Jays MLBlog

Not So Far Behind

2007-09-02T17:06:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I didn't write the blogs for the last couple days. Sue me.

Anyway, while I was gone (and by gone I mean right here, just too Goddamn lazy to write up some blogs) the Jays went and swept the Mariners off their feet-- they landed on their asses. Oh, poor Mariners, their ninth loss in a row; sound familiar? I feel bad for them, considering all games were pretty close (7-5, 2-1 and 6-4) and the Jays got some lucky runs and some lucky outs in each and every game. I can really put myself in the M's fans' shoes considering when we decided to go nine straight winless games, a lot of them were close which made it all the worse.

In today's game, to complete the sweep, it was A.J. Burnett burning the Mariners away one-by-one with his high heat (See what I did there?). Constantly reaching 96 MPH on the radar gun at the Centre, Burnett looked phenomenal in his first three innings, not allowing a baserunner until hitting Jose Vidro in the third. Not only that, but he struck out five in the first two, including the ever-so-hard-to-K Ichiro. But in all honesty, the air-show must confuse such tiny-brained adolescents. Not like Ichiro is stupid, he's just small-brained-- only natural from the three foot tall Gold-Glove centre fielder.

Jeff Weaver was a different story, giving up two-run dingers to Gregg Zaun in the second and Matt Stairs in the third, along with a good old fashion batted-in run to give him five earnies on the night in just three very pathetic innings of work. In the fourth, after he already put two runners on in the inning, with M's manager MacLaren on the mound, Mariners' starter Jeff Weaver mouthed off to the manager, who took over as manager for Mike Hargrove on July 1st. I thought it would be another Lilly-Gibbons type fight like last year, but (un)fortunately not.

On a different note, I was near the dugout looking for players to sign my hat like I do sometimes (today Jesse Litsch, Curtis Thigpen and Blue-Jay great Jesse Barfield signed it) I saw J.P. going into the dugout so I yelled out, "Hey J.P., throw me a ball!" The only baseballs even close to him were out of his way, so it was kind of a stupid question, but nonetheless he blurted out, "But I don't have any balls!" Oh, good fun.

Not So Far Behind

Burnett's win today puts the Jays only 5.5 back of the Wild Card leaders, The New York Yankees. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, because it isn't very likely, but the Jays actually do have a shot at winnings the wild card for a playoff berth. Here are the numbers:

We have 26 games left on the regular season.
That includes twelve home games and fourteen road games.
We face the Yankees seven times, three times at home.
We have nine series' left.
Four of those series' are versus sub-.500 teams.

With the Yankees' pitchers dropping like flies of the zipping variety, and their offense winding down, their remaining 25 games will probably be a struggle; they only have ten more home games, too.

Hypothetically, if the Yankees play .500 ball from now to the rest of the season (+1 win because it's an odd number), the Jays would need a 19-7 record to tie them and get any hopes of a playoff berth. That's not too impossible is it? If we keep sweeping teams we'll have a not-so-terrible chance.

Call-Up Season... Oh Well

2007-08-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-28T15:52:00.000-07:00

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.

Jays Clobber A's... For Real This Time

2007-08-25T21:25:00.002-07:00

Well, not the A's, exactly. But they can be called the A's if you're that ignorant...

...Anyway. The Jays were great in their 9-2 win versus the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, or as I like to call them, the LAAoA. It's much shorter, almost.

Shaun Marcum wasn't at his best, but he did pretty well overall. Going 6 innings allowing only 2 runs, Marcum pitched himself in and out of jams all night, but he never got into too much trouble, obviously.

In all honesty, without the help of some good old-fashioned Jays defence, he would have surrendered four runs to the hands of the Angels. Rios started a great relay when he threw out Kendry Morales at the plate in the second for his team-leading 11th outfield assist of the season to keep it a 2-run ballgame.

In the bottom of the fourth, V-Dub threw out Howie Kendrick trying to advance from first to third. Awesomely enough, Zaun informed the homeplate umpire that Maicer Izturis (who was at second) didn't touch homeplate before Kendrick was tagged out at third and the run didn't count.

Cool Guy of the Game

Before the game, Troy Glaus was 0-for-16 at Angel Stadium as a visiting player, as Jamie Campbell constantly, very annoyingly kept on pointing out. But that all ended in a 3-for-5 2 RBI night, a triple shy of the cycle. It's also worth pointing out that it didn't appear that his foot was bothering him, like it has for the last couple days.

Gregg Zaun wins the Co-Cool Guy of the Game Award, in his 1000th career game with his parents in attendance. He went 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs and one amazingly played run. He also made a great heads-up play at the plate when he called that Howie Kendrick was tagged out at third before the non-chalantly jogging Maicer Izturis touched home plate.

The Good

Shaun Marcum did pitch well, even though he wasn't at his best.

Troy Glaus was excellent, finishing a triple shy of the cycle and getting his 17th homerun of the year.

I didn't expect much of this series, considering we're bad on the road and the Angels are excellent at home. But we won two already, amazing considering the circumstances.

Reed Johnson lead off the game with a double, making it 32 consecutive games with a double, a new team record. There were six other doubles in the game, including a back-to-back-to-back rally in the ninth by Glaus, Hill and Zaun.

Ha ha, Joe Saunders got his second loss of the season. The first one came two starts ago versus the Jays as well.

The Bad

Marcum wasn't at his best, but he didn't have to be considering his team backed him up.

The Angels scored in the first inning for the third straight game when Reggie Willits lead off with a double and Orlando Cabrera drove him in with a single.

Rios went 0-for-5, his third straight game without a hit, the longest streak for him this season. As Pat Tabler commented on, he didn't look comfortable at all at the plate. He's 0-for-12 in his last three starts.

The Ugly

Nada.

Oh So Disappointing

2007-08-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

It's so disappointing when Roy Halladay could've had his third straight complete game victory if the bats woke the fuck up. In his previous start, he pitched 9 innings of 2 run ball but walked away with a no-decision because the offense couldn't get more than 2 runs themselves. This start was no exception; he went the full 8 innings yet because the Jays couldn't get 3 fucking runs he got a complete game loss.

You gotta feel sympathy for the Doc, it's almost too bad that he doesn't hit too, considering his .500 AVG... The thing is that he's just a pitcher, whether the defence or the offence performs effectively or ineffectively, Halladay can't fix it-- even if he is the doctor.

He pitched the whole game in hopes that the Jays' bats would eventually come alive...

...surprise, they didn't.

The SOBAs

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

...Gregg Zaun. He called a great game but he left 3 on base, including two in the ninth. Zaun didn't really do that badly to be honest, but he was the worst of all the bats... unfortuantely.

The Good

Halladay was great, straight up amazing. His major-league leading sixth complete game of the season was his second complete game loss

The Bad

Don't be surprised that the Jays went 0-for-7 with RISP on the road. Don't even act it. It happens all the fucking time because no coach seems to motivate anybody.

The Ugly

The offence was pretty fucking ugly. Circus-fucking-ugly.

"Holy Handgrenades Bat-Boy! The Defence Was Effective?!"

2007-08-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

"Why yes, yes it was."

It was the third straight start that Jesse "Robin" Litsch got an unearned run because of the bad defence backing him up. Fortunately, this time it was only one and he still got the W. With a shaky start, including an error charged to Ray Olmedo (although replays showed that the runner was still out despite Olmedo dropping the ball) Litsch gave up two runs and we all thought, "fuck, not again." Litsch being the soldier-figure he is took it like a man and settled down right away.

It was a totally different story for the Angels' starter Ervin Santana... the very same Santana that nearly got traded for the Jays' lone all-star Alex Rios. Santana started strong but melted down later to straighten his numbers out and put up a nice 5 on the board to raise his ERA above 6.00.

Admittedly, I wasn't confident about this game. Not only was my least favourite starter on the mound (I still like him though, just not as much as the other four) but my two favourite players, Rios and McDonald, got the day off. The fill-ins did great though; Matty Stairs and Ray Olmedo. Matt Stairs provided the much-needed run support for Litsch and Olmedo provided the defence, although he did make an error to give Litsch an unearned run for the third straight start.

