Team	R	H	2B	HR	BB	SO
Toronto	1.08	1.06	1.10	1.22	0.98	1.04
LA (N)	0.90	0.94	0.86	1.12	0.90	1.06

It wasnt inexplicable. It was wholly based on the fact that he's named Spike. I mean. C'mon. Spike!

I guess this covers almost all the insurance positions. Who is the second Syracuse catcher? Apart from that, we have:

Ack! With all due respect John, if he sees any time at 1B or DH on a team with so many 1B/3B/DH types, then something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

Like others, I can't see the team carrying 3 catchers. The calculus becomes problematic when you have 4 third basemen and want to also carry 7 relievers. Perhaps JP's next move should be to petition Selig to allow a 28-man roster. Or 29, just in case the team wants to make room for Roy Howell or Danny Ainge.

Phillips hit well as an old (26) rookie, but the league appears to have figured him out. Still, the Jays needed a catcher, preferably a RH one, so Phillips helps. In agreeing to the minor league deal, his agent must have impressed upon him the potential that exists when a team's starting catcher is 35 and when the team's back-up has suffered two collapsed lungs.

I can't comment on Phillips' defensive ability, but its axiomatic that the less you hit, the better you field. I'm sure his defensive rep has improved greatly as his OPS has tumbled from the 800's to 600's.

I have been impressed with the Red Sox' moves during the off-season, but their choice of Huckaby and Flaherty as backup catchers is mystifying, and the Jays' signing of Phillips makes these decisions stand out in bold relief.

I agree, Mike, that the Red Sox are going out of their way to sign crappy catchers with knuckleball experience, but isn't Kelly Shoppach still around? Doesn't he figure to be the front runner for Mirabelli's old job? At which point Huckaby and Flaherty reboard the crappy backup-catcher carrousel (not to be confused with the crappy situational lefty reliever carrousel).

Cool.

And perhaps they signed Flaherty to tell Huckaby where he can find Jeter away from the field should Huck not be able to accomplish the nasty deed on the field.

And suddenly, the big picture emerges.

Last year's gold is this year's coal, eh?

I think getting rid of Koskie and letting Glaus play third is a mistake, but what else is new.

I believe the Jays are seeking an options exemption on Rosario not Quiroz.

Anyway, in this state of perpetual despair, I normally refrain from commenting on the subject. Experience has taught me what usually results from collisions between my head and the brick wall. But if you insist, I'll make an exception.

Hmmm...hmmmm..... well, you might have been better off using "had" instead of "have," if you're looking for some big-time nitpicking. It's close enough for government work.

There. You're welcome. We done?

Craig Wilson is up for grabs, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The article says the Pirates don't want to pay a bench player $4 million per year -- so it looks like Hinske wouldn't ever be headed to Pittsburgh in any trade.

Sir, I resemble that remark! I even minored in Philosophy mostly to learn how to cope with the fact that there were no jobs for English majors.

Ain't that the truth; I have an English degree and work at an electronic store. Didn't see that one coming.

If J.P. is going to focus on anyone for the OF, I would prefer he target somebody like Jason Kubel. Returning Koskie to the Twins seems like the most viable course of action, and should the Jays pick up a portion of the contract they would hopefully have the leverage to ask for Kubel in return.

Thank god that the Jays players don't have to be marked on their spelling, grammar & punctuation if they want to make the team. I would assume that many ballplayers like S.Sosa, Canseco & Delgado would never have reached the Majors. I keep expecting my posts to be sent back to me with a big red "D-" at the bottom. Am I being alittle paranoid?

D-

No, not paranoid at all...

While it might be interesting to listen to Mr. Ricciardi, what makes you think he'll divulge the ACTUAL plans? If he's in trade talks with anyone, or shopping this guy or that, or targeting this guy or that, he's not going to go public with that. It's one thing to formally announce that offers have been made to FA's (as he did with Burnett and Ryan), but quite another to discuss trade talks.

Perhaps he'll shed some light on the Hinske-to-the-outfield rumours, but even those might be nothing more than a way to make Hinske seem versatile for the purposes of moving him.

