Though veteran players such as Jose Bautista and Scott Downs are still with the team, their first baseman of the future, Brett Wallace, has been shipped to Houston for center field prospect Anthony Gose.

Gose was part of Thursday’s blockbuster deal involving Roy Oswalt. He moved from Philadelphia to Houston to Toronto.

In Gose, the Jays believe they’ve found their center fielder of the future. Given that he’s 19 and playing at the Class A level, it could be another four or five years before he sees the bright lights of the Rogers Centre.

“It’s very exciting to add him to the organization,” Anthopoulos said.

There is no doubt that the Jays’ Jose Bautista is having a terrific season in Toronto. Likewise, the Jays seem willing to part with the right fielder.

But just how much should a club be willing to part with for a guy who suddenly comes out of nowhere to post astronomical numbers that are extremely out of line with his career norms?

Look, in the steroid era, we would be very suspicious of a guy like Bautista, who has already hit 30 homers this season after never having hit more than 16 in a season previously.

So, what are we to make of Bautista now? Is he the rare athlete still willing to risk PED testing or has HGH somehow helped him? Or, is he simply finally figuring it out?

Meanwhile, perhaps he is just having a lucky season. No matter what, the issue is are you acquiring a guy who will continue to hit for power, or are you dealing for a guy who is a one-hit wonder?

It matters in terms of what the expected return is for the Jays.

Bautista is drawing more walks than normal, as his .366 OBP is currently the highest of his career. A right-handed hitter, he is actually hitting better against right-handed pitchers.

On the face of it, there is no urgency for Toronto to pursue an extension with Bautista. His $2.4 million salary isn’t a burden on the Jays’ books.

He will be affordable through salary arbitration next year. He isn’t scheduled to become a free agent until after the 2011 season.

But they always say to sell high, and this is the perfect example of that.

While Bautista has played third base, his fielding is so bad, according to advanced metrics, that his overall WAR is only 3.4 despite 27.6 in batting.

So what should a team be willing to give up for a guy who plays bad defense and is in the midst of an unprecedented offensive season? 

Not much, if it was me.

Read more Toronto Blue Jays news on BleacherReport.com

The Toronto Blue Jays were widely expected to make a couple moves at the trade deadline this season. Several Jays vets were thought to be in play. But their first move in the last 72 hours before the deadline involved a top prospect, Brett Wallace, instead. An interesting turn of events to say the least – many expected Wallace to come up and play for the Jays at some point this season.

Wallace ironically leaves the Blue Jays organization in much the same way he arrived this past winter. He was originally dealt to Toronto from Oakland as part of a three-team deal that saw Roy Halladay head to Philadelphia. Now he’s been sent to Houston as part of a three-team deal that has landed Roy Oswalt in Philly.

Irony and surprise, one would assume, were not motivating factors in this deal. The prospect the Jays got from Houston, via Philly, is a raw but extremely talented nineteen-year old. Anthony Gose was a second-round selection in the 2008 draft. He both hits and throws left handed. 

Blue Jays GM, Alex Anthopoulos, said today on FAN590 that he believes Gose has the ability in the field to remain a center fielder. He has struggled in his minor league career to this point, but at 19 and several years away from the majors, his numbers aren’t overly important just yet. However, his 76 steals in 96 attempts last year is worth mentioning.

True center field prospects, much like shortstops and catchers, are not easy to come by. Not that first base prospects like Wallace are readily available, but finding someone to play first for the Jays in the future is much easier than finding someone to slot into center. What makes this deal tough to cope with for Jays fans is the drastic difference in Wallace’s and Gose’s timeline to arrive in the show.

Anthopoulos has now pulled off three moves this season with the intent of building depth in the up the middle positions. The signing of Cuban shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria and the trade for 27-year old shortstop Yunel Escobar were the first two. The one up the middle position he hasn’t touched, catcher, is perhaps the best stocked offensive position in the entire organization.

Rumors have sprung up quickly since this deal went down that Lance Berkman of the Astros will be on the move, and Wallace will get his shot at some serious Major League playing time. The Jays might have shipped out a solid first base prospect, but they have a glut of corner outfield/DH-type hitters in Adam Lind, Fred Lewis, Travis Snider, Jose Bautista, and even current center fielder, Vernon Wells.

Wells and his mammoth contract will be around for several more years and both Lewis and Bautista could be kept around at low cost for a few years as well. That would seem to leave Lind and Snider looking for a spot to play and first base might just end up being a home for one of them.

Whether this deal turns out to work to the Jays benefit won’t be known for years to come. No matter how well or poorly Wallace plays in Houston, Gose won’t be able to deliver on his own promise for sometime. Even more than that, what ends up happening with the Jays first base situation over the next three or four seasons will also be a factor in determining whether Anthopoulos pulled a smart move.

The trade will come under a good deal of scrutiny in the coming days. If Wallace gets off to a hot start in Houston, the scrutiny won’t get any quieter in Toronto either. Anthopoulos deserves credit for not shying away from a bold move. They don’t always work out but to be successful you have to have a plan and the fortitude to execute it and stick with it. It would seem Anthopoulos is doing just that.

