Long Weekend Edition

Arizona In a Flash

Arizona 8, Toronto, 6 - POG Encarnacion
Arizona 8, Toronto, 5 - POG R. Lewis
Toronto 12, Arizona, 4 - POG JoBau

Cecil Dominates Angles



I agree. Thumbs up for Brett Cecil after a dominating 7.1 inning of ball against the Angels. For his effort, he wins another POG award.

Big Deal News Over the Weekend



Dana Eveland was designated to AAA, but of course his awesome stats will have to pass the waiver wire first. No real shock here. Although he did say this about the Blue Jays organization, "Top to bottom, it's the best organization I've been in."

With the demotion of Eveland, let the speculators speculate who will be the 5th starter. Purcey Lewis was called up, but he will be in the bullpen. This week the Jays have opted for a 4 man rotation, so no answers for a bit.

While perhaps the Jays will call up someone from AAA, my guess is that it will be our Weather Man, Brian Tallet. He is due for a return "late-May." Long shot off the DL would be Jesse Litsch who could possibly be back June 3. All injury updates here.

Lyle Overbay just recently has put his average over the two-hundy mark. Keep it up Lyle! Maybe we will be able to trade you for more than a roll of bubble tape and water bottle after all!

Aaron Hill just cannot seem to figure it out at the plate. I have the utmost faith that he can regain his stroke, but it would be nicer to see sooner rather than later.

Adam Lind has seen his average slowly drop the past 2 weeks. He hadn't hit a home run in awhile, but took one large in Arizona, and has been hitting a little better since then. Let's hope, he's out of his little funk.

My esteemed colleague found perhaps one of the internet baseball worlds most interesting websites. This website ranks all umpires on whether they are pitcher-friendly, or hitter-friendly. Most definitely worth a read.

Tonight's game features Slick Rick and rumor has it that the Angels may not even bother showing up.

The Texas Series in a Flash

Blue Jays 16, Rangers 10, Friday's Game



Cecil and Harden disappointed as a potentially awesome match-up by neither lasting over 3 and both giving up way too many runs.

As the score would suggest, this was SlugFest 2010. Lyle Overbay had his best game to date this season, going 3 for 3, with 2 runs, 3 RBI, 2 BB, no strikeouts, and no runners left on base.

Congrats Loverbay on your POG!

Blue Jays 6, Rangers 0, Saturday's Game



Ricky Romero did his best Roy Halladay throwing a complete game shut out with 12 K (and only 1 walk!!!!) beating the Rangers. For another slick performance Rick gets another POG.

Blue Jays 5, Rangers 2, Sunday's Game



And the sweep is completed!

I know a little unorthodox but my POG is a three-way tie. Gregg, Downs, and Frasor all pitched scoreless innings surrendering only 1 hit with no walks.

That my friend, is what is expected of those three. Good job.

So the bullpen performance coupled with no one really hitting for the Jays, and Morrow being, well okay but not crazy good, the bullpen was the star of this game.

Jays Quietly in Third, 2 Games Out of Wildcard

Okay, I suppose it's still a little early to start the playoff expectations, but the Jays are quietly sitting in third place, 7 games above .500.

True, we were better last year and fell apart pretty quickly. I don't see how anyone can say that kind of epic fall apart is common for one team, yet alone common in baseball, or really any sport. I'm not saying we stay on pace to be way above .500, but so far, this rebuilding process has been okay.

While our rotation may not have as much experience as every other team, they are looking pretty stellar. Outside of Eveland and Tallet, our pitching has shown a ton, and look to be solid MLB starters.

The hitting is harder to get too excited about because most of the players in the lineup are not expected to be in Toronto's long term plans. Lind, Hill, Wells and Snider will unquestionably be around for awhile, but everyone else just seems to be inflating their stats to earn more than they should next year.

Anyways, I will stick by my predicted 4th place finish. Finishing 5th is going to be a disappointment regardless of a re-building year or not. Best place finish is 3rd, which would be sweet, but let's stay grounded.

It Ain't Over 'Till Lindy Says It's Over!

With pure determination on his face, Adam Lind stepped into the batter's box in the 9th inning, and promptly knocked a 2-run off-field home run to take the lead by one.

The one run lead was surprisingly enough for Frasor not to blow it, helping him to even his record at 1-1.

The 24 LOB were pretty freaking ugly, but beyond that it was a pretty decent game offensively. For example, 11 hits were sweet and having 4 walks and only 5 strikeouts was nice.