Stairs belted a 2-run double into the right-centre field gap in the fifth, and immediately after advanced to third on a wild pitch and came home on the air-mailed throw of C Ryan Budde. Olmedo made a number of great defensive plays, the first was in the first where he dropped the ball and still managed to beat ther unner to the bag, but because the first-base-umpire missed the call and Olmedo got charged with an error. He also made a play where he took a sharply hit ball on the backhand and spun around to throw out the runner. The big play was in the seventh when Maicer Izturis was on second and 1B Quinlan grounded to Olmedo. Being the daredevil-risky-yet-confident guy Olmedo is he threw to third to get Quinlan for the second out. The next batter, Ryan Budde, singled.

Also, Zaun had a brand new stylish blue chest protector. Oh Zaun, you do impress.

The Good

The defence was finally effective behind Litsch and so was the offense. One of those rare road games where everything actually worked.

Litsch pitched a great game, going six and a third allowing only 2 earnies for his 5th win of the season/ his career. Despite a shaky start loaded with bad control of his cutter (his best pitch) Litsch settled down quickly to shut down the Angels.

Fuck effective, the defence was finger-lickin-good. Not only was The Wizard Johnny Mac's replacement, Olmedo great defensively but so was Aaron Hill-- which we haven't seen much of lately. Troy Glaus even made a great play or two... Reed Johnson also made a bonerific play in left where he dove and spread out completely to take away extra bases from Garrett Anderson.

V-Dub, Stairs and Overbay each got doubles, extending the team's doubles-streak to 30 games. If somebody doubles in tonights game they will tie the team record.

The Bad

I don't see why Troy was in the lineup, he's obviously still in pain, he limped back to the dugout when he grounded out.

The Ugly

Really just Litsch's rough start, but he did settle down which was pretty.

Jays Clobber A's

2007-08-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

...I wish.

It was another disappointing start from an M&M boy, McGowan this time (pictured smelling himself). He pitched worse than his line indicates, he went 5 innings of 3 run ball, but he walked four and usually fell behind in counts from the get-go. This really made me think, though...

Can the rotation be based on the models that the pitchers set? Marcum mentioned that he pays attention to what Halladay does, and usually succeeds the day after because he took mental notes on Halladay's game. Is it possible that McGowan pitches well when he takes mental notes about Marcum's game? No, you're dumb.

They're both great, granted, but I think it's the different A's style that threw off the young right-handers. Let's hope a veteran pitcher in A.J. Burnett can set an example...

Tip of the Night: if you're gonna sneak food into the Centre, don't sit near the aisles. That lesbian bitch in field level gave me shit for it when she walked down the aisle between innings.

"All I brought in was this coke, that's okay right?" "WRONG"

The SOBAs

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

...who else? Brian Tallet. You clumsy son-of-a-bitch, go back to Cleveland. You're not wanted here. On a totally unrelated note, the Jays' record when Tallet's in the game is an astonishing 10-31; he obviously wasn't to blame for all 31 losses, but he did take 3 of them... the other 28 were Towers' fault.

The Good

Frank Thomas took the lead in the Jays' homerun race with his 20th and 21st homeruns of the season... and we were disappointed in him...

Vernon got a homerun too, his long awaited 15th to tie Matt Stairs on the team... hoorah? I don't know if that counts as a good thing.

Yet another double, that's 28 straight games.

Yet another amazing fucking play from Johnny Mac, a sliding over-the-shoulder Willy Mays-type holy-fuck play in foul grounds.

The Bad

The bullpen, our most reliable bullpen, gave up the lead. Fuckin' Tallet, stop sucking.

McGowan pitched pretty crappy, even though he was an inning away from a quality start. I think Gibbs should've left him in, and put Wolfe in the next inning. McGowan was on a roll, retiring the last 9 batters he faced before he was pulled with 95 pitches. By the way, he averages about 102 pitches each start.

We didn't do well at all with RISP, going 0-for-10. Every run scored was by a homerun.

The Ugly

Brian Tallets ugly-ass pitching. I understand why Gibbs put Tallet in rather than Downs versus Swisher. Swisher would turn to the right side and Tallet has been good against righties this year, but in reality Tallet sucks when it's his turn to save the game, even versus righties. He choked against Juan Uribe in Chicago, and he choked against Nick Swisher in Toronto.

Michael Vick's situation. Holy crap, what a sick bastard. I hope he never plays again.

It Ain't Complete 'til It's Complete... or Other Variations

2007-08-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

Extra inning wins are always great, because they're guaranteed walk-offs, which are nice since we're lacking them this year (not a single walk-off homerun this season). Roy Halladay pitched a great ballgame to keep us in it, even though he had a shaky third to give the O's a 2-0 lead for a whole inning. I bet we got their hopes us too...

Anyway, with Aaron Hill's walkoff sac fly, that gives us our 6th extra ining victory this season and a series win over the O's after the Jays fucked it up for everybody last night with their gloves. Troy Glaus homered for the first time since July 22nd and still, amazingly, is on pace for the crappiest season of his career; not counting his injury-plagued seasons where he played >70 games of course.

Kevin Manson

Is it just me, or does Kevin Millar look like Marilyn Monroe with his crappy crappy paintjob?

Why not?

Why haven't we resigned anybody like Matt Stairs or John McDonald yet, they're MVPs, in a sense. Fuck J.P., hurry the fuck up.

Tip of the Night: if you're going to buy a whole pizza at the Centre, make absolutely sure you and friends can finish it. You can't fit the box in the garbage cans and it's a bitch to carry around.

The Good

The Jays, believe it or not, were great with runners on-- only two were left on base, and only once were runners left in scooring position with two ut: when V-Dub doubled Rios home in the fifth he was stranded with the Big Hurt at-bat.

Troy Glaus finally got a fucking homerun...

No errors? Really? Cool! Now it's 9 errors in our last seven games, hoorah.

Usually, every other game Johnny Mac makes another strangely erotic play-- but today, would be no exception. I go to games to watch him flash the leather now, it's that good. He stabbed the ball and threw out Ramon Hernandez at first with ease... also, he made a crazy heads-up play when he cut-off a throw from Rios and caught J.R. House rounding too much at first base.

Yet another double, coming off the bat of Vernon, to extend the streak to 26 games with at least one double. 31 is the club-record.

Halladay was his usual exceptional self, pitching nine innings of two-run ball...

The Bad

Halladay was his usual exceptional self, pitching nine innings of two-run ball... but because the Jays couldn't solve Jeremy Guthrie he didn't get his well deserved 15th win of the season, or his 6th complete game of the season; second in a row.

The Ugly

Nada. In fact, I'd say this game was overall very sexy.

Unearned v.2.0

2007-08-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Today's game kind of reminded me of the expansion Tampa Bay D-Rays... it's pitiful. We really should've won that game-- three unearned runs? Are you fuckin' kidding me? I don't know what it is with Rojo, but the team must have something against him when they play defense. Now in back-to-back starts he's given up three unearned runs because his defence let him down. What the fuck guys?! We're supposed to be some amazing defensive team, not the holder of the fourth most errors in the AL with 79.

Overbay's defense is way down. Hill's defense is way down. Wells' defense is way down. Fuck guys, do you have daddy issues or something? Overbay's usually a great defender but he's made two errors in two games, fuck. Hill's defense is way down, which I'm really starting to think is because of his knee that was hurting in the all-star break for unknown reasons.

I love the Jays, honest I do, but the way they've been playing defensively I can honestly say they don't love me back. What good is effective pitching if the defense is standing there with their fingers in their mouths?

Anyway, enough ragging on the Jays, it makes me feel bad.

The Good

I love these little offensive explosions that we keep having, it gets my hopes up...

We did manage to get another two doubles, so that keeps the streak going, 25 straight games with a double.

Yet another bonerific play from Johnny Mac The Wizard when he blocked the baserunner from sliding into second base with his knee so he could apply the tag. Paint that shit gold.

