TORONTO (AP) — The Toronto Blue Jays acquired second baseman Luis Valbuena from the Cleveland Indians on Saturday in exchange for cash considerations.

The 25-year-old Valbuena appeared in 17 games for Cleveland last season, batting .209 with one home run and one RBI.

The left-handed hitter has played in 229 major league games over four seasons for Seattle (2008) and Cleveland (2009-11), with a .226 average with 13 home runs and 57 RBI.

With the move, the Blue Jays have 40 players on the 40-man roster.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The Toronto Blue Jays acquired second baseman Luis Valbuena from the Cleveland Indians for cash Saturday night, giving themselves some middle infield depth and another option for their bench.

The move by no means ends GM Alex Anthopoulos’s search for a second baseman, one of the club’s most gaping holes.

But Valbuena provides some protection for a thin spot in the organization and he’ll be given a chance to compete with Mike McCoy for a utility role.

The 25-year-old Valbuena appeared in 17 games with Cleveland during the 2011 season, posting a line of .209/.227/.279 with one home run and one RBI.

In July, the Indians optioned Valbuena to triple-A Columbus of the International League to make room for the promotion of rookie second baseman Jason Kipnis.

On Nov. 18 he was designated for assignment and removed from the team’s 40-man roster.

In 133 games last season with Columbus, the native of Zulia Venezuela posted a line of .302./.372/.476 with 17 home runs and 75 RBI.

Valbuena can also play shortstop, third base and the outfield.

With the move, the Blue Jays now have 40 players on their 40-man roster, but general manager Alex Anthopoulos told reporters earlier in November to expect more additions and subtractions to the list as the off-season progresses.

TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays acquired second baseman Luis Valbuena from the Cleveland Indians on Saturday in exchange for cash considerations.

The 25-year-old Valbuena appeared in 17 games for Cleveland last season, batting .209 with one home run and one RBI.

The left-handed hitter has played in 229 major league games over four seasons for Seattle (2008) and Cleveland (2009-11), with a .226 average with 13 home runs and 57 RBI.

With the move, the Blue Jays have 40 players on the 40-man roster.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

TORONTO (AP)—The Toronto Blue Jays acquired second baseman Luis Valbuena(notes)
from the Cleveland Indians on Saturday in exchange for cash considerations.

The 25-year-old Valbuena appeared in 17 games for Cleveland last season,
batting .209 with one home run and one RBI.

The left-handed hitter has played in 229 major league games over four
seasons for Seattle (2008) and Cleveland (2009-11), with a .226 average with 13
home runs and 57 RBI.

With the move, the Blue Jays have 40 players on the 40-man roster.

The Toronto Blue Jays offered arbitration to second baseman Kelly Johnson, catcher Jose Molina and relievers Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch, guaranteeing the Jays compensatory draft picks should their players sign elsewhere.

Reliever Shawn Camp was the lone free agent who went without an arbitration offer.

The deadline was 12 a.m. ET on Wednesday night and players have until Nov. 30 to accept.

Johnson hit .270 with three home runs and nine RBIs in 33 games for the Jays after coming over from the Arizona Diamondbacks in a deal that sent Aaron Hill and John McDonald to the desert in late August.

The 29-year-old is a career .260 hitter with 92 homers and 335 RBIs in 791 games with the Atlanta Braves, Diamondbacks and Blue Jays.

Molina, 36, is a lifetime .241 hitter and a veteran of 666 career games with the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels, New York Yankees and Blue Jays.

Francisco battled through inconsistencies in his first season with Toronto, saving 17 games out of 21 opportunities and posting a 3.55 ERA and giving up 49 hits in 50.2 innings.

Rauch, 33, was brought in to solidify the Jays’ bullpen but struggled with Toronto, converting just 11 out of 16 saves and sporting a less-than-stellar 4.85 ERA, while allowing 56 hits and 11 homers in 52 innings.

TORONTO – Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista was under a lot of pressure after signing a long-term contract extension and becoming the face of the franchise after his breakout 2010 campaign.