The pitching being shown early this year for the Jays gives some hope of a potential 3rd place finish? I'm not willing to suggest that at this point, but if the offense can keep hitting and not striking out, what's to stop them from finishing ahead of the aging and struggling Red Sox?

That being said, Cito should make Loeverbay contribute $1,000 to the Jays Care Foundation every time he hits into a fucking double play. Frustrating!!!

5.1 innings for Morrow with 9 strikeouts and a disappointing 3 ER. I suppose not horrible, but consider that 2 of the runs scored were from runners put on by a walk, and a hit batter.

If Morrow can ever learn to have a little better control, and that is a big if, he could be a steal from the Mariners. He also seems to struggle in the startings of things, IE: start of a game, start of an inning.

But man can that guy throw.

Player of the Game is Lind for breaking out of his mini-funk in a big way and for just generally being awesome.

Eveland Comes Back To Reality With A Crash

Dana Eveland lived up, er, down to our expectations tonight and showed us that, no, his sparkling ERA would not last. 7 ER over 3 innings will not do it.

We lost to my least favorite, no, most despised team in the league, but there are some pluses we can take out of this!

The Jays had 16 hits, and half were singles. My god, I have never been so happy to see the singles coming! I mean, yes, it was a game that also saw 8 extra base hits, but what the hay, we lost, but we hit. Also, Lyle Overbay gets his first POG award for finally having a good game! 3 for 5, with 2 runs, 4 RBI, and perhaps more importantly only 1 strikout. Yay.

Now, the bad.

One could read and deduct that if we got 16 hits, 8 for extra bases, and lost, the bad must be the pitching. Well, yes you are correct, but let's look for something shinny in this steaming pile of crap!

There's one! There's another!

Downs had a solid outing! 1 inning, 2 strikeouts, and zeroes across everything else.

Kevin "Chacin" Gregg had another solid outing. To this point and date, including today which cancels out Camp, Gregg has hands down been the best reliever thus far. Imagine that mid-offseason.

Jeff Blair Has Never Heard of You

Jeff Blair of the Globe and Mail had an article about Jays hats being a top 3 seller in New York that I posted on a couple days back. Now I know that there is one reader because they asked if it was true.

Well, not I was not lying, and found it after looking a little harder. It was hiding here.

Well, Mr. Blair, here are my issues:

Are you going to seriously tell me that the Blue Jays have a "no-name roster?" Even if you are going to tell me V-Dub sucks, everyone has heard of his 3 years of JD Drewness. Aaron Hill and Adam Lind, who are Silver Slugger winners are not no-namers. What ever team you cheer for, if you are even a baseball fan, would welcome those two. So, no-name? No.

"Marketers are aware of the importance of “hook-ups” - matching the colours of one piece of sportswear with another." Holy fucking shit, whoever thought to match the colours of the things you are wearing? No more pick shirts and yellow pants with my Jays lid, I'm going to hook-up!

“The phenomenon of hook-ups is very much in play in Canada,” Blair says. So, matching the colours of what you are wearing is a phenomenon now?

Jesus.

Find something real to write on, sport or fashion, preferably fashion.

Cito Wants YOU!

Apparently Cito has recently appealed for help from the general public on where to hit Lyle Overbay.

When Cito was asked about if he should give Lyle a night off, or move him in the lineup he replied:

"He plays, he plays. I mean, he plays until he just gives up. I don't think he's going to give up. There's some suggestion to move him up and down the lineup. Well, anybody who can tell me where I can move him, please let me know."

The answers flow in this telling quote from Cito.

Presumably, unless Loverbay swings so hard that his follow through hits himself in the head, putting him in a coma, or he has a heart attack while hustling out a double play ball, he will be in the lineup.

Okay, okay you don't want to sit him Cito, we get it. How about moving the worst hitter on the team out of the middle of the order? You know, then we don't have him playing the roll of Buzz Killington every night after Gonzalez, Wells and Lind have done their job.

The problem with this logical train of thought is that Cito is unaware of other positions to move him.

Well Cito, I can make this easier for you. Whoever suggested moving him up in the lineup is on crack, so we can cross that off the list. That leaves us with down only. See? We are making progress already!

You moved JoBau down in the lineup. I know it hurt at first, but it's for the best! I'm more of a bandaide off at once kind of guy, but if you want to just lower him in the lineup and not take him out completely, that's fine too.

Lyle has the third most at-bats on the team, and the lowest average. So if you insist on leaving him in the lineup, I'm gonna say move him down, and move him down all the way.

See Cito! All you have to do is ask! Don't be shy about it next time and wait so long!