The Fifth Liners

After personally witnessing his complete game shut out victory in the Toronto Blue Jays 6-0 over the Chicago White Sox last night, you have to wonder whether pitcher Drew Hutchison is the new ace that the team so badly needs? Pushing his record to 4-1 this season, the 24 year old Florida native struck out 8 different batters, allowed only 4 hits and and looked in complete control, 96 pitches was all it took. Yes, he was aided by a substandard White Sox performance, but taking nothing away from the young man. When he was selected as opening day pitcher in the Jays 6-1 win over the Yankees, few eyebrows were raised. In getting the start over more experienced candidates such as Mark Buerhle and R.A Dickey , it shows just what high hopes the organization has for this man. The bullpen has been a source of concern to the Blue Jays this season, with young talent Daniel Norris being already sent down to Triple A along with talented reliever, Miguel Castro . But Hutchison has been noted as...

Last night, it was announced that Miami Marlins star right fielder, Giancarlo Stanton had been signed to a 13 year $325 million dollar contract! This deal is the largest that baseball has ever seen and will no doubt settle the fears of Marlins fans. But is Stanton really deserving of being the richest man in the game? So far his career stats read well with .271 batting average along with 619 hits, 154 home runs and 399 runs batted in. Since his first at bat in the Sunshine State back in 2010, Stanton has been a bona-fide star for a flagging Miami franchise which last saw success with World Series wins in 1997 and 2003 while still branded the Florida Marlins. His current deal goes above the $277 million deal for Dodgers pitcher, Clayton Kershaw . But while Kershaw is now a three time Cy Young winner and last seasons NL MVP, Stanton has little show to command such an enormous deal. Last season he won both the Silver Slugger and was the leagues Home Run Champion- but one good season...

Hockey season has been and gone, so making the most of Alex Watson: Toronto Correspondent, here's a question about the Blue Jays, Canada's only representatives in the MLB: "The Blue Jays haven't seen World Series success since the heady days of the early 90s, does the team have the potential to challenge again? Or is it destined to wallow in mediocrity, surviving on being the only MLB franchise in the county?" Alex's Answer The city of Toronto still casts its mind back to the night of October 23, 1993 when Joe Carter 's three run homer at the bottom of the ninth inning sealed back to back world series titles for the Blue Jays! As the fireworks exploded over the Toronto SkyDome, the city could finally consider itself among the elite of baseball. But since then the Jays have suffered a 20 year playoff drought and have not placed higher than second in the American League East Division since then. Despite some fine individual players such as multiple ...