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When the Blue Jays won their first World Series, they did so with an everyday lineup that really isn’t any better than what manager John Schneider puts out most days.

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The difference between the 1992 Blue Jays and the current edition: Pitching. The real difference: The bullpen. In the World Series against the Braves, the Jays’ deep bullpen, which included starting pitchers Jimmy Key, Todd Stottlemyre and David Wells, dominated Atlanta, going 19.1 innings over six games. They allowed just one earned run in that span.

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In total, the Jays bullpen made 37 playoff innings between the World Series and American League Championship Series against Oakland and had an overall earned run average of 1.45. Even more important than that, just one relief appearance in those 12 postseason games could be considered any kind of failure. Tom Henke shut down for the Jays then and Duane Ward was the setup man in ’92 and they’ve never had anything like it since. Back then, the Jays had Mike Timlin, Mark Eichhorn and the starters became relievers in Key, Stottlemyre and Wells for a deep seven-man bullpen.

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I can now argue that the current Blue Jays roster is stronger at six of the nine key positions than the Jays league and even argue that the rotation of Kevin Gausman, Alek Manoah, and Jose Berrios is not far behind Jack Morris. David Cone and Juan Guzman. However, this is no championship bullpen. But this has the look of a championship lineup. And at this point in history, when starters don’t go nine innings like Morris did nine innings by accident, and bullpen depth is needed more now than ever, the Jays don’t have it. They have two days to get it.

THIS AND THAT

The Detroit Tigers have the worst team in Major League Baseball. They also have one of the best bullpens. The Blue Jays have one of the best teams in baseball. It wouldn’t make sense for some kind of trade between the Jays and the Tigers… Aaron Judge has 42 home runs in 102 Yankees games as of Saturday afternoon. The magic number of 60, without doubt, without performance-enhancing drugs, seems more than possible in this MVP season… Is Shohei Ohtani on the block? No. Here’s what happens this time of year. Everyone in baseball is calling everyone and asking about the availability of almost every player. Just because someone is asking about Ohtani doesn’t mean the Los Angeles Angels want to trade the once-in-a-lifetime hitter… Matt Chapman is the latest Blue Jay to blush at the plate. We’ve seen it this season with Lourdes Gurriel Jr., with Teoscar Hernandez, and we’ve watched the incredible consistency of Alejandro Kirk. What happens, I wonder, if Vladdy Guerrero Jr. or Bo Bichette get too hot. We really haven’t done that yet this season… The Jays couldn’t have timed firing Charlie Montoyo and hiring Schneider better. Snyder’s first game was against a shorthanded Phillies team. His first series was against part of the Kansas City Royals. He returned after the all-star game against a slumping Red Sox team, part of the St. Louis Cardinals, and now the rather unfortunate Detroit Tigers. Nice start with 9-3. August gets a little tougher with series in Tampa, Minnesota and Baltimore… The Orioles were 25-35 after 60 games. In their last 40 games, they are 26-14 and open August playing Cincinnati, Texas and Pittsburgh before home to the Blue Jays on August 8th.

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LISTEN THERE TOO

Some of the best plays Ross Atkins has made as a general manager have come from what he’s been selling, not necessarily buying, with the Blue Jays. He got Hernandez, Robbie Ray and Santiago Espinal in deadline deals that cost him little in return. He’s not known around baseball as a great dealmaker, but if you add in the trade for Chapman and the buyout deal for Berrios, that’s an impressive to-do list for any short-term GM. Atkins said the price for pitching is too high as the trade deadline approaches. Other GMs disagree. They say it’s business as usual at the deadline. The Yankees acquired Andrew Benintendi without giving up a consistent prospect … Albert Pujols on Tuesday and Wednesday. Miggy Cabrera over the weekend in Toronto. What a week to love baseball and its history… The only baseball players with more home runs than Pujols: Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Alex Rodriguez — and two of them have asterisks next to their totals… Pujols had 686 home runs entering Saturday night. Cabrera is next among active players at 506. After that, it’s Nelson Cruz at 457. Believe it: No one will approach Albert for a long time, if ever… If the plans are anywhere near what they will be the Rogers Center as after the renovations, count me in. They look spectacular… Glad to see Rodgers paying $300 million for a renovation around the same time they are paying Guerrero Jr. more to play first base… Chapman had a .571 OPS in May, .851 in June and a shaky but impressive 1.068 on July. His strikeouts are down significantly from the 202 he had a year ago. He’ll likely finish with 160 hits or somewhere in that range.. One thought many had when Manoah was drilled by a line drive to the elbow Friday night: The season is gone. That’s how valuable he has become to the Jays. They need him, fresh, healthy, big all season.

