Jays close to acquiring R.A. Dickey

[bluejays]

Apparently the deal is done, the Jays now have a 72 hr window to sign him to an extension to complete the trade.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/t...y-trade-121412

Great find, thanks man.
Would love to know the prospect. Buck is obviously a salary dump.

[Axeman33]

One of the players coming back is catcher Tholes. I hope he knows how to catch a knuckleball because I doubt JPA does.

[bluejays]

People should watch the cast right now on sportsnet, pretty "down to earth" dude and will only help the clubhouse. C'mon guys, lets get behind this and move on!

[Axeman33]

Why is my gut saying we will be looking back on this deal in a year and a half saying "whoops!".

I hope I eat those words but I normally trust my gut.

[bluejays]

Nope, love RA more and more I hear about him.

[metaldude26]

Thole is Dickey's personal catcher so he was kind of a must in this deal.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/sc...t-his-glove-is

[Jason_Banks]

Thole is Dickey's personal catcher so he was kind of a must in this deal.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/sc...t-his-glove-is

Kinda like Wakefield and Doug Mirabelli, Scott Hattaberg and Kevin Cash...

Knuckleballs themselves are not difficult to catch (coming from a catcher that catches many of them in softball), but you need to learn an individual pitcher's tendancy on them, knucks have thier own inconsistant movements, but differnt pitchers have ball personalitys that you can learn to track... it takes several months to be fully comfortable and competent, not a couple practices... (personally I've seen knucks from several pitchers for the past 6 years, only 2 I'm fully comfortable with due to playing with them 4 years each)

Its is also difficult to go from a +90 MPH Fastball and Sliders to a Knuck, which is why you see mostly backups work with Knuckleballers and become personal catchers that will only play once every 5 games and maybe catch a few from the pen...

I use 2 gloves for catching differnt types pitchers, and I will exchange them mid inning when a new pitcher is introduced to a game if needed...

I know long, useless, personal story to agree with the fact Thole needs to come with Dickey...

I'm lucky I got rid of Thole (as much as I like him) last year, as I own Arencibia, Wieters and now Derek Norris instead of Thole...

[dmvincent]

Well, well, well...

It seems some of you are warming up to this deal. Lets think about this for a second, d'Arnaud and Syndergaard are not a sure thing, they haven't proven anything at the big league level yet. John Buck is a backup catcher, then the Jays got a solid young catcher in Josh Thole. On top of all that, AA is making sure he can sign Dickey to a contract extension in order to complete the trade. That was a fantastic idea and I think Dickey will definitely agree to an extension in the next few days.

So, Toronto got a Cy Young winner and a solid catcher that is in the big leagues. New York got two could be stars, but who knows? Prospects take so long to develop and the Jays have a great group of scouts that can find guys in the draft.

[dmvincent]

Oh and another thing, you think this guy can't handle the AL East?

From Bruce Arthur of the National Post today:

"For the record, R.A. Dickey in six starts against American League East teams since 2010, including three against the Yankees: 42 innings, 20 hits, eight earned runs, 45 strikeouts and 11 walks, and a 1.71 ERA."

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/...-dickey-trade/

Something you probably haven't considered is how much fun it will be for the fans to watch Dickey pitch, I can't wait!

[metaldude26]

Still not a huge fan of trading two top prospects for a player who unless he can repeat his one season of elite numbers is otherwise replaceable via free agency.

[bondon]

Still not a huge fan of trading two top prospects for a player who unless he can repeat his one season of elite numbers is otherwise replaceable via free agency.

My thoughts exactly from the start of all of these rumours.

I'd rather, if management is serious about going for it, overspend for a FA starter and hang onto D'Arnaud/Syndergaard as assets for the deadline if we really feel we've got a strong team and we're going all in.

In any case, I'm pretty excited for this year.

[Axeman33]

Dont get me wrong, I am happy the Jays are pulling out all the stops to win this year but how many of us saw them as a potential playoff team after the Marlins deal?

Many say that D'Arnaud and Syndergaard havent played a MLB game yet, but neither have the 2013 Jays.

I am happy the Jays are improving their rotation. I said that had to be their priority going through this offseason and thankfully they are addressing it. Dickey is still a question mark for me because of his "lackluster" career numbers short of last year. (I dont buy this 3 yrs of performance.) I look at the important number and thats W's and Dickey doesnt excell there short of last year (only the second time in his 10 yr career that he has surpassed the 10 W mark).

You can say the Jays are getting a Cy Young winner, but until he wins one for the Jays, or performs like one, he's still a Cy Young winner for another club, which doesnt help the Jays today, or tomorrow.

I was thrilled at the Marlins deal, but this one I am skeptical of. Once the year starts up, I hope I will look back on this thread and say wow, I was wrong, good on ya RA for proving me wrong. Until then, I still see us pushing all our poker chips in a little early for my liking.

[ruckus1717]

I hear ya! There are still a few decent FA pitchers that are out there that could improve that last spot in the rotation. See where we are 50 games in before you decide to trade away what could be our 2 best youngins we've had in years. Yes they haven't played a game but the potential is there. I to hope I'm proved wrong by my negative thoughts, but it's just hard to be super positive about this at this point. I guess we just have to trust, AA obviously knows a bit more about these kinda things than we do and he's not going to just throw our future away without getting something back.

[bondon]

Hearing reports that we just reached a 2 year/25 mill deal pending a physical.

He better bring it. We just paid a heavy price for him.

And as Jays fans we better pray to the baseball gods that Thole never gets injured. Can you imagine JPA trying to catch knuckleballs? Guy can't even handle regular pitches sometimes.

[spitball]

interesting take by dave cameron;

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index...ne-great-year/

and his follow up regarding the logic of the deal;

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index...ue-jays-style/

go jays