Dalton Pompey's brother tweeted this:

My bro got the call!!! He made it #MLB#BLUEJAYS! @DaltonPompey congratulations bro knew ya had it in ya

— Tristan Pompey (@tristanpompey_) September 2, 2014

And Kendall Graveman tweeted this:

1st thanks to The Lord, Family, Coaches along the way, and Friends. Dreams do come true. #GoJays and #Hailstate

— Kendall Graveman (@kage49) September 2, 2014

The last few years the Blue Jays didn't see to want to call up any prospect in September, this year, we seem to be calling up all of them. This is really a surprise to me.

Minor Leaguer tells me that Kendall Graveman, Daniel Norris, and Dalton Pompey were all playing for A-Advanced Dunedin between April 30 and June 12. It is great to see them move up so quickly.

That they've called up Graveman makes me think that they are thinking of maybe having Stroman and/or Hutchison skip a start at some point.

No relative of Anthony Gose has tweeted that he is getting the call. I wonder what he will think if Pompey goes up and he doesn't? I'm sure he won't be happy. It would make me think that they are trying to sent some message to Gose. It definitely looks like the team has jumped Pompey ahead of Gose in their plans. I'm also wondering if Sean Nolin will be coming up. If I was him I wouldn't be too happy to be jumped by yet another pitcher.

Congratulations Dalton and Kendall. I'm looking forward to seeing you play.

I just finish the last post and Shi Davidi posts this:

Per industry sources, #BlueJays full Sept call-up list: Norris, Nolin, Graveman, Morrow, Pompey, Gose, Goins, Johnson, Kottaras

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) September 2, 2014

Shi, if you could have tweeted this ten minutes earlier.

Anyway we do get another catcher....glad to see it and interested to see George Kottaras.

I'm not sure how Gibby will find enough innings for all those pitchers but it should be interesting. Added to the pitching staff are Daniel Norris, Sean Nolin, Kendall Graveman and Brandon Morrow. I thought an 8 man bullpen was too much.

I don't think we'll see Marcus Stroman pinch-running anymore. Anthony Gose and Dalton Pompey gives up a lot of speed on the bench. And it is good to have Dan Johnson back, giving us another good pinch hitter. Ryan Goins brings us a better glove in the middle of the infield.

Also John Mayberry, Jr will be joining the team tomorrow. We are going to have use two players at each position to get everyone in.

Each September for the past few years I've been hoping they would be bringing up a bunch of prospects in September and I've been disappointed each year, so I'm happy to see so many call-ups this year. It should be interesting.

The pitchers were just about as bad as the hitters were in August. They had a 4.48 ERA (actually, slightly better than the 4.64 ERA from April). The starters had a 5-12 record with a 4.78 ERA, their worst mark of the season. The relievers were 4-5 with a 3.97 ERA, the second best monthly ERA for the pen. But that doesn't mean that it was really a good month for them.

I was going to include a poll for 'pitcher of the month' but only a couple of our pitchers had good months.

R.A. Dickey: 1-2 with a 4.40 ERA in 5 starts. In 5 starts, he pitched 30.2 innings (6.13 per start). Batters hit .279/.353/.467 against him, with 4 home runs, 11 walks and 21 strikeouts. 3 of his 5 starts were 'Quality starts' but really, that masks the fact that he hasn't been good. His 'win' was in his worst start of the month, he gave up 5 runs in 5.2 innings but it was one of the few games of the month we scored a bunch, beating the Brewers 9-5.

Mark Buehrle: 0-2 with a 5.76 ERA. In 5 starts he pitched 25 inning (5 innings per start). Batters hit .363/.390/.496 with 2 home runs, 5 walks and 16 strikeouts. Hard to believe they hit .363 against him. To put it in a bit of perspective, Jose Altuve is leading the AL with a .336 average. 1 of his 5 starts was a 'Quality start', but even that one wasn't good, 6.1 innings, 8 hits, 3 earned. His last start did look good, for the first 5 innings, and then it fell apart. The team is talking about 'being creative' to get him to 200 innings, which, to me, is a bit of a cheat. He needs 33 more innings and might have 6 more starts.  It is amazing, he's been so bad for so long, and, because of the great start to the season, his ERA in still just 3.50.

Drew Hutchison: 2-2 with a 3.93 ERA. In 5 starts he pitched 34.1 innings (6.87 innings per start). Batters hit .190/.259/.355 with 4 home runs, 10 walks and 32 strikeouts. July was hit worst month of the season, but he turned things around in August. 3 of his 5 starts were quality starts. He had 3 really good starts and 2 really bad starts. When he has a bad start, I think 'he's pitched too much this year' and then he has a good start and that thought disappears.

J.A. Happ: 1-3 with a 4.10 ERA. In 6 starts he pitched 37.1 innings (6.22 innings per start). Batters hit .243/.286/.472 against him, with 6 home runs, 8 walks and 36 strikeouts. He kept runners off the bases better by far than any other month. OBP against by month, .400, .342, .350, .337 and .286. But then it was his worst month for slugging average against. It looks like he is working to throw more strikes and maybe because of that, he's having more pitches hit hard. 4 of his 6 starts were quality starts.

Marcus Stroman: 1-3, with a 6.39 ERA. In 5 starts he pitched 25.1 innings (5.07 innings per start). Batters hit .295/.351/.381 with 1 home run, 8 walks and 18 strikeouts. His worst month as a starter. Still he keeps the ball in the park and he wasn't walking too many. 2 of the 5 starts were quality starts. He had 2 really good starts, one a complete game 4 hitter, the other he went 7.2, allowing 5 hits and 1 earned. And he had his worst start of the season, getting just 2 outs, giving up 5 hits and 5 runs.

Casey Janssen: 0-2, 2 save, 2 blown saves with a 6.75 ERA . In 11 games he pitched 9.1 innings. Batters hit .324/.375/.568 with 2 home runs, 3 walks and 7 strikeouts. He gave up runs in 3 of the 11 appearances, I would have said he gave up runs in most of his appearances, if I just went by my memory. In the 11 games, he only pitched a clean inning 3 times. He did look better in his last outing. I'd imagine the food poisoning took a lot of out him. I'm hoping the worst is behind him.

Dustin McGowan: 1-0, 2 holds, 1 blown save with a 4.66 ERA. In 12 games he pitched 9.2 innings. Batters hit .257/.333/.400 with 1 home run, 5 walks and 6 strikeouts. He was very good in June and July and then not as good in August. He gave up runs in 3 of his appearances and more than 1 run (3) in only appearance.