With all that in the mind, the one thing that cannot be determined is if the Blue Jays “won” this trade or not. On the surface both teams are “winners” simply because the trade happened and it takes two to tango. Both Houston and Toronto will walk away from this deal with a sense of accomplishment. It’s a complicated matter that won’t be settled for sometime in finding out what exactly was accomplished.

Read more Toronto Blue Jays news on BleacherReport.com

They had three All-Stars in 2010.

They’ve won two World Series in their history.

But does any of that matter?

The Jays play in a different country, have no superstars that the American public is familiar with, and continually battle the other AL East birds for fourth place in the division.

The Blue Jays have one of the youngest teams in baseball with tremendous pitching depth, incredible offensive potential, and Gold Glove defense. But the Jays fly under the radar of the average baseball fan.

The following are ten reasons why baseball fans should pay more attention to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Begin Slideshow

Despite their 52-49 record, the Blue Jays are a full 10 games behind Tampa Bay in the wild card race. With little chance of a postseason berth, Jays’ fans seemingly don’t have much to be excited about. The biggest holding point of interest right now is the looming trade deadline on Saturday. Any number of Jays vets could get moved between now and then.

Even after Saturday, though, there’s still plenty of reasons to stay involved with the team as it plays out the schedule in August and September. Most of it centers around the team’s young, cost-controlled talent or players in their primes locked into long-term deals. Last year’s post-deadline dumping of Alex Rios and his contract onto the Chicago White Sox should also serve as a reminder that moves can still happen after the deadline.

What follows below are five of the most important and interesting issues that will bare themselves out on the field over the course of the team’s remaining 61 games.

Travis Snider’s return to the show

It’s been a long time since Snider’s last appearance in a Blue Jays uniform. He’s been out since May 14, missing all that time with a wrist injury. In a bit of a surprise move, he wasn’t immediately returned to the team when his DL stint ended and instead he’s playing with the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

In 19 games there, he’s hit .299 with an impressive .220 isolated power, thanks to four homers and five doubles. Snider, however, has managed to draw just one walk against 20 strikeouts in 80 trips to the plate. Whether or not that’s cause for concern remains to be seen.

At this point, now that his swing looks to be unaffected by his wrist, he should be working on his hitting at the big league level. In parts of three seasons, stretching back to 2008, he still doesn’t have a full season of big league at-bats under his belt. If the original plan was for Travis to spend all of 2010 in Toronto to continue his development the Jays should get back to that plan immediately.

The Jose Bautista HR champion race

The surprise that keeps on surprising, Bautista leads all of baseball in home runs. With the season now just about two-thirds of the way completed, his bid for a home run title has to be taken seriously. Well beyond the point of trying to figure out how this has happened, it’s just time to sit back and see if he can pull it off.

Whether or not he does it has little to do with the Jays’ future, as he might have to finish the quest on another team. Even then, it still bares watching as a unique occurrence that makes baseball as special a sport as it is. He’s a full six homers ahead of Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera for the AL lead and five ahead of the Reds’ Joey Votto for the overall lead.

He’s gone deep 10 times already in July, including four bombs in the last three games, leaving him at 30 for the season. That leaves him with an excellent shot at 40 and at this point he has to be the front runner for the home run crown. Simply unbelievable.

Signs of life from Adam Lind and Aaron Hill

The duo around which a good deal of the Blue Jays future is centered has done little to inspire hope and confidence for seasons beyond 2010. Both have spent most of the season struggling to produce at the plate. A strong final two months from both Hill and Lind would be a welcome sign to all involved with the Blue Jays.

Hill had been unable to hit over .200 in any of the season’s first three months, but might finally be able to pull it off in July. He’s hitting .260, thanks to a .254 BABIP, both by far his best monthly numbers if they hold up. He’s maintained modest power throughout the season, including this month’s .164 ISO. Unfortunately, just when he’s started to hit a bit his walk rate has plummeted to 2.6 percent of his plate appearances.

His percentage of balls in play that have gone for line drives stands at just 10 percent this season, a far cry from his career mark of 19 percent. July has shown some hope here too, hitting a liner 15.2 percent of the time. Still, a .260 batting average with no walks and so-so power isn’t really much to be excited about.

Lind hasn’t been much better either, hitting .219/.275/.378 to this point. Like Hill, he’s still bopping a decent enough number of homers, they both have 14, but more production is still expected. Lind’s production is a bit more excusable due to his healthy 18.8 line drive percentage. He’s seen a drop in BABIP from ’08’s .317 and last year’s .323 down to .261.

July has seen a lot to like from Lind, except his walk rate, which on this team isn’t much of a surprise. He’s hitting .275 with a strong .327 BABIP and jacked five homers. His ISO has also cracked the .200 mark at .238 after a punchless .078 in June. 2010 doesn’t have to be a year to forget for these two, but it looks like it will be for at least one of them.

