Rajai Davis has his flaws, certainly, but my goodness is he unstoppable at stealing bases this year. And he does it so quickly: it only seems to take him a pitch or two after getting on base to time the pitcher's delivery and thus gain the confidence of swiping another bag. At this point you can predict it, almost.

Something enjoyable to watch in this dark, dark season.

Also everybody, things could be a lot worse. We could be paying 32 million dollars in 2017 to an injury prone outfielder in his late 30s who has an OPS of .689 right now. Or paying 29 million in 2020 to a 41 year old first baseman whose best days clearly seem to be behind him here in 2013.

I think fans of that particular team are at least just as disappointed/worried as we are.

True. I'd like to see Davis back next year as a backup / platoon bat, and I'd definitely choose our situation over the Angels' any day.

Travis Snider was just put on the DL. His number this year are terrible, down to around a .609 OPS. Not only that but without any options they are forced to keep him on the active roster if they don't want to lose him. I liked the trade, if only because of how Lincoln still has a few option years left.

Thames for Delabar looks great as well.

Redmond > Johnson?

I'm still vaguely hoping for a historic late run. Something like 43-16 would do.

Runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out and no one scores is disgraceful. Someone needs to say something!

It's becoming increasingly difficult to tell which of the Jays catchers is worse...

I mean, JPA got some nice distance on the fly ball, and forced the Astros to make a good defensive play, but couldn't he have waited a few pitches so that Davis had a chance to steal a base or two? First-pitch swinging in that situation wasn't the ideal strategy. This after Thole had been similarly underperforming with runners in scoring position.

Blue Jays seem a bit worse than average (probably) at scoring runs from third with less than few out but you can never characterize any specific instance of that happening as a "disgrace." If players could hit whatever and wherever they wanted at all times baseball would be an easy sport.

Boni is hot, he's 2-2 over the last 2+ weeks or so.

Happy for Colby and his mullet. And it's nice to see that the players still get excited out there after the season that they've gone through.

Todd Redmond, once ridiculed by some fans as "a disaster in the making", now has the 4th-best WHIP of any pitcher on the Jays, and the 3rd-best K/BB ratio. Yeah, it's still a relatively small sample, inflated by his strikeouts against the Astros. But the interesting question is why such a bad-looking pitcher is doing so much better than anyone would expect from his mediocre-seeming tools? Some interesting analysis here:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/todd-redmonds-invisi-ball-partially-explained/

Bautista, meanwhile, is finally admitting that his little problem with the umpires is not entirely the fault of other people. His quote after today's game: "I've been trying to control myself as much as I can. But I'm not as good at it as other players. I struggle with it."

We as fans have no access as to what is different about a pitcher like Redmond than before. Sometimes a new pitch or a new way of throwing something is all it takes.I think there are many pitchers in the minors as capable as the bottom 60- 80 percent of starters in the majors. Thad Weber is another journeyman at triple a who could put up some decent numbers if given the chance.

Thad W. may be a very good pitcher, but that's only as good as what we have. No one in this system is or will be a # 1 or a # 2 on the best Teams (the one we must beat in post season), like Dodgers, Nationals. We have no one who can be the Top Two in a Rotation. We do have as many as 10 - 12 pitchers who can pitch up here as 3 - 5 and 6 - 8. In other words, we are not better than Houston's Starters. A.A. standing pat scares me, his unwiingness to pay the price may cost us the next two years.

I agree and once your in the playoffs its even more important to have at least 3 top hurlers.To get an ace you usually have to gamble like the Phillies with Gonzalez or overpay like the Rangers with Darvish.Good luck trying to grow your own.

Todd Redmond has a 4.98 FIP in his 4 starts with a .217 BABIP.

Apparently the Royals are now buyers. Perhaps they are in the market for relief pitching, or maybe a certain "toolsy" second-baseman. One can hope.

