Colby Rasmus recently gave a great interview reflecting on his 2014 season. He suggested some issues he had this year with hitting into the shift, batting average on balls in play, and wear and tear from playing on turf. Here we look into these components of Rasmus' play for this season and last.

When the Toronto Blue Jays acquired Colby Rasmus as part of a 6-player deal in July 2011, there was a fair amount of excitement. Alex Anthopoulos exerted his ninja GMing on the Cardinals, acquiring a young player at a premium position who would be under team control for a few more seasons. The much-ballyhooed conflict between Rasmus and Cardinals manager Tony La Russa left many suggesting that the change in scenery would do Rasmus well. In his three seasons in Toronto, Rasmus has produced 1.0, 4.8, and 0.6 fWAR (6.4 total), which is basically what he produced in St. Louis (7.1) with similar playing time. So perhaps getting a scenery change was not the critical factor. Regardless, that 4.8 fWAR in 2013 looked like he had made himself a critical part of the Blue Jays outfield for the foreseeable future. Then his 2014 season happened.

Here are statlines for the two seasons:

His performance this season and a group of ready to emerge players make it unlikely Rasmus will be back in Toronto in 2015. As his time in Toronto draws to a likely conclusion, Rasmus spoke candidly in a fantastic interview with TSN's Scott MacArthur. The interview is not your typical cliché-riddled affair. Rasmus speaks openly about his performance in Toronto, the injuries and adjustments he has worked through, and the persistent rain cloud hanging over him: his time in St. Louis. There is a lot to take away from the interview, but I wanted to key in on a few aspects to evaluate Rasmus' performance and think about his future in the league.

The Shift and Batting Average on Balls in Play

Rasmus suggests that his less than stellar performance this season has partly been a result of being shifted by opposing teams and tough luck on balls in play. Specifically, he says:

I ran into a crazy year of baseball this year as far as the shift goes and things like that. These pitchers pitched me into the shift pretty well. I believe I had my highest percentage of hard balls or line drives since I've been in the big leagues but the lowest average on balls in play. That's been tough and I don't think I've been through a stretch like that in my career to where balls that I've hit hard have been caught so much and it's been a struggle to not try to do too much up there because I've hit so many balls hard and hit into the shift or whatever.

Now it is difficult to say whether Rasmus has been shifted more this year than last, although it is a fair assumption given that defensive shifting is up league wide. That, and Rasmus' spray charts suggest he is a good candidate:

As evident from the chart, Rasmus' groundballs and linedrives are typically pulled to the right side, so shifting against him makes sense. Rasmus did hit more line drives and groundballs this season than he did in 2013, so the defensive shifting likely did impact his results this season.

How about that issue of batting average on balls in play? Well therein lies the rub. Rasmus is right that his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is down this season, but really only when it is compared to his strong 2013 season. In 2013 his BABIP was .356, which is above the typically expected rate and well above his current career mark of .293. His .294 BABIP in 2014 is back in line with expectations and his career mark. So looking at it this way, we can ask if Rasmus has been somewhat unlucky this season, or was he somewhat lucky last season? The statistical evidence seems to support the latter rather than the former. Yet, Rasmus' comment from the interview suggests he may have become accustomed to the .356 mark and found his .294 rate (which is actually typical for him) difficult to handle. We can't know how that sort of thinking may have affected his approach in the batters box. He admits in the interview that it was a struggle to avoid trying too hard and to sort out the strike zone. He did swing more in 2014 than in 2013, both at pitches in-the-zone and outside-the-zone, which might be evidence of him pressing the issue. Ironically his swinging more likely influenced his increased strikeout rate, thereby continuing the cycle of disappointment.

All in all it looks like BABIP and K% can help explain much of the difference between Rasmus' 2013 and 2014 seasons. Unfortunately for Rasmus his 2014 rate is more in line with his projection going forward. So the perceived difficulties may remain.

Defense

Rasmus does not make any specific comments about his defense other than to say that the turf in Rogers Centre has lead to some injury issues:

I played hard and had some problems with the turf and my hips that had my hamstrings barking on me, which I haven't dealt with in the past me. The turf has taken a little toll on me in the past couple of years. I try to tell myself that I've played hard on the turf, I've dove on that turf and played a lot of games in a row. I think in the past couple of years I've played like over 50-something games in a row on the turf without an off day and I think that might have had a little something to do with it.

The effect that playing on turf has on a player's body and their longevity is an interesting question for another day. The cited injuries to his legs would impact his speed and therefore range. So we can continue the comparison of Rasmus' 2013 and 2014 seasons, now looking at his defense to see if this is the case. Doing so shows that, much like his offense, 2014 was the weaker of the two seasons. In 2014 Rasmus rated as a below average centerfielder (-9.1 UZR). The difference between 2013 and 2014 is a little over 2 wins of production. That is a significant effect. So, is Colby the solid defender of 2013 or the weak defender of 2014? As is often the case the answer probably lies somewhere in between. Digging into the numbers reveals that the difference in defensive performance really comes down to his making a few extra plays in 2013. We can see this within the Inside Edge Fielding data:

Or if you prefer, here are things in spray chart form (2013 on the left, 2014 on the right):

In neither season did Rasmus make a play rated as Impossible (0%) or Remote (1-10%) so they are not included in the table above. But you can see in the table (and to some extent on the spray chart) that he made 2 Unlikely, 3 extra Even and 68 extra Routine plays in 2013. These plays drive much of the difference in Rasmus' defensive contributions across seasons, and in turn affect the difference in fWAR.

This is also a fairly nice example of the variation in fielding numbers from season to season. In Rasmus' case we are looking at the performance difference from being above average to below average being driven by 72 extra plays. Now, 68 of these plays were routine and really just a function of more playing time (he had 283.1 extra innings in CF in 2013). But they still add some value. Then we have the 5 difficult plays. Making or missing those plays could simply be starting position, which is not entirely accounted for in the current metrics. It could be due to wear and tear from playing on turf for 2+ seasons. It could be distraction from thinking about making an out at the plate in the previous half inning. We really do not know. Regardless, the difference between balls falling in for a hit and being caught is considerable. For an offense analogy, imagine converting 72 outs into hits/walks for a batter. Given 600 PAs this could transform a player with a league average OBP (.314) to being the best in the league (.433). In either case, making outs on defense (and not making outs on offense) represents an addition of value over an average player, and Rasmus did that to a lesser extent in 2014.

Conclusion

I know that ain't a quick summary, that's a lot of stuff going on but I just chalk it up as it wasn't my year.

In the end I agree with Rasmus' comment above. As outlined here his good fortune on balls in play from 2013 went away, and he did not make as many plays on defense; as a result, his contribution to the team was not as great. Going forward he may need to live with his 2014 level of BABIP, but he has above-average power, and his defensive production could certainly bounce back. The Blue Jays are unlikely to extend Rasmus a qualifying offer this offseason and seem ready to give Anthony Gose, Kevin Pillar, and/or Dalton Pompey a chance in center field next season. So he will be playing elsewhere. Ideally he will find a place in which he can feel comfortable going about his business. On the other hand, maybe another change of scenery will again amount to very little. He seems like a complicated guy that has been through a lot to get to the major leagues - seriously, the workouts with his father sound intense - perhaps overly so - and struggles with the feeling of tremendous pressure to perform. It will be interesting to see how the market plays out for him this offseason and if he can get to a point where he is consistently contributing at a high level.

. . .

All statistics courtesy of FanGraphs.

Chris Teeter is a Featured Writer at Beyond the Box Score. You can follow him on Twitter at @c_mcgeets.

Not that it is a surprise, but everyone is reporting that John Gibbons will be back next year, barring a major shake up in the Blue Jays organization. It is possible that Paul Beeston would step down and, if they replaced him with someone with a strong baseball operations background, that person might replace Alex Anthopoulos and, in turn, might also replace Gibby. But since there is apparently no movement on Beeston leaving, I'd say that's a long shot.

I'm ok with Gibbons staying. I think he's been fine as a manager. I disagree with some moves but I'll never find a manager that I agree with all the time. I'm sure, even if I was manager, I'd find things to complain about.

To me, the number one thing that Gibby and Alex, or whoever the manager/general manager turns out to be, have to figure out this off-season, is how to keep the players healthy. We are stuck with the turf and it does seem to add to our injury problems. We have more hamstring and back troubles than anyone. Next year it is important to figure out how to keep guys healthy.

It's not just the ones going on the DL, it's the nagging things that guys are playing through. Jose Reyes seemed to be playing through hamstring troubles all year and, despite missing 16 games at the start of the season, still played 138 games at shortstop, with 5 games to go. He's gotta get more rest or play DH some. Edwin Encarnacion has been fighting hamstring and back troubles, and yet has played everyday except for his time on the DL. Bautista did DH 13 times, but most of those games came in July when he was already hurting. Maybe next year, we can be a little more proactive and give him days at DH or days off as a regular thing to try to stay ahead of the nagging injuries.

It is a long season and some of these things are going to come up, but it does seem that we get more of them than most teams and it does seem to be a function of playing on that hard surface. But, we are stuck with it, at least for now, so let's find strategies to deal with it, as best we can. Maybe pregame activities can be modified to keep guys off the turf as much as possible.

There is going to be a new turf next year, but I'm guessing it still won't be the optimal surface for playing baseball. Gibby is going to have to figure out ways to get guys days off from the field. And Alex is going to have to find us bench players that allow Gibby to sub them in without getting the feeling that he's punting a game. It is easy to say you are going to rest players, but, when the games start to count, it is tough not to go with your best lineup.

Other things Gibbons could do for me?

• Develop some patience. The team decides that Jeremy Jeffress is going to make the roster out of spring training, then., 5 days later, we decide he's terrible and if have to be rid of him, even though we can't bring up anyone that was optioned out at the end of spring yet. If you are changing your mind about players in less than 10 days, there is something wrong. Or the stupid things like bringing Esmil Rogers up for one game and then sending him back down, exposing him to waivers. You can't be losing guys because you want someone to sit in the bullpen for one game. Of course I'm not sure if this is on Gibby or Alex, but, between the two of them, they have to buy some patience for next season.
• The same goes for players in the lineup. I got tired of Juan Francisco too, but he's a better choice at third base than Munenori Kawasaki or, against RHP, Danny Valencia. Yes I hate watching him strikeout too and his range at third base could be approximated by putting up a scarecrow at the position, but giving up on him entirely was short sighted and impatient. I'd say the same about Colby Rasmus, but there must have been stuff going on behind the scenes there. Still, while we had a shot at a playoff spot?  Maybe bench him for a couple of days, see if that shocks him into better behavior, but man....if the choice is him or Pillar against a right-hander or Gose hitting .189 with a OBP of about .246 since his return, with a playoff spot on the line, you gotta go with Rasmus.
• And the bunting, especially early in games....Gibby, your first time with the team, one of the things I liked about you was that you didn't bunt. This year, 33 successful bunts (I don't want to try to count the unsuccessful ones). That was more bunts than the average AL team. I get that some of it is the, how to put it nicely, lack of true major league hitters in the lineup, but there is no excuse for bunting early in the game, unless it is NL rules and you have a pitcher up.

Beyond that....I'm pretty much ok with Gibbons. He seemed to get better at reading when to remove R.A, Dickey from games, a major complaint of mine earlier in the season. I'm ok with how he uses the bullpen. Yes, I get there are people that are going to hate his 'body language' or his accent or that he has bad knees. I find that those complaints disappear with wins.

And his players seem to like him. We haven't had a player mutiny for a long while.

Of course, if it was my job to decide his fate next season, he'd have a very very short leash.

Blue Jays 1 Mariners 0

Now that ladies and gentleman is how baseball should be played every night. With Mark Buehrle on the mound it's expected that the games will move along at a pretty good clip, but this was one of the quickest games I've ever seen. With a total of seven hits and two walks, the Blue Jays and Mariners combined to complete nine innings of baseball in a tidy 119 minutes. The contest was the fastest of the season for the Blue Jays by far as the next quickest game this year came on June 1st against the Kansas City Royals and was finished in 134 minutes.

In fact, tonight's game was the quickest nine inning game of the year across the entire major leagues:

That was the quickest 9 inning game of the year (119) http://t.co/Rr1vkYPU1V

— Noah Sherman (@noah_sherman) September 25, 2014

Tonight's #bluejays win was the quickest 9-inning game in MLB since June 27, 2012, and the quickest #jays game since Sept. 15, 2010.

— Brendan Kennedy (@BKennedyStar) September 25, 2014

The contest was a pretty serious pitcher's duel until the eighth inning with both starters in Buehrle and Taijuan Walker pounding the strike zone and racking up the strikeouts. In fact, there was nary a hint that either team was going to be able to get a run on the board until Walker started tiring in the eighth inning and got some bad luck to boot.

In the aforementioned eighth Munenori Kawasaki got on with a walk and Ryan Goins followed it up with a well-placed bloop into short right field with two outs to score the loveable Japanese third baseman. Luckily as there were two outs Kawasaki was running hard on contact and rounded the bases easily as the ball had a huge bounce off the Rogers Centre turf.

In the ninth inning, Buehrle allowed a single to the leadoff batter and was promptly removed from the game in favour of Aaron Sanchez. The young righty quickly threw out pinch runner James Jones (on his birthday!) before striking out Austin Jackson and getting Dustin Ackley to ground out. With the victory, the Blue Jays have won the first three games of this series with Seattle and have all but spoiled the Mariners slim chances at grabbing a Wild Card berth.

Mark Buehrle's final line was 8.0+ innings with three hits and ten strikeouts, while Taijuan Walker went 8.0 innings allowing four hits and recording six strikeouts. It should be noted that after the sixth inning Buehrle broke through the 200 inning mark for the 14th consecutive year, which is pretty remarkable in this day and age. Bravo Mark!

Jays of the Day obviously include Mark Buehrle (.449 WPA), Aaron Sanchez (.284), and Ryan Goins (.321), while Jose Reyes (-.101), Dalton Pompey (-.108), and Anthony Gose (-.118) get the Suckage numbers.

Source: FanGraphs

The series finale goes tomorrow at 4:07 pm as Daniel Norris makes his first major league start against Tom Wilhelmsen. It's still early so now go enjoy the rest of your night!

I figured we ought to do a a series of polls asking seeing asking if we should keep each of our coaches. Let's start with batting coach Kevin Seitzer.

Kevin joined the team this season as the genius batting coach. Blue Jays televised spring games turned into the Kevin Seitzer show. Buck and Pat were tripping over each other to tell us how terrific he was. I'm a pretty obstinate guy, so if people work hard to sell be on the idea that someone is a genius i kind of dig my heels in and decide to hate the guy right away. That really wasn't fair to Seitzer, because he didn't really do anything wrong. It was just that he was oversold to us.

I never buy the idea that a hitting coach can turn a team around. A few years back we had Gary Denbo who was sold to us as the genius that would turn all our hitters into, well, Derek Jeter. That, by itself, got him into my bad books. Then when it seemed like he was trying to turn all our batters into singles hitters, it didn't help my opinion of him. The season didn't go well and Denbo didn't last for long.

Seitzer wasn't helped by the story of Ryan Goins coming to spend a weekend with him and Buck and Pat telling us that  that he would turn Goins into a hitter. It seemed like he was gambling his whole reputation on Goins learning to hit. Now I know, and you know, that no hitting coach can turn someone into a hitter, but we were sold on the idea that he would.

Early in the season, Buck and Pat credited every single hit to Seitzer's influence, then, when the hitters all seemed to hit a slump at the same time, we didn't hear about him any more.

So who do we count as Seitzer's successes this year? Let's see:

• Jose Bautista has a terrific year and did seem to take the ball the other way more often than ever before, he was willing to beat the shift. Let's put Bautista in the positive column for Seitzer.
• Adam Lind had a very good season, if you ignore the absence of home runs. He did seem to be going the other more than ever. I did sometimes think he would have been better off to pull the odd one, but, he had a good year. Let's put Lind in the positive column for Seitzer.
• Edwin Encarnacion had another great year, but then he didn't seem to be following Seitzer's plan of going the other way. I''d put Edwin in the positive column for Seitzer, just because Kevin didn't try to force Edwin into being something he isn't. Or Edwin had the strength to know that his way was working and didn't listen to Kevin.
• Melky Cabrera had a great season. I'm not sure if we should credit that to Seitzer or not, but it was a good year. I'll leave it to you to decide how much credit goes to Seitzer.
• Dioner Navarro had a very good year with the bat. Again I don't how much credit to give to Kevin but Dioner clearly belongs in the win column for Kevin.

Who goes into the loss column for Seitzer:

• Ryan Goins, fairly or unfairly, was the one who was tied to Seitzer the most and he hit much worse this year than last. In 2013, Ryan hit .252/.264/.345 in 34 games, numbers that made your think that, if he improved just a bit, his glove could carry his bat. This year, with Kevin's help, he's hit a pathetic .180/.202/.257, numbers than made you think that you'd rather DH for him and let our pitchers hit.
• Colby Rasmus got along great with Chad Mottola and had a great season last year. This year, you heard the interview, he clearly didn't have the same relationship with Seitzerr.  It might not be fair, but Colby clearly sits in Seitzer's loss column.

Beyond those two, I'm not sure who else should go into his loss column. Juan Francisco? He was great for his first month or so with the team, then teams learned how to pitch him. It likely isn't fair to blame Kevin. He didn't fix him but it is possible that Francisco isn't fixable. I did have this idea that Dwayne Murphy or Cito would have been the right guy to work with Juan.

Beyond that I'll leave it to you to make the case for or against him.

Wow, what a tremendous season this has been. For the first time since 2010 it's looking like the Blue Jays will win more games than they lose in the rough-and-tumble American League East. With teams like the Red Sox and Yankees (I guess the Orioles as well) going up against the Blue Jays 19 times every year it's quite the feeling to scrap out at least a .500 record for the year. The month of May gave fans the feeling that the Blue Jays might be ready to do the extraordinary and qualify for the postseason, but a rough end of the season has not dimmed the outlook on the 2014 campaign. Winning more games than you lose in baseball is hard and the Blue Jays are going to do that.

The team has the pleasure of featuring two of the best sluggers in the entire league in Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, one of which has gotten on base at a higher clip than anyone in the entire league! When Jose Bautista comes up to the plate, there's nearly a 41% chance that he ends up on the base paths safely. That's almost 50% of the time!

On the pitching side, Mark Buehrle just surpassed the 200 inning mark for the 14th consecutive time, which is an incredible display of durability matched by very few. When starters like Brandon Morrow and Dustin McGowan didn't deliver what was expected of them out of the rotation, guys like J.A. Happ and Drew Hutchison stepped in and provided the mid-4.00 ERAs that the team was missing out on. Even the bullpen featured two shutdown lefties that were being paid a combined total that was less than what one middle of the road reliever gets in half a year. Sure, the bullpen as a whole was one of the worst in the league but at least they're not the Tigers who are heading into the postseason with an even worse bullpen than the Blue Jays. That's just a disaster waiting to happen.

The future is just as bright thanks to rookies like Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez proving they can perform in the high intensity atmosphere of September when the chances of getting to 81 wins were looking slim. The attractive draft picks the Blue Jays receive every year from their .500 record certainly helps keep the cycle of success going as well with guys like Max Pentecost and Jeff Hoffman surely looking like locks to push the team over the 81 win mark as September call-ups in 2017.

Sometimes I begin to think that Toronto sports fans have it way too good in this day and age. Some cities like Denver may have a good football and hockey team, but then their baseball team and soccer team stink and that makes summers there very difficult. In Toronto, almost every team wins more than they lose (or they at least hit .500) and even teams that don't like the Leafs still have exciting young rookies that look like Leonardo DiCaprio to help provide some hope for the future. I think it would be a lot less fun to see your team get crushed in the Super Bowl and then have to wait another six months before any team that has a chance at breaking .500 begins to play again.

Who wouldn't want to be us?

A Mariners loss means at the very least, the Royals will be playing past Sunday.

The Mariners try to end their slide with their series conclusion in Toronto this afternoon. A Mariners loss means the Royals can do no worse than tie for the last Wild Card spot. A Mariners loss coupled with a Royals victory clinches at least some sort of Wild Card spot for the Royals.

The Mariners star Tom Wilhelmsen, who is making his second career start after 211 relief appearances. Wilhelmsen has a 2.10 ERA, but 4 walks per nine innings. He is opposed by Daniel Norris for the Blue Jays. Norris is a former Top 100 prospect who will be making his first career start after two relief appearances since his call-up to the big leagues.

#Mariners lineup vs. Blue Jays RH Daniel Norris, 1:07 pm PT. pic.twitter.com/FqumqMIkVF

— Greg Johns (@GregJohnsMLB) September 25, 2014

Today's @BlueJays lineup vs Seattle (4:07pmET start) pic.twitter.com/9iB1CXeGwH

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) September 25, 2014

5 trade deadlines ago, the Reds made a head-scratching move to acquire a 34-year-old Scott Rolen from Toronto. We look back on the trade and how it ended up working out for both teams involved.

Ed. note: Our friends over at The Good Phight have deemed today Scott Rolen Honorary Retirement Day. Check themout.

Scott Rolen'sReds era began at the 2009 trade deadline. After some mid-summer hope, the Reds floundered in late July and were safely out of contention by the deadline. Deadline day saw a couple of minor moves, like the departure of Jerry Hairston Jr. and the arrival of Wladimir Balentien, but the major news of the day centered around the Reds' acquisition of Scott Rolen.

At the time, Rolen was having a pretty good season at the plate for the Toronto Blue Jays. He was hitting .320/.370/.476 in 373 PA, especially impressive as a 34-year-old coming off of a few average years to close out his time in St. Louis. However, the move to acquire him was a suspect one from a Reds perspective.

To acquire Rolen, the Reds sent Edwin Encarnacion, Josh Roenicke, and Zach Stewart to Toronto. Encarnacion was coming off of a career year (at the time) offensively, slugging 26 dingers, but had floundered much of the 2009 season at the plate, hitting only .209 at the time of the trade. It's hard to tell if the Jays were buying low on EdE, or if the Reds were just grateful to get someone to take them off their hands.

The real value in the trade came from the two pitching prospects, Roenicke and Stewart. Roenicke was percieved as closer to the majors, and during his time in Cincinnati was even thought of as a closer of the future. Stewart was the Reds' top pitching prospect at the time, and had just completed a swing up 3 minor league levels in one season, dominating everywhere he'd been.

How did we feel about it here at RR? Not great. To the wayback machine!

This was the prevailing attitude, I think. From the Reds fan perspective, Scott Rolen was a washed up has-been, a significant injury risk, making too much money for the small market Reds. (Remember when we'd be aghast at someone making $11M in one season?)

'Credsy's assessment was another big point to influence our thinking on it. A lot of us at the time saw Rolen as a one year rental, and didn't see the value of giving up prospects for that. Could the fact that the deal Walt gave to extend Rolen worked have anything to do with his insistence on giving two year deals to aging players now?

Your infield dream never came true, Farney.

RR sage Caleb points out just how bad things were in 2009. No faith in ownership. At all. And there really wasn't any reason to have any at that point.

Look at Brendan making good points. He called the Pirates being good!

5 years later, I'm still kind of wondering the same thing.

I liked 'tHan's answer to this, though.

Yep.

Rolen didn't win any championships in Cincinnati, but proved a lot of doubters wrong. He ended up being worth 7.8 bWAR with the Reds, where Stewart and Roenicke were worth 0.2 bWAR combined. Edwin ended up being the major shock of this trade, honestly, worth 16.0 bWAR so far in Toronto. He found his power stroke with his new team, but was a better fit positionally there, too. His defense was much maligned in Cincy, and with Joey Votto the answer at 1B for the foreseeable future, there really wasn't a place for him here. In Toronto he's been able to play a lot of 1B, as well as DHing, giving him two positions to get at bats instead of zero.