I think the best way to find out what's really going on is to have Magpie chase down the assistant GM's with vermouth or peach schnapps or whatever it is that might get them to spill.

I wouldn't consider left field to be a weakness - at worst, the Sparky/Cat platoon figures to be about average. Sure, you could improve on it, but it wasn't a dire need. Rios, maybe, but that has less to do with last year than it does to do with what you, or the Jays, think he can do this year.

Consider, too, that the Jays will be getting more power from centre field than probably anyone in the league. They also figure to have probably the 2nd-best hitting third baseman in the league.

That said, though, I'm not crazy about having Hinske and Catalanotto in the outfield at the same time. Vernon's good, but he's not that good.

Year    GP    AB
2005    130   419
2004     75   249
2003    133   489
2002     68   212

That said, the Braves went into last season with Raul Mondesi and Brian Jordan in the corners, and they did all right. Not that the Jays have a Jeff Francouer waiting in the wings (though Adam Lind may be ready to play that part in 2007), but the point is that the team you start the year with is rarely the team you finish with. The Jays will probably have the resources, in terms of both payroll and prospects, to swing a deal mid-season for a corner bat if they really need one. So a Hinske-Catalanotto combo in the corners on Opening Day should not be considered a fatal flaw.

In all likelihood, this response to Newton demonstrates precisely the complacency that he is talking about. While I would agree that Wells and Glaus represent positive expectations relative to their respective positions, this fact has nothing whatsoever to do with the outfield corners. If having a positive at one position causes you to accept a negative at another, then it seems as though the goal is to be average. Now that is complacency.

Rios v2005 playing rightfield is a problem, irrespective of whether the centrefielder is Jim Edmonds or Tony Womack.

I should note, however, that I do not believe that a Catalanotto/Johnson platoon is really that much of a problem. Johnson has the grit, determination, etc.; Catalanotto is our classic underrated Bill Mueller/Matt Stairs underrated type - all Championship teams have at least one of each.

It's not complacency exactly. It's that I happen to like the corner OFs we have at the moment. Obviously if you have the opportunity to upgrade without hurting yourself too much in other areas (ie dollars, future, roster size, etc) you do it. But I dont consider Rios or Catalanatto or Johnson to be a negative.

If a deal came along that allowed the Jays to make room for another OF on the roster and push Rios to 4th OF I would certainly welcome that. I just dont want to see him tossed out with the trash because he hasnt produced yet and dagnabit we're trying to win this year. He was rushed to the majors before he was ready because of injuries and now we're stuck with him. I dont know how much better he can be, maybe he wont ever get any better, but I would rather take that risk than see him thrown away.

Actually, he'll be 25 in February.

I dont understand the hate on Rios.

I don't think it's a hate, just frustration. The Jays are going to need a lot of things to break their way to challenge for a playoff spot. Having a corner outfielder with a 700 OPS, should Rios not improve, will severely curtail those aspirations.

Rios will likely improve, the question is how much? A 750 OPS? an 800 OPS? Of course, there's the chance that he'll do an Alex Gonzalez and never improve at all.

Yes, but they also had more elite players. The Jays don't have a huge collection of top shelf players, so they are in less of a position to carry weak performers.

If he hits .280 and has 15 jacks then he is worthwhile in this lineup as long as everyone else performs as expected.

What does that mean? He almost put up those numbers last year but barely cleared a 700 OPS. It's not everyone else's job to carry Rios.

We all assume he will hit around .275-.280 but what if he turns Benito Santiago - circa Jays - on us?

Your concerns about a 35-year old catcher are well founded, but I disagree with your claims. Zaun is a career .250 hitter. I can't imagine that anyone is expecting him to hit between .275 and .280. But he has a terrific batting eye and can draw enough walks so that his OBP is 100 points higher than his AVG.

His profile as a hitter is totally different from Santiago's, who was a wild swinger with some power.

As for aging, Zaun's advantage over Santiago is simple: he doesn't have as long a history of catching. He has been a catcher his whole career, but has been a backup and has not seen his body wear down from first-string use.