Jays acquire Reyes, Johnson, Buehrle, Bonifacio and Buck for Escobar, Alvarez, Hechavarria, Marisnick, Nicolino, DeSclafani and Mathis.
| Approve |  205 (82.00%) |
| Do not approve | 4 (1.60%) |
| Meh | 9 (3.60%) |
| Let's move the Marlins to Montreal already | 32 (12.80%) |
I am very pleased that my $100+ Rogers cable bill is finally going towards making my summer viewing of SportsNet more worthwhile.
Well it isn't. It's going to Rogers Cable, which is a much much much larger and completely different division of Rogers Communications. Rogers Media owns the Blue Jays and accounts for about 0.4% of the operating profit of Rogers Communications.
This may only be a great trade if the Jays can acquire players who are ready for a commitment to this organization. So I'd say it looks like not a great trade... yet.
It seems to me that the standards for a good baseball trade are very high round these parts. Fair enough, but if the asking price at the trade dealine was the Jays three top prospects, then losing only 3 of our top 15 in Hech, NIcolino and Marsinick represents some seriously discounted value. Sure we lost three months of him during the season, but I would have been okay with Nech, Nicolino and Marsinick straight up to kickstart the offseason. That to me is not a great baseball trade, but a decent one.
Buck + cash for Mathis seems essentially irrelevant to me, meaning we then get Reyes AND Buehrle AND Bonifacia for Escobar and DeSclafani? This is what makes it a very good baseball trade in my books.
Not to mention that Toronto just became a much more attractive destination for FAs and our next coach. If this stops Oliver from retiring, or lures Melky in for one year to play left, that has to add to the value of this trade. An extension or supplemental draft pick for Johnson are also both attractive.
DJF has Bill James 2013 predictions up (along with their comments), and if this is roughly we get out of our new guys, this trade's a homerun and we play meaningful baseball in September for the first time since 1993.
The Newly Acquired
Jose Reyes: 39 SB, .295/.352/.434 (.339 wOBA). An ever-so-sleight improvement on his 4.5 win “down year” in 2012, but not quite the guy he used to be. I still completely love this trade, though.
Emilio Bonifacio: 45 SB, .275/.336/.350. (.304 wOBA). Closer to his injury-riddled 2012 that his three win 2011, but splitting the difference nicely enough.
John Buck: .219/.298/.384 (.292 wOBA). This would be an improvement on last year. No, really. And James even has Buck hitting a pair of additional mistakes into the seats, bringing his HR total to 14… assuming he actually played a full year (which would be insane, at this point).
Josh Johnson: 3.21 ERA, 3.08 FIP, 196 IP. Not so much the absolutely dominant guy we saw in 2010 (and 2011 when healthy), but very close to his 5.6 win 2009, and I will take the living fuck out of that every day of the week.
Mark Buehrle: 3.78 ERA, 4.10 FIP, 205 IP.
So, my spend on Rogers Cable, plus the stickiness of my eyeballs to the advertisements on the Rogers SportsNet suite of channels (Rogers Media), directly contributes to Rogers Communications Inc. bottom line.
Likewise, the hefty contracts of Reyes, Buehrle and Johnson will hit Rogers Media's budget, but that is folded up into Rogers Communications Inc.'s P&L.
That's how it works, folks. As well, "Rogers Media" is *not* listed on the NYSE and TSX, but Rogers Communications Inc. is.
For those worried that this deal meant they woudl spend no more money... they just signed Melky Cabrera and rumour has it they are still lookign for another starting pitcher.
Wow.
But generally speaking, Rogers is a Cable and Wireless company, and the operations of Media division are almost immaterial. But I appreciate your comments were in jest. If only the state of cable tv service in this country were not such a joke.