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Molina Acquisition Forthcoming?

By mark w

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According to the Toronto Sun, J.P. Ricciardi may have enough money to woo free agent catcher Bengie Molina.

"We still may be able to do something with (Bengie) Molina," Ricciardi said yesterday regarding the veteran free agent catcher. "We'll have to see how much money we have going forward. We'll still need money next year."

If the season were to begin today, the 25-man roster would likely consist of the following players:

Of course, if Molina joins the team, Guillermo Quiroz would likely be sent back to AAA. That would likely be more helpful to his development than sitting on the bench in Toronto for most of the season. The Jays' pursuit of Molina demonstrates the team's lack of confidence in Quiroz's ability to become an effective everyday player.

The fact that Dustin McGowan isn't on this list is indicative of the amount of depth in the system at the moment. It's likely that he'll have to fight his way on to the 25-man roster in spring training, likely having to beat out the likes of Pete Walker and Scott Downs.

In other news, Corey Koskie has maintained his composure throughout the entire ordeal he's had to endure in the past week. From all accounts, Koskie is very well-respected by many in baseball, and others would've definitely handled the situation in a much worse manner.

"I had about a five-minute talk with J.P.," Koskie said on Saturday. "We just sort of started out with small talk and I thought he was calling me to say they wanted me to play the outfield. Then he said: 'We traded you. To Milwaukee.' I was kind of shocked because I haven't been traded before. But Milwaukee's good. I like the city, it's in the Midwest, about a four-hour drive from my home [in Medina, Minn.], and they have a young, exciting team.

In Buster Olney's blog on espn.com, he stated that the Blue Jays made the right decision in keeping Shea Hillenbrand. Why does he feel this way, you ask? Well, he goes on to say, "...he's more of a consistent RBI guy than Corey Koskie." At first I thought it was simply another poor argument by Olney that I should simply ignore. But after minimal research, I think he might be on to something. Consider the OPS with RISP each player posted over the past three years (2003-2005):

Three years is certainly not a small sample size, either. Koskie's stats with RISP are somewhat counterintuitive. One would expect that a player would hit better when other are on base. For instance, the opposing pitcher is likely not pitching well, since he allowed others to reach base. I can't posit an explanation with any confidence, but if anyone else has any theories that might shed some light on Koskie's mediocre production with men on base, please post them in the comments section.

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