Comments on: Blue Jays GM sees Brett Wallace as 1st Baseman

By: VolsnCards5

VolsnCards5 — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:49:51 +0000

tom….i was just talking about last year…of course lee had more value in the long run, but i was looking at it from the persepective of last season’s playoff run

By: chuckb

chuckb — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:34:06 +0000

AZ — your statement about “revisionist history” seems to imply that Wallace could not have been an average defender at third because the Cards never really saw him as a third baseman. Wouldn’t that same logic then also apply to Allen Craig, who’s never really been given a chance as a third baseman?

I agree that he was never seen as a third baseman long term, or maybe even short term, but just because the Cards never believed him to be a third baseman doesn’t necessarily mean he couldn’t have been adequate in the short term.

By: BigJawnMize

BigJawnMize — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:40:36 +0000

Your right he can hit…he will not lose that skill. I don’t see him as a huge run producer. The problem is that he is a high OBP DH that can’t run. High OBP guys need to be able to run the bases well to score a high number of runs.

By: bc

bc — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:43:02 +0000

bigjawn – couldn’t agree more on that video. that was an abomination (assuming he was actually trying and not out there screwing around after a bender the night before – being drunk would be the only excuse for that lack of timing).

wallace will be a fine hitter in the majors for a long time – he doesn’t need to play much defense (see sean casey, matt stairs, etc.). But he had little future role with the cards.

By: Blaise

Blaise — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:27:05 +0000

Have to agree with the Robot and BigJawnMize. Wallace will be lucky if he can last 5 years of major league service time. The dude is a fat pig. From one fat pig to another, your body goes pretty quick in all areas. I wish him the best though. I never came close to regretting the trade.

By: bigchieftootiemontana

bigchieftootiemontana — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:41:31 +0000

Good luck to Wallace making it at first base for the Jays. I think Wallace, Kozma, Jones and a pitcher might have gotten Halladay or Lee. But the braintrust determined they needed a hitter instead. Happy with the trade for Holliday except for the division series.

Does anyone think Wallace will be playing at Skydome 2010? If he tears it up
in the International League he could be after the break as a rotating DH .

By: Forsch31

Forsch31 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:04:58 +0000

>>>”Don’t let people purport that revisionist (or simply inaccurate) history that he was going to be an average defender at third.”

Not sure how it can be revisionist history if he never had the opportunity to play there at the highest level. Logic failure.

The fact remains that the Cardinals didn’t believe he would stick at third after drafting him, that many scouts believed he had a better chance at making the majors as a first baseman or DH, and now his new team’s GM sees him as a first baseman. That view made Wallace–an elite prospect, especially at the plate–expendable and available to get somebody like Holliday as a return. I still think the Cardinals paid too much in that trade for a possible rental, but with Pujols at first, Wallace simply had no real future in the organization.

By: tom s.

tom s. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:09:12 +0000

It’s silly to say that trading for holliday would have more value than trading for lee for the simple fact that lee would have been the club’s for a season longer than holliday, at slightly more than we just spent on penny.

I don’t care how you figure pitching war; ten months of lee is worth more than two of holliday.

By: BigJawnMize

BigJawnMize — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:18:43 +0000

Bret Wallace had eaten himself out of the Cardinals 3b job. I bet in two years the Jays will see him as more of a DH after he has eaten himself out of their 1st-base job. That video of him taking grounders at third was the deathnail for me, he had fallen so far from the shape he was in in college. Major League ball might be a blessing for him because he will have more access to better training equipment and nutrition.

This brings me back to point I have made before. Wouldn’t it be a good investment for the major league team to put more money into the minor leaguers diet and training. These guys eat like crap all year and have poor access to training equipment on the road. In Walllace’s case this was worth millions.

By: dave

dave — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:49:56 +0000

lets assume (. . . i know, ass out of u and me . . . or just me, whatever) that the Holliday trade had never been made and the walrus was still in the system–could the cardinals have gotten halladay for wallace, garcia, + 1 more piece–i would say robert stock but he can’t be traded yet.

who do you think the +1 could have been . . .

would you rather have holliday on a 5 year deal for 16 mil a season or have halladay on a for a season at 15 mil (+ the 6 mil that Toronto kicked in) and 20 mill for three seasons after that?