Tonight’s Blue Jays game vs. Detroit is another example why you simply cannot count the Blue Jays out. Just when you think they are down and out after losing 2/3 or being swept, they come back and win an important ball game to make up some ground in the American League Wild Card and American League East.

Just a few days ago when J.P Arencibia went down with a fractured wrist,fans kept saying the season was over; and they had a good reason to believe it. The Blue Jays lost their starting catcher, and J.P was heating up with some timely hits and RBI’s since John Farrell inserted him into the 5 hole in the batting order. But Jeff Mathis has risen to the task and has been huge for the Blue Jays, and tonight was another example of it. With 2 out and the bases loaded, he hit a 3 run double to the left field wall, propelling the Blue Jays to a 4-2 lead, and they didn’t look back from there, eventually winning the ballgame by a final score of 8-3.

Carlos Villaneuva struggled a bit tonight, but was able to battle out of some tense situations with the help of a few double plays and managed to keep the damage low to earn his 6th win on the season. Omar Vizquel, who was inserted late into the lineup after Yunel Escobar was scratched late due to back tightness had a very solid game offensively and defensively, and hit back to back triples with Brett Lawrie against a tought pitcher in Octavio Dotel.

Travis Snider continues to swing a hit bat, and added an extra 2 valuable insurance runs late in the ballgame with a home run to right-centre, his 4th since being called up on July 20th.

All in all, it was a very solid game for the Blue Jays against a Detroit Tigers team who are finally starting to figure things out this season. They are fighting with the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians in the AL Central division race, and sit 1 game back of Chicago with a 53-47 record. They are also 1 game back of Oakland for the 2nd seed in the AL Wild Card race.

The Blue Jays improve to 50-49 on the season, and sit 3.5 games back in the American league Wild Card race. I feel it is essential that they win 2/3 vs. the Tigers and either take 2/3 or sweep the series in Seattle to remain in close contention in the race. This is because following their series in Seattle, they go out to Oakland for 3 games, Tampa Bay for 3 games before hosting the New York Yankees at Rogers Centre starting Friday August 10th for a 3 game series.

The pitchers for tomorrow’s game vs. Detroit Tigers are Anibal Sanchez (making his first start as a Tigers since coming over in a trade this week with Omar Infante from the Marlins) vs. Henderson Alvarez. 1st pitch is at 1:07 pm.

-Brian

Despite losing Jose Bautista to an injury and being swept by the Yankees earlier this week, the Blue Jays re-gained some lost ground this weekend by sweeping away the Boston Red Sox, a divisional rival, by a score of 15-7.

Brett Lawrie opened up the ballgame with a solo home run on the very first pitch of the ballgame, a rocket over the Green Monster to propel the Blue Jays to an early 1-0 lead, and did not look back. Once the 2nd inning was over, they had already put 9 runs on the board.

The Blue Jays are now 48-47 on the season, and leap frog by the Red Sox by a half game. They are still 3 games back for the 2nd American League Wild Card, and 9.5 games back in the American League East.

The Blue Jays will return home on a 3 game win streak to open up a 3 game series on Tuesday vs. the hot Oakland Athletics, who are riding their own winstreak of 4 games and continue to push in the Wild Card Race.

Upcoming Pitching Matchups:

Tuesday July 24: Oakland A’s @ Toronto Blue Jays-1st Pitch 7:07 PM

Travis Blackley (2-2) 2.86 ERA vs. Brett Cecil (2-2) 6,34 ERA

Wednesday July 25: Oakland A’s @ Toronto Blue Jays-1st Pitch 7:07 PM

A.J Griffin (2-0) 2.70 ERA vs. Ricky Romero (8-6) 5.22 ERA

Thursday July 26: Oakland A’s @ Toronto Blue Jays-1st Pitch 12:37 PM

Tommy Milone (9-6) 3.34 ERA vs. Aaron Laffey (2-1) 2.77 ERA

Today’s Blue Jays trade with the Astros was a classic example of how Alex Anthopoulos goes about his business. No one was expecting it, and if even if there was a trade rumor with Houston, it would have most likely been involving Wandy Rodriguez.

In the trade, the Blue Jays acquired LHP J.A Happ, RHP Brandon Lyon, and RHP David Carpenter. In return, they gave up RHP Francisco Cordero, OF Ben Francisco, RHP Asher Wojiechowski, RHP Joe Musgrove, LHP David Rollins, C Carlos Perez as well as a player to be named later. It is not often, in any of the 4 major sports, that you see a 10 player trade where it doesnt’t involve an all-star.

