Kuzul

1B David Cooper (6’0″, 210 pounds)

Age: 23

Drafted: 17th overall in 2008 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of the University of California

Bats: Left      Throws: Left

2009-10 Team: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA)

2010-11 Expected Team: Las Vegas 51s (AAA)

Best-Case Scenario: Poor man’s Todd Helton bat without the defence

Worst-Case Scenario: Poor man’s Lyle Overbay bat without the defence

David Cooper began his baseball journey playing in a California high school, where he absolutely dominated in every facet of the game. In his final three years of high school, he averaged .529 with a .992 OPS. Cooper was named a high school All-American and all-state honoree by Baseball America and Louisville Slugger in 2005 and was also named San Joaquin Athletic Association MVP and Player of the Year in 2005.

Obviously those numbers got noticed by nearly every college recruiter known to man and also drew plenty of interest from the MLB ranks. He opted to go to college instead of heading straight to the pros, deciding to sign a letter of intent to attend Cal State Fullerton after his high school career was finished. This is the same school that Ricky Romero went to before he was drafted by the Blue Jays.

In 2006, he began his college career and averaged a respectable .305 with the Cal State Fullerton Titans. His squad was good enough to make it to the College World Series, where Cooper exploded and was named to the College World Series All-Star Team while averaging .533 during that time.

After the 2006 season, Cooper decided to transfer to the University of California for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. That move ended up being a major steppingstone to becoming a first-round draft pick.

In the two seasons he spent with UC, Cooper hit an unreal .370/.449/.655 slash line in 111 games. Additionally, in 2007, his first season with the team, he led them with a .382 average, good for third overall in the Pac-10, which eventually earned him votes for player of the year that season.

Cooper led his Cal Bears team in hits, doubles, home runs, RBI, multiple-hit games and multiple-RBI games in both 2007 and 2008, further cementing himself as a high draft pick. With that proven track record and the fact he was a junior in college, that made him the perfect target for then-Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi to draft very high.

Ricciardi had a soft spot for third- and fourth-year college players because he believed that their games were far more polished and they had the ability to cruise through the minor league system. However, ever since Cooper was selected by Ricciardi, he has remained in the Jays farm system, yet to play one major league game.

Basically, due to his defensive problems, Cooper among the pro scout ranks is deemed a one-dimensional talent, only having a decent bat as his calling card. He has a polished, patient approach at the plate that capitalizes on pitchers’ mistakes. A very poor runner, and also still bad defensively, Cooper’s future looks like a DH or first baseman in the Adam Lind mold. Right now, that’s probably what his ceiling is, unfortunately for Blue Jay fans.

Anyway, Cooper began his career with the Blue Jays in the NY Penn League with the Auburn Doubledays, hitting for a .341 AVG with a .961 OPS. He was promoted to the Lansing Lugnuts, where he hit .354 with a .936 OPS in only 24 games. As you would have guessed, he was again promoted, this time to Dunedin in high A ball.

In Dunedin, he managed to hit .303 with an .808 OPS and looked as if he was a top 10 prospect for years to come with the Jays. He climbed through three levels of minor league ball as expected since he was a college junior heading into those leagues.

Due to his success the Jays took a chance and promoted him yet again the next season to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Jays’ AA affiliate. This is where the descent of Cooper began, as Cooper managed to have the worst year of his short career, hitting a measly .258 AVG with a .340 OBP and .389 SLG, hitting only 10 homers and adding 66 RBI.

Despite that season, Cooper remained a top five Blue Jays prospect according to Baseball America, who had him fourth heading into the following season—before Alex Anthopoulos took over and overhauled the Jays’ pathetic farm system.

Cooper’s start to the 2010 season was even worse than his stats from the year before, managing to barely stay above the Mendoza line before the All-Star break. However, after the break, Cooper made some adjustments and managed to hit .317 in July and .286 in August, finishing the season on an 11-game hitting streak (15 for 40, .375).

He finished the year hitting .257 with a .327 OBP and .442 SLG with 20 home runs and 76 RBI. His lack of athleticism, poor running, bad defence and an inability to hit left-handed pitching are his downfall right now and will need to be addressed if he ever hopes to be an everyday ballplayer one day.

