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7:50 PM Eastern

It was really only a matter of time.

After all the news that came out of the Blue Jays’ clubhouse the last week of the season with regards to player discontent about Cito Gaston’s managerial and communication style and the schism in the coaching staff, there was no way that the staff would come back next season the same way it finished this one.

Tonight, the changes were made.  They were announced at 6:00 PM on a Friday night because there is an embargo on announcements on World Series game days, and the Jays felt that if they waited until Tuesday, something would have leaked - especially with the Astros announcing that they’d hired Brad Arnsberg.  They didn’t say anything about pushing back plans to take my wife out for her birthday dinner.  Sigh.

What it basically comes down to is that Arnsberg and Gene Tenace are gone.  One coach from each “side” moves on, and Brian Butterfield and Nick Leyva switch places.

Yes, Arnie and new Astros manager Brad Mills are really close and Mills wanted Arnsberg to join his staff.  The move was likened to that of Leo Mazzone leaving Atlanta a couple of years back to go to Baltimore to work with his best friend Sam Perlozzo.  I’m sure that had a lot to do with it, but there’s no question that Arnsberg was more than ready to go.  Gene Tenace is officially retiring, but it really smells like a one-for-one deal to keep everybody happy.

Leyva has a much longer history with Cito, and is a former big-league manager, while Butterfield showed to be a terrific third-base coach and will do well returning there.

The new coaches are Rick Langford, who preceded Arnsberg as the Jays’ pitching coach, and Omar Malave.  Langford takes over for Bruce Walton as bullpen coach, with the man they call Pappy moving into the main chair, taking over for Arnie.  Malave is a Blue Jays lifer, having managed over 2,000 games in the minors.  He’s getting his first shot in the big leagues and will take over as first-base coach with Dwayne Murphy moving off first to take over for Tenace as hitting coach.

Got all that?

I’ll miss Arnsberg a lot, a terrific guy and a great pitching coach,  but Walton is a fantastic human being as well, and really knows his stuff.  As Alex Anthopoulos said, Walton is very ready for the job, and has probably been ready for a few years, but has simply been blocked by the presence of Arnsberg.  Walton also has a good relationship with Cito, which will no doubt lead to better communication all the way around.

The Jays’ announcement about the coaching shuffle led with the fact that Cito has announced he’ll be retiring from managing following the 2010 season, and that he’s accepted a four-year deal to be a consultant with the team following his last year as skipper.  Gaston will advise and consult with the team in all areas of Baseball Operations, top to bottom.  The fact that he’s still going to be with the team means, according to Alex, that there’s no need to see Cito as a lame-duck manager.  It’s not as though he’s leaving the organization.  Bobby Cox has also announced he’s leaving managing after this year and no one’s trotted out the “lame-duck” appellation with him.

Anthopoulos was asked if he believes that Gaston might be too “set in his ways” to be an effective manager with this club this coming season, and his answer was a quick no.  He pointed to all the good things that happened once Cito came aboard in 2008, and in early 2009, and added a piece of revisionist history that’s becoming familiar.

There’s a message being sent that the 2009 Jays didn’t really fall off the table until early August, when Scott Rolen was traded and Alex Rios was let go.  It’s not the first time that’s been said and, to an extent, it’s true.  From the middle of May through the end of July, the Jays were more unlucky than bad.  They weren’t getting blown out - almost ever - they were dropping games by a run seemingly every other night, or losing in extra innings.  But for a bounce or twenty, they’d have been a lot better.  But they weren’t.

The Jays were 26-33 (.441) from the beginning of the ugly nine-game road trip in May to the day they let Rios go.  It’s tough to colour that as successful, although they were only four games under .500 overall.  From that point on, they were 22-30 (.423) - which really isn’t that much worse, though there was that 13-26 tailspin before they won nine out of ten games.

But Alex also did say that while he felt the way the player unrest was potrayed in the media was slightly overblown (it wasn’t - not in this corner anyway), the moves made tonight were part of the process to rectify that situation.

That is to say - keeping Butterfield gives the players what they want, moving him back out to third base also makes the players happy.  Making Murphy the hitting coach makes the players happy.  Keeping Cito Gaston as the manager keeps upper management happy, and keeps the players from getting absolutely everything they want.  Letting Arnsberg leave?  Well, that definitely makes Arnsberg happy, and it probably does the same for Cito.

