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Monday Morning Media Mashup: Readers & Bloggers Appreciation Edition

Minor Leaguer would like to thank you all for reading and contributing to Bluebird Banter this season and hopes you will stick around all offseason.

By Minor Leaguer
Abelimages - Getty Images

This is the last Monday Morning Media Mashup of the 2012 season for the Toronto Blue Jays and I want to use this opportunity to thank you (yes, you, the reader) for visiting Bluebird Banter and not only reading what we put up here but also creating a community of Jays fans here through your comments. I am always tickled to see how many people actually read my stuff and I speak for the rest of the folks here to say that we love chatting with you in the comments section and watching games with you in the GameThreads.

Thanks for sticking by us (and the team) during this trying season. Yes, baseball in Toronto is drawing to a close, but we will be here with you the entire post- and offseason talking ball. We will have some playoff GameThreads, we will talk about moves we want Alex Anthopoulos to make, we will complain and praise about moves that Alex Anthopoulos will make, and we will plan and look forward to Spring Training. So why not give bluebirdbanter.com a few hits this winter? You're not watching hockey anyway.

For this special edition I would also like to highlight the outstanding job that other bloggers have done this season (no, we are not the only ones out there). Here are your Monday morning links, all from blogs this week--if you're on Twitter, be sure to follow all of these writers:

2 out, Lineout to the pitcher - Baseball is Magic
Greg Wisniewski (@coolhead2010) writes about Chad Jenkins' unique catch from Friday night. I don't know why, but when I saw that I just thought about Charlie Brown. If Jenkins was in a Peanuts strip, he would've been sitting on the mound in his underwear, holding a pile of his clothes with the ball on top of it.

The High Cost of Wooing John Farrell - Jays Journal
Kyle Franzoni at Jays Journal writes about what it will likely cost the Boston Red Sox to acquire manager John Farrell. I'd really like to see one of the four prospects he mentioned in a Blue Jays jersey but I'm not sure the Red Sox are crazy enough about Farrell to give up any of those four. This blog entry was written before SB Nation Boston columnist Jen Royle sent this tweet:

I know why journalists have to protect their sources but until I see a few more established writers fact check I will just take this with a grain of salt.

D.J. Davis and Alberto Tirado Make BA's GCL Top 20 - JaysProspects

Blue Jays first 18-year old round pick D.J. Davis and 17-year old Alberto Tirado were listed by Baseball America as one of the top 20 players in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League. Jared Macdonald (@Jared_Macdonald) traveled to see every minor league team in the Blue Jays system this year and had personally seen both Davis and Tirado. On Tirado, he writes "here was one of the youngest players in the league throwing a 94-95 fastball deep into his outing and low in the zone, while showing the early makings of an advanced changeup and a wipeout slider." D.J. Davis was in Toronto this past weekend and was recognized at the Rogers Centre before Friday's game as this year's first pick. Jared and Jays Prospect chief April Whitzman (@Alleycat17) were down at the ballpark for that game as well.

Coach Skip – Tu Ere Maricon - Back in Blue Network (audio, NSFW)

I have read, watched, and heard way too much about Yunel Escobar's eyeblack controversy the past couple of weeks. Reid Price plays a fantastic character called Skip on Back in Blue's podcasts and here offers some comedic relief to the whole situation. Warning: if you can't stand parody, then don't click the link. I don't get to link to Back in Blue very often just because I cover the Monday link dump and they post their videos later in the week, but the boys over there have done a fantastic job all season. Brad James (@BradJames41), Nick Hansen (@nickhansen33), and Reid Price (@Reid_Price) have posted 38 (thirty-eight!) professional-quality video podcasts this season and have just finished wrapping #39 last night. They are worth a watch and a follow on the Twitter!

Jays Listed – Top 10 he was a Blue Jay? - Back in Blue Network
Nova Scotian David Harrison writes about 10 players you may not have known was once a Blue Jay. I'd like to add a few more to that list: Mike Bordick, Bobby Brown, Marty Cordova, Mickey Morandini, Phil Roof, David Segui, Ozzie Virgil.

There are a bunch of other writers and blogs that are worth following. These aren't just link dumps--I actually read these blogs at least a couple times each month (admittedly some more than others). So give them a visit, and give their authors a follow on Twitter:

Did I miss any blog that I like to read? Of course I did. Please accept my apologies and trust that I didn't do it on purpose.

And some other non-Blue Jays related links:

Bees affiliate with Angels; Snappers affiliate with A’s - The Midwest League Traveler
The AAA Buffalo Bisons and Las Vegas 51s swapping affiliations brought the big headlines but there were affiliation swaps elsewhere too. Here, Craig Wieczorkiewicz (someone finally beat Greg W. for longest surname) talks about the happenings in the single-A Midwest League. Craig Craig traveled to visit all 16 ballparks of the MWL in 2011 and still blogs about them.

How Many Baseball Writers Have Called or E-mailed to Talk to Me About What Goes Into WAR? Zero - Sports Reference
Sean Forman invites Bill Madden, Jerry Green, and any other member of traditional media to call him to learn more about the "Wins Above Replacement (WAR)" statistic before they poo-poo it.

Orioles' team plane has to make emergency landing but everyone is reportedly OK (O's clinch) - MASN Sports
The Baltimore Orioles had quite an up and down night yesterday. A kitchen fire forced their team plane to touch down in Jacksonville for an emergency landing, and hours later they found out that they've clinched the playoffs for the first time since 1997. Congratulations--they are birds of a different feather but they have waited for almost as long as we have for this. I am especially happy for Stacey and the crew over at Camden Chat for sticking with that team despite them being a league-wide joke the past few years. Cheers!

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