Last week, a couple of erstwhile ESPN scribes launched a broadside against Blue Jays nation that will forever be known as the "Man in White Incident".  While that article was ridiculed quickly and sharply by Blue Jays fans, management and players,  the authors of the ESPN story were quite defensive towards the Jays Nation's reaction, and seemed puzzled that Jays fans would react with such venom against the accusations tossed about by a bunch of anonymous "#clowns" (Hey Chicago -  How is Alex Rios doing?  ZING!)

Fast forward to today, Friday August 19th, when I had the misfortune of reading a "blog"  on possible AL/NL Contenders for MVP.  My eyes bulged when I saw they listed Jose Bautista in the 5th sport for AL MVP.   Once again Blue Jays fans see Jose Bautista beaten out of contention for MVP by a myriad of Red Sox and Yankees, all of whom the author of the blog went on about at length and praising them because "they play on winning teams", without considering that their efforts are less worthy than Bautista's because they have a supporting cast of fellow Co-MVP's! Meanwhile, Bautista has put forth what is known in Toronto as "Beastmode Numbers" and all with the likes of Mr. Juan Rivera behind him and Corey Patterson in front of him.  This makes his numbers stand out. In fact, they stand out so much it makes me wonder what Jose Bautista has to do to convince MLB writers and fans that he is the real deal!

Think about it for a second...  Curtis Granderson is having his name tossed around for MVP very strongly right now, but he plays with Mark Teixera and Robinson Cano (who also appear on the ESPN MVP list.) With the exception of RBI's, Granderson's numbers are inferior to Bautista's, including his batting average, which at .281 entering today is only .20 points higher than Bautista' average in 2010 (.260). The reason I mention batting average is that at the time of deliberation for the 2010 AL MVP, Bautista's .260 average was held against him despite his heroic 54 homeruns and leading the Blue Jays to a much-stronger than expected season.  Moving on, other stats besides batting average, such as OPS or WAR, are more useful in order to better gauge a players contribution to their team.  Guess what?  Bautista betters not only Granderson, but every single other player on the American League AND the National League MVP-candidate lists so far in 2011 in terms of .OPS and WAR.

Adrian Gonzales, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia  all find themselves in the top echelons of this MVP list despite that one would tend to think that the prevalence of so many other star players on a single roster cheapens the numbers each of them produce to merit a single MVP amongst them (even though they are100 percent  having great seasons.) Sure, the Red Sox are winning but they are a mega franchise that has paid hundreds of millions of dollars for top tier talent.  This doesn't factor into the author's decision-making process whatsoever. Meanwhile the Jays, led by Bautista, chug along like the Little Engine that Could, earning little to no merit.

Weighing the Blue Jays season so far, it appears that Jose Bautista is one of the primary reasons the 2011 Jays will not live up to the 100 loss season that  ESPN was predicting in the off-season. Despite Bautista's   heroic play in 2011, it was only a matter of time before ESPN implied via the "White Man incident" that Bautista was having success due to tipped pitches, a slight that Jose Bautista did not deserve and for which ESPN has yet to issue an apology.  More recently, they have suggested that despite leading the MLB in practically every major Offensive category that he is only the #5 candidate in the American League for the MVP, when in reality he is the best performing MLB offensive player.

To me, his personal success combined with the Blue Jays stronger than expected showing this season clearly indicate he is a deserving and worthwhile candidate for MVP that needs to be taken much more seriously by various Baseball writers...  That Jose Bautista continues to face these slights is a disturbing trend that this Jays fan hopes to see less of...

Interesting discussion on this on one of the threads, so here's a poll.

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So there I was, enjoying a morning cup of coffee before heading to the office, and I notice a Ken Fidlin article about Mills going down, Perez to start in his place, and most interestingly (in my opinion) Joel Carreno (154 strikeouts in 134 innings  at AA) replacing Mills on the Blue Jays 40 man roster.

Most Jays fans are familiar with the likes of other "Young Guns" a la Kimbrel and Feliz who have been able to come to their Organizations (Braves & Rangers) and provide an immediate impact.  If the Jays can catch lightning in a bottle with Mr. Carreno, well, the possibilities are endless for them...

The plan, for now, is to utilize Carreno in the bullpen.  With 634 strikeouts in his 587 pro career innings pitched thus far, it is fair to say he can "miss bats".  The question is, can he miss MLB bats?  We are about to find out, and this is one roster move that might solve the issue of who is going to close games for the Jays.  And by close, I mean Terminator Style.  

Carreno is an interesting arm that we are going to get a chance to watch.  The only question is whether Farrell will use him as closer or if he will use him the same way he used Perez.  What do YOU think? I say first chance we get in the 9th inning with a Save on the line, Carreno gets the call.  There is no time for a poll but if someone else feels like doing one, have at it.  Everyone have a nice weekend and GO JAYS GO!

