nextyear

It seems fairly certain that the 25 man roster will include the following players based on hints from Alex Anthopoulos: (source: http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-gm-anthopoulos-downplays-concerns-about-his-next-contract/) Anthopoulos dropped hints about the playoff roster – they’re going with a four-man rotation; a seven-man bullpen; and they won’t necessarily take a second lefty to complement Brett Cecil, they’ll let the best splits settle that – and once again reflected on winning the American League East. I think the roster could possibly be: Tulowitzki Goins Pennington Donaldson Edwin Colabello Smoak Martin Navarro Carrera Revere Pillar Bautista Pompey Price Stroman Dickey Estrada Osuna Sanchez Hendriks Hawkins Lowe Cecil Loup (unless there is a right-hander with better splits against lefties)

It is good to know that the Blue Jays will be facing Texas on Thursday night. Houston and New York will play in the Wild Card game either in New York or Houston depending on the outcome of their games.

Edwin has a good chance today to get to 40. Gibbons could have given him an even better chance by batting Edwin 1st.

Buehrle starts today:

It will be an interesting day with all games starting at 3 pm (except for the unimportant St Louis at Atlanta doubleheader which starts a 1 pm)

I actually agree with you. There were a couple small kids that Donaldson jumped over to get the ball. What if one had been seriously injured? That would have been very bad for everyone including Donaldson who would of had to live with it for the rest of his life. Fortunately, by luck, no one was injured. In the heat of the moment Donaldson just went for the ball without thinking, if he had time to consider the possible consequences he may not have done it. One note though, Donaldson didn't seem concerned about the kids he jumped on top of

Yes, it made sense to rest them in the final two games in such bad conditions. However, they had so many players on the bench that they could have pinch hit with players such as Encaracion, Bautista, Martin, Smoak ... late in the games. The last game in Baltimore when most players were hung-over was unprofessional in my opinion.

Cecil has been amazing. I hope that in the playoffs he will be left in to finish games if the opportunity arises (as opposed to taking him out for the final one or two outs)

Up until the end of August Osuna had stats of 10.3 K/9, 0.47 HR/9, 4.5% HR/FB, 1.87 ERA, 2.20 FIP - http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=13764&position=P&type=&gds=2015-04-08&gde=2015-08-28&season= ; and from the start of September up until yesterday (Oct 2) 6.35 K/9, 3.18 HR/9, 30.8% HR/FB, 4.76 ERA, 6.84 FIP - http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=13764&position=P&type=&gds=2015-09-01&gde=2015-10-02&season= Hopefully the 4 day rest between the final regular season game and the first playoff game will be good for Osuna. All players go through rough patches, I am still confident that Osuna will come back strong after the 4 day rest period. The Blue Jays have been taking it easy since they won the AL East, but once they start the playoffs they will be playing with more intensity again.

Tonight's Astros-Diamondbacks game takes on increased importance by the Angels win. I am hoping that the Astros make it so that the Angels won't. The Angels are playing very well right now and could make it deep into the playoffs.

Should be an interesting game. This is another good tune up game for the first playoff game on Thursday.

Devon Travis was the top prospect in the Detroit Tigers organization; I am not sure what number overall. However, Devon Travis has proved that he can consistently hit major league hitting but Pompey hasn't.

The Twins look like toast, they are being burned by the Royals.

I would put Pompey at the same level as Devon Travis in 2014 while he was in the minor leagues; in other words, at the level that Devon Travis was when he was a known talent in the minor leagues but an unknown talent in the major leagues. Pompey has potential but he probably won't get more than an Anthony Gose-type player in return (which is what the Blue Jays traded for Devon Travis). Goins has turned out to be a good player but unless he excels in the post season he probably won't get much in a trade because there just isn't enough data to show that his improved performance can be sustained (although it might be).

Selecting Pillar in CF was a risk that was necessitated by Pompey have a poor start in the field and at the plate. Selecting Pillar turned out to be a good move for the Blue Jays, however, starting Pompey over Pillar would be an extreme risk now that Pillar's abilities have been demonstrated. The strategy of selecting Pompey over Pillar in 2016 (as indicated by others) seems like a very high risk proposition for a GM and manager whereas starting Pillar is a relatively safe decision.

I agree with your assessment. I was a big fan of Pompey in 2014 and hoped he would succeed this year, but when he didn't, Pillar stepped in and helped the team get to the post season. Now I am a big fan of Kevin Pillar. Dalton Pompey will have to prove that he can do better than Pillar before fans should consider replacing Pillar with Pompey.

Or my goodness. You are saying that Pillar's stats in 2015 should justify starting Pompey in 2016? No, no, no, no, no; this is not rational thought!

Some of the projection algorithms on fangraphs put more weight on more recent data than older data: the different methods are explained at this link - http://www.fangraphs.com/library/principles/projections/ In Pillar's case there isn't sufficient data, but even according to fangraphs' methods of prediction, recent data should be weighed more heavily than past data. In Pillar's first 438 plates appearances he had a wRC+ 67 (Aug 14, 2013 to May 31, 2015) - http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=12434&position=OF&type=&gds=2013-08-14&gde=2015-05-31&season= , in his most recent 415 plate appearances (June 2, 2015 to October 2, 2015) he has a wRC+ of 109 - http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=12434&position=OF&type=&gds=2015-06-02&gde=2015-10-02&season= (this period includes both hot streaks and slumps) I think that many Blue Jays fans are still judging Pillar by his performance when he was still relatively new to the major leagues and young (I wouldn't apply this rationale to Colabello because of his age). There is a common sense reason and fangraphs projection systems rationale for applying more weight to Pillar's more recent data than his early data. In addition to Pillar's offensive improvements, his defensive abilities have been evident since 2013 as indicated by his fangraphs stats - http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=12434&position=OF

Pillar is young. I think I am far more realistic than you are.

"None of us Jays fans" - I am sure many, including myself, see him as getting even better in the future.

Many people are comparing Pillar with established MLB players. I see him as a future All Star. I am sure Pillar will be on the Blue Jays team for many years to come.

It seems obvious considering it was just a two inning simulated game for Tulowitzki that Thole caught for Price and if you read the rest of the story - http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-price-not-worried-about-lengthy-layoff/

Except Price was just being humorous. From the story: ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A knock on the door came midway through John Gibbons’ daily pre-game session with beat writers Friday afternoon, with the manager immediately inviting the visitor into his office. David Price opened the door, leaned on it as Josh Thole peaked in behind him, and made a pronouncement. “I need Thole behind the dish,” demanded Price. “He got me locked in today.” “I didn’t even lobby for him to do this,” said Thole. “They said it was a perfect game you threw,” replied Gibbons. “I need Thole, alright?” implored Price. “I need John Thole. Thanks.” “Hey, hey, hey,” countered Gibbons. “I’m not quite sure if he’ll be active for the playoff roster.” Price though, wasn’t having it: “There are loopholes.”

This is from Barry Davis' Twitter account. If Tulowitzki feels well enough then it will be good to see him in the lineup today so he can get more swings in before the playoffs start.

I want to give a vote of confidence to Barry Davis. He is only human and will make slips at times, but for fans who want to follow the Blue Jays his twitter account is excellent with all sorts of daily information and inside information on Blue Jays players. Barry Davis seems to answer almost every question that people ask him on his twitter account. Some are very amusing such as this one: