Streaking In The Windy City Must Be Drafty

After a five-game win streak, the Jays have dropped two in a row in a loss to the Chicago White Sox on Staurday. The starting pitching continues to be great, but the offense seems to have been napping. In the last two games, the Jays have only been able to score three runs, compared to the 7 run average the offense put up during the win-streak.

Roy Halladay went the distance (only 8 innings however) for his league-leading 4th complete game of the season, but took the loss as the Jays fell 2-0 to the White Sox... ironic since the last time Roy Halladay and Mark "Josh" Buerhle matched up was the first time in Major League history that a team won without having an actual baserunner all game. Josh let up only two hits, both homeruns to Frank Thomas and Aaron Hill. The final score, 2-0 for the Jays.

Tomorrow Shaun Marcum faces off against Javier Vazquez to try to get at least one win this series.

Cruisin' For a Bruisin'

Damnit Josh Towers, you're an asshole. Last night Josh Towers ragged on the whole team about the loss, saying it was a win we let go of. Fuck you! Well, in his exact words he said:

"We just gave the game away. Personally, that's what I think. Today was just a game that I felt we were in complete control of and we should've won and we didn't. All around, it just wasn't a great game played by us. I just don't think that we consistently put ourselves in positions to make plays ahead of time. I don't think we were heads up. I don't think we consistently show up as a coaching staff and as a team every day, and I think it shows sometimes."

What a bitch, eh? Well I've officially changed my mind. Keep Burnett and trade Towers, please! We don't need his "I'm all this and you're all crap" attitude, and we especially don't need his crappy pitching. "I have great control." "So does little Jimmy in the third grade, piss off."J.P. Retardi called the Phillies on Friday and asked if they were interested in Towers, because their assistant GM was in the audience for Towers' last start versus the Mariners where he threw 6.2 innings of shoutout ball. The GMs response? NO! Not even the Phillies, the team with the most losses in the history of sports, wants anything to do with Towers. OWNED. This raises some eyebrows though, if they aren't interested in Towers, who was the assistant GM looking at? Is it possible that maybe the Phillies are interested in a different Jay like Troy Glaus or Aaron Hill? No, you're dumb. They just don't like Josh Towers... who can blame 'em?

By The Way...

Burnett felt fine on Saturday, meaning he'll start his Minor League rehab assignment on Wednesday with Class-A Dunedin, and if everything goes like planned, he'll start one more game with AAA-Syracuse on August 6th before returning to the club. What did Burnett have to say about all this? "I'm ready to rumble!" Haha, what a rockstar.

It's Been A While...

...since my last post. So, I figured I should post something.

First off, we lost today; damn. That ends a 5-game win streak, it was fun while it lasted but you couldn't have expected a lot more than they did. The last time the Jays had a 6-game win streak was in 2004. In the five-game win streak, the Jays outscored their opponents 35-5, and three of the wins were shutouts.

Tomorrow the pitching battle will be Roy Halladay vs. Mark Buerhle... we all know what happened the last time that happened... the Doc pitched 7 shoutout innings, while Buerhle spun a complete-game two hitter... unfortunately both those hits were homeruns, by Aaron Hill and Frank Thomas. It was the first time in a long time that a pitcher lost in a complete-game effort without having one runner on base...

The game will definitely be a pitchers duel, but as it stands Roy Halladay seems to have the upper hand. The Jays seem to be the offensive club they envisioned coming out of spring training now that they have all their everyday players back, while the Sox are struggling offensively.

Also, Halladay is hot as of late, coming off a complete-game shutout against one of the best offensive teams in the AL, the Mariners. He's 1-0 with a 0.59 ERA in his last 16 IP-- Buehrle (damn that's hard to spell, I'ma call him Josh) on the otherhand is very cold as of late... he's 1-1 with a 5.69 ERA in his last 2 outings, going 6.1 IP in each one, but his last outing he gave up a career-high 14 hits along with 7 earnies to give him the loss against Detroit, also one of the best offensive teams in the AL.

One Up, One Down

Our favourite bald kid was activated from the DL today, but immediately optioned down to AAA Syracuse... really this has to do with many things, but, c'mon! Need I remind you that this guy doesn't have eyebrows... be nice! Anyway... Firstly, it has to do with Chacin not being too effective as a starter this season with a 5.60 ERA and a 2-1 record over 5 starts before being placed on the DL. Secondly, it has to do with him getting innings-- because of all the rising young talent for Toronto, there really isn't a place for Chacin in the rotation, so instead of just sitting on the bench the whole time he's going to get some innings to stay fresh.

