Toronto Blue Jays Morning Brew: Tanaka, Kawasaki, WAR and more

Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Munenori Kawasaki celebrates his two-run double in the ninth inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

I hope everyone had a great Christmas yesterday and your lights have been turned back on. If you are out fighting the Boxing Day crowds today, well, good luck to you. Here are a few stories to read about the Toronto Blue Jays to kill the time while you wait in line.

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Masahiro Tanaka was posted yesterday and today is the first day of the 30-day window bidding teams will have to negotiate with the young right-handed pitcher. MLB Trade Rumors, as always, keeps us up to date with all of the developments.

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Brenden Kennedy at the Toronto Star gives us five reasons why Blue Jays fans should expect the worst but hope for the best in 2014.

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Andrew Stoeten at DJF takes an in-depth look at expectations for the Blue Jays in 2014 and using WAR projections concludes that maybe the Jays will be better off than most of us think.

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Martin Klayman over at Tip of the Tower talks about the value that Munenori Kawasaki brings to the Blue Jays and makes a case that if they stand pat maybe Muni should be considered for the starting second baseman role in 2014.

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Jay Blue at Blue Jays From Away voices his concerns about the Jays’ Rule 4 Draft strategy, specifically the approach taken by current Director of Amateur Scouting Brian Parker. Jay also provided us with another Winter League update a few days ago and has been keeping tabs on all the Blue Jays currently playing in the Caribbean.

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Ian Hunter from Blue Jays Hunter looks at how the Jays’ infielder performed last season using FanGraphs’ fielding spray charts.

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Gregor Chisholm from BlueJays.com gives us ten questions that need positive answers if the Jays want to make 2014 a successful campaign. He says that Brandon Morrow and a few young arms need to find a way to step up and be key contributors.