Today in Bluebird Banter History

There isn't much for Blue Jays news today, so let's take a look at what happened on (and around) December 13th in past years.

One year ago:

• If you wanted to place a Vegas bet on the Jays to win the 2013 World Series, you would have got 10 to 1 odds. Right now, you'd get 40 to 1 on the 2014 World Series. Things change.

Two years ago:

• Woodman663 asked 'how realistic is playoff contention in 2012? I have the answer for him now.
• The Jays traded for Ben Francisco, we were thrilled, thrilled I tell you. (not really).
• We took Jim Hoey off waivers, about all we could say we he was tall.
• And we signed Jesse Litsch ($975,000) and Dustin McGowan ($600,000) to one year contracts.Jeff Mathis would sign soon for $1.5 million. I wonder what odds you would have got if you bet McGowan would be the last Jay standing of that group. And Brandon Morrow, Casey Janssen, Kelly Johnson, Colby Rasmus and Ben Francisco were all tendered contracts.

Three year ago:

• Hugo shared his favorite Jays minor leaguers that didn't make our 40-man prospect list. My group came out a few days later. Nestor Molina was the first on my list, he didn't really turn out
• Masterkembo talked about realignment, at the top of a links post. I don't think anyone figured that the Astros would change leagues and we have 15 teams per league.
• Jessef figured the Jays had a shot at completing in 2011.

Four years ago:

• The Jays signed a bunch of their players to 1-year contracts, including Jose Bautista, who we still though shouldn't bat against RHP. They signed Joey Gathright and Raul Chavez to minor league deals.
• And we signed John Buck as a free agent and we got a scouting report from Royals Review.
• I said 'Happy Birthday' to Ferguson Jenkins, who turned 67, so he would be turning 71 today. Happy Birthday again Ferguson. Birthdays are good for you, the one that has the most lives the longest.
• And a couple of days earlier, Peter Gammons said something stupid about Roy Halladay and I made fun of him.  
  

Five years ago:

• Hugo wondered if the Jays should look at some of the players that had been recently non-tendered by other teams.
• Hugo reported that the Jays had tendered contracts to Jason Frasor, Brian Tallet, Jose Bautista, and Brandon League. Not to make fun of Hugo, because anyone that writes enough on here gets one wrong now and then, but this shows what we thought of Bautista back then:

Personally, for $2 million, I might've cut Bautista loose. An 89 OPS+ career is nothing special for a corner infielder, and he hasn't been getting any better despite entering what is normally an offensive player's prime. He's not a great fielder so I'm not really seeing the upside. The Jays could do worse as injury insurance for Rolen, but I'd go with Inglett. Bautista has hit lefties well in his career and would be a good platoon mate in the event of an injury, but that's a little expensive for the righthanded part of an injury contingency platoon. He could still be cut loose though, a la Sparky from last season, so we'll see.

• A.J. Burnett signed with the Yankees after using his opt out clause in his Jays contract. He got $82.5 million over 5 years from the Yankees. 81% of us though the Yankees would regret the deal. We were right.
• I didn't like the Doom and Gloom around the team or at least the doom and gloom talked about by Richard Griffin. Richard said: Halladay is being abused. He will never publicly criticize the organization. I thought:

Halladay is being abused? The man will make $14.25 million next year. If that's abuse, where do I sign up? I know hyperbola is great and all but let's save the term abuse for, you know, someone that's being badly treated.

Six years ago:

• Hugo reports that free agent  David Eckstein signed with the Jays and that 'Sparrow' wasn't offered arbitration. I figured I'd see if any of you remember who was nicknamed Sparrow.

Seven years ago:

• Mark W told us that Vernon Wells was about to sign a 7-year, $126 million contract. Wonder how that turned out.
• And that Milton Bradley signed with the A's. At the time, we kind of hoped he would sign with the Jays. I'm glad that didn't happen, but it would have been interesting.
• Mark glanced at Alex Rios.
• As well, Mark looked at JP Ricciardi's (there was a time when the Jays fans' biggest enemy was a JP that wasn't named Arencibia) Trade History (Mark was a busy boy 7 years ago). Mark, you want to join with as again? We could use someone that can write 4 stories in a day.