If I would have guessed how much value these players would have had after the trade when the trade happened, I would have probably guessed that the order would have been completely flip-flopped. It's hard to say there's a winner or a loser in this trade, as the Reds got what they needed to finally be a contending team without giving up any prospects that would come back to bite them, and the Jays got a hitter that would anchor the middle of their lineup for years to come (although that was unexpected).

That trade deadline thread has a lot of gems in it from a time with a different mindset, but I'll leave you with this.

Some things never change.

The Orioles are headed to Toronto to play the final three games of the regular season. in what will essentially be an exercise in meaningless meaninglessness.

Friday, September 26^th (7:07pm) - Chris Tillman @ Drew Hutchison

Game notes: Chris Tillman has been announced as the ALDS Game 1 starter for the Orioles (against team unknown). That game, barring weather issues, will take place on Thursday, October 2^nd, which means Tillman would have an extra day of rest. In his career, Tillman is 12-6 with a 3.95 ERA with 5 full days of rest, but has been excellent this season (4-0, 1.93 ERA, 4.25 SO/BB).

A reason to watch: Give this one to Chris Tillman. He's getting his due reward for a second consecutive quality 200+ inning season. After tonight, he'll have a career-high 34 starts and possibly exceed 206.1 innings pitched. By WAR, 2014 has been Tillman's top season at 2.2 (in 2013, he posted 1.9). He had a nice W-L record, but can he and Orioles sustain that when it really counts?

Scouting report: The Orioles have seen Hutchison quite a bit this season - 5 times, as a matter of fact. Through the first four outings, he was lights out, allowing just three earned runs in 17.2 innings. In his most recent outing, however, the Oriole bats finally got to him for 5 hits (2 homers) and 6 earned runs. He did still manage to strike out 11 batters during the division championship clinching game. Fun fact for the day on Hutchison: he attended the same high school as Steve Pearce down in Lakeland, FL.

Saturday, September 27^th (4:07pm) - Wei-Yin Chen @ J.A. Happ

Game notes: Chen will make his mark as the O's winningest pitcher this season with 16 wins to date (30 starts). Saturday will be his last start of the season before Friday's post-season action (although he has not been specifically named the Game 2 starter). He's likely to end the season as the Orioles most valuable pitcher at 2.4 WAR.

A reason to watch: It's been a strange season for the Baltimore Orioles. Raise your hand if you thought that, at the beginning of the season, you'd be watching an infield of Kelly Johnson, Ryan Flaherty, Caleb Joseph, and Jimmy Paredes in lieu of guys like Manny Machado, Matt Wieters, and Chris Davis. Don't all answer at once now! We'll dedicate this small section of text to Steve Pearce, who is having the season of a lifetime. Not even a lock to make the team (and at one point was claimed on waivers by Toronto) at the beginning of the year, he's played three positions and been a steady presence in the lineup, putting up career-best numbers in, well, a lot of categories.

Scouting report: Happ has also logged a number of starts against the Orioles this season. In three starts, he's allowed seven earned runs in 20 innings pitched. Happ also recorded a 2.2 inning relief appearance, in which allowed an earned run on two hits (a solo homer). He's seen a pretty big jump in his fastball velocity this season (up to 92.6 from 91 last season) and has subsequently seen improvements with the results. On the other hand, he's struggled with his secondary offerings, including a .996 OPS against when throwing a change.

Sunday, September 28^th (1:07pm) - TBD @ R.A. Dickey

Game notes: The Orioles have yet to name a starter for the season finale. It's could be Ubaldo Jimenez or another pitcher not likely to make the playoff roster. Meanwhile, the Orioles have logged 95 wins this season, their best total since 98 in 1997.

A reason to watch: It's the last game of the regular season. Congrats to the Baltimore Orioles, your 2014 American League East division champions. Good luck in the post-season!

Scouting report: R.A. Dickey will take the hill in the final game for the Toronto Blue Jays. While struggling with his command since his move back to the American League, he has posted better numbers in his second season in Canada. It might not be what fans expected after his move over from the New York Mets, but he's much more in line with his career numbers this time around. Dickey is 0-1 against the Orioles this season with a 3.55 ERA. Oddly enough, he's 7-3 with a 3.02 ERA against teams better than .500 this year (compared to 7-9, 4.11 against teams under .500).

Editor's Note: SB Nation's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-day $18,000 Fantasy Baseball league for tonight's MLB games. It's $2 to join and first prize is $2,000. Jump in now. Here's the FanDuel link.

Scott Rolen of Scott Rolen's Reds

Ed. note: Our friends over at The Good Phight have deemed today Scott Rolen Honorary Retirement Day. Check themout.

When Scott Rolen retired after the 2012 season, there was no farewell tour, no parting gifts, no fanfare.  He quietly put up a 70 WAR career over the course of 17 seasons and then he just stopped.  There was no teary-eyed press conference, hell, he didn't even bother filing the paperwork to officially retire.  Rolen was voted to 8 All-Star teams, won 8 Gold Gloves, was and took home the 1997 Rookie of the Year award, but only once finished in the top 5 in MVP votes (4th place in 2004).  He finished his career in Cincinnati, his fourth franchise, leading a young team out of the darkness of the lost decade and back to respectability*.

*A guy named Joey Votto, and a pretty good pitching staff helped as well.

For whatever reason, Hall of Fame voters have been very reticent to enshrine third basemen.  There are currently only 11 third basemen in Cooperstown, which is a bizarrely low number given that there are 211 players currently enshrined.  When compared to his peers at the position, Rolen stacks up very well, sitting at 8th overall in fWAR of players who played more than half of their games at third.  Using Jay Jaffe's JAWS leaderboard for third basemen, Rolen would be above the average Hall of Fame third baseman in WAR, WAR7 and JAWS score - besting Home Run Baker, Jimmy Collins, George Kell, Freddie Lindstrom, and Pie Traynor, who all have plaques hanging in Cooperstown.

The most recent third baseman to be elected to the Hall of Fame is perhaps Rolen's closest comparison, which may or may not end up being a good thing.  Ron Santo made it in via the Veteran's Committee in 2012, after being snubbed the first time around by the voters.  Santo finished his career with a .277/.362/.464 line, compared to Rolen's .281/.364/.490, with Rolen playing in a much more hitter-friendly environment.  Santo has a +1 fWAR advantage over Rolen over their careers, with Santo playing a little more than 200 games.  Thanks to those extra games, Santo has the edge in counting stats, but their rates stats are extremely similar.  Rolen has a slight edge on defense, but all in all these are two very similar ballplayers, and the fact that Santo is now a member of the Hall of Fame may benefit Rolen.

The question of whether he should make it seems like an easy yes to me, but the question of whether he will gets a bit muddier.  Rolen's biggest obstacle in making the Hall is likely his injury history, which prevented him to accumulate the counting stats that the BBWA voters seem to love so much.  In his 17 seasons, he managed to play in more than 130 games just 8 times.  His hit (2,077), home run (316), and RBI (1,287) totals all fall well short of the magical round numbers that all but assure a place in Cooperstown.

Aside from his injuries, Rolen also had the misfortune of playing at the same time as likely first ballot Hall of Famer, Chipper Jones.  He also played on many good, but not great teams.  While Chipper and the Braves were playing in 11 consecutive Postseasons, Rolen didn't get a taste of October baseball until he was traded to St. Louis in 2002.  His only World Series ring came in 2006 when the stupid 83-win Cardinals devil magic'd their way to a championship, and even then, Rolen was famously benched by Tony LaRussa on two occasions during the playoffs.

Rolen was also never a particularly flashy player.  He played the game with the stoicism of a Midwestern farmer, just going about his business every day.  Not that that is a particularly virtuous thing in and of itself, but it's just the kind of player he was.  He wasn't one to pimp a home run, or demonstrably celebrate a big play - and as a well rounded ballplayer, none of his skills stood out above the crowd.  Rolen's defense at third was some of the best I've seen in my lifetime, but he doesn't have a moment a la Willie Mays' catch, Brooks Robinson in the 1970 World Series, Ozzie's backflips, or Jeter's flip play.

