Winter meetings start with a bang for the Jays!

As I'm sure most of you have heard by now, the Jays have traded 2010 opening day start Shaun Marcum to the Milwaukee Brewers for Brett Lawrie. I'll admit when I first heard of the trade, I couldn't beleve that the Jays were only able to extract one prospect for Marcum who was coming off a career year, even if that one prospect was Brett Lawrie. After taking some time to process it, however, this trade makes perfect sense for both teams. Toronto receives a young, controlable asset with an incredibly high ceiling; while the Brewers receive a proven starter who will immediately step into the two hole with Milwaukee, and most likely kill it in the NL Central.

Brett Lawrie was drafted 16th overall in the 2008 draft. One spot ahead of Toronto - who were said to be coveting Lawrie had he dropped to them. For what it's worth, Baseball America had him ranked as the second best prospect in the Brewers system. Of and he's Canadian, so Bob Elliott can rest well.

Lawrie played 135 games for Double A Huntsville last year, hitting .285/.346/.451 and hitting 8 homers. What really stands out to me is the 16 triples and 30 stolen bases (although he was caught 13 times). This shows the guy has speed, and from all the reports I've read about him, scouts believe he has some pop in his bat which he should start to realize once his body develops (he is only 20 years old). Defensively, the reviews haven't been so glowing. For starters, nobody knows where he'll play. He's been playing 2B in Double A, but committed 25 errors and had a .961 fielding percentage. There's talk of him possible playing 3B or in left field which obviously greatly diminishes his value by not playing at a premium position.

Now there really are two schools of thought as to where this leaves the Jays' plans for the 2011 season. There had been rumors that Anthopolous thought the team was one significant piece away from contending for an AL East title, which led a lot of people to belive that a trade for Zack Greinke was imminent. On the one hand, the Marcum trade could signify AA opening up a spot in the rotation to fill with the likes of Greinke, and I personally wouldn't put it past him. On the other hand, why would the Jays trade away a player who would help them win now for a player who will require a promotion to play in Vegas next year?  

Here are some other interesting notes:

• The Washington Nationals emerged "victorious" in the Jayson Werth sweepstakes, signing the 31 year old to a 7 year - $126 million deal. And to answer your question, yes they are fucking retarded.
• Zack Greinke will go anywhere. Although the Jays are on his no-trade list, a deal could be worked out if it gets to that point.
• Pat Gillick has deservedly been inducted into the Hall of Fame. I wonder if he'll enter as a Blue Jay...
• Do yourself a favour and go check out Getting Blanked at thescore.ca. They've got a killer interview with Alex Anthopolous and a live tracker of the winter meetings....sigh....
• If you haven't seen it yet, check out my saaweeet paint skills in my Adrian Gonzalez post. First blog on the internet to have a pic of AGon in a Red Sox uni?