FanPost

Prospects vs. Big Leaguers

It's anything but a secret what the Toronto Blue Jays need to make a legitimate playoff push to break the 21 year streak, PITCHING. And it seems to be a debate as to how they should go about filling that void. The Jays have great 1st Tier prospects that all teams are interested in, but Anthopoulos has made it very clear Stroman, Hoffman Castro & Norris are untouchable at this point for a rental player. Where Toronto is falling short is their lack of 2nd Tier prospects. Players like Pompey, Boyd, Doubront have not been attracting as much attention.

With the 2015 non-waiver trade deadline fast approaching, here are a list of past Blue Jays prospects that were highly touted and very successful in minor league ball that never quite turned into the player(s) we were expecting.

David Cooper - 1B
1st Round (2008) - 17th overall

J.P. Arencibia - C
1st Round (2007) - 21st overall

Ricky Romero - P
1st Round (2005) - 6th overall

Chad Jenkins - P
1st Round (2009) - 20th overall

Brett Wallace - 1B/3B
1st Round (2008) - 13th overall

Brett Cecil - P
1st Round (2007) - 38th overall

David Purcey - P
1st Round (2004) - 16th overall

Curtis Thigpen - P
2nd Round (2004) - 5th overall

Kevin Aherns - 3B
1st Round (2007) - 16th overall

Justin Jackson - SS
1st Round (2007) - 45th overall

So you may ask, what does all this mean? The point I'm trying to make is that at one time or another the players listed above where highly touted prospects that the Blue Jays didn't want to trade as they were "the future" of the franchise. Yes, they have had successful players come up through the system over the years such as Vernon Wells, Alex Rios, Roy Halladay, Drew Hutchinson etc. But here is my question to you ...

If you were the GM, would you trade prospects for a legit MLB starter? My answer is YES, absolutely. Prospects are never a guarantee, an already proven MLB players you know exactly what your getting. I am a believer that if a team wins a championship and in the process they depleted their whole farm system, it was the right move because your the Champs. No trade made by a championship winning team was the wrong Trade.

With 62 games left in the Blue Jays regular season Toronto sits at 50-50, 6.5 games back of the AL East leading Yankees & 3.0 games back of Minnesota for the AL wild card spot. Toronto will not catch the AL East leading Yankees and is it worth trading the farm for a 1 game play off?

Moving forward will the jays top ranked offence (523 runs scored) and 23rd ranked pitching (4.05 team ERA) be enough to get this team in the post season? Will the teams top ranked prospects turn into impactful MLB starters? Will Anthopoulos pull the trigger on a trade, if not will he be the teams GM in 2016? With this team there is alot more questions than answers, and this loyal fan base will have some very important questions answered in the coming weeks.

Editor's Note: This is a FanPost written by a reader and member of Bluebird Banter. It was not commissioned by the editors and is not necessarily reflective of the opinions of Bluebird Banter or SB Nation.