So what’s the upshot here?  Cito is still the manager - which means that the Jays spend another year having to deal with the in-game managerial strategies that were so frustrating to have to watch at a lot of times this past season.  At least he won’t have Kevin Millar to try his best to get on the field as often as possible next season.

Murphy as hitting coach makes them better than they were, Butterfield out on the field makes them better as well - as does having Leyva on the bench, because Cito has the trust factor in Leyva that could make him more receptive to Leyva’s advice.

Again, I like Walton a lot - it seems as though his move to greater prominence should be pretty seamless.

The moves also likely mean that the Jays will not be ratcheting up payroll in an attempt to “go for it” in 2010, which means the Roy Halladay sweepstakes will re-start in a couple of weeks.

And, of course, the search for a new skipper is on!  Not now, of course, though I’m sure lists are being put together.  Alex said that everyone on the current coaching staff who has interest in the job will be encouraged to apply for it, and that he would expect Butterfield and Leyva, at least, to do so.  He also said that they’ll do an exhaustive search outside the organization as well.  I would absolutely love to see Butterfield get a shot at steering this ship in 2011.  I’m hoping that’s one of the reasons they kept him on.

Remember - Saturday night we’re on at 7:00 PM Eastern with Adam Lind on the line from Indiana taking your phone calls!  Here’s hoping that you’ll tear yourselves away from the Leaf game for a while and tune in!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

5:45 PM Eastern

That’s right - starting tonight and for the rest of the World Series, we’ll have a real live Blue Jay on to take your phone calls before every game.

And yes, we’ve dropped one of the “pre”s, because we’re no longer leading into the ESPN pre-game, we’re pre-empting it.

Tonight’s guest will be Randy Ruiz, who took the American League by storm over the last third of the season.  He was the Blue Jays’ best hitter over the 50 games he spent in the majors, after winning the Pacific Coast League’s MVP Award, and yet there were times he couldn’t find his way into the line-up, stunningly.

Randy will join us at 7:00 PM Eastern on the Fan590 and here on this very website, and he’ll be taking your calls - so please flood the phone lines and make him feel welcome.

A.J. Burnett, who Ruiz took deep in his second game as a Blue Jay, is starting tonight for the Yanks - so maybe Ruiz will have some insight for us on how to beat him.

Saturday night, before Game 3, we’ll be joined by Adam Lind, and Sunday night John McDonald will guest prior to Game 4.  If the Series goes to a Game 5, Travis Snider is scheduled to come on on Monday night.

11:59 PM Eastern

Well, probably not, but those of you who are frequent readers of this space and frequent listeners to the fine radio program that is often attached to these posts know that yours truly is a massive baseball geek.  Such geekitude generally manifests itself in the 200 some-odd JaysTalks/PlayoffTalks/Blue-Jay-A-Day shows that I’m lucky enough to be allowed to do every season, but it also comes out in my hardcore baseball simulation habit.

Currently I’m in two leagues that play using Dynasty League Baseball as the game engine.  DLB (www.designdepot.com) is a wonderful simulation.  The most realistic, true-to-life simulation that I have ever played.  They’re about to debut a new online version that will let people go to a central location to play the game against each other on the internet (which I understand is on computers now), and this afternoon I became one of the first dozen-or-so people to test out the new version.

I took on the game’s creator, Mike Cieslinski, in a World Series pre-play.  He took the Yankees and I took the Phillies.  Jamie Hall, who is the game’s Software Architect, gave Cieslinski a breather and took the Yankees’ reins for Game 3.

Now, the results of a simulated series don’t really tell us anything.  Beyond the painfully obvious; anything can happen in a short series, regardless of who is playing whom.  Such series are generally not about which team is the best, but rather which team is the best that week.

Still, this turned out to be a seriously one-sided series.

The Simu-Phillies swept away the Simu-Yankees, and they did it with boundless authoritah - outscoring the Yanks 33-13 over the four games.

