Blue Jays Morning Brew: Turn it up to…twelve?

The Blue Jays seek their twelfth straight victory later tonight against the New York Yankees, who have quickly fallen from the hunter to the hunter. Oh, what a beautiful two weeks it has been. The Blue Jays will kick off the series with David Price on the mound as they look to pull away from the rest of the AL East in what may be the biggest series to touch down in Toronto since the early 90s.

Sold out crowds and ear-shattering volumes are the forecast this weekend at the Rogers Centre. To get you set for a weekend we’re all shocked to see come so fast, here’s a look around at the best stories in Blue Jays land in your Morning Brew.

Also on Jays Journal: Is Ryan Goins’ offense really arriving?

Donaldson getting love  –  Josh Donaldson climbing lists and taking in praise? You don’t say!  In Scott Cullen’s most recent MLB Player Rankings for TSN, Donaldson sits at seventh overall behind Zack Greinke, Paul Goldschmidt, Bryce Harper, Sonny Gray, Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw. Some fine names to be nipping the heels of. Donaldson is listed at 7.11 WAR by Cullen as his American League MVP case continues to build momentum.

What do you say, Vegas?  –  Matt Goldman of MLB Daily Dish breaks down the recent World Series odds from Vegas, with the Blue Jays sitting atop at 4/1. This brings back melancholy memories of the time after the Marlins and Dickey deals where Vegas said the same thing, but this is clearly more based in reality. The Royals trail close behind with 5/1 odds, and if there’s any way to have these two teams meet up in the playoffs, please, let it happen.

More from Toronto Blue Jays News

• Matt Chapman has been exactly what the Blue Jays needed
• Blue Jays: The goalposts are moving in the right direction
• Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays advance to the Championship Series
• Blue Jays: Comparisons for Alek Manoah’s Second Season
• Blue Jays: Adam Cimber, the unlikely decision King

The Lonely Loup  –  It’s been a long August for Aaron Loup, who finally saw his first game action of the month in mop-up duty on Wednesday versus Oakland. He seems to be the next man in line for a AAA demotion, possibly for the recall of Josh Thole over the next week, but according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet, he’s been putting his downtime to good use by working on his slider.

“The hard slider for me didn’t really play as well as the one I had in the past so we looked at that, we looked at the positives/negatives of both ways with the slider and we decided to go back to the old slider, which in turn dropped my arm slot back to where it was, got my hand position on the ball to where it should be and everything came back to where it’s been. Hopefully we can take it and run with it and finish the season strong.”

Loup’s slider could make him an intriguing lefty-specialist down the stretch, especially if he can begin to bury it down and away. It’s been a lost season for him, but with his track record of success, some minor tweaks could pay huge dividends.

Dombrowski rumblings  –  Bob Elliot of the Toronto Sun tells us that the Blue Jays have officially “contacted” former Tigers’ general manager Dave Dombrowski about the Blue Jays presidency, which is soon to be vacated by Paul Beeston. As Elliot notes, however, the Blue Jays will need to compete with the wealthy Angels and Red Sox.

The man has already been kind enough to give us Devon Travis and David Price. This will likely be a slow-moving process, but one to watch carefully as the Blue Jays make a critical transition in their organization.

Next: How has Marco Estrada avoided the home run ball?

More from Jays Journal

• Matt Chapman has been exactly what the Blue Jays needed
• Blue Jays: The goalposts are moving in the right direction
• Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays advance to the Championship Series
• Blue Jays: Comparisons for Alek Manoah’s Second Season
• Blue Jays: Adam Cimber, the unlikely decision King