The 2010 regular season for the Toronto Blue Jays officially completed yesterday afternoon on a high note as they were victorious in their season finale against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.

With the victory the team finished out the season with a record of 85-77, eight games above the .500 mark, an impressive feat for a team that was projected to finish dead last in the American League East with a losing record, according to most analysts coming into spring training, prior to the beginning of the season.

The 2010 season had its ups and downs as is a normal occurrence for any sports team with such a strenuously long schedule.

On the positive side of things the emergence of an outstanding young starting pitching staff consisting of a front four of Shaun Marcum (13-8, 3.64ERA), Ricky Romero (14-9, 3.73ERA), Brett Cecil (15-7, 4.22ERA) & Brandon Morrow (10-7, 4.49ERA) silenced critics as the foursome all pitched to double digit winning records for the Jays throughout the season.

The outstanding season from first time All-Star and American League Most Valuable Player candidate Jose Bautista, who put up monstrous numbers out of the three spot in the order for the squad, (.260AVG, 54HR, 124RBI) after beginning the season as the team’s lead-off hitter.

How much MVP consideration will Jose Bautista receive?

The re-emergence of Vernon Wells (.273AVG, 31HR, 88RBI), who has been plagued with injuries and was receiving negativity from the Toronto area fan base.

Some skillfully put together acquisitions from new general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who acquired numerous pieces before or throughout the season which panned out more than not.

Additions such as catcher John Buck (.281AVG, 20HR, 66RBI), who revived his career with the team this season making his first All-Star team and fellow catcher Jose Molina (.246AVG, 6HR, 12RBI) who both helped aid a young pitching staff while also mentoring catcher of the future J.P. Arencibia when he was called up late in the season.

Players such as San Francisco Giants castaway Fred Lewis (.262AVG, 8HR, 36RBI, 17SB) who was acquired from the west coast for a small cash amount, who would go on to transform the dynamic atop the Blue Jays line-up adding the missing element of speed the team desperately seeked. Lewis was playing well for the Jays before a foot injury slowed down his season; the same foot problem also ended his season early later in the year.

The savvy GM also turned Alex Gonzalez, who was having a career year, but was only a stop gap at shortstop for the team into the young, promising shortstop the Jays were missing in Yunel Escobar (.256AVG, 4HR, 35RBI) in a trade with the Atlanta Braves. Escobar struggled down the stretch offensively for the team, but showed his potential at the plate as well as his strong defensive background and was well liked in Toronto, which was not the story with his previous club, who had pretty much given up on the player.

Despite what some critics may say the addition of Kevin Gregg (2-6, 3.51ERA 37SV in 43SVO) in the closer’s role was a risk that turned into reward for Anthopoulos. Gregg struggled at times with his control (30BB in 59IP), blew some major leads late in the game and even had some problems controlling his temper at times, but overall the move was a worth while one considering that Anthopoulos only dished out $2.75 million for a full-time closer. Gregg does have two option years for 2011 & 2012 remaining on his contract.

Anthopoulos also added role players such as waiver claims Mike McCoy (.195AVG, 0HR, 3RBI, 5SB) Jarrett Hoffpauir (.206AVG, 0HR, 0RBI) and DeWayne Wise (.250AVG, 3HR, 14RBI, 4SB) to add some depth to the squad for next to nothing as McCoy & Hoffpauir were waiver claims, while Wise was a minor-league free agent signing.

Alex Anthopoulos' first season as Toronto GM was impressive.

Anthopoulos and his scouting department were also responsible for drafting and signing a substantial amount of talent in this season’s draft which was headlined by first round draft selection Deck McGuire.

Add impressive years from other relievers such as Shawn Camp (4-3, 2.99ERA), Scott Downs (5-5, 2.64ERA) & starter turned reliever David Purcey (1-1, 3.71ERA) into the mix of positives and overall the up’s certainly outweighed the downs for the team.

Down seasons from 2009 standouts Adam Lind (.237AVG, 23HR, 72RBI) & Aaron Hill (.205AVG, 26HR, 68RBI) were not as bad as the numbers looked as both players still produced, just not at the level of the season prior.

Edwin Encarnacion was a wild card at third base, showing sporadic pop (.244AVG, 21HR, 51RBI) and ended his season on a tear, but overall his defense, although improved, was still below average and the team even demoted him during the middle of the season to work on that part of his game.

Lyle Overbay had another fine year defensively at first base, with a .996 fielding percentage making only six errors in 153 games and contributed his yearly amount of doubles, which clocked in at 37 this season, but the Jays may not be satisfied enough with his .243AVG, 20HR, 67RBI line at a power position such as first base to re-sign him, as he hits the free agent market this off-season.

The Jays had a tough time finding someone to fill the fifth starter’s role throughout the majority of the season. Brian Tallet struggled in a starting role and overall this season (2-6, 6.40ERA), Jesse Litsch came back from surgery and did not show much on the mound (1-5, 5.79ERA) before being shutdown for another surgical procedure in August and the team went with Marc Rzepczynski (4-4, 4.95ERA), Shawn Hill (1-2, 2.61ERA) & prospect Kyle Drabek (0-3, 4.76ERA) to close out the season. Rzepczynski was impressive as the season wound down and could be the front runner for a spot in the rotation next spring.

The team also experienced some magical moments, which brought life back to a city that seemed to have lost baseball interest prior to the season.

Moments such as Brandon Morrow’s impressive pitching performance on August 8th 2010 against the Tampa Bay Rays, in which he narrowly no-hit the team that would go onto win the American League East. On the day Morrow pitched a complete game, one hitter, striking out seventeen hitters. Rays third baseman Evan Longoria broke up the no-hit bid with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Brandon Morrow was lights out against the Rays on August 8th 2010.

Moments such as fan favourite John McDonald’s heart-warming home run over the left field fence against the San Francisco Giants on Father’s Day, two days after attending the funeral of his recently deceased father. The at-bat was McDonald’s first since attending the funeral and the passion of the blast was felt throughout everyone in the stadium as the defensive wizard strutted around the base paths, ending his home run trot with a point into the sky as he touched home plate.

Of the magical moments none could compare to the send-off of legendary Toronto Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston in the team’s home finale against the New York Yankees last Wednesday evening. With a packed house in attendance popular players from Blue Jays history and from Gaston’s past shared warming words towards their former manager, who won two World Series championships with the club in 1992 & 1993. Video messages from Hall of Fame class acts such as Bobby Cox, Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor and Hank Aaron, all friends of Gaston, reigned down from the Rogers Centre JumboTron as Gaston and his wife Linda shed tears amongst the applause of the Blue Jays faithful. The game was the last Toronto would see of Gaston as his coaching career will always be remembered in the city.

With the Blue Jays season coming to a close and expectations being exceeded the team’s future looks promising and bright, but the off-season will certainly be a busy one as numerous players are heading for free agency, while other players such as Bautista are certainly in line for a huge pay raise. The team will also be looking for a new head coach as well as a way to improve upon their 85 win season.

If Anthopoulos can replicate his free agent success of last off-season, find the coach needed to continue Gaston’s 2010 success and if the team can mould young players such as Travis Snider, Arencibia and others into Major League players while having turn-around seasons from Lind & Hill the team may be in good enough shape to reach the 90-win plateau, which seems to be the bare minimum required in the win column to reach the playoffs.

What will the off-season hold for the franchise? Will they make the necessary moves needed to get the team into the playoffs next year? Will the youngsters on the club continue to excel and push the team forward into contention?

Only time will tell, but as for the 2010 season Toronto can only consider the season a success, which means that the future of baseball in Toronto may not be in as much jeopardy as once expected.