Brett Lawrie is the 'can't-miss' kid.
Drafted higher than any Canadian in baseball history, the 21-year-old Lawrie has been on fans' radar for the past three years, when he went 16th overall in the 2008 draft to the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Langley, B.C. native, who comes with a reputation as being his own No. 1 fan, became Blue Jays property this past off-season in a deal that sent starting pitcher Shaun Marcum to Wisconsin.
Since Marcum was one of the Jays' mound stars, fans have been anxiously waiting for some payoff. Finally, on Aug. 5, it arrived, with Lawrie being called up from AAA Las Vegas, where he was tearing the cover off the ball.
Jays manager John Farrell didn't beat around the bush about his expectations, announcing that Lawrie would be immediately inserted into the starting lineup at third base, allowing slugger Jose Bautista to move back to the outfield.
And what a start! Lawrie banged out two hits in his debut, using his quick bat to drill a couple of singles in four at-bats.
No Canadian baseball player has ever come with such high expectations as Lawrie. He was labelled a future superstar at 18 - hence the first-round draft selection by Milwaukee - and has been ripping up the Pacific Coast League while awaiting his Jays' call-up.
"Finally, this is a guy that we've had a lot of expectations on," Farrell told MLB.com reporter Gregor Chisholm. "That's not to create more of a hysteria situation than the attention that's going to follow him, but he has done everything we've asked at Triple-A."
Everything - and more. Lawrie batted .348 in 17 games since recovering in mid-July from a broken hand. Overall, in 69 games with Las Vegas, he batted .353 with 18 homers and 61 runs-batted-in.
Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos has Toronto fans deservedly excited about the future. The team is young, with strong pitching, and the best slugger in baseball in Bautista contractually locked up for the next five years. Lawrie, Bautista and Adam Lind may give the Blue Jays one of baseball's most potent 'murderer's row' in the next four or five years, giving hope that perhaps the team's glory days of 1992-93 may be finally revisited.
RJ Currie of sportsdeke.com: "Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch, after Kris Draper announced his retirement, recalled getting him from the Jets in 1993 for the then-waiver price of $1. Or as they call it today in the CFL, a signing bonus."
Currie again: "Edmonton goalie Nikolai Khabibulin has decided not to appeal his Arizona drunk driving conviction. He will serve part of his sentence in jail and the rest having to play for the Oilers."
Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, praising the trade in which the Giants acquired slugger Carlos Beltran: "The Giants going into the playoffs without a new hitter would have been as under-armed as the Earp boys would have been walking into O.K. Corral with paintball guns."
Comedy writer Jim Barach: "A synchronized swim team in California is using bingo to fund their dreams for going to the Olympics. Which is only fitting since bingo is just as about as exciting to watch as synchronized swimming."
Comedy writer Jerry Perisho: "The New England Patriots picked up Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco in a flurry of signing activity. No one is certain why they signed these guys, but everyone assumes Bill Belichick must have lost a bet."
Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: "Hockey Lingo 101: Fore-checking: When a Toronto Maple Leaf asks when the first playoff tee time is."
Brad Dickson of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, on Ford recalling 1.1 million pickups because of faulty gas tanks: "Picture 1.1 million pickups - it looks like the parking lot at a Texas Tech home game."
Headline at TheOnion.com: "Marlins expect more sellout games next year in new eight-seat ballpark."
Dickson again, on the threat of a Republican filibuster before the debt-ceiling vote: "A filibuster is when someone talks forever with no real point. Or, as Dick Vitale calls that, 'broadcasting.' "
Len Berman of ThatsSports.com, after the NBA claimed the lockout had nothing to do with laying off 11 per cent of its employees: "I have to check the rule book. I think that's the definition of double drivel."
Carmen Berra, to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, on being married 61 years to her Hall of Fame husband: "It's like Yogi says, 'We get along well together, even when we're not together.' "
Comedy writer Alan Ray, on training-camp whispers that Bengals receiver Terrell Owens seems a tad slower this year: "Scouts say he doesn't complain quite as fast."
Headline at Fark.com, on Jalen Rose's 20-day sentence for DUI: "Jailin' Rose."
Ostler again: If Tiger Woods never regains dominance in his sport, the debate will rage for years over what caused his downfall - bum legs or bimbos. Right now, I'd have to flip a coin."
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