Brett Lawrie: Toronto Blue Jay?

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want Lawrie to start opening day with Toronto. I think it would be harmful to his development, as a fielder, and as a hitter. He’s making it awfully hard not to consider him though. There’s a bunch of factors that play into it, and I’m going to try to see if him starting the year here is really a bad idea.

A)   A) The conditions at AAA Las Vegas.

-The field conditions in Las Vegas are hard, rough and not the environment you want to put a guy learning a brand new position.  And while I know Rogers Centre wouldn’t necessarily be any better, at least he would have consistent access to Brian Butterfield, and I don’t think sending him back to AA is a great idea because…

B)  B) He’s too good to go back to New Hampshire

-He put up a .361 wOBA at Huntsville last year. He had a respectable BB% of 7.7, and his K% was 21.3, which is really quite good for a 21 year old with just over 1000 pro at-bats. And some of those triples and doubles are going to start turning into tater tots. I don’t think it would be good for his development, or psyche, to go back to New Hampshire and hit .300/.380/.500. He seems like the kind of guy who would let that go to his head.

C)  C) Speaking of his personality…

-Do you really want Brett ‘Doctored Eminem Tattoos’ Lawrie going to sin city? I’ll let you answer this one.

D)  D) Our line-up would improve

Without Lawrie:

C Arencibia

1B Lind

2B Hill

3B Bautista

SS Escobar

LF Snider

CF Davis

RF Thames/Podsednik/Patterson*

DH Encarnacion

With Lawrie:

C Arencibia

1B Lind

2B Hill

3B Lawrie

SS Escobar

LF Snider

CF Davis

RF Bautista

DH Encarnacion

…Uh, yeah, Podsednik or J-Bau…your call.

E)  E) He had a double and a homerun today, and Ashby liked his D

-This is a completely reactionary post. I listened to the Jays game today on the ol’ Fan 960 here in Calgary, and when I heard Ashby gushing about Lawrie pickup on the one double play…well, got me thinking about his defensive readiness, I mean, he has been playing second for a year or two now, hasn’t he? Weren’t we all asking for Hill to go play third earlier this year? Can’t be too hard of a transition. And then ‘The Law’ hit his homer and…well, this post was spawned.