Blue Jays Morning Brew: Will they ever win again?

The Toronto Blue Jays lost just their second game of the month last night, and when the calendar reads “14”, that’s quite alright. The timing of the Blue Jays loss was far from ideal as they’ve now slipped 0.5 games behind the New York Yankees, but that game felt like playoff baseball from the first pitch to the last.

It will be one of the loudest weekends in Rogers Centre history as the Yankees and Blue Jays close out the series with two matinees. Marco Estrada and Drew Hutchison will take the mound for Toronto and be faced by Masahiro Tanaka and the rookie Luis Severino. Enjoy today’s Morning Brew, and let’s start another streak!

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Caution with young arms – Mike Rutsey of the Toronto Sun expresses some hesitancy with the Blue Jays usage of Roberto Osuna and Aaron Sanchez towards the back end of the bullpen, suggesting the organization may want to watch their workload. While Sanchez missed significant time with a lat injury, the young Osuna leads the club with 50 appearances.

I understand the thought here, but I’m not sure the Blue Jays have seen any telltale signs of wear from the two. Yes, Sanchez surrendered the critical blow on Friday night, but that’s one pitch. Thankfully, arms like LaTroy Hawkins and Mark Lowe will help to lighten the load wherever necessary.

Beeston on Anthopoulos – With Blue Jays president Paul Beeston set to leave the organization at the end of the year, questions have simmered throughout the season on the future of Alex Anthopoulos. Thankfully for AA, he’s done some things lately to tighten up his job security. Scott Lewis of Sportsnet updates us with Beeston’s recent appearance on Prime Time Sports, where he was asked if he still has the authority to offer Anthopoulos a contract himself.

“I would have to take that to somebody because that would be the right thing to do,” Beeston said. “In the past I would have been, but now I’m moving on. I wouldn’t worry about Alex. That will get taken care of in due course.”

Bullpen makeover – Craig Edwards of FanGraphs takes a look at the sweeping changes Toronto has made to their bullpen in a step-by-step fashion that will leave you feeling awfully nice about the back end. He lists the three key moves as swapping Cecil for Osuna at closer, moving Sanchez to the ‘pen and bringing in Hawkins and Lowe. The numbers don’t lie, either, as Toronto’s bullpen has become one of the best in baseball.

Business is booming – I’ll leave you with some interesting numbers from a far superior economical mind, Claire Brownell of the Financial Post. She breaks down the spike in ticket, merchandise and concession sales since the Blue Jays took on substantial salary (and skill) at the trade deadline.

“Converted into Canadian dollars, Team Marketing pegs the Blue Jays’ revenue at $8.87 for each of those beers (well above the league average of $7.81), $21.27 for each cap (about a dollar below the average) and $6.50 for each hot dog (pretty close to what you’d pay at any other major league park). Overall, the firm estimates that group of four would pay $270.43 for the whole trip to the ball game, just a few dollars over the MLB average.

That works out to $67.61 per person. Multiply that by 465,000 more bums in seats and you’ve got a whopping $31.4 million — more than triple the extra spending on salaries.”

Rogers Centre beer sales produce a revenue well above the league average!? You’re kidding me!!

Next: Is the offensive surge from Goins for real?

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