Matt Stairs got a homerun, now he's tied with Troy Glaus with 15...

The Bad

Matt Stairs got a homerun, now he's tied with Troy Glaus with 15... what the fuck! Troy Glaus get your head out of your ass and hit some slobberknockers, as Jim Lang of Sportsnet would say.

Our gloves are still faulty, fuck.

The Ugly

Our defense, obviously, was pretty damn ugly. Renee Zellweger ugly-- and that's pretty damn ugly. In fact, I'm too pissed off to write any more.

Big Hurtin

2007-08-18T00:05:00.000-07:00

Damn we're lookin' good on the mound. A.J. turned in his second quality start in a row since coming off the DL, and even got some run support off the bat of the Big Hurt. Before rookie left-hander Garrett Olson could even record an out in the 3rd he'd already given up 5 runs in the inning, three of which came off the bat of Frank Thomas in his 19th homerun of the season. Burnett was great again, going 6.1 IP only allowing two runs. In my oppinion, what he did best was keep the first two batters off the basepaths, Brian Roberts and Gary Patterson, so they couldn't steal any bases. Although, Roberts did get a solo-homerun in the fifth...

All-in-all though the Jays weren't that great for a winning team. Only hitting 3-for-17 with RISP? Un-fucking-acceptable. I find it ridiculous that at this point in the season I'm still ragging on the Jays' offense-- Mickey Brantley, you should be fired. J.P. Ricciardi does frequently hint that Brantley's job is in jeopardy, but in reality we all know that Brantley's going to keep his job; afterall, as J.P. would say, nobody knows the hitters as well as Brantley does. Fuck that. Jesse Barfield or George Bell, at least an ex-Blue Jay, should take his job in the offseason... or earlier.

Big Pimpin

Alex Rios, you are such a fucking pimp. Look at these pictures:

Good work buddy.

The Good

Frank Thomas went deep, the first homerun in 49 innings. What the fuck?!?! And we call ourselves a power-hitting club, pfft-- we're a doubles hitting club.

That's the 6th straight quality start from Blue Jays starters, and A.J. Burnett's still doing great coming off the DL, 2-0 with a 1.98 ERA. Damn our starters are kick-ass...

Johnson and Rios got doubles, meaning that's 24 straight games with at least one double; holy crap.

The Bad

Only 3-for-17 with RISP? Are you fucking with me? Damn... we're so lucky we won.

We left 13 runners on too! Fucking ridiculous.

Curtis Thigpen, or Thiggy as I like to call him, left 4 runners on and went hitless... but he's still cooler than Zaun.

The Ugly

Thiggy's defence was pretty shaky, I must admit. But he's never caught Burnett and that curveball would be un-fucking-believably hard to catch. I guess it just wasn't his day.

Bad News and Worse News

2007-08-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

It was another nail-biter for the Jays today-- unfortunately we were on the losing end of it, a 4-3 loss to the Angels. McGowan pitched well enough to win, but the offense really couldn't solve the Angels' Kelvim Escobar. There were a couple opportunities where players made small mistakes that cost them runs, like in the first; Reed Johnson lead off with a single, and with an aggressive mindset decided to steal second. On the second pitch, with Johnson going, Overbay took the the other way into shallow left-centre field. Johnson, meanwhile, didn't hesitate to run all the way to third. Stupid move, Reed. The ball was too close to advance all the way to third, ya should've stayed at second. He was thrown out by a mile.

Anyway, overall the Jays played pretty well for a losing team. They hit the ball hard and even managed to rally a couple times, including in the bottom of the ninth to qualify this game as yet another nail-biter. Oh Jesus, if I bit my nails, they would be no more. These last few games have been close and crazy, n'est-ce pas? (I hope my French was spot-on) Anyway, after Rios struck out to start the bottom of the ninth, V-Dub hit a triple into the right-centre field gap (for the record, as he rounded second I was like, "No you idiot! Vlad has a crazy arm!" but V-Dub being the daredevil he is took it the extra mile, er... 90 feet for the triple) and that's when the rally began. All in all, the Jays scored 2 runs before, with Glaus at third, Matt Stairs lined out to centre to end it.

The SOBAs

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

...both Lyle Overbay and Alex Rios. Yes, Lyle did go 2-4 but he also killed us with his error in the seventh. Krotchman or however you spell it grounded a ball right to Lyle's left, a simple play. Unfortunately Lyle chose the wrong time to give us his impression of Billy Buckner and fuck it all up. It went under his glove and into right field, with Matthews running to second. Then, Krotchman ran to second base, and Matthews ran to third. Rios threw it back to Overbay, and he still couldn't catch it, so Matthews jogged home so non-chalantly I wanted to smack him. The next batter, Maicer Izturis then singled Krotchman home. If Lyle could've caught the ball once, we could've prevented the runs.

Rios, on the other hand is handed a SOBA because of his lack of production at the plate and he technically did make an error, even though Lyle Overbay should've caught the damn ball. He went 0-for-4 and didn't get on base once, the first time since July 31st. He also left 3 batters on base, and struck out twice, the first time he struck out since August 8th.

The Worse News

It looks as if everybody's favourite bald kid's season is over, and maybe his career with the Blue Jays. Still experiencing trouble with his left shoulder, it looks as if Gustavo Chacin will undergo exploratory surgery ending the season, and possibly his career with the Jays. With the emergence of young'ns like Jesse Litsch, Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan, along with relievers Casey Janssen, Scott Downs, Jeremy Accardo and the Big Bad Wolfe, it seems Gustavo might be used as trade bait in the offseason if necessary. Retardo had this to say about Chacin:

"We're trying to find out if we need to have exploratory surgery in his shoulder, he's probably going down that road. We've done everything we possibly can do and we're getting to a different stage now, we just need to take a different course. When you exhaust all the things you're supposed to do and it doesn't work out, you've got to try to find another [option].

Tip of the Night: don't drink warm Heineken, it tastes like yak piss. Just sayin'...

Towers Still With the Jays

Speaking of yak piss, it seems Josh Towers will remain a Jay until the end of the season, what a shame. The Rockies looked interested in him, but they instead made a deal with the Twins for Ramon Ortiz in exchange for a minor leaguer by the name of Matt Macri.

This almost definitely means that there's no chance of seeing Towers in a Colorado jersey. Fuck. Just a thought, wouldn't it have been great if the last time Towers pitched for the Jays was when he hit A-Roids?

The Good

Well, we almost won it. We rallied in the end but came up short, not bad versus one of the best relievers in the game...

Mic pitched well tonight, his sixth quality start in a row, and thirteenth of the season. Unfortunately it was also his second straight loss because of a lack of run support...

The Big Bad Wolfe pitched out of a jam in the seventh to save Dustin from allowing another run-- it was mostly Maicer Izturis' idiocy that saved it, though. When someobdy (I forget, shut up) showed bunt, and popped it straight up and into Gregg Zaun's glove, Izturis ran like a dumbass and got doubled up at second base for the double play. Wolfe pitched another inning as well, lowering his ERA to a sexy sexy 1.82.

Also, after the game we optioned down Hector Luna after he sucked ass this whole time. Mind you, there's only one person that's in the position to be brought up now, which brings me to the bad...

The Bad

Russ Adams was called up from AAA. Why God why?!

The Jays couldn't hit with runners in scoring position and really didn't seize the opportunities they were offered, it's like they're on the road all over again!

Errors from Lyle Overbay and Alex Rios (technically his error, but Lyle shouldn't have cut it off, he ran infront of it... nobody was going to move anyway, Lyle) opened doors for two add-on runs right after we cut the lead in half.

The Ugly

Overbay's fucking glove was pretty ugly, God-damnit. That really cost us the game, Lyle...

My Nails Are Bitten Already!

2007-08-16T00:07:00.001-07:00

Yet another nail-biter-of-a-win for the Blue Jays, a 2-1 win over the Angels. Wow, that was really close. If it weren't for some key defensive plays from Gregg Zaun, John McDonald, Casey Janssen and Lyle Overbay (I'll get to that later) we might've lost-- it would've definitely been tied at least. Shaun Marcum was fantastic, like usual, only allowing one earnie on four hits and one walk in 7+ innings. He also struck out 6 innings and oh, he made the Angels his bitch.

