A few weeks ago, Jack Zduriencik turned down an offer of Edwin Jackson for Morrow + change.
Saying that he didn't want to give up that magnitude of talent, considering Jackson's service time. (He was willing to give up lesser talent than Morrow's, that is Aumont's and Ramirez', for a pitcher with only 1 year's service time.)
I think it's safe to say that the Jays deal is not explained by the idea that baseball doesn't know about Brandon Morrow. And safe to say that Zduriencik plans to get very high return, on-field, from this trade.
Not publishing the gospel. Just remindin' about the Jackson deal.
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=== Arencibia and Jose Lopez ===
Roto Champ judges Arencibia to be a Lopez-type template as a hitter. That's an interesting angle on it.
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Supposing that two years on, you found out that Arencibia WAS going to hit about like Lopez, and that he was about as good a defender as Johnson and Moore are...
Here you would have a 3-to-make-1 situation with young C's, and Zduriencik expanding the base of his talent pyramid as he has done consistently since he got here.
Sandy and others pointed out about the AAA club. Zduriencik pays close attention not just to "this year," but to the breadth of the talent pyramid in general.
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=== RotoDweeb Corner ===
also to be considered, a Golden Principle of roto as y'probly know... never give up the best player in the deal...
It's axiomatic that you want to trade a $1 player and throw in a quarter for a $1.25 ballplayer, as we'd have done in the Edwin Jackson deal... the $0.25 players are extremely fungible.
It's every organization's job to fight this drift towards redundant ballplayers. Cliff Lee is not redundant with anybody. You don't have eight Opening Day starters. Brandon Morrow is not a redundant talent; he's a first-5 draft pick. Edwin Jackson is not redundant. You don't want to trade a non-redundant, special-talent player for two mediocre ballplayers who duplicate their skill sets...
Trading a $1 Morrow for a $0.75 reliever and hey, we get a quarter back, in Arencibia, is not the way roto champs play, nay verily... that is what they do to the newbies...
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Point being, if Capt Jack had the opportunity to get Edwin Jackson, it does make even the Devil's Advocate Jemanji hard-pressed, if a guy like Arencibia is the prospect ... so I assume that Zduriencik likes his return VERY well...
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I don't like Arencibia any more than you amigos do, although do allow for the light bulbs Z has on that we have off.