How old is he again?

I still remember Dave Berg, 1B, RF, etc. I never stop loving JP's subsequent depth moves.

I agree with Chuck - this appears to have more to do with JP surveying the terrain heading into the Rule 5 draft and sensing his guy wasn't going to be available.

(I still prefer Mackowiak.)

On Rios: 24 homers in 650+ at bats. Lind had 11 in TO in 290 at bats. Rios was 297/354/498 (852) in TO - Lind was 299/353/471 (824) in AAA. A healthy Johnson platooning with Stairs in Right, Wells in CF and Lind in LF. I can live with it especially if we get a serious possible ACE.

On Lincecum, or Lineament or whatever his name is - When I watched the clip of him throwing, which was on this site yesterday, I was struck by his extremely long stride. In fact, I mentioned it to her that must be obeyed and she even looked at it - she knows when I mention something to do with baseball to her I must be especially desperate and on those occassions she usually takes pity and takes a look. INTERESTINGLY, on Blair's blog the Jays apparently think that because of his long stride he isn't putting the strain on his arm that many think. 

Just to see what it looks like:

Halladay

Burnett

Lincecum

McGowan

Marcum/Janssen/Litsch

Looks good to me!

I had a chance to watch Coats for two seasons when he was in Lansing with the Cubs organization.  I love the kid, he is a great pick up.  He has a slight build, and has a really nice swing from the left side.  He is a good gap to gap guy.  He isn't going to put up big power numbers, but he will be a .290 to .300 hitter.

The Cubs tried some different things with Coats as far as his defense goes.  He has never projected to be a big power guy, so they experimented him playing short stop for awhile and that was a defensive disaster as he made over 50 errors in that position in Lansing and his defense there really never got any better.  He was moved back to the outfield out of necessisty, where his defense isn't bad, but isn't exactly the strong point of his game.

Jays are close on a one-year deal with Lo Duca.

http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/wm/archives/2007/12/mets_armed_afte.html

I'm assuming if the Jays deal Rios they will go after a short term free agent OF, such as a Milton Bradley type player.

Even though Rios is by far my fav position player Blue Jay I want this trade to go through b/c our pitching staff would instantly be one of the better in baseball, if not the best.

With Doc, McGowan, Lincecum, Marcum, AJ in the rot and Litch being our long man / 6th starter we have a STAFF, a pen with Casey, Jeremy and BJ at the back end of it is not the worst, and with our IF defense we will be okay. We obviously need Vernon and Overbay to give us some of their 2005 numbers and we need our offense to score at least a couple runs per game on the road, the last two seasons we have had our struggles on the road.

These last couple days have definitely gotten my attention.

Also, I like the LaDuca signing, Zaun is a solid catcher but in my opinion he is better suited to split time.

Agree signing LoDuca would be smart, our prospects can wait...or at least prove themselves before being given a full time spot. If not through injuries, then in september.

Also, would hate to see Rios go, and its not just his bat. I think we would miss his other tools the most. His bat could be replaced, Lind could put up close to the same numbers, but Rios has speed on the bases, turn doubles into triples, and can easily score from second base. He Defense would be incredibly hard to replace in right feild. He has a great arm, and in my opinon is the prototypical right feilder you need to have a competitive team.

       Has any body seen Paul Godfrey ? He said he wasn't going to Nashville but someone commented that he really enjoys the intrigue of Winter Meetings... so why isn't he there ? ...Is he still in Canada?...

       In other possibly related news via ... http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/12/kosuke-fukudo-1.html ...which quotes Will Carroll in an update today at 5:09PM : ... "In a Baseball Prospectus chat today, Will Carroll said "Fukudome will decide today. Someone made a big offer." By that, Carroll means Fukudome will sign today."

       So, ... IF... Rios is traded wouldn't the Jays be saving $12M and wouldn't they be in need of someone who can play all three OF positions and hits somehere between Ichiro and Matsui and wouldn't JP have a smile on his face outbidding the Cubs and the Royals ... not that JP is that kind of a guy ... Oh !  Well maybe ?

McCleod paints a more optomistic spin on signing Lo Duca. He also goes into great detail to say that SF still hasn't decided.

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071205.baseball06/GSStory/GlobeSportsBaseball/home

A bit off topic but from this quote I now certainly realize where so many Yankee fans get their arrogance from.  It starts from the top.....

“We have a lot of good young pitching in the minors — better than anybody, I guarantee you,” Steinbrenner said. “We’ve got the best young pitching in the majors and in the minors. It’s not even close. It’s pretty obvious, and we’re not the only ones who think so.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/sports/baseball/06yankees.html?ref=sports

Actually I would rather have Boston's young pitchers and quite frankly after Hughes and Chamberlain (both in the majors)they don't have the best pitchers in the minors - or am I wrong?  Also, it's interesting Hank doesn't brag about their up and coming hitters, probably b/c they don't have many.

The latest news re: Lincecum and Rios from http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071205&content_id=2319216&vkey=hotstove2007&fext=.jsp

"Having talked with J.P. Ricciardi on Wednesday, Sabean said that he probably won't negotiate further with his Blue Jays counterpart before the Winter Meetings conclude. This leaves the Giants free to continue their debate, which Sabean said will be made in concert with his baseball operations staff."

"It's still alive," Sabean said on Wednesday of the potential deal.

