Oh, stop picking on Scott Rolen. The man is a prince (and has as butt you could serve dinner off of).

I can't say he's a prince but I would certainly enjoy having his butt serve as my dinner plate. Perhaps you should change your screen name to "scottie (North)"?

I don't know if it makes more sense for Jays fans to be sending this card out to friends or it is a card Jays fans should be receiving from their friends - but I laughed when a friend showed it to me.

http://www.someecards.com/upload/sports/pl...y_baseball.html

Jays continue to sink. They are swept by Milwaukee, as former Jay David Bush no hits them into the 8th inning. They are losers of 12 of their last 16. They give up an inside the park home run to big Prince Fielder. Now 35-39. Next up: Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Jays finally win one for Cito, an 8-5 victory over Pittsburgh in their 3rd game under the return of Cito.

On the down side, Shaun Marcum, who is 2nd in the AL in ERA (2.65), is put on the 15 day DL.

It's too bad the Mariners, the worst team in the AL this year, don't play the Blue Jays more often! Two out of three in Seattle this week, and four of six on the season. I had been watching the Canada Day game with Toronto ahead 6-3 after six innings, but was surprised to find next morning that Seattle came back to win it 7-6. Oh well, no more games against the Mariners, so I guess I can go back to cheering for the Jays, despite the odds. Something tells me they aren't going to reach that .500 goal before the All-Star break...

With A.J. Burnett pitching well, raising his value on the trade market, J.P. Ricciardi now says he's off the market. WTF? They were trying to trade him when he was in a slump and had no value, yet now that he's doing well (a career-high 12 wins, 1st in the AL in strikeouts) they decide they want to keep him. Mis-stake. Do they really think that at 2 games over .500 they are contenders? Please. Just think of the pitching prospects we could get in exchange for the big bucks A.J. is owed over the next two years (or, he could opt out at the end of the year and we'll get nothing). Gag!

I beg to differ Mark. Ever since Cito took over there has clearly been a huge change in attitude with this team and you can see it watching their games. Suddenly their bats have come alive, they've shown the ability to comeback and win in the late innings, something that was totally missing before Cito arrived. And you can sense it in the crowds that there is suddenly reason for hope THIS season.

Last night - a Monday night game and the crowd was actually making noise in the top of the very first inning as A.J. struck out the side. Usually a Rogers Centre weeknight crowd is as quiet as a church the first few innings other than when the Yankees or Red Sox are in town - when Jays fans feel obligated to respond even in the early going to the noise being generated by the thousands of visiting team fans in attendance.

The Jays are a very good 12-5 in their last 17 games. On July 4th the Jays were 13 games out in the AL East and in 8th place in the Wild Card race - 10 games back. In the 3 weeks of play since then the Jays have gained 5.5 games on the division leader and are now within 7.5 and gained 3.5 games and passed 4 teams in the Wild Card race and are now in 4th just 6.5 games back with over two months of play to go.

One of their best players offensively and defensively - Vernon Wells - who has missed most of the season with two different injuries - is expected to be back soon. With Halladay and Burnett both pitching the way they are - and if Marcum - back from injury - can regain his form - that is as formidible a starting pitching trio as any team in the league can put forward. The season ending injury to their other great starter Dustin McGowan hurts - but if they were to trade A.J. now - with him pitching as well as any pitcher in baseball - there would be a revolt among Jays fans across the country who have had their interest peaked in this team with their strong July play.

With the bats finally coming alive - if the pitching can continue to hold up - for the first time all season the Jays have actually been playing like the team that had so many experts in the pre-season predicting they could be a team to watch this season. The Rays - with their inexperience may fold under the pressure. With two more games against them here - if the Jays can take both - a big if I know - we will only be 5.5 games out of a playoff spot with two months to go. I would be furious if they folded their tent - which is what trading A.J. would signal.

Are they still a long shot to make the post season - sure. Might they lose A.J. at the end of the season because he has the option to leave at the end of the year - yes. But even if that happens - which is by no means a certainty - it would free up $12 million dollars to perhaps address other concerns on the Jays roster - because we already have a number of good young pitching prospects - some we have seen start for the Jays this year. Jesse Litsch shows promise, David Purcey has shown some good stuff in a couple of his starts and apparently there are some great prospects like Brett Cecil playing down in Manchester.

So with 15 of their next 25 games at home - where they are playing VERY well under Cito - and 8 of those home games against the 3 division rivals they are chasing - I'm sorry - but now is not the time to signal you are giving up on the season. As somebody who has tickets to 4 or 5 Jays games in the last two months of the season - my vote is keep A.J. and go for it now - rather than for the umpteenth year in a row say - sorry Jays's fans wait until next year.