If I had to wager a guess, I'd say that Rolen is a long shot to be elected to the Hall of Fame within the new 10 year timeframe of eligibility.  He is right above the threshold of electability, but so close to it that it's a tough call.  Things could possibly change, especially with all the steroid era players being shunned by the voters, but Rolen's inclusion seems unlikely based on past ballot results.

Minor Leaguer note: Liz Roscher of The Good Phight wanted to honour Scott Rolen's unofficial retirement (he never bothered to file retirement papers) by naming today Scott Rolen Honorary Retirement Day, so of course we wanted to join in. Be sure to check out the links for other Rolen pieces from the SB Nation network.

Jared Macdonald, who is fresh off the disabled list, provides us with this great read. Welcome back to the fold, Jared.

In January 2008, then-Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi executed a one-for-one trade involving a pair of disgruntled third basemen. Troy Glaus, having requested a reprieve from playing on turf, was shipped to the Cardinals for Scott Rolen, who had been butting heads with then-manager Tony La Russa.

The word bliss is defined as "supreme happiness; utter joy or contentment", and that basically sums up the feeling of when Rolen played for the Blue Jays.

Whether it was the defense that came as advertised, his professionalism as a player, his crouched stance at the plate or the way his mustard-coloured glove contrasted with the black Jays jerseys at the time, it seems as though all Jays fans have fond memories of Rolen’s time in Toronto. After all, he became a fan favourite rather quickly.

Even if you had never seen Rolen play third base prior to his time in Toronto, surely you had heard of his defensive wizardry at the hot corner. Whether it was a teammate of Brooks Robinson telling ESPN that Rolen was better defensively than the Hall of Famer was, or Mike Schmidt saying that Rolen was a better defensive third baseman than he was, people knew how good Rolen was at the hot corner. His seven Gold Gloves prior to becoming a Blue Jay helped, too.

Seeing Rolen play for your favourite team, however, was a totally different experience. He was downright robotic when it came to making routine plays and adjusted to the faster, bouncier turf in no time. Whether it was to his left and well in shortstop range or to his right and in foul territory, Rolen could dive and snare the ball without any issue. After that, of course, he’d show off his arm by throwing perfect strikes to first while on his knees, sometimes from well over 180 feet deep in foul territory.

If you were a baseball coach in the Toronto area, it made perfect sense to bring some of your players down to the Dome to watch Rolen put on a clinic during games and in between innings on how to throw and have near-perfect footwork.

Offensively, Rolen was a question mark after undergoing surgery on his left shoulder four months before the trade. Shoulder injuries limited him to 310 games from 2005 through 2007 with St. Louis, so there was risk involved.

Rolen’s first season in Toronto didn’t go exactly as planned, either. In spring training, he fractured his middle finger and tore the fingernail, delaying his Blue Jays debut until April 25. For roughly a month after that, he played through a significant bone bruise that he could feel while hitting and throwing before a different injury eventually forced him to the disabled list in August. Despite being limited to only 115 games, Rolen finished third on the team in 2008 with 30 doubles and had a better slugging percentage than most had predicted.

The next year, though, Rolen was a treat to watch on both sides of the ball.

He managed one of the best contact rates of his career that year and it showed, as he was among the league leaders in batting average while being a doubles machine. In fact, had he maintained the .320 average he held at the time of his trade to Cincinnati (yes, that’s a big if) Rolen would have slotted into the top 10 single-season batting averages in Blue Jays team history.

Rolen’s offensive highlight of 2009 was his career-best hitting streak of 25 games from June 8 to July 8, which shattered his previous career-high of 14 games. He hit .390 over during the streak, which included 12 multi-hit games and put him three games shy of the franchise record of 28 games set by Shawn Green in 1999. One of the oldest players on the team, he was second to only Adam Lind in OPS for the most of the season and had hits in 35 of his final 40 games as a Blue Jay.

A look back at the Scott Rolen trade, 5 years later

From Red Reporter: 5 trade deadlines ago, the Reds made a head-scratching move to acquire a 34-year-old Scott Rolen from Toronto. We look back on the trade and how it ended up working out for both teams involved.

After expressing a desire to management to be moved closer to his Indiana home, Rolen got hot at the perfect time for the Jays to fulfill his request but also get a package of pitching prospects Zach Stewart and Josh Roenicke in addition to an underachieving third baseman Edwin Encarnacion in return.

"He mentioned he's got some personal things he's dealing with and if we could move him to a spot closer to his home, if we would take that into consideration, and we did," Ricciardi said at the time. "It ended up working out really well for us."

After watching Rolen during his time in Toronto, it was easy to see why he was the one player that Cardinals GM John Mozeliak regretted trading. The standout defensive plays, leadership and bonus offensive outburst are great memories of Rolen’s time in Toronto, which were all reiterated later by his teammate with the Reds, Jonny Gomes:

"You know W.W.J.D., what would Jesus do? Here, it’s what would Scott do?" Reds outfielder Jonny Gomes told the New York Times in 2010. "You’ve got the loud guys, the vocal guys, but with him, it’s the eye contact, the silent treatment. He’s 6-5, 250, and he looks right through you when he wants to. It’s kind of like when you’re eight-years-old and you disappoint your dad.

"He doesn’t argue with the umpires, he runs every single ball out, he makes great plays, he makes routine plays, he gets the runner in when he needs to get him in, he gets the runner over when he needs to get him over. He just plays the game exactly how it should be played. You never second-guess anything he does."

Center Field is one of the several spots wide open for the 2015 Blue Jays. Let's have a poll, who do you think will play the most center field for Blue Jays next year.

Anthony Gose: You know, Gose looked very good, earlier in the season, I thought he was making the point that he should have a full time major league job next year. In May he hit .295/.380/.364. Small sample size and all (just 52 PA) but I was feeling good about the idea of his defense in CF and his speed on the base paths, since it looked like he had figured out how to get on base. The rest of his season hasn't been good. And his late season tryout time has even been worse. In August and September, he's hitting .185/.239/.284. No matter how good his defense is, we can't carry a bat like that. In all he is hitting .223/.311/.288 with 2 home runs, and 15 stolen bases. At some point the Jays are going to have to decide what to do with him.

Kevin Pillar: Pillar has had an up and down season too, the most notable moment was when he got pissy with Gibbons. He is actually having a pretty good time in this latest call up. In August and September he is hitting .278/.325/.444 and he's actually taken 4 walks. If he could hit like that next year, I'd be happy with him in CF, even if he isn't as good with the glove as Gose. He's hit lefties (.302/.326/.465) much better than right-handers (.232/.264/.348).

Dalton Pompey: Dalton has had a terrific season, starting it with Dunedin and finishing it in the majors. He's the youngest of the 3 at 21 and he's only had 183 at bats at Double and Triple-A, but Gibby seems to like him. He hasn't had many at bats, since his call up, just 28. He's hitting .179/.281/.286 but hit his first MLB home run. He could start the season in Buffalo and finish it up with Toronto. He's looked great in the outfield. This was likely the best catch we've seen all season:

There really isn't much of value for free agent center fielders this season. Colby Rasmus looks like the best choice and I don't think he'd come back, even if we were to want him.

There is always the chance of a trade sometime over the winter.

Tell us who you think will play the most center fielder for us next year/

The chance to get the top seed is gone, but was it ever really that close? I'm looking forward to wrapping up this last weekend and getting to what really matters.

Tonight's game between the Orioles and Blue Jays was probably the least interested I've been in a game all season. The only possible thing that the Orioles still had to play for was the teeniest, tiniest chance that they might get the top seed in the playoffs, something also dependent upon the Angels getting swept this weekend, which just isn't going to happen. Scrub lineup was in full effect, and it showed in the 4-2 loss.

Chris Tillman started the game for the O's, his final tuneup before game one of the ALDS in six days. He wasn't at the top of his game, it's fair to say, but he was also let down quite a bit by his defense, which looked a touch Bad News Bears-y at times. The four runs he gave up marked the first time he'd allowed four earned runs since June 5th, a span of 20 starts. Not bad, Chris, not bad. I'm gonna give you a pass tonight based on that excellent track record. And hey, good job not walking anyone.

The Orioles scored one run in the first inning and one run in the fifth inning, and managed just six hits and one walk against 12 strikeouts. David Lough, who desperately wants to make the playoff roster, had two hits, a stole base, scored one run and knocked in the other.

While tonight's game was an entirely different sort of meaningless game than the many that I've recapped for this site throughout the years, it still reminded me of when I spent the time to write about loss after loss after loss. I'm so thankful to the Orioles that they finally allowed me to start writing about meaningful baseball. I went back and started reading my old recaps. Those were strange times, friends. Here are just a few for you to read this evening to remind you how good we have it these days.

2009 was a bad, bad, bad year. We had some good times on this site, for sure. But there were dark days as well. The Orioles did not deserve me. Also, I had a lot of hate in my heart.

September 28, 2009 - Rays 7, Orioles 6: They want me to hate them.

You know how sometimes a person is in a relationship, and they want break up, but they're too lazy or non-confrontational to just do it, so they passive aggressively start acting like a jerk so that the other person will go ahead and break up with them and they don't have to deal with it? This is what the Baltimore Orioles are doing to me. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Orioles are my abusive boyfriend.

September 22, 2009 - Orioles 5, Blue Jays 6 (11) - F this team

Entire recap:

September 1, 2009 - Yankees 9, Orioles 6 (in which I actually apologize for being mean and short with people because the Orioles are making me miserable)

Tonight was yet another frustrating loss. My head says, "Who cares" but I can't help it. Watching the losses, listening to that pro-Yankee crowd, seeing another season end with a whimper, it's tough. It makes my stomach hurt. We keep banking on the future, but what if it never comes? What if there is 12 more years of this? Do I stop liking baseball? Because I can't keep it up, and I can't root for another team.

That was a rough month, for sure. And the start of 2010 was even worse. But then:

August 1, 2010 - Royals 5, Orioles 4: Tuesday is the first day of the rest of our lives

The Orioles just lost three out of four to the Kansas City Royals, despite every effort by the Royals to throw these games away. A fitting end to the Trembley/Samuel managerial tenure, if you ask me. Tomorrow is an off day, and Tuesday begins the Buck Showalter Era of Orioles baseball. Time will tell exactly what that means, but I say bring it.

You know what? They brought it. So let's enjoy these last two meaningless games this weekend and then watch our O's kick some butt in the playoffs.

You cannot predict baseball.

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Ramon Santiago had scuffled through an 0 for 4 afternoon when he walked to the plate with the bases loaded and two out in the Bottom of the 10th inning, but that didn't stop him from launching a walk-off grand slam over the wall in LF.

Santiago's blast was just his 2nd dinger of the season (and the first one he's hit from the RH side), but it was good enough to send the Pittsburgh Pirates' shot at the NL Central title nearly to the curb and to take home the penultimate JNMHSotG of the season.

Well clutched, New Clutch Man Monie.

Honorable Mentions are due to:  Todd Frazier, who whacked a 2-run dinger, walked thrice, and scored 3 runs; Kris Negron, who went 2 for 4 with a walk in the leadoff spot; Brandon Phillips, who smacked a pair of singles and scored twice; Ryan Ludwick, who went 1 for 3 with 2 walks (in what may well have been his last start as a Red); and Aroldis Chapman, who needed just 7 pitches to pitch his clean, 2 K inning.

Key Plays

• Runs came early and often in this one, and the Reds wasted no time in jumping all over Pirates starter Francisco Liriano.  In the Bottom of the 1st, each of the first four Reds reached (two via walk, and two via singles), the last of which was Devin Mesoraco, whose single scored both Negron and Phillips.  Chris Heisey followed with a productive grounder that scored Frazier, and Mesoraco was called out at home a batter later on Luddy's grounder (which was upheld somehow after review suggest his dive got him to the plate before being tagged).  Reds led, 3-0.
• A Starling Marte double led things off for the Pirates in the Top of the 2nd, and he came in to score two batters later on a Jordy Mercer grounder.  Reds led, 3-1.
• Alfredo Simon cruised for a few innings before running into trouble in the Top of the 5th.  Mercer smacked a dinger to bring the Bucs within a run, and a Liriano single followed by a hit, walk, and single from the heart of the order brought around two more runs.  Reds trailed, 4-3.
• The see-saw scoring continued, with the Reds leveling things in the Bottom of the 5th thanks to a Frazier walk, a Liriano wild pitch, and a 2-out RBI single from Ludwick. Then with Sam LeCure on the mound in the Top of the 7th, a hit batter, a steal from Gregory Polanco, and back to back hits from Andrew McCutchen (single) and Neil Walker (triple) put Pittsburgh back on top by two in what became a bullpen blowup.  Reds trailed, 6-4.
• Said blowup began in the Bottom of the 7th, thanks to a single from Phillips and Frazier following with a 2-run blast, a line-shot that just cleared the wall in RF (in what's become one of his signature spots).  After both teams traded scoreless frames, John Axford was brought in to pitch the Bottom of the 10th for the Pirates, and his wildness set the stage for Santiago's boomstick.  A walk to Frazier led off the inning, and after Mesoraco nearly hit one out to CF, Heisey singled and Ludwick walked to load the bases and chase the former Milwaukee closer to the showers.  Bobby LaFramboise took over, and after he got Brayan Pena to pop out (after what Gameday suggested should have been a walkoff walk), Santiago drove a low and inside pitch into the sun-splashed LF seats for the game winner.  Reds win, 10-6!

A Machado-less third base continues to haunt the Orioles in a meaningless loss.

The Orioles and Blue Jays played a baseball game this afternoon.  For the first time this year, the game meant literally nothing to the Orioles, after the Angels clinched the best record in the American League last night.  And with the Blue Jays eliminated from Wild Card contention last week, this was a game with nothing at stake on either end, which led to silliness like Alexi Casilla getting a start at third base (since someone has to play there and he just replaced Preston Guilmet on the 40-man roster) and Nick Markakis getting another day off.

Wei-Yin Chen got the day's start, as nothing more than a tuneup for the AL Division Series, and he acquitted himself well enough.  Even with the Jays deploying a lineup full of right-handed hitters to counter him, Chen put up a Chen-esque line of 6 IP, 3 R (2 earned), 3 K, 1 BB.  The day included plenty of flyball outs, but if the Orioles had had Manny Machado at third base, Chen may have only allowed a single earned run.  This, of course, is a matter of continued concern for the Orioles in the playoffs, since they won't have Machado.

The Orioles started off the day's scoring after both teams went 1-2-3 quickly and quietly in the first inning. Nelson Cruz hit a sharp second-inning triple (yes, that's right) and got driven in by a Delmon Young single (the Orioles also deployed their lefty-mashing lineup against Jays starter J.A. Happ).

But the Jays answered in the third inning with a quick series of hits that led to two runs.  Kevin Pillar hit a one-out single, and Steve Tolleson and Jose Reyes hit back-to-back doubles to plate two runs in short order.  Both doubles went down the third-base line, and not all that sharply, leading Orioles fans to undoubtedly wonder whether those were the sorts of plays that Manny Machado would have made.

Third base remained a point of concern in the fifth inning, with Reyes getting on base via an infield single, and advancing to second on a terrible throw by Casilla.  Reyes would go on to score following a groundout that advanced him to third, and a goofy hit from Edwin Encarnacion that went off Chen's glove and didn't leave enough time for Hardy to throw out the runner at first.

The Orioles pulled the game back to 3-2 with a mammoth Adam Jones home run (#29) in the top of the sixth that was smacked off the second-deck facade in left field.  But the Jays tacked on another run after another Orioles defensive failure, where Pillar reached and advanced to second on a throwing error following a bunt, then advanced on a sacrifice, and then scored on a sacrifice fly to center.  The play was initially called an out after a solid throw from Jones, but the call on the field was overturned following a lengthy replay, with Pillar getting ruled as safe on a bang-bang tag (and not for Caleb Joseph blocking the plate under MLB's new rules).