Aaron Loup: 1-1, no holds, a 3.09 ERA. In 12 games he pitched 11.2 innings. Batters hit .250/.304/.500 against him with 2 home runs, 4 walks and 7 strikeouts. He allowed earned runs in 3 of the 12 appearances, 2 in one game, 1 in 2 games. He's been very good, even if he did allow a home run to a LHB for the first time.

Brett Cecil: 1-0,1 save, 3 holds, a 2.38 ERA. In 13 games he pitched 11.1 innings. Batters hit .190/.244/.357 with 2 home runs, 3 walks and 20 strikeouts. He got 34 outs and 20 of them were strikeouts. He allowed 3 earned runs in his first appearance of the month, then didn't allow another. He's been great.

Aaron Sanchez: 0-1, 1 save, 2 holds, a 1.76 ERA. In 10 games he's pitched 15.1 innings. Batters hit .154/.200/.212 with 1 home run, 3 walks and 17 strikeouts. He gave up runs in 2 of his appearances. He's been great. He pitched more than an inning in 7 of his 10 appearances.

Todd Redmond:  0-0, 6.35 ERA. In 6 games he pitched 11.1 innings. Batters hit .302/.392/.442 with 1 home run, 7 walks and 8 strikeouts against him. he gave up runs in 3 of his 6 appearances, 5, 2 and 1 run. He's been very good this season. He should be allowed a bad month. Unfortunately it was the same month so many others had a bad month.

Chad Jenkins: 1-0, 0.73 ERA. In 6 games he pitched 12.1 innings. Batters hit .275/.302/.314 with 2 walks and 8 strikeouts. The stand out game with the one he went 6 shutout innings in extras against the Tigers, getting the win. He's been really good, when he's with the team. If someone were to create a 'Is Chad Jenkins currently up with the Blue Jays?' phone app, I'd be the first one to purchase it.

Sergio Santos: 0-1, 20.25 ERA. In 2 games he pitched 1.1 innings. Batters hit .500/.556/1.375 with 2 home runs, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. He faced 9 batters, 5 of them reached base. The Jays outrighted him to the Fisher Cats. I don't understand why the Fisher Cats, their season is over, but I'm sure there is some reason. I'm imagining Alex threw a dart and a board.

Kyle Drabek: 0-0, 0.00 ERA. He pitched in 2 games, 3 innings. Batters hit .182/.308/.273 against him, with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts. I'm surprised he wasn't one of the ones that is coming up for September, but I guess they will have more than enough  pitchers without him.

Steve Tolleson: Faced two batters, got both of them out, including one by strikeout.

The Blue Jays have made yesterday's news official this morning, with nine players coming up to join the team thanks to the expanded rosters in September. What wasn't announced yesterday is how the 40-man roster will be adjusted to make room for the new guys who had to be added to the roster before being recalled to Toronto. It looks like we have our answer as Brett Lawrie has been moved to the 60-day DL, Darin Mastroianni and Matt Hague have been designated for assignment, while Neil Wagner has been released.

The Blue Jays twitter feed confirmed the plethora of moves this morning, which should add some excitement to a September that was starting to look quite depressing:

BRETT LAWRIE has been transferred to 60-day DL, OF DARIN MASTROIANNI & 1B MATT HAGUE have been designated for assignment

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) September 2, 2014

Please note that RHP NEIL WAGNER has been released.

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) September 2, 2014

Plus the confirmation of the nine players making their way up to Toronto:

The @BlueJays have made the following roster moves: RHP BRANDON MORROW and 1B DAN JOHNSON have been re-instated from the DL (cont'd)

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) September 2, 2014

2B RYAN GOINS, OF ANTHONY GOSE, RHP KENDALL GRAVEMAN, LHP SEAN NOLIN and LHP DANIEL NORRIS have been recalled from @BuffaloBisons

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) September 2, 2014

OF DALTON POMPEY and GEORGE KOTTARAS have had their contracts selected from @BuffaloBisons.

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) September 2, 2014

It is essentially a certainty now that Brett Lawrie is done for the season after being transferred to the 60-day DL. This will make it three full seasons in a row where he hasn't played in more than 125 games (his high in 2012). He heads into this offseason looking at his first experience with the arbitration process and will want to stay on the field a bit more often in 2015 if he wants to see a pay increase anytime soon.

Darin Mastroianni made 14 appearances with the Blue Jays this year hitting .156 and not making much of an impression. Matt Hague was selected off waivers from Pittsburgh a few weeks ago and was hitting .377 in Buffalo over 13 games.

Meanwhile, Neil Wagner never really got a fair shake with the Blue Jays thanks to his favourable option status leading to him always being the odd man out in the bullpen. Unfortunately injuries derailed his season and he leaves Toronto with a fair bit of untapped potential.

On the flip side, it will be interesting to see how players like Daniel Norris, Kendall Graveman, and Dalton Pompey perform in this massive opportunity with the Blue Jays after starting the season all the way down in High-A ball. It sure looks like the aggressive promotions are an attempt to keep some excitement surrounding the team combined with a risk taken by Alex Anthopoulos in an attempt to get some job security. As many have noted, the additions of Pompey and Kottaras will bring the total number of Canadian players to ever put on a Blue Jays jersey to 20.

Update

In another bit of news, Buffalo Bisons reliever Mike Zagurski has been released from the team at his request.

Source: LHP Mike Zagurski asks for and is granted release by #BlueJays. He will pursue MLB opportunities in Sept. 2.08 ERA in 46 G at AAA.

— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) September 2, 2014

The big lefty had pitched quite well in Triple-A, sporting a 1.83 ERA in 44.1 innings pitched along with a 12.4 K/9. The southpaw obviously thinks there are better opportunities for him in other organizations and with the amount of relievers the Blue Jays currently have, it's hard to blame him. Farewell Mike:

With the end of the minor league regular seasons and the arrival of September comes the expansion of the active roster limit to 40 and the call-up of rookies looking to make their major league debuts. Since the completion of their final game on Sunday, the Blue Jays made a number of moves that affected their 40-man roster. Gone are Matt Hague and Darin Mastroianni as George Kottaras, Dalton Pompey, Daniel Norris, John Mayberry Jr., and Kendall Graveman were added.

