Record Setting Weekend Report

I kept off writing blogs for a couple days while I waited out milestones, and wow; A-Roid became the youngest person to reach the 500-homerun plateau. Tom Glavine recorded his 300th win and Barry Bonds finally tied Hank Aaron on the all-time homerun list.

Out of all these milestones, which one will never be met? Barry Bonds' record, whatever it will be once he retires, will most likely be broken by Ster-Rod since he still has a long time to go and doesn't have a nagging injury to worry about. Ster-Rod/A-Roid won't be the youngest to reach 500 for long, Ryan Howard is one of the most prolific power hitters of the time now, and he's only in his second full season of his career already boasting 112 homeruns. Tom Glavine, however, has a chance of being the last player ever to reach 300-- the closest to 300 after him is The Big Unit. Randy Johnson has 284 wins, but he's close to retirement, chances are he won't be able to get 16 more wins before he's forced to retire.

Anyway, this isn't what this blog is about.

Get to the Jays, dumbass!

OKAY! STOP YELLING! GOD! ...While I was gone, the Jays had two wins to complete the sweep versus the Rangers. The pitching was fantastic and so was the offence... I guess? On Saturday, every Jay except Lyle Overbay got at least one hit, and Frank Thomas hit two homeruns (he's finally heating up and setting himself up for a huge August like last year) and also The Wizard Johnny Mac had three RBIs as the Jays won 9-5.

Sunday was a totally different game; Dustin McGowan was the story of that game as he went 8 innings allowing just one run to pick up his 8th win and lower his ERA to a great 4.11. In fact, in his last three home starts, McGowan, who I like to call Mic, owned a 3-0 record and a 0.37 ERA, 1st in the AL in that time and 2nd in MLB next to Chris Young who was perfect.

Today the Yankees snapped the Jays' 8-game home win streak in a close 5-4 loss. The It-Was-All-Your-Fault-You-Son-Of-a-Bitch award, or the SOBA goes to the slumping Troy Glaus for not taking the walk in the 8th inning when he very well could have. On a 3-1 count, Glaus swung at an outside slider and popped it straight up. The next batter, Aaron Hill, homered to make it a 5-4 game.

Gazing into the Future

A.J. Burnett made his first rehab start today for the Syracuse Chiefs, striking out 7 and allowing one run on 3 hits over 5 innings. He's expected to start against the Royals on Monday, taking Josh Towers' spot in the rotation. One of the 5 runs the Chiefs scored, however, came off of a solo-homerun by John Ford-Griffin-- his 23rd of the season. The young outfielder was traded to the Jays for a crappy prospect named Jason Perry and now finds himself among the league leaders in homeruns.

Enough about the young'ns, how about some suggestions and comparisons? The Yankees have very much fucked themselves over for next season, case in point: their free agents. 13 players on the 25 man roster are elligible free agents after this season: Bobby Abreu, Miguel Cairo, Roger Clemens, Doug Mientkiewicz, Jose Molina, Mike Myers, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, A-Roid, Ron Villone and Luis Vizcaino. There's no way even the Yankees have enough money to resign all of them, so some of their key players like A-Rod and Posada will leave. The Jays, on the other hand, set themselves up very nicely. Because of all the young pitchers kickin' ass this year, we have young talent not elligible for free-agency. In other words, we're probably not losing any key players this year to free-agency.

Our pitching staff:

Roy Halladay - signed thru 2010
A.J. Burnett - signed thru 2010
Shaun Marcum - still in arbitration years
Dustin McGowan - still in arbitration years
Jesse Litsch - still in arbitration years

Jeremy Accardo - still in arbitration years
Casey Janssen - still in arbitration years
Scott Downs - still in arbitration years
Brandon League - still in arbitration years
Brian Wolfe - still in arbitration years
Brian Tallet - still in arbitration years
Jason Frasor - still in arbitration years

B.J. Ryan - signed thru 2010
Gustavo Chacin - still in arbitration years

Our lineup:

Reed Johnson - still in arbitration years
Vernon Wells - signed thru 2014
Alex Rios - still in arbitration years
Frank Thomas - signed thru 2008
Troy Glaus - signed thru 2008
Lyle Overbay - signed thru 2010
Aaron Hill - still in arbitration years
Gregg Zaun - signed thru 2008
John McDonald - free agent

Matt Stairs - free agent

So, in conclusion, 11/14 pitchers are still in their arbitration years, and only 2 players are free agents this offseason, both non-expensive. So we really have a lot of money to blow away on improving our little troubles, such as a good bat at shortstop and a good all around catcher behind the plate.

Gregg Zaun, you're a great player but you've really let us down and you're costing us wins because of it. There are two free agent catchers that can really improve the ballclub both offensively and defensively-- Ivan Rodriguez and Jorge Posada.

At short, two free agents have reliable bats and steady gloves: Juan Uribe and 2006 World Series MVP David Eckstein. The Chicago White Sox, however, must opt out of Juan Uribe's contract to make him elligible.

By the way, teams looking to improve defensively are at luck this offseason; Gold-Glove outfielders Andruw Jones, Mike Cameron and Torii Hunter are free agents, along with Gold-Glove infielders Omar Vizquel, Mark Grudzielanek, Doug Mientkiewicz and Mike Lowell. Also on the market is Gold-Glove pitcher Kenny Rogers and Gold-Glove catchers Ivan Rodriguez and Brad Ausmus. Wow...

Oh, and for those thinking the Jays might not resign Matt Stairs, New Brunswick's MVP, think again... John Gibbons told reporters that they have every intent of holding onto him as long as possible, and that's why they didn't trade him at the trade deadline.

"I've said it many times: If you had nine of him, you'd have one heck of a team."

--Gibbs