Over the years the Jays have grown a few aces but agreed that it is very, very hard and unpredictable.  Stieb and Halladay are the 'super ace' category - guys who are regular Cy Young contenders (even if voters in the 80's didn't know it).  'Ace' would be guys like Jimmy Key, Pat Hentgen, Juan Guzman (well, signed at first by someone else but developed here) and arguably David Wells & Chris Carpenter - people who contend for Cy's some times and would be good #1's on any team.  Then you get some solid but not 'wow' guys like Kelvim Escobar, Luis Leal, Shaun Marcum and even Romero who are solid #3's on a WS team in their peaks but not #1's on those teams unless the team has lots of sluggers. 

Note how only Halladay, Romero and Marcum were post-1993 signings.  That says a lot about pitching development since the Pat Gillick era.  Looking at the 90's teams post 1993 there were some potentially killer rotations that were lost (Carpenter, Halladay, Escobar all on the same staff as Clemens, Hentgen and Stieb for example) and never reached their full potential.  Today we are seeing more of the same.  The question is why is that happening - not just once or twice but continuously for 20 years.  Why do the Jays have trouble developing pitchers when at one time they were great at it?  That is a big, big question that AA needs to ask himself about the club and then he needs to figure out how to steal the best development coaches from other clubs such as Tampa Bay.  Offer a 6 figure salary and you could probably take most of their minor league pitching coaches/development teams and it might pay off better than a $1 million bonus to yet another live arm in the end.

Both Jake Peavy and Tim Lincecum are available. I, for one, am getting tired of A.A.'s moaning about cost. Either would get us into the Postseason. Tim could be better with the " Weighted Ball" program.

Peavy and Lincecum might get the Jays there if signed in the offseason, but this year?  No one (or even two) players could shift them the 9 games they are back right now.  Roger Clemens at his peak here was worth 12 wins in a season, or 6 in half a season and that was for a historic season in a HOF'ers career.  Lincecum's peak was 8 bWAR, Peavy's 6.2 - so even if Peavy and Lincecum were performing at their peak levels they'd make up 'just' 7 of those 9 games and no one thinks they'd be that good this year.

It'll be interesting to see if anything does happen before the first trade deadline hits. 

Peavy is under contract for next season plus an option year, just like the "window". Lincecum can be signed as a free agent (at least 5 years, $100 MM) and loss of a 1st round pick or pay the price in a trade contingent on an extension signed. Lincecum might wait, but Peavy's sure to be traded soon, then who's available?

After two significantly below average seasons, there is no way Lincecum will get that type of money. I would not even be surprised if he took the 15m/1yr qualifying offer, depending on how the rest of his season goes. He is 29 and has a good number of max-effort innings on his arm. His FB is two miles off his career average and four below its peak value (2nd season, 1st CY).

Do a little more research before making your strong statements/demands.

Sad news , former Jays pitcher Frank Castillo dies in a drowning accident at age 44.

Moe
You forgot to "do a little more research" yourself. www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/02/2014-mlb-free-agents.html might help.

How does that tell me that Lincecum will get 100/5 as you predict? I know he is a FA (said as much) and I know that the Giants plan on giving him a QO (about 14m). Based on the market for player how come with compensation picks attached and his performance the last few years, he is not going to get 100/5 unless he goes on a tear over the next few months. If he struggles, he might actually take that 14/1 deal.

He has struggled a fair bit against the better offensive NL teams (like CIN,LAD,PIT) and his top performance came in SD, the best pitchers park in baseball. Other recent good performance were against MIA,CHC and NYM. Not that shiny. Again, do some research and look past the name.

The best Starting Pitchers available this coming Offseason (with # 1 Starter potential ) are (but not in order): Matt Garza?, Josh Johnson, Tim Lincecum and no one else. Pitchers aged 30 or younger rarely make it to Free Agency unless: 1) They aren't good enough to fill the position they held; or 2) They want much more money than they are worth or the Team is willing to pay. (Those with options, I never consider).

Look over the List and tell us who is a Front-of-the-Rotation Starter, that I have not listed. Those type of Pitcher always get overpaid.

I personally would be interested in Matt Garza, Tom Lincecum and then maybe Ricky Nolasco, Ervin Santana, Edison Volquez as # 2 Starter.