Can The Blue Jays Re-Sign Scutaro & Barajas?

Translation: we can sign McDonald for peanuts to put up great defense all year and put the money for Barajas and Scutaro towards Chapman as they get Type A compensation for Scutaro and let Barajas walk.

Here's the thing about Scutaro, how many suitors will he really have if he's on the open market? He just had a career year at age 33, not exactly unheard of, but it does raise the question about whether or not it's a fluke. But add in it will cost any suitor their first or second round pick then you have a bit of a red flag for someone who isn't seen as a major addition like Lackey, Holliday, or Bay. So question for the Jays, if Scutaro isn't in next years plans do you offer arbitration and risk him being worried about the market?

Agreed scribbletone, I also see the Orioles as the surprise team this year.

I think the best thing for the Bluejays is to trade Roy Halladay. He wants to win and thats not happening anytime soon in Toronto, So lets hope AA can make a good trade and speed up the rebuilding process.

The Jays should let Barajas walk (it would be the first time this season he did take a walk) and not offer him arbitration. He had a .258 OBP, that is a lot of outs. They could get better offense out of a minor league player.

John McDonald is not good. A .271 OBP and .655 OPS is atrocious. I appreciate he is a very good fielder but he is an automatic out at the plate. Let him walk too.

Scutaro however should be offered arbitration. They don't have anyone to replace him and even if he doesn't hit as well as in 2009 his defense is solid and his average line of .265/.337/.384/.721 isn't horrible for a shortstop. And it would only be for one year if he accepts. If he doesn't accept they get the pics.

The Orioles are going to be good next year, around .500. 2011 is the time the big guys in the East should look out.

"Although to be honest, they're in the worst position of any team in that division. A lineup that includes Roberts, Jones, Markakis, Snyder, Reimold, Wieters, Bell and Pie, and a rotation headed by Matusz, Tillman, Bergesen, Arrieta, and Erbe will make for one potentially great team."

Pure subjectivity. The same can be said for the Jays, if you ignore idiotic Baseball America labels and recognize that the Jays keep producing SP talent in spite of what BA thinks about them (Marcum, Litsch, Romero, Rzepczysnki...)

A lineup that includes Hill, Lind, Snider, Cooper, Arencibia (the latter 2 since we're just assuming upper level prospects pan out), Encarnacion, Wells and a rotation headed by Marcum, Romero, Cecil, McGowan, Rzepczysnki, and Litsch, along with the prospects hauled in a Halladay deal will make for one potentially great team.

The Jays may be in a better position than the Orioles after they trade Roy Halladay. Add three or four very good to decent prospects, and they will be fine.

Keys will be whether or not Marcum and/or McGowan can ever come back to the level they were at previously.

"Toronto can match with Baltimore in young position player talent?"

Absolutely, because none of Reimold, Snyder, or Bell have superstar potential, you are way overrating their ceilings. Cooper, Arencibia, and Encarnacion can easily provide the same WAR value over the next few years, since you love WAR. I'm ignoring Pie for obvious reasons.

"The Jays just don't have pitching prospects like Tillman and Matusz"

This reallly irks me. How many starting pitchers do the Jays need to produce before people will start respecting their scouting staff more than a couple of BA guys who infrequently see these kids? On this very site 2-3 years ago all I heard was how good Hughes-Chamberlain-Kennedy. NONE of them has shown the ability to be a MLB starter. You know who has, over that time frame? Jesse Litsch, Shaun Marcum, Mark Rzepczynski, Ricky Romero, Scott Richmond...I guess the Jays will just keep churning out the pitching depth (Dustin McGowan, Brett Cecil, Robert Ray, Brad Mills, Zach Stewart...) while you keep fawning over BA prospect reports.

I also like how you conveniently ignored the Halladay factor - either he stays and is way better than Matusz/Tillman can ever hope of being, or he's traded and brings back a decent prospect haul that likely includes a pitcher as good as those two and a position prospect as good as Bell.

"This reallly irks me. How many starting pitchers do the Jays need to produce before people will start respecting their scouting staff more than a couple of BA guys who infrequently see these kids? On this very site 2-3 years ago all I heard was how good Hughes-Chamberlain-Kennedy. NONE of them has shown the ability to be a MLB starter. You know who has, over that time frame? Jesse Litsch, Shaun Marcum, Mark Rzepczynski, Ricky Romero, Scott Richmond...I guess the Jays will just keep churning out the pitching depth (Dustin McGowan, Brett Cecil, Robert Ray, Brad Mills, Zach Stewart...) while you keep fawning over BA prospect reports.

I also like how you conveniently ignored the Halladay factor - either he stays and is way better than Matusz/Tillman can ever hope of being, or he's traded and brings back a decent prospect haul that likely includes a pitcher as good as those two and a position prospect as good as Bell."

The Jays wouldn't get a Matusz/Tillman-type prospect for one year of Halladay.

And while guys like Romero, Cecil, and Rzepzcynski are quite good, none of them has the ace potential that Matusz and Tillman possess, that was my only point.

"Absolutely, because none of Reimold, Snyder, or Bell have superstar potential, you are way overrating their ceilings. Cooper, Arencibia, and Encarnacion can easily provide the same WAR value over the next few years, since you love WAR. I'm ignoring Pie for obvious reasons."

Encarnacion has one year of team control left, Arencibia has major plate discipline issues, and Cooper doesn't project to have near the power of Bell, and Bell projects to be pretty solid at third base.

I don't really love WAR, the big dependence on small UZR sample sizes kinda ruins the statistic on a certain level.