The Toronto Blue Jays completed their 2009 Major League Baseball season on Sunday in Baltimore against the Orioles at Camden Yards.

The three game series with Baltimore opened on Friday and the Jays closed out a miserable season in terrible fashion losing all three against the American League East’s last place Orioles.

I am not going to get into all the details of the losses but the Jays lost Friday 13-7, Saturday 6-3, & Sunday in extra innings 5-4.

The season which was categorized as a “boring bridge to 2010” by the Jays front office themselves was anything but throughout the year.

The season began with the Jays storming out of the gates offensively topping all major hitting categories throughout April.

The offensive explosion was also joined by a 4-0 American League Rookie of the Month showing by Canadian born Scott Richmond and a spectacular month power wise by designated hitter Adam Lind and second baseman Aaron Hill.

The Jays were atop the tough American League East division until the middle of May carrying a 27-14 record on the 18th.

The season began a downward spiral on the 19th of May as Toronto travelled into Fenway Park to do battle with their division rival Boston Red Sox.

On the day knuckleball trickster Tim Wakefield took the mound using his odd array of floaters to absolutely baffle the Toronto Blue Jays.

It seemed all too fitting that a soft tossing knuckleball wizard like Wakefield would be the conductor of the train running the Blue Jays into a wall of demise, as the Jays went onto lose nine straight games on the long road trip and the season never looked fruitful again.

As the season continued, so did the demise of the already short Toronto pitching staff.

The season began with a Toronto rotation of ace Roy Halladay, second year Jesse Litsch and rookies David Purcey, Ricky Romero & Scott Richmond.

By the end of May, Litsch was finished for the year going down to surgery, Purcey had been demoted to Triple A Las Vegas due to bad performance and Scott Richmond’s bountiful April was left behind in the dust of a losing month of May.

The Jays were forced to use the likes of unproven rookies Brett Cecil, Robert Ray, Brad Mills, Marc Rzepczynski, as well as wash up Brian Burres and even move Brian Tallet from his long relief role in the bullpen into the Jays rotation.

The mix of unproven pitching along with an offense that started to come down to earth showed the true Blue Jays of the 2009 campaign, as they went 48-73 the rest of the season to finish with a 75-87 overall record record, their first losing season since 2005.

In amongst the losing times the Jays lost more than just games.

Closer BJ Ryan was released after an abysmal season where the closer had lost his velocity due to Tommy John surgery from a season past.

Ryan lost his closer’s position to Scott Downs and amongst complaints to the media and Jays management was given his release with the Jays still owing Ryan more than $10 million that remained on his contract.

The most concerning drama of the 2009 Jays season came when the July 31st trade deadline approached.

Will "Doc" be part of the Jays in 2010?

The Jays were receiving yet another stellar year from franchise starter Roy Halladay and speculation from around the entire league was that the Jays were looking to move the pitcher if the price was right.

With a pitcher the caliber of Halladay on the open market numerous offers were made by teams with the best of which came via the Philadelphia Phillies, who offered five players in exchange for Halladay. Of the five players none was named Kyle Drabek, who the Jays persisted be made part of the deal otherwise it was a no-go.

The Phillies resisted and made a similar “Halladay type” offer to Cleveland and acquired left hander Cliff Lee thus shutting down all the Roy Halladay talks.

One July 31st trade deadline move that came as a major shock to Toronto fans was that of third baseman Scott Rolen being traded to the Cincinnati Reds for third baseman Edwin Encarnacion, reliever Josh Roenicke & minor league pitcher Zach Stewart.

The move came as a surprise due to the fact that Rolen was having one of his best seasons in a long time both offensively and defensively for the Jays. The move mirrored an organizational payroll cut at the time which concerned Toronto fans as they had been assured 2010 was a contention year.

Rolen addressed the move with the media letting everyone know that due to personal family issues he requested the trade to a team closer to his home, in which Cincinnati fit the bill.

Another shocking move came directly after the trade deadline was complete in early August, when rumors had surfaced that someone had claimed Jays outfielder Alex Rios on waivers and were set to make a move.

Rumors surfaced that Ken Williams and the Chicago White Sox were the claimers of Rios and in a bizarre move, than Toronto general manager JP Ricciardi allowed the White Sox to claim Rios and his remaining contract of around $62 million for absolutely nothing in return. Another move that screamed payroll cut, further making Jays fans nervous about a last ditch contender in 2010.

Finally, in the last days leading up to season’s end in which reports of a team “mutiny” against Toronto manager Cito Gaston were embellished by media sources, Rogers Communications made the biggest disposal move of the season by letting general manager JP Ricciardi go after eight seasons with the ball club.

Ricciardi, a sabermetrician and close friend of Billy Beane did not have the same success with the “Moneyball” system Beane has made famous in his tenure with the Oakland Athletics.

Ricciardi did not move the Jays into the playoffs I any year he held the general managers position as the Jays were actually eclipsed in the standings by the Tampa Bay Rays who were successful through the draft.

Positives from the 2009 season had to be the vast improvements of Adam Lind, Aaron Hill, Marco Scutaro; Jason Frasor & Rod Barajas, accompanied by another ace-like season from Roy Halladay and an excellent rookie campaign from Ricky Romero.

