On the plus side, the Jays will be home to face the Rays who may yet have something to play for this weekend. And the weather is supposed to be beautiful. 

I will be there tomorrow to see what impact RA Dickey has on the race to the wild-card.

All you need to know about the final days of 2013...
Munenori Kawasaki has been the DH in 5 of the past 8 games and used as a pinch hitter 5 times this month.  Honest.  The guy who has a lifetime 66 OPS+, 80 this year, has been the Jays regular DH for a week now.

OK - is anyone going to get through the season in one piece?  Buehrle out after a line drive off his leg.  Sheesh.  Suits of armor will be 2014's uniform choice.

I just realized what the opposing pitchers have to deal with, namely:

6 players who started the season with Buffalo. Pillar, Gose, Goins, Sierra and Langerhans are essentially September call-ups. Kawasaki is a utility infielder.

3 "major league" players. One of them is hitting under .200 for the season. Another, Lawrie, is hitting .211 for September and .143 over his last 28 at-bats.

To summarize, the Jays lineup is 5 September call-ups, a utility infielder, two slumping major leaguers and Jose Reyes.

By the standings this morning, the Jays are tied with three other teams for the seventh worst record while the Mets are mere percentage points better. So, between fielding a mostly minor league lineup and facing a long-time nemesis who is playing hard for a wildcard spot, there seems no way the Jays can screw up getting a bottom-ten protected pick --- or could they ?

Kind of weird...almost cheering for them to lose at this point to get as good a pick as possible (if you are going to suck might as well get a good consolation prize).  At least hoping for the others to win.

So entering this weekend what are the reverse standings?
Houston - 8 games 'ahead' of 2nd place with 108 losses and getting 0 for TV ratings (honest...no one wants to watch them)
Miami - 100 losses - one more and they lock up 2nd last
White Sox - 97 losses, need to be swept while Miami sweeps for a shot at 2nd worst, a lock for 'top 3'
Twins/Cubs - tied at 93 losses, they will be #4/5 it is just a question of who gets which
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#6: Seattle - at 89 losses they could get down to #10 but not easily with #11 possible if they sweep and the Mets are swept.
#7-10: Jays, Phillies, Brewers, Rockies all tied with 87 losses
#11: Mets with 86 losses (1 game out)
#12: Giants with 85 losses (2 games out)
#13: Padres with 84 losses (3 games out)

So there is still a chance for the Jays to finish anywhere from #6 to #13.  That is a big difference in draft quality as it applies to every round. The Jays are 'lucky' as they can tank without tanking due to the massive injury bug that has hit this team like a tank.

Draft #6 overall: Bonds, Jeter, Sheffield are HOF quality (60+ WAR), with 5 more great players (20+ WAR) also drafted in this slot.  36 of 49 made the majors so far with 13.8 WAR the average of those who made it.
Draft #13 overall: Manny is HOF quality, 5 others 20+ (including Aaron Hill), 26 of 49 made it averaging 11.4 WAR.

A pretty big difference in likely quality there.  6% shot at HOF quality vs 2%, 73% shot of getting a player to the majors vs a 53% shot.  Quite the thing eh?  Not to mention additional bonus money each round and a higher pick each round.

Of course for Jays picks from #6 to #13 you get...
#6: Ricky Romero - all star once, 9.8 WAR and dropping
#8: Felipe Lopez - all star once, 7.5 WAR and retired
#9: Matt Stark - one good spring training plus 13 ML games
#10: Phillip Bickford (did not sign)
#11: Deck McGuire (stuck in AA)
#13: Aaron Hill - only 1 All Star game so far to go with 25.1 WAR and climbing

7 times the Jays had a top 5 pick, the good was Lloyd Moseby and Vernon Wells. The 'meh' was Billy Koch while Matt Williams got 10 games. Then the 3 disaster picks who never made it vs guys picked within 5 which were Ken Dayley, Dwight Gooden, and Andy Van Slyke.  All of whom would've helped the 1980's clubs climb up into the playoffs a few more times I suspect and might have made Jimy Williams be more than a punch line here.

So for high picks the Jays have made a few good choices but also missed out on some pretty big talent (Troy Tulowitzki vs Romero, Carlos Pena vs Lopez, Roger Clemens vs Stark (10 picks later), anyone vs Bickford, Chris Sale vs McGuire).  Hill has the most WAR of any first round pick for his year so that was a very good pick.

Thinking more on draft picks.... when did the Jays get the best possible pick in the first round?
1995: Roy Halladay at 64.6 WAR vs Todd Helton at 61.6 - no one else over 33.
2003: Aaron Hill at 25.1 WAR vs Nick Markakis 23.1 6 picks earlier

2nd best...
1992: Shawn Green (Man Ram selected 3 picks earlier)
1978: Lloyd Moseby (Kirk Gibson picked 10 picks later)

So 4 times since 1977 the Jays did extremely well in the first round (vs talent available).  Other good but not 'wow' (20+ WAR) are Chris Carpenter (34.5 WAR but just 3rd best behind A-Rod and Torii Hunter - Hunter picked 5 picks after Carpenter), Vernon Wells (29.1 but 4th in his round after 2 guys picked earlier and Lance Berkman who was 11 picks later), Alexis Rios (27.7 WAR is good for 4th in '99s first round but only Brian Roberts was still on the board when Rios was picked), and Shanon Stewart. (4th behind one picked earlier and 2 later - Johnny Damon and Jason Kendall). 

8 guys in the Jays history of first round picks who were over 12 for WAR (was shooting for 20+ but no one is between 12 and 20) out of the 64 first rounders they've picked.  Steve Karsay also cracked 10 with Romero just under and Lopez, Cerutti, Koch, and Sprague in the 5-10 range.

FYI: James Paxton reached the majors for Seattle in September and boy do I think the Jays regret not signing him now. 4 starts, 3-0 record with a 1.50 ERA.  Sigh.

21K in 24IP, WHIP under 1 - solid debut for the Canuck, indeed.

What was the $ difference between him and the Jays?

He only signed for 68.5k more than the Jays were offering, but he had less leverage at that point. He also slid to the 4th round, so I bet every team is kicking themselves at this point.

"boy do I think the Jays regret not signing him now."

Maybe, but you could argue that the Paxton/Eliopolous/Barrett non-signing trifecta was the genesis of the hardball reputation that has served the Jays so well in signing subsequent first-rounders.

I have a lot of respect for the Rays organization (and I want the Jays to have a high draft pick next year), but I want the Jays to win this series. The Jays have had a brutal year, but the year isn't over yet. They have a chance to finish on a high note and potentially put an end to the Rays' season.

Greenfrog, i've disagreed with you a couple of times over the past few weeks, but agree with you 100% right now!  Cheering for a loss is just bizarre to me, long term implications be damned. 

Ideally the Jays sweep and so do enough other teams so the Jays get the high pick and we get entertaining (and winning) baseball.  That is the 'perfect world'. Realistically it is the Rays on a good year and the Jays using mostly a Buffalo lineup.

So, what do we expect now? 3 perfect innings against and 2 runs against.  Sigh.

Buffalo 4, TB 2. Bring it.

Agreed, go for the wins.