He responded with one of the best individual seasons in team history. On Monday, he just might be rewarded for his efforts.

Bautista is a contender for the American League MVP award after hitting .302 with 43 home runs, 103 RBIs and a .447 on-base percentage.

“He’s as good as it gets,” Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos said in a recent interview. “I’m certainly hopeful for him and he certainly deserves it.”

There is no clear favourite for the AL honour this year.

Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez of the Boston Red Sox are also in the mix along with New York’s Curtis Granderson. Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers could also be a factor.

The results of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote will be announced at 2 p.m. ET Monday.

“I realize that I had a good year on the individual side,” Bautista said. “But I do realize that there are other guys around the league who had great years as well.

“All I can do right now is be hopeful.”

Anthopoulos said Bautista is a well-rounded player who can do it all.

“I think with what Jose means to the team and the organization — playing Gold Glove defence both in right field and at third — and the offensive numbers speak for themselves,” Anthopoulos said. “With everything he’s done, he’s by far for me the MVP.”

Bautista recently won his second straight Hank Aaron Award as the most outstanding offensive performer in the AL after a vote by fans and a panel of Hall of Famers.

The 31-year-old slugger led the major leagues in home runs, walks (132), slugging percentage (.608) and on-base plus slugging (1.056) to become the first player since Barry Bonds in 2001 to lead in four offensive categories.

However, unlike the other contenders, Bautista was not playing meaningful baseball in September.

Whether the baseball writers take that into consideration remains to be seen.

“Obviously from a biased standpoint, I think it’s the best player in the league,” Anthopoulos said. “It’s not the best player on a playoff team.”

Former Toronto outfielder George Bell was named league MVP in 1987. He is the only Blue Jay to have won the award.

The six-foot-one 192-pound Bautista smiled when asked who he would select if he had a vote.

“Obviously myself if I was allowed to,” Bautista said with a laugh. “Who wouldn’t?”

His No. 2 pick would be Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera.

“He’s the one guy that some people are overlooking,” Bautista said. “He was on the field for 160 games for the Detroit Tigers and they made the playoffs.

“I think I would vote for him.”

Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers won the AL MVP award last year. The 2011 National League MVP award winner will be named Tuesday.

Jays infielder Brett Lawrie said Bautista posts big numbers and does the little things too.

“He’s a tremendous player,” Lawrie said. “He’s worked hard to get where he’s at right now.

“I’m glad he’s on my team, I can tell you that.”

The MLB winter meetings are approaching quickly, and teams will make several free agents signings and trades over that time to make their clubs more respectable in the 2012 season.

The latest trade rumor from the Toronto Sun has the Blue Jays looking to acquire Huston Street of the Colorado Rockies. Toronto has a huge hole on their pitching staff, and adding a closer at some point this off-season is a must if the team wants to improve. Street lost his closing job in Colorado, and the Rockies should trade him, not only to pickup a prospect or two, but also to rid the team of his salary for next year.

Street is just 27 years old, and he had 29 saves last season, but injuries have played a role in his MLB career and is one of the main reasons the Rockies are looking to move him. With 55 strikeouts in just 58 innings, he still has the stuff to make hitters look bad, and a change of scenery makes sense for everyone.

Look for the front office of the Blue Jays to explore this option further over the next few weeks and decide which closer is best for their team and help Toronto compete in the tough AL East next year.

According to an MLB.com report, the Toronto Blue Jays dipped into their past when looking for inspiration for the club’s new logo that was revealed at Rogers Centre on Nov. 18. The new look is a modernized version of the franchise’s first logo that was used from 1977-97. It features a sleeker-looking Blue Jay bird head with a prominent red maple leaf to showcase Toronto’s standing as the only Major League Baseball team in Canada. Here’s what players on Toronto’s roster had to say about the new uniforms:

Toronto Blue Jay Jose Bautista is off to a strong start in 2011.
Wikimedia Commons

Brett Lawrie(notes)

Blue Jays infielder Brett Lawrie let fans know he fully supports the modernized version of the old team logo. On Nov. 18, Lawrie tweeted “Boys got some nice new units !! Fired up bout new logo!!” Follow Lawrie on Twitter @blawrie13.