Comeback Player of the Year Aaron Hill.

Lind and Hill formed one of the most dangerous hitting duos this season after a 2008 season in which Lind lacked confidence due to his up and down “yoyo” of a season split between the Jays and Triple A Syracuse and where Hill was lost due to a concussion syndrome caused by an collision accident with than shortstop David Eckstein.

Hill and Lind combined for a .295AVG with 71HR, 222RBI, 670 total bases in breakout seasons for both players. Both Hill (36HR, 108RBI) & Lind (35HR, 114RBI) set career bests in home runs and runs batted in and each achieved their first 30 home run, 100 RBI seasons.

Hill surpassed Roberto Alomar on the all time list for most home runs by a Toronto second baseman and Lind had a remarkable 46 doubles season, showing his opposite field power potential.

Hill’s impressive comeback year actually gained him the 2009 Comeback Player of the Year award, which he whole heartedly deserved.

Marco Scutaro and Rod Barajas performed wonderfully for the Jays in their contract years. Both are due for free agency this offseason and certainly showed teams why they would be great additions to any ball club.

Scutaro was easily one of, if not the best leadoff man in baseball , setting career highs in at bats (574), runs scored (100), hits (162), doubles (35), home runs (12), total bases (235), walks (90), stolen bases (14), on base percentage (.379), slugging percentage (.409) and average (.282) while tying his career best in runs batted in with 60.

Scutaro also played exceptional defense allowing only ten errors in 143 games with a .984 fielding percentage.

Barajas was again deemed as an outstanding game caller by his coaches and pitching staff, especially helping along many young pitchers throughout the season, but contributed much more than expected offensively.

Barajas set a career high in at bats (429) and runs batted in (71) while contributing 19 home runs and slugging .403.

Jason Frasor left his title of “mop up man” behind him in the dust, as Frasor turned around his career based solely on his addition of a fantastic changeup to his pitching repertoire.

Frasor went from pitching meaningless innings in 2008 to the most important innings in 2009 for the Jays as Frasor garnered a 7-3 record with a 2.50 earned run average over 57.2 innings pitcher, striking out 56 while walking 14 and allowing 43 hits.

Frasor even took over as closer late in the season when Scott Downs went on the disabled list with a heel injury. In the time he was closer; Frasor earned 11 saves in 14 attempts and is the front runner for the role out of spring training.

Ricky Romero had an exceptional rookie year tying the Blue Jays record with most wins by a rookie at 13 and pitched to a respectable 4.30 earned run average across 178 innings of work.

Quite a turnaround for a pitcher who almost did not make the team out of spring training.

As you can see from above amongst all the negativity of the 2009 season numerous positives came to light, not to mention all the impressive work completed by the unseasoned, unproven rookies who filled in for the Jays in the rotation throughout the year.

The offseason will be an interesting one for the Jays and their fans as the Jays seek a permanent president for the club, as interim president and Toronto fan favorite Paul Beeston continues his search.

Paul Beeston needs to find a new president and possibly a new GM if Alex Anthopoulos cannot handle the job this offseason.

Amongst Beeston’s search he may also be looking for a new general manager.

The role is currently filled by Alex Anthopoulos (the assistant to J.P Ricciardi before his departure) but Roger Communications chief executive officer Nadir Mohamed has insisted that the Blue Jays bring in a business minded general manager rather than a baseball man to oversee the operation of the Jays in the future.

If Anthopoulos is to keep his job he will have to determine quickly what direction the Jays are moving in, as the town of Toronto and its fan are currently confused.

Are the Jays going to contend in 2010 like promised?

If so, that means they have to address their immediate needs which are re-signing Marco Scutaro at shortstop, Rod Barajas at catcher and utility infielder John McDonald, as well as handing arbitration to right fielder Jose Bautista who has been hitting the ball well to close out the season, or find better options on the free agent market such as soon to be free agent Orlando Cabrera at shortstop.

The Jays will also need to find themselves a powerful, yet affordable, run producing right handed bat as Kevin Millar was not the answer this season.

Available players that fit the bill are Aubrey Huff, Carlos Delgado, Russell Branyan, Nick Johnson, Adam LaRoche, Jim Thome, Adrian Beltre, Hank Blalock, Bobby Abreu, Rick Ankiel, Jason Bay, Hideki Matsui, Xavier Nady & more. The only problem with that list is the price tags which are sure to be high.

If the Jays choose not to contend in 2010 as their direction of choice than let the cleaning of the house begin.

The Jays would have to trade off the contracts of Roy Halladay & Lyle Overbay receiving as much compensation as they could for the players, as well as let Scutaro, Barajas and numerous others walk hoping to gain draft picks through arbitration.

The off season will be a tough but interesting one for the Jays, especially in the case of Anthopoulos who’s off season work may be a make or break process as far as gaining the general manager position permanently for the Blue Jays.

Toronto fans will have to hope that the choices made and the direction the ball club plans to make are the correct ones, as the Ricciardi era of baseball in Toronto has come and gone leaving the Jays exactly where they were before his hire, dreaming of the good times when Toronto was back to back champions in 1992 & 1993.