Jason Frasor walked the flaming coals of hell with narry a bead of perspiration on his lip: he had 'em all the way.  Adam Lind might even have had more dingers except for an unfortunate errant pitch in the ninth inning.  Aaron Hill's 35th was practically a given, at this point, but Bautista's tenth is a rather pleasant September surprise.  Ricky Romero got the Red Sox monkey off his back and now has a chance to win 14.  A little fine tuning in the bullpen and this team could win it all in 2010; as this roation is going to be deep.  Life is good.

Minnesota   773
Toronto     772
Texas       762
Detroit     722

Detroit     713
Texas       722
Minnesota   735
Toronto     747

McGowan's comeback maybe encouraging but we don;t know if the can come back as a major league starter.  Arm strength is often impacted by labrum surgery, and when you add the long layoff that he had, he is still a long way from the 2010 rotation.

Due to his injury and the lack of work for the last 18 months my best expectation for McGowan is to be a major league reliever next season.

By the way I noted last night that Shawn Camp and Jesse Carlson were worried about the Jays lack of success in one run games, they arranged a one-run win to even the scales a little bit.  Well done guys.

The Boston Red Sox had a chance to clinch the AL Wild Card slot Tuesday night. Adam Lind had other thoughts.

And Scooter Feldman continued his final-week meltdown to accommodate da Sawx into the post-season anyway! At least they didn't get to celebrate on the field ...

Ya know, I don't *like* the damned Sox, or their fans either. Youkilis annoys the hell out of me; same with Pedroia.  And when Papelbon threw his “errant pitch” at Lind's elbow last night I nearly lifted my old bones off the sofa and hit him right in the screen.   Really odd, how after three homers, Papelbon loses his control for one pitch. I don't like him either.   Rotten Sox.

I have been assuming maybe we deal Frasor but I'm about ready to write him in ink as next year's closer...

I know I'm repeating what I commented last week, but if Frasor is this team's closer on opening day in 2010.  the Jays are in DEEP trouble.  He just never seems comfortable out there in that situation.

My sleeper pick for 2010 Jays' closer...

...DUSTIN McGOWAN!

 1 run games:  21 - 27
 2 run games:  10 - 17
 3 run games:   5 - 11
 4 run games:  10 -  9 
 5 run games:   9 -  8
 6 run games:   9 -  3
 7 run games:   5 -  4
 8 run games:   1 -  4
 9 run games:   1 -  0
10 run games:   1 -  1
12 run games:   1 -  0
14 run games:   1 -  0

I can't stand Jonathan Papelbon, but it didn't look to me as if Papelbon was trying to hit Lind. He was moving him off the plate, which is perfectly OK, it and wouldn't have even hit him at all if Lind hadn't done that funny downward twist where he lowered his elbow into the path of the ball.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/statistics/standings.php

That says the Jays are the 6th best team in the AL and 11th in the majors.  In 2006 they were 3rd in the AL and 3rd overall. In 2007 they were 5th in the AL and 8th overall. Last year they were 4th in the AL East and yet 5th overall!

Sounds about right; so maybe not better than the entire AL Central/West sans the LA Angels, but pretty close. And this is a team that had exactly 2 (poor) starts from their 2-5 starters from last year and jettisoned their 3B and RF part way through the year. If they brought this exact group back (including Scutaro, Barajas, Snider and Ruiz as an OF and DH respectively) and mixed in a McGowan here and a Litsch there, I'm guessing an 85-88 win team that would be a top 8 team in baseball according to BP's adjusted standings (though 3rd or 4th in their own division)...and yet the GM must be fired...

I can't stand Jonathan Papelbon, but it didn't look to me as if Papelbon was trying to hit Lind.

I gotta call B.S. on that one!  So did Doc, apparently!

I "heart" Harry Leroy Halladay III. 

If this was his last start as a Toronto Blue Jay, I am going to miss him dearly.

Imagine if the Ortiz HBP was the only blemish of the night, that would've my idea of a "perfect game". 

The Toronto Blue Jays hit 13 home runs in their sweep of the Red Sox this week, setting a new record for homers hit in a three game series by a visiting team at Fenway Park.

By my count Ruiz has not played in exactly three games he should have been playing in. August 29, September 1 and September 4. That's 10 more at-bats Ruiz should have, but it's not the end of the world. Criticize Cito for the mistakes he's made, not the mistakes he hasn't.

there's really no such thing as a brilliant managerial move

I think those moves do exist, but they are not in-game tactics. A manager's most important job, to my mind, is deciding who gets to play in the first place.

Much as I am not enamored with Gaston, the decision to turn Scutaro into an everyday player was a brilliant one. The decision to keep sending Tallett to the mound as a starter, at least in the first half of the year, was as well. The stubbornness to rest Rolen in day games seemed to pay dividends. One can't prove the causal effect between Rolen's rest and his performance, but one can't dismiss its possibility.

By contrast, the decision to keep writing Millar into the lineup was a good deal less than brilliant. The decision to stretch League's appearances beyond a single inning seemed stubborn. The reluctance to make Frasor a more integral part of the bullpen was frustrating. The love affair with Bautista has been curious (yes, Bautista has been shining in September, but will he even be here in 2010?). And of course the Ruiz situation. If Lind has been hurt, then yes, Ruiz has nowhere to play against RHP. But if Lind is sitting because of Bautista's superior defense, then that's worthy of debate. Ruiz is not likely to become anything in the majors, given his age, but why not play him in September and see how he looks, especially given his success in his limited playing time? Is he a viable $300K platoon-mate for Overbay?

what else was he supposed to do?

I do agree that come the start of this season, yes, there were not a lot of alternatives. None in fact. But the decision was really made last season when he had three choices for shortstop: Eckstein, McDonald and Scutaro. It wasn't clear to me that there was an obvious starter among them, Scutaro least of all. Choosing Scutaro then cleared the path to have him start this season, a good reason why there were no other shortstops brought in in the off-season (well, that and a policy of thrift).

Blame this on JP and the bean counters.

You, or some other poster(s), have made this same mistaken point a few times this past week. Would you rather have Millar at 3B or Ruiz in RF or Overbay in RF and Ruiz at 1B? None of those are good defensive alignments, but Millar at 3B is the least worst of the bunch. And those were your own alternatives given the roster situation and injuries at the time.

Cito sat Ruiz for Millar in August and the first week of September a few times. It was stupid. Ruiz should have been given the opportunity to play 1B and the at-bats. However, Ruiz has almost nothing to do with Millar playing 3B.