A.J. Burnett threw three simulated innings at U.S Cellular Field and looks to be ready for his first Minor League rehab assignment, depending on how he feels on Saturday. If he feels fine on Saturday, it's expected that he'll pitch a game with Class-A Dunedin on Wednesday, followed by a start at Triple-A Syracuse on August 6th-- this is the third reason why Chacin was immediately optioned to AAA Syracuse. Marcum, McGowan and Towers have solidified their spots in the starting rotation, so when Burnett is back, Litsch is probably going to be the one sent down, this already sets more complications for Toronto.

Litsch's performance on Tuesday vs. the Devil Rays will, in theory, determine who will be sent down to AAA; either him or Towers to make room for Burnett when he returns, but as it stands J.P. Ricciardi has hinted that Litsch will probably be the one sent down. Litsch has a 4.01 ERA with a 3-4 record-- which is much better than Josh Towers' numbers, yes, but because he's still a young'n he's inconsistent. Since returning from Syracuse, however, Litsch has been lights out for the Blue Jays, yielding a 2.16 ERA and a 2-2 record in four starts; compared to a 6.62 ERA with a 1-2 record in four starts before being optioned to Syracuse on May 31st.

Back to Square One

For the third time in four games, the Blue Jays pitchers absolutely dominated the opposing team in a shutout effort. In their last six games, the Jays are 5-1 with amazing numbers-- surprising considering how bad the New York series went, and now the Jays are back to .500.

In the last six games, the pitching has been near perfect, with a 1.66 ERA and a 0.85 WHIP. Really, the pitching has been great because of the control, having a 0.48 (13-27) BB:K ratio. No reliever during this time has given up a run-- or even a walk.

The offense has been great as well, averaging 7.3 hits and 4.5 runs per game. Also, in the last three games the Jays have hit 8 homeruns in total.

Tomorrow the Jays will seek to get their first series sweep since June 22-24 with Jesse Litsch on the mound. In his last outing, Litsch got bumped around after being hit in the ankle by a comeback off the bat of Richie Sexson.

Keep Doin' What You're Doin', Gotta Keep Movin'

YES! Gibbs you're listening! ...'bout bloody time. On Tuesday, we played both small ball and long ball and won the game, easily. Johnny Mac put down a safety squeeze to get Aaron Hill to touch home plate in the 3rd to get the Jays on the board-- the next inning V-Dub hammered a ball over the left-field fence to get the Jays up 3-0. In the 7th and 8th we scored a total of four more runs by rallying.

Breakfast In a Bottle Mon

On Sunday versus the Mariners, the greatest usher of all-time was in my section. There were a couple ushers with him, one that looked like Harry Potter, a semi-attractive "I'd bang her if I was lonely" usher and the Jamaican guy. The Jamaican guy was by far the best of the three. While Harry and Hermione (sp?) just yelled out "beer here, ice cold beer" unenthusiastically like the douches they are, the Jamaican guy was fuckin' brilliant. "Breakfast in a bottle mon! Get it ice cold on a sweaty hot day mon!" I'm so serious... breakfast in a bottle [mon]. This guy is too cool, so he just made my list; the list of ushers to buy beer from when I look old enough. Congratulations!

Haha OWNED

It was another slugfest in Toronto when the Jays smacked out four homeruns against 2006 Cy Young Award Winner Johan Santana (pictured) "Wait, against Santana? That's impossible!" "No, no it's not, you're stupid"

The first inning speaks for itself, Reed Johnson sent the second pitch he saw over the wall for his 2nd homerun this season and 7th career leadoff homerun... Rios struck out, Troy Glaus flew out to centre and Vernon got a single. Frank Thomas then sent an offering over the wall for a two-run shot to put the Jays in front 3-0 in the first.

This marks the first game in his career that Santana has given up four homeruns: one to Johnson, one to Rios and two to Thomas. "Damn, that's kick-ass!" "Yep, kick-ass."

The Good

Well, we won... haven't you been paying attention? Stupid...

It seems that Frank Thomas might be heating up (again) seeing as he got two homeruns versus the best leftie in the game.

Also, Matt Stairs sparked a great double play to stop a Twins rally... an obviously routine 3-2-5-6 double play... not gonna see that again for a while.