The Simu-Series MVP?  Believe it or not - Phillies’ catcher Carlos Ruiz, who hit .571/.600/1.214 for the series.  A four-game OPS of 1.814.  He had three doubles, two homers and five RBIs - the same counting totals as Pedro Feliz, who was the other offensive star.

Just in case you’re interested:

Game 1 was a 7-4 Philly win.  They played home run derby the first two innings, with solo shots by Shane Victorino, Ryan Howard and Johnny Damon along with a two-run shot by Ruiz in just the first two innings.  The Phils led 4-2 after two, but Nick Swisher’s two-run shot tied it in the 4th.  It stayed that way until the 7th, when Ruiz led off with a double and the Phils loaded the bases with nobody out for Victorino, who stroked a two-run single.  Chase Utley followed with a sac fly.  Cliff Lee struck out 10 (just like he did in real life!) over 8 1/3 to get the win and Brad Lidge got the last two outs for the save.

Game 2 saw the Phillies jump out to a 5-1 lead through 4 1/2.  Howard had a two-out RBI single in the first to open the scoring, and added a solo shot in the 5th.  Ruiz tripled in the 5-1 run - the final nail against a shaky A.J. Burnett, who coughed up the five runs on nine hits and four walks in just five innings.  Pedro Martinez shut the Yanks down through four - pitching out of a 2nd and 3rd, none out jam in the 4th - but he ran out of gas in the 5th.  Alex Rodriguez sent him to the showers with a two-out, two-run homer.  J.A. Happ came on to give up a two-run shot of his own, to Jorge Posada, that tied the game 5-5.   But the Phils put together the game-winning rally against Phil Hughes in the 7th, with Feliz breaking the tie with an RBI double and Utley cashing a pair with a two-out single.  Ruiz doubled in a run in the 9th and scored on a passed ball to make the final score 10-5.

Game 3 saw the series move back to Philly, and Damon broke a 2-2 tie with a solo shot off Cole Hamels in the 4th.  It stayed that way until the 6th, when Howard tied it with an RBI single.  Then, with two out, Raul Ibanez doubled in the go-ahead run and Feliz followed with a two-run homer.  Happ got his second straight win with two perfect innings in relief of Hamels and the beleaguered Phillies bullpen held the Yankees hitless over four innings in a 9-3 spanking.

Game 4 was a tremendous pitchers’ duel between Sabathia and Joe Blanton (I figured the Phillies wouldn’t bring Lee back on short rest if they were up three games to none).  At least, it was until Blanton got hurt and had to leave in the third.  At that point, it was 1-0 Yankees thanks to a sac fly by A-Rod in the 1st inning.  Brett Myers came on to throw 2 1/3 hitless innings, but Sabathia carried a no-hitter into the 5th.  The only Philly baserunner to that point was Ibanez, who had walked in the second.  In the 5th, Ibanez walked again, and then Ruiz took care of the no-hitter, the shutout and the lead with one swing of the bat - a two-run homer.  The next hit the Phillies got was another two-run homer, this time by Feliz in the 7th.  The Phils rallied for three more with two out in the 8th, and Lidge came on to throw a perfect 9th and secure a 7-1 win and the sweep.

Is that’s what’s going to happen?  Of course not.  I mean, the Phillies could sweep, and they took a step towards that with their win tonight, but of course it’s not going to go down exactly that way.  It already hasn’t.  Still, it was a lot of fun to play, and it certainly shows that the Phils are nowhere near overmatched in this World Series.

If you were wondering about the Yankees’ big hitters in the series, here you go:  Derek Jeter was 3-for-17 and A-Rod 2-for-13 (though with a homer and 3 RBIs). Mark Teixeira was 6-for-18, but didn’t have an extra-base hit.

Back to real life now, and the Blue-Jay-A-Day pre-pre-game show will make its 2009 debut on Thursday night at 7:05 PM Eastern on The Fan590 and this very website.  I’m not yet sure who the guest will be.  Aaron Hill said no, Travis Snider said he’d love to, but can’t tomorrow - he’ll appear later in the series.  I have calls in to Marco Scutaro and Rod Barajas that have yet to be returned.