That's the problem with trying to trade him. A team that would take him in a trade won't want to give up much of value if Burnett's going to opt out and become a free agent. If Burnett agreed to stay with that team, he'd bring back more in a trade, but why would he give up his bargaining chip?

Witness the Jays's performance tonight with ace Roy Halladay on the mound: they are shut out by the Rays 3-0, and are now a mere 1 game over .500.

Witness the Atlanta Braves, who are 8.5 games out of first in their division (same as the Jays) trading away Mark Teixeira to the Angels.

Witness the Oakland A's, who are 1 game over .500 (same as the Jays), a few weeks ago traded top pitcher Rich Harden (and Chad Gaudin) to the Cubs.

Witness the fact that A.J. Burnett does not want to be here. And if the Jays don't watch out, Roy Halladay is going to want out, too. As he's said, "That's the hardest thing. We sit down every spring training here, and we talk about the same things. It's almost like a little bit of Groundhog Day, and that definitely gets frustrating ... It's hard to keep talking about the same thing." The Jays organization is good at talking the talk, but they always have some excuse for failure, finding fault in injuries or bad breaks. But maybe the fault lies not in our stars but in ourselves.

Why not trade A.J. and get something for him? He's in his 10th season in the majors... and has never won more than 12 games (which he has now). He's not going to get much better than this. And if the team is still not doing well with him, maybe we can do better with 1 or 2 or 3 guys we might get in return (and save money, too).

And now we're hearing that catcher Greg Zaun (37-years old and hitting .243) would welcome a trade.

It's a sinking ship. When will Jays managment realize this and fire J.P.?

Oh, and on top of that we hear that team President Paul Godfrey is himself considering leaving the team at year end... and we all know his not-so-secret desire is to bring an NFL team to town. Is he trying to set himself up for that job, but ignoring the problems of the Jays in the meantime?

And of course the curse of me posting something positive about the team I cheer for comes through yet again. For the past 3 weeks I've intentionally avoided posting anything positive about the Jays on this board.

EVERY SINGLE TIME I say something like - the Raptors should win .... the Leafs can go on a streak .. , or TFC should be able to beat.... or in this case 'if the Jays win the next two' - you can bet the farm that the Toronto team will LOSE. Usually there is a good shot that they will go into a tailspin too.

And sure enough I had to rise to Canmark's bait and indicate my impression that the Jays still had hope and were moving in the right direction - I fell for it - and allowed myself to post a good word about the Jays - and sure enough the result - 2 losses by the Jays.

Argh!!!

And FYI - Zaun's whining about wanting a trade - he's just unhappy because because Barajas has taken over as starting catcher. In fact in his clarifying remarks today he is quoted as saying - 'I think that the Blue Jays are obviously on the right track.'

And obviously I wasn't the only one who was holding out hope for the Jays as over 40,000 were at this afternoon's game. That is one of the largest non-opening day crowds in years - for a game involving an opponent other than the Yankees or Red Sox.

And I promise - no matter what Canmark may post here to bait me - I will never ever jinx my Jays by predicting good things for them here ever again.

Due to assorted injuries, Scott Rolen will get reduced playing time. Rolen, who has played great defence, started strongly for the Jays but has tailed off. 254, 6 hr and 31 rbi doesn't cut it for a guy owed $22 million over the next 2 years, and who was traded for Troy Glaus (.272, 18 hr, 72 rbi).

And Travelpat, as for my criticism of the Jays organization (not of the team--of the regime in power), I am not the only one. Take, for example, Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star:

Time for Ricciardi to hit the road (July 26, 2008)
Halladay: Jays need to show progress (July 15, 2008)
Blue Jay rotation is spinning out of control (July 13, 2008)
Surely Ricciardi will be the next to go (June 21, 2008)
Seeking suitor for A.J. the wise move for J.P. (June 17, 2008)
Etc.

I'm watching the special trade deadline coverage on ESPNEWS -- pretty boring, seeing as how few actual trades are occurring, but they said the Blue Jays were trying to get Jason Bay from Pittsburgh (now that the Manny Ramirez threesome...I mean, three-team deal is apparently dead).

Now they're saying that Bay may go to Tampa, and that the Blue Jays and Mariners tried to work out a trade to send Raul Ibanez to Toronto, but that deal's fallen apart.

I hadn't heard that... but I just read a Canadian Press article that confirmed that the Jays were mentioned as buyers, rather than sellers (although in the end they were neither).

The price for Jason Bay was too high and the Seattle Mariners backed away from a deal for Raul Ibanez, leaving the inept Toronto Blue Jays offence to finish out the season as is. [my emphasis]

J.P. continues to beat the same drum:

"I don't think we're on the middle ground, I think we're in it," Ricciardi said during a conference call. "We're relatively within striking distance in the wild card and there's still two months to play, so I don't think we ever thought about, `Hey, we're going to be sellers.'"

