OK. Blue Jays. Let's. Play. Ball.
I'm fully aware that today is the 8th of December. You should be aware that this post is going to be long...and all about baseball. Its nice to see the Jays as major players in the offseason, J.P.'s second most important job is to create fan interest in a team that hasn't been setting attendance records in a long time. The most important job of course it to put a baseball team on the field that can win a game any night against any opponent. From my prospective hes doing a pretty good job of both.

We might as well start at the begining (I was gonna throw a Bible joke in here like Eko/Echo on LOST last week but I just couldn't make it work...I'm only letting you know because its the thought that counts) J.P. rented a dump truck to carry a pile of money over to B.J. Ryan's house and convince him to come to T.O. Sure we (yeah I said 'we', its probably going to happen a lot in this post, try not to freak out too much) overpaid, but thats what had to be done. Do you think anyone wanted to go into next season with Miguel 'Blown-Save' Batista as the closer? Exactly.

Next up J.P. holla'ed at A.J. Burnett, and unlike Gwen Stefani he actually holla'ed back (That shit is bananas!). Yes we knew whoever got A.J. that he was going to be overpaid, but I like the guy and its not like I'm the one paying him so I was all for it. $11 mill a season? damn thats a lot of money, but I'm okay with it. The Doc and A.J. are a solid and scary 1-2 punch, plus two lefties and my homeboy Josh Towers holding down the back end of the rotation. Yeah I'm likeing the potential starting 5.

But Mike J.P. you say, we still need some bats to support this pitching. Well have you checked the sports section today? The Jays just aquired Lyle Overbay from the Brewers for Gabe Gross, Dave Bush and a pitching prospect. I like this trade for two reasons, first we didn't give up a starter. Gross is stuck behind V-Dub, Rios and Frank 'Rediculous Batting Stance' Catalanotto for a spot in the outfield and Bush is behind at least the 5 starters I've already talked about. I have no idea who this prospect is/was and if he turns out to be the second comming of Rollie Fingers then I guess we'll just have to admire the moustache from afar. The second reason I like this trade is that it means J.P. isn't done yet. This gives us Overbay, Hillenbrand and Hinske as first basemen. Hillenbrand and Hinske can both play the three-bag too but we've got Canada's golden boy Chad Kroger Cory Koskie there (I'll never get tired of that Chad Kroger joke by the way so your best bet is to just come to love it). So one of those guys can move to DH/utility man and someone has to pack their bags.

Of course out of those guys Hinske probably brings the least return, but unless a really good offer comes along I'd like to see him moved. I'd package him and Batista together and ship them to Wendy's for an order of Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers if I could, but if J.P. can get an actual major league ready player for them that'd be cool to....I guess.

Wow I was planning to go on and talk about some of the moves that other teams have made, but I think I've eaten up enough words for one day. There were some major trades that went down worth looking at though, so you can get over to mlb.com and have a look. Or stick around here for a week or so and I'm sure I'll get to it.

Last thing on the Blue Jays theme, in case you missed it one of the best players to ever come through Toronto retired. Peace out Johnny O!

P.S. the music quote answers are up now.
- posted by Mike @ 11:40 AM