We’ve already had Adam Lind, Ricky Romero, Lyle Overbay and Scott Richmond on to take calls - that was back this summer on Baseball Today - and I don’t know if it’s fair to go back to those guys again (though I might).  John McDonald is a guy with whom you all want to talk, I’m sure, and I’m thinking that Brian Tallet and Marc Rzepczynski would be good, too, as would Scott Downs (who was easily the best guest last fall).  I know that neither Vernon Wells nor Roy Halladay will do the show.

I’ll come up with somebody - your suggestions are welcome.

So are your comments - rational, reasonable ones are always welcome!

12:40 AM Eastern

Throwing away back-to-back sacrifice bunt attempts to end the season?  Stop me if you’ve seen that movie before.  Yep, the Angels “pulled a Blue Jays” in Game Six of the ALCS, paving the Yankees’ way to their first World Series berth since 2003 when they lost in six to the Marlins.

Somewhere, there’s a Yankees fan who turns nine on Tuesday who has yet to have his or her team win a championship in his or her lifetime.  He or she might not have to wait much longer, which kinda sucks.

Tonight, Joe Girardi amazingly made only two pitching changes, and three Yankee pitchers stifled the Anaheim bats.  The Halos  had a chance to take advantage of an ill-conceived idea of Girardi’s to use Rivera to nail down the last six outs, but they took care of that with their shoddy defence in the 8th.

Asking Rivera to get the last six outs of a playoff game isn’t unusual.  But asking him to do it with a two-run lead, with a Game Seven set for the next day if he doesn’t isn’t the smartest thing to do (I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Joe Morgan).  I wouldn’t have done it, but the Angels allowing the Yanks to score two add-on runs in the 8th WITHOUT BENEFIT OF A HIT made the point moot.

After pulling a “bend-but-don’t-break” routine in the 8th, allowing a run on a two-out single by Vladimir Guerrero, Rivera didn’t have to come out and protect a one-run lead in the 9th because Howie Kendrick couldn’t catch an easy throw from Kendry Morales and because Scott Kazmir couldn’t make an easy throw to first.

Instead, the Yankees have their 40th American League pennant.  Mazel tov.

And seriously, Mike Scioscia - Gary Matthews, Junior as a pinch-hitter with two out in the 9th?  Never mind the fact that righties hit Rivera better than lefties, that Mike Napoli’s OPS against righties was almost 100 points higher than Matthews’.  But it’s Gary Matthews, Jr.!  A guy who has perhaps had the best-timed one good year in the history of one good yearing!  The man was relatively useless at the plate prior to his out of character <cough>hGH<cough> 2006, and having been busted after signing the big contract, he’s been terrible as an Angel.  Now is not the time to try to justify five years and $50 million.  Sheesh.

Anyway.

If these playoffs have done one thing - besides highlight just how bad umpiring has become these days - they’ve put the lie to this “Twins and Angels play the game the right way” bogosity that had become accepted as gospel the last few weeks.

The Angels handed the first two games of this series to their Bronxular hosts with shoddy defense, they couldn’t run the bases (nor could the Twins!) and tonight, with the season on the line, their pitchers couldn’t throw strikes - either to the plate or to the bases.

The Yankees won the pennant despite a Blue Jaysesque inability to hit with runners in scoring position.  Actually, that’s an insult to the Blue Jays.  The Yanks hit just .183 with RISP for the series - 11 hits in 60 at-bats - and that includes the pop-up that Erick Aybar and Chone Figgins let drop between them in the first inning of Game 1 that really set the tone for the series.  Three of the four Yankee wins can be attributed almost completely to the incompetence of their opposition, and that’s not supposed to happen in the playoffs.

So we have the Yankees looking for their first World Series championship of the decade (2001-2010 - decades don’t start with the year that ends in zero, they end with them.  There was no year zero.  I will not debate this.) against the Phillies, who are looking for their second, and their second in a row.  If the Phillies win, they’ll become the first back-to-back champs from the N.L. since the Big Red Machine.

The Phils aren’t your typical National League team.  In fact, you’ll hear several pundits refer to them as an American League line-up that just happens to play in the N.L. over the next few days.  It’s true.  But even with a DH, whether it be Matt Stairs (for whom the new Yankee Stadium was built), Greg Dobbs or Ben Francisco (I’m assuming he goes to left and Raul Ibanez comes off the field to DH against lefties), their line-up still isn’t as potent as the Yankees’ (have you had enough of the parenthetical comments yet?  I’m just asking.).