The first great play came when Gregg Zaun threw out Chone Figgins, who stole 33 bases already. That the second time he threw out a runner in two nights! The great play wasn't just Zaun's throw, though, it was also John McDonald's tag-- another boner-inducing play from the glove of The Wizard Johnny Mac. Directly afterward, Orlando Cabrera singled to left. If Zaun didn't throw Figgins out, it would have been a tie ballgame.

Once Marcum was pulled in the 8th after walking the first batter, Angels' SS Erick Aybar, Casey Janssen came in and threw a strike to Lyle Overbay, who tagged Aybar out for the pickoff; another fine play from the Blue Jays...

The next great play came in the 9th. With nobody out and a runner at first, this is when it qualified as a nail-biter. But, Gary Matthews, Jr. then hit a linedrive directly into the glove of Overbay, who non-shalantly stepped on first base to double up the runner and just like that, there were two out. If that ball skips by Lyle, the runner probably would have scored; like the Beetles say, "All you need is glove..." Oh, so punny.

The Good

Shaun Marcum was excellent once again, improving his record to 10-4 and his ERA to 3.31, eighth best in the AL.

Alex Rios picked up yet another multi-hit game going 3-for-4. Its his fourth straight and seventh in nine games. His average is a very impressive .314 now.

Gregg Zaun did manage to throw out Chone Figgins, one of the best base stealers in the business.

The Bad

The Jays managed to get only one run in the second inning, although they were in a bases loaded with none out situation. Gregg Zaun happened to ground into a weakly-hit double play, and John McDonald couldn't score Troy Glaus from third.

The Ugly

Sometimes I feel like punching fellow Jays fans in the face. In the eighth when Casey Janssen walked a batter, fans in right field started booing him! What the fuck? Are these confused individuals so utterly incompetent that they fail to understand who they're cheering for, or can they just not grasp the fact that pitchers don't always get a batter out, and they're not completely perfect.

Aaron Hill made another error, which makes me wonder what happened to his defence? I don't know if I'm the first to think this, but has his defence been down since the all-star break? Maybe it's that knee injury he never got placed on the DL for...

Damnit, That Game Took FOREVER

2007-08-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's another disappointing outing from the Jays' worst pitcher, Roy Halladay. Not only was he horrible, like usual, but he was also so slow. God Halladay, get your act together... you don't even have a complete game yet!

In all seriousness, Halladay was great like usual, throwing the full 9 innings, only throwing 99 pitches and it all took less than 2 hours. In his 5th complete game of the year, he allowed only 5 hits and one run, dipping his ERA below 4.00. Oddly, he only struck out 2 batters, but that really just kept his pitch-count down. The offense wasn't bad, either, although they only had 8 hits and two runs, they kept the line moving as well as possible. The Angels' defence definitely helped, though, having commited 4 errors. Rios had 3 singles and a run-- oh, and was caught stealing.

In other news, Troy Glaus was out of the lineup for a second straight day with a hurting foot. Why does God hate the Jays? Right when he starting coming out of his slump his foot starts hurting and he can't play. Why?!?! Now Hector Luna, the equivalent to the 2006 Russ Adams, is playing third base; how humiliating.

Chone Shakur

Chone Figgins looks like Tupac, that's all I'm sayin'...

The Good

We won versus a great AL West team, which we don't do that well.

Roy Halladay was excellent, showing that he's still capable of winning awards for his pitching; what a cool guy. He got his league-leading 5th complete game as well.

The defence was a complete turn-around; it was pretty damn good compared to the 3-error game last night against the Royals.

Rios went 3-for-4 and is batting .636 (7-for-11) in his last 3 games. He hasn't gone two straight games without a hit since July 15th in Boston.

The Bad

There wasn't much, except that we didn't score past the first inning... we really didn't need to though.

The Ugly

Nada.

Unearned

2007-08-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

You have to be shitting me! Did the teams switch around or something 'cause this is outrageous! Not only did the Royals tack on more runs on Litsch than everybody's favourite blue birds put on a 5.87 ERA starter in Perez, but the Royals played good defence, and the Jays looked like kids!

I'm sure everybody remembers that movie that doesn't exist where two personalities just switch in a matter of minutes, and everythings just fucked up... oh yeah, that movie does exist! Freaky Friday! But this game was different in the fact that I didn't watch it for the sole purpose of seeing Lohan's huge tits.

I can't even remember the last time I got angry at the Jays' defence, but today was a different story. One error, I can handle-- hell, even two! Three or more is un-fuckin-acceptable. Not only did two great defenders in Aaron Hill and Lyle Overbay make errors, but Hector "look-at-me, I'm-a-useless-motherfuck" Luna made one too, making me dispise him even more than I already do.

We have a hell of a lot of infield prospects, why did we bother picking him up? It cost us Howie Clark, who was really great defensively, and he hasn't contributed one bit. I just can't wait until September when Sergio Santos has the opportunity to play in the bigs, show his stuff. The First-round pick belted 17 homeruns this year in AA and is expected to be called up in September for a cup of coffee along with catcher Robinzon Diaz.

Anyway, in a different matter, Josh Towers is being sought after by many clubs including the Colorado Rockies. On Sunday, the Rockies sent RHP Tim Harikkala to work versus the Cubs because they couldn't trade for a starter in time. Reports say that they're looking at trading for either Towers or Orioles' veteran right-hander Steve Trachsel as they both have cleared waivers. Towers could be traded in the next several days. Although, the Jays probably won't get much in return so don't get too excited. Remember that Towers is just a mediocre pitcher and is only signed through this year, so the Rockies won't be willing to give up much for him, maybe a semi-promising prospect.

On the note of trading players, let me get this clear as many people have talked to me about this recently. All the time I hear from so many people that A.J. Burnett should be traded, and I'm really hoping that after yesterday's near flawless effort those people might come to their senses and shut the fuck up. A.J. Burnett will stay in Toronto, period. He's a great pitcher when healthy, and it's a shame he isn't healthy more often. But, for that same reason, we can't trade him. Think about it, teams won't trade much for a pitcher that might be on the DL for 75% of the season. Also, with Toronto's luck, the year he leaves he won't go on the DL once and win the Cy Young with flying colours, it's bound to happen.

The SOBAs

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

Frank Thomas, almost unanimously. The Big Hurt had 4 AB, in one of them he got a double, fantastic. In the other three, however, he left runners in scoring position with two out, including once striking out with the bases loaded, and two out. Plus, I'm sure if he wasn't a DH he'd have an error too...

Just Sayin'...

I know I'm not the first to be pissed off that Aaron Hill wasn't in the All-Star game, even though it was so long ago, but I just wanted to note that Hanley Ramirez and Eric Byrnes, the only two players with at least 15 homeruns and 30 stolen bases, weren't in the all-star game either-- Hanley's also an MVP candidate. So don't feel too bad that Hill didn't make it.

The Good

Well, despite losing, Litsch pitched a pretty good ballgame. He did allow 5 runs, but only two were earned because he really didn't get any help from his defence.

There were actually a few good defensive plays; one by Alex Rios in the first when he pretended to be running slowly to the ball so that David DeJesus would try to stretch and single into a double, but then he sped up and threw a strike to Johnald McDonald to tag him out by a mile. What a ninja. The second good defensive play was by, who else? The Wizard! He dove for a ball and threw out the runner from his knees. Paint that shit gold.

The Bad

Not only did we lose but we lost to the Royals! We needed to take at-least 3-of-4 and we didn't, what a bitch, eh?

Frank Thomas couldn't come up in the clutch, at all. He came up three times with two outs and runners in scoring position and still couldn't produce. The team as whole, though, couldn't produce with RISP, like always on the road.

Vernon missed yet another ball he would've gotten last year, and it ended up being a 2-run triple in the favour of Ross Gload.