Joey Bautista

Joey Bautista seemed to be pretty pumped up about the Jays’ new look. On Nov. 18, he tweeted “What do you think of our #newjayslogo? #beastmode? Later in the day, he retweeted a post by Franklin Sports that read “Check out the unveiling of the @bluejays new threads! Great job, Toronto!” Follow Bautista on Twitter @joeybats19.

Carlos Delgado(notes)

Carlos Delgado hasn’t played for the Blue Jays in quite some time, but he appears to be a big fan of the modernized design of the old logo. On Nov. 19, he tweeted “i’m out of the country, what is the deal with the #jays new logo/name??” Later in the day, he tweeted “new #bluejays logo is bringing back some good memories.” Follow Delgado on Twitter @carlosdelgado21.

Ricky Romero(notes)

On Nov. 19, Romero tweeted “So what did u guys think? They came out awesome!!! #newjayslogo http://pic.twitter.com/dxKkBO9w.” Follow Ricky Romero on Twitter @rickyro24.

J.P. Arencibia(notes)

Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia appeared to be extremely pumped up for the new uniforms. On Nov. 18, he tweeted “Finally it’s out!!! Wish I could’ve told u tweeps sooner! We are all psyched about the new uni’s! #newera #teamunit.” Follow Arencibia on Twitter @jparencibia.

Eric Holden, a lifelong New York Mets fan, is a big supporter of the new Blue Jays logo. Follow the author on Twitter @ericholden.

Sources

www.twitter.com, Twitter, player pages

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Logo logo logo, uniform uniform uniform. This is what a sport focuses on when its not especially concerned about labor issues. The Toronto Blue Jays are the latest team to unveil a new logo, seen here:

Wait, sorry. That’s the one I came up with yesterday when a blue jay was outside my window while I was writing. No, this is the new logo, via SportsLogos.net:

It’s a return to the classic logo, and considering that the old logo looked like this …

…it’s an amazing improvement. The logo looks very similar to the logo that the Blue Jays used when they came into the league in 1977.  The last two Jays logos have been an underrated shade of awful, with the rad-jet-ski-airbrush up there looking good only in comparison to the mischievous bird tossing a baseball and hugging a “T.”  

The early returns from the fans on Twitter and with the SportsLogos ratings are uniformly positive. My logo is probably the most accurate, because blue jays really do suck, but the Blue Jays’ new logo is a hit.

Here is the Toronto Blue Jays’ new logo, along with how it will be displayed on their uniforms (top right) and their hats (bottom right)

National Post Staff 
Nov 18, 2011 – 11:11 AM ET
| Last Updated: Nov 18, 2011 1:50 PM ET

Posted in: Baseball, MLB, Sports 
Tags: Alex Anthoupolous, Blue Jays, Blue Jays logo, Jays, Jays logo, New Jays logo, New Toronto Blue Jays logo, Toronto, Toronto Blue Jays logo, Toronto Blue Jays new logo, Toronto Blue Jays new uniforms

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by Michael Hurley on Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 11:24AM    

We knew the Toronto Blue Jays were going throwback with their new logo, but it was made official on Friday, as the club unveiled its new (old) look.

The logo is different than the one that reportedly leaked online back in September, but it still maintains elements from the team logo that was used from 1977-1996.

Check out the photo below, from SportsLogos.net.

The Texas Rangers pulled off one of the biggest surprises of the 2011 offseason when they acquired Mike Napoli(notes) from the Toronto Blue Jays. Napoli had only been with the Jays for a few days, as he had just arrived in the Vernon Wells(notes) trade from the Los Angeles Angels. There was much discussion during the 2011 season as to why the Angels would trade a player like Napoli, especially knowing that the Jays were likely to flip him off to the Rangers. The truth is that the Angels had no clue that Napoli would have the season he had in 2011, but they also look like they might be interested in turning the tables on the Rangers this time around.

