a great defender at 3rd. It's not all that bad.

[BigLeagueChew]

Lawrie's first game back he hit 2 or 3 ground balls to the second baseman. The average fan would think it was bad he wasn't hitting as soon as he was called up but from the very first game he was showing signs that he changed his stance and approach at the plate.

[Santoki]

For everyone saying that Lawrie is back, we should probably just give him the Rasmus treatment and leave him alone until he's done it for more than a month. Then, I'll be ready to judge him either way.

You're right that we should wait much longer than a few weeks, but you shouldn't be judging what this guy is (or is going to be) at his age. With the skills he has, he's got a lot more time than the next two months to figure that out. The important thing right now is that he's showing positive signs at the plate, which is something he can build on.

Even with all his struggles this year, though, he's been pretty close to a league average hitter at the plate when healthy while also being a great defender at 3rd. It's not all that bad.

I'm all for giving him as much slack as he needs as long as he continues to play well defensively. Just leave him at 3rd and somewhere from 6-9 in the order and see what happens if he can stay healthy. The problem has been exactly that though...can he for a full season?

[flatjacket1]

I'm all for giving him as much slack as he needs as long as he continues to play well defensively. Just leave him at 3rd and somewhere from 6-9 in the order and see what happens if he can stay healthy. The problem has been exactly that though...can he for a full season?

I think it makes sense to move him to 6th and Lind to 7th, just to avoid the Colby/Lind back to back in late game. I also agree with leaving him at 3rd.

It'd be nice to have him as a #2 hitter, so it'd be great if he can get up to that level. In the last 20 games he has 20 hits, 10 RBI's and 9 of those 20 hits are for extra bases. His slash line is .282/.342/.535 over that 20 game period since being off the DL.

I wouldn't mind having him at #2 in the lineup heading into September if he maintains this pace, just to see how he holds there.

Imagine going forward with:
1. SS Reyes: .300/.375/.450 with 8 HR
2. 3B Lawrie: .275/.330/.475 with 20 HR
3. 1B Edwin: .280/.380/.500 with 35 HR
4. RF Bautista: .250/.375/.500 with 30 HR

As our top 4?