Just a reminder...

When John Lackey signed with the Red Sox, that sweet sweet first round draft pick we got from them turned into a second round pick; number 70 overall. You kind of had to see this coming. The Sox were bound to pickup a top corner outfielder—I was hoping Bay would resign and this wouldn't be a problem—or they would beef up the starting rotation. They did the latter and got Mike Cameron as well.

The draft situation still looks good:

First Round:

#11 (their own)

Supplemental:

#33 (For Scutaro)

#38 (for failing to sign James Paxton, a 2009 sandwich rounder)

Second Round:

#52 (Their own)

#69 (for failing to sign Jake Eliopolous, a 2009 second-round pick)

#70 (For Scutaro)


Third Round:

#84 (the Jays' third-round pick)

#104 (for their failure to sign Jake Barrett, a Jays' 3rd-round pick in 2009).

Assume that Barajas is gone, and you can add another supplemental pick. That included, the Jays have 9 picks in the first 3 rounds, and 5 in the top 50ish.

And apparently we'll have the money to sign these picks...

Yay.

Red's restructure Rolen; opening for the Jays.

The Cincinnati Reds and Scott Rolen—former GBOAT—have agreed to a restructured contract. The contract is now worth $23.625MM through 2012. I haven't heard much of Rolen since his concision, but by the sounds of this, it seems like he should be healthy and good to go for the start of the season. Gotta love Rolen.

Question: Does that put Juan Francisco on the trade radar?

Juan Francisco - 21 y/o 3B prospect ranked number 5 in the Reds' system by BA. Switch hitter.



What could the Jays ship? Overbay is unfortunately out of the question; he'd be a downgrade from Joey Votto. Would the Reds be interested in some bullpen help? Think Accardo and Tallet. Tallet is at a high right now and we all know that Accardo wants out. However, how much is Tallet worth to the Jays young starting rotation. He may be worth a lot—Tallet might have to eat a lot of innings in the pen this season.

Could add Cooper, Dopirak, Arencibia, or even d'Arnaud to the package. The way I see it, both Cooper and Dopirak are blocked at first base if Wallace works out; and one of Arencibia or d'Arnaud will hopefully turn into the infamous "catcher of the future."

Since I'm talking about 3rd base, which is a definite long term hole, I should also note that all might not be lost on the farm. Kevin Ahrens had a forgettable season in Hi-A last year. Expect him to start the season in Dunedin again. Brad Emaus had a so-so season in AA last year. He has played third base and could be permanently transitioned is need me.

Anyway. This is all a results of my lingering prospect hard-on from the Halladay swap.

On Drabek and a few other tidbits...

At the beginning of last year, people were saying number two or three starter in Drabek, but 2009 was a big year for him; it was his first year back from Tommy John's. Drabek had a very good 2009: his ERA was a little up, but his K:BB ratio was a very commanding 3.5:1. I heard something today that said he strikes out something like 30% of batters that he faces. He's got great command of his fastball, but his K pitch is a hard bitting 12-6 curve. He's currently working on a change up, which would be the final piece to make him a 4-pitch starter: fastball +, curve +, slider, change up (still young so could be a 4-plus pitcher). After his season last year, people are saying that his ceiling is very high. This will be his second season back from TJ surgery, so theoretically he should have his power back. He'll be starting in AA. Baseball America (one of the top prospect people) call him the number one prospect in the system.

Also, don't forget about Zach Stewart—remember him, we got him in the Rolan deal. He's supposed to be a pretty good young arm too. He has a chance to make the team out of spring training, but he's still young, so another year in AAA wouldn't hurt. According to BA, Stewart is the number 2 pitcher in the system, and sits about 4th overall.

Another really interesting thing that I heard today concerned scouting. One of the first thing that AA did when he came to power was to almost immediately increase the number of scouts in the organization—in fact, they about doubled the number of both professional and amateur scouts in the system. Did not know that. Actually, it was also said that under JP, the Jays ceased to scout high-schoolers... go figure.

BA is set to release their annual Prospect Handbook (I'm probably going to pick up a copy). They have Drabek ranked number one and Wallace ranked number two (I think they have d'Arnaud somewhere 6-7ish, but don't quote me yet). So, for Halladay we got two prospects better than anything we had before. Guess who they have third: our boy Arencibia. He's ranked higher than d'Arnaud because he's more advanced in development than d'Arnaud.

One more thing, I also heard that Wallace has a good chance of making the team out of spring training if there's no one blocking him at first base—ahem Overbay.