- TrueBlue

Blue Jays superstud starter Brandon Morrow is headed towards a historic season record that seemingly no one is talking about. No, he's not going to break the record for most strikeouts per season or greatest K/9 in a season (yet). And he isn't going to win any awards by breaking this record. However, if the season ended right now he would hold the Major League record--by a lot--and it is a non-trivial statistic.

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Curious to know what you folks think about the possibility of acquiring Garza from the Cubs? He seems to have a pretty good contract (about 6 mill this year), has great numbers this year but some bad luck (so his 5-9 WL record). Cubs could use some better defence and more hitting. Would they be takers for Hill, who still have pretty good power, which may improve in the NL? Could we part ways with Snider, or Loewen? Do we make a jump and give up JPA, clearing the way for D'Arnaud? JPA looks better than their guy right now, and Hill's power numbers are better than their 2B. It does beg the question of finding our own 2B; maybe the Cubbies want to send back theirs in the deal (Barney, who has a better OBP than Hill's).

Garza has a proven track record in the AL East. A lineup of Romero-Garza-Morrow- plus 2 of the wannabes (McGowan, Litsch, Drabek, CV, McGuire) would look pretty good.

Could AA make this happen?

Now we move on to ROUND 2 of the 1st Annual Bluebird Banter Posting Olympics!

Thanks to all who entered round 1 and to all the haters who didn't -oh well, we still welcome you to get involved in the judging, rec'ing and general making fun of each other that goes on here.

The highest scoring 9 from Round 1 will now face off in a comment competition. These 9 All-Star posters must post their very best all time post; it can be from an existing Thread, Post, Shot or can be made up from scratch. You can use links, gif's, photo's, graphs -anything to make it great. All usual posting rules of conduct apply.

All members of BBB will then vote by rec'ing the post that they like best to choose the 3 winners of ROUND 2. The 3 comments with the highest number of rec's will move on to the the 3rd and final round.

-Please remember this is only for the 9 chosen from round 1. PLEASE DO NOT SPAM THE THREAD. All BBB members are encouraged to 'rec' and post REPLY comments but PLEASE DO NOT START ANY COMMENT THREADS OF YOUR OWN unless you are a qualifier from Round 1.

We had some double winners but only one contestant is allowed per catagory so I took the next highest in each category.

The 'winners' from round one are as follows:

Comments
craig in calgary 10,843
Pikachu 9,256
Joey Kirby 9,157

Fan Posts
JaysSaskatchewan 25
craig in calagary 15
TFSML 14
Minor Leaguer 13

Fan Shots
Jabalong 55
craig in calgary 38
JaysSaskatchewan 27
Minor Leaguer 22
JaysFan100 21
masterkempo 20

So if you are craig in calgary, Pikachu, Joey Kirby, JaysSaskatchewan, TFSML, Minor Leaguer, Jabalong, JaysFan100, masterkempo, you may begin posting your most amazing comment-ever, below.

Remember there are really good Jays tickets on the line!

Good Luck to all and may the best 3 comments win!

Could we possibly see Anthony Gose fill that spot and be a september callup mostly just to steal bases against major league pitchers and catchers. Or do we see one of the AA pitching prospects go to the 40 man and get the callup in september. Whether that be Deck McGuire or Chad Jenkins or even someone like Joel Carreno who has done nothing but get strikouts in the minors but can get handle major league hitting? What do you think?

The projections done on the Elias rankings have been updated and posted today at MLBTR.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/08/elias-rankings-update-1.html

Of most interest to Jays fans:  Hill is still hanging on to type B status, as are Frankie Frank and Rauch. The nicest, and most intriguing, move is Edwin Encarncion is now a type B.  So is he more valuable for the potential draft pick or his bat?

Hill could be an interesting case.  To get a draft pick, we'd have to offer him arbitration, but if you were Hill, would you turn it down?  Maybe he'd think a new venue and new hitting coach my get him turned around. (This might be an interesting decision tree question or example to use in my stats class!)

For those interested in getting Jason Frasor back, he's also a Type B.

jays up 5-4 thanks to lawrie's homerun

Warning: This FanPost is not part of the excellent series by SBNation's Grant Brisbee; it is a shoddily-done cadmium-containing knockoff that will soon appear in a Chinatown near you.

The front page of all the blogs in the SBNation family have something that is often seen and almost just as often ignored. No, not the Head & Shoulders #HatsOffMoments Twitter feed box, but the blog's tagline near the top of the page, right below the Gillette ad that is telling me that I can turn my odor into freshness. A good tagline should be memorable, descriptive of the community, and perhaps even a little humourous.

In the part one of the one-part series "SBN Power Rankings", we look at each of the 30 SBN baseball team blogs' taglines (as of August 13, 2011).

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