The Yanks will likely throw a left-handed starter four times in the seven games - maybe five - and that’s not good news for Ryan Howard, who goes from being all-world to being John McDonald when a lefty comes in.  Seriously - Howard’s OPS against lefties was two points WORSE than McDonald’s overall OPS this season.

Surprisingly, lefty sluggers Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez were better hitters against left-handers this season, and having a lefty in there gives Jayson Werth and Carlos Ruiz each a huge boost.

The Phils will put up a good fight if they can throw strikes and take care of the baseball (I figured - football reference, I might as well talk like the football people).  The bullpens may wind up being the difference; I guarantee you we won’t see any six-out save attempts out of Brad Lidge.

Our first Blue Jay A Day Pre-Pre-Game Show will be Thursday night in advance of Game 2 because the Raptor game on Wednesday will lead to us joining Game 1 in progress.  I’m going to try to get Aaron Hill for that show, but if he does it, it’d be a first for him.  We’ll let you know both here and on Twitter who our first Jays guest will be as soon as we book him.

Also, before the World Series begins, I’m planning to pre-play it using the great Dynasty League Baseball simulation - with yours truly managing the Phillies while the game’s creator, Mike Cieslinski, manages the hated Yankees.  The results will be posted right here.

We may only have a week of baseball left this year!  If that’s it, let’s hope we see four straight Philadelphia wins!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

10:25 AM Eastern

I know:  What a stupid thing to say, right?  Of course you can’t take anything for granted, and there’s no guarantee that if the Yankees lose tonight’s Game 5 of the ALCS that they’ll definitely win either Game 6 or Game 7 back in the Bronx on the weekend, so they need to put the Angels away whenever they have the opportunity to do so.

I’m not saying that they should throw tonight’s game or anything like that.

But……….the Phillies won the pennant last night, which means they now have an entire week off before the World Series begins on Wednesday (stupid MLB scheduling), and baseball isn’t a game that’s meant to be played on so much rest.  If the Yankees clinch tonight, then they’ll have nearly a week off too, and will be on the same feet-up footing as the Philbos.  If the Angels win, the two teams fly back to New York with a game to play on Saturday night, and maybe another on Sunday - less down time means a greater chance for later success.

I know it didn’t work that way last year, with the Phillies winning the NLCS in five over the Dodgers (that could never happen twice in a row, right?) and the Rays taking seven to take down the Red Sox, but that was different.  That was a “holy crap, we can’t believe we’re in the World Series” Tampa Bay team.  Time off at this point doesn’t help as much as it hurts.

That said, I don’t want the Yankees to win at all, so I’m hoping that A.J. Burnett has the playoff meltdown for which everyone is looking and then the Halos can pull off the improbable comeback over the weekend.  I wouldn’t bet on that happening, though.

So Tony Viner, the President of Rogers Media, was on Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown last night (the audio is still available here on this very website, check it out) and answered some important questions.  No, the team is not for sale.  He was unequivocal about that.  Yes, Rogers realizes how important the Blue Jays are to its other media properties and, therefore, to the company as a whole.  Yes, the goal is to build a winner as soon as possible and the financial resources are available to the Blue Jays if they need them.  No, he hasn’t yet had his meeting with Paul Beeston and Alex Anthopoulos to lay down a plan for 2010 and beyond - that should happen at the end of next week.

Hopefully, this will quiet the “Rogers has never said anything!  They’re getting their house in order to sell the team!” crowd, but I have my doubts.

Pat Gillick was on as well, and said that he has no plans to pursue a position with the Jays “at this time”, whether as a senior advisor to Alex or as President.  Those are three big words, though, “at this time”.  After the World Series, the Phillies’ season will be over and Gillick will be at another point in time in his career.  Maybe then he’ll consider it, because he’d be a perfect fit here as the wizened sage on whom Alex can lean when he needs to.