Those moves led to a big update to the Blue Jays Roster Tree Route Map (click here for the permanent link), which is a graphical representation of how each member of the current 40-man roster arrived on the team.

Recent changes include:

• The addition of the MAYBERRY JR. Line, which runs to Pierre (John Mayberry Jr. was acquired in a trade for minor leaguer Gustavo Pierre).
• The addition of the NORRIS Line, which runs to Downs (Daniel Norris was selected in the second round of the 2011 draft with a pick that arrived from the Angels when they signed reliever Scott Downs as a free agnet in the 2010-2011 offseason).
• The addition of POMPEY, GRAVEMAN, and KOTTARAS.
• Removing the "red cross" from MORROW and adding it to LAWRIE.

Past versions of the route map can be found here:

Version 1 | Version 2 | Version 3 | Version 4 | Version 5 | Version 6 | Version 7 | Version 8 | Version 9 | Version 10 | Version 11 | Version 12 | Version 13 | Version 14 | Version 15 | Version 16 | Version 17 | Version 18 | Version 19 | Version 20

Offense baffled.

Sometimes it's not just about establishing the fastball.

Jeremy Hellickson came out firing. He worked the outside edge of the plate to Jose Reyes, getting him leaning, forcing him to battle off pitches. He found Ryan Hanigan's mitt on the bottom outside corner of the plate time after time, and eventually, when he came back into the zone, he popped Reyes up. It was a good start.

Jose Bautista hammered a curve at the bottom of the zone for a single, because Jose Bautista is very good. Edwin Encarnacion worked a walk (one of four he would work tonight) despite being pitched tough, because Edwin Encarnacion is very good. But bracketing those two sluggers, Hellickson struck out both Melky Cabrera and Adam Lind with well set up back-foot curves to notch a clean inning. I wasn't sure if this was by design -- hiding his best pitch for when he needed it -- or because he didn't have a feel for it, but Hellickson only threw one changeup in the first inning. Whichever it was, the pattern continued for the rest of the game, probably to Hellickson's detriment.

In the second, Hellickson kept to the same script, only this time it didn't work as well. Once more he pounded the edges of the zone with his fastball against Danny Valencia. He threw one curve, which Valencia fouled off, and one changeup in the dirt, which Valencia spit on. Then he tried to come down and inside with the fastball, but the pitch was neither down nor inside enough, and Valencia dropped the bat head on Helly's mediocre fastball and cranked it over the left-field wall. Later on in the inning, Josh Thole nearly did the same, but Matt Joyce made a running grab just shy of the left-field cutout.

The Rays answered in the bottom of the second when with one out, James Loney managed to wait on a knuckler and slap it the other way for a single. Yunel Escobar took a walk, and David DeJesus was hit on the hand to load the bases. After getting up in the count 3-1, Ryan Hanigan inside-outed a fastball to plop it into short-right field between three Toronto fielders, scoring one run. Kevin Kiermaier hit another short fly ball -- this time to left -- that luckily for the Rays needed to be fielded by the shortstop running out into the outfield rather than by the outfielder running in. Yunel Escobar alertly took advantage of Reyes's momentum and tagged up to score on the play. Unfortunately, Dickey was able to baffle the Rays for the rest of the game, and Hellickson was not able to make the slim lead stand.

He gave it up in the very next half inning. Against both Reyes and Cabrera, Hellickson once more worked the bottom of the zone (mostly with his fastball). When he went to his curve, though, their eye level was already down, and they were each able to put a curve near the bottom of the zone into play with authority, setting runners on first and third. An infield hit, chopped by Jose Bautista deep into the hole between shortstop and third base, brought Reyes home.

One inning later, Reyes iced the game. Two Blue Jays at the bottom of the order reached base via infield hits. Now facing the Jays' leadoff hitter for the third time, Hellickson stuck with the same fastball-heavy approach he had used all game. The result was eerily similar to the Valencia at bat, only from the other side of the plate. Hellickson tried to come down and in, but he didn't get down or in far enough. Reyes dropped the bat head and easily cleared the right-field wall for a three-run homer.

I know that it's important to establish the fastball. I know that Joe Maddon says that the best pitch in baseball is a well-commanded heater. I know that for anything else to work, the hitter must respect number one. Still, I found Hellickson's mix peculiar. He mostly seemed to place his fastball where he wanted to, and he often put the Blue Jays hitters on the back foot, but out of his 87 pitches he threw it 59 times, and it didn't really seem to set up much else. His curve ball (thrown 16 times) had some success, but it was also put in play with authority. And Hellickson's usual best pitch, his changeup, only made 12 appearances all night. What's the point of setting a batter up if you don't then sit them down?

The Bright Spots

There were two good performances from the Rays' September callups. Steve Geltz faced four batters and struck out three of them with his electric rising fastball (he walked Encarnacion). Had Maddon gone to Geltz one batter earlier, this might have been a very different game.

After Geltz, Brandon Gomes pitched two and two thirds scoreless innings, striking out two batters and allowing none to reach base. His problem at the beginning of the season was an over-reliance on his new cutter that he had no ability to command. Tonight he threw the cutter only twice, both times for strikes. Instead he relied once more on the low-90s fastball that he used to work his pitches off of. As many of you know, I've been predicting a breakout for Gomes for some time, and I took this appearance as evidence of a more promising approach.

Some other notes:

• David DeJesus just came off the disabled list from a fractured left hand. In his first at bat today, an R.A. Dickey knuckle ball swept up and in and caught him right on the first knuckle of the index finger of his left hand. Not that you can be mad at Dickey, but DDJ did not seem pleased.
• Later on in the game, Dickey hit Yunel Escobar with a first-pitch fastball. As BA pointed out, first-pitch fastballs from Dickey is rare, and there may have been some intent. Yunel sure seemed to think there was by the begrudging look he gave the mound. If that was in fact some unprovoked 77 mph headhunting, than shame on Dickey and shame on the Blue Jays. Not classy.
• The Jays added a mop up homer against Cesar Ramos. Ho hum.
  

The O's and Jays are remarkably similar team, except when you look at the teams' defensive abilities.

The Blue Jays aren't going to catch the Baltimore Orioles and win the AL East.

Generally speaking, definitive statements like that will get you killed in this business, but as predictions go that one seems pretty safe. Toronto is currently 10 games behind Baltimore with less than a month remaining, and it would take something absolutely extraordinary for the Jays to overtake the O's.

