Call-Up Season... Oh Well

Well it's that time of year, where that big bearded fat man crawls down your chimney and gives you presents. That's right, September Call-Ups! That means the only big, bearded fat man you'll see will be Sal Fasano for the final month of the regular season. He, along with a few young'ns, will join the club on September 1st once the rosters are expanded to 40.

J.P. nor Gibbs have told reporters exactly who is going to be called up, but there's a lot of young talent in the farm that are bound to be called up, such as Robinzon Diaz. Diaz is a young athletic catcher with very little power but he's a slap hitter, I like him though so if Gibbs doesn't call him up, tisk tisk.

The Key to Finding a Successful Call-Up

1. Overall talent: Obviously. If he doesn't have skills defensively or offensively, he probably won't be called up. Fcuk guy, use your head.

2. Minor League Road Stats: It sounds weird, I know... When you're on the road, the disadvantage is unfamiliarity; coming up to the big leagues means that you'll be in completely different, unfamiliar stadiums. If they're successful hitters on the road, they have a better chance of adjusting to a brand new ballpark like the Centre.

3. Type of hitting: For example, if the player's a reknowned power hitter, he'll fit in with the Jays or the Rangers, etc. If the player can relate to the overall team's approach at the plate he'll have much more success in the bigs.

Y'know what I find weird? We have so many great catchers in our farm system (like Diaz and Thigpen and Sal minus the bat) but Gregg Zaun sucks so much. I hope we sign Paul Lo Duca and trade Zaun away with Chacin for a cool shorstop prospect... I'll shut up now.

Oh, So Close

While I didn't have much faith in the Jays winning the extra inning bout versus the A's, it was nice to be there at least. And hell, being there because we fucked with a great closer in Huston Street is just like icing on the cake. It was in the ninth when Lyle Overbay hit a monster-fucking-homerun off of Street that got my hopes up. If Overbay can hit a monstrous second-deck homer off him like that, than hey, maybe he's coming out of his slump and Street's having an off-day, right? Exactly. So I must admit, when I saw Matt Stairs, another lefty, come to the plate, I expected the best. And the best I got... I think the ball was near his fucking ankles too, how the hell did he get that ball out of there? It was like a golf-swing a straightaway centre field.

Anyway, the rest of the game was kind of a disappointment. Halladay was definitely not at his best, walking a career single-game high 6 batters and allowing four runs-- he did go another nine innings though, miraculously. The offense was pretty crap, honestly, since all four runs came by means of solo-homerun, not that that's bad, but it would've been nice if there was some situational hitting in there somewhere. Alex Rios homered for his 21st of the season, and first since July 23rd, Lyle Overbay homered for his 9th of the season, and his first since late May. The other two came off the bats of hot-hitters Aaron Hill and the hero of the day, Matt Stairs.

Victoria's Secret

Err... Vernon's secret; he apparently has been dealing with shoulder tightness since late last season, explaining his struggles at the plate and in the field. In other news, Vernon's our new leadoff guy. I guess it's one of those "if it's not broken, don't fix it" things. He's been batting pretty damn well in the leadoff spot this season, hitting around .300 with 7 HR and 16 RBI. I get what Gibbs is getting at, seeing as how Vernon's batting much better in the one-hole than the three-hole where he's batting .228 with 5 HR and 25 RBI (that's so fucked up) but it really messes up the lineup. That means that Reed Johnson will be the number-two hitter, and Overbay will be the number six hitter, even though he has next to no power in his bat this year because of his hand troubles.

The SOBAs

The "It's-All-Your-Fault-You-Son-Of-a-Bitch" Award goes to...

...Roy Halladay. I know, he went the distance and he just wasn't at his best but his walks killed us. Of the six walks, 3 of the walked batters came in to score. He let in four runs, and if he had his control he could've walked away victorious, but instead he'll walk away with a SOBA.

The Good

We demonstrated good powerful clutch hitting, which we haven't done all year. With Lyle Overbay's homerun, Matt Stairs followed up with one with two out in the ninth to tie it up against his former team.

Although there weren't many batters on base to knock in, we still got four solo-shots to piss of Huston Street and tie the game. I'd say this is pretty damn good considering we got four homeruns during a power shortage for the whole month of August.

