Ricciardi On Burnett, Manny, Shortstop

I hope by Scutaro he means a Scutaro-McDonald platoon.

ok, maybe it is...

Not that the deal would ever happen, but if it DID, Pie would not play CF, Rios would.
He would be flanked by Soriano and... I'll say Snider, with Lind as DH.

Nobody wants Soriano at that price; you basically just wish he could play CF effectively. If someone wants Vernon, then great; but it would never happen for a player restricted to LF when we have enough guys to play that position. And nobody wants Felix Pie, not the Cubs or anyone else...

why do the Cubs have 3 players for 1 Jays player? Doesnt sound right.. Can somebody tell me why?

soriano has a FNTC correct. and IF he does why would he want to go from a first place to team to a team with the rays, yankees and red sox in it.

I am not a Jays fan, but I have to say that if they were in any other division they would probably be a move or two away from being a legit contendor. Unfortunately not only are they are in the same division as the Yanks and Sox, but now the Rays clearly could be contendors for the next few years, leaving the Jays to battle it out with the Orioles for last place.

I generally like Riccardi, but I am not really sure what they can do.

''Vernon Wells
for
Alfonso Soriano
Felix Pie
Ronny Cedeno''

NO no no no no !!!!!!!!
Not going to happen don't why you even brought this up. Still not the dumbest trade I have ever heard.
Soriano
Marmol
Samardzija
Lee
for
Beltran
Church
Pelfrey
That was the dumbest thing I have ever read on here

Damn I'm glad my Soriano for Wells idea has caught on. Then again its not that hard to think of the like four guys that could possibly be traded for Soriano.

I think what people need to realize about Soriano is that the player he's been the past couple years isn't the player he's going to be for the next 6. He's a guy that really depends on his raw skills to exceed, and once they begin to diminish, that contract is going to be a joke. Soriano will be 37 by the end of the contract, and just a shell of the player he once was. If Soriano declines as a hitter, then he'll be completely and utterly worthless.

Wells on the other hand will be just 34 when his contract runs up. He's also an extremely good defensive player in center, so even if his bat declines, he'll still hold value.

In my opinion as a Cubs fan, I think that Wells for Soriano/Pie/Cedeno would be a brilliant move by Hendry. Pie will never be a major contributor on the Cubs, and I consider the difference between the long term value of Soriano and Wells to be fairly large.

''Vernon Wells
for
Alfonso Soriano
Felix Pie
Ronny Cedeno''

I think the reason the Jays wouldnt do this is because they really don't need to. They dont have a need for Pie considering they have Rios Wells (or soriano if this trade did somehow happen) and snider and lind. And the replacement value of cedeno over a mcdonald-scutaro platoon is certainly not worth giving up wells for soriano. I guess it might be fair in terms of salaries and skill but there isnt a need for the Jays to pull the trigger on that one.

"Ricciardi said.. "really need to be knocked over". i hope someone in the organization saw this and knocks him on his ass! even forget the Scutaro comment, knock him on his ass anyway, maybe it can knock some sence in his head.

Scutaro is backup middle infielder PERIOD. there are multiple free agent SS available this winter, and the Jays should be in there biding on them. i know this past season Orlando Cabrera OPS of .705 wasnt much better than Scutaro at .697 but Cabrera wasnt very good batting 2nd for Chicago this season (.234/.305/.305/.610) compared to batting leadoff (.293/.341/.386/.728).

Scutaro is someone better used off the bench to fill in at multiple positions, especially since the Jays still have injury prone Scott Rolen at 3B.

the Jays will likely have interest in Furcal, but id rather even take a shot at Felipe Lopez than make Scutaro the full time SS."

Signing a free agent shortstop would be stupid. Paying Orlando Cabrera 9 mil to be a hair better than Scutaro, or signing Furcal for 10-12 mil to get who knows what is not wise. Keep that money for pitching or a big bat. I'd rather see them move Hill to short and platoon Inglett and Scutaro at 2nd before they signed a SS off the free agent market.

Also, I realize Wells isn't getting paid much salary right now b/c his contract is so backloaded, but we still have to pay the signing bonus which is likely averaged out in yearly installment, thus my argument.

"these $100m deals they seem to become disaster or albatross or a couple years of bliss followed by an inflexible situation"

I don't about that... There have been 17 contracts awarded costing 100M or more, 2 of them to Arod. Of them 7 it's too soon to say if they're successes or failures (Though Soriano's contract will likely hit diminishing returns faster than others and Wells as I said could still be a potential key piece)... what's leftover, Pujols, Manny, and Arod can easily be the ones most argued are successes (maybe Jeter as well, depending on what you're arguing). While Hampton and Zito (maybe Brown, Griffey, and Giambi [Giambi more because the yanks never won a ring with him] as well) are the only ones that can be argued as absolute failures... Everything else is up for argument.

So honestly I'd say a 100M deal isn't always a problem... just it isn't always the answer either.

Vernon is declining defensively, but watching him he still displays some gold glove tendencies and at times still looks extremely good in centre so I'd say he's still above average.

The Jays won't move Vernon this soon into his contract even if Rios is better in CF. The earliest Rios patrols CF for us is in 2012, either if Wells stays or opts-out, which I expect. If Hunter can get 5/90 at age 32, Wells can as well, since he is a moderately better offensive contributor (and teams will pay more for his gold gloves of the past than whatever his current defensive skills will be). I'd suggest that Vernon goes for 5/90 or more over the 3/63 he'd earn from '12-'14, assuming he has a healthy 2011.