Ultimately, the extra run, controversial though it was, did not matter, with the Jays securing a 4-2 victory after shutdown innings from Aaron Sanchez and Casey Janssen.  What matters far more for Orioles fans is the defensive situation at third base.  With Manny Machado out for the season and Chris Davis out for most of the playoffs on a suspension, the Orioles have rotated through a series of unsatisfactory defensive options (Kelly Johnson, Jimmy Paredes, Ryan Flaherty), one that continued tonight even with the new call-up of Alexi Casilla.

Fans can paper over the other aspects of recent losses, but the defense has been a cornerstone of the team's winning season, and third base looks like an unsolved part of that as the team heads into the playoffs.  Today didn't matter, but some of the things it said about the current state of the team just might.

Orioles 2 Blue Jays 4

The win streak has come a little late, but winning is better than losing at anytime.

We got another nice start from J.A. Happ. He went 6.1, allowed just 4 hits, 2 earned, 2 walks with 4 strikeouts. He gave up a home run to Adam Jones, but other than that he was very good. He came out of the game in the 7th, after walking J.J. Hardy.

Aaron Sanchez took over, with 1 out and walked Steve Clevenger, but got Caleb Joseph to hit into a double play to end the inning. He gave up another walk in the 8th but no runs.

Casey Janssen pitched a quick 9th, for his 25th save of the season, 90th save of his Blue Jay career and likely, his last. He had a tough August, but, I'll miss him (presuming he ends up somewhere else next year)..

On offense, we didn't do much, just 6 hits in total, but we managed to score 4 runs, even without a home run. Jose Reyes and Kevin Pillar had 2 hits each. We got

• 2 runs in the 3rd. Pillar singled and we had back-to-back RBI doubles from Steve Tolleson and Reyes.
• 1 run in the 5th, Reyes singled and moved to second on a Alexi Casilla error, got to third on a Jose Bautista ground out and scored, when O's first baseman Christian Walker couldn't catch Hardy's throw from short.
• 1 run in the 7th. Pillar singled, got to second on a error by pitcher Brad Brach, went to third on a Tolleson sac bunt and just barely scored on a short fly from Reyes. We needed a review to get the call right. Pillar skinned his chin, sliding head first into the plate.

Jays of the Day are Reyes (.157 WPA), Tolleson (.105), Sanchez (.181) and Happ (.138). I'm giving one to Pillar too, very few could have scored on that fly ball.

No Suckage Jays today. John Mayberry had the low mark at -.087 for an 0 for 4.

We had 414 comments in the GameThread, Alan F. led us to victory. Great job.

The Orioles stopped their skid in their last regular season game, taking down their 96th win of the year with a 1-0 win over the Blue Jays. Jonathan Schoop hit a solo home run for the game's lone run.

You could probably say that both the Orioles and the Blue Jays were looking to get their regular season finale over with as quickly as possible. The game was played in 2:26, very short for a game where the Orioles changed pitchers five times. The two teams combined for only 11 hits and one run. It was a meaningless game for both teams, but it was the O's who took down the 1-0 victory in the regular season finale, making sure that they won't head into the postseason on a losing streak.

All that really mattered is that no one else would get hurt. In that, the Orioles were successful. If you wanted to see some signs of life from the offense, well, you were disappointed there. The lone O's run scored on a solo home run by Jonathan Schoop, his 16th homer of the year. They went 0-8 with runners in scoring position in the game and only had five hits. It was still enough for their 96th win of the regular season.

For the O's, Miguel Gonzalez got things started with five shutout innings in which he only gave up five hits, with no walks. He could have gone deeper into the game, throwing only 62 pitches in those five innings, but O's manager Buck Showalter wanted to get a number of relievers work in the final regular season game to keep them as sharp as possible for the playoffs.

A parade of five relievers continued the shutout. That group included Ubaldo Jimenez, who struck out the side in his one inning of work. Does Jimenez's use in this game mean that he's likely to see action out of the bullpen in the playoffs? We will find out on Thursday. Others who shook off some rust were Andrew Miller, Tommy Hunter, Darren O'Day, and Zach Britton. Only Britton allowed a hit, one lone hit on the way to securing his 37th save of the season.

O'Day finished off the year with a 1.70 ERA and was still bested by Britton's 1.65 mark.

As a team, the Orioles finished their cruising victory in the American League East with a 12 game lead over the Yankees. It was decidedly a coast to the finish line. That's all they needed. They clinched ages ago. They earned the rest. Here's hoping that the rest will pay off.

The next O's game will be Thursday at a still unknown time. We do know their opponent: the Tigers, who clinched the Central with a win in their final game.

Blue Jays 0 Orioles 1

The strange feeling you get at the end of the Blue Jays season should be hitting you anytime now as the team was shut out in the final game of the 2014 campaign. It doesn't feel like it yet, but eventually we'll realize that we're not going to see the Blue Jays playing baseball again for a long time. The actual game was pretty boring if we're being honest and really wasn't the pitching duel that the scoreline makes it out to be.

Both Miguel Gonzalez and R.A. Dickey were good enough, but they pretty much just cruised through the game in quick and hasty fashion. The first action of note came in the second inning when Dalton Pompey was caught leaning at first base and was called out on the pickoff throw by Gonzalez. Yes, that is considered action of note because this game was very dull. The fifth inning saw Jonathan Schoop smash a R.A. Dickey fastball to left field for a solo shot, which was the only run in the game.

The Blue Jays almost answered back in the bottom half when Anthony Gose hit a two-out double, but Jose Reyes was unable to drive him home in the next at-bat. Ubaldo Jimenez came in from the bullpen in the sixth inning after Jose Bautista got on base against Miguel Gonzalez thanks to a fielding error by O's third baseman Ryan Flaherty. Jimenez went on to strike out the side, which surpassed Gonzalez's strikeout total in four less innings.

Kendall Graveman came on for the Blue Jays in the seventh and had a nasty sinker going, but did allow a double to Steve Pearce before getting out of the inning. Skipping ahead to the ninth and Casey Janssen came on for his (likely) last appearance for the team which was a little sad to see. It took six fastballs to retire the side and he came off the field to a nice ovation which he warmly acknowledged.

The bottom of the ninth was all set up for a memorable comeback, but if you've read this far then you know it didn't happen. Edwin Encarnacion led off with a single against Zach Britton and was quickly lifted for pinch runner Juan Francisco. Wait WHAT? Why John Gibbons decided to give Edwin Encarnacion his own send-off is beyond me since it isn't exactly the same situation as Derek Jeter coming out of his last game ever. If it really was necessary to pull Edwin from the game then surely someone faster than Juan Francisco could have been the pinch runner. Maybe even Gibbons himself would have been a better choice to take Encarnacion's spot. It took one pitch for the mistake to be exposed as a hard line drive to first base resulted in a double play before Dalton Pompey struck out on three fastballs to end the game and the season.

The final line for R.A. Dickey was 6.0 innings pitched with one run allowed on two hits and three walks to go along with two strikeouts. His ERA will rest at a 3.71 mark, which is actually a lot better than it felt for most of the year. The team will now watch as 10 of their fellow teams enter the postseason to fight for the title, which is something the Blue Jays have not had the chance to do in 21 years.

Jays of the Day include R.A. Dickey (+.197 WPA) and all of you folks who read, comment, and contribute to the website. I know I speak for all of us at Bluebird Banter when I say thank you for another great year of baseball talk, which really makes all the losing a lot easier to handle. Hopefully next year we'll have a chance to watch and talk about a winning baseball team in the playoffs instead of a consistently mediocre team. Obviously just because the season is over doesn't mean we close up shop around here as the fun part of the offseason gets going pretty soon with all of the contract options and free agency brought into the spotlight. We'll also be following all of the playoff action and trying to figure out which teams we should be cheering for in October.

