If you want to look at the cold hard facts, the Kansas City Royals are now the only team in the Majors with a longer post-season drought than the Blue Jays. The Royals, who shrunk over the years from model franchise to annual also-rans, havent made it to the playoffs since 1985, the year they beat the Blue Jays in the American League Championship series en route to winning their one and only World Series title under the late Dick Howser. The past few years though, theyve developed a wealth of young home-grown talent, including catcher Salvador Perez, outfielders Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain, third baseman Mike Moustakas, shortstop Alcides Escobar and DH Billy Butler, not to mention outfielder Wil Meyers, who was dealt to Tampa Bay for pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis last year. The Royals are continuing their playoff push this off-season. They signed GM Dayton Moore to a two-year extension and then veteran lefty Jason Vargas to a four-year deal and this week, they traded for a needed lead-off hitter, getting Norichika Aoki from Milwaukee to play right field. The next move may be their boldest yet if they can bring back outfielder Carlos Beltran on a three-year deal. The bottom line is, even if they dont win the Central, theyd have to be a favourite for one of the two Wild Card slots, making it even more difficult for the Blue Jays to make it into the post-season. The Jays have been fairly quiet so far, non-tendering catcher J.P. Arencibia, signing catcher Dioner Navarro and then trading reliever Brad Lincoln to the Phillies for catcher Eric Kratz and lefty reliever Rob Rasmussen. Not exactly earth-shattering moves. GM Alex Anthopoulos is already dampening expectations for next weeks Winter Meetings at Orlando a bit by telling the Toronto chapter of the BBWAA that he doesnt expect to add any more than one starting pitcher from outside the organization in the off-season, when most believe they need two. I trust Alex still has a few tricks up his sleeve, but if the Jays arent aggressive enough, they could find themselves with the longest post-season drought of all at 21 years and counting after the coming season. Lone Ranger? From all reports coming out of Texas, it sounds as though Arencibia is going to wind up in Texas as the back-up catcher to Geovany Soto and maybe a part-time DH. The Texas ballpark is made to order for J.P.s power stroke, and heres hoping he can rediscover or rebuild the rest of his game. Hes too good a person to flame-out in this game so soon. On The Move? Dont rule out the possibility of the Blue Jays dealing Adam Lind next week. Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay both want free agent first baseman James Loney. But the team that doesnt get him might come a-calling about Lind. Names From the Past A few more ex-Jays in the news this week include former 2B Kelly Johnson, who is reportedly close to signing a one-year deal with the Yankees in a utility role. Eric Hinske, who won the Rookie of the Year Award as the Blue Jays third baseman in 2002, retired to become the Chicago Cubs first base coach. Finally Dave Winfield, one of the Jays World Series heroes of 1992, left his front office post with San Diego to become special advisor to Tony Clark, the new Executive Director of the Players Association. Winfield and Clark are two of the most impressive and imposing men Ive ever met, both charismatic and intelligent and just dominant in size when they enter a room with Winfield at 66" and Clark at 68". The Players Association is in good hands after the tragic passing of Michael Weiner at 51 after a long battle with brain cancer. wholesale nfl jerseys . Stars winger Valeri Nichushkin skated hard to the net in overtime and into Andersons crease, appearing to hit the netminder in the head with his knee. cheap jerseys . A rare defeat for the worlds top player left his No. 1 ranking hanging by a thread. Westwood followed up a couple of convincing group-stage wins at the World Match Play Championship by shooting a 67 in his last-16 match against Ryder Cup teammate Ian Poulter. http://www.cheapnfljerseyschinapla... . The Blue Jays (70-89) will need a sweep of the Twins (66-93) to stave off 90 losses for the first time since 2004, when Toronto went 67-94. Aaron Laffey will get the ball for Toronto. [url=http://www.cheapnfljerseyschinaplay.com/]nfl jerseys china . Thats how well Francisco Liriano was pitching Sunday. "I thought there was a chance," Sanchez said. "His ball was really moving, particularly the slider, was moving all over the place. jerseys from china . Lotz made 65 saves but he was beat by Cole Ullys penalty shot in overtime that lifted the Kamloops Blazers to a 4-3 victory in Western Hockey League play Wednesday. HL:Premier League blames UEFA, FIFA for fixture congestion, hampering hopes of winter break THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON -- The Premier Leagues chief executive blamed UEFA and FIFA on Tuesday for creating the packed soccer calendar that prevents it from introducing a winter break. Demands for Premier League players to be given a mid-season rest like in Spain, Italy and Germany intensified after England coach Fabio Capello blamed his teams second-round exit from the World Cup on the squad arriving in South Africa too tired after the gruelling domestic campaign. All of Englands regulars play in the countrys top division. "When you are looking at fixture congestion then I am afraid we have to look at our friends at UEFA and FIFA as more the culprits than ourselves," Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said. "UEFA used to have in the season we sttarted in 1992-93 13 match dates -- now they need 21 match dates to fulfil their fixtures.dddddddddddd "And FIFA were traditionally nine or 10 international dates and thats now averaging 12. So the difficulty is that somebody has to give something up." Scudamore told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee that the number of matches in the top division had dropped in the last 20 years, while there are fewer FA Cup and League Cup replays. "We put on 380 events and those events are watched around the world and are extremely popular events," Scudamore said. "If you took two teams out ... you go down to 306 events and there is no way you would do that in terms of public interest and fan interest." Scudamore said attempts to introduce a winter break had "failed because it is just hard to come up with a practical suggestion." cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '