Bluebird Links - Men With Brooms Edition

With a 4-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals, the Toronto Blue Jays are tied for first in the American League East. This is the latest in the season the Jays have been in first place since 2009, when they pretty much held onto first until May 23. Tonight the Jays travel to Camden Yards to try to continue their winning streak, but first, filling in for masterkembo for the week, here are your Tuesday morning links!

Blue Jays Related

Blue Jays’ Sergio Santos shut down for 10 days to two weeks - National Post
As you may know, Sergio Santos will not be throwing for up to two weeks with right shoulder inflammation, but no surgery would be necessary because no structural damage was found. Santos will start his rehab after his "no throw" period, so we shouldn't expect him back until late May.

That of Which We Do Not Speak - Drunk Jays Fans
The daring Drew Fairservice dared to write about how Brett Lawrie is actually kind of struggling at the plate this year.

Evolution of a manager - Sportsnet.ca
Scott Carson chimes in on his opinion on sending Drew Hutchison back out for the bottom of the sixth in his debut start. He also reports on Brandon Morrow's low strikeout count this year, which makes him wonder "if big right-hander should go back to throwing instead of pitching." How about trying him out as the closer?

John Farrell on The Jeff Blair Show - Sportsnet 590 The FAN
Farrell was on Jeff Blair's show yesterday morning and said that he would be surprised if Sergio Santos had any structural damage (and he was right). He also talks about the great defense (and credits MLB advanced scouting for its help), the bullpen, and Drew Hutchison's debut.

Echoes From 527: Selling The Sizzle - Back in Blue
Andrew Hendriks writes about how, once upon a time, the Blue Jays were once the "no name" equivalent for Dominon, selling branded everything including popsicles and mustard!. They even used Helvetica!

GIF: Jose Bautista High Fives, Then Sacks, Henderson Alvarez - NotGraphs
This has been floating around the Internets for a while now (ie. 2 days). Note: the bow to acknowledge it is what every man should do after receive a petting from Jose Bautista. Great capture, Ian!

Yu Darvish expected to make Toronto debut May 1 - Toronto Star
How many folks in the Rogers Centre will be cheering for him and how many will be booing him?

Touching Me....Touching You - Hum and Chuck
Joanna writes about the Jays this weekend. And that is a reference to Sweet Caroline, not the GIF above.

Links from around the league after the jump!.

Around The League

Davidi on MLB: BoSox bullpen up in smoke - Sportsnet.ca

Bullpens are by nature unpredictable, and they often make the best laid plans blow up in smoke. Just ask the Red Sox or Blue Jays.

New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox plus AL East not looking too tough - FOX Sports
Jon Morosi re-evaluates the AL East, which is looking like a much closer race than initially thought.

The 30, Week 3 - Grantland
Jonah Keri releases his "power rankings" for this week, with the Rangers sitting on top, the Royals at the bottom, and the Jays at 8th. I'm usually not a fan of power rankings, but I think I'm going to continuing reading Keri's.

Explanation in Braun's overturned suspension case not expected - CBS Sports
MLB and MLBPA are negotiating a changes to their drug specimen policy, and if they reach an agreement, we may never know why Ryan Braun's suspension was overturned.

Prospectus Hit and Run: Pudge Retires - Baseball Prospectus

Jay Jaffe looks back at Ivan Rodriguez's Hall of Fame career. Pudge started his career catching Kevin Brown and Nolan Ryan, and ended it catching Chien-Ming Wang and Stephen Strasburg.

A baseball fraternity… of one - Infield fly
Only one catcher in Major League history has caught two perfect games, and it's not A.J. Pierzynski (he caught Phil Humber's, but Ramon Castro caught Mark Buerhle's) or Pudge (he only caught Kenny Rogers' perfect game). Greg Wisniewski found out who it was on Infield Fly.

ANIMATED: This Man's Résumé Must Be Awesome - Hot Corner - Baseball Nation

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