The first move the Angels made was by pulling Scott Servais away from the Rangers to become the assistant general manager to newly hired general manager Jerry Dipoto. Servais had served as the Rangers’ senior director of player development since 2005 and essentially was responsible for the development of players throughout the Rangers’ system. He was involved with scouting at times and generally at the international level, however ultimately he was responsible for player development once they were in his hands.

During Servais time with the Rangers he was significantly responsible for the development of players such as Nelson Cruz(notes), Elvis Andrus(notes), Neftali Feliz(notes) and Derek Holland(notes). Servais was a former big league catcher and was also responsible for the catchers within the Rangers’ system. Servais also worked with Napoli on a regular basis in spring training and early on in the 2011 season. It seems that most things Servais touched while with the Rangers turned out wonderful. Now, he will be doing the same type of work with the Angels, just now with the title of assistant general manager and with the Rangers current rival in the American League West.

The second move from the Angels and Dipoto came just recently when they reached out to C.J. Wilson(notes). That is no surprise as free agents are contacted by many teams this time of year and there had already been speculation that the Angels would be contacting Wilson who grew up in California and not too far from Anaheim in Fountain Valley. If Wilson were to join the Angels, he would be joining a rotation full of solid right-handers Jered Weaver(notes), Dan Haren(notes) and Ervin Santana(notes). Weaver, Haren and Santana are all pitchers who could be the ace on many staffs in the big leagues and Wilson was the Rangers’ ace in 2011.

It would be very interesting for Rangers’ fans to see Wilson facing off against the team he has went to the World Series with over the past two years, but he does not have the potential to effect the Angels’ organization to the degree that Servais can. Wilson most likely would not be a table turner like Napoli was in 2011, but over the next few years Servais will start having his hand in the development of the players in the Angels’ organization and that could impact things for years to come.

John Bowman is a lifelong baseball and Texas Rangers fan that loves to ponder the deeper aspects of the game. Some of his first baseball memories involve Arlington Stadium nachos, Charlie Hough’s knuckeball, dirt on Pete Incaviglia’s uniform and the voices of Mark Holtz and Eric Nadel as he fell asleep. Follow him on Twitter @TexasWinColumn.

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TORONTO — “Only so much that I can control, my man,” Jose Bautista said. He did not sound bitter; he was just a man resigned to the world, and how it works.

He had gone 1-for-3 with a single and an intentional walk in a nice little 3-0 win over the New York Yankees. He wasn’t the reason the Toronto Blue Jays won, and would not have been the reason they lost. Not a bad day. Not a great one. It was OK.

Afterwards, in a nearly empty clubhouse, Bautista pulled on the gold-and-red high-tops he had chosen that morning. Since the conversation in the American League has been reduced to a nostalgia-fuelling collapse by the Boston Red Sox and the race for the Most Valuable Player, that was what he talked about.

Bautista leads the AL in home runs (42), on-base percentage (.448), slugging percentage (.623), and — you could probably see this coming — on-base plus slugging percentage, or OPS (1.071). His advanced metrics are similarly powerful. On the balance, he has been the best hitter in baseball. He probably won’t win, though, and if he doesn’t, it will be because he plays for the Toronto Blue Jays.

“If you paint that scenario, the only thing I can do is be disappointed,” Bautista said. “I mean, it’s out of my control anyway, so there’s not much of another type of reaction that I can have. Last year it was batting average; this year they’re talking about the team not making it to the playoffs. I don’t know.”

The dismissal of Bautista’s candidacy rests largely on Toronto’s record. The Jays are locked into fourth place in the AL East, as per tradition, at 77-75. The other candidates, though, all play for winners. Detroit pitcher Justin Verlander is 24-5 after allowing three hits over eight innings in a 1-0 win over Oakland on Sunday, and momentum seems to favour his candidacy for the division-leading Tigers. Verlander’s teammate Miguel Cabrera is the league’s second-most productive hitter after Bautista. In Boston, you have leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, even second baseman Dustin Pedroia, though Boston’s ongoing spiral could hurt their respective candidacies.

