It wasn’t a typical time-sharing arrangement, but once in team history the Blue Jays accomplished a rare split of playing time that I imagine is not common in major league history. In one year, the Jays had 3 players each start at least 50 games at a particular position. This has only occurred once in club history and only at one position during that year. What year was this and who were the players involved?

This game featured the debut of Mississauga's Shawn Hill in a Toronto uniform and the 2010 return of Robert 'Bobby' Ray to the hill.  Hopefully, this will be the first of many POTD's in the coming days as the 2010 campaign winds down.

Let's hope someone passes the audition.

Kyle Drabek, the centerpiece of Toronto's return in the Roy Halladay trade and the 2010 Eastern League leader in wins, has been promoted from Double-A New Hampshire. The son of Doug Drabek will make his major league debut on Wednesday, in Baltimore. Brett Cecil, the scheduled starter, has been pushed back a couple of days.

I feel asleep just after the third inning of Saturday's game when neither team scored a run.  After I woke up, 14 runs had been scored.  Unfortunately, 13 of them were scored by Tampa Bay in a 13-1 shellacking at Ted's Shed.  

This guy could almost pass for Rance Mulliniks!

The Blue Jays minor league season ended with a whimper last night.  The Fisher Cats were eliminated in three straight games to mirror the Dunedin Jays who were swept in two straight.  New Hampshire were unable to score until the ninth inning of game three, they had 29 scoreless innings in the series up to that point. 

Congratulations to  Pohnpei Papayas, the Isodopes  and 92-93 winners respectively of the Regular Season in the BBFL's Alomar, Barfield and Carter divisions.

Second verse, same as the first.

Okay, it's that weird time of year, late-ish (but not overly late, almost--overish) in a season that's gone pretty well for the home team (.514 with 22 games left), not really in the race (12.5 out) but not yet eliminated (magic number is NYY+8) ... frankly, it's getting harder to pay attention, with football, basketball and hockey just around the bend(s).

So let's have a good old-fashioned bar brawl over a question basic to this site's existence: who is the single greatest all-time Blue Jay? Define that however you want -- players, managers, front office, mascots (!), single-season, career, one freaking amazing game, pitchers, everyday players, native Canadians only, serious candidates,  tongue-in-cheek eye-rollers or simply personal favourites -- you make your own rules and put up your dukes to defend your choice(s).

A winner will be declared only when the last drop of blood has fallen. Oh, and you get bizarrely random extra credit points if you phrase your argument in the form of a senryu/haiku (details and example within) ... but that is not required. (If this goes well, later slams will call for limericks or couplets or other forms of doggerel.)

State your preferred beverage, order up and stake your claim .. the greatest Blue Jay ever is/was ...

If the offence on the major league team takes a night off against a tough lefty, why should the minor league offences not get to do the same thing? That’s the thinking New Hampshire and Dunedin subscribed to, as the teams didn’t even match the one solo homer notched by the parent club. The teams combined for no runs, as a potential pitching duel in the Double-A playoffs materialized, while Dunedin was eliminated from the playoffs at the hands of the damn Yankees. Dunedin was extra sure to let their sleeping bats rest, as they gave them a second straight day off and didn’t score a run in their playoff series. Nevertheless, congratulations on a fine season.

The Cy Young award this year seems to be split in the AL between these two - one with many wins, one with killer stats. But what if they each started for the other team?

Over the course of the year, it's become clear that the Jays have a lot of good young pitchers. There's the fabulous major league quartet of Ricky Romero, Shaun Marcum, Brandon Morrow and Brett Cecil. There are the fringe guys - Jesse Litsch, Brad Mills, Marc Rzepczynski - who would not be fringe guys in many other organizations. There are a couple of big-name prospects who came over in trades - Kyle Drabek and Zach Stewart. There's the haul from the 2010 draft - Aaron Sanchez, Deck McGuire, Asher Woj, Noah Syndergaard. Not to mention guys like Henderson Alvarez, Chad Jenkins, and hey, throw Dustin McGowan in there.

You know who had a better season than any of those guys?

The Dunedin Blue Jays are down one game to nothing to the Tampa Yankees in their best of three first-round series in the Florida State League playoffs.  In other news, the Jays signed a pair of Player Development Contracts by extending one and beginning a new partnership.  Also, the Jays paid tribute to the Pacific Coast League's MVP and shone the spotlight on the team's top four draft picks in 2010 on JaysVision during Monday's game.

 

It's no secret that Aaron Hill has been awful this year. However, there's been very little hand-wringing 'round these parts (or anywhere, really) about his struggles. Perhaps it's the homers (he hit #23 in Monday's game), or the excellent defense (though this is a suspect claim according to the numbers). More likely, I think we've all just been assuming he'd come out of the slump at any minute. More than five months later, he hasn't. Why not?

Two of the affiliates played their last game tonight, and two others will be starting their postseason tomorrow. Monday's action featured three games and Lansing was the only one to earn a victory... but what a victory.