I agree with half of that. I'm not all that interested in Mench, but I'm not nearly as confident that Gross or Rios would be better.

I think a Mench for Batista/Rios trade would be an upgrade for the Jays. However, it would be just a slight upgrade and I think the Jays would be better off pursuing other options first.

And for all we know this could just be exploratory talk that isn't going very far and is just a Plan B or C for the Jays if other things fall through.

What I hadn't given much thought to prior to this rumor was that Batista might have good trade value as a starter which is apparently what the Rangers would use Batista for. Batista could easily be an average starter with a one year, $4.75 million contract when similar pitchers will be getting 3 years and at least that much per year.

The Dodgers also interviewed Kim Ng, an assistant G.M. for the past four years who would become the first woman to be G.M. of a major league team. But that won't likely happen as long as Tommy Lasorda has the ear of ownership.

And he had this back when they fired DePodesta:

Don't know what your kids wore as costumes for Halloween, but reports from southern California indicate the Los Angeles Dodgers went door to door disguised as a Major League franchise.

There's no mystery why this once-proud franchise is such a mess. It's Tommy Lasorda...a blowhard whose cuddly image belies a conniving nature

I think it was NFH who said it: Blair's a lot of fun to read when he gets grumpy. I don't know where this blog-like column of his came from, but I like it.

Such as Jonny Gomes. The Devil Rays just signed Baldelli to a long term deal and also have Crawford, Gathright, Huff, with Delmon Young coming quick in the OF. That's 6 players for 3 OF spots. Even if Huff is traded as expected there's still an extra OF on that team.

Couldn't have said it better myself, Pepper.

And I want nothing to do with the next Marty Cordova; the first one was bad enough...

Stay away from Texas hitters... After all he would be coming from AL Colorado.

If Texas is the AL's Colorado, Toronto is at least the AL's Arizona:

2005 Park Factor (Runs):
1. Texas (1.035)
2. Oakland (1.028)
3. Chicago (1.023)
4. New York (1.023)
5. Toronto (1.018)

2005 Park Factor (Slugging %):
1. Texas (1.044)
2. Chicago (1.037)
3. Toronto (1.035)

I still wouldn't support this trade, even if he promised to stay away from Doc's legs.

Technically Batista and League and/or Rios for Mench might be a slight improvement in a strictly baseball sense, but in the overall picture it seems a terrible baseball move. League and Rios (and maybe even Batista) have a lot more value in what they represent, which are tantalizing parts to a deal that could bring a much better player to the Jays than the Mediocre Leg Breaker. I think it would be a waste of resources (and what is a Major League GM other than a resource manager) to move these neccessary parts for "The Trade" for the 125th vorpiest postion player in 2005 behind Craig "I'm a weirdo" Counsell with an empty (and low) BA and terrible splits (and "terrible splints"†). As Moffatt put, I just don't see the point in this trade: shipping all your trade bait for an average (at best) corner OF whose only real highlight is an OK number of shiny homeruns in a hitters park. Not that it's that easy, but if I were JP I'd use all the trade bait I had to try and get Dunn and do whatever it took to get Giles here.

†© Pettapiece, Rob. 2005.

Level Games   OBP  SLG  Ave
  AL   257   .321 .390 .273
 AAA    46   .292 .373 .259
  AA   127   .402 .521 .352 
   A   313   .315 .369 .277 
   R    67   .321 .325 .269 

Level Games   OBP  SLG  Ave
  AL   257   .321 .390 .273
 AAA    46   .292 .373 .259
   A   313   .315 .369 .277 
   R    67   .321 .325 .269

And then he followed that with his MVP season at AA. That looks like player who was learning and improving as he went along.

This season, he was all over the place. He had an excellent April (321/344/452), poor May (264/306/407), decent June (272/322/457), good July (267/349/347), and then fell off the face of the earth in August and September. He has, at various points, shown the ability to hit for a good average, decent power, and draw an acceptable number of walks, along with the usual good speed and defence.

So the question is "Will he do it all at once, and for an entire season?" Well, I don't know. But I think he could, and that alone makes him worth more than Kevin Mench.

Yes. I took the stats from the Star's site which lumps them together. You make a better argument that Rios has improved than I have of saying 2003 was a huge outlier.

If, in a best-case scenario, the Jays were to add Giles or Dunnn, I don't think there would be any problem with keeping Rios around and putting his average production & low salary in the 9th slot in the order. (along with moving Catalanotto to DH and Hinske or Hillenbrand to... somewhere else) It's important to improve the offence as a whole, not just right field.

• Lopez is a middle infielder, meaning the Reds could afford to live with a good-field, no hit performance had he not produced
• the Reds had no hope of contending last year. If Lopez had bombed it would have been far less damaging than for the Jays to get another .700 OPS performance from Rios next year;
• the Jays have the money to spend on a better player; the Reds are strapped and needed all the cheap labour they could find

Everyone agrees that Rios has the potential to develop, but the real question is: how many more at-bats can the Jays afford to give him to see if he actually will? Considering the state of the rest of team, I'd rather see someone else out there.

But still. I'd be reluctant to give up League or Rios along with Batista. Twelve months ago, all it cost to get Shea Hillenbrand (who was a hitter of similar value, one year older, and also arb-eligible) was a minor league pitcher. Why does Mench cost so much more?

Yeah, I think so, too - but Hillenbrand only made $2.6 million for Arizona in 2004 (he made $3.8 in Toronto) - it's not exactly Mondesi money...

Mench is definitely arb-eligible now, and I suppose he'd get about 2.5 to 3 million.

Batista for Mench ALSO frees up a few million dollars in salary that could be used elsewhere.

But the Jays don't need to free up salary. Why make a salary dump?

Average AL-only RF last season:

.270/.331/.447 24 Hr 89 rbi

Kevin Mench last season (playing in his homepark with that line up around him):

.264/.328/.469 25 Hr 73 rbi

He only managed to be above average in slugging and HR (by one). The Mediocre Leg Breaker is no doubt an offesnive upgrade over Rios, but not "the bat" for the Jays nor reason to trade the tradeable farm boys.

I believe Rios was on the 40-man in 2003. Thus, his three option years have expired.