There's no Suckage Jays for today because it doesn't seem right to call players out on the final game of such a long season. We're not mad, Blue Jays, we're just disappointed.

Source: FanGraphs

The team ends their season with a record of 83-79, which is the best win total they've compiled since 2010, which is also the last time the team broke the .500 mark. The title of today's post is from the Panic! At The Disco song of the same name that seems to fit the depressing mood that comes with the end of another Blue Jays season.

I swear, there is actual content after the ad...

Buy My Shi(r)t

UPDATE: Teespring has suspended the t-shirt campaign "for using the intellectual property of The Major League Baseball Players Association."

They received a cease-and-desist letter from the MLBPA's general counsel stating that the t-shirt design "displays the names, nicknames, likenesses, numbers, signatures, images and/or other personal indicia of Players, thereby infringing the rights of MLBPA and such Players."

You can read the full letter here.

Unlike other campaigns that were included in this cease-and-desist, this t-shirt did not include references to the Toronto Blue Jays, its logos and trademarks, nor did it include the names, nicknames, likenesses, numbers, signatures, images, and/or other personal indicia of any MLBPA players. For the record, the design is contains four names separated by ampersands and punctuated by a full stop at the end.

I would like to first thank, then apologize to anyone who have bought the t-shirt only to get a message telling them that their money would be refunded due to IP infringement. In my opinion, there was no IP infringement in this case, but unfortunately I do not have the capacity (nor interest) to fight them in court at this time.

Since the "numbers" of players are also included in the complaint, I could only assume that any article of clothing with any number between 0 and 99 could also be considered a violation of MLBPA's intellectual property. Keep that in mind.

Since my goal all along was to allow people to be able to get the t-shirt, here is the design as a transparent PNG file. You are more than welcome to use it to make your own (it looks blank, but it's just white letters on a transparent background:

Five Minor League Players Elect Free Agency

According to the International League transactions page, the following players have elected free agency:

• RF Cole Gillespie
• RHP Bobby Korecky
• SS Jonathan Diaz
• LHP Brad Mills
• LHP Raul Valdes

All five players listed here were on a 40-man roster at some point this season and were subsequently removed after passing through outright waivers. Players who have accumulated more than three seasons of major league service time or those who have been previously outrighted (all five above had been outrighted before 2014; Valdes was outrighted by the Astros before he was traded to the Blue Jays) have three choices after passing through outright waivers: they can a) refuse the outright assignment and immediately elect free agency (and therefore forfeiting the remainder of their contract), b) accept the outright assignment and report to the minor leagues, or c) accept the outright assignment and elect free agency at the conclusion of the major league season. You can use Bluebird Banter's Option and Status table to quickly see a player's service time and whether they have ever been outrighted.

If a player chose option "c" above, a club can prevent him from electing free agency by adding him to the 40-man roster, which is exactly what the Blue Jays did to third basemanMatt Hague two days ago.

The next round of minor league free agents will come on the fifth day following the last game of the World Series. On this date, minor league veterans (defined as a player not on a 40-man roster who have spent at least a part of at least seven separate season on a minor league roster) and all players who have previously been released or non-tendered and are not on a 40-man roster are declared free agents. They are commonly referred to as "six-year free agents" (referring to the six times their minor league contract can be renewed unilaterally by their club) or "Rule 55 free agents".

Not-So-Super Two

Drew Hutchison just missed out on "super two" status by a few service days, according to MLB Trade Rumors. In order for a player with fewer than three years of MLB service to qualify for arbitration, he has to be among the top 22 percent of all players with two to three years of service time. The unofficial 22% cutoff is 2 years and 133 days, according to Tim Dierkes, while Hutchison has served on an MLB roster for just 2 years and 128 days. Hutchison, who started 32 games this season for the Blue Jays and finished with a 4.48 ERA and 184 strikeouts, would've been due for a large salary increase if he had qualified for Super Two status. 

End-Of-Season Roster Tree

The Blue Jays Roster Tree route map has been updated to reflect the status of the 40-man roster on the last day of the season. JENKINS and CABRERA were added to the 60-day disabled list in order to make room for HAGUE and BURNS.

With upcoming free agency departures, it is likely that we will see the disappearance of the RASMUS line, which reaches all the way back to BALE (1996), the MORROW line, which goes all the way to LEAGUE (2001). The McGOWAN line, which links the current roster back to CLEMENS (1997) is also in danger of disappearing. The LIND line, if it is retained, will remain the longest one in the system, going all the way to K. ESCOBAR (1992). If all of the possible free agents depart, the longest remaining ones would be the GOSE, DRABEK, and DICKEY-THOLE lines, which all have a terminus at HALLADAY (1995).

After two years of thinking about it, Anthony Alford has decided that playing professional baseball full time with the Blue Jays is better for him than splitting time between that and playing college football at Ole Miss. According to Hugh Kellenberger of The Clarion-Ledger, the Blue Jays' third-round draft pick from 2012 has left the University of Mississippi football program after receiving an offer from Alex Anthopoulos to focus on baseball. The terms of the offer have not been released publicly.

Alford, being a very athletic, toolsy outfielder, is exactly the type of prospect that Anthopoulos loves, so he was offered a large $750,000 signing bonus plus was allowed to attend Southern Mississippi to play football. After a poor year as Southern Miss's quarterback, he was arrested and charged with "conspiracy to posses a firearm on campus and hindering prosecution" and subsequently transferred to Ole Miss. A redshirt in 2013, he was tapped as the team's backup safety this season and found playing time to be scarce.

Despite spending his first three seasons stuck between two spots playing just 25 professional baseball games, Alford is still rather young, having turned 20 this summer. This year he appeared in 14 games, splitting time between the Bluefield Blue Jays and the Lansing Lugnuts. After his time with the Lugnuts, he was reportedly approached by the Blue Jays general manager to make baseball his sole sport, but opted to give football one last try.

Read more about Alford here in this piece by Scott C.

Baseball America has listed it's top 20 Northwest League prospects (subscription required) and there are 5 Vancouver Canadians on the list and most of our guys are high on the list. They are:

1. Franklin Barreto

3. Jairo Labourt

4. Miguel Castro

8. Max Pentecost

20. Roemon Fields

And they included short scouting reports on each. i'll borrow a small part of each:

On Barreto:

Observers struggled to agree on Barreto's best tool. He uses all fields, hits for power and for average. His bat is ahead of his defense, as he committed 26 errors, but played nearly 600 innings at short, and he's athletic. "He's a whole package," Vancouver hitting coach Dave Pano said.

On Labourt:

Some NWL observers want to see how Labourt responds to batters who can turn around his fastball, but he did not allow a home run in the NWL. He also has a solid changeup, which he uses to keep batters off-balance, and a clean arm action. His breaking ball remains a work in progress.
Labourt had wild streaks and at times showed an unwillingness to back down. "He's got big leaguer written all over him," Boise manager Gary Van Tol said.

On Castro:

Tall and projectable, Castro throws consistent strikes with a downward plane to his pitches, allowing him to work down in the zone. His easy delivery belies his consistent mid-90s fastball (which touched 98 mph), giving him natural deception. He relies more on a slurvy breaking ball than he did his changeup, which has flashed potential.

On Pentecost:

NWL managers who saw Pentecost knew his reputation from their amateur scouting departments and were impressed by his athleticism. Some project him as a prototype catch-and-throw receiver, with his offensive development being a bonus.
Pentecost showed some skill with the bat in limited time, though his power didn't show up and he swung and missed more against advanced pitching. Managers agreed that a healthy Pentecost could move quickly.

On Fields:

Fields developed at the plate, learning to use the whole field, get in good hitter's counts and stay through the ball. He must work on his short game, particularly bunting, and make much more consistent contact to take advantage of his wheels. He has enough pop to keep pitchers honest but isn't expected to hit for home run power.

Great to see so many Jays earn notice. I guess hoping that they all move through the system as quickly as Sanchez, Norris and Pompey is a bit too hopeful, but we really could use Barreto, you know, very very soon. Not to mention Pentecost