Blue Jays 3 Diamondbacks 4 (10 innings)

The Jays scored 3 runs in the first inning and then only get 2 more hits over the next 9 innings.

After Rajai Davis hit the 2-run home run, following Edwin Encarnacion's run scoring double,  in the top of the first, things looked pretty good. 3-0 early is a good thing. The rest of the way, the Diamondback pitchers faced the minimum number of batters. Jose Reyes singled to lead off the 6th, but Ryan Goins hit into a double play. And Brett Lawrie singled to lead off the 10th, but Rajai Davis couldn't put down a bunt and Adam Lind hit into a double play.

Arizona scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 2nd, off an Encarnacion error, letting a slowly bouncing ball get past him and then back-to-back doubles by Matt Davidson and Miguel Montero . We had a shot at the runner at the plate, on the first double, but Rajai threw the ball over the cutoff man. How many times has Rajai thrown to the wrong place this season? Wrong base, missing the cutoff man? It seems to be the way he does things. Maybe someone talk to him about it.

The D-Backs tied the game on a Eric Chavez sac fly in the 7th. Moises Sierra made a great throw from right, but it was hit too deep.

Then, in the bottom of the 10th, Chavez singled off Luis Perez. Jeremy Jeffress came in and game up two ground ball singles and that was the game. Jeffress was throw hard, 97 on some pitches, but unfortunately the ground balls missed his infielders. I will admit, I hated that the Jays allowed A.J. Pollock to just take second base, uncontested, in the 10th inning. We had runners on the corners, a double play would have ended the inning, but we didn't hold Pollock at first and he took second through 'defensive indifference'. We shouldn't have been indifferent to that.

We turned two more double plays today, and for the most part our defense was good, other than Edwin's error and Rajai's throw.

Mark Buehrle was pretty good again. 6.1 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts.

Sergio Santos relieved him, with runners on the corners and one out and gave up the sac fly. Steve Delabar went 1.2, allowing just 1 hit and 2 strikeouts. Luis Perez, got 2 strikeouts and gave up 1 single, but got the loss. Jeffress was throwing hard, but gave up 2 hits.

Jay of the Day is Delabar (.218 WPA).

Suckage goes to Jeffress (-.360), Goins (-.180, 0 for 4, 2 k) and Lind (-.144, for hitting into a double play in his pinch hit appearance). I'd give one to Rajai, for the bad throw and the lousy bunt attempt, but then he hit the home run.

Tomorrow's an off-day for the Jays, which is ok, I could us an off day from baseball.

Nice game thread for a weekday loss, 27 of us put up 393 comments. Kraemer_17 lapped us all again.

Record: 70-68. Pace: 82-80. Change: +2.

Oh, this game was not promising early on. Randall Delgado looked at Wade Miley's struggles last night and figured, "Hey, I can do better than that." Jose Reyes did his part to help out, starting the game with a single for the Blue Jays, and Edwin Encarnacion brought him in to score with a one-out double. Delgado got a second out, but then gave up a home run to Rajai Davis to make it 3-0 Blue Jays before the Diamondbacks were even at the plate.

(Next time Edwin Encarnacion comes to Arizona, someone tell him it isn't Whacking Day anymore and he doesn't have to beat up every snake he sees- 5 for 10 against the Diamondbacks this trip with two walks, two doubles, two home runs, four runs, and four RBIs. I will not miss that guy.)

The Diamondbacks started to fight back in the second. Martin Prado reached safely to start the inning on a fielding error from Encarnacion- about time something went our way when he was involved. Prado turned on the afterburners on a one out double from Matt Davidson, scoring from first, and Davidson came in on a double from Miguel Montero. Miggy took third on a ground out from Gerardo Parra, but couldn't score as Randall Delgado grounded out to end the inning.

It was hard to feel too upset with Delgado for grounding out, though, because while he may not have helped his cause at the plate, he had suddenly locked it down on the mound. After Davis's home run in the first, Delgado tore through the Toronto lineup, going 1-2-3 up and down the order, and not allowing another base runner until Reyes singled to start off the sixth inning. Delgado got the next batter, Ryan Goins, to ground into a double play, and kept the game close. By the time he was done, he'd pitched seven innings, only allowed four hits, and struck out six.

The Diamondbacks offense wasn't doing much more, though. Runners at first and second with one out in the third inning was wasted, a single in the fifth turned into an inning ending double play. That changed in the seventh inning, though. Matt Davidson started the inning with a walk before getting replaced by Tony Campana as a pinch runner. A one out single from Gerardo Parra put runners at the corner, which signalled the end of Mark Buehrle's start. He was replaced by Sergio Santos, and Eric Chavez was sent in to pinch hit for Delgado. Chavez lofted a fly ball to right field, and Campana slid in ahead of the throw to tie up the game. Parra did his best to get a lead, stealing second and taking third on a wild pitch, but was stranded at third by an A.J. Pollock swinging strike out. But it was good enough for a tie, and the game was on the shoulders of each team's bullpen.

For Arizona, that was good news. David Hernandez and Brad Ziegler picked up where Delgado had left off, going 1-2-3 through the eighth and ninth inning, respectively. The Diamondbacks couldn't add on in regulation, though. A lead-off single from Willie Bloomquist in the eighth turned into a strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play, and the Diamondbacks went down 1-2-3 in the ninth. And so, we were on our way to extra innings.

Get-a-way day. My recap. You aren't surprised, are you?

Toronto tried in the tenth, leading off with a single against Will Harris. But a strike out and a double play later, and it was Arizona's turn at bat in the bottom of the inning. Eric Chavez started things off with a one-out single before getting replaced by Adam Eaton as a pinch runner. Eaton went all the way to third on a single by A.J. Pollock, and then Willie Bloomquist singled to score Eaton, giving Arizona their 13th walk-off win of the season and avoiding the sweep by Toronto.

An interesting turn of events, given how the game started out. Kudos to Delgado for not letting early runs shake him up, and to the bullpen for keeping it up. The Diamondbacks faced the minimum over nine innings from the start of the second inning on.

A pretty quiet thread, as to be expected for a mid-week afternoon game. GuruB took the comments win, and we had visits from CaptainCanuck, Clefo, Dbacks4eva10101, Diamondhacks, Fangdango, Jim McLennan, RobbieFVK, Rockkstarr12, ford.williams.10, hotclaws, kishi, melliemacker, onedotfive, piratedan7, porty99, and shoewizard.

So Arizona avoids the sweep, and we'll head to San Francisco to start a series on Thursday. Enjoy the evening, and let's hope for better results than when the Giants came to visit Arizona.