At this point the Blue Jays' slim playoff hopes rest on snagging the second wild card, hitting the road, and beating the second-place team in the AL West. A lot of things would have to break right for that to happen, and it's not really reasonable to expect that any of them will, let alone all of them.

So, at the point of the season when Blue Jays fans are looking forward to the debut of top prospects and reflecting on the year as a whole, it's worth examining how the Jays fell short of the Orioles to lose their grasp on a division that initially appeared winnable. After all, the teams are awfully similar.

Firstly, both squads field above-average lineups. There isn't a lot separating the two teams in terms of the production they've delivered at the plate.

The Jays have gotten on base more,  and created slightly more runs, but the difference here is negligible.

Moving over to pitching, a look at the fielding-independent numbers shows the two teams are once again virtually mirror images of each other.

The Orioles pitchers have been slightly more effective due to their ability to limit walks, but once again there is relatively little to differentiate them from the Jays hurlers.

If the two teams hit the ball relatively similarly, and their pitchers produce similar numbers it seems unlikely that there would be a 10 game gap between them. However, by process of elimination (not including base running I suppose) the major factor separating the Jays and O's has to be contrast in their effectiveness fielding the ball. By the two main defensive metrics at FanGraphs, DRS and UZR, Baltimore is lapping Toronto in that regard this season.

Although it's hard to take defensive metrics as gospel, these numbers are pretty compelling. It's apparent that not only are the Orioles an elite defensive team, but the Jays are a pretty bad one.

Even if you are reluctant to accept advanced defensive stats, a look at pitching numbers that include fielders' contributions shows how much glovework has played a role in the gap between the Jays and Orioles.

When it comes to run prevention the Blue Jays are just miles behind the division leaders they are chasing.

It is easy to boil baseball down to a game of hitting and pitching alone, but the ability of fielders to turn balls in play into outs plays a huge factor over the course of a season. One need only look as far as the AL Central to see a team in the Kansas City Royals that is winning games with their gloves.

Based on some of the comparison between the Blue Jays and Orioles hitting and pitching numbers it would easy to conclude that the teams are two 25-man peas in what would have be an absolutely gargantuan pod. Clumsy and mildly disturbing metaphors aside, that conclusion would be wrong. In baseball, fielding can make a huge difference.

In the case of the Blue Jays and Orioles that difference is about 10 games.

. . .

All statistics current as of 09/02/2014

With the most exciting group of September call-ups in sometime being announced a few days ago it seems to be a good time to look back at what the Blue Jays did once the calendar turned to the ninth month in the last few seasons. Most of the time Alex Anthopoulos and the Blue Jays front office refrain from aggressively promoting the team's top prospects once rosters expanded, but this year they basically said YOLO aka "I want to keep my job" and decided to promote anyone they thought could inject some excitement into the final month of the season.

In 2013 the team called up pitchers Kyle Drabek, Ricky Romero, Jeremy Jeffress, Luis Perez, and catcher Mike Nickeas as well as activating Dustin McGowan from the disabled list after he missed all of August. It wasn't the prettiest set of promotions as most of the pitchers got torched in relief roles, expect for Jeremy Jeffress who impressed by not allowing a run in nine appearances. Drabek and Romero both received limit chances to make an impression and they certainly didn't capitalize. For Romero, the poor performance essentially sealed his fate as a lost cause that could no longer get any hitters out.

A year prior in 2012 the Blue Jays didn't really make much noise in the September call-up department, just bringing back players who previously been optioned to the minors earlier in the year. These players included Brett Cecil, Anthony Gose, Joel Carreno and Yan Gomes (sigh). Gomes went 7-19 in September, but was still traded to Cleveland for Esmil Rogers where he went on to be very good at baseball.

The 2011 season was probably the most exciting in terms of recent September promotions as Canadian Adam Loewen came up to the team along with Kyle Drabek, Danny Farquhar, Brad Mills, and Chad Beck (his debut), plus the return of Dustin McGowan after an absence of three years. Loewen didn't impress and his at-bats in September of 2011 were the last he's seen in a major league uniform. Drabek flashed some nice stuff, but got absolutely torn apart in an outing against the Angels which left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Chad Beck fooled everyone by not allowing a single run in three outings before eventually flaming out in 2012. Brad Mills was Brad Mills and made one bad appearance in September before being traded for Jeff Mathis in the offseason. Farquhar didn't leave much of an impression, which is a shame considering how well he is performing in Seattle these days.

In 2010, Kyle Drabek got his first promotion to the big leagues and earned three starts in September pitching pretty average. J.P Arencibia made his return to the Blue Jays after his first short initial stint in August and went 0-15 with seven strikeouts, which probably should have set off a few alarm bells. Shawn Hill, a Mississauga native like Dalton Pompey, made some starts in September as well but was released following the season. There was a few other Triple-A players promoted as well, but they didn't make much noise at the major league level.

Looking back, the recent September call-up history of the Toronto Blue Jays isn't the most exciting thing to examine in the world but that is partly due to the fact that the Blue Jays haven't been very aggressive in promoting their young players to the majors at the end of the season. This year the thinking seems to have changed and it certainly makes it more exciting for the fans. Hopefully we see more than just Dalton Pompey running from first to third during the rest of the month though.

not really something to shout about

Dioner Navarro was one of my favorite Rays during the turn around of 2008, and that feeling was extended after the let down that was the incredible 2009 Rays team that couldn't win games by MLB2K10.

Projections of future performance are a fickle thing. In the fantasy world of my XBox, Navarro was a homerun fiend, clubbing them constantly from the three-hole in my batting order, leading the league in RBI every time I played a new season.

In real life he fizzled, bounced around, ended up in Cincinnati where he worked out with the right folks and found his stroke. Now he's in Toronto, fat as ever, clubbing away.

Navarro displayed his video game strength with one on and one out in the second inning, reading a backdoor slider like a book after fouling off several pitched from Chris Archer. That gave the Blue Jays a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

Then the power went out, literally, in one strand of lights that everyone struggled to find. Rookie fireballer Stroman for Toronto spotted the outage, pointed skyward in the third. The umps gathered, Stroman dashed to the dugout, and poor Jose Molina was left confused in the batter's box.

31 minutes later and the lights kinda working again, not that visibility was ever hindered, and Molina was brought back to a 2-2 count and took a fastball possibly above the zone, striking out looking. How infuriating. It was that kind of night.

