The Blue Jays are rumoured to be in on Mike Clevinger, Lance Lynn, Mike Minor (??), Johnathan Villar, Brian Goodwin and almost every other name on the market.

The Blue Jays have acquired Taijuan Walker from the Seattle Mariners for a player to be named later or cash considerations. The fact it’s a player to be named later means the player may not be in the 60-man player pool.

Back in the misty Days of Yore (it was mid-summer 2006), I published a series of articles on this very website that looked at the all time top 25 in each of five major counting categories. The idea was to assess the chances of some active players of cracking those lists. The categories were: a)  Runs, b)  RBIs, c) Hits, d) HRs.

This is so weird. We're one week away from the September stretch run.

Yesterday, Sunday, was the low point for the season so far for the Jays. Bo Bichette could be out for a month and the Jays lost two winnable games with some sloppy play.

The Jays are (back) home for this week, their first home stand of 2020. Two games against the Marlins, another off-day, and three against the Rays make up the week.

Back at it after a COVID enforced break. The Jays are in Atlanta tonight for a three game series. They will end the week with three games in Boston before going home to Buffalo for next week.

Baseball has changed significantly over the last 20 years. There was the Moneyball revolution that is almost 20 years old. The newer advances we have seen on the field in the last couple of years, shifts, openers, pitcher usage, less bunting, catcher framing and on and on. Most of these changes are readily observable and often lead to analysis on Fangraphs or similar sites. We may not appreciate their impact on the enjoyment of the game but we understand why teams use those options.

The Jays are 2-2 after four games. It's too early to make any sweeping statements but lets just note that Vladdy is not hitting, his average is .222. And while Bo is hitting .250, he has no walks and no extra base hits. Danny Jansen and Teoscar are leading the offense.

Finally, opening day is here. It's going to be a weird season. The Jays could go 40-20 and win the division, or 20-40 and be way out of it. But with 16 teams in the playoffs, the Jays just need to stay close and, if they could get into the playoffs, who knows?

Of course COVID will be a factor. We have seen it already in Washington. With the players travelling, and presumably heading out at night, there will likely be more COVID issues. While the NHL and NBA are going with hub cities, its business as usual for baseball.

The Jays are going into their final week of camp homeless.

Since many want to ... here is a new thread for just talking about COVID - this is where you can vent about those who refuse to wear masks, or about the 'restriction' on your freedom by requiring you to wear one (do you fight the same about needing to wear pants?)

Well, the Jays and all of MLB have already released 2021's schedule (far ahead of usual) probably to try to hype things up a bit before wave 2 hits this fall. The Jays signed all 5 of their draft picks - 5 years in a row they have signed their picks in the first 5 rounds (last missed was 2015 Brady Singer who is with the Royals, signed for 2019 season out of the first round in 2018).

Dedicated Bauxite poster Richard Stewart Spackman (known as Richard S.S.) passed away at the age of 65 April 25, 2019 in Lethbridge, Alberta due to ALS. He will be missed.