Last night

I've spent most , if not all, of my life as an atheist.  Religion and whatnot just aren't for me.  I respect your beliefs if you're stupid enough to believe that there's something going on up there, even if you're an otherwise intelligent person.  Some people are just raised to be all god-loving and whatever, and that's on their parents, as I'm sure a lot of people who are currently religious wouldn't exactly be so if they were allowed to just find this stuff on their own (maybe I'm wrong... don't really care though, I'm just trying to fill up a little bit of space here with drivel before I get to the real meat of this post).

Having said all that, watching last night's ballgames was the most fun anyone could possibly have without liquor or nakedness.  The fact that Boston lost made it that much sweeter.  At the time of that rain delay in the Boston-Baltimore game, the Red Sox chances of making the playoffs were probably in the range of 99%.  Two innings left, a really good bullpen, and a 1-run lead, plus a 7-run deficit for the only team that could block your chances.  Well, ladies and gents, I think something was proven last night: Gods do exist.  There is simply no other explanation.  I'm not talking about all-seeing, all-knowing, powerful burrito microwaving lords here; I'm talking about the deities who, without a doubt, rigged last night's American League games.  Not only do these gods exist, but they're mean.  Much meaner than any of us could possibly imagine.  And they hate the fucking Red Sox, so they punished those idiots by giving all that joy, and all that hope of virtually guaranteeing a return to the playoffs, and then ripping it away.

So a gentle "Fuck You" to the Red Sox, as they go enjoy what is left of golf season, knowing that "the greatest team ever assembled" has just completed what has to be the biggest collapse in the history of September baseball.  The best part of this?  The Atlanta Braves just collapsed almost as hard as Boston, and hardly anybody gives a shit.

Stuff
There's not really much else to look at here.  We do know that the playoffs begin Friday, and that the matchups will be NYY-DET, TEX-TB, MIL-ARI and PHI-ASTL.  The CC-Verlander game 1 in the NYY-DET series sounds fucking awesome.

The Jays are having some kind of year-end press conference thing, where AA is just taking a bunch of questions.  Sportsnet's Mike Cormack is pretty much live-blogging via twitter (@mikecormack), though I think it's pretty well over now.  Anyway, the AA highlights include:

• He likes that way Farrell self-evaluated himself.  Recognized weaknesses and strengths, and will likely learn from them.
• Offseason focus is strictly improving the team, as opposed to last year, where he was improving staff, i.e. scouts, managers, etc., and evaluating what they had and where they had it.
• AA likes Kelly Johnson, and KJ will be in the mix for 2B next season.  Johnson becomes a free agent after the World Series, and is probably the best 2B available in a market where there are practically no 2B's.  The Omar Infante extension of 2y/8MM pretty much leaves Johnson and Mark Ellis (and Aaron Hill).
• He compares Colby Rasmus' first half-season as a Blue Jay to Yunel Escobar's.  Up-and-down year, tough to transition, injuries, etc.  I think we all know how that turned out.
• If the Jays add a SP, it will be a front/mid rotation guy.  The back of the rotation belongs to the young guys currently in the Jays system.  My guess is that they add nobody, but Buerhle, Vazquez, Livan Hernandez... an older dude who can throw a lot of innings without a huge injury risk.  Because old people are leaders...  As for the bullpen, that will almost certainly be filled via free agency because the depth just isn't there within the organization.  I don't particularly agree with that, but he's smarter than I am.  Litsch, Janssen, Frank, Perez,Villanueva is a pretty good start.  Cecil(?), Carreno, Farhquar, Beck, Drabek, Mcgowan, and Mills should all be in the mix depending on what the rotation looks like.  I think it's more likely that AA is going to try and find spots where he can outbid other teams on potential type-B's and either turn those in to draft picks or trades, and letting one/some of the above mentioned names wear that while they still have options, while being Mike Mccoy'ed back and forth in the event of an injury.
• Entire coaching staff will be offered contracts for 2012, but they're all free to explore other options.
• Beeston gave AA the thumbs up to sign Lackey or Bay in free agency two years ago.  Whether or not they tried to sign either, we don't know.