Heading into the 2010-11 season with the Las Vegas 51s, Cooper will have some large shoes to fill for the now departed Brett Wallace (who was dealt to the Astros for centerfielder Anthony Gose). Along with the big shoes to fill, Cooper will have more pressure to perform hitting in the very hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

Due to that fact, I expect this year to be one of Cooper’s best as a pro heading into the season as a 24-year-old when the season starts. Every year his home run totals have doubled, so if the trend continues, Cooper will bang out 40 home runs next year. However, I’d be happy with 25 to 30 home runs.

If all goes well, expect the Jays to call Cooper up by September, since it really looks like they won’t have many first base options heading into the season. Adam Lind and Edwin Encarnacion seem like the only successors to Lyle Overbay, who signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates earlier this offseason.

Minor League Stats

In a continuing series I have decided to do for you all, I will be featuring a Jays prospect every week or so and give you all a breakdown of that player and some additional background on him. I’m hoping this will help some of you get to know some of the future Blue Jays a little sooner.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In a somewhat surprise turn of events, the Blue Jays, who were believed to be the strongest bidders for Zack Greinke, lost out on his services earlier in the week as the Milwaukee Brewers wound up being the best suitors.

The Jays, who had a much deeper farm system than the Brewers and probably could have offered a better package than the Brewers did, ended up losing out on the former Cy Young Award winning pitcher.

The Blue Jays rotation, which could have used Greinke’s power arm, has taken quite a hit this offseason, as GM Alex Anthopolous dealt staff No. 1 Shaun Marcum for top 20 MLB prospect Brett Lawrie, a Canadian second baseman earlier in the month.

The Blue Jays rotation currently sits with Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow and Brett Cecil taking up the top three spots with the last two remaining voids likely to be filled with rookie pitcher and the Jays top prospect Kyle Drabek and a fifth starter from within the organization.

According to some reports, the Royals were asking for both Drabek and outfielder Travis Snider, along with other prospects in exchange for Greinke. But it appears the Royals ended up taking less for Greinke, who earlier in the week fired his agent and demanded a trade, thus lowering his trade value.

The trade worked out to be Greinke and shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt in exchange for shortstop Alcides Escobar, outfielder Lorenzo Cain and right-handed pitching prospects Jake Odorizzi and Jeremy Jeffress from the Brewers.

Escobar was the Brewers’ shortstop last season but struggled at the plate, batting a paltry .235 with 41 RBIs. Cain played in 43 games with the Brewers last season, batting .306 with 13 RBIs. Neither project as power threats in an major league lineup.

Jeffress made 10 appearances for the Brewers last season, going 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA. He has been suspended twice under baseball’s drug policy.

Odorizzi was considered the Brewers’ top minor league pitching prospect and his agent Jason Wood said the team tried “very hard” to keep his client out of the deal.

The pitching prospects rank fairly low though in terms of overall prospect rankings in the majors. Odorizzi is ranked in the top 150, while Jeffress is ranked in the top 250.

While not being too familiar with the Brewers farm system, they could be better than I’m making them seem. The pitchers are former first-round picks for what it’s worth, as Jeffress was selected 16th overall in the 2006 MLB Draft and Odorizzi was taken 32nd overall in the 2008 MLB Draft and the positional players projected as opening day starters for the Brew Crew.

There is some risk with taking Jeffress though. Since he tested positive for a third time in June of 2009 for a banned substance, one more positive test will result in a lifetime ban from baseball.

For Greinke, he moves onto a team that will boast one of the best rotations in the NL Central with Greinke, along with Yovani Gallardo, Shaun Marcum, Chris Narveson and Randy Wolf. The Brewers lineup is pretty lethal with the likes of Prince Fielder (who is likely to stay put now), the Hebrew Hammer Ryan Bruan, Casey McGehee, Rickie Weeks and I wear my sunglasses at night, right fielder Corey Hart.

Greinke, last season, slumped throughout finishing with a 10-14 record with a 4.17 ERA

last season. In 2009, Greinke won the AL Cy Young Award with a 16-8 record and 2.16 ERA.

A late report came out today from the Globe and Mail’s Jeff Blair that Greinke opted to use his no-trade clause against Toronto.

“Alex Anthopoulos will not be among the general managers recalibrating this week after Zack Greinke’s shocking trade to the Milwaukee Brewers, which is expected to be finalized Monday. Anthopoulos, the Toronto Blue Jays GM, asked the Kansas City Royals about Greinke’s availability early in the off-season, but was told the pitcher would not waive his no-trade clause to Toronto. End of story. Greinke agreed to go to Milwaukee, and sources suggest he believes he can do better statistically in the National League heading into free agency in two years.”

So in the end, it appears he was afraid to pitch in the uber-tough AL East, and opt for a more easier pitching environment in the NL Central, hoping it would better his numbers for a greater payday in free agency.

Did Greinke chicken out of pitching in the AL East?

Personal opinion here, I think if he proved he could win on the big stage, against the likes of the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays, then it would have actually made his value skyrocket.

Also, if it didn’t work out for the two years, whose to say he couldn’t get traded or better yet, sign a one-year deal with a team in the NL Central once his contract expired so he could raise his value again.

“Just really wanted to be in a place where they were playing to win games right away,” he said. It is true you will be winning games with Milwaukee, but who says you couldn’t win them in Toronto, who actually won more games than the Brewers did last season.

In my opinion, I think he chickened out of pitching here (and in the AL East) and was afraid of the environment of the AL East. In the end, I expected this, and this was the main reason I was against trading the farm for this character—or lack thereof.

Thoughts?

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In a move that has Blue Jays fans everywhere scratching their heads, the Blue Jays have supposedly resigned infielder Edwin Encarnacion to a one-year contract worth $2.5 million. The deal also comes with a club option for $3.5 million for one more season.

Encarnacion, who was claimed off of waivers by the Oakland Athletics, did not come to an agreement on a new deal with the team, so he remained a free agent. The Blue Jays, who by some wicked stretch of their imagination decided to step in and offer the error machine a contract.

Much to the delight of some readers, it’s expected Encarnacion will play first base and DH mostly next season and stay far away from third base in an attempt by the club to limit E5 Encarnacion’s errors.

Former Blue Jay Lyle Overbay, who gave the Blue Jays some great defense at first base, decided to sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates a couple of days ago, so the Jays have decided to severely downgrade at first base defensively with a platoon of Adam Lind and Encarnacion.

With the free agent market pretty bare for good talent, the Jays may of picked up their best first base, third base, DH combo there was available. But after rumors of Carlos Pena, Derrek Lee and others possibly heading to the Blue Jays, ending up with Encarnacion feels like getting a lousy participant ribbon instead of a top three ribbon at a school track meet.

In 96 games last season, he batted .244 with 21 home runs and 51 RBIs.

In 652 career games, Encarnacion has posted a .258 average with 100 home runs and 337 RBIs.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Blue Jays are among four teams that are seriously interested in catcher Russell Martin, and will more than likely offer him a contract in the coming days.

However, the competition is expected to be hot from three teams, most notably the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and a “mystery team” according to Star Ledger reporter Marc Carig. That team I suspect is the New York Mets, but it’s only a guess on my part since they will more than likely be losing catcher Rod Barajas via free agency.

That mystery team is expected to offer a contract to Martin soon, but supposedly the Red Sox are the front-runners according to reports.

The Red Sox, having lost C/1B Victor Martinez to the Detroit Tigers via free agency, the Red Sox are in some need for a catcher. The Sox had great interest in signing former Jays catcher John Buck earlier this offseason, but he opted for a three-year deal worth $18 million with the Florida Marlins, thus ending the speculation.

Boston, having already signed catcher Jason Varitek to a new contract for the upcoming season, will more than likely see a bit more playing time this season, as opposed to last season when “V-Mart” took over the catching duties.

Will having Varitek already there, along with the Sox’s ability to just spend as they please, deter Martin from signing there? That’s a question that’s up for debate. With the Yankees’ Jorge Posada and superstar in training Jesus Montero on the Yankees already, I truly believe Martin should think twice about signing there.

Lastly, with the “mystery team” set to make an offer, I truly believe that this team may pose the greatest threat to Toronto’s pursuit to land Martin. They’re unknown for the time being, and to tell you the truth, the unknown is far scarier than the known as I always say.

Martin’s numbers the last three years have been on a steady decline since the breakout 2007 campaign when the Canadian slugged 19 home runs, added 87 RBI and an amazing 21 stolen bases as a catcher while averaging .293.

Since then he’s had 13, seven and five home run seasons and the power threat he once was, has faded into the abyss, only at the age of 27, when you’re expected to be starting the prime of your career.

Last season was an injury-plagued year for Martin as he finally gave in to his hip injury and opted for hip surgery in August and ended his season.

You ask, “Why Do the Jays even want Martin with JP Arencibia nearly ready to take over as the organizational catcher for the next few years?” The answer to that is simple—Martin has versatility. Having the ability to play third base, and even first base, Martin’s versatility lends itself perfectly to fit in with the Jays lineup.

The Jays, who have already added one Canadian, when the club dealt staff No. 1 starter Shaun Marcum to Milwaukee for prospect Brett Lawrie, look like they have their sights set on yet another Canadian for the upcoming season. If he will accept the offer remains to be seen.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

With all the talk with the Rangers lately about re-signing Cy Young Pitcher Cliff Lee lately, one fact has surfaced lately— it will cost an arm and a leg to sign him to a long-term contract.

So with that said, the Rangers are believed to be looking to shed some salary in an attempt to have funds available to sign Lee. It appears third baseman Michael Young may be their prime candidate for trade as a result according to Fox Sports Columnist Ken Rosenthal.

Young, who recently signed a five year extension with the Rangers worth $80 million, which will keep him with the ball-club until 2013.

On the surface, Young’s contract is a tad pricey, but in the grand scheme of things, with the free agent market today, Young’s contract in comparison to other free agents available (Adrian Beltre), seems just about right.

A .300 career hitter, Young was the AL batting champion in 2005 at .331 while hammering 24 home runs and adding 91 RBI’s, and was the All-Star game MVP in 2006.

Last season, young enjoyed a sub-par year by his standards only hitting .284 with 21 home runs and 91 RBI’s.

Two years ago Young moved from shortstop over to third base for the incumbent Elvis Andrus, and Young never missed a beat with the move. A career .978 fielder, Young at third is a .960 career defender, compare that to Adrian Beltre, a gold glove third baseman himself, is a .957 career fielder.

While Young’s contract is ugly to say the least, it’s nothing the Jays and their new found owner Rogers can’t afford.

Having dropped significant salary this summer, the Jays are in line to add some salary to make up for the players that left them so far (Lyle Overbay, Edwin Encarnacion, Scott Downs and so on).

With a no-trade clause in his contract, it remains to be seen whether Young would waive his clause if he were traded to Toronto, but his strong relationship with friend and Jays center-fielder Vernon Wells could have a huge say in what he does.

What would it cost the Jays to get Young?

It looks like they will definitely be wanting pitching and catching, which the Jays have in droves. While Young is a great player, he’s already 34 years old and may be on the decline, so giving away too much young talent seems unlikely for any major league team.

The Rangers could agree to a deal if they got a good catcher and a decent pitching prospect. Maybe a deal centered around Carlos Perez and Henderson Alvarez could be enough for the Rangers to bite. It also could be a massive overpay for the Blue Jays as well. I’ve never been a fan of predicting deals like this because you don’t know what the GM’s are thinking.

The one fact remains— Young’s professional bat and good defence would be a welcomed addition at third, but especially in the batting lineup which really lacks any consistent contact hitters outside of Yunel Escobar.

It’s up to Anthopolous now if he believes Young would be a good fit on this team if he is indeed available.

Thoughts on a potential Michael Young to Toronto deal? Let me know.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

According to ESPN, the Toronto Blue Jays are trying hard to sign slugging first baseman Carlos Pena to a contract.

The Blue Jays are without a first baseman, as Lyle Overbay became a free agent. The Jays were not interested in his services, so they passed on re-signing him.

The Jays, who were the most powerful extra-base-hitting team last season, appear to want to just keep adding to the power that gave them so much success last season.

Offensively, the Jays were an up and down club last season. When the bats were clicking, the Jays would score runs in droves, but when the bats cooled down, the club struggled mightily to score runs.

Adding Pena, quite possibly the best power-hitting first baseman available on the free agent wire, would give the Jays a lethal left/right combination in the middle of the lineup with Jose Bautista.

Pena last season hit a paltry .196 in 582 at-bats with 28 home runs and 84 runs batted in. That’s a down year for anyone, but for Pena, it was especially bad.

The Jays, if they sign him, will be taking a risk that last year’s poor performance was just a fluke. Last season was the first in the last four seasons that Pena did not reach at least 30 home runs and 100 runs batted in for a season.

Carlos started to regain some magic in the playoffs in 14 at-bats, hitting .286 with a home run and four runs batted in to go along with an OPS of 1.126.

In years previous, Pena’s numbers were astronomical from the first base position. Having hit 31, 39 and 46 home runs the last three seasons, Pena is obviously a very potent power threat.

Talk before today revolved around whether Adam Lind could man first base, but it looks like the confidence in that proposition is fading fast, and Lind will be back to his LF/DH duties if Pena is indeed signed.

Thoughts on adding Carlos Pena to the roster?

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

According to the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Toronto Blue Jays have traded No. 1 pitcher and staff ace Shaun Marcum to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for Brett Lawrie.

Marcum went 13-8 last season with a 3.64 ERA and 161 strikeouts.

Lawrie has both raw power and speed, batting .285 with eight homers, 36 doubles, 16 triples and 30 stolen bases for double-A Huntsville in 2010, just his second professional season and at 20 years old, was one of the youngest players in the Southern League to play last season.

This move looks to be a pre-cursor to a few larger moves the Jays may have up their sleeve in an attempt to acquire more talent to help bolster an already potent lineup.

There is word the Jays were looking to make a move for Zack Greinke. Could this move help lead the way for a Greinke to Toronto swap? That remains to be seen.

The Jays appear to be keeping their promise of trading to try and acquire talent going forward. The Jays traded Marcum, who was reportedly not going to re-sign with Toronto, for a young, controllable player in Lawrie.

I’m going to take a wait and see approach before thoroughly dissecting this deal, but getting a team’s number one prospect for a number 3 starter on a good staff seems like a win for the Blue Jays, despite what some may think.

The Canadian still sits about a year or so away from making an impact on the Jays roster, but Anthopolous continues to add assets to a young Blue Jays team. The question remains, when are you going to start spending money Alex?

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

With the Winter Meetings set to run December 6th to 9th in Orlando, Florida, talk is spreading like wildfire among baseball people that the Jays are pushing hard to try and acquire former Cy Young winner Zack Greinke from the Kansas City Royals.

The Jays may be one or two players away from making a run for an AL East pennant this year, and executives believe the Boston Red Sox, with the loss of Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre, and the Tampa Bay Rays, with the potential losses of Carlos Pena and Carl Crawford, may be in line for a decline in wins this season.

The Yankees, if they do not acquire Cliff Lee, may also be on the decline, as many of their aging superstars are starting to show their age. Derek Jeter’s numbers are down, Jorge Posada may eventually get passed by blue-chip prospect Jesus Montero and Yankees pitching staff, which includes the 38-year-old Andy Pettitte, is certainly not getting any better unless Lee is added.

The Jays, though, are really making some noise right now in Florida, and news and rumors are expected to pick up as the meetings actually begin tomorrow.

The Royals are said to be very high on Jays prospects Kyle Drabek and Travis Snider as possible returns for Greinke. Greinke, who recently turned 27, would solidify the Jays rotation, which includes Shaun Marcum, Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow and the club leader in wins, Brett Cecil.

Greinke has a partial no-trade clause, so he will have to give his seal of approval on deals to a list of 15 teams, but it appears he’s very open to getting out of Kansas City as fast as possible. Toronto is apparently on his list of no-trade teams, but so was Toronto on Troy Glaus’ list and he ended up getting dealt to Toronto, so who knows what happens.

Last season in 220 innings, Greinke went 10-14 with a 4.17 ERA, 181 strikeouts and 55 walks, to go along with three complete games—not even close to the numbers he put up the season previous, when he was the best pitcher in the American League.

This would be a risky trade, nonetheless, if the Jays do in fact pull the trigger. But adding Greinke, if he returns to his 2009 form, would make Toronto‘s rotation nearly unmatched to any in the American League, apart from Tampa Bay.

Earlier last month, I reported that the Jays were also looking to acquire Alex Gordon in the deal with Greinke. Gordon, who can play third base and outfield, would easily help fill the void left by Edwin Encarnacion last season—if you could even call that a void.

That rumor could resurface in the next few days, as well, so don’t sleep on that.

Feel free to add your thoughts on the Jays’ continued interest in Zack Greinke. Is it worth trading your two best prospects for him? Does he really improve the Jays that much? Should the Jays look elsewhere?

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

A report yesterday had claimed the Boston Red Sox were in the process of finalizing a deal that would see perennial all-star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez shipped to Boston for a plethora of prospects including pitching prospect Casey Kelly, first baseman Anthony Rizzo, outfielder Raymond Fuentes and a player to be named later (PTBNL).

Breaking news came to light today as the Red Sox and Gonzalez could not agree on a contract extension by this afternoon’s deadline according to SI‘s Jon Heyman.

The sticking point was Gonzalez was asking for an eight-year deal, while the Red Sox were only willing to go a maximum of six years with their deal. Early reports state he may have been asking for $180 million over the eight-year contract, which averages to around $22.5 million per year.

There was talk that the Red Sox would pull the trigger on the deal, despite not having Gonzalez signed to an extension; however, it looks like the Sox are going to retract the deal.

This is great news for all teams in the AL East, as Gonzalez would’ve added quite the left-handed punch to a powerful Red Sox lineup which includes hitters like Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz and speedy outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury.

With uncertainty surrounding Adrian Beltre’s future, the Sox were looking to move Youkilis to third and bring in Gonzalez; however, the Sox will now have to look in another direction to fill the void left by a possible departure of Beltre.

So with the deal falling through, there is talk that the Blue Jays are showing great interest in adding Gonzalez, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.

For right now, I expect the Jays to only be interested in him for a single season, so they don’t have to give up blue-chip prospects for him. The price tag for an extension with Gonzalez is far too rich for the Jays tastes.

Don’t count out the Red Sox from re-negotiating a deal; however, the Jays I believe could put up a better rental package than the Sox.

The Jays would more than likely have to give up a top-12 prospect along with another top-25 prospect for Gonzalez and keep it at that, due to his rental status. The Padres would be looking for pitching and a possible first base replacement for Gonzalez, just in case blue-chip prospect Kyle Blanks “fires a blank” at first base next season.

Gonzalez last season hit .298 in 591 at bats with San Diego, clubbing 31 home runs and adding 101 RBIs along with an OPS of .904. Nobody on the Jays outside of Jose Bautista (.995) was over .850 last season.

Feel free to add your thoughts on adding Gonzalez to this Jays lineup.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

According to a report from FOX Sports columnist Ken Rosenthal, the Toronto Blue Jays are among the teams that are inquiring about third baseman Mark Reynolds availability.

Reynolds, who holds the National League (NL) record for strikeouts in a season with 223 in 2009—and has led the league in strikeouts each of his three full years in the show, appears to be on the Blue Jays radar as a possible replacement for Edwin Encarnacion, who was claimed off waivers from the Oakland Athletics.

“The Sheriff” is just plain and simple a run producer. In his first 15 games as a pro, he drove in 14 runs.

However, last season was an epic struggle for Reynolds. On the positive side, he led the NL in walks with 83, but on the negative he again led the league in strikeouts with 211.

Even worse, he is the only player ever in the majors to finish a season with a higher strikeout total than their batting average (211 Strikeouts versus 198 batting average x 1000).

A plus with Reynolds is the obvious that he can play both first and third, giving the Jays some more versatility versus different pitching teams. One night they could have Bautista at third and Reynolds at first, or the next night have Lind at first, Reynolds and third and Bautista in right field.

If you can’t tell, I’m trying to take a negative and put a positive spin on it, but aside from his home run totals, nothing about Reynolds makes you think he’s much better than Encarnacion was.

In 141 games at third base, Reynolds committed 18 errors last season, and two season previous, committed a league high 34 errors at the position, albeit, it was second year in the league without much experience prior.

Last season, Reynolds in 498 at bats hit 32 home runs and drove in 85 runs, scored 79 runs, walked 83 times and stole seven bases, while striking out 211 times. Last season, he stole 24 bases, but this season, the speed was gone in Reynolds game.

What could the Diamondbacks want for Reynolds? If I were a betting man—and judging on how high of a price they are demanding for Justin Upton, I truly believe the D’Backs will want two top 12 level prospects and another top 30 prospect in return. They will be looking for a pitcher or two, and possibly an infield prospect.

A package that could make sense to me is Chad Jenkins or Henderson Alvarez, David Cooper and Brad Emaus for Reynolds.

That’s just the reality of the situation, but you never know, Reynolds being the worst average hitter in the league may really decrease his value for all I know.

I just give the facts and speculate a little, I’m not a fly on the wall in Alex Anthopolous’ office—as much as I’d love to be one right now.

Thoughts on Reynolds in a Jays uniform?

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com