The Blue Jays shut down superstar outfielder Jose Bautista for the remainder of the 2013 due to a bone bruise in his femur, the team announced on Wednesday. Toronto is hoping to have Bautista back fully for spring training next season.

Bautista shut down for rest of season with femur bone bruise. Will be 100 pct for spring training

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) September 4, 2013

The news is not a surprise. The 32-year old has been on the 15-day DL since Aug. 21, when he was diagnosed with a bruised hip. Bautista's injury has lingered and with the Blue Jays not anywhere near the playoffs, the option to shut down the outfielder made sense for all parties involved.

Bautista already missed time earlier this season due to back spasms. The nine-year veteran ends the season with a .259 average with 28 home runs, 73 RBI and a .358 OBP this season in 118 games. This is the second year in a row that Bautista's season has been cut short. In 2012, Bautista had wrist surgery, ending his season.

"Given the two additional weeks I'd have to get in game shape, we'd only have a handful of games left at that point," Bautista told Toronto media. "For those reasons, [Dr. Brian Kelly] recommended that I shut it down. Myself and the team agreed. It's not how I wanted to end the season but I have no choice but to follow the doctor's recommendation. The fact that we're not in contention played a role in the decision making as well."

It is Rod Barajas and Candy Maldonado's birthday today.

Rod Barajas turns 38 today.

Rod was a Blue Jay for two seasons, 2008-2009, in the middle of a 14 year major league career.

In 2008 Rod was signed to be a backup to Gregg Zaun. Three things happened all around the same time. The one was Zaun missed about 3 weeks with an injury. The second thing was that John Gibbons was fired and Cito Gaston was hired. The third was Barajas hit a little hot streak.

Like many catchers, Barajas was pretty streaky hitter. In May 2008, Rod hit .370/.424/.630. You can trust me that those numbers didn't represent Rod's true abilities, but the streak came at a good time, Rod had a new manager, first impressions are a big deal, and he got to play everyday for a stretch. So, he impressed Cito. That would have impressed anyone. In July he hit .179/.188/.269, but by then Cito liked him. Zaun wasn't thrilled to lose his job because of an injury.

Rod might have been the better choice anyway, he was a good defensive catcher. He threw out 34% of base stealers in each of his two seasons with the Jays. He was tough, good at blocking the plate, a good receiver. And he had occasional power. Zaun left after the season, as a free agent.

Rod hit .237/.275/.406 in 229 games, over the two seasons, with 30 home runs, 120 RBI, 37 walks and 137. What does it say about this season that I look at those numbers and I think of this season and say 'if only Rod was our catcher now'.

Rod played 14 years, hit .235/.284/.407 with 136 home runs and 480 RBI, playing for 7 different teams.

Candy Maldonado turns 53 today.

Candy played 3 seasons for the Blue Jays. We traded for him, from the Brewers, August 9th, 1991.  He played for us 1992, our first World Series season. Then he left the team as a free agent. We signed him again at the start of the 1995 season.

The season that counts is 1992. He hit .272/.357/.462 with 20 home runs, 66 RBI in 137 games, playing mostly left field. He was never a terrific outfielder but he did lead the AL in assists that year with 12.  In the ALCS he hit .273/.360/.545 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI. He wasn't quite as great in the World Series, hitting .158/.238/.316 with 1 home run and 2 RBI, but we've forgive because we won. That got him his one World Series ring.

I always liked Candy. He wasn't great but he was a right-handed power hitting outfielder. In his time as a Jay, he hit .272/.363/.462 with 34 home runs and 119 RBI in 250 game.  In a 15 year career he hit .254/.322/.424 with 146 home runs, 618 RBI in 1410 games. He is a member of the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame and the Puerto Rico Hall of Fame.

Happy Birthday to both Rod Barajas and Candy Maldonado. Hope it is a good one.

Alex Anthopoulos talked to Greg Brady and Jim Lang on Sportsnet 560 this morning.

Here's some of what he talked about:

On the Romero call up:

He said they weren't sure they were going to call up Ricky but Alex said he called him up and asked "I called him, where are you, what do you think you need, do you think you need to get away, to get home..... or would it be good just to come up and be with the team". He said they talked for 30 minutes. I believe him, I don't think Alex can talk for less than 30 minutes on anything, at anytime.

I'm not sold that bringing Romero up was a good thing, but it doesn't cost anything. Romero will be removed from the 40-man again, after the season it over, and he'll have to have a very very good spring training to make the team next year. I don't know what the answer is, but a pitcher that was as good as Ricky was, just 2 years ago, you have to give every chance to find himself again. I that I don't think it is likely to happen, doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

On untouchables:

"I always listen on every player". This is the generic answer that every GM gives. And sure, of course he'll listen on every player, even Jose Bautista. Then, he adds that it is tough to trade your best players because you may fill one hole by moving them, but you open another hole. It has been made painfully obvious of late, that without Jose (and Colby) we don't have much of an offense. I'd bet dollars to donuts that Bautista won't be traded this off-season.

Bad teams blame their best players for losing. I lived through the Expos lamely trying to blame Gary Carter for not winning. As much as folks might try to blame Bautista for this season, the reason we have had a crappy year is not Jose, but really it is the black hole at 2B, catcher, LF and injuries/inconsistencies at starting pitcher. If you think some magical lack of leadership from Bautista has hurt the team more than the -2.2 WAR that Maicer Izturis has put up, then, well, there isn't much I can say that will convince you otherwise.

On defense:

"There were things with didn't discuss enough" before the season. Alex said they didn't consider defense enough. I'm not sure that's totally fair. No one expected Bonifacio and Izturis to be as awful defensively as they have been. I don't think anyone expected that going off PEDs would cause Melky Cabrera not to be able to run. That Jose Reyes would be hobbled much of the season. That Brett Lawrie would miss so much time. That J.P. Arencibia.....well, yeah that one we should have known.

About Ryan Goins, he's "as good a defender we've had here in a long time", saying that no one has been better at second since Orlando Hudson. He added that they don't put any stock in his offensive numbers.

On Brett Lawrie:

"If you put him at any position on the diamond, he could excel at it", given time to learn it. He said that the first time he saw Brett at third he thought they had a lot of work to do.

On Josh Johnson:

They will decide whether to offer Johnson a qualifying offer 'at the beginning to mid-October', after they talk to his doctors, when he's recovered. I don't believe it. I'm sure they have decided not to offer him a qualifying amount, at least I'm hoping they have, but perhaps they will wait until Octobers to decide if they will offer him something less than the qualifying amount.

On why R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle started so badly:

"Spring training was a zoo", saying that the Jays lost more players to the WBC than any team and the media circus around the team didn't help.

The Washington Nationals announced in a press release this afternoon that they had claimed 1B/3B Mauro Gomez off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays. Gomez, 28, joins his fourth organization after having been signed as an amateur free agent by the Texas Rangers in 2003. The 6'2'', 230 lb right-handed hitting and throwing infielder out of Bani, Peravia in the Dominican Republic became a free agent in 2009 and signed with Atlanta, but left the Braves two years later to sign with the Boston Red Sox, for whom he made his MLB debut in 2012, playing 37 games and making 111 plate appearances over which he was 28 for 102 (.275/.324/.422) with five doubles, two triples and two home runs.

Gomez was selected off waivers by the Blue Jays in April 2013. In 110 games and 453 PAs with Toronto's Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo this season, the infielder/DH had a .249/.322/.521 line with 21 doubles and 29 HRs, tying Nationals' prospect Zach Walters for the International League lead in home runs. Gomez was named an International League Post Season All-Star after leading the Buffalo Bisons in RBIs, extra base hits and total bases.

While with the Red Sox' Triple-A affiliate in 2012, Gomez was named the International League MVP after posting a .310/.371/.589 line in 100 games and 426 plate appearance in which he hit 34 doubles and 24 HRs.

More from Federal Baseball:

• Davey Johnson Manages For The Win; Nationals Take 2 Of 3 In CBP
• Nationals Take 2 Of 3 In CBP; Davey Johnson: "We Don't Feel Like We're Out Of This Thing."
• Game 139 WPA: Folks made some good plays today. Nats 3, FF 2
• Nationals 3-2 Over Phillies: Small Ball Victory In Citizens Bank Park.
• Bryce Harper Sits With Hip Issue: Nationals' Lineup For Finale With Phillies

JAYS LINKS

The Blue Jay Hunter: In Appreciation of Mark Buehrle
Ian looks at Burly. He used to tick me off when he pitched for the ChiSox, but I love watching him pitch as a Jay.

Will Toronto Blue Jays risk making Dustin McGowan a starter again? | National Post
Dustin McGowan wants to become a starting pitcher again. The Toronto Blue Jays will probably think twice about accommodating him

Toronto Blue Jays vs. Minnesota Twins: MLB series preview | Toronto Star
The Star's Preview of this weekend's series: R.A. Dickey leads Jays into three-game series in Minneapolis against Joe Mauer and the Twins.

Will Blue Jays’ first-round pick be protected? - Sportsnet.ca
The Blue Jays would have a protected first-round draft pick in 2014 if they are one of the worst 10 teams in MLB this year. Here's a breakdown of the rules and an update on where the Jays stand.

MLB LINKS

Which Hitters are Getting a Qualifying Offer this Offseason? | FanGraphs Baseball
Team BioGensis. Ha.

Pittsburgh Turns the Power Out | FanGraphs Baseball
Lowest ISO allowed in a long time.

Juan Lagares: Assassin of Runners | FanGraphs Baseball
Rocket arm. Jesse Barfield-esque?

Currently Historic: Hey! It’s Mark Buehrle
A steady hand makes his first appearance and we explore the artistic side of Miguel Cabrera.

Is there a no-hitter letdown?
When a pitcher crashes after making history, is it an anecdote or a trend?

Making the pitch with catchphrases
From HBT Baseball team slogans leave something to be desired.

TODAY IN ICHIRO HISTORY

Baseball History - September 6th - National Pastime - Baseball History
2009 Oakland, Ichiro Suzuki becomes 259th player and the second-quickest to collect 2000 major league hits. In 1933, Al Simmons, playing with the White Sox, reached the milestone in his 1,390th game, a dozen contests less than Seattle's superstar.

The Jays start a three game series against the Twins at beautiful Target Field in Minnesota. Last year I drove to Minneapolis for a series there. I had thoughts of doing it again, for this series, when I figured these games might be important for a team in a playoff race. Now? Well, it's a long drive and, well, you know.

The Twins are 61-77 (just a little worse than our 64-76), fourth in the AL West, 5 games ahead of the last place White Sox.

I sent off some questions to Jesse Lund (@TwinkieTown) manager of SB Nation's Twinkie Town.

How are you feeling about the Justin Moureau trade? Must be some sadness to see him go?

It was the right time for him to go, but I think most fans are experiencing different levels of sadness about the whole thing. It's about seeing him go after 11 seasons, it's about what could have been, it's about what the future held when he, Joe Mauer, and Johan Santana were leaders of the team when they were all 25 or younger. He's one of the best and most productive hitters in the history of the organization. So yeah, it was time for him to go and I think most of us expected something might happen, but that doesn't make his departure that much more palatable.

What's the news on Joe Mauer (he is out with concussion-like symptoms, why can't they just say concussion?)? Will he be back this season?

He's started swinging and he says he's not shutting down for the year, so I do think he'll make the effort to get back. In some sense it's easy to wonder why he'd even bother, but Joe's always been a leadership-by-example guy - he's notoriously too quiet vocally for some fans - so he'll come back if he can. I just want him healthy going forward. If that means shutting down for September then so be it.

Who is your favorite Twin to watch?

Casey Fien is surprisingly filthy out of the bullpen. He's had a rougher patch lately, but for the vast majority of the season he was clearly catching hitters by surprise. It's fun watching the league slowly catch on to a player you've known was good for a while.

Who's been the most disappointing Twin this year?

Can I give you a list of the Twins who haven't been disappointing? Joe Mauer, Glen Perkins, Casey Fien...actually the bullpen in general...and Brian Dozier. Pretty much everybody else has been different levels off disappointing, from Aaron Hicks and Josh Willingham in the outfield, to Trevor Plouffe and Chris Parmelee in the infield. I won't even tough the rotation.

Are there any interesting September call ups?

Josmil Pinto is doing the catching for the Twins with Mauer on the shelf. Pinto has the potential to be an above average bat as a catcher, but he can hit for average and get on base (309/400/482 between AA and AAA this season), so I'm sure he'll get plate appearances next season whether he's catching or not.

Most of the other intriguing callups are still in AAA since Rochester has made the post-season. The big prospects like Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, and Alex Meyer are still a year away from making their MLB impacts.

Since both teams are in ‘next year' territory, what are your hopes for next year? When do you expect the Twins to be competitive again?

