Toronto Blue Jays

Tonight, the Toronto Blue Jays will begin a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia against the Phillies. However, this is no ordinary home series for the Phillies.

Instead, this series was supposed to be played in Toronto but had to be moved to Philly due to security reasons that arose from the G20 Summit being held in Toronto this weekend.

Correction: The Prodigal Son does not return.  You can thank the G20 Summit and the infinite wisdom of Rogers Media (owners of the Toronto Blue Jays) for that.

So, instead of a bittersweet moment that would have, could have, had some legitimate intrigue and injected greater interest into a jaded fan base, we get a downtown core that looks like 1942 Berlin.

This is an issue that's been beat to death already, so I won't add to the cacophony of discontent in this piece.  In the end, it would only be white noise anyways.

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Fans of Jose Bautista's former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, would laugh at the idea. (Except for yours truly.)

But the former "tail-ender" now leads the Toronto Blue Jays in four out of five offensive categories, according to ESPN.

With the non-waiver trade deadline just over a month away, the rumor mill machine is starting to build considerable steam.

Once again the A.L. East is the most competitive division in baseball with the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays in a triple threat death match for the pennant.

But hold on, the Toronto Blue Jays are making some serious noise as well.

With an exciting young pitching staff and a hodge podge offense that hacks now, ask questions later, the Jays are literally bombing their way into contention.

What will these teams do to improve their post-season chances?

The Toronto Blue Jays will look to continue the roll they got on last week tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals. After taking two of three from both the Padres and Giants last week the Jays have another three game set with the Cards. While much of the attention is sure to be on Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday the pitching matchups are exceptional.

According to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York , the Mets have acquired outfielder Jorge Padilla from the Toronto Blue Jays and sent him to Triple-A Buffalo.

No word yet on whom the Mets are sending to Toronto to complete this trade.

The Arizona Diamondbacks and Oakland A's unofficially kicked off the 2010 pre-deadline trading activity this week. With the D-Backs running up the white flag on 2010 and putting out word that almost everyone on their roster can be had, the trade market should be on the verge of getting busy. The Kansas City Royals are also putting it out there that they too are willing to shop several of their veteran pieces.

The Blue Jays, oh man.

I’m not sure how to feel right now.

The Jays have powered their way into a respectable start. Realistically, they have been playing a little above their heads. But who cares, they win from time to time and HRs are fun.

It’s expectations that are killing me as a fan. The Jays are exactly where I hoped they would be, and for that reason, I want more. However, maybe that’s selfish.

On Saturday while the Toronto Blue Jays were in the midst of an inter-league series with the Colorado Rockies, manager Cito Gaston was asked which of his players deserved All-Star consideration. Gatson told MLB.com writer Jordan Bastian that he felt Brett Cecil, Ricky Romero, Shaun Marcum, Vernon Wells and Jose Bautista were worth serious consideration. Gaston also said he hopes to see at least three selections from his squad.

As you may have noticed, it’s Draft Madness Week here at Burly’s Baseball Musings.  However, no matter how much die-hard baseball fans get into the Draft (and I do every year), it’s a whole different ballgame selecting amateur talent in MLB than it is in the NBA or NFL.

To give you some idea of how difficult it is to choose the studs from the duds, here’s a list of the seven starting pitchers who won their ballgames tonight and where they were drafted.

Trevor Cahill, selected in the 2nd round, 66th overall, by the A’s in 2006.