The Ugly

Our defence, as a whole, was awful. Hector Luna and Lyle Overbay made errors on very easy plays, and they both were very costly. Aaron Hill's error wasn't as bad, the ball was hit sharply and Hill just couldn't catch it on the short-hop. If we didn't make any errors, we would have gone into extra innings in theory. That really just kicks you in the ass.

Welcome Back Burney

2007-08-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

After his second stint on the DL, Burnett finally returned and became victorious over the Royals. Through 7.1 innings Burnett only allowed one earnie, a homerun to up-and-coming third baseman Alex Gordon. Burnett was so pissed off because of it too, haha. A.J. only threw 90 pitches however, which is outstanding for 7.1 IP-- it was probably better on his shoulder too.

Glaus continued to come out of his slump going 2-for-4, Overbay also continued to come out going 3-for-5 with 2 doubles and 2 RBIs. Thomas, however, seems to be cooling down, considering he was 0-for his last 8 AB, two games.

Oh yeah, and we won 4-1

Big Bad Wolfe

Damnit, how can you not love this guy? He has the lowest ERA among all relievers, and he totally owns righties, holding them to a .128 average.

Other than that one blip where he surrendered a game-winning homerun to a wristless Carl Crawford, he's been really reliable, and we got him for practically nothing! Only Corey Koskie, which is just about worthless anyway.

Mark 'em Dead

2007-08-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

It's no surprise that Shaun Marcum was as spectacular as he was last night in Kansas City, afterall he was pitching in front of friends and family. Sure, he got the jitters in the first, walking DeJesus to leadoff the game, but after that he was downright fantastic, allowing one hit in 6.2 IP. And as much as I don't like Darrin Fletcher (I don't know why, he's a great guy, he just pisses me off) I think he had a point when he said that giving up that hit was all for the best. If he retired him, he'd still have to leave the game because of his leg problem, but he'd still have a no-hitter intact.

All in all, a win is a win, and because of Johnny Mac's amazing defence, Marcum picked up his 9th win of the year when The Wizard barehanded a flip from Aaron Hill to get the runner at second and make a strong throw to first to get the runner by mere steps. If the runner at first wasn't called out, the runner on third would have scored and tied the game, meaning Marcum couldn't have gotten the win.

Vernon Wells hit a two-run double into the left-centre field gap for all of the Jays' scoring, Rios and Overbay came in to count. All in all, the offence was good, even though only two runs got scored... every starter got at least a hit-- except for, of course, Troy Glaus.

Damnit Troy Glaus, I don't know what's wrong with you but it's pissing me off anyhow. You were hitting around .290, on pace for a respectable year at least, but hey-- maybe Glaus just feels more comfortable hitting around .250? Bullshit, he just can't see the ball to save his life. Popups and strikeouts; it's hard to think that he's only 31, he looks like he needs a cane to stay balanced. I thought Gibbs would be smart and bench him yesterday, give him two days off to rest like he did with Frank Thomas (except Thomas had 3) and look how he's turned out. Yesterday marked the first time since August 1st that the Big Hurt didn't drive somebody in, that's insane. Also since August 1st, he's raised his average from .249 to .266, a respectable average for an aged power hitter.

Hell, Thomas is one of the few Blue Jays that hasn't missed any games due to injury. And we were worried about his health... Haha.

Somewhat Slumping

Rios is hitting the ball well, yes, batting .444 in his last 9 AB, but strangely enough he hasn't had a homerun in 16 games. Strangely enough, Rios' last 5 HR came on series openers. Isn't that strange at all? No, you're dumb.

Wells is in the same situation. Although he's hitting well average wise, he hasn't had a homerun in 15 games. However, in those last 15 games he has 16 RBIs because he's hitting so well with runners in scoring position.

Tonight's Matchup

Today features Dustin McGowan versus the 23-year old rookie right hander Leo Nunez. Nunez is a relief pitcher, though, and although his ERA is only 1.93, he's only played 3 games; 2 starts. McGowan will be looking for his fourth straight quality start and ninth win of the season.

Payback, Bitches...

2007-08-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

Now THIS is payback. Not only did we win 15-4, but we injured A-Rod! HA! Think twice before you fuck with the Jays Roidsy. Really, I think it was just Matt Stairs that won the game, really. It was obvious he was pissed off about yesterday, considering his sit on the Gatorade keg. Hell, even Johnny Damon did that today... what a copycat bitch. Matty hit two doubles before striking out, ending a 5-consecutive doubles run-- a Jays record, by the way.

A-Rod sat out tonights game; his excuse? "Well, my leg still hurts," A-Rod said, "and I don't want to risk hurting it again. Josh Towers is a big bully and I have a vagina." ...alright, maybe he didn't say that but he sent that message of course.

You gotta be impressed with the Jays' approach tonight, not aiming for the fences but just hitting doubles and keeping the line moving--small ball, and they won 15-4, no surprise. Frank Thomas was excellent, going 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs and 1 run... oh, and he also had 2 of the 9 doubles, a Jays record.

Troy Glaus, on the other hand, is just disappointing still. He was the only Jay without a hit, and one of only two Jays not to get an RBI (the other being leadoff man Matt Stairs). Overbay broke out of his slump though, going 3-for-5 with 3 runs, 1 RBI and a double.

The Good

We made the Yankees our bitch. Period. Halladay was fantastic, our offence was unbelievable and our defence even was still it's normal great. Great game overall... and A-Roid got injured!

The Bad

Was there any bad today? Maybe that Halladay gave up three homeruns, but that's just about it.

The Ugly

Troy Glaus you slumping son-of-a-bitch get a broken bat single and get out of your slump, you're pissing me off.

My Favourite Loss

2007-08-07T20:32:00.001-07:00

Holy crap, that loss was fun. Yeah, we lost, but hey that was hilarious. Not only were there two bench-clearings in one inning-- that's right, two-- but there were like a half a bajillion great defensive plays by Johnny Mac, Aaron Hill, Troy Glaus, Lyle Overbay, Reed Johnson, Alex Rios and definitely not Vernon Wells. God-damnit V-Dub won't win a Gold Glove this year and I hate it.

But, on the bright side, John McDonald might, because he definitely showed up Derek Jeter tonight. Not only did he do his own signature play by sliding, getting up and throwing at the same time, but he also did Jeter's jumping thing that looks great throwing to second to end the inning. He dived, and turned a sure base-hit into a double play. He made the Yankees his bitch tonight and I'm lovin' it.

Hey, another thought, Overbay has a good chance as well. With Teixeira in Atlanta and Mientkie... out for most of the season (maybe the whole season), Lyle Overbay's great defence might be rewarded this year. Really, I wouldn't mind Vernon not getting a Gold-Glove at all, if Overbay and Johnny Mac do instead... maybe Aaron Hill as well, considering how great he's been.

I can't believe I've wrote this much without even mentioning A-Roids. In the 3rd, A-Rod got hit by a pitch in the kneecap, and immediately walked towards JT, obviously trying to mask his homosexuality. It's only natural, no man wants to admit he's a dirty bitch; I could see him yelling at Josh Towers, "Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me?" Who the fuck are you? Al Pacino? Shut the fuck up Roidsy. It's funny how manly he acts once Jason Giambi's back, trying to impress a special guy A-Rod? Gregg Zaun and the home plate umpire Angel Hernandez (how the fuck do I remember his name?) held A-Rod and JT back as they exchanged words. The benches cleared, nobody threw a punch, A-Rod walked to first base. Then, JT and the infielders are talking on the mound when A-Rod starts walking towards JT again, yelling, and the benches cleared again. Seriously dumbass, why can't you just shut the fuck up? Damn A-Rod's a douche; this just proves that the Blue Jays and the Yanks just don't get along...

After A-Rod was hit by the pitch, both benches were warned. In the seventh inning, however, Clemens hit Rios in the back with a pitch so Clemens was ejected. Haha, karma's a bitch. Rios scored, along with Vernon Wells, on a Big Hurt double to break up the shutout. That's why you just don't fuck with Rios, bitch. Clemens even fought with the umpire, saying it wasn't intentional. Bitch please, it was obvious you wanted to drill him like you drilled Andy Pettitte-- but in a different sense of course.

