I cannot see why the Jays would not offer press equivalent access to established blog operators

It is just another media form. No different than a magazine, TV show, radio show, newspaper etc..

that it is detached analysis. no connections. no relationships. no repurcussions, explicit or perceived.

As a professional journalist (although far from the sports desk), I can tell you that access and relationships between teams and media is a fairly complex set of arrangements. It isn’t as simple as just calling someone in as part of an interview, even in cases where it should be.

Where in an ideal world, newsrooms are autonomous objective entities, there are corporate considerations as they are employed by a corporation, and as a result, there are understandings between ownership and the newsroom about access, appropriate channels and which lines cannot be crossed. Because the blogger is by definition their own entity, and not part of a larger organization, to bring them in is an individual endorsement as opposed to a professional responsibility, and in AA’s case, if he gives Tom an interview that Tom presents as part of an anti-Rogers screed, AA is the man in the organization that is liable for it.

Also, and this is the only time I will pull the professional card in relationship to blogs vs sports writers, most bloggers are not and have not been working journalists. Most do not and have not worked on a daily basis with the structure of fact-checkers and editors, dealt directly in all the various elements of liable, and have a thorough knowledge of law as it relates to the media and the professional journalistic ethics that are either part of the schooling or the first couple of years as a copyboy (or girl) for a professional journalist. When AA is told that the Globe and Mail are sending a writer over, he knows that the relationship between the team and the paper is already established and understood, and he knows in the chance that the writer attributes a bunch of nonsense to him, there’s a process in place to reverse it and collect on the damages to the club. With blogs, there are no such mechanisms and no such assurances, which is why it is a more difficult approach to make than it might seem.

Now, all that being said, I think it would be a great idea, since you could handle it through your media relations post and classify them as freelancers with specific conditions for the release of information. It would likely take a few weeks to draft up a contract and identify a few blogs that have both a certain standard of professionalism and activity to make it worthwhile, and issue them press credentials that way. I think the potential value would offset the minimal effort and risk involved.