[Griever20]

Since I stumbled into baseball as a sport to follow, I am Blue Jays fan and love to follow the team and watch ALOT of their games.

However, I'm usually pretty critical about front office decisions(trades, signings) and when I don't like a deal(Revere for Storen anyone), I'm saying this out loud... and when I have to eat my words(Michael Saunders anyone), I'm willing to do so.

However, over the last four years there are two big trades that I always come back to in discussions about the team.

1st November 19th, 2012

Traded Henderson Alvarez, Anthony DeSclafani, Yunel Escobar, Adeiny Hechavarria, Jake Marisnick, Jeff Mathis and Justin Nicolino to the Miami Marlins. Received Emilio Bonifacio, John Buck, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, Jose Reyes and cash.

Back in the days, I liked that deal. Get back a couple of very good starters, in Buehrle and Johnson and get an upgrade at shortstop that figures to be the perfect leadoff hitter.

Now, Josh Johnson started in 16 games with a 6.20ERA in 2013 and never picked up a baseball again in a MLB game. Buehrle was decent, with a 40-28 record and a ERA under four in 601.1IP and was a great mentor for the young pitchers last year, but also earned $49M in those three years.

Jose Reyes missed 70 games in 2013, and basically ceased to be a servicable defender at shortstop a while ago. His offensive production was decent, but well... he is contract escalated from $10M to $16M to... wait for it... $22M going forward with his skills regressing steadily... fun times for Colorado these days.

2nd December 17th, 2012

Traded Wuilmer Becerra (minors), John Buck, Travis d'Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard to the New York Mets. Received R.A. Dickey, Mike Nickeas and Josh Thole.

I never liked this trade, simply because I didn't trust R.A. Dickey to consistently post years like the Cy Young season of 2012(20-6 2.73 230K). I didn't know much about the pieces we traded back to New York back then... we know now, don't we?

Dickey went on to go 39-37 with a 3.95ERA, 476K and 3.3WAR in the last three years, getting payed $5M, $12M, $12M and $12M this season. Don't get me wrong, I love watching him pitch and he can get every $ out of this contract... but looking at what the Blue Jays sent over... boy this may not have been worth it going forward.

3. The Setting:

What if the Blue Jays were 'forced' to hold on to all those prospects instead of trading them away in this Win Now! window. Noah Syndergaard, Anthony DeSclafani, Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez, Henderson Alvarez, Justin Nicolino, Roberto Osuna as pitching prospects?

Yunel Escobar at shortstop with Adeiny Hechavarria as a prospect? Travis d'Arnaud as catching prospect? Because of the setting here, no Yan Gomes and Mike Aviles for Esmil Rodgers trade? No Melky Cabrera? What will become out of Brett Lawrie, will Bautista and Encarnacion stay in Toronto till the end of their contracts?

We will see....

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Technical Stuff:

As mentioned above, I used the OOTP 14 quickstart and converted it to OOTP 17 to make things interesting, so basically all ratings and prospects are 2013.

Also, the First Year Player Draft in 2013 and all further drafts will be fully fictional... say goodbye to Mark Appel, Brady Aiken, Kyle Schwarber and all the good guys. And of course, the draft will be held in June, not in December.

Also, I worked by butt off to get Dickey, Reyes & co. traded away from the Mets and Marlins... and they got more than a fair deal, I think I overshot a bit regarding the prospects they got... OOTP agreed to them tho...