Congrats to the Phillies, by the way.  They’re trying to become the first National League team to win consecutive World Series since the Big Red Machine in 1975 and ‘76.  It was a blow out last night, and there were no huge blown calls (a rarity this October), but I thought Joe Torre made a huge mistake in that 8th-inning Dodger rally.  With the bases loaded, two out and the Dodgers having pulled to within five runs, Torre sent eighth-place hitter Casey Blake to the plate with Jim Thome on deck getting set to hit for the pitcher.  Which one of those guys would you rather have up in that situation?  Sure, you want Thome up with a chance to tie the game if he can, and if he walks (which Jim Thome is inclined to do) then you have to go to Mark Loretta, Juan Castro or Brad Ausmus as the tying run - but if Blake gets out, what are the odds that you’ll be able to put together another huge rally to get the tying run anywhere near the plate in the 9th?

Pretty damn low.  Thome had to hit in that situation - that’s basically why they picked him up.  If he goes deep, it’s a one-run game.  To hope that Blake can extend the inning so that Thome could be given a chance to tie the game was just foolish.

I find that a lot of managers manage that way - based on the idea that their moves will work.  There’s not often a lot of contingency planning going on.  You see the lefty reliever brought in to face a couple of lefties with one out, but there’s a ton of righties to follow and nobody is up in the bullpen.  That’s because the manager goes to the lefty thinking he’ll get those lefties out and we’re out of the inning.  Then one of the lefties reaches and all of a sudden we’re into “oh, crap” time, with stalling and sending the catcher out and going to the mound himself just so he can get his righty warmed up.  Same with last night - Torre sends Blake up with Thome on deck thinking that Blake will somehow reach, not thinking that if he doesn’t (and the odds were heavily against him getting on base) the inning is over and they’re down by five going into the ninth with their biggest bullet left in the chamber.

Tonight on the FAN590, a quick little pre-game show and then right into the Yankees and Angels, John Lackey against Burnett.  The game starts at 7:57 PM Eastern, so if things follow according to playoff form, I’ll be back on with the post-post-game at about 12:55 AM.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

UPDATE - 11:05 AM EASTERN - see below

3:23 PM Eastern

We begin our coverage of the League Championship Series on The Fan Radio Network tonight, so I figured now was as good a time as any to throw something up here about them.

First of all, we get the mystery third off-day in each series for (I think) the second year in a row - a panic move by MLB because of some rain-outs a couple of years back.  It’s ridiculous to never have to play more than two days in a row.  This is baseball, it’s an everyday sport, and a great part of the strength of a champion is supposed to be its depth.  How is depth tested when you only have to use three starting pitchers in a playoff series and your top relievers could potentially pitch an inning in every game?

Playoff series used to go 2-3-2, with two games in one park, an off-day for travel, three  games in the other park, an off-day for travel and then two games back in the first park.  That wasn’t ideal - still  too many days off - but it’s far better than just adding another day off after Game 4.  At least they get rid of the extra off-day when the World Series comes around, but thanks to those couple of extra days (and extra days off between rounds, too) the World Series can’t end before November 1st.  It’s the first time in history that the World Series was SCHEDULED to go into November.  Even in 2001, with the week off after 9/11, a four-game World Series would have ended on October 31st.

Now that I’ve gotten that off of my chest - to the games!

Obviously I’m not going to predict winners, I believe that’s a fool’s errand.  After all, look how much dumb luck changed the course of each of the Division Series rounds!  But for a dropped line drive by Matt Holliday, the Cards and Dodgers are tied 1-1 going back to St. Louis.  But for Joe Nathan giving up a home run with a man on base for the FIRST time all season, the Twins and Yankees go to Minnesota tied 1-1 (never mind Phil Cuzzi!).  The Red Sox were a strike away (with a two-run lead and nobody on) from forcing a game 4 against L.A. of A., and the Rockies were a strike away from forcing a Game 5 against the Phillies.

I will say, though,  that I would like to see the Angels come out on top in the A.L. and the Phillies in the N.L.  I’d like to see the Phils get a chance to repeat last year’s performance, and I’d love to see the Yankees get knocked out.

You really couldn’t have picked a better opponent for the Bronx Bombers than L.A. of A.  The Angels have had the Yanks’ number for a long time now.  They split the season series this year (5-5), which made the Angels one of only two A.L. teams not to lose their season series to the Yankees - the other was Boston, which also split (9-9).  The Halos are the only team to have a winning record against the Yanks since New York’s current dynastic run began back in 1995.