Despite being 11 games behind the Rays in the AL East, and despite having 4 teams ahead of them in the Wild Card race (incl. the Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox, all of whom made big trade deadline deals), Roy Halladay lead the Jays back over .500 tonight with yet another sparkling performance (4 hits, 1 walk 8 strikeouts and 1 run over 8 innigs).

Halladay, now 13-8 with a 2.77 ERA is having one of the best seasons of his career (career ERA 3.56, 124-63 win-loss record). He's presently 1st in the majors in inning pitched, 2nd in the AL in strike outs, 2nd in the AL in BB/K, and 3rd in the AL in ERA.

J.P. says Cito will be back in 2009.

Another one of J.P.'s errors on display: He released Reed Johnson (.300, 6hr, 41rbi, in 243ab for the Cubs) pre-season to sign Shannon Stewart (.240, 1hr, 14rbi, in 175 ab), and now before the season is over the Jays have released an injured Stewart.

The Jays have sent Matt Stairs to the Phillies and brought up prospect Travis Snider. Snider played at A, AA and AAA this year accumulating good numbers: .275 avg. with 23 homers and 91 RBIs over 133 games. Of the present Jays roster, Vernon Wells leads in home runs with a measly 14.

Once again, the Jays prepare to limp into September. Although there were promises at the start of the season that the team was a "playoff contender" (promises which I did not buy), their numbers just don't hold up.

The Jays continue to unload: David Eckstein moved to Arizona.

Well - it seems like the Jays may have unloaded the right people if that is indeed what they were doing in late August. Since then the Jays have been perfect as spoilers giving major league headaches to all the playoff contenders they have been going up against.

The Jays have won ten in a row against what were playoff contending teams at the time. The Jays won their last two games ever to be played at Yankee Stadium, followed by three game sweeps of Minny and the Rays and now have taken the first two in Chicago against the White Sox. The Jays have the best record in the American League since the time Cito Gaston took over in late June.

Unfortunately it is a case of too little too late as they are still 7 games out of the wildcard with only 18 games left. I'm sure the teams that make it to the AL playoffs will be very happy that the Jays waited just a bit too long to make this charge because they would be very tough to beat.

Oh well - genuine reason for hope next year.

The Jays have given Cito Gaston a 2-year contract extension.

The Jays are ending their relationship with triple-A Syracuse Chiefs. Their new triple-A franchise will be... the Las Vegas 51s of the Pacific Coast League.

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Roy Halladay reached the 20-win mark last night, for the second time in his career. His stats:

20-11, 246 IP, 220 hits, 39 bb, 206 k, 278 ERA

He's 2nd in wins, 2nd in ERA, 1st in IP and 3rd in strikeouts in the AL.

Quoting myself from March 8th, 2008. Let's review the season and see how accurate my predictions were...

- Scot Rolen and David Eckstein didn't provide the promised spark. Eckstein was traded away and Rolen battled injuries, finishing with a .261 avg., 11 hr, 50 rbi, in 406 ab, 115 games
- Vernon Wells led the team with a mere 19 hr, and Alex Rios led the team with a measley 79 rbi
- On the plus side, Roy Halladay finished with a 20-11 record (tied 2nd in AL), 2.78 ERA (2nd in AL), 206 k (3rd in AL) and first in IP; A.J. Burnett finishes 18-10, 4.07 ERA, 231 so (1st in AL)
- I predicted 5-10 games over .500; the Jays finished 10 games over .500
- Las Vegas predicted 85 1/2 wins and third in the AL East; the Jays finished with 86 wins and fourth in the AL East

2008 record: 86-76, fourth in AL East, 11 games behind division leader (Rays)

- Cito Gaston has been given a 2 year extension (good!), and it would seem that J.P. Ricciardi will be back as GM (bad!)

- I will continue to semi-boycott the Jays until Ricciardi is fired. I went to only 2 games this season, but both were on tickets I got from work; I refuse to give the Blue Jays organization my hard earned money

Paul Godfrey will step down as president and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays, a position he held since Rogers bought the team in 2000.

A.J. Burnett has opted out of the last 2 years ($24 mil.) of his 5 year contract with the Jays. Yay! Despite a solid '08 season (18-10, 231 K, 4.07 ERA), his previous two years were 10-8, 10-8. He certainly doesn't deserve to be paid more (by the Blue Jays), which would earn him more than Roy Halladay who, in the past 3 years went 52-23 to Burnett's 38-26.

Following the death of Ted Rogers and the farewell to team president Paul Godfrey (who resigned, and will take over the National Post), the Jays laid off 24 front-office workers. Merry Christmas!