Blue Jays Morning Brew: Turf, Mo Money & Soft Tossers

Good Morning. Wipe the sleep from your eyes because we’ve brewed up a fresh pot of Blue Jays goodness to start your day. Here’s your Blue Jays Morning Brew. With the playoffs in full, dramatic swing, there is not much going on with the Blue Jays. But, we’ll try to fill your morning.

The biggest news to come out of Toronto is that payroll will go up next season.

Shi Davidi lets us know there is progress in replacing the turf at Rogers Centre.

This is good news…I guess. Ideally, the Blue Jays would add natural grass and turn the Rogers Centre into something more warm and baseball like. Instead, they’ll just update the turf and spend some time figuring out how to make grass work. I guess this is good news. Jose Reyes will want to check it out before they install this new turf. His legs will need turf made of big fluffy clouds to get every ounce of playing time out of his $22M salary next season. If we can’t have natural grass yet, they better make sure the turf still kicks up that cool looking trail behind a diving or sliding player. It adds a neat effect to the television viewing experience. It’s kind of like when Fox tried to highlight the puck for hockey games. Wait. That’s not selling it, is it?

At Tip of the Tower, William Wilson explores the notion that Blue Jays fans might consider cheering for the Baltimore Orioles this October. Familiarity with the O’s is what is causing me to pay attention. Also, they are from the AL East. But, aside form all of that, they are a good team! And, I have come to appreciate Buck Showalter as a manager.

Richard Griffin points out at The Star that the Blue Jays rotation would not have lasted very long even if the team had reached the post season. He argues that the winning teams have one (or two) aces who throw hard and dominate opponents. Toronto has R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle. That wouldn’t stand up against any playoff team. He’s got a point.

Live Feed

Birds Watcher

And, just to make us all feel better about the Blue Jays not making a move over the summer and missing out on the playoffs, Sportsnet’s Barry Davis gave us this:

Finally, Tom Dakers at Bluebird Banter asks an interesting question: “Which player would you NEVER want on the Blue Jays?” He chooses Jonathan Papelbon. there are a couple I hope never get the opportunity to wear a Blue Jays uniform. Delmon Young comes to mind. Anti-Semetic rants don’t sit well with me. Here’s another one that might draw some criticism. I’m OK if Miguel Cabrera never comes to Toronto. Nevermind his hefty contract and all that. Domestic violence is another one of those things that rub me wrong. Now, he was intoxicated and his wife was also violent, but still. No, thank you.