You know what would be really great? If A-Roids got a staph infection because of that hit-by-pitch... that would make my day.

Oh, and by the way, Barry Bonds is the new home-run king.

WTF J.P!

Why the hell didn't J.P. trade Royce Clayton, he was designated for assignment God-damnit, don't release him, trade him! Trade him for a prospect, take a chance at least! I think the Jays have something wrong with trading. They didn't trade anybody at the trade deadline when they should've, they don't trade any of the many players they designated for assignment... let's take a look at the DFA club:

Royce Clayton- Released
Jason Phillips- Released
Sal Fasano- Demoted [That's a good idea though, he's great]
Tomo Ohka- Released
Victor Zambrano- Released
Howie Clark- Still DFA

Why not trade any of them? We could pick up prospects! We could've traded both Howie Clark and Royce Clayton for a good prospect, at least! This isn't one of those trades that all these assholes come up with like "trade Russ Adams, Dustin McGowan and a whole bunch of prospects for Johan Santana!"... this is a "let's trade reliable infielders for a young player that might be reliable one day." The Jays really have a problem with trading, don't they?

Record Setting Weekend Report

2007-08-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

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

Back to Square One v.2.0

2007-08-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

The Jays are back to .500-ball with a win over the Texas Rangers on Friday. Roy Halladay threw 6 innings to get the win as the Jays took the first game of the three-game series 6-4. After todays loss, the Rangers are now worse than the Royals... I never thought I'd say that.

In his 6 innings, the Doc struck-out 9, one less than his season-high. On paper, his outing wasn't great, but in reality it was spectacular. He worked his way out of jams and such.

In other new, Ray Olmedo, an infield prospect took the roster spot for Royce Clayton on Friday, he's apparently good at defence but his bat keeps him out of the big-leagues... kinda like Clayton. He's expected to start this weekend.

You Are The Weakest Link; Goodbye!

2007-08-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

FINALLY! Retardo finally decided to designate Royce Clayton for assignment after letting him play for 69 games of "why"'s and "what the fuck!"'s. I'm sure I'm not the first to say, "'bout bloody time!"

Maybe it was his terrible defence against the Devil Rays on Wednesday that made J.P. realize that the "veteran defensive star" that he picked up in the offseason was too old and too terrible to play shortstop.

Johnny Mac The Wizard is now the starting shortstop after he dazzled the Jays with his bat this year, hitting .273 compared to .223 last year. Clayton was hitting .254 with horrible defence, what he was picked up for.

FU JT

2007-08-01T20:59:00.001-07:00

A.J. Burnett seems to be on his way to his return, throwing 61 pitches in a four-inning simulated game in Tropicana Field before the game on Wednesday. A pre-scheduled Minor League rehab assignment was cancelled due to rain. Pitching coach Brad Arnsberg had this to say about the pitcher's performance:

"It was unbelievable, really, his stuff was outstanding. His sinker to both sides of the plate looked really, really good. His four-seamer had power to it and late life, and his curveball was the curveball that everybody knows."

Gibbs said that Burnett should have start one Minor League game before returning to the rotation, but it is possible that Burnett would go straight to the Major League club-- the only problem is who's he going to replace?

Today Josh Towers threw 5.1 innings of crap-ball to take the loss against the D-Rays to raise his ERA to 5.17, the worst ERA of all the pitchers on the active roster. Naturally, when a player is returning to the pitching staff, the worst pitcher is demoted. The worst player in this case is JT, by far.

There are two options for JT at this point, he could go to the minors and be a backup starter for when somebody lands on the DL or he could move to the bullpen and be used for long relief. In the bullpen this year he has been horrible, allowing at least one run in almost every relief appearance-- unacceptable. Sending him to the Minor Leagues, however, would basically mean he's being paid millions of dollars for nothing... "Ya shoulda traded 'im J.P..." "Yeah... yeah, I probably should've..."

J.P. Retarded

2007-07-31T20:37:00.001-07:00

I think we all know what I'm thinking... I'm thinking, "damn J.P., is you stupid?!" Seriously, why the fuck didn't J.P. (pictured) trade for something? I think/hope he's waiting for the offseason to fix this team and make us a serious contender. I'm not one to complain about the team, as I'm a huge Jays fan, but doesn't he want to win?!

There are so many things wrong with our team that are slowing us down and killing our chances of making the playoffs this year;

We have almost no clinch hitters-- Aaron Hill is our clinch hitter... are you kidding me? He hits about .333 with runners in scoring position, which is great, but we need somebody with an amazing average with RISP that can come off the bench. The perfect player in this situation-- Mark Sweeney. He's one of the best pinch-hitters in major-league history, and a free agent next season. Really the only problem with picking him up is that Matt Stairs will be used much less.
Vernon Wells is having the crappiest season of his career in that there are rookies making him look like a minor-leaguer. Not only is he not producing offensively, but his defence is down as well-- he's missed so many balls that last year he would have caught. Case in point: he hasn't make a diving catch all season, but he's made his fair share of diving misses...
Injuries obviously play the largest role in why the Jays are suffering, but even without them we're not the team we were expected to be coming out of spring training. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember that we had an incredible offense and a steady rotation-- not the other way around.

J.P.'s a respectable guy, but he seems to make a hell of a lot of stupid mistakes, like not picking up a shortstop at the trade deadline, as both Clayton and The Wizard John McDonald are free agents after this season.

I don't think I really have to remind anybody, also, that we're overstocked with reliable pitching, and the only solution to that, as said by both me and J.P., is to trade some away. BUT! J.P. didn't trade anybody away, so we're left even more fucked than we were before.

Next time, J.P., could you scootch a couple players to the NL for some prospects? That'd be great...

Man of the Hour = Robin

God-damnit Jesse Litsch you are impressive. Not only did you manage to shut out the Devil Rays, but you gave the bat boy some tips from first-hand experience. Helpful little fuck aren't ya? This calls for a nickname: Robin. It's perfect!

Not only was he a bat boy-- which is punny and illogical, but he looks like a twelve-year old... What a co-incidence! Just like Robin! Yep, just like Robin.

In 6.2 innings, Jesse pitched shutout ball to solidify his spot in the rotation... in theory. The team has to send one starter down to AAA to make room for A.J. Burnett once he returns [FYI, he starts his minor league rehab assignment tonight for Class-A Dunedin] and J.P. stated that it would probably be Jesse Litsch, seeing how he was inconsistent and unexperienced. But since his return to the big leagues, Litsch has been very consistent. In five starts, he's only had one bad outing, where Mariners' 1B Richie Sexson lined a shot at Litsch's right ankle which seemed to have affected his performance. Josh Towers, on the other hand is much more inconsistent; check out these stats:

Since July 3rd when he was recalled from the minors, Litsch has had five starts, sporting a 3-2 record with a crazy 1.73 ERA. In his three wins, his ERA is 0.89. In his two losses, his ERA is 3.17; still very good, and overall very consistent.

In his last five starts, Josh Towers has a 2-2 record with a 4.11 ERA. In his two wins, his ERA is 3.09. In his two losses, his ERA is a bloated 8.18. Who's more inconsistent Mr. Ricciardi??

Say It Ain't So!!

2007-07-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

God-dammit Jeremy Accardo (pictured) you ruin everything! I HATECHU! I just can't wait 'til B.J. Ryan is back and he can close out games for us without us worrying every single time that Accardo's going to fuck it up.

Don't get me wrong, I like Carl Crawford, he's a great baseball player who's on the verge of superstardom, but he's hitting so well against the Jays this year-- .341 with 3 HR and 10 RBI!

Say it ain't so, Carl!

When Crawford hit that homerun, it looked like a simple flyball to centre, and I was all like "cool" but then V-Dub started running back, and then I'm all like "yo!", and once I saw V-Dub look up, I was all like "NoOoOoOoOo!!" in that precise order. We should've won that game; just like every other game.

