Some Flaws and Some Solutions...

Ten games into the season, it seems like an excellent time to play that fun little game, which five players would I steal from another team to improve the Jays. If you don’t remember the game, the point is to identify the Jays’ most pressing needs and find a player who would best fill that hole. Sure, it’s just about as pointless as wishing I were taller, but that didn’t stop me standing in the mirror, in my Superman undies, and thinking, ‘if I were just a few inches taller…” If nothing else, it’s important to know your team’s faults, just like it’s important to know that people find you vaguely shallow and particularly smelly.

As I see it now, the Jays have a good, but not great team. They’re good enough to start 6-4, but only because six of those ten games were against Tampa Bay and K.C. So, what are the holes keeping them from being great? The most obvious hole is at short, where Royce Clayton has started well, but will inevitably decline to his career norms (.313 OBP in sixteen seasons), and while Clayton’s defense is far superior to the albatross that started last season at short (My Dr. informed me that my blood pressure rises to dangerous levels every time I type his name, so unfortunately if you want to know of whom I speak, you’ll have to look it up at baseballreference.com), his anemic hitting makes him a huge weak spot. Offensively, the Jays also suffer from being overly right handed, but otherwise they are better than average at every other position, except catcher. Greg Zaun’s a great clubhouse presence and yada, yada, yada… we could use a better player. Zaun’s hit well over the past few season’s, but lets be clear, he’s not the second coming of Carlton Fisk. Defensively, having watched opposing teams steal at will (ok, apparently he threw somebody out, but that must have been while I was getting a “frothy beverage” from the fridge, because I sure didn’t see it), I wouldn’t mind somebody whose arm makes an opposing runner think before taking off for second.

Of course the lineup is only half the battle and the Jays have a gaping hole in the rotation. After Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett, the Jays have Gustavo Chacin, Tomo Ohka, and Josh Towers starting for them… Needless to say that makes the acids in my stomach churn. Chacin can be an elusive pitcher, who nibbles the strike zone and makes hitters knock soft grounders, but he can also lose his control, build high pitch counts, and load runners on. Given his stuff, he’s much more of a solid fourth starter than a great number three. So, what the Jays really need is a great third starter, who pushes Chacin back to fourth, Ohka to fifth, and Towers to triple A. Finally, no season transpires without a costly injury to an important member of the team. Good teams can weather this storm, because they have youngsters ready to step up and perform. The Jays have great minor league depth in the outfield, but if something should happen to one of their infielders, then that dreaded miscreant who shall not be named could well make an appearance in the bigs. This I don’t think I could handle. Another top notch minor league pitcher couldn’t hurt either. So, lets recap, the Jays’ shopping list would look something this:
1) Shortstop
2) A third starter
3) A catcher
4) Left handed hitting
5) Minor league depth.

Alright, now that we know our flaws, lets go fix them:

1) The player I wish the Jays had on their roster more than anybody else, isn’t Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, or any of those other bog boppers. It isn’t even Miguel Tejada or the Yankees’ Derek Jeter. It’s Jeter’s cross town rival Jose Reyes. Actually, to be fair, all things being equal, it’s Grady Sizemore that I’d want more than anyone else, but since we already have a pretty good centerfielder, Reyes is the man. A switch hitting leadoff hitter, Reyes fields short well, steals bases, hits for power, and (most importantly) gets on base. He’s a chic pick for NL MVP, because of the havoc he creates, but MVP season or not, Reyes would be a massive upgrade from Clayton.

2) The Red Sox spent 51.1 million for the chance to negotiate with a potential third starter in part because they wanted him and in part to keep him away from the Yankees, perhaps the Jays should have spent 52 million to keep him away from both the Yanks AND the Sox. The situations are actually pretty similar: established ace (albeit Halladay’s a decade younger than Schilling), followed by a phenomenally talented former Florida pitcher who can be lights out, or… not (Burnett and Josh Beckett). Daisuke Matsusaka might be better than Boston’s top two starters, which is a pretty tantalizing prospect from you third guy, and somebody the Jays could certainly use.

3) It’s not that I dislike Zaun, it’s just that I’d like him so, so much more as the backup. Joe Mauer is of course everything I am looking for in a catcher, he calls a great game, has experience working with a top flight rotation, is great blocking the plate and throwing out runners. His OBP last year was .429, and while he only hit 13 home runs, he still had a .507 slugging percentage, and, just for gravy’s sake, he’s left handed to boot. Atlanta’s Brian McCann is pretty exceptional and comes this (_) close, but since I’m purging the best, Mauer’s my guy.

4) Frank Thomas was awesome for the A’s last year, and I think he’ll be almost as good for Toronto this year, but given our left handed needs, why not pluck baseball’s best pure hitter from Cleveland. For some reason, Travis Hafner flies under the radar, but he shouldn’t. The big lefthander is at least as clutch as Boston’s Big Papi, but he’s cheaper, younger and his overall numbers are actually better (although not as flashy). Last year in 129 games, Hafner smacked 42 home runs, while walking 100 times. His good .308 average looks even better when followed up by his .439 OBP and sick .659 slugging percentage.

5) Ok, I’m cheating a little with this one, I’m going to take two minor leaguers to augment the Jays’ farm system. Since we have Adam Lind (who should be with the big club), Ryan Patterson, and Travis Snider all progressing as major outfield talent, what we need is somebody who can step in and help the infield should Troy Glaus or Lyle Overbay hurt their foot one night. I’d probably take Evan Longoria, who’s shooting like a comet up the Devil Rays system. And for the pitcher, obviously the Yankees’ Phil Hughes is the man. Those two would make those mid season injuries easier to bare.

So, with all these tantalizing changes, our lineup would look something like this:

1) J. Reyes, ss, (s)
2) J. Mauer, c, (l)
3) V. Wells, cf, (r)
4) T. Hafner, dh, (l)
5) T. Glaus, 3b, (r)
6) L. Overbay, 1b, (l)
7) A. Rios, rf, (r)
8) A. Lind, lf, (l)
9) A. Hill, 2b, (r)

It would be kind of hard for opposing managers to match up with that lineup. The seamless blend of righty-lefty, the speed at the top, solid at bats, power. Mauer and Hafner getting on base twice a game. Suddenly the Yankees and Sox wouldn’t look so formidable.