It is my custom to examine some odds and ends at the conclusion of the regular season, once the final game is in the books and I've had a chance to update my Big Honking Database. I like to play Snakes and Ladders, I like to check in with Pythagoras...

James Strapp checks in again with some information that surprised me.

Alex Anthopoulos sat down with the media today to discuss the season and his plans for the off-season.  He talks about the manager search without revealing anything and his positive view of the 2010 season.  He did have some interesting player comments.

The Box’s series looking at some of the candidates to replace Cito Gaston as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays continues by looking at Ron Roenicke. The Blue Jays recently requested permission from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to interview the team’s bench coach, who happens to be the uncle of a contender for a spot in the 2011 Jays bullpen.

There's been some talk about the defensive shortcomings of John Buck and Jose Molina, talk which generally focuses on one thing - baseballs rolling to the backstop. It's my understanding (I don't hear the radio team much) that Alan Ashby, a former catcher who was very good at this part of the game, has been talking about it all season.

Good ol' Don Baylor. Attached by the SABR crowd regularly (myself included) and loved by old school types including Cito Gaston. Lets see what the case is for him and if he could be the ideal manager for a young team in the toughest division in baseball™.

Cito Gaston managed his last home game as a Blue Jay two nights ago, and was sent off in style; who was the last manager to receive a portrait of themselves painted by Vernon Wells' dad as a parting gift? But soon Cito's final season will be officially over and it will be time for the Blue Jays to start looking for their next manager.

With only a handful of games remaining, Cito Gaston’s time is almost up as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. It’s about time that we begin a discussion on who should be the field chief in 2011 and beyond.

As I write this sentence, the Jays (81-76) are sitting squarely on a season total of 81 wins, which is exactly half of the schedule's 162 games, which means they cannot, in any scenario finish below .500 and label 2010 as a "losing" season. Um ... hooray?

So, the question today is this ... does it matter to you at all ... should it matter to you at all ... does/should it matter to players, to retiring manager Cito,, to the fanbase, that the team win at least one of its final five to finish at least 82-80, a "winning" record?

Obviously, nobody wants to close the year on a six-game skid, so there's that. But a fourth-place finish in what is clearly the toughest division in baseball, where two teams are making the playoffs and a third might end up with a better record than three other playoff teams? So, overall, our Question of the Day ... does that 82nd win matter? Should it?

The Blue Jays have never had a 50 home run hitter before. Now they do. Thanks for the great season, José! Here's a tribute to your amazing achievement.

When I was much younger, my then-favorite team, the Cincinnati Reds mad a trade to acquire a starting pitcher you may have heard of, guy named Seaver. And for several years, every time he took the hill, I was confident (even convinced) the Reds were bound to win that day. He was the Jays' Roy Halladay, c. 2009 and before. He was, put another way, the anti-Mike LaCoss.

Now to be fair, LaCoss was not a bad pitcher; he won 98 games (and lost 103) over 14 years, cracked double-digit wins in a season four times, even made the 1979 All-Star team, ahead of his teammate Seaver. But LaCoss was a guy, in my young teen brain, who every time he took to the mound, disaster awaited. Not sure why I thought that, exactly, but it seemed inevitable.

So today's Question of the Day: What Blue Jays fit this profile in your personal history? Don't stick to pitchers, though they're probably the easiest to identify ... let's see if we can build an entire lineup, or even a full roster ... who are The Scary Jays?

In another thread, veteran Bauxite Mike Green intones, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going.  Can we not talk about something else, like ...

• Perhaps the best pop song which adverts to September? The efforts of Kurt Weill, Rod Stewart, Earth Wind and Fire and Green Day come to mind. 
• Or perhaps, the best Septembers by a ballclub? 
• Or whether Lyle Overbay or some other defensively qualified first baseman should be signed during the off-season?

First person to answer all three questions by tying them together into a single, annoyingly hip Mad Men-ish advertising slogan wins the coveted Batter's Box No-Prize! But don't worry, if you're not first, the BEST such entry will win FIVE No-Prizes. Quintuple your winnings!
 

I didn't get the chance to watch the game last night, so you guys will have to help me on the scouting report, but here are my quick impressions after watching the highlights.

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?