Jorge Posada should catch all the games in which A.J. Burnett doesn’t pitch, and in those games the Angels would be well-served to run him ragged.  Every baserunner (with the possible exceptions of Kendry Morales, Vladimir Guerrero and Jeff Mathis) should be stealing at every possible opportunity.  Posada must be broken.

As for the Dodgers and Phillies, the Phils have to work out their bullpen issues.  By that, I mean they have to get Ryan Madson pitching well and keep Brad Lidge pitching well.  If those two aren’t on their games, there could be trouble.  Both teams have good offenses and both teams have good starting rotations, although the Dodgers are going with Vicente Padilla as their Game 2 guy, which raises an eyebrow.

I know Padilla threw really well against the Cards in the NLCS, but he’s still Vicente Padilla.  21 year-old Clayton Kershaw will pitch tonight against last year’s NLCS and World Series MVP and brand-new daddy Cole Hamels.

Both the Phils and Dodgers are well-suited for A.L. rules should they advance, with Philly being able to DH either Matt Stairs or Gregg Dobbs and the Dodgers enjoying the benefit of getting Manny Ramirez off the field in the A.L. and putting Juan Pierre’s glove out there.

Seeing a freeway series for the first time ever would be pretty cool, but so would seeing a renewal of the Yankees-Dodgers rivalry of the 50s and, more recently, the late 70s/early 80s when they hooked up three times in five years (Yanks won in ‘77 and ‘78, Dodgers in ‘81).  The coolth factor would be raised even higher with Joe Torre running the show against the team with which he won four World Series and punched his ticket to the Hall of Fame.

Phillies-Angels would lack the lustre of either of those two Series, and of a potential Phils-Yanks get-together, but it’s the Series I want to see anyway.

So dig this - the entire paragraph below has been proven completely wrong:

I was going to wait until the World Series to say this, but what the heck.  Can we nip in the bud right now any misguided righteous indignation about the use of the word “World” in Major League Baseball’s Championship Series?  It’s not about arrogance and it’s not about a North American superiority complex.  The reason it’s called the “World Series” is because back in 1903, a newspaper called the New York World sponsored what became a series wherein the National League champion would play off against the American League champion in a best-of-nine to determine baseball’s best team of the year.  It has nothing to do with anyone declaring themselves “The Champions of The World.”  Thank you.

I still think that the righteous indignation is misguided, but it appears I have fallen for an urban legend, which sucks, because I pride myself on prying people away from such myths and into facts.  It was pointed out in the comments section, but you can see the truth at http://www.snopes.com/business/names/worldseries.asp

As I said off the top, we’re going to be providing complete coverage of the ALCS and NLCS across the Fan Radio Network, but it’s going to be a little touchy on the Fan590 and here on this very website.  Tonight, we’ll join Game 1 of the Dodgers-Phillies in progress at the conclusion of the Raptors’ pre-season game.  Tomorrow night, we’ll join Game 1 of the Yankees-Angels in progress at the conclusion of the Argo game.

The Blue Jay A Day Pre-Pre-Game Show will be back as well, but not for a while.  There won’t be any pre-games tonight and tomorrow, obviously, and because of FC soccer on Saturday and Bills football on Sunday, we’ll only have little-mini-pre-pre-games.  I’m going to see if I can get Andrew Tinnish or Dana Brown on one of them, though there won’t be time to take calls.

Next week, we should have some Blue-Jay-A-Day guests taking your phone calls.  Let me know to whom you’d most like the opportunity to talk, and I’ll try to get them.  Know this, though, neither Roy Halladay nor Vernon Wells will do the show - Doc never has, and knows that if he did it this year, the only questions would be about him being traded, and Vernon told me last month that he’s not interested in that sort of fan interaction anymore.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:40 PM Eastern

The Blue Jays’ new General Manager made his first bunch of moves this morning, shuffling about the scouting and player development staff.

The biggest move is the firing of Dick Scott, J.P. Ricciardi’s Director of Player Development.  A member of the 1989 World Series champion Oakland A’s (OK, he was 0-for-2 in three games, but he has a ring), Scott came to the Blue Jays from  the Diamondbacks’ organizations where he’d been seen as a terrific managerial prospect before moving to pro scouting.  Scott was one of J.P.’s first hires and oversaw player development throughout Ricciardi’s tenure.

