David Moro from writes: Come on. Let me see if I understand your reasoning here: 1.) Rolen was here to upgrade the defence considerably. 2.) Rolen was the Jay's answer to the Yankee and Red Sox big boppers Now that he is hurt (for about the first month), they are clearly doomed. To which I say: Not really, and Huh?! Troy was a very good third baseman. The problem was, he was too slow, too old and too hurt to do much of anything, let alone play. Nice if you'd check the newswires, but Troy is already out with a bad back...who knew? Who cares if Rolen is out a month? The Jays can handle it. Shannon Stewart is basically the same player, minus the career home runs that Rolen hasn't hit for like three years. Rolen was here for speed and some OBP, and an actual living breathing third baseman --check.-(-gone for a month on some cheap fluky injury or not). The Jays have never had an offence like the Yankees and Sox--never. It;s all about the pitching, clearly. Now the Jays have added some speed and OBP and hopefully a healthy Vernon Wells and Lyle Ovberbay. Those are clearly more central players to whether Toronto can even be in the same stratospehere with the big boys offensively--certainly more than whether Big Frank is hitting early (he can be more than ably replaced with Stairs anyway) or if Rolen goes out (he is abnly replaced by Scutaro and Stewart, both very solid hitters and much quicker than their predecessors). In terms of order of importance with Toronto nothing has changed. Halladay McGowan Marcum Litsch Burnett (no one excpects anything from him) Bullpen Accardo Downs League everybody else. Wells Rios Overbay Hill Rolen (replaced by Stewart in terms of speed and OBP-doubles) Eckstein Stairs/Thomas Stewart (Rolen) Zaun/Barajas Nothing has changed, except a slight downgrade on offence, which isn't really how they'dllwin this year anyway (if they do win).

• Posted 25/03/08 at 5:13 AM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment