Well

Helluva week, eh?

On today's deals, I can be pretty brief. The Lowe deal is a nice surprise. I always thought Rob Rasmussen was being neglected and Seattle will, I expect, get a nice little return right there. The other two are so very far away that they would have to have been special indeed to worry about losing them. Doubront to Oakland was actually something I anticipated the day before the Kazmir deal, he's just their kind of guy.
Ben Revere? Eh. Okay, fine. For my money, I'd wager that you could plug Dalton Pompey into left field and get more production than they are going to get from Revere, but I'll concede Revere having been capable for a few years does offer more certainty, and does hit lefty. And if they follow through with a strict platoon, they will maximize his value since he doesn't hit left-handers well. But beyond this season, I wonder what it means for Pompey. Maybe you go back to playing him in left and put Pillar in the fourth outfielder role where he's better suited. Then there's Saunders which...I dunno.

As I discussed in my previous post, adding five veterans to the major league roster is a direct result of Anthopoulos' organizational philosophy to horde desirable pitching prospects in anticipation of their trade vale, and this is a fact that needs considerable notice in the media and in the front office - particularly if the Blue Jays do indeed make the run deep into October. It's also a reflection, as Alex told the press today, of the conscience choice over the late winter period to reserve a portion of their salary allotment from the corporate bosses to give themselves flexibility to take on salary in late July, which they have. The difference between the opening day payroll in 2014 and 2015 was a little over $11 million and Beeston insisted over the winter that the payroll would go up. About 7.5 of that will go to David Price. Just under $1 mil more goes to Hawkins. Mark Lowe makes little and the Phillies picked up the rest of Revere's deal. But that's almost $9 million that wouldn't have been there if the Jays had given it to some mediocre SP like Justin Masterson last winter.

Let's give as much credit as is obviously due.

And as I'm finishing this the Blue Jays just beat the new Ace of the team with the best record in the AL for their first three-game winning streak since June 19. Perhaps it is a new day indeed.