I didn’t talk to Scott a lot, he was generally around during Spring Training, at draft time and in September, but he was always willing to talk and always gave a good overview of what was going on in the minor-league system.

He’s replaced by a combination of (Torontonian) Charlie Wilson, who has been running the Jays’ minor-league operations for six years and Doug Davis (not the pitcher), who managed the Jays’ AA New Hampshire Fisher Cats in 2006 and spent this past season as a roving catching instructor.

Throughout J.P.’s tenure, the Blue Jays did a fantastic job in developing pitchers, but failed miserably in their attempts to develop a major-league calibre catcher and shortstop.

The other big change took place in amateur scouting, where Hamiltonian Andrew Tinnish takes over as the scouting director from Jon Lalonde, who moves to pro scouting.  Tinnish has moved through the scouting department since joining the team back in 2001, and had been Lalonde’s top assistant the last three seasons.  Jack Armstrong will like him, since he used to pitch for Niagara College.

Anthopoulos is really, really high on Tinnish, and though it sounds as though this move is a demotion for Lalonde, it really seems to be more of a lateral move.  The Jays will be placing a much larger emphasis on pro scouting, which would indicate that in the future they’re planning to be far more active in the trade and free agent markets.  Lalonde will be a big part of that, though Perry Minasian (who came to the Jays last year from the Rangers - I’ve never met him) will head up that department.

Also, Rob Ducey  and Mike Basso have been let go.  Ducey had been handling all the scouting in the Pacific Rim, but turned up Scott Richmond before he went east.  Basso managed for the Jays in Dunedin (FSL Manager of the Year), New Hampshire (won an Eastern League Championship), Syracuse and Las Vegas.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

2:20 PM Eastern

In celebration of said chat ending about 24 hours ago, here’s a link to the transcript: Click here.

I’ve enjoyed doing the chats so far- the time passes really quickly, I wish I could get to all the questions - and I’m sure there’ll be another one on the eve of the LCSs.  Make sure you tune in for our playoff coverage throughout the post-season and remember that after the ESPN post-game show I’ll be there to take your calls until the next top or bottom of the hour locally in Toronto.  Last night we were on until 2:30 AM.

Once we get the games to start late enough so that we don’t have to join them in progress, we’ll bring back the Blue Jay A Day Pre-Pre Game Show, but I’m afraid there will probably only be less than a dozen of them this post-season.

Comments will continue to be answered throughout the evenings and thus, rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

1:05 PM Eastern

Thanks to everyone who came out to the live chat yesterday!  For those who are interested, here’s the transcript: Just click right here!

There will be another live chat tomorrow, on the eve of our playoff coverage along the Fan Radio Network, so check in there at 1:00 pm Eastern!

10:07 AM Eastern

How appropriate was it that the Blue Jays end their Season From Hell with a one-run, extra-inning loss?

The Blue Jays finish 2009 as the major-league leaders in one-run losses (27) and extra-inning losses (13) and also, of course, as a team in turmoil.

It was just icing on the cake that the season ended with a sweep at the hands of a 98-loss team and that the last game ended on back-to-back throwing errors by Brandon League on sacrifice bunt attempts.

I owe you some JaysTalks, so get ready to click.

Here’s Friday night’s - I don’t know why I didn’t put it on Saturday’s post:

Here’s Saturday’s pre-pre-game edition of The JaysTalk:

Saturday night’s post-game edition of The JaysTalk:

And yesterday’s final JaysTalk of the season:

The bloggage will continue throughout the playoffs and the post-season, and we’ll still have some mini-post-game shows during our playoff coverage, so make sure to keep those dialing fingers ready.

Also, you can hear me on The Bullpen with Hogan and Toth this morning, I’m scheduled for 10:25 AM Eastern and you can see me on The Grill Room on SUNTV tonight - I think.  I might have to bail on them, but I’m not sure just yet.

As well, for the first time ever, I’ll be doing a live blog this afternoon right here on this very website - starting at 1:00 PM Eastern.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!