Like I just mentioned, the big Twins prospects are due to hit the Majors in the next year or so. If the Twins can surround them with some MLB talent via trades or free agency, Minnesota should be competitive again in 2015. Better decisions over the last three or four years would have expedited the process, but there's no use re-hashing the mess that terrible mid-2000s drafting and four years of general management by Bill Smith caused.

Anything else we should know about the Twins?

They're en route to their third 90+ loss season in a row. It has to be tough for a team to stay motivated when the season is winding down, under those circumstances. Sometimes they look a bit listless, but other times they're surprisingly tenacious. After taking two of three from the Astros this week, here's hoping that tenacity carries over a bit.

Thanks for this Jesse.

The Seattle Mariners promoted pitching prospect James Paxton to the major league roster this week, and he'll make his debut with a start against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday. Paxton has been on prospect lists for several years now, with his reputation as a prospect yo-yoing to some extent. Here's a look at what we can expect.

Born in British Columbia, Paxton pitched college baseball at the University of Kentucky. Although he posted an ugly 5.86 ERA as a junior in 2009, his outstanding 115/20 K/BB ratio in 78 innings was more indicative of his potential. Drafted in the supplemental first round by the Blue Jays, Paxton didn't come to terms with Toronto, but feel afoul of the NCAA and lost his college eligibility after Blue Jays president Paul Beeston publicly mentioned direct negotiations with Scott Boras.

Paxton made four starts for independent Grand Prairie of the American Association in the spring of 2010, but didn't look as sharp as scouts expected and fell to Seattle in the fourth round of the draft. It still took until the spring of 2011 for him to sign a contract with the Mariners, but he was effective once on the mound, posting a 2.73 ERA with an 80/30 K/BB in 56 innings for Clinton in the Low-A Midwest League, followed by a 1.85 ERA with a 51/13 K/BB in 39 innings for Double-A Jackson in the Southern League.

He returned to Jackson for 2012, making 21 starts with a 3.05 ERA and a 110/54 K/BB in 106 innings, missing several weeks of action due to a knee injury. He spent all of 2013 with Triple-A Tacoma in the Pacific Coast League, posting a 4.55 ERA with a 131/58 K/BB in 146 innings, allowing 158 hits.

Paxton is a 6-4, 220 pound left-handed hitter and thrower, born November 6, 1988. He has impressive arm strength for a lefty, topping out at 98 MPH on his best days. However, his velocity is very inconsistent, not just from start to start, but from inning to inning within starts. Pacific Coast League observers noted fastballs anywhere between 87 and 97 MPH this season, with movement likewise varying between above average and below average.

In addition to the heat, Paxton offers a curveball, a change-up, and a newly-developed cutter. The curve is the best of these pitches, but like the fastball it varies greatly in quality, anywhere from plus to below average.

On his best days, Paxton can blow through any lineup with a mid-90s heat, a big-breaking curve, and a decent cutter and change to give the hitters a different look. On his worst days, his velocity sags, he lacks command and leaves his pitches too high in the strike zone, and he gets hit hard.

Why the variance? Paxton has a big over-the-top delivery and he has trouble keeping it consistent.

When everything is working, he shows solid command of quality stuff and looks like a future number three starter. For example, he was very successful this past July, making five starts with a 1.80 ERA and a 27/6 K/BB in 35 innings. Three of those starts (July 13, 22, and 27th) were particularly strong, with an 18/0 K/BB in 21 innings. But Paxton lost the touch with his mechanics again in August, posting a 23/19 K/BB in his final 33 innings of work for Tacoma.

So which Paxton will show up for the Mariners in September? The guy who looks like a mid-rotation starter, or the guy who will be lucky to have a career in middle relief? I wish I knew. If he holds to past patterns, we'll probably see both versions. Whatever happens, Paxton has rare arm strength for a southpaw and will get plenty of opportunity to prove himself.

It was a sloppy game all around in this matchup between a couple of teams at the bottom of the standings, but the Toronto Blue Jays just did just enough against the Minnesota Twins to beat them 6-5 at Target Field.

The sloppiness started with pitch 1, when Twins shortstop Pedro Florimon booted a routine Jose Reyes grounder, then on pitch 5, starter Mike Pelfrey and catcher Josmil Pinto got crossed up resulting in a wild pitch that got Reyes to second. A Rajai Davis ground out and an Edwin Encarnacion deep fly later, the Jays were up 1-0. The Blue Jays had a bit of an adventure in the bottom of the first, with Davis fielding all three outs with the grace of Paul Bunyan playing Odette in Swan Lake.

The Twins tied it up in the second on three straight hits, with Chris Colabello singling home Trevor Plouffe. Sportsnet's Buck Martinez told us no less than four times that Colabello had played eight years in the independent leagues, but Baseball-Reference shows that he had only played seven--which still makes a great story. In that inning, right fielder Moises Sierra showed off his cannon arm by launching a perfect throw home, way over the head of the cutoff guy.

Toronto opened it up in the top of the third, with Anthony Gose doubling and Josh Thole singling to start the inning. Jose Reyes singled home Gose, and later Encarnacion walked to load the bases. Adam Lind, who would not have a good day at the plate or in the field, struck out, but then Brett Lawrie brought two runs home on a single right up the middle. Sierra followed with a double to score two more, but made one of his signature baserunning boners by rounding second and getting caught in a rundown to end the inning.

In the bottom of the third, Moises "Sierror" looked completely lost in right field, coming in on a ball that eventually landed 10 feet behind him. Good thing Anthony Gose was there to back him up to hold Alex Presley to a double. A play like this is a good example why errors are not the best way to assess fielding--Sierra was not close enough to the ball's landing spot to make an error. As he scampered down the dugout steps at the end of the inning, both Dwayne Murphy and John Gibbons walked up to him to have a chat.

Flashing forward to the seventh, Josh Thole reached first on a dangerous-looking dive at first base to avoid a tag in what was ruled a throwing error by Florimon. In the bottom half of the inning, R.A. Dickey, who had cruised through the first six innings in spite of the defense behind him, started to unfurl. He gave up a couple of hard-hit balls to the first two batters: a loud double to the tall right field wall by Oswaldo Arcia and then Colabello crushed a knuckleball into the Blue Jays bullpen just in front of Brett Cecil for a two-run home run.

John Gibbons took Dickey out after he retired the next batter, and he finished his 6.1 inning appearance having given up three runs on seven hits. He struck out four and walked one throwing 101 pitches. Dickey is not pitching like a Cy Young pitcher, but he has strung together eight pretty decent outings.

