From: kirsch@epx.cis.umn.edu (Dave Kirsch)
Subject: Re: DAVID CONE TO BLUE JAYS
Organization: Paul Spoljaric mean-and-nasty club
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 18:46:20 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.181615.1027@sni.ca> dave@silver.sni.ca (Dave 'Skydome
Streaker' Till) writes:
>
>Kent is actually a natural second baseman; he was moved
>to third to fill in when Gruber got hurt and hurt and hurt and hurt.

  Exactly. Like Bret Barbarie of the Expos, I believe Kent is much better
suited to second base. He'll also do more good for his team there,
considering his hitting ability. Both of these guys seem to have good lateral
range, but not quite the quick instincts required at 3B. Unfortunately,
they're stuck behind Alomar (Kent WAS) and DeShields, so barring a trade 
they'd have no chance of playing 2B for a decade or so. 

>This is a great trade for the Jays.  Kent wasn't in their long range plans,
>since Alomar is their second baseman and Howard Battle, a 3B prospect,
>is doing well in the Florida State League.  The player to be named later
>is likely to be a minor league player (rumoured to be Ryan Thompson);
>even if Sprague is the one to go, the Jays won't be hurt too badly, because
>they have Borders and Delgado as well.

  Just got back from visiting the folks, and couldn't believe what I heard on
the radio coming home from one of my little brother's ballgames. Tom and
Jerry cut to a commercial for some kind of ointment, and they've got *Carlos 
Delgado* promoting the stuff!!! A Class 'A' catcher already peddling stuff
for the big club .. I wonder if he's in their long-range plans? :-) 

  Ob. woof for my little brother; his team got two games from the championship
in the Ontario playdowns. They lost 10-9 to a very good team from North York 
with a 3B that hit like Delgado. Between watching the Jays and my little
brother's team (about a zillion close games) for about a week and a half, I 
don't know if my blood pressure/heart can take much more.  
 
  The PTBNL was indeed Thompson, and I'm sure Greg Spira's just elated to
find this out. He's 24, and hasn't done much until this year. He's a good
athlete, doesn't walk much and his power has only come around this year (HR
power, that is). The only reason I really care about him is that I met him a
few years ago at the Jays' Spring Training camp and he seemed like a real
nice, dedicated kid. If he can play a good CF, he may amount to something for
a few years, but he's not going to be a star. The odds are against him, but
I'm rooting for him. 

>The Jays have more prospects than they can put on their protected list,
>so trading a couple of them away won't hurt.  If they can't sign Cone,
>they'll get a high draft pick for him, which allows them to re-build their
>farm system.

  Make that *two* high draft picks, unless something changes. They'll get a
first round sandwich pick and another first or second round pick, depending
on who signs Cone (if the Jays don't sign him, of course). 

>I must confess to being a happy camper right now.

  Me too. 

>[BTW:  has anybody else noticed that the Jays and Oakland have more
>free agents now than any other teams do?  Is this a coincidence, or
>have they realized that they can wait until after the expansion draft to
>re-sign their stars, and thus not have to protect them?  I've always
>believed that Pat Gillick was smarter than anyone else out there, and
>I wouldn't put this bit of reasoning past him.]

  Was just talking to the Huckmeister about this today. I don't think it's
any accident that the Jays and A's have droves of free agents. Gillick and
Alderson are, IMHO, the two most intelligent and/or sensible GMs out there. 
They still make stupid moves from time to time, but overall they've both done
wonderful things for their respective teams. By the time the expansion draft
rolls around, the A's and Jays should have plenty of flexibility when it 
comes to decision making. The A's might wind up like Montreal did a couple
years ago, with about a dozen picks in the first two rounds of the draft. 
IMHO, Alderson's decided to make his last big push this year, and next year
they're going to have to concentrate *hard* on restocking the farm system. 

  P.S. One last thing .. those who read the McWeekly should check out the
last issue in the 'letters' section. It seems Noel Steere finally got his mom
to write a letter for him and it got published (they wouldn't accept his
letters before becase they were written in crayon with lots of spelling
mistakes and backwards letters). 

-- 
Dave Hung Like a Jim Acker Slider Kirsch            kirsch@epx.cis.umn.edu 
"Blue Jays - break my heart again in '92"    Roberto Hernandez throws peas  
"I believe virtually everything I read, and I think that is what makes me
   MORE of a selective human" - Joe Average, baseball fan and media puppet
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