The Bad

Shaun Marcum wasn't spectacular this outing, which really raises some eyebrows about what happened to this guy-- before the 7th of July, Marcum had a 2.02 ERA as a starter. Since then he's had a 7.59 ERA counting today's effort. Well, I've discovered that most of the time when a pitcher [not always Major-League pitchers] is under performing, it usually has something either to do with fatigue or he's screwed up his delivery. Maybe we should call up Sal Fasano for a little bit to help the pitchers with their deliveries; after all he's the one that fixed Marcum's delivery in the first place to become a great pitcher.

The Ugly

Well, Gibbs tried to play small ball with Clayton at the plate, but unfortunately he did it at a time when it was very, very obvious, and didn't take advantage of the situation. With Matt Stairs on second and Thigpen at first, Clayton was ordered to bunt. Really, in that situation (situation being the Twins were so ready for the bunt) Gibbs should have called for a hit and run. Unfortunately, he called for a hit and run with two strikes so the Twins were ready for it and got a double play out of it.

Rumouritis

There've been a lot of rumours surrounding the Blue Jays about trades. First off, about our shortstop situation, it's been rumoured that the Jays were interested in Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson. J.P said this about the situation:

"We have no interest in Jack Wilson -- absolutely no interest, none. I have Jack Wilson. I have John McDonald."

I don't really know what he's talkin' about when he said "I have Jack Wilson. I have John McDonald." but I think he gets his point across: Jack Wilson's a shitty shortstop that the Blue Jays don't need 'cause we have Johnny Mac! Owned.

Next on the rumour board: the Phillies are reportedly interested in Josh Towers, and the Jays will entertain offers for Towers.

"We'd listen on anybody. I think we'd be foolish not to listen, but we're not going to trade Josh Towers for a bag of doughnuts. I've got to get something back that is a very good player for us to say, 'Hey, we can hang our hat on this guy.'"

We probably wouldn't get somebody in return that's all ready for the big leagues, but a promising prospect. But hey, this promising prospect could turn out to be the next Johan Santana-- picked up in the Rule 5 draft then traded to the Twins for almost nothing.

Goin' Back-to-Back

It looks like Halladay's back to normal, shutting out the good-hitting Mariners in a complete game effort on Sunday. Not only was Halladay spectacular but so was the offense, tagging 8 runs on 10 hits versus a very good Mariners' pitching staff. But to be honest, the Mariners did make a stupid mistake in the fifth inning to blow the game wide open for the Jays.

With first base open and 1 out in the fifth, the Mariners chose to intentionally walk Lyle Overbay to load up the bases for Alex Rios... how dumb is that? Yes, it does set them up for a double-play-- but Rios has only grounded into 4 double plays all season. Rios is by far Toronto's best hitter, and the M's definitely knew that, so why load up the bases for him? That's so stupid! Haha, I love it! They paid for it, obviously, when Rios knocked in 2 with a single to left and Glaus knocked the next pitch over the wall for a three-run homerun.

Any team that loads up the bases intentionally to any Jay with power is just stupid.

Now that we've established that the M's are retarded, lets talk about a more eerie note... the Jays just had back-to-back shutouts. The last time the Jays had 'em back-to-back was in 2003, when Josh Towers had a 1-0 shoutout over the Tigers, then the next day Halladay had an 8-0 shoutout over the Tigers. Not only that, but Halladay allowed only 3 hits in both. Isn't that creepy? No, you're dumb.

Bait Worm

We all knew this day would come, but the Jays are reportedly thinking about using Josh Towers as trade bait. Don't get me wrong, Towers has great stuff, so he could be traded pretty easily to one of the many, many teams looking for a 5th starter to add to their rotation-- but shouldn't we keep him around? Honestly, he's saved our asses a few times this season when a starter went down with an injury and we needed a fill-in.

On a totally different note, A.J. Burnett was usually the pitcher that Josh Towers replaced in the rotation becuase he was injured... oh wait! That isn't a totally different note! What makes Gibbs think that Burnett won't be injured again? Well, with Towers traded and Burnett down, who's gonna fill-in? Hmm? Yeah, that's what I thought-- you're a dumbass.

If we trade Towers, that would screw up our roster like crazy. We need a different catcher, and a different shortstop would also be nice, so shouldn't we trade him for one of those? But no! We can't because if a pitcher's injured we need somebody to fill-in, so we need a pitcher. But if we trade Towers for a pitcher, wouldn't that be kind of stupid? Yep, it would.

Now if we trade Burnett we could have a solid rotation like we do right now without him, and have another player, like a catcher or a shortstop at hand.

Halladay
Marcum
McGowan
Litsch
Towers

Not bad without him, is it? I thought so.