Brian Wolfe, you've been throwing great out of the 'pen this year. But Crawford's got an injured wrist! Now how do you give up a homerun to a man with the wrist of a prepubescent girl? It just doesn't add up Wolfey.

The Good

McGowan pitched well today, only allowing two runs in six innings.

John McDonald made so many great plays, oh lordy lordy lord... he deserves a Gold-Glove easily. Aaron Hill made a couple great plays as well... all-in-all it was a great game for the middle infielders.

Five Tampa Bay relievers were used, so only three relievers are left before they have to use some on back-to-back days and tomorrow we get to face Edwin Jackson sporting a nifty 2-10 record along with a 7.00 ERA-- undoubtedly the worst starter in the big leagues this season.

The Bad

WE LOST, DON'T YOU PAY ATTENTION?! Man, we almost had it... and we needed the sweep. Hopefully we can get the next two games under our belts, depending on whether or not Josh Towers doesn't screw up.

The Ugly

Jeremy Accardo blew another save, it seems he's blowing a lot lately... saves-wise of course...

Brian Wolfe, who has been so reliable, lost it to a wristless batter... holy crap.

Frank Thomas popped out three times! What the hell is that?

Vernon Wells, if you don't mind... can you please hit a ball further than shallow outfield with a runner at third? Thanks, appreciate it.

Changing His Mind...

Gibbs decided not to send Gustavo Chacin down to AAA-Syracuse afterall, instead putting him back on the 15-Day DL... this means absolutely nothing except that while Chacin is rehabbing in the minors, he'll still be getting paid his Major-League salary... wahoo.

Look Who's Baaaacccckkkk!!

2007-07-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

It looks like he's back people! The Shaun Marcum we all loved to love seems to be back to his un-hittable self-- the ace of the future: Marcum! There's so much hype going around about Dustin McGowan and how good he's been, but what about Marcum? Ever since joining the rotation, his numbers are generally better than Halladays, except the complete game category of course, where Halladay leads the majors. [The Jays also lead the majors with 7: four by Halladay, two by Burnett and one by McGowan.]

In his outing versus the White Sox, he pitched 8 innings allowing only two hits-- unfortunately one of those hits was a homerun to Jermaine Dye, breaking up the shutout. This was his first quality start since July 1st, where he pitched 6.2 innings of shutout ball against the Mariners. In his next outing, Marcum finally proved to be human when he let up 8 runs in 3.1 innings-- raising his ERA from 2.86 to 3.62... he still had the best ERA on the team. In fifteen starts this season, Marcum has pitched eleven quality outings.

Streaking In The Windy City Must Be Drafty

2007-07-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-07-27T20:37:00.001-07:00

...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

2007-07-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

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.

Good = Bad? Apparently

2007-07-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

Josh Towers had another miracle outing on Saturday, which creates a whole lot of trouble for the Jays. I know it's really weird after last years' problems, but this year we're just swamped in good pitching-- too much if you ask me.

We all knew Towers was going to be great again someday-- he has great stuff, but who could've guessed that it would be the same year that so many other young arms pop out and start knocking down the batters in order, over and over again? Like where the hell did McGowan come from? Last year he was just another young pitcher waiting to get comfortable, and nobody knew when he'd finally mature enough to pitch in the big leagues, and it seems now is the time. It has to be the chops... maybe they make him feel more mature... or maybe it's just that he doesn't look like he's twelve anymore and hitters are taking him seriously.

Shaun Marcum, Dustin McGowan, Jesse Litsch and now Josh Towers... We don't have room for Halladay, Burnett and Chacin anymore! There's only one solution now... hit the trading block. But who can you trade? It's such a hard decision!

You can't trade Halladay, he's the face of this team.
You can't trade the young'ns, you never know what you're trading away...
You can't trade Burnett either though, nobody will give up anybody good because of his injury histories and his massive paycheck.

It's things like these that make me realize how fucked we are this season. Ironic that we were so below average in the pitching department and now we're too good. Think of all the pitchers that stepped up and now are a vital part of the pitching staff of Toronto:

Jeremy Accardo - His ERA dropped from 5.35 in 06 to 2.72 and he's now the closer for 07.
Casey Janssen - ERA dropped from 5.07 in '06 to 2.38, now the setup man effectively.
Scott Downs - ERA dropped from 4.09 in '06 to 2.41, now full-time lefty specialist.
Shaun Marcum - ERA dropped from 5.06 in '06 to 3.73 and he has a 3.26 ERA starting.
Dustin McGowan - ERA dropped from 7.24 in '06 to 4.83.
Jesse Litsch - Called up from AA on May 15th and has a 4.54 ERA since.
Josh Towers - ERA dropped from 8.42 in '06 to 4.97 and it's still dropping.

Now where does that leave A.J. Burnett? He has outstanding stuff, but he gets injured so often and he has such a large bank acount he can't be traded for much in return. How 'bout Chacin? He's only been a starter since 2004, he might not be comfortable in the bullpen.

In reality, we have to trade somebody, we don't have a choice. But all we can do is trade Burnett and emaybe Zaun to get a good starting catcher under contract for a few more years.

Missing Out on an MVP Season

We all know that Alex Rios is as good at baseball as a cumquat is at being hilarious, but he still isn't reaching his full potential. Because Gibbs isn't letting Rios steal more bases this season, he's missing out on an MVP-type season.

Let's flash back to last year, where David Ortiz, Derek Jeter and Justin Morneau were all in contention for the AL MVP Trophy.

Ortiz was batting .287 with 54 HR and 137 RBI.
Jeter was battng .343 with 34 SB and 97 RBI.
Morneau was batting .321 with 34 HR and 130 RBI.
Morneau rightfully won.

This year, the two favourites are Magglio Ordonez and Alex Rodriguez, of course. A-Rod's numbers this year are comparable to Ortiz' numbers last year, and Magglio's numbers are similar to Jeters, except he has more homers and less stolen bases. But if you think about it, Rios would be comparable to Justin Morneau as a favourite, if it wasn't for the team he's on:

Because Reed Johnson was on the DL with a back injury, Rios was forced to play leadoff, and therefore got very little RBIs, hitting behind the worst hitters on the team.
The Jays' games are rarely watched south of the border, so Rios isn't well known at all; case in point: last year he wasn't voted onto the All-Star game by fans, even though he was batting .330 with 15 HR. This year he had the most homeruns by an AL Outfielder yet he had to be added in by Jim Leyland at the last second.
John Gibbons doesn't agree with base-stealing, so while Rios could have stolen 20 bases already, he only has 9.

Since the All-Star break, Rios' confidence has obviously boosted considerably, considering his performance after the break... he's batting .400 with 2 HR since the Midsummer Classic. So it wouldn't be too surprising if Rios ended the season batting .320 with 30+ HR, but because he isn't going to have the 30 SB as well, he isn't going to be much of a contender for the MVP.

Let's just hope he gets a Silver Slugger like he deserves, it's a start at least...

It's About Time...

2007-07-21T01:40:00.000-07:00

It has finally happened people! Jason Phillips, the Mendoza line batter that looks like Darth Vader with downsyndrome behind the plate, has finally been released by the club, announced Friday. Curtis Thigpen has been called up, because he's shown that he can hit at the major-league level, and Phillips has shown that he can't. "Gregg Zaun... you're next." You know what? I'm tired of our crappy catchers, but... Zaun did finally throw out a runner on Friday. I'd say it was a great play, except it was way past due, so it was mediocre at best; congratulations.

I Hate To Repeat Myself, But...

2007-07-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or should Gibbs be fired/executed for what he's been doing to this team? Today he made two stupid moves that probably cost us the game. The first mistake was in the 4th inning; Aaron Hill lead off with a double, than Gregg Zaun moved him to 3rd Base with a groundball to the right side. Now the situation is: Hill's at third and McDonald, a very good bunter, is at the plate with only one out. Why isn't McDonald ordered to bunt? Well, it's because Gibbons' IQ is still in the single digits. That play cost us a run, and McDonald, who is speedy, may have gotten on base for Reed Johnson, who could've bunted HIM over for Rios, by far the best hitter on the Jays (who by the way hit a double in the at-bat). McDonald struck out, and so did Reed Johnson.