This year’s obligatory Yankee, meanwhile, is centre-fielder Curtis Granderson, who entered Sunday’s games second in home runs with 40, was tied for the league lead in RBIs with 111, and first in runs scored by a wide margin with 131. Those numbers didn’t change, though, because the Yankees chose to rest him. The first-place Yankees will be in the playoffs; the Jays will not. Sunday, there was nothing much was at stake except the game.

Now, that’s not Bautista’s fault. It’s not his fault the team’s second-best hitter has been, by OPS, Edwin Encarnacion. It’s not his fault Toronto has some of the worst pitching in baseball, Brandon Morrow’s gem Sunday notwithstanding. It’s not his fault the bullpen has been flammable. But it will all be held against him, which turns this season into an exercise in Zen.

“You can assume if I had hitters that would have been hotter at times, or more than one strong hitter behind me, that I would be pitched to in some situations that I don’t,” Bautista said. matter-of-factly. “The one thing I can look at is I’ve come up to the plate probably 170 times with runners in scoring position, but I got walked maybe 60 times. It’s out of my control. I don’t get pitched to. I look at other people that might have 50 or 60 more at-bats. If I had 50 more at-bats with runners in scoring position, would I have more RBIs? I can assume that I would.

“It’s been my biggest challenge this year, swinging at strikes, laying off balls, realizing when people are trying to pitch around me, and most of the time it is when there are runners on base.”

Bautista does his homework, clearly. In 162 plate appearances with runners in scoring position he has been walked 57 times. He gets on base more than half the time with runners at second or third, numbers only Cabrera can match. He has been intentionally walked 23 times this season. He was intentionally walked twice all of last year when he launched 54 homers. The other big-time hitters have far more at-bats with runners in scoring position. How much more is he being pitched around?

“A lot more,” Bautista said. “(And after the all-star break) I lost my patience at times, and I found myself swinging at a lot of pitches out of the zone, because I want to — after some time, coming up to the plate and you see ball, ball, ball, ball, and maybe not even balls, but strikes in the part of the strike zone where it’s not my preference — I was going after a lot of pitches that usually I don’t go after, because that might be the only at-bat that I get.”

The Yankees did walk him four times Saturday, by the way. He singled in his lone official at-bat. He has simply wanted to do something, and it has cost him some of the cold control that fuelled his past two seasons. That, he said, is the main reason he was almost Ruthian in the first half of the season, with a 1.170 OPS and 31 home runs, and merely mortal since, with a .908 and 11 homers. That split will be used against him, too, despite the fact that for a team like the Blue Jays the first half of this season was arguably the more important of the two.

But adjust his OPS for era and ballpark and situation, and the number the formula spits out was a 187, before Sunday. Albert Pujols’ best season, for the record, was a 190.

Oh, well. Maybe Jose Bautista will win the MVP. Maybe he won’t. There is, however, only so much that he can do about it.

National Post

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(Sports Network) – CC Sabathia tries to continue his domination of the Blue Jays as the big left-hander takes the mound this afternoon when the New York Yankees go for a three-game sweep.

Coming off a 128-pitch effort Tuesday in a 5-2 win over the Red Sox, Sabathia is 2-0 over his last three outings — this despite allowing a total of 27 hits over those three games. In fact, he has allowed at least nine hits in five of his last six appearances.

Sabathia is 11-3 with a 3.03 ERA in 14 career games against Toronto, but has won each of his last six starts vs. the Blue Jays dating to the start of the 2007 season.

What’s also impressive about Sabathia is that he has held Toronto’s Jose Bautista hitless in 15 career at-bats has recorded seven strikeouts in the matchup.

“Regardless of who we put out there, they’re going to do the job,” Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher said of the team’s starting pitchers. “I think that’s exactly what’s happened.”

Mired in a six-start winless stretch, Brett Cecil takes the mound today for the Blue Jays. The lefty threw six innings in a no-decision at Baltimore on Tuesday. Toronto has lost in five of the last six games Cecil has started. He’s 0-3 in that stretch and hasn’t won since July 29 against Texas.

