The 2010 Major League Baseball trade deadline is quickly approaching with the deadline being its customary date of July 31st on a yearly basis.

I will try and tackle every Major League team as the deadline approaches to see if they will be buyers, sellers or stick to their current roster.

I will be basing my assumptions on the direction the team is going, their record as of the date I post the article, possible roster injuries and so on and so forth.

I will provide the information about each team by division.

Earlier this week I began my look at the American League East with a look at the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox.

Today I will continue my look at the AL East with a look at the Toronto Blue Jays.

Coming into play today the Blue Jays sit fourth in the AL East with a record of 48-48, thirteen and a half games behind the first place Yankees.

Coming into the 2010 season new general manager Alex Anthopoulos made it known that he had a new game plan that was to be put in place which revolved around building the team through scouting, both on the local and international front, while adding as much young, controllable talent as possible through draft pick compensation for players who left via free agency, as well as through trades.

Anthopoulos made his first big move by trading long time ace Roy Halladay to the Philadelphia Phillies in a deal that also included the Seattle Mariners and Cliff Lee. In return for Halladay and six million dollars the Jays received pitching prospect Kyle Drabek, catcher Travis D’Arnaud and outfielder Michael Taylor, who the Jays flipped to the Oakland Athletics for infielder Brett Wallace.

Fireballer Brandon Morrow was added via a trade with the Mariners for reliever Brandon League and a prospect.

The Jays lost shortstop Marco Scutaro to the Boston Red Sox and catcher Rod Barajas to the New York Mets, but received compensation in this season’s entry draft.

Anthopoulos than signed low risk, high reward veteran talent in free agent catcher John Buck, shortstop Alex Gonzalez, backup catcher Jose Molina and closer Kevin Gregg.

The team than added lead-off hitter Fred Lewis in a trade for cash with the San Francisco Giants and the team got off to an excellent start which featured break out first half statistics from Buck, Gonzalez, Vernon Wells & Jose Bautista, with Bautista, Wells and Buck all earning All-Star honours.

The Jays have seen excellent pitching from their young starting staff which features Shaun Marcum (8-4, 3.36ERA), Ricky Romero (7-7, 3.52ERA), Brett Cecil (8-5, 3.99ERA) & Morrow (6-6, 4.71ERA). The other spot in the rotation has featured numerous different pitchers throughout the season including Dana Eveland, Brian Tallet, Marc Rzepczynski and now features Jesse Litsch (1-4, 5.79ERA), although no one has been consistent in the fifth spot.

The Jays came into the season with the bullpen being one of their top strengths along with the fact that Anthopoulos was confident the team would hit a lot of home runs with 2009 standouts Adam Lind & Aaron Hill fronting an offense featuring an all around power game.

The long ball has been there for Toronto as they lead the Major Leagues with 144 home runs despite down years from Hill & Lind and the bullpen is ranked sixth in the AL with an ERA of 3.88, but where the Jays have struggled is with team batting average (.246AVG, 13th in AL), getting on base (.309OBP, 13th in AL) & strikeouts (2nd in AL with 722). This would make sense as manager Cito Gaston and hitting coach Dwayne Murphy teach an all or nothing hitting approach at the plate.

The Jays have fallen back to earth in the AL East after getting out of the gates well, so surely the players on their team that are playing above expectations who may leave via free agency or are on club friendly contracts will be dealt at the trade deadline.

The Jays began their trade deadline movement on July 14th when they traded over-achieving shortstop Alex Gonzalez along with prospects Tim Collins and Tyler Pastornicky to the Atlanta Braves for struggling shortstop Yunel Escobar & pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes.

The Jays had been looking for a young, talented, controllable shortstop for most of the tenure of Anthopoulos and had even spent drastically (four years, $10 million) on import Adeiny Hechavarria, who will not be ready for a few seasons.

The addition of Escobar added to their talent crop at the position. Escobar was underachieving and was in the bad books of the Braves as a teammate so the change could be a huge welcome to Escobar, who certainly displays the talent both offensively and defensively to help the team currently and down the road.

The Jays might also be expected to trade off numerous other veteran pieces such as catcher John Buck, who is having a career year, reliever Scott Downs, one of the best relievers in the game who will be eligible for free agency in the off-season, Jason Frasor, a valuable middle innings type and Kevin Gregg, an experienced closer with 21 saves.

John Buck is having a career year and could fetch something major for the Jays at the trade deadline.

Jose Bautista, who is having a career year leading the Majors in home runs with 26, has been all over the trading wire, but the Jays seem to be content on keeping the outfielder long term if they can and Lyle Overbay could be trade bait as he is a free agent at the end of the season and the Jays have Brett Wallace waiting in the wings to take over at first, but Overbay has not drawn much interest from opposing teams.

The New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies are all contending teams in need of bullpen relief and all three have shown strong interest in acquiring Downs. The Jays would certainly expect at least two high end prospects in return for the reliever, who is eligible to become a Type A free agent at the end of the season.

The Red Sox are also interested in catching help and had scouts in attendance along with representatives from the Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies to watch John Buck on July 19th in Kansas City. The Jays would need to receive at least one high level prospect for Buck, although they will surely ask for more as catching is currently scarce in the Majors, as Buck is projecting to be a Type B free agent at the end of the season.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are also looking for bullpen help and have shown mild interest in Frasor, while the Rockies have also shown interest in acquiring Gregg.

Bautista is on the radar of the Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants and others, but the Jays would need to have a ton come their way in return for the power hitting player as they do see him in their future plans.

If the Jays were to trade Downs, Frasor, Gregg, Buck & Bautista the crop of talent that could come their way would be huge adding even more talent to their rebuilding process, which Anthopoulos has done a magnificent job of directing thus far. Anthopoulos acquired a ton of high end talent in this season’s entry draft.

The Jays may be a very active team at the July 31st trade deadline as they currently possess a lot of what contenders desire for their playoff runs and are in the middle of rebuilding a franchise around young, controllable players which is surely available for the team to acquire.

Will Alex Anthopoulos continue acquiring young talent in the hopes of rebuilding a franchise that has not seen the playoffs since the glory days of the back to back championships in 1992 & 1993? Or will the team hold onto what players they have in the hopes that a run at the playoffs is still a viable option?

Let’s wait and see as the trade deadline is exactly one week away.