Ladies and gentlemen....your post-deadline 2008 Toronto Blue Jays!

....are exactly like your 2008 pre-deadline Toronto Blue Jays.

And so it has come to pass. The trade deadline, that is.... and along with it, any real reason to get excited about this club one way or the other down the stretch. On one hand, there was the possibility the Jays would be buyers with names like Jason Bay and Raul Ibanez floated in the hours leading up to the deadline. The Ibanez rumours (that's right, with a "u") in particular reeked of desperation bullshit. But hey, at least he would have been a nice bat Cito could plunk into the middle of the order. He would have fit nicely sandwiched into the New Murderers Row of Overbay-Barajas-Stairs-Rolen. Might have upped the enjoyment factor down the stretch, is all I'm saying.

On the other hand, the Jays could have (should have?) been sellers....and yeah, that would mean losing some players we may have grown fond of (that was for dramatic effect, folks), but under the "sellers" scenario, we could have at least convinced ourselves that the prospects coming back could be difference makers down the road.

Instead, we have the status quo, and it's probably fitting. Oh sure, the team will probably go on a nice little 10 of 12 run sometime before the end of the season, but I've been fooled too many times into thinking the team had turned the corner....only to lose 2 of 3 at home to Tampa Bay.

Oh, I'll still watch. I'll still cheer. Full disclosure, I'll still get way too wrapped up in a Wednesday night game against Oakland. But I'll probably be doing it with an eye on 2009. Unless we take the next 5 of 6, of course.

Memo to fans of the Tampa Bay Rays
Seriously now....fuck off! Your team is good. Real good, in fact. Better than any of us thought it would be. You have Evan Longoria, Bossman Junior, and Carl Crawford to be the cornerstones of the offense for years. You have Scott Kazmir, Jimmy Shields, Matt Garza, and David Price to give you a formidable rotation to match those sticks.

But you know what, you were a fucking terrible team for 10 years, and we actually felt pretty bad for you. Cut you some slack, I'd say. Must have been the Canadian in us, I suppose.

And you? You've become smarmy pricks. Have you learned nothing from the Massholes? At least Red Sox Nation (hate the term, by the way - fills me with rage) waited until they had a World Series title under their collective belts before turning up the douche factor. You guys? You're snapping the knob off the dial 100 games into the only winning season in franchise history.