Halladay went nine, even though he wasn't himself.

The Bad

Roy Halladay couldn't command at all, but he still did relatively well. He walked a career single-game high six batters and gave up four earnies in the first few innings.

Our doubles streak is over, I think it stopped at 35 games.

The Ugly

Halladay's command was pretty damn ugly, but you can't be perfect I guess...

Reed Johnson went 0-for-5 versus a lefty and 0-for-1 versus a righty.

Jays Clobber A's ACTUALLY!

In all honesty, I was pretty damn surprised that the Jays actually won that game, seeing as we went into extras and we put Jason Frasor on the mound to hold up the fort. Plus, we were on the road facing a good pitching staff. Anyway.

We won, 6-2 in 12 innings of complete fucking boredom, except for of course the two innings that we actually got soemthing done in, the 3rd and the 12th. Burnett did great, though, even though it wasn't one of those sexy sexy 13 strikeout Burnett performances we've seen, he got the job done. It was going great until Casey Janssen had one of those rare fuckups and undoned the job. That's right, undoned.

In the 8th after another fine start for A.J. where he only allowed a run over five hits, Casey came in to give up a leadoff double off the left-centre field wall to former-Blue Jay-- now Blue Jay killer, Shannon "Mongoose" Stewart. He was knocked in by Dan Johnson (a lefty) to tie up the ballgame before Gibbons decided to send in the lefty specialist Downs.

But it was all good because while the A's used closer Huston Street in the ninth and tenth to ware him out completely, the Jays used seldom-used Jason Frasor to hold the fort up for Jeremy Accardo in the eleventh (who got the win after The Big Bad Wolfe put up a spotless twelfth). Troy Glaus knocked in Vernon for the go-ahead run which kept the line moving for a four-run rally in the twelfth to secure the victory for T.O.

Tip of the Night: Don't drink Coke and eat Mentos... oh fuck, it's awful.

Surprise Surprise

Well it's finally happened, Gustavo "Baldy" Chacin (pictured) underwent exploratory surgery in his left testi-- shoulder today. As a solution, the Jays signed former A's pitcher Joe Kennedy pitcher to a minor-league contract, but he's a free-agent next year so it's kinda stupid.

Anyway, Chacin's season is definitely over and, in my oppinion, so is his career in Toronto. With a very solid bullpen and J.P. hinting that the Jays are going to look for free-agent pitching in the offseason, it looks as if Gustavo will not be a Jay for much longer. The starting rotation and the bullpen looks pretty damn awesome to this point, which means having Gustavo would just be a liability, really. I still don't see why fans like the Venezuelan right-hander so much, he has a high Towers-like ERA but more wins because we gets run-support. Maybe it's because of his promising rookie-year that fans have taken a shine to the shiny-headed injury-prone young'n.

Cool Guy of the Game

A.J. Burnett, for obvious reasons... he looked great over 7 innings, and while he only struck out three he also worked his way out of jams. The only blips on his radar would be Nick Swisher's 17th homerun of the season and the five walks he gave up; but he kept the Jays in the game the whole way through.

The Good

The pitching was excellent, straight up great-- except for Casey Janssen of course, but he's entitled to a fuck-up after all he's done this season.

The offence was still pretty good, only Matt Stairs and Gregg Zaun went 0-for, and Matt Stairs got 2 walks as the leadoff man.

Speaking of, J.P. said that he has every intention of resigning Matt Stairs, and Matty said that he has every intention of ending his career in Toronto, so it looks like he's staying, folks.

The Bad

Gregg Zaun went clean-shaven and immediately went hitless. Oh, so ironic, right? Wrong, you're stupid.

The Ugly

Marco Scutaro went 0-for-6 leaving 8 on, ha ha! It's ugly for him, but pretty damn prettiful for us.

Tonight's Matchup: Jesse Litsch pitches for Blue Jays versus former Blue Jay Chad Gaudin. May I remind you, though, that former-Jay pitchers have metaphorically raped us this month... Escobar, Loaiza, Clemens and Trachsel have gone 5-0 with a 1.78 ERA against the Jays in August. Don't drop the soap Jays...

However, Gaudin only pitched 13 innings for the Jays, with a 13.15 ERA on him, so I think we might matchup, ha ha.