Where there is smoke there is fire. There are now numerous tweets and reports saying that the Jays and Red Sox are in serious talks over compensation for John Farrell. The latest from Kevin Kennedy says:

#RedSox look like they will land John Farrell as manager from #BlueJays. Compensation talks getting serious, players will be headed to TOR.

Nick Cafardo tweeted something similar earlier.

Well, that was a tough year. A big question now is who was worth the money and who wasn't.

The ALCS starts Saturday with Doug Fister versus Andy Pettitte. The story of the division series was the non-hitting of A-Rod, Cano, Swisher, Miggy Cabrera, etc. Things change fast in baseball and often the MVP of one series becomes the 100 hitter of the next. On the other hand some of these laggards will be big producers in the ALCS.

The last three World Series champions are in the playoffs. The fourth team is Detroit who last won in 1984. Detroit beat the Yankees last season in the division series in the maximum five games.

The NLCS starts Sunday with Lance Lynn facing Madison Bumgarner.

There are certain rituals I conduct once every season is in the books...

With two wild card games in the book it's now division series time. There are two games on Saturday, four on Sunday and two on Monday to accompany your turkey eating.

The first wild card game was wild, in particular the Braves players after the game.

"Bleepety-bleep," screamed one Brave, as Torre was explaining why he'd denied the Braves' protest. "Ohhhhh bleep, Joe," grumbled another, after listening to Torre say that it sure looked like an infield fly to him. "I'm outta here. That's weak," muttered another Brave, after Holbrook said he'd seen the replay and concluded it was "absolutely" the right call.

It's time for the 2012 Jays to receive their grades.

This won't be pretty.

Is it too soon to proclaim the Athletics as the present day 1969 Mets? After several years of struggle, Oakland has suddenly and unexpectedly produced a high quality baseball team. As I write, they are on the verge of sweeping the Rangers and winning the division over the team that has led the AL West almost from wire to wire.

Ben Francisco hardly got into a game during his half-season in Toronto. Nevertheless, he’s starting in right field for the Tampa Bay Rays as they squaring off against the White Sox in Chicago, facing elimination. The Rays have handed the ball to David Price, while the White Sox, currently two games behind the Tigers in the AL Central, are starting Jose Quintana. The Tigers are in Minnesota with Anibal Sanchez and Liam Hendriks on the mound.

The Jays have 69 wins with six games left, three more against the Yankees and three with the Twins. But this team is not going quietly into the night, Omar Vizquel created a brouhaha today with some comments.

Chad Jenkins starts today in a big test for him. Jenkins is likely to start in the last game of the season against the Twins. He could do well in that game, the Twins will be hacking to get out of town ASAP and Jenkins sinker could be hit into the ground again and again.

Baseball America has begun listing the top 20 prospects from each minor league.  The Arizona Rookie League was yesterday and today we see two Blue Jays in the GCL top 20.  BA will also have a chat following each list.  This thread will list all the Blue Jays making the lists over the next couple of weeks.

	GCL	Appy	NW	MidWest	FSL	EL	PCL
	#3 - DJ Davis, CF #12 - Alberto Tirado, RHP	#8 - Roberto Osuna, rhp #10 - Santiago Nessy, c #14 - Daniel Norris, lhp	#20 - Taylor Cole, rhp	#5 - Noah Syndergaard, rhp #6 - Aaron Sanchez, rhp #11 - Justin Nicolino, lhp	#11 - Jake Marisnick, CF	#9 - Jake Marisnick, CF	#2 - Travis d'Arnaud, CA #8 - Anthony Gose, CF #14 - Adeiny Hechavarria, SS
Webster Awards	Alberto Tirado, RHP	Christian Lopes, 2B/SS	Javier Avendano, RHP	Justin Nicolino, LHP	Daniel Barnes, RHP	Ryan Goins, SS/2B	Adeiny Hechavarria, SS

The Jays win, the Jays win, the-e-e-e-e Jays win!   Ricky Romero got a win, his first since June.  I believe that puts the Romero plus Morrow combined win total since June at three.  The Jays are playing out the string and the commentary suggests it gives the Jays a chance to look at the kids.  well they are getting a good look, but it doesn't give us a lot of hope for the start of 2013.

Meanwhile Shi Davidi has a three parter on what happened with Travis Snider and there are some good insider stories in part one.

You've all noticed that the Orioles have played .750 ball (27-9) in one-run games this season?

At this point, we can be pretty certain of the identities of nine of the ten teams that will proceed to the post-season. The murkiest situation is in the AL Central, where the White Sox hold a two game lead on the Tigers. However, all but one of Detroit's remaining games are against Minnesota and Kansas City. The White Sox have to play the Angels and Tampa Bay seven times before this thing is over. I wouldn't count the Tigers out just yet.

The Blue Jays, after a rainout on Tuesday in New York, get ready to battle the Yankees in a doubleheader on Wednesday before the series finale on Thursday.  They will be without shortstop Yunel Escobar, who has been suspended for three games after having a homophobic slur on his eye black during this past Saturday's home game against Boston.


Yunel Escobar, between Blue Jays first base coach Torey Lovullo and Boston Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, after an RBI single at the Dome April 11.  Will Escobar be back in Toronto next season after this recent controversy?

The new Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays is the Buffalo Bisons.  The Buffalo News reports that the two sides have signed off on a two-year Player Development Contract for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Buster T. Bison and his ball club welcome Toronto with open arms, marking the return of the Blue Jays Triple-A affiliate to the International League after a four-year absence.