I think you should look at the situation from the opposite perspective.

Instead of deciding what areas the Jays should be dealing from, it’s more more important to determine first which players out there might be available right now that could fill Toronto’s need for a Lefty power bat.

IMO, left-handed power-hitting is almost always at a premium in the major leagues and one of the Jays major problems that I can see is that 3 of their everyday power spots

Wells (CF)
Rios (RF)
Rolen (3B)

are occupied by Right-handed hitters

while

2 of their everyday power spots are occupied by players who DON’T really strike much ‘fear’ into opposing pitchers or their managers hitting from the Left side

Overbay (1B)
Stairs (DH).

Of the established Left-handed power bats out there today, who might be available because they’re struggling right now?

And which ones can play either CF, RF, 3B, 1B or DH?

(after you figure out this, then you can decide from what area of potential surplus might the Jays be able to reach into to swing a deal for that specific player)

Assume you’re correct and the Jays do need a power hitting lefty bat, but also work under the constraint that Godfrey has told you absolutely no Bonds. What do you think is our best option to fill the void? Do we:

-move some of our OF depth
-move some of our young SP
-move some of our bullpen depth
-wait until the offseason (and if so, who do we target)

Just curious as to what you think the best route is, assuming J.P. had a clue.

However, with the current line-up, and only Overbay hitting from the left-side, there are almost zero hits (never mind power shots) being picked up from a Rightie Pitcher’s inherent/customary point of weakness.

During his time in Toronto, JP has consistently shown that he has no idea how to put together a major league team capable of getting to a World Series some day in the future.

None whatsoever.

That’s not what I was getting at.

When determining how effective a specific batting order is likely going to be against a specific starting pitcher it’s important to consider how an individual right-hander pitcher fares vs lefty batters, in general, and not merely what the hitters in today’s line-up are capable of doing vs a right-handed pitcher, in general.

For example …

Aaron Hill (2B) might be ‘even’ vs Righties and vs Lefties

but today’s mound opponent (Wakefield) might be decidely ‘worse’ vs Lefty batters …

in which case it would behoove John Gibbons to get that extra L-handed bat in the line-up, at 2nd base, for today’s game … even though Hill is just as good vs Righties or Lefties.

Baseball is such an intricate game of precision managerial maneouvres that even one slight advantage for a single at-bat in an average ball game can tip the balance one way or the other, when it comes to W’s & L’s.

The biggest concern, then, isn’t that the Jays can’t hit righties, it’s that they can’t hit anyone, lefties and righties together.

Check this for more.

The additional hits this team would be picking up with another left-handed bat in the everyday line-up, vs Right-handed pitchers, would be coming from (A) the opposition’s inability to deal as effectively with a Left-handed hitter, as much as (B) the increased batting average, on-base percentage & slugging average of the Blue Jays Left-handed hitters who perform better vs Rightie hurlers.

An interesting but useless note is that he hits WAY better on the road than at home, meaning the Syracuse faithful have probably turned on him like Jays fans did.

Syracuse is still pretty hot, though, at 17-10, 1 game back in the division. You can chalk that up to starting pitching as only one started has an ERA above 4.00.

IMO JG is a poor baseball manager.

BTW … could you pass along a quick update re: Russ Adams?