In a rare occurrence for DRaysBay, in that we had an insider at the game. Hatfield was on the scene for the rain delay, and confirmed not only a lightning strike took out that single row of lights, but that the Trop was leaking rain in the bad thunderstorm. One bad enough to scare the crap out of Melky Cabrera.

Melky Hears Thunder

The general theme of the night, however, was ineptitude, and not just on the Dome: Jose Molina tossing the ball on a transfer to throw out a runner heading toward second. The chopper bouncing off the tip of James Loney's glove. Kevin Kiermaier's throw bringing James Loney way off the line, and no one covering first base. Wil Myers legging it over to a liner, but it landing just past his route to the ball. And Chris Archer just looked uncomfortable.

My biggest take away on the night however was a different sort of power outage. Not electrical, not mental, but physical. Navarro and Encarnacion homered against a good pitcher tonight, combined with some authoritative hitting from Adam Lind it was a depressing sight.

The Rays are currently on pace to have to worst homerun total in the seventeen year history of the franchise, less than the 111 recorded in 1998. The team has yet to crack three digits worth, an abysmal showing from a flyball heavy squad of hitters, and the star Evan Longoria has yet to reach twenty, in a season he's not injured.

Longoria would eventually put his head down and drive a ball to left, but it dropped in the grass short of the defender, determined but no power. Still, the Rays would score something here. There had been runners on the corners and one would score. Loney followed with a would-be double as the ball was passed around the infield but the Rays were hustling. Joyce scored, then Loney was called out on the relay throw. The Rays challenged, and on review he was safe. It's a shame the Jays had already piled up six runs.

From there, Kirby Yates grinded through bases loaded with a run allowed, that was exciting, but the better parts were the banter from the broadcast booth. Oh, and Evan Longoria hit the most no-doubt home run of the Rays season.

Yup, lightning struck.

Perfect swing, perfect contact, easy motion and easy power, and with one out in the eighth. Watch it soar to the left field wall.

In the midst of all my complaints regarding the Rays and longball hitting, Longoria unleashed. Of course he did.

If and when the embed code is available, I'll be sure to paste it above, but for now CLICK THIS LINK, IT'S YOUR ONLY SOLACE.

Actually, hold off. There needs to be some proper backing to such a triumphant longball. His walkup music? Something from Watch the Throne? Master P's Make 'em say UGH? No, I know just the thing.

Click this, then watch the video again. Perfection.

***

The longball aside, the question is what we should do with this Rays line up? And I don't mean this season per se, the Rays have a mathematical possibility of post season play, but the hitting has felt weak all season.

Maybe it's my head cold talking, but right now, the only batters in the lineup I feel comfortable with are Zobrist, Joyce, and the platoon hitters S-Rod, DDJ, and Guyer. I don't have a problem with James Loney, he's just being who he should have been last year, but KK is still in a slump, Myers hasn't recovered, Jennings is out of comission, Hanigan hasn't had a chance, and we employ Jose Molina.

I expected more from just about everyone playing offense on the roster, be it performance or health. The team brought the energy back late in the game, but that doesn't excuse what has been bad all season. Or maybe just average, when the standard is greatness.

The 2014 Rays are average in run creation, but 20th in wOBA (.307), 25th in slugging (.369), and 26th in home runs (99). They're better than this.

***

BONUS: this guy, spotted by the Canadian broadcast.

Fan uses laptop so friend can watch Tampa Bay Rays game live via video chat. http://t.co/kEPMEXunXWpic.twitter.com/yLKpC4pSyM

— theScore (@theScore) September 4, 2014

Nice. (nice)

Our first series win in Tropicana since Minor Leaguer was a Little Leaguer.

Blue Jays 7 Rays 4

Fourth win in a row. Baseball is so much more fun now, not that it wouldn't have been better to start this little streak a month ago. Still, wins are better than losses any day. And I'm so happy to have a series win in that awful dome.

The offense does appear to have returned. Something else to be happy about.

We had 12 hits, including 2 home runs. Dioner Navarro hits one for the second night in a row, a 2-run shot and Edwin Encarnacion hit his 29th of the season, another 2-run job, but that one had to be reviewed, mostly because Joe Maddon didn't want to ever go home again. He must be fighting with his wife, he tried to make this last forever.

Adam Lind went 4 for 4, including a double. Joses Reyes and Bautista had 2 hits each, Reyes hitting his fourth triple of the season. Navarro also had 2 hits and 2 walks, one of them intentional. Maddon figured he could slow the game down more if he walked Dioner to load the bases. Danny Valencia almost made him really pay, coming  few feet short of a grand slam, settling for a sac fly.

The only starters not to hit were Melky Cabrera (0 for 4 with an sac fly RBI), Valencia (0 for 2, with 2 sac fly RBI) and Goins (0 for 4).Goins also had a ground ball go under his glove, (though it was a tough play) so not a great day for the guy.

Marcus Stroman was great. He went 6 innings, allowed 7 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk and struck out. He also overcame some gamesmenship by Maddon, who decided that, since Marcus was having a very easy time of it, the game had to be delayed. With 1 out in the third and Marcus having allowed just 1 hit, Maddon complained to umpires that because a handful of lights lights were out, the game should be halted. It was plenty bright in Tropicana Field, you could still see how ugly it was, but there was a 30 minute delay while workers tried to find the light switch.  When the game started again, Marcus' first pitch when for strike three on Jose Molina. The delay seemed to cause Maddon's starter Chris Archer more trouble than it did Stroman.

The delay did lead to Stroman leaving the game early. Gibby pulled him after 76 pitches, after he had a pretty tough 6th inning. I'm all for watching his inning count anyway.

Aaron Loup, Dustin McGowan and Aaron Sanchez pitched an inning each to finish off the game. Loup and Sanchez were very good (Aaron picked up his second save). McGowan wasn't good, giving up 2 hits, including a 2-run homer. He's been pretty lousy for awhile now.

We did have some good defense, most notably from Jose Bautista in right field, who made 3 very good catches. He really did seem to want to make sure we won.

And we had 3 stolen bases, 2 from Reyes, who took second and third after his single in the 3rd and 1 from Anthony Gose. Gose, who, it seems, has inherited the center field job, had a pretty good game, making the catches in the outfield and getting a hit.

The game time was 3:09 with darkness delay and reviews. It seemed longer.

