Surf’s Up, Seattle

I’m not sure if there are ample surfing spots in Washington State, but Brandon League is certainly going to get lots of practice on the West Coast playing for the Seattle Mariners. The trade was finalized today sending League and minor league prospect Johermyn (yo-Herman!) Chavez to the M’s for Brandon Morrow.

The Blue Jays certainly appear to be on the winning side of this deal; Morrow has a lot of upside and with just over one year of service time he would be under team control until 2012.

League often tortured us with his Jekyll/Hyde antics – one week he would be lights out, and the next he looked like a deer in the headlights.


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The trade comes as a bit of surprise; one would have expected Lyle Overbay to be the next Blue Jays dealt, but it turns out that Brandon League is the one who will now take up residence in Washington State.

Condolences go out to Drew at Ghostrunner on First who has had not one, not two, but three of his favourite players stripped away and traded to other teams this year. Talk about kicking a man when he’s down …

After all is said and done, I look forward to seeing Brandon Morrow pitch in Toronto. It sounds like he has a lot of potential, and could be a solid number two starter down the road.

Peering into the Crystal Ball

Imagine if you will three years from now and picture what the Blue Jays starting rotation will look like. Take your pick from these five guys: Shaun Marcum, Brandon Morrow, Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil, Marc Rzepczynski, and Kyle Drabek.

It still may be a few years down the road, but that sounds like the Blue Jays will have one hell of a starting rotation in a couple of years that could contend with the best teams in the American League.

Ian Hunter

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez "mine" incident. He'll also retell the story of Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.

7 thoughts on “Surf’s Up, Seattle

  • December 23, 2009 at 2:08 am
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    Thanks for the love Ian, better to have loved and lost and all that good stuff.

  • December 23, 2009 at 5:31 am
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    Don't forget Zach Stewart and Chad Jenkins. Henderson Alvarez might not be far behind Jenkins.

    All we have are #2/#3 starters. Who's going to pitch on the other days??

  • December 23, 2009 at 1:25 pm
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    Ian,

    Why is it that nobody else seems to remember how good Marcum was 2 years ago? He is almost completely ignored everywhere but your site… keep up the good work

  • December 23, 2009 at 3:34 pm
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    Drew, it's never easy to lose a loved one – we're all here for you, man. League was a very intriguing character and brought some personality to what was otherwise a pretty straight-laced team.

    Gil, I honestly forgot all about Zack Stewart (maybe it was the talk that he was the prospect being sent to Seattle in the League trade). That being said, I'd rather have a 5-man rotation stacked with #2 and #3 quality starters as opposed to one dominant ace and a three or four shitballers.

    Scotty, glad to hear you also have an affinity for Shaun Marcum. He was (and still is) one of my favourite pitchers, but unfortunately ever since his TJ surgery, it seems like most folks have forgotten about him. I'm hoping for great things for him in 2010!

  • December 23, 2009 at 5:37 pm
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    I must say that so far AA is impressing me. He's got a vision and he's following through. It seems to be a very sound plan.

  • December 23, 2009 at 6:45 pm
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    Mattt, I have to say that I'm warming up to Anthopoulos. At first I was a little apprehensive about the regime change, but now I'm on board.

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