(That will be the last cliche I use in this post. Honest to God. Okay, that’s it.)

In response to comment 87:

I’m going to see the Sox if the Jays win the first four of five games this week or else I won’t be motivated to see them if they fall back a bit. Are the Jays a potential team Aj could end up with and have a whole new contract.

MW: It’s a shame that you’re not motivated to just go see a baseball game.

“as two why”?

MW: Typo. It happens. I don’t proofread my answers to comments.

MW: Of course.

MW: I don’t know if they’ll try to do it after this season, but I know they’re talking about it. I don’t know if Halladay would be inclined to sign an extenSion after this season, or if he might want to wait and see what 2009 has in store for the Jays.

Someone called tonight and suggested Casey Blake as a possibility. You said he didn’t hit enough, so I had to look it up:

His OPS is .824 (lifetime .783) this year and it hasn’t slowed down in Dodger Stadium. Besides Adam Lind, no Blue Jay has a higher OPS. While Blake is no Manny or “game changer” he is playing better than any other Blue Jay this year. He would be an improvement compared to other options we have.

MW: This year being the key.

MW: I have heard the same.

In this offensively starved season, his release was a huge blunder.

Guess the fans knew better than BJ management in this case.

MW: I believe that you honestly think that last sentence is true.

I didn’t mean to cause any sort of stir by asking who you thought was the better Manager, Cito or Gibbons. And just so you know, I wasn’t trying to prove you wrong in any way. I was just asking a question, hoping to get your thoughts. There was no other motives at play at all.

I see someone went on the offensive with you regarding your answer. Just want to make it clear, it wasn’t me.

Truthfully though, I was hoping for a more defined answer, but I can appreciate your reluctance to answer with one or the other.

How much of the resurgence is Cito related, in your opinion?

MW: I know it wasn’t you. The question itself is essentially impossible to answer. We have no idea what the manager does between games, what he says to his players, how he interacts with his coaching staff, etc. We look at results and judge who’s a good manager and who isn’t. Would John Gibbons have won the World Series with the 92 or 93 teams? No idea. Would Cito have won 83 games with last year’s broken-down bunch? No clue. In-game, Cito took a lot of heat for his strategic maneuvering, or lack thereof, during his first tenure here, and there were many (not including me) who believed that the Jays won in spite of him, or that anyone could have managed those teams to championships. I don’t believe that. As for this year, some of the resurgence is Cito-related, but not nearly as much of it as many seem to believe.