Jays of the Day are Stroman (.182 WPA) and Navarro (.246), and I'm going to give one to Lind for his 4 for 5 game.

No Suckage Jays.

There was one heck of a thunder storm hitting the St. Pete area during the game. There is a great GIF of Melky getting scared by a particularly loud clap of thunder. If you haven't see it yet, go take a look at in on our Bluebird Banter Facebook page (yes that was a free plug for our Facebook page, which you should be following).

We had 1226 comments in our GameThreads. Spor pulling out the win, despite my 9th inning ummmm stuffing of the ballot box. Great job.

I've been following the Blue Jays since 1994, immediately after the back-to-back World Series win. There's been hopeful moments and there will be more. But now I just want to stop looking at the past and have some actual memories worth talking about.

Monday was a good day. The Blue Jays had an off day, and I listened to parts of the Buffalo Bisons regular season finale on the radio. It was stress free. I'm not saying every single Blue Jays game has a direct correlation to my mood, but there's some connection between their game results and how I go about my day.

It's September again, and the Jays have a 1.4 percent chance of making the post-season. Local radio personalities might sell you on the possibility of a miracle happening, and yes, I'm hanging onto that thought too, because that's what you do when you're a fan. But per my not very complicated calculations, even if every other team ahead of us starts having fried chicken and drinking beer like the 2011 Boston Red Sox, we'll probably still finish a few games out.

Because of the timing of when I immigrated to Canada and started watching baseball, the Blue Jays have been my personal Groundhog Day for the past 20 years. I didn't start following them until the strike-shortened season of 1994, right after the glory days.

Fandom, in general, is an exercise in being melodramatic, so excuse me when I say that I can't imagine sticking with anything else in life that repeatedly frustrates me for two decades like a baseball team. It's not a destructive relationship, because it's not one at all. You kind of just hope for things, and talk yourself into something better than what the reality is. You get frustrated, have a private meltdown in August (or since the rise of Twitter, a very public one), and then turn it all over when spring training starts again.

I've never seen this team in the playoffs, which I'm sure puts me in the same position as fans younger than me. So when I think about the Jays, I remember some great individual moments, but I also remember very specific ones like sitting in the passenger seat of my mom's car in Stouffville when FAN590 announced that Roger Clemens had agreed to sign with Toronto. I remember being excited about Erik Hansen and Joey Hamilton, and thinking the Jose Cruze Jr. trade was a game changer. I remember starting a blog when I was at the University of Toronto computer lab, and writing a thousand words on why Ty Taubenheim can stabilize our rotation. Hope is a strange thing.

The last two years have been particularly tough. Aside from an 11-game winning streak, last year somehow went from this is the return to the glory years to how did this end up being the worst season I've ever watched? This season, the path to irrelevance in September was a different one. We were in first place for awhile, and was still in the lead for the second wild card at the start of August. But here we are again, all set to find reason to watch this team as they play out the string.

The second wild card, in many ways, have allowed teams like the Jays -- who are a mediocre baseball team, and have been worst than that since May -- to masquerade themselves as a contender even if they're hovering around .500 heading into the final month of the season. This kind of summed it up for me:

The Jays are 5 games out of a playoff spot. They've been 14, 13, 14, 13, and 18 games back on Sept. 1 over the past 5 years. Progress. Yay.

— Navin Vaswani (@vaswani_) September 1, 2014

I discussed this with Melissa Couto, a sports reporter-editor at The Canadian Press who grew up as a Jays fan and started covering them in 2012.

"I see it as a good thing in the sense that it has certainly made things more interesting for a lot more teams in the last few weeks of the season especially. I don't know if it's a false sense of hope since once you're in the post-season, you're in," Melissa said. "Anything can happen in a one-and-done game so both wild card teams have a pretty much equal chance of advancing, even if one has a far better record than the other heading in. Would the better team lose three of five, or five of seven, or even two of three? Probably not. But when you have one shot it certainly makes things more interesting, whether it's fair or not."

Even if this season is lost, there's hope because there's always is. A rotation anchored by Aaron Sanchez, Marcus Stroman, Drew Hutchison and Daniel Norris seems promising. We might lose two of our outfielders this off-season, but Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion are still pretty awesome.

But still, 20-plus years of following a team with no return is frustrating, especially given the question marks now surrounding ownership and what the plan is going forward.

"When you see a team do so well for a good chunk of the season and then come crumbling down, it's almost worse than if they had just played to a mediocre level all along. You and I remember when the Blue Jays won the World Series. I see kids growing up now, I've interviewed a lot of the players on the junior national team who were born after 1993 and that's just so strange for me," Melissa said. "Being a fan of this team is tough and it seems to be getting tougher. You want to think that the ownership wants to bring you a competitive team. But you hear things like players willing to give up part of their salary to pay Ervin Santana, or that the team can't take on any additional payroll at the trade deadline, and what are fans supposed to think? Maybe in a couple years they won't need to attract that top free agent pitcher or whoever because they've finally got enough homegrown talent to round out a decent rotation. This turned into a long-winded answer but the short version is I really don't know what to tell fans."

For me, it's about wanting to have actual memories of my own to talk about, and to pass own to my future kids and the next generation of baseball fans. I realized this week that I started following the Jays in fourth grade, now I'm turning married and turning 30 years old in a month. That's a long time.

But when the season ends, I'll turn the page and look forward to spring training again, and soon enough I'll be talking myself into next year's team. It happens every year. And to be honest, I'm pretty sure I've written a variation of this article every September.

I think that's the part I'd like to move on from one of these years.

Alex Wong writes as steven lebron and as you can tell, is a very frustrated Blue Jays fan. His work has been published at Grantland, VICE, Rolling Stone, Complex and more.

And lots of other quirky only-at-the-Trop things, but unfortunately, not a W in there.

I just want to watch this again and again and again and again and again:

Melky you are in a DOME! http://t.co/7FTwU8j0Ex

— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) September 4, 2014

Oh, and someone on the Blue Jays, help a brother out #thunderbuddy:

Even after all the theatrics on their home turf, the Rays unfortunately lost to the Blue Jays, but did inspire today's Word of the Day (c/o of Danny and his head cold and his thorough recap):

ineptitude / in·ep·ti·tude: a lack of skill or ability

Example: The general theme of the night, however, was ineptitude, and not just on the Dome.

Use that one in a sentence today, kids!