But without naming Lincecum, Sabean acknowledged that the Giants are still examining the merits of trading a 23-year-old with Cy Young Award-winning talent for a 26-year-old who's already a two-time All-Star. The Giants would love to maintain their starting rotation as is, but after finishing last in the National League West and ranking close to or at the bottom of most major offensive categories, they realize that they might have to take drastic measures to upgrade their offense.

"It's unique because of the principals involved," Sabean said. "That's what's compelling about it."

I don't understand why more teams aren't "breaking the draft".

Teams will spend $2.5M on a Paul LoDuca who put up a sub .700 ops to be a backup catcher but they won't spend that on a sandwich or second round pick or even a 39th round pick who slides because of signability concerns?  I just don't get it.

Why would you rather spend $10M on guys who are the 20th to 25th guy on most teams but not on prospects who could be legit impact players down the road?  Until MLB installs proper slotting restrictions, it makes absolutely ZERO sense not to break slot if the talented player is worth it.

It's doing exactly the same thing as overpaying for the best talent on the free agent market only on a much smaller scale.  The Jays don't mind spending $80M to $90M+ to finish third but they won't break slot on prospects who are worth it?  Meanwhile the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and Tigers are loading up their minor league systems as well as their major league rosters.

I don't understand how it can be justified to spend so little on the draft.  I'll say again...Paul LoDuca...at least $2.5M for a completely unspectacular backup catcher.  Joba Chamberlain...41st pick in the draft...but it's only a $1.1M signing bonus.  Yes it breaks slot, but who would you rather break slot for?  The prospect who can be a star or the major leaguer who will give you replacement level performance for far more money?

If enough teams, including the mid-to-small markets start decreasing their expenditures on low-level veterans and start increasing their expenditures on the draft, both MLB and the Player's Association will begin to seriously consider hard slot restrictions which would put an end to all of this nonsense.  A draft should be a draft...players go to the teams of greatest need.

As reported above - SF is going to have a group think about the Rios / Lincecum quandry. I think the GM is going to be on the "lets do this" side of the discussion. I think it gets done.

On LoDoca, against lefties he hit : 341/376/500 (876) with 4 of his 9 homers in just 126 abs. Against lefties, Zaun hit: 290/391/406 (797)  - Against righties LoD hit: 245/285/329 (614) and Zaun hit: 229/327/412 (759) While they both hit better against Lefties - LoDoca hit for more power against lefties and Zaun hits with more power against righties. Looks like a fit(ish).

Johnson/Stairs, Hill, Wells, Thomas, Glaus, Overbay, Zaun/LoDoca, Lind and JMac ----- for this to work Thomas and Glaus have to have at least one good year left, Wells and Overbay have to be healed and Hill and Lind both have to be ready. Chances of all that happening? 40%(ish) I would think. With a starting pitching staff of: Halladay, Burnett, Lincecum, McGowan and Marcum and a bullpen of: Ryan, Accardo, Janssen, Wolfe (a VERY underrated guy), League, Downs and Tallet, I think we'll be a contender.

I'm not sure if this has been raised, but if Rios does indeed get traded, should the Jays make a play on Geoff Jenkins (RF)? I have no idea how good his defense is in RF, but he's a lefty bat who hits .800+ OPS on a regular basis. He's would be great as a platoon player because he crushes RHP. The only thing that worries me is his K rate, although that's greatly mitigated in a Jenkins/Johnson platoon. His career stats vs RHP is .288/.358/.883 with a 23.3% K rate.

Another guy that I would look at is Luke Scott (RF) who is basically squeezed out of a spot thanks to Ed Wade. He too hits RHP very well. Like Jenkins, I have no idea how good his defense is, but he's a lefty bat. His splits aren't as dramatic, but he's just as capable in hitting RHP. His career stats vs RHP is .276/.364/.898 with a 22.5% K rate.

Wilner also suggested a look at Jeff Keppinger (SS/2B/3B) of the Reds who has seen his role diminished, but has statistically hit well and is almost impossible to strikeout (a 6% career K rate). He'll take a walk, lay down a bunt, but doesn't have much pop.

I'm not sure if this has been raised, but if Rios does indeed get traded, should the Jays make a play on Geoff Jenkins (RF)? I have no idea how good his defense is in RF, but he's a lefty bat who hits .800+ OPS on a regular basis.

I think you mean OPS, not OPS+.  He's posted an 800 OPS exactly once in the past four years. In the past six years, he's exceeded an OPS+ of 103 only twice (an OPS+ of 103 is below average for a corner outfielder).

And he's 33-years old and will turn 34 mid-next season. And he's looking to make $10M a year. Not good value for the money.

In fairness, it's only been a couple of days, and I'd be crippled by indecision too. That is a big, big move - trading a young, potential franchise cornerstone pitcher is something that would be tough for any GM, nevermind one that made the infamous AJ Pierzynski move discussed earlier. I hope the Jays get Lincecum, but if I were Sabean I would not do it. I think Rios production is much easier to find in the FA market than the potential of Lincecum.

I think you mean OPS, not OPS+.  He's posted an 800 OPS exactly once in the past four years. In the past six years, he's exceeded an OPS+ of 103 only twice (an OPS+ of 103 is below average for a corner outfielder).

To be fair, Chuck, he didn't say OPS+,  he said .800+ OPS.  Also, he may have been referring to his OPS in a platoon role.  His three-year OPS versus righties is a very healthy .869. 

Lofton knows how to get on base, Pods, (for the most part) doesn't.   Lofton's career OBP is .372, versus .338 for Pods,.

JP has done well over the years building up the quality of players on the big league club.

That is truly one of the most remarkable statements I've read lately on the internet.