Dustin McGowan was given the eighth, and with one out Brian Dozier hit a soft line drive to right field for a single, but Moises Sierra overran the ball completely when trying to backhand it for a two-base error. I don't see how Gibbons can play Sierra tomorrow. A batter later, Trevor Plouffe singled and scored Dozier from third, then the Blue Jays gave the Twins another two free bases to allow Plouffe to reach third when Josh Thole was unable to handle a McGowan wild pitch. The score was 6-4 at that point, but McGowan was able to get out of a runners on the corners situation by striking out Colabello with a 96 mph fastball.

Closer Casey Janssen was asked to throw the ninth despite a few straight shaky outings--and shaky it turned out to be. Leading off the inning, Pinto hit his first career homer to make it a one-run game, then a batter later Adam Lind booted a tough hard-hit ball to allow Alex Presley to reach. But, with Presley running on a 3-2 pitch, Ryan Doumit struck out and J.P. Arencibia (who came in as a pinch hitter) threw Presley out to end the game. The throw was great, it ended up on the first-base side of the bag, low enough for a single-motion catch-and-tag. If you recall, Arencibia ended a game the same way six days ago, getting Janssen out of trouble against Kansas City. Hats off to both Arencibia and his new catching instructor Sal Fasano.

Twins starter Pelfrey had a bad-looking line, giving up six runs on six hits in six innings, but he did strike out seven Blue Jays. In fact, after the five-run third, Toronto recorded just two more hits.

Another thing to note is that Josh Thole got hit hard by a Josh Willingham foul tip. Slow-motion replay showed that the mask not only jostled quite a bit around his head, but shards of the front of the mask exploded off upon contact. Let's hope that Thole felt OK and that he wasn't pinch hit for because of medical issues.

Jays of the Day! Brett Lawrie (+.123 WPA), Jose Reyes (+.115), Casey Janssen (+.100) gets 0.5 JoD, sharing the other 0.5 with J.P. Arencibia.

Suckage Jays: Adam Lind (-.076 WPA, an 0-for-4 day with a couple of costly misplays at first), and Rajai Davis (-.076). Moises Sierra (+.076) actually has a pretty good number for his two-run double, but his baserunning and fielding errors land him on the Suckage Jays list.

The Blue Jays continue their series against the Twins tomorrow with J.A. Happ facing off against Kevin Correia one hour earlier than today's game, with a start time of 7:10 Eastern.

GAME RECAP

One bad inning against Blue Jays does in Pelfrey | Star Tribune
A very sad for the other side recap: It was a pitch Mike Pelfrey knew he would lie awake into the early morning thinking about

JAYS LINK

The Blue Jay Hunter: Flashback Friday: Kelly Gruber and Cecil Fielder Switch Places 18 Times
Another distant memory from Ian. Yikes. 2B Cecil Fielder.

MLB LINKS

Baseball Argument Escalates Into Umpire Grabbing Manager By The Throat
More zaniness from Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League, the only baseball league in the world that really matters. And this one involves Manny Ramirez's old team, the EDA Rhinos, in a recent game against the Brother Elephants. Man, even the baseball team names in Taiwan are perfect. Note: Imagine being the translator in this.

Guy You've Never Heard Of Misses Perfect Game By One Pitch
Giants pitcher Yusmeiro Petit, of whom you've never heard, ensured his continued obscurity by missing out on a perfect game when on the final out he allowed a hit to the Diamondbacks' Eric Chavez on a 3-2 count.

The best rookies of the ‘90s
From HBT: A completely serious examination of the Decade of Hamelin

Brewers’ Ryan Braun is calling season ticket holders to apologize for doping | National Post
Milwaukee Brewers executive Rick Schlesinger tells WTMJ radio it was Ryan Braun's idea

The Worst of the Best: The Week(s)’s Wildest Swings | FanGraphs Baseball
Welcome to the MLB, Kevin Pillar.

The Worst of the Best: The Week(s)’s Wildest Pitches | FanGraphs Baseball
JPA "wang"ed it.

AFL Prospects: Blue Jays, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Rays, Rockies | FanGraphs Baseball
A couple of Jays mentions.

'YEAH, NO CONTROL FREAK ISSUES HERE" LINK

Nike Forced Schools To Return Gear That Needed More Swooshes
No controversy here, just a friendly reminder of who actually runs sports. More swooshes! We need more swooshes! People won't see the swooshes!

TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

Baseball History September 7th - National Pastime - Baseball History
1968 (In a moment that would make Hank "Human Fungo" Aaron XXIV proud) Heading toward home plate with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth, Hank Aaron falls down and is tagged out by Houston's third baseman Doug Rader. The last-place Astros come back for an improbable 6-3 victory over the Braves when they score three runs in the top of the tenth frame.

1994 In the second game of a doubleheader at Cincinnati, Cardinal outfielder Mark Whiten hits four home runs in one game helping to tie two established RBI records. With 12 RBIs in second game he equals the single game mark set by Jim Bottomley in 1924, and his opening game ribbie ties a 21-year old record established by Nate Colbert for the most RBIs (13) in a twin bill.

Right handed starter Kevin Correia gets the nod for the Twins today as the Blue Jays counter with J.A. Happ. Correia, a 33-year-old pitcher from San Diego signed for Minnesota this season after spending two seasons in Pittsburgh as a back end of the rotation guy. His free agent contract with the Twins covers this season and next, totalling $10 million ($4.5 million this year and $5.5 in 2014). The change of scenery hasn't changed the way Correia pitches (which is why this exists) as he has a 4.18 ERA and a 4.45 FIP, which are similar to the numbers he's had for his whole career. Correia doesn't walk anyone (2.12 BB/9) or strike anyone out (5.02 K/9) relying on ground balls to get him out of trouble.

Correia features a four-seamer, sinker, changeup, curveball, and a cutter. His hard stuff sits in the mid-90's and his cutter, which he throws over a third of the time, stays around the high 80's range. He doesn't get a lot of whiffs, but his aforementioned cutter is likely his best pitch.

As you can see, he locates his sweeping curve on the outside half:

via www.fangraphs.com

For the "Find the Link":

Find the link between Kevin Correia and the most disappointing Blue Jays starter this year who has the same initials as Janet Jackson.

TankFest 2013

Things aren't so good on the tanking front as the team would get the 13th pick currently, but at least the team is winning:

This might be the most boring game of the whole season today, but hopefully something wild happens that proves me wrong.