And also, please help us identify these two gentlemen, as they are the future of in-stadium sponsorships (Beats by Dre, Apple, etc. So many opportunities here.):

Someone please tell us they know these video-chatting-in-the-Trop men. http://t.co/m5BUVz838Qpic.twitter.com/AnyE2hQVZD (via @SBNationMLB)

— DRaysBay (@draysbay) September 4, 2014

Links:

- ICYMI: The stadium rumor mill started churning again, with a piece from John Romano in yesterday's Tampa Bay Times mentioning chatter allowing the Rays to explore potential sites in Hillsborough county. Danny provided a great breakdown of everything the article mentioned.

- Per some sources, David Price has made a new friend in Detroit. First name Pine, last name Tar.

@larryfakedolan what's under prices hat ???? pic.twitter.com/UWIiG8pO1b

— tim cox (@kingcoxie95) September 1, 2014

- "A Day In the Life of John Jaso's Concussion." Read this. Professional athletes injuries can (and most often do) affect them for a lifetime, long after their careers have ended, and Jaso's recount of what his day-to-day symptoms and experiences are half a month later is somewhat jarring.

- Vin Scully is decreasing his workload in 2015 by as much as 25%, so someone just let me know where to sign the petition or where the protesters are gathering. Or, since I respect him and his decisions, someone relay that I will happily just hang out with him in all of his newfound free time and listen to all of his grand stories for hours on end. All valid options.

- Japanese. First. Pitches. Disclaimer: may cause nightmares. Lots of costumes.

- "All the sabermetric-whatever-crap that you guys, [that] people talk about, you can throw that out the window, because it's baseball. You get someone hot, you get someone not, whatever, it happens." - Tell us more, Kevin Frandsen.

The Blue Jays have 3 players on Baseball America's Minor League All-Star Team.

Daniel Norris and Kendall Graveman make the first team all-stars. Dalton Pompey is on the second team all-stars.

About Graveman they said:

Signed for just $5,000 as an eighth-round senior from Mississippi State in 2013, Graveman pitched at all four full-season levels this year, walking 1.7 batters per nine innings and allowing just two home runs in 27 starts. The sinkerball righty pitches at 90-92 mph and added a cutter this season to notch 14 wins (to rank third in the minors) and log a 1.83 ERA (fourth) and 1.03 WHIP (12th).

And about Norris:

The 2011 second-rounder appeared destined to be a $2 million bust at midseason 2013-when through 25 pro starts he had logged a 7.08 ERA and 1.77 WHIP-but the power-armed southpaw got his delivery in sync at that point, and he hasn't looked back. Norris dominated the minors at three stops this season with an electric three-pitch mix, climbing from Dunedin to Buffalo and ranking first in the minors with 11.8 strikeouts per nine innings along the way. The Blue Jays rewarded him with a September callup.

It is a much deserved honor for all three. They had pretty incredible years, each starting at Dunedin, playing in 3 minor league levels and finishing in Toronto. I wonder if we've ever had three guys climb from A-ball to the majors in one season before?

Congratulations Daniel, Kendall and Dalton.

The Blue Jays have a chance for a series sweep in Tampa Bay tonight as Mark Buehrle faces off against Jake Odorizzi. We saw Jake back in early July, where I noted that he had developed a nasty splitter that had essentially replaced his slider as his most-used secondary pitch. In that contest he went 6.2 innings allowing two earned runs off six hits while striking out seven Blue Jays hitters. As we expected, Odorizzi almost exclusively threw a fastball and splitter combination during the start which is a massive change from what he threw just one year ago in 2013. Here's the movement map from the July 12th contest in Tampa:

via www.brooksbaseball.net

As highlighted in a nice post over at Beyond the Boxscore last week, Odorizzi has begun to elevate his fastball arm-side and bury his splitter down in the zone:

via cdn2.vox-cdn.com

via cdn0.vox-cdn.com

This causes problems for hitters as they are either swinging underneath the fastball or getting in front of his splitter as well as swinging over the new and improved pitch. It's unfortunate that Odorizzi happens to play for a division-rival because stories where a young pitcher completely changes their offerings are always interesting to follow.

The righty's 4.03 ERA might make it seem as though he doesn't deserve all the plaudits he is receiving, but an outing on August 25th against the Orioles where he allowed eight earned runs over four innings has made his stats look slightly deceiving (he'd have a 3.65 ERA without that start). It doesn't help that his 10-11 record is thanks to some pretty poor run support from a pretty poor offence as well as the fact that wins and losses are useless.

Hopeful Lineup

1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Melky Cabrera LF
3. Jose Bautista RF
4. Edwin Encarnacion DH
5. Adam Lind 1B
6. Dioner Navarro C
7. Danny Valencia 3B
8. Ryan Goins 2B
9. Dalton Pompey CF

Bullpen Usage

Find The Link

The Mariners have a winning streak again.

Super Bowl XLVIII: Austin Jackson (.135 WPA)

Super Bowl XL: Corey Hart (-.028 WPA)

Questions

1. When was the last time the Mariners scored more than ten runs in a September game? (Confirm your answer here.)
2. How do you deal with the overlap between baseball and football season (or, if you're not a football fan, any other sport that overlaps with baseball)?
3. The Giants have "Bye, Bye, Baby." The Blue Jays have "OK, Blue Jays!" Your choice for the Mariners’ fight song:

Toronto Blue Jays rookie Daniel Norris is one of the most interesting prospects to watch in the major leagues this September. His rise to the highest level has been rapid: he was in rookie ball two years ago. But Norris wasn't just in rookie ball, he was getting blasted in rookie ball. The road to the major leagues had a bumpy start but he's made up for lost time.

Norris was a second-round pick in 2011 from high school in Johnson City, Tennessee. He was considered a first-round talent but his stock slipped a bit due to bonus demands and concerns about his mechanics. He didn't make his debut until 2012 and it did not go well: in 43 innings between Bluefield in the Appalachian League and Vancouver in the Northwest League, Norris coughed up a 58 hits and an 8.44 ERA. His K/BB ratio wasn't bad at 43/18, but there were serious concerns about his secondary pitches and the Blue Jays had to completely revamp his delivery.

He moved up to Lansing in the Low-A Midwest League in 2013 and improved a great deal, with a 4.20 ERA, a 99/44 K/BB in 86 innings with 84 hits allowed. The improvement was even more notable in 2014: in 125 innings between High-A Dunedin, Double-A New Hampshire, and Triple-A Buffalo, Norris combined for a 2.53 ERA with a 163/43 K/BB ratio and 96 hits allowed. His K/BB was 38/8 in 23 Triple-A innings.