However, just 2 years ago, J.A. Happ was traded from the Philadelphia Phillies to Houston in the deal that send Roy Oswalt to Philadelphia. When the Blue Jays tried to acquire him in the Roy Halladay trade, he was seen as untouchable, just like Anthony Gose was.

Fast forward 2 years, and Alex Anthopoulos has both Gose and Happ on his roster. He got his men that he wanted.

Although I’m not too sure what to think of this trade, I am excited that it opens the door for Travis Snider to return to the team. I feel like he deserves another opportunity, and based off of the way he has been hihtting in Vegas, he deserves to be here.

It will be interesting to see how this trade plays out in the future. Obviously the Blue Jays had to give up a lot of players, but they did get decent value in return.

What do you think?

-Brian

Hey Guys,

Now that the All-Star Break is coming to a close and the 2nd half of the season is upon us, this also means the trade deadline is approaching at the end of July. With Luis Perez also shut down for the remainder of the season because of Tommy John Surgery, the Blue Jays lost one of, if not the most reliable pitchers in the bullpen, meaning there is another injury to worry about.

With the Blue Jays still only 2.5 games back in the AL Wild Card, half a season still to play, and most of their remaining schedule vs. division opponents, what does Alex Anthopoulos do? Does he become a buyer, and mortgage the future to win now, as Jose Bautista suggested, or does he stick to the plan and let the prospects continue to develop? It is a very controversial question for Blue Jays nation.

Personally, I believe the smartest approach would be to be active, but that doesn’t mean selling the farm for a rental player to win now. With Morrow, Santos, Hutchison, Drabek and now Perez on the disabled list, it is obvious we need pitching help, and a lot of it. It would be an oustanding achievement if the Blue Jays made the playoffs this season, as they are tied with a lot of competition for the 2nd WC spot despite only being back buy a small margin. I just don’t see it happening this year. Not with all of these injuries to our best pitchers. Although Perez and Drabek will be lost for most, if not all of next season, we will hopefully have a healthy Santos, Morrow and Hutchison back next season, and that is a huge difference to our pitching.

I feel AA needs to explore what is out there to help the club win now, but at a smaller price. An if he does make a blockbuster trade, it would have to be a for a high ceiling player who is under team control for many years to come, similar to the contract terms of Sergio Santos. I feel that would be the best thing to help the team now and still have a farm system. I feel like an Edwin Jackson type pitcher could be a target for some improvement, where it doesn’t cost a lot but can still eat some innings. Just my opinion…

So I ask you Blue Jays nation, what do you think AA should do?

-Brian

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven’t made a post in a while. Have been very busy and haven’t had a chance to.

It was a disappointing game tonight for the Blue Jays. Aaron Laffey pitched a very solid game for the Blue Jays, and like on several occasions this year, the bullpen let the team down. It was hard to watch after such a great outing by Laffey.

I have to question why David Pauley was brought into the game in such a tight situation. He struggled right away and was a deciding factor in this ballgame. I thought someone like Darren Oliver or Carlos Villaneuva would have been a much better option given their reliability this season.

I was also quite disappointed with Kelly Johnson’s at bat in the first inning. I, like Gregg Zaun during the Sportsnet broadcast, noticed that he had a very unproductive at bat in what was a significant part of the ballgame. He had an opportunity to pick up some valuable RBI’s but was not cutting down his swing to make contact and put the ball in play, and instead, popped the ball up.

On to the next one. Blue Jays play their final game on this roadtrip before returning home to play the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Ricky Romero starts tomorrow for the Blue Jays.

-Brian

Blue Jays lineup: Lawrie 5 Rasmus 8 Bautista 9 Encarnacion 3 Escobar 6 Davis 7 Arencibia 2 Vizquel 4 Alvarez 1

Brewers lineup: Aoki 9 Morgan 8 Braun 7 Ramirez 5 Hart 3 Weeks 4 Kottaras 2 Maysonet 6 Wolf 1

Starting Pitchers: Henderson Alvarez vs. Randy Wolf

Records: Blue Jays (34-32), looking to become (35-32). 6.5 games back in AL East, 3 games back of WC

Brewers (30-36), looking to become (31-36). 8.5 games back in NL Central, 5 games back of WC

Busy day today in Blue Jays nation.

• The Blue Jays purchased the contract of Canadian RHP Shaun Hill from the York Revolution of the Atlantic League . He also pitched for the Blue Jays during the 2010 season, in which he made 4 starts with a 2.61 ERA. He threw 20 2/3 innings allowing 4 walks and striking out 14.

