Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle
What I will never understand is why they used this chip to acquire a gimmick pitcher like Dickey. The guy was in his late 30's, had only a year and a half of quality performances under his belt which were the product of the fact that he is tailor made for the National League Game (spacious outfields, less reliance on power hitters, and a practically guaranteed out every 9 at-bats). In his CY-Young year Dickey was throwing an 82-84 mph fastball which allowed him to mess with hitters. There's no way the Jays should have expected him to maintain that velocity at his age and his questionable arm health issues.
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Word back then is they originally inquired about Jon Neise, but that got shut down.
I think we need to remember who the owners are too. Dickey was a Cy-Young winner with atleast 4-5 years left in the tank and was making 12 MILLION! the Jays were still a sub-100 million club and most Cy-Young contenders were getting close to 20 million (Buehrle got 20 from MIA the yr. before). We were only a couple years removed from J.P.'s small market approach followed by big signings that did little for attendance.
I remember a story about the Jays coming into the deadline sellers (as always) and having Jose Cruz Jr. on the block. He was hitting like crap all year and a free agent. The Mets offered some low-A ball prospect who was hitting really good but still a way from sniffing MLB. The Jays rejected. Cruz was kept and left as a FA in the offseason.
The low-A ballplayer was David Wright.
I'm sure there are a ton of those stories around the league but i just really liked that one. haha