The second mistake was getting ejected. First of all, he was arguing the second strike on Hill, not the third. Second, he probably threw off Hill's timing, which would make sense since he struck out right after that.

The Good

Well, the Jays did, finally, hit with a runner in scoring position when Glaus knocked in Rios for the second run of the game. Maybe this will start a trend and get them back to hitting above the Mendoza Line with RISP... then again, probably not.

Lyle Overbay started the game a day after he passed out in his hotel room. He feels fine now, but he did scrape his face on a chair somehow. Apparently this has happened before, which just proves my theory that he's a fuckin' rockstar!

Our two injured pitchers, A.J. and Gustavo are making progress. Burnett threw off a mound today and didn't feel pain, and Chacin is on his way to a rehab assignment.

The Bad

Jesse Litsch got hit in the ankle by a comebacker off the bat of Richie Sexson, and after that he suddenly sucked. The Jays can't afford to have one more player on the DL, and even though Litsch said he's okay, he definitely isn't. Let's just hope he's alright so we don't have to call up Ty Taubenheim... oh please no!

The Ugly

Other than Yuniesky Betancourt the only other ugly thing was Jesse Litsch's performance after getting hurt. He not only gave up a monstrous homerun, but he also let up four runs on five hits.

Oh yeah, also that Vernon Wells continues to suck balls in the number three hole, having another 0-for-4 night. The last RBI V-Dub had was on July 7th, when he got hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded.

Rotation Troubles

Today I was thinking about a certain bald kid I like to call Gustavo, and how he keeps on having nagging injuries. Well, I thought of a problem involving everybody's favourite baldy. With all these nagging injuries from pitching, would it be a smart idea to move him to the bullpen? Chacin almost never pitches more than 6 innings, yet he still gets hurt from over-pitching... he does have good stuff, however. So why would it be a bad move to move him into the 'pen? He'd make a great long reliever, and he would have less time on the disabled list, in theory.

Also, with young arms strutting their stuff, we have a lot of depth in the starters' department. My suggestion to Gibbs is that when Chacin is activated from the DL, he should be a starter for only a few games, until Burnett's back and ready to pitch, than move him into the 'pen. With a rotation of Halladay, Burnett, Marcum, McGowan and Litsch, who needs a pitcher that's going to pitch 5 or 6 starts before he's put back on the DL?

Mr. Roger$ Neighbourhood

2007-07-20T01:41:00.000-07:00

It seems to me, that either J.P. Ricciardi doesn't know an awful lot about the game, or he's just straight up retarded because his philosophies continue to be lacking a crazy little thing called logic. Now last offseason, when J.P. "Retardi" Ricciardi signed Frank Thomas, he was assured that Thomas would produce SO many runs, that we wouldn't have the need for a shortstop that can hit like a major leaguer, so he signed Royce Clayton. Now I don't know if Retardi's shooting for first place or third because if I remember correctly, both the Yankees and the Sox have good offense for every position...

Praise be to John McDonald who stepped in and started producing offensively by surprise to save the village idiot's ass once again, but it isn't good enough.

Here in Mr. Rogers' Neighbourhood we want to save money, and take our chances apparently, signing the recent failures Tomo Ohka, Victor Zambrano and John Thomson. While Thomson was injured, Ohka and Zambrano were just plain awful.

Praise be to the young'ns that stepped in and saved Retardi's ass for the second time this season. Shaun Marcum has been ridiculously amazing so far this season... Dustin McGowan has been inconsistent, but overall still good, and Jesse Litsch has been very inconsistent but overall still very good.

Now why am I talking about all this? Well... it's because the young'ns can save us for the offseason. With the emergences of Marcum, McGowan, Litsch, and sometimes Towers, we have less of a concern for starting pitching in the offseason. Searching for relievers would be downright stupid, the way Downs, Janssen, Accardo and Tallet have been pitching this season in the absense of League and Ryan. So, now we can blow a shit load of cash on some star players to really liven up our roster and contend next season.

So what are the spots that need sharpening up? Well, lets start with the catcher, because our beloved Gregg Zaun can't throw out an old lady crossing the street. The best catcher on the free agent market is Jorge Posada, ya can't go wrong with an all-star catcher that's great offensively and defensively. The second best choice would be Michael Barrett, who isn't great offensively but he's average for a catcher, and he has a cannon for an arm, as Carlos Zambrano would know all about...

The only other spot that needs help is at short, where John McDonald has been steady, but not good enough for contention. This is one of those spots that you need more defense than offense, but if you can get a steady glove and a bat with pop, you can have a slick little player. "Hey, ya know who's kick-ass? That Juan Uribe fella." "Hey, you're right he is kick-ass, you're a genius!"

Honestly the Jays will be a team not to be reckoned with next season if we pick up these guys. We have young talent and veteran leadership, power and speed, and a hell of a lot more. What we need to do is use all of it, rather than just listen to the fucker on the bench with his hands in his pants and tobacco in his mouth with that dumb look on his face.

Look at this:

Lineup:

Reed Johnson - LF
Lyle Overbay - 1B
Vernon Wells - CF
Frank Thomas - DH
Alex Rios - RF
Troy Glaus - 3B
Jorge Posada - C
Juan Uribe - SS
Aaron Hill - 2B

Starters:

1. Roy Halladay - RHP
2. A.J. Burnett - RHP
3. Shaun Marcum - RHP
4. Dustin McGowan - RHP
5. Gustavo Chacin - LHP

Relievers:

B.J. Ryan - Closer
Brandon League - Setup
Scott Downs - Lefty Specialist
Jeremy Accardo
Casey Janssen
Brian Tallet
Jason Frasor
Brian Wolfe

First off...

2007-07-19T02:25:00.000-07:00

My name's Stuart and I'm a diehard Jays fan. I started watching baseball when I was about 13, so not very long ago, but since then I know just about everything about baseball. Well, baseball's been in my family forever, so I grew up around the game, but I never really watched it; it's surprising how much you can learn from just watching. I thought I knew baseball well before I started watching it, but I was dead wrong. After 2 years of watching it though, I know more than anybody else in my school about the game, and it seems I know more than a peticular manager as well...

I have a lot of respect for John Gibbons, he's a great manager probably, but he tends to have a stupid perception on the game. Think of it this way, the Jays are on the verge of getting the shit end of the stick on a four-game series sweep by the New York Yankees, and we could've won at least one if he thought harder. One thing I think is costing us is Gibby's philosophy of base-stealing. The Jays' lineup is based solely around power hitters, so, the speed demons of our lineup such as Reed Johnson, Alex Rios, Vernon Wells and Aaron Hill don't steal bases because if they're caught, and the next player hits a homer that's one less run...

...that's the stupidest shit I've heard.

Alright think about this for a second...
Most of the hits in a ballgame are singles, right? Right.
Homeruns are the hardest hit to get, right? Right.
A single will usually score a runner at second, right? Right.

Four out of the nine players in our lineup can steal 20+ bases every season, yet they don't because Mr. Gibbons wants to play long ball, rather than small ball and long ball. I hate to say it, but the reason the Yankees are so good is because they play both small ball and long ball... they steal bases so a single could knock them in, but they also hit homeruns-- look how successful they are because of it.

The seventh inning tonight portrays this perfectly... Reed Johnson leads off with a walk, Alex Rios follows that up with a single. Vernon Wells is at the plate, and Gibbons doesn't decide to make him bunt to move the runners over. If he bunted, we'd have two runners in scoring position with 1 out. A flyball, or a groundout to the right side from Troy Glaus would then score one run, a basehit would score two. But, instead, not a single run plates, because Gibby refuses to play small ball.

Mr. Gibbons I'm sorry but that's just unprofessional, you need to get runs on the board somehow, and waiting for a longball isn't good enough.