For all you/us John McDonald fans, time to do alittle comparison. Compare him to who? Why, compare the 3 who replaced him of course! Boooone, Cora, and Hernandez. Should be interesting. And as we've stated before, well before the trade took place, it might be an nice example of a penny wise, dollar foolish.
Granted, its early.
Mac AVG .333) Games 21) Hits 17) K's 5) BB 4) RBI 7 Pay $400,000
Cora AVG .234) Games 31) Hits 22) K's 15) BB 2) RBI 4 Pay $1,300,000
Hern AVG .227) Games 24) Hits 15) K's 13) BB 3) RBI 9 Pay $1,800,000
We're not going to touch Boooones #'s. The .157 Avg, 35 K's, and forget he leads the team hitting into DP's. But don't forget his $3,000,000 payday.
We still don't understand the trade yet, we easily figured Mac fit into the scheme of things at least 1 more season. For his price tag, his Defense is superb, probably equal or better than the current players filling the position of 3rd, SS, and 2nd, and more than you could expect from a Utility man.
Shapiro took some chances. Thinking he would rule the Central, he 'beefed' up the utility roles, and took a big gamble on a vacationing, injured 3rd baseman.
He also ups the payroll by $5,700,000 for 2005 for these 3 players, instead of the measly $400,000 Mac is getting.
Stay with a sure thing, unless a better sure thing comes along. Booooone, Cora, and Hernandez haven't shown that ... yet.
Mac, easily turning into a fan favorite in Toronto. No big favorites out of these 3 yet, but it's early.
And interesting the lineup changes Wedgie could have done. Mac, Peralta, Phillips(?), Bellies, Blake.
And over $5 million in change to play with for Shapiro.