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.

The Blue Jays have purchased the contract of Shawn Hill from Triple-A Las Vegas and have recalled Robert Ray, as well.

A little more than three weeks remain. Who's going to be cashing those bonus cheques, and scooping up some hardware to put on the shelf? They don't let me vote, which is just as well. But if I could...

2-4 on an extremely boring final Sunday of the minor league season.  Aside from the no-hitter with two outs in the final frame, that is.

Offence was the theme for winning Saturday night on the farm with Las Vegas and Auburn bats burning brightly.  And 9 K’s from Dunedin pitching helped them past the Yankees.  New Hampshire saw some good individual performances but fell short to Portland.

Just two of the five affiliates in action were victorious.  A dominanting pitching performance is the highlight of this Friday night.  The lowlights were a lack of plate discipline in a pair of games.

Let's play that Hall of Names favorite, Match Name '10! The topic this time around is "questions posed by batter/pitcher, battery and teammate combinations" -- all you have to do is come up with a pair of MLB player names that combine to create a famous non-baseball pairing of words, then ask whatever question that pairing causes to occur.

Last names are preferred, given first names are okay, middle names are acceptable if necessary, nicknames, as always, are right out. Spelling matters, but you are welcome to work your way around that if you can.

Here are a few examples to get you started ..

• When Jim Gott faced Tim Teufel, did every baseball fan in Germany tremble in fear? (To explain, just offer a parenthetocial like this one, wherein you provide the information that "gott" and "teufel" are the German words for "God" and "devil.")
• If Buddy Black faced Steve Decker, which way would the advantage cut? (See, "Black & Decker" ... get the idea?)
• Would there be ...

It was a perfect night on the farm and some Jonathans and and an Oliver did some major damage.

A Pinch Hit from James Strapp, who has done a couple of these for us before:

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I took my boys to the Jays game last Friday. In that game the Jays’ first hit was a Bautista home run in the fourth inning. After eight innings, they had a total of four hits, with two of them being home runs. No starter has a batting average over .286. All they seem to be able to hit is home runs.

Well, that got me thinking. What team has had the highest percentage of their hits be home runs? And where do the 2010 Blue Jays stand?