Cecil has fashioned a 4-2 mark with a 4.82 ERA in eight games against the Yankees. His lone start against New York this year came April 20 when he allowed six hits and five runs over five innings.

On Saturday, Robinson Cano’s two-run double put the Yankees ahead in a three- run seventh inning, lifting New York to a 6-4 victory.

Francisco Cervelli belted a two-run homer for the Yankees, who have won three in a row and welcomed Alex Rodriguez back to the lineup. The star third baseman had missed the past six games with a jammed thumb and went 1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored while batting third instead of in his customary cleanup spot.

Cano batted fourth and his lone hit of the game erased a 4-3 deficit after Curtis Granderson was hit by a pitch with two outs and Rodriguez drew a walk. Nick Swisher, playing first base for the second straight day in place of an ailing Mark Teixeira, singled home Cano for a two-run edge and David Robertson worked the final two innings for the save.

Mariano Rivera and Rafael Soriano were both unavailable for New York after pitching each of the last two games. Robertson, who did not pitch in Friday’s 3-2 win, got the final six outs to notch his first save since August 12, 2010.

The Yankees maintained their half-game lead on Boston in the AL East.

Dewayne Wise tripled, homered and scored twice for Toronto, which has lost two straight after winning three of its previous four. Adam Lind also homered in defeat.

Toronto starter Ricky Romero (13-10) worked 6 2/3 innings and was charged with five runs on eight hits, suffering his first loss since July 16 against New York. He had been 6-0 in has last eight starts.

The Yanks are 9-5 versus Toronto this season, including wins in six of the eight matchups in the Bronx.

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The Toronto Blue Jays have never made it a practice of negotiating with players represented by super agent Scott Boras, though that could change in the near future.

Seeking a closer after the bullpen blew 25 saves this past season, the team is inquiring about free agent Ryan Madson, fresh off 32 saves in his first year as the Philadelphia Phillies’ stopper, according to The Toronto Sun.

A few days ago, Madson appeared close to returning to the National League East champion Phillies on a four-year deal worth $44 million US — a vesting option that would have taken the contract to $57 million over five years — but it’s believed Philadelphia general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. told Boras that club president Dave Montgomery wouldn’t approve the deal.

On Friday, the Phillies reportedly agreed to a four-year, $50-million pact with one-time Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, pending a physical.

It’s believed it would take at least a four-year deal to lock up the 31-year-old Madson, who blew just two saves in 2011 after spending the previous three seasons as Brad Lidge’s setup man.

Madson appeared in 62 games, sporting a 2.37 earned-run average and 62 strikeouts in 60 2/3 innings pitched.

In 491 games over nine seasons with Philadelphia including 18 starts, he had a 47-30 record, 3.59 ERA and 52 saves.

The Red Sox, Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals and Florida Marlins are among the other teams in the mix for Madson, SI.com reported Friday.

The Marlins also have made offers to free agents Albert Pujols, Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle, team owner Jeffrey Loria said Friday.

Frank Francisco’s second-half performance (1.37 ERA) as Blue Jays closer proved that he was capable of being an effective closer, CBCSports.ca blogger Kevin Glew wrote in a recent blog. But the burly right-hander is a Type-B free agent, and while the Jays will offer him arbitration, he’s bound to bolt for a multi-year deal with another club.

Right-handers Jon Rauch and Shawn Camp are also Type-B free agents. Rauch, whose ERA ballooned to 4.85 last season, had his $3.75-million team option for 2012 declined by Toronto last month.

Is Friday, Nov. 18 the day the Toronto Blue Jays will unveil their rumoured new uniforms?

That’s the buzz after a release was sent out by the team inviting recipients to “step up to the plate in style,” during a 12 p.m. “formal announcement” that day on the Rogers Centre field.

The invitation provides no further details, but does include perhaps a hint to the new font (see image above) the team might employ on any potential new digs.

Speculation has been rampant for months that Toronto will sport new uniforms for the 2012 season—perhaps ones closely resembling the team’s popular, original logo.

This past summer,
this image, purported to be a leaked version of the team’s new logo began circulating on the Internet.

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