He dominated Triple-A hitters. This is not the same guy who couldn't get people out in the Appalachian League.

Norris is a 6-2, 185 pound lefty born April 23, 1993. His fastball has always been strong at 90-95 MPH, with movement, and his ability to locate the pitch is much better than it was when he was first drafted. His mediocre breaking ball was troublesome when he signed, but his breaking stuff is much more refined now; he developed both a curve and a slider to go with a decent change-up. When he's going well, he has four major league quality pitches, and his command of everything has quickly sharpened thanks to mechanical refinements.

While there is always the risk of back-sliding, Norris has progressed rapidly from thrower to pitcher, solidifying his status as one of the top southpaw prospects in baseball.

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.

It's May 2.0 in Blue Jays land and now they're selling playoff tickets! It's hard to not be excited about seeing the team only 4.5 games out of a playoff spot so late in the season, even if the chances of them making it are still pretty slim (shut up Scott). Drew Hutchison gets the start in Fenway tonight against 24-year-old Allen Webster, who is making his eighth start this season. He's a pretty highly-ranked prospect for Boston and the Blue Jays faced him last year in a game where he gave up four earned runs in six innings. So far in his major league career the dictionary his family publishes (not really) has defined Allen Webster as a, "right-handed pitcher who can't strikeout enough batters to make up for his abhorrent control problems (14.4% BB-rate)."

The North Carolina native has not been good this season since being called up in late July, pitching to a 6.69 ERA and giving up an average of 3.71 earned runs per start. If he doesn't get his walk issues under control then he likely won't be gracing a major league mound for much longer. He's surrendered at least two walks in every start this season and had back-to-back games where he allowed six and five walks respectively.

His repertoire has started to consist of mainly fastballs, changeups, and sliders with the usual usage of changeups against lefties and sliders against righties. His changeup is his best secondary pitch, but he's not really throwing enough strikes to make it as dangerous as it could be. He keeps the changeup arm-side, but it's not as strictly outside-half as someone like Jeremy Hellickson.

Hopeful Lineup

1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Melky Cabrera LF
3. Jose Bautista RF
4. Edwin Encarnacion DH
5. Adam Lind 1B
6. Dioner Navarro C
7. Danny Valencia 3B
8. Ryan Goins 2B
9. Dalton Pompey CF

Bullpen Usage

Daniel Norris with a 100-watt smile in the dugout after getting David Ortiz to strike out looking in a one-run Blue Jays-Red Sox game in Fenway Park. Norris featured an absolutely sick curve for strikes one and three that just hooked into the strike zone.

Norris started the season in A-advanced Dunedin and made it all the way up to the major leagues, and now he has a career strike out rate of 100%. He joins John Cerutti and Jesse Carlson as the only Blue Jays pitchers to strike out the only batter they faced in their major league debut--Carlson struck out Daric Barton and the late Cerutti struck out Harold Baines. Actually, he joins a pretty exclusive club of 45 pitchers who have pulled off the same feat in their debuts, a club that includes Trevor Hoffman... and Blue Jays batting coach Kevin Seitzer!

It just gets easier after this, right?

The Blue Jays left fielder will be ending his season early after breaking his finger sliding back into first on a pick off attempt.

Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Melky Cabrera will be out for the rest of the season after injuring his pinkie in the third inning of a game against Boston Red Sox. Cabrera jammed his finger sliding into first during a successful pick off attempt by Christian Vazquez.

The team announced on Twitter that the injury was "a right pinky finger fracture with an avulsion of extensor tendon," and announced that Cabrera would be undergoing "season ending surgery next week" to fix the broken bone.

Cabrera did not immediately exit the game, playing three more innings before leaving during his at-bat in the sixth. He had been hitting .301 with 16 home runs before the injury, and was replaced by Anthony Gose in the game. It remains unclear whether that will continue through the end of the season.

The team lost in 10 innings, 9-8, putting them five games back of the Tigers for the final Wild Card. The loss of Cabrera may finally spell the end of their playoff hopes.

Only current Blue Jays players are show on the Roster Tree Route Map, meaning there are a bunch of historical roster routes associated with departed players. Some of these routes are pretty long, connecting decades of Blue Jays players who have come and gone through the 37-year-old franchise.

The first historical roster route we will take a look at involves John Mayberry Sr., who played for Toronto from 1978 to 1982. This look back was inspired by the Blue Jays’ recent acquisition of his son, John Mayberry Jr., who made his real debut on Friday night, after being a "ghost pinch hitter" the day earlier. Junior came to the club via a trade for Gustavo Pierre, who was signed by the Jays as an amateur free agent, so his line is quite short and not very interesting:

Usually in roster trees we look back in time to see the strings of players and transactions that led to a particular player. As many lines can be spawned from a single player looking forward, I searched for the longest line on which we can find Senior instead. It turns out that we can connect John Mayberry Sr. on a single line all the way to HAMILTON—not the odourous city in Ontario, but pitcher Joey Hamilton, who also stunk:

Let’s recap the string of transactions that led to Hamilton:

• December 12, 1998: the Blue Jays tradedWoody Williams, Carlos Almanzar, and Pete Tucci to the Padres for Joey Hamilton.
• June 1996: Williams was a regular draft pick and Almanzar was an amateur free agent signing, but Tucci was a compensation draft pick, a selection that arrived via the Orioles after Roberto Alomar signed there the previous offseason.
• December 5, 1990: we all know that Alomar was acquired (along with Joe Carter) by the Blue Jays in a trade, again with the Padres, for Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff.
• December 9, 1982: Fernandez was an amateur free agent signing, but McGriff came from the Yankees (along with Dave Collins and Mike Morgan) in exchange for Dale Murray and Tom Dodd.
• May 5, 1982: Murray signed as a free agent with the Blue Jays after his release from the Expos, but Dodd (along with Dave Revering and Jeff Reynolds) was acquired through a trade with the Yankees, for John Mayberry.
• April 4, 1978: Mayberry terminates the line as he was acquired for cash from the Royals.

Who would've thought that the blockbuster Blue Jays-Padres trade would be a part of the Mayberry-Hamilton line?

Source:As always, Baseball-Reference provided much of the transaction information. Best baseball resource on the Internet.