Stand Pat

(Damn I miss both those guys)

In the late 80's and early 90's GM Pat Gillick was running the show in Toronto.  Only two teams made the playoffs back then which meant there were only really a couple buyers.  Your Toronto Blue Jays were in the mix consistently and rarely made any upgrades at the deadline.  Which is not where the term/name/phrase/saying/whatever Stand Pat came from originally but more, what it will always mean to me when I hear it used.  I think of Stand Pat Gillick not getting any help for us via trade and then losing against the Bash Brothers of Oakland.  Kinda negative I know but.....

Modern Day

We are treading around .500 and 11.5 games out of the wildcard race.  We would have to leap frog past 3 very good clubs - 2 of them within our own God damn division - to gain a birth in the promise land.  Not outside the realm of possibility but certainly not "contending" either.

We had a few deals that were not doubt discussed but we chose to Stand Pat.  I must admit that I was hoping for some more prospects to drool over but I trust, in the end, Boy Wonder did what he thought was best.

Which is more than good enough for me

Your mission for the next 2 months, if you choose to accept it, is to stay ontop of the Elias Rankings.  Click on that link so the rest of this post hopefully makes some sense. 

The dynamic crew over at MLBTR periodically put out the current rankings on their site.  You need to take note of this starting right now.  Here's why:

• Scott Downs will be a Type A free agent.
• Jason Frasor is currently just barely a Type A and needs to pitch well the final two months of the year to maintain that.
• Kevin Gregg will be a Type B free agent.
• John Buck is currently a Type B free agent.  He was just placed on the 15 day DL but it still looks like he will maintain this rating.

If everything goes our way in the winter - which would be the equivalent of the stars aligning - than we could possibly net an additional 2 first round and 4 supplementary first round picks in the 2011 Amateur Draft.  Considering the size and talent of our scouting staff, that's really good news.  That is the absolute best case scenario so don't get all worked up just yet.  Worst case scenario is all 4 players return on 1 year deals and we do it all again next July 31st! 

Conclusion:

As much as we all wanted to see some trades get done, I figure those were the 6 reasons why in fact they did not.

 

My Mom has bestowed to me many great pieces of advice in my life but none that I use more in any one day than the following:

Sometimes the best thing you can do, is nothing at all.

My Dad countered with:

Late is OK but pregnant is no good.

Quickly:

Try to keep in mind AA did very well bringing in Esco in the Braves fleecing and made a move for Anthony Gose.  He also got some depth at 1B with the Mike Jacobs acquisition.  All this happened before the trade deadline bonanza so I think it is fair to say he was somewhat active.  

Also worth noting is the fact that there is still an opportunity to make deals up until August 31st.  It's just more complicated.  Check out this link for an explanation on how it works now.  Players currently on the DL can not be put on waivers.  That may explain why Buck was DL'd so quickly.  If he comes back in the minimum 15 days, there would still be time to place him on waivers.

More Quickly:

E5 has already cleared waivers and can be traded to any team, right now.

Anyone else starting to get a bit nervous?

 
It's been a while since my last visit here @1BlueJaysWay, I've been stuck away on an island...but this time that pesky smoke monster is finally dead...

What brings me here this evening; is I'm getting a bit nervous...as some of you might know, I'm the glass is half full kinda guy around here...but after the rough past 10 we've had and what lies waiting for us next week and even the month of June, I'm getting a little uneasy...

It was this time last year + 1 Day to be exact that we just lost our NINTH game in a row and that was the tailspin that put us out for the rest of the year. We all remember how our hopes and dreams of a contending Toronto Blue Jays were crushed once again...

That brings me to this year, we've got a series against the Orioles this weekend and jesus f'in christ we better take at least two from them, if not sweep them...they're 15-33 before heading into this weekend...this of a team that was supposed to do better then us by most magazines in Feb and March...

Then we've got Tampa for 3, then the Yankees for 3 and then another 3 versus Tampa and THEN, then we start a run of 15 interleague games...ugh...for the record the Jays are 109 and 123 in these games...but I would have thought it would have been a lot worse, they never seem to do well against the NL teams...

I've been loving catching parts of games that I can watch and I'm loving watching the highlights in the morning...this is a great team to watch, they always seem to be in the game until the last out and I love that...there is no fall down and die this year...the Jays have something to prove, to the fans, to management and most importantly, to themselves...

But, the other half of the glass of me is just waiting for the carpet to be pulled out from under us and for us to come crashing down to reality...I really hope it's not in June because I really want this ride to last as long as it can...this was a team that some had predicted would lose a 100 games and be last in the AL East if not the bottom 2 or 3 in the American League...

If we can make it through June, who knows how Boy Wonder will start thinking about July and the trade deadline that lies ahead in the distance...