According to reports from Blue Jays beat writers Saturday afternoon, general manager Alex Anthopoulos announced that outfielder Melky Cabrera had a benign tumour removed from his lower back near the spine. Throughout the season, Cabrera had problems running and was placed on the disabled list twice for a problem with his left knee. Cabrera's doctor believes that the pressure of the tumour may have been the ultimate cause for his leg problems this season.

The benign tumor helps explain why Cabrera had so many leg issues this season. It put a lot of pressure on the spine. #BlueJays

— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) September 7, 2013

Cabrera is expected to make a full recovery relatively soon and should be good to go for Spring Training. #BlueJays

— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) September 7, 2013

Cabrera last played on August 1 when he was pulled in the fourth inning with knee irritation, and two weeks ago it was announced that he was done for the season. The club expects that he will make a full recovery and be ready for spring training 2014.

Cabrera is only 29 and is under contract for 2014 at $8 million. He had a down year this year after recording career highs in 2012 before being suspended for use of performance-enhancing drugs. In 88 games with the Blue Jays, he hit .279/.322/.360 with three homers and 15 doubles.

UPDATE

The tumour was removed from the L1 bone in his lumbar vertebrae, which is the top bone in the lowest section of the spine.

Melky's benign tumour was found in his spinal cord at L(umbar)1, the first vertebra of the lowest section of the spine. #Bluejays#Jays

— Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness590) September 7, 2013

The good news from this is that the tumour was tested to be benign, meaning the growth will not spread to other parts of his body. Of course, any problems at or close to the spinal cord has added complications. The hope is that the doctors are right and that Cabrera will not only recover from his surgery but the pressure relief would make him run like a 29-year old again.

UPDATE 2

According to Brendan Kennedy's story in the Toronto Star, Melky Cabrera had been suffering from back pain all season but did not inform the club's medical staff until his latest trip to the disabled list.

Blue Jays 11 Twins 2

That took too long , but a win is a win. Four series win in a row, for the first time this year.

Happ is slow on the mound and he threw too many pitches, but he got the win, going 5.2 allowing 5 hits, 1 unearned run, 3 walks with 4 strikeouts. I'm really not a fan, but he did a pretty good job against a pretty lousy team.

We used 6 relievers, you can tell it is September. Aaron Loup had a bit of trouble, giving up 3 singles, after getting the first two outs of the 7th inning, but Sergio Santos got a bases loaded strikeout to get out of the inning.

Kyle Drabek got his first work since being called up and he wasn't good. Drabek gave up 3 singles and a walk, without giving up a run. He wasn't hit very hard, I would have liked Gibby to leave him in a bit longer (it isn't like we are in contention) but Gibby decided that was enough and brought in Steve Delabar with the bases loaded and no one out. Delabar got 2 strikeouts and a pop out, to get us out of the 8th with just a run scored.

Jeremy Jeffress impressed in the 9th, hitting 99 on the radar gun and getting a swinging third strike on a 91mph 'changeup'. Nice to see after he had some troubles in his first appearance. I'm a fan, so I'm hoping he has more appearances like this.

On offense, Adam Lind hit 2 home runs, driving in 6. His second home run with in the 9th inning, right after the Twins intentionally walked Edwin Encarnacion. I don't understand intentionally walking someone when you are down by 6, but I'm always happy to make the other team pay for intentional walks. Brett Lawrie had a solo home run and 2 singles.

Anthony Gose had a run scoring triple. Jose Reyes hit 2 doubles and Moises Sierra had one before coming out of the game with 'back tightness'. Rajai Davis had 1 single, in 3 at bats, after taking over for Moises. The only Jay starter not to hit was Edwin and he walked twice, scoring both times.

Not that there wasn't a little drama. In the 8th inning, with us up by 6, Rajai Davis took second base on 'defensive indifference'. When he came off the field Gibby spoke to him. I really don't see it as a big deal. Gibby didn't get on Gose's case for going for the triple. We were up by 6, but the Twins were still playing, they intentionally walked Edwin in the 9th inning. It seems like a pretty minor abusing of the 'unwritten rules'.

Jays of the Day are Lind (.193) and Happ (.137).

No suckage Jays.

We had a nice GameThread again tonight, 31 of us posted 662 comments. expos&nordiques4ever led the way, he comments the right way.

Bob Elliot tells us:

Blue Jays assistant general manager Andrew Tinnish and pro scout Danny Evans, former GM of the Chicago White Sox, were in Japan last month scouting Masahiro Tanaka.

Here we go again. After the Yu Darvish stuff, I'm not sure I want to go through this again but Masahiro has been very good in Japan's major leagues:

I'm hoping that Alex let's us know if the Jays are going to bid or not this time. Last time, as I'm sure you remember, the announcement was a mess. Some folks told us through tweeter that the had inside information that the Jays had the winning bid for Darvish, which seemed pretty strange, since the only people that would have known were in the commissioner's office and they weren't likely to share.

The Jays scout everyone. I'm pretty sure I saw a Blue Jay scout at my boy's little league games this year. I doubt that anything will come of it, it is their way of doing their due diligence, but it would be fun to actually win the bidding for one of these guys.

Good old Saskatchewan boy Andrew Albers gets the start for Minnesota today against Esmil Rogers. Albers, a 27-year-old left hander had a long road to the major leagues which he finally made it to on August 6 of this year. He was originally drafted by the Padres, but injuries forced him to end up pitching in independent ball before the Twins gave him a chance. Albers has played many times for the Canadian national team and if there was one pitcher on another team you'd like to see succeed, Albers might be that guy.

In his six starts this year, he has a 3.96 ERA. His peripherals are a little bit wild as he has a 3.49 K/9 and a 0.70 BB/9 with a BABIP of .260. It remains to be seen what type of pitcher Andrew Albers will end up being in the major leagues, although his recent starts have been a lot worse than his original two outings of 8+ innings with no runs allowed.

Albers throws a fastball and sinker in the high 80's, while his off-speed offerings include a changeup, slider, and curveball. His curveball is usually only thrown when ahead in the count with his slider being his main secondary offering.

For our "Find the Link" today:

Find the link between Andrew Albers and the left fielder for the team playing in the south side of Chicago.

TankFest 2013

Blue Jays would currently have the 14th pick as they make an attempt to get back to .500.

Enjoy watching the game. I don't think there's anything else on at that time, especially none of Minnesota's other sports teams doing anything of note.

Blue Jays 2 Twins 0

That wasn't the most exciting game I've ever watched, that I stayed awake through the whole thing is a surprise. But a sweep is a sweep, we'll take it.