• Jose Bautista is in third place among American League outfielders for the All Star game. He has a total of 1,996,940 votes and is behind Curtis Granderson of the New York Yankees and Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers.

• It was reported by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports as well as ESPN that the Blue Jays were in discussions with the Colorado Rockies regarding Jeremy Guthrie. He said that the Blue Jays would have to eat a significant amount of his contract and that a mid level prospect would go to the Rockies.
• Guthrie’s 2012 stats: GS: 11, ERA: 7.02, WHIP: 1.831, IP:59, K:30, BB:23, HR: 15. His ERA away from Coors Field is 4.70 while it 9.53 at home.
• It is rumored that it would likely be AA New Hampshire 1st Baseman Mike McDade going to Colorado. McDade’s 2012 stats: HR: 11, RBI: 38, Line: .304/.385/.486/.871, BB: 30, K: 50, GP: 65
• McDade is 23 years old, and was a 6th round pick in the 2007 draft. Guthrie is 33 years old and was a 1st round pick of the Cleveland Indians in the 2002 draft.

• Although I would prefer the Blue Jays acquire a pitcher such as Matt Garza or Ryan Dempster from the Cubs, Guthrie is an option that doesn’t kill the farm system. McDade is young and playing well, but he can easily be replaced with the deep Blue Jays system. Guthrie has proven to be an innings eater throughout his career, pitching at least 200 innings over the last 3 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, and that is exactly what the Blue Jays need right now. His inflated stats at home could be a result of the elevation and atmosphere in Colorado, as his stats on the road are quite consistent with his career statistics. For more stats on Guthrie, check out http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/guthrje01.shtml.

I was thinking today of the Vernon Wells trade to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and what it has now turned into.

To Toronto:

• Mike Napoli
• Juan Rivera

To Los Angeles:

• Vernon Wells

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

To Toronto:

• Frank Francisco

To Texas:

• Mike Napoli

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Heading into the 2011 season, the Blue Jays acquired Frank Francisco and Juan Rivera for Vernon Wells. Juan Rivera was then traded midseason to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

To Toronto:

• PTBNL or Cash Considerations

To Los Angeles:

• Juan Rivera

At that point, Frank Francisco was the only one left from that trade. The Blue Jays gladly let him walk in free agency to the New York Mets after a dismal season, and were compensated with the 50th overall selection in the 2012 MLB Draft (compensation pick #22). With that selection, the Blue Jays took Matt Smoral, an 18 year old  6’8 LHP out of Solon High School.

Essentially, after all of this the Blue Jays traded Vernon Wells to Los Angeles and got rid of the terrible contract he signed here, and selected a solid young pitcher with huge potential.

-Brian

Today’s game was a solid all around performance by the entire team on Father’s Day. Brett Cecil pitched a solid 5 innings despite giving up 2 solo home runs to Thome and Mayberry Jr. and earned his first win of 2012. Luis Perez was solid in 3 innings of relief and only allowed 1 hit. Jason Frasor closed out the 9th inning.

Everyone in the lineup contributed with at least 1 hit except for Jose Bautista, who did reach on a walk as well as Yan Gomes. Colby Rasmus had another great day at the plate going 3-4 with a single, double and 2 run Home run.

The Blue Jays are now 2 games above .500 and are 34-32 on the season. They are 6 Games back in the AL East and 3 back in the Wild Card Race. They open a 3 game series in Milwaukee tomorrow, followed by a travel day as they head to Miami for 3 games then on to Boston for 3 before returning home to face the Los Angeles Angels for 4 games.

It is still very early in the season. As a matter of fact, the Blue Jays still have to play 47 games within the division. 3 left in Boston in June, 6 in July, 14 in August and 24 in September/Early October. The Yankees have not won the division, and like the Rays did last year, the Blue Jays can compete if they put together a few winning streaks and some solid play. They will need some solid starting pitching from guys replacing Morrow, Drabek and Hutchison but anything is possible.

Upcoming Pitching Matchups:

Monday June 18: Blue Jays @ Brewers-8:10 pm First Pitch

Henderson Alvarez (3-6) 3.87 ERA vs. Randy Wolf (2-5) 5.06 ERA

Tuesday June 19: Blue Jays @ Brewers-8:10 pm First Pitch

TBD vs. Shaun Marcum (5-3) 3.39 ERA

Wednesday June 20: Blue Jays @ Brewers-2:10 pm First Pitch

TBD vs. Yovani Gallardo (5-5) 4.23 ERA

-Brian