They need some hitting bad and they have some pitching to go around. Their farm is a bit dry and it is even more dry with Travis Snider faltering. McGowan or Marcum could fetch you a bat and you'd still have a good rotation.

Sign Barry Bonds, or maybe Sammy Sosa, or maybe even Mike Pizza. There are a lot of serviceable bats availble.

They can sign all three of them and they still wouldn't be set offensively.

True, but you get to keep your young rotation together and your offense gets alittle better. I dont see a long term fix for them right now.

McGowan or Marcum must stay...

The Blue Jays have just got to start hitting with runners in scoring position.

The unfortunate part is that they have no hitters down in the farm who can hit major league pitchingl. Otherwise, they'd be able to carry 5 guys on the bench and only 11 pitchers instead of what 13 pitchers right now?

Merge them with the Mariners...Mariners Top two pitchers plus the jays top three pitchers and the two combined offense's

1 - Hallday
2- Bedard
3- Felix
4- McGow
5-Marcum

SU - Ryan
CP Putz

^^ Or Switched W/E

Then

CF - Ichiro
2B - Lopez / Hill
RF - Rios / Balentien
LF - Ibanez
3B - Beltre / Rolen
DH - Clement / or Anyone
C - Johjima/Clement/Zaun
1B - Overbay/ Sexson
SS - Betancourt




My Fix...for both teams.

Get a decent hitting catcher.

If you're going to keep Ichiro in centre, you might as well move Wells to left. I'd much rather have John McDonald at short as well.

Our farm is pretty solid

I can't think of a goddamn thing to do for the Jays right now, they look pretty set to me. Obviously Bonds would help, but Stairs isn't a liability right now. The O will come around. It just sucks the AL East is so tough.

Lol you only say that because we swept you.

Maybe, but I don't think so. That's just a good roster. The OF is kinda weak but you can't really "fix" Vernon Wells back into CF. I have a hard time believing it's not a middle of the pack offense even without Bonds.

Then again maybe I'm putting too much stock into guys I expect to be doing better than they are, like Overbay and Scutaro.

Overbay would be a tank if he could hit for power again. He's all singles and walks at the moment.

The power will come back, it's nice to see him getting a good read on the balls now. I think he'll be back to is old self in about a month or two.

I don't think you can fix the Jays reasonably, without expecting some miracles.

They are caught in a tough predicament in that the division just doesn't play to their strenght. Their mix of veterans and youngsters can't survive in this division. Either you have young talent like the Tampa Bay Rays where the talent can be overwhelming. Or you have the resources the Yankees or RedSox have and rebuild while winning, and as witnessed by how the Yankees and RedSox have started out slow, even that is hard to do.

Their best atribute is their pitching, and especially their starting pitching. But 3 of the 4 teams in the division have good offenses, where they can score 3 or 4 runs on average againt a good pitching staff, which forces the offense to be atleast mediocre for it too work. But with injuries, ineffectiveness, and decline in production from veterans forces the offense to be much slower than what was expected.

The talent level isn't the same. What has happened to the Jays is what I call Knicked (Yeah, I made that up) where on paper you have talent, but it doesn't mix together. Its a spot where you can't really win, but win enough that you can't rebuild like the Rays or Royals would. Its the inbetween conundrum, that you need luck to beat.

I think the team will be stuck like this, unless they rebuild, or they go for a real quick fix type thing. I'm talking Tex and CC type signings, where you hope your top 5 can smack people around pitching wise, and a lineup of a healthy Rios, Tex, Wells, Hill, Rolen can be mediocre enough that you kay actually win with that pitching.

Obviously that won't happen.

Thus I say, there is no way you can fix the Jays to the extent that they can compete in the division with legitimate hopes of competing unless they rebuild. I'd trade Wells, Rios, Halladay, and pretty much anyone you can find above 26 or 27 years of age, and pull off a Billy Beane.

With the Yankees, RedSox, and even the Mets, you compliment veterans with very good young players in limited positions. Which is to say John McDonald wouldn't really play on a regular starting basis for them unless there is injuries. The number of established stars help them win consistantly.

With the A's, Rays (or atleast they used to), or Marlins, you compliment the larger amount of young talented players with veterans that maybe projects. In essence, the veterans are there to provide leadership or buy time until a more talented young player is ready. The number of talented young players developing to their projections determines how quick they become contenders. This usually means atleast a couple years where the team just sucks and tanks.

With the middle tier teams, its tricky, because there are expectations to win yet, not the quite right mix. For years, the Braves made this work, because of inferior competition and some luck, which were exposed in the playoffs when they faced better teams.

If the Jays were in another division, they could pull this off with this talent. But in this division alone, you have 2 of the 3 big spenders that balance major veterans with good youngsters, and the best example in having young talent being complimented by veterans. You are going agaist 3 teams that have done it a way where they can sustain their winning ways, in the same division.

I say you either go on a major spending spree or you rebuild if I was the GM. JP missing on a lot of talent in the draft has come back to bite you right now.

I'd look into what Furcal would cost, IMO. He'd give them that SS they need. Maybe see if they bite on Jackson and Snider?

Furcal is a FA this season I believe.

LOL.

The Blue Jays can't pull a Billy Beane. We're not the Leafs. The Leafs sell out even though the team is one of the worst in hockey. Blue Jays fans are some of the biggest bandwagoners in the world. When we were winning championships, we sold out the Skydome. But as soon as the strike hit and we became mediocre, we draw like 25k on average, and that's boosted by the 40k we get when the Yankees and Sox are in town. If JP (or whoever replaced him) blew the team up, the Skydome would be DEAD. We'd have Tampa Bay Devil Rays pre-2008 type attendance, 8-12k a game, and considering the size of Skydome, it makes those numbers look even smaller.

There's a good chance in the offseason we make a serious run at Furcal, since we'll have Burnett's 12M, Eckstein's 4.5M, and Thomas' 10M all coming off the books, which gives us wiggle room. We may not need to go after a Sabathia type pitcher if Purcey can prove himself as a major league starter in the 2nd half, but if he falls on his face we may have no choice but to go after Sabathia. Ted Rogers is a rich fuckin man, the only question is whether or not he wants to have a 110M payroll team that isn't even guaranteed to make the playoffs.

Extension.

We can start by getting better when David Purcey starts throwing strikes. It is raining in Philly tho, maybe the ball is slipping on him a bit.

re-acquire Jayson Werth

9 games out, I think its your time to make a move soon. I'd look at the Reds and Royals for deals. Can you say Adam Dunn?

We either have to make a move on Dunn or start shipping out pieces to contenders (Burnett, maybe Stairs) so we can play the young guys (Purcey, Lind).

Who would the Reds want for Dunn? I'm not gonna give Cecil, Snider, or Jackson.

Too bad it's not your team.

I guess Marcum or McGowan then, with maybe Lind thrown in? Well I guess the Reds would be interested in Arencibia. He's still a catcher for you guys right?

Yeah.....

I wouldn't trade Marcum or McGowan for Dunn straight up

I wouldn't mind trading Arenciba though

I'm gonna call in today on Wilner's show and ask JP if he's looking into getting Dunn but there's a really really good chance he says some bullshit like

"Well we're looking at some players right now, checking the market, but I think the most important thing here is for our bats to come around. Rios is better than he's shown, and we just gotta start hitting plain and simple. I think with our pitching we can really make a run and I think ultimately the bats will come around"