That was the best I remember seeing Esmil Rogers pitch. Of course, it might have something to do with it being against the Twins. Rogers went 7.2, allowing just 3 hits, 2 singles and a double (which wasn't a clean double, Rajai Davis and Moises Sierra bumped into each other picking up the rolling ball, just stupid baseball), 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. 11 ground outs, with just 5 fly outs.

Without Ryan Goins, Esmil would have allowed a run. With Pedro Florimon on third (after his gift double) and Alex Presley on first, on a single, and no outs, Chris Herrmann ground one at Goins. Goins wasn't playing in, but he still went for the runner going home. He had an easy double play, but he made the perfect throw home and J.P. Arencibia made a great tag. That was a very gutsy play. Most (just about every) other second baseman would have taken the DP, and I wouldn't blame them. Great play Goins. And the Twins were nice enough to follow that with 2 quick outs.

We did almost nothing on offense, until the 8th inning. Goins led off with a single. Kevin Pillar put down a nice bunt to move him to second. Then Jose Reyes doubled to the wall. I'm sure Goins would have scored from first on the play, but lets say the bunt helped. Reyes stole third. Then Rajai popped one up to shallow center, but it glanced off the glove of a diving Brian Dozier, who ran a long way to come up short.

Unfortunately, Rajai put his head down and didn't run on the pop up, he would have easily been into second on the play, but, because he wasn't running, he had to stop at first. Then he was thrown out stealing. . It wasn't Rajai's best day. I didn't think he needed to be talked to after taking 2nd late in yesterday's game, but today, he needed someone to remind him to play the game.

We only managed 4 hits in 7 innings off Saskatchewan's Andrew Albers. He was great, changing speeds and hitting his spots. Fortunately we were able to score off releiver Jared Burton.

Sergio Santos got the last out of the 8th inning, after Brett Cecil relieved Rogers and gave up a single. Santos has looked great. Casey Janssen picked up his 29 save, allowing a ground ball single, but painting the bottom of the strike zone to get 2 strikeouts in the 9th,.

Jays of the Day are Rogers (.535 WPA), Reyes (.230) and Janssen (.100).

Suckage goes to Sierra (-.104, 0 for 4, plus turning the single into a double, with Davis), Lawrie (-.099, 0 for 4, strikeout) and Davis (-.086, plus not running out the pop up).

So the Jays earn their day off tomorrow with the sweep.

Whether you believe in his viability long-term as a starter for the Twins, Andrew Albers is stating his case for being involved in the conversation for who should make the five-man rotation next spring. We talked in the pregame about his starts being either good or bad, and suffice it to say that this afternoon's outing sits firmly in the "good" category. Albers didn't allow a run over seven innings, striking out five, not allowing a walk, and surrendering just four hits.

Jared Burton would have a rough eighth inning, which would ultimately lead to both the Blue Jays' runs. Two runs were more than enough, as Esmil Rogers scattered three hits over seven and two thirds. Minnesota's best and only true chance to score came in the sixth, when Pedro Florimon led off the inning with a double. He could have scored just three pitches later, when Alex Presley singled into left field, but Florimon was given the stop sign pretty late and came to a screeching halt.

Chris Herrmann cut at the first pitch he saw, a slider, and in most circumstances you'd expect the defensive team to exchange two outs for the run. Ryan Goins, however, saw that he had a plate and made a good throw to the plate in time to get Florimon trying to force the issue. J.P. Arencibia made a nice swipe tag. Presley would advance to third on a fly out off the bat of Brian Dozier, but he was stranded.

Toronto had their only chance to score off Albers in the third inning, when an error and a single put runners on the corners with one away. Albers got Rajai Davis to pop up before Dozier made a fantastic leaping catch to keep Brett Lawrie's line drive from giving the Jays the lead.

Bullet Point Highlights

• Presley has certainly made his impact on the Twins since arriving on September 1. In seven games he's 12-for-31 (.387) with three walks and four runs scored. In six of his seven games he's been on base at least twice.
• Trevor Plouffe had very good months in May and June before July and August entirely crushed whatever hope he'd had for a good season. But in his last ten games, Plouffe is 15-for-40 (.400) with a pair of homers.
• Oswaldo Arcia was 5-for-11 in the series, with a pair of walks.
• The Twins were 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position today, a circumstance which was drawn out above. It's not good to bat .250 in those situations, but it's still better than what the club has posted all season (.230).
• Andrew Albers was awesome.

Despite completing a sweep of the lowly Minnesota Twins this weekend, the Toronto Blue Jays found themselves eliminated from the division race that they were supposed to have won when John Farrell's Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 13-9 on Saturday. But of course, we have known that the A.L. East pennant was achievable for a while now, even though mathematics had made us wait until September 7 to seal the deal.

September 7 is the earliest date the Blue Jays were officially eliminated since 2009 when they were eliminated on the same date. Last year, the Jays hung around (mathematically, at least) until September 19. One has to look back to 2004, the first year John Gibbons was named manager in his first tenure, for an earlier elimination date, and it happened on September 4. The earliest the Blue Jays have been eliminated from the division was August 19, back in 1979 when the club went 53-109 en route to their worst record in franchise history.

A common lament among Blue Jays fans is that Toronto has not seen "meaningful" September baseball since 1993, but of course that is not quite true. In 2000, the Blue Jays were in second place (to the Yankees) as late as September 27 (their last home game of the season) and were not eliminated until the next day when they lost 23-1 against the Orioles. In that game, Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay combined to give up 13 runs in 3.2 innings. The Blue Jays made a legitimate playoff push that September, but they just had a bit too much ground to gain.

The Blue Jays are still mathematically in the running for the Wild Card, with their elimination number sitting at 9.

On to the links!

Blue Jays Related

Scheduling note

Note that there are a couple of upcoming changes to the schedule for the Blue Jays. First, this Saturday's game against the Orioles has been moved from 1:07 pm to 4:07 pm Eastern. Also, the Blue Jays will travel to Chicago to play a single makeup game with the White Sox on Monday, September 23. The game will begin at 8:10 pm Eastern. The makeup game is to replace he rained-out game on June 12, one game after the start of what was an 11-game winning streak for Toronto. The Blue Jays were going to send Esmil Rogers to face Chris Salethat game--if Mother Nature hadn't intervened, would that winning streak have happened?

Inside ‘Tommy John’ surgery - Toronto Star
Brendan Kennedy went to observe a Tommy John surgery and gives us this fantastic story about the famed surgery that has saved many pitchers' careers. Warning: there are some pictures of blood and surgery and stuff so if you're not into that you might want to skip this piece or view it in text-only mode.

