The trade is one of the biggest trades ever in the history of baseball. According to Buster Olney of ESPN, the Marlins will send shortstop Jose Reyes, center fielder Emilio Bonafacio, catcher John Buck and starting pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle. They will receive shortstop Yunel Escobar, catcher Jeff Mathis, pitcher Henderson Alvarez and four prospects: Jake Marisnick, Adeiny Hechavarria, Justin Nicolino and Anthony DeSclafani.
The Marlins made headway last winter when they spent a ton of money on two players who are included in this trade: Reyes and Buehrle. These two were only with the Marlins for one season! Its no news that the Marlins want to give away payroll; they traded their one-time superstar shortstop Hanley Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers mid-way through this past season. Ramirez was to play right next to Reyes on the left side of the infield for years to come. Well now both players are on two different teams on two different coasts in two different countries, so much for having a great left side of the infield. Who will make the plays in the "5.5 hole?"
The Blue Jays are taking a big chance with all their new players. What is nice for them is that they did not give up huge players of their own for the ones they received. The only two that they gave up that has great potential are Marisnick and Nicolino, who according to Baseball America, are ranked number two and five of the top prospects respectively.
I think that the Marlins last winter wanted to show that they are willing to spend the big bucks like the New York Yankees or the Dodgers. Sometimes deals don't work out the way you plan, look at the Yankees, they spent so much money on players like Javier Vazquez and Kei Igawa, and absolutely got nothing out of them. Vazquez is out of baseball who pitched in 2011 for the Marlins and Igawa is currently listed as a free agent who hasn't played in a major league game since 2008.
I think that the Blue Jays will be a better team than last year, but they need to stay healthy. If they can stay healthy, they can be a team to reckon with. They have the scary players on paper, but like I said, they need to stay healthy in order to succeed. They don't need to make the playoffs to succeed, but if they can have a winning season, the season will be considered a success. First the Blue Jays need to find a manager, since their previous manager took over Bobby Valentine's job in Boston. Wouldn't it be funny if the Jays hire ex-Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen? If they did, the Jays would pretty much look like the Marlins of 2012.
The Marlins have a long way to go in bringing a World Series home to Miami. They will need to reorganize their organization. They have to figure out whats more important, pitching or hitting. They tried both, but as we saw, it did not work. I feel that they will try to gain pitching because their stadium is a pitcher friendly place, meaning it is hard to hit home runs in that place. They will also have trouble making a profit. Now with all the stars traded away, they don't really have more than one star. They have been having trouble selling tickets in the past few years, and I see the same thing happening over and over again until they pick up a big name player, maybe Josh Hamilton?
Only time will tell, until then!
Sporty Nikki
No comments:
Post a Comment