The hopeful, inevitable, imminent arrival of Brett Wallace and JP Arencibia

At what seems like a lifetime at this point, the wait for one of the two to put on a Blue Jays uniform continues. With just days to the deadline, the two months of speculation on when and if Lyle Overbay and John Buck would be moved to make room for one of the youngsters will finally come to an end. Whether Jays fans will get what they want is another matter all together.

But the time will come for both at the very latest with both being called up when rosters expand in September. Whenever the two young men arrive, their at-bats and chances in the field will become can’t miss action. The experience will also be valuable to both for 2011, when they’re expected to assume starting roles for the club. 

This much is clear, their performances have been excellent at Triple-A this season and they’re as ready as they’ll ever be right now.

Health and Prosperity for the Young Starting Rotation

Far and away, the most important piece of the puzzle for any team building a contender is its starting rotation. The Blue Jays have put together one of the youngest and most talented rotations anywhere in the American League. Both their health, performance, and careful monitoring of their workload are of the utmost importance if this team hopes to take on the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays in the near future.

Brandon Morrow has continued to get better as the season has worn on. His 9.96 K/9 IN coupled with a 3.41 FIP and improving walk rate have solidified his place in the rotation. Already this season he’s made 20 starts after making just 15 the last two years combined. He’s also already worked 113 innings, long since passing last season’s 69 innings of work. How strong he finishes will be important. Even more important will be making sure he isn’t overworked to guard against issues in the future.

Brett Cecil has had a rough month of July, posting a 4.29 FIP and 4.85 xFIP. His walk rate and strikeout rate are also dangerously close to equal for the month as well. He’ll have to make adjustments and try and get back to pitching like he did in May and June. There’s not too much concern about his workload after working 142 innings last season (between minors and majors), a jump up to 160-170 innings should be just fine.

The ace of the staff, Ricky Romero, has also had a tough month but his overall numbers are still excellent across the board for the season. The rough spell is most likely nothing more than a hiccup for the young lefty.

Shaun Marcum has bounced back nicely after his DL stint. In two starts since returning he’s allowed three earned runs in 10.2 innings while striking out nine and walking only one. After pitching just 15 2/3 innings in the minors last year it remains to be seen how many innings the Jays will let Marcum throw, he’s at 118 right now.

Beyond all the above, there’s still nothing wrong with winning some ballgames down the stretch. Finishing with a winning record doesn’t mean much when you’re in fourth place, but a winning team usually equates to a happy team and that’s the kind of environment where you want all your young guys to be playing.

Read more Toronto Blue Jays news on BleacherReport.com

DETROIT – The Tigers avoided what manager Jim Leyland said could have been a "disastrous day."

Well, it certainly suggests that GM Alex Anthopoulos isn’t content to sit back and hope that the Jays regain the top spot in the American League East.  Toronto is currently 12.5 games back from the Yankees in the division and 9.5 back from the Tampa Bay Rays for the Wild Card spot. So, although they might gain on Boston, due to all the injuries the team has sustained lately, it is unlikely that Tampa and New York would struggle enough in the second half for the Jays to overtake them.

If the Jays are buyers, as ESPN suggests, who might they be after, and are they still dealing these names that are mentioned?  The Jays look like they are set with their pitching rotation, although Jesse Litsch has been struggling, so they could be after another arm with perhaps a little more experience.  But this seems unlikely, considering the young pitching depth that the Jays have.

So in what positions could the Jays use an upgrade?  Well, they have a few set positions right now filled in by the players that the team is going to build around.  Aaron Hill, Adam Lind, Travis Snider, and now Yunel Escobar are the Jays’ future and Vernon Wells is signed long-term and seems to be the leader of the club.  Both Fred Lewis and Jose Bautista are young enough and play important roles that could allow them to be a part of the Jays’ building. 

Then you have Brett Wallace and J.P. Arencibia tearing up Triple-A ball, waiting to get called up to fill first base and catcher.  So what does that leave?  Well, if Snider takes over right field in his return, that pushes Bautista to third base, which leaves Edwin Encarnacion the odd man out.  Encarnacion certainly has a powerful bat, and he is heating up lately with a nine-game hit streak, but on defense is where he struggles.  So if it is between Bautista and his league-leading 27 home runs, and Encarnacion’s streaky play, you can likely figure out who is going to win that competition.

Of course, this still doesn’t determine in which area the Jays need to improve the most, and if they were to be buyers, what would they be looking for?  With Snider’s inexperience, and Lewis’ streaky play at times, the team could be after another outfielder who could hit for average and be a threat on the base paths.  There is also the possibility that Wallace could still use some seasoning in the minors, and with Overbay becoming a free agent at the end of this year, they could deal their current first baseman for a more long-term solution, like they did in acquiring Escobar. 

Granted, this all seems rather unlikely.  The Jays are attempting to go with a youth movement right now and seem to want to allow their players to develop, and give their prospects a chance.  So if they make any moves, it would likely be dealing their veterans on expiring contracts for more prospects.  If ESPN is right, and they want to be buyers, you can be sure that they would be pursuing a player signed for several years.  There is no sense in the Jays acquiring more players with expiring contracts for what would seem like an unlikely playoff run.

Read more Toronto Blue Jays news on BleacherReport.com