Blue Jays dress up like Elmo, pin Twins, retain EOB title - CBSSports.com
First of, hat tip to RedonRed who posted this link on yesterday's game recap post. Dayn Perry and CBS Sport's Eye on Baseball blog started a fun "Heavyweight Championship belt" this season. In essence, the San Francisco Giants started with the belt this season as last year's World Champions, and every time a team won a series against a belt holder, they gain the belt. So when the St. Louis Cardinals won two of the three games in their first series against the GIants, they captured the belt. The belt was passed around the league and is now being held by your Toronto Blue Jays, who first took it from the Kansas City Royals.

Goins the answer for Jays at second base? - Sportsnet.ca
Mike Wilner writes that the Ryan Goins has made a great impression in his first month in the big leagues, but cautions that he is really a glove-first, bottom-of-the-order guy. I think that the Blue Jays should do their best to try to find a better second baseman, but hey Goins and Maicer Izturis can't do worse in 2014 than the Emilio Bonifacio - Izturis combo of 2013, right?

Related, Bonifacio is batting .314/.381/.395 with five doubles, a triple, and 13 stolen bases in 24 games. In 94 games with the Blue Jays, he hit .218/.258/.321 with 16 doubles, a triple, and 12 steals. Laughing about it (and the usual small sample size warning) makes the pain go away.

Ricky Romero to pitch out of Blue Jays bullpen - CBC Sports
In case you missed it (like I did), John Gibbons told MLB Network Radio on Friday that Ricky Romero will only be coming in as a reliever unless the team needed him as a starter. We saw Romero warm up on Saturday night, but Gibbons decided to hand the ball over to Jeremy Jeffress instead. Readers of this blog were pretty much 50:50 when asked whether the Jays should've called Romero up.

I had always been on the side of "why not?", thinking that these "meaningless" September games would be a perfect time to slide Romero into the rotation in place to evaluate him against big leaguers. Now, knowing how the Blue Jays planned to use him, I am less sure. Romero last pitched, for the Bisons, on September 1. Since today's an off day, the earliest he could pitch is the 10th against the Angels. I'm not sure how effective he would be after such a long layoff, but I know that it isn't fair to have him sit there rotting in the bullpen and then expect him to perform. The only other September to have yet to see game action is catcher Mike Nickeas. I wonder if he'll be come 2013's Brian Jeroloman.

Down on the Farm

One Game. For All The Marbles. - Vancouver Canadians News
The Vancouver Canadians won game 2 of the three-game Northwest League championship series over the Boise Hawks to tie the series up 1-1 in their quest to win back-to-back-to-back Northwest League championships. No team has won three straight since Boise (1993-1995). The winner-takes-all game will take place at Nat Bailey Stadium tonight, with first pitch coming at 7:05 pm Pacific (10:05 pm Eastern). You can tune into the game online for free at canadiansbaseball.com. We will have a Playoffs GameThread up about 30 minutes before game time.

10 Photos — Vancouver vs. Everett Game 1 2013 Playoffs - Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
#2JBrumfield (great screen name, even though I will always remember Jacob Brumfield wearing #5 from his first stint as a Blue Jay) of Batter's Box posted ten photos from the Vancouver Canadians' game against the Everett AquaSox, including a shot of Tom Robson, who is slated to start tonight's championship game.

Bisons stayed in playoff race until the end - The Buffalo News
Amy Mortiz recaps the end of the Buffalo Bisons' playoff run and has a few quotes from general manager Mike Buczkowski and manger Marty Brown. Great to see that the Bisons are installing a brand new, state-of-the-art sound system for next season's home opener, which will happen on April 3, 2014. Mark your calendars!

Tournament 12 - bluejays.com
The Blue Jays will be out of town on the weekend of September 20, but there will be baseball played at the Rogers Centre as the Blue Jays Baseball Academy and Roberto Alomar will host Tournament 12, a national amateur baseball showcase. The tournament is designed to showcase players to scouts and schools but if you're interested in amateur baseball in Canada, you can attend the games for $17 a day or $37 for the whole tournament. I would have attended but unfortunately I will be out of town.

Late Additions

NWL Finals game 2, Recap (and other thoughts) Canadians 4 Hawks 2 - Bluebird Banter
When I was doing the links I somehow missed expos&nordiques4ever's game recap of game 2 of the NWL Championships!

Minimalist Baseball Stadiums – Part 3 - S. Preston
Graphics designer S. Preston has released part 3 o of his "Minimalist Baseball Stadium" posters, which includes the Rogers Centre. Neat stuff.

32 things you didn't know about baseball - Yahoo! Sports
Jeff Passan's fact dump of 32 things you didn't know about baseball. Actually 31, since I already knew that Maicer Izturis was all kinds of crappy.

A Jays-Related Montreal Announcement? - Drunk Jays Fans
Andrew Stoeten was tipped off to a Radio-Canada story about an announcement about a special Major League Baseball event at Olympic Stadium that will be happening tomorrow at 1 pm. The speculation is that the Blue Jays will be playing an exhibition game there next year, probably at the end of Spring Training.

In looking at next year's rotation, I've pretty much written in R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle. Brandon Morrow, presuming he is healthy will get a spot. And then?

There is almost endless list of in system possibles: Todd Redmond,  J.A. Happ, Kyle Drabek, Drew Hutchison, Sean Nolin, Marcus Stroman, Ricky Romero (well, no not Ricky), perhaps Dustin McGowan. And, of course, free agent possibles (Matt Garza? Masahiro Tanaka?). And trades, I won't even guess on trades.

What about Esmil Rogers?

He's made 17 starts this year. He was great in June, 2.27 ERA in 6 games, 5 starts, terrible in July (7.07) and August (7.66), but then has turned it around in September, 2 starts, 0.00 ERA, 14 innings, 4 hits, 2 walks and 9 strikeouts. Game Scores of 75 and 76, his two best starts of the year. They were starts against the Diamondbacks and Twins but still, they were pretty impressive starts. Maybe he has figured something out?

Pete Walker was talking up Rogers before yesterday's game, saying Rogers has the stuff to be a starter, but then what is he going to say? "Hey, we were only starting this guy cause we have no one else?"

In 17 starts he has a 4.50 ERA and has averaged 5.5 innings a start. Not all that bad since he started the season as a reliever. His FIP is 4.54 and xFIP 3.98.

So what do you think? Would you be comfortable going into next season with Esmil as our 4th or 5th starter?