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STAGE AND AUDITORIUM

The Maple Leafs are paying $48 million this season — more than any team in hockey — for the top five players on their roster, and so far they haven’t had much to show for it. In other words, they pay 58% of their salary for 23% of their composition. Is this new math or old analytics? … The two-time champion and two-time finalist Tampa Bay Lightning are the Leafs closer by paying $44 million for a Top 5 that includes Conn Smythe Trophy winners Andrei Vasilevskiy and Victor Hedman. And there are few teams that perform better than St. Doug Armstrong’s Louis Blues, who have won a Stanley Cup, and are only paying $34.5 million for their top five players… In the Brendan Shanahan era, Tampa Bay has played in 155 playoff games. The Leafs have played 39. If you add it up, that’s about $100 million in extra playoff revenue for the club that the Lightning have gotten and the Leafs haven’t… The Florida Panthers are confusing me. Yes, they traded Matthew Tkachuk. Hard not to like this one. But they’ve lost Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Mason Marchment, Claude Giroux, Ben Chiarot and likely the smiling Joe Thornton from their playoff roster. I don’t know how that makes them better… Here’s a solution for any team chasing Nazem Kadri and not ending up in free agent center. Call Chicago and make a deal for Jonathan Toews. He doesn’t want to be part of a rebuild. And if you get the Hawks to take half his salary, which is possible, you’re only paying $5 million for a decent second-line center. I would make such a deal. In the second half of last season, Tus semi-returned to form. He had 24 points after barely appearing on the scoresheet in the first half. I could see Colorado or Calgary making a play for Toews if neither can get Kadri. He knows how to win… For some reason, the Seattle Kraken have not announced that the rather smooth Ed Olczyk will be part of their broadcast team for next season. Expect the announcement any day now.

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ONE MORE THING

As each week passes, the challenges become more intense for Canadian quarterback Nathan Rourke. But it does not stand alone. He leads the CFL in passing yardage, touchdown passes thrown and a ridiculously high 79.3% pass completion percentage. This remarkable story is becoming more reality than fantasy after six games and five wins for the BC Lions… The Raptors haven’t traded Kevin Durant this summer, but they did sign actor Juancho Hernangómez, the dominant basketball prospect from the movie Hustle . . There are no plans, I’m told, to add Adam Sandler to their coaching or coaching staff… Belated 55th year to Nick Nurse, whose golf tournament is Wednesday at Wooden Sticks. Among those expected to take part: Julius Erving and Kyle Lowry… I don’t watch much golf, except for big games. I can’t imagine what would make me interested in attending a LIV event… If you follow the history of Vince McMahon and all that goes on in the publicly traded company that is WWE, this is the great TV show, Succession, just in real life terms of life. With McMahon playing Logan Roy’s Brian Cox character… Succession is on the short list of my favorite TV shows of all time. Somewhere stuck in a list of The Wire, The Sopranos, Boston Legal, MAS*H, Ray Donovan, All In the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Seinfeld, Jeopardy!, SCTV and Hill Street Blues… And sorry, no I couldn’t find a place for Gilligan’s Island… Is it just me or do NFL training camps seem to go on forever? … Remember when the Commonwealth Games really mattered? It used to be a big televised event to watch… I didn’t understand the appeal of a Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight…