Item: Blue Jays trade 2B Orlando Hudson, P Miguel Batista to Arizona for 3B Troy Glaus and prospect Sergio Santos

Christopher James: I like Hudson. I love his defense-it can turn games around all on its own. I'd say with confidence that he is a better defensive 2B than Roberto Alomar, I like him that much. That aside, his OBP makes me retch. If he could get on base, if he could be a prototypical lead-off hitter, if he could walk more, strike out less, and steal more than seven bases a season, I would sign him to a long term deal and never look back. But a .315 OBP? Damn. If he can't spike that, he'll be a number nine hitter his whole career, and after seeing Hill play second last year...ya know...I'll take 30-40 HR, a World Series MVP, a career .358 OBP and .501 slugging over a pile of highlight reel 4-3 put-outs any day.

Glaus isn't even 30, and is only a year older than Hudson. He is a winner and a proven slugger on a team that hasn't had a lot of either lately. Take him, plug him into the number 4 slot behind Wells, forget about him.

Batista doesn't count, because Batista doesn't count.

Jim Turner: Hudson will be missed, no question. There was no Blue Jay that was more fun to watch over the last couple of years. But I look at Troy Glaus' page at baseball-reference.com, and who is the most comparable batter to Troy Glaus through age 28? Mike Schmidt. Also in his top ten, Roger Maris, Matt Williams, Reggie Jackson, Gary Sheffield, Harmon Killebrew and Scott Rolen. In other words, this is a guy who has built a credible Hall of Fame resume to this point in his career. Who's Orlando Hudson's most similar batter? Ron Belliard. I'll trade Ron Belliard for Mike Schmidt any day.

It's not that simple of course. Glaus is expensive. But to paraphrase James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams "It's money we have, and homers we lack." Then there's the fact that Aaron Hill, already a better hitter than Hudson, is ready to step in at 2B. Sure, there will be times when a ball shoots into right field for an RBI single, and people will grouse that "Hudson woulda had it." Much of that talk will be forgotten when Glaus launches his next 3-run homer.

Batista was out of roles in Toronto, so his inclusion provides some salary relief. Ultimately this trade comes down to this: would you rather have Koskie/Hudson or Glaus/Hill at second and third? Glaus and Hill are younger and will put a whole lot more runs on the board. The Jays are a more expensive team as a result of this deal, but they're also quite a bit better.

Sean Doyle: They say the enemy of greatness is pretty good. Having signed the pitchers they wanted the Jays were left with a lineup of guys who were, as a whole, average to slightly above average. Consider the EqA (Equivalent Averages) of the Jays lineup. If you haven't seen this stat before its a quick way of measuring the production of a hitter. They tweak it so after you account for ballparks and so on .260 is exactly average. a .300 EqA hitter is usually where the All-Stars weigh in.

Catalanotto  .288
Hillenbrand  .278
Wells        .272
Hinske       .269
Zaun         .265
Koskie       .264
Hill         .261
Johnson      .260
Hudson       .259
Adams        .257
MacDonald    .256
Menechino    .255
Rios         .248
Gross        .241
Quiroz       .173

That leaves a lineup with a couple of below average guys with upside (Rios & Quiroz) a bunch of average guys, and a top player who doesn't play against lefties. No gaping holes by any means but a team like this screams "Third Place".

A lineup like this is in some ways harder to improve than, say, the Yankees, who had some superstars and some obvious weakness. You have to give up a quality player somewhere, and unfortunately Hudson was the guy everybody wanted. We'll miss him on the field, and he's such a friendly guy that if you can't cheer for Orlando you're rotting on the inside. However, he was our 9th hitter most of the year and at 28 he's not likely to make a lot of improvement going forward. It seems like Glaus has been around forever but he's only 29 so its not like the Jays got much older. His EqA last year was .294, a near All-Star year although he was playing hurt all year. He figures to improve upon that number, and we also make room for Aaron Hill, who is already as good as Hudson with the bat, and is young enough to take it up a level.

Hudson's defense is top notch - according to Baseball Prospectus he should be worth about 3 wins above a replacement 2B in 2006 with his glove, which is a whole lot. Hill is pegged for about 1.5 wins - the differnce will be hard to spot, especially with the offensive boost he could bring.

Batista has value too, since he gives a team lots of league-average innings, but there would not have been many innings to give him in Toronto. He will help Arizona, but he was not going to help Toronto.

Joel Williams: Hey, if we wanted Carlos Delgado and his bloated contract and his shoddy defence we would have kept Carlos Delgado....

That being said...

I loved this trade. Another "step in the right direction". (I didn't, however, like the fact that Glaus was told he could play 3B, because, well, he can't really. Oh well. Bye bye Koskie, we hardly knew ye.)

I've missed the presence - as I'm sure Vernon Wells has too - of that big bopper in the middle of the line-up. Finally, fireworks at the SkyDome... er, Rogers Centre. And they don't do fireworks there anymore. Whatever. I'm looking forward to the homeruns.

I'll miss the O-Dog terribly. The pitching staff definitely will too. But Hill had to play.

And I've already forgot that other guy's name.

Good deal JP. Even though it looks like you're running this team in circles.

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