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.

Monday Morning Thoughts

Some things to ponder this Monday morning.

Blue Jays Offensive Ranking.

AB.... 13th (638)
H..... 26th (148)
D..... 1st (52)
HR.... 1st (26)
RBI... 18th (78)
AVG... 28th (.223)
OBP... 29th (.297)
SLG... 12th (.429)
SO.... 1st (166)

Blue Jays Pitching Rankings

ERA... 17th (4.31)
W..... 14th (10)
SV.... 2nd (8)
SVO... 3rd (11)
H..... 20th (153)
SO.... 8th (138)
BB.... 19th (61)
IP.... 10th (171.1)

Analysis:

While our pitching has been up and down at certain times, the overall success of our pitching staff has been solid, at least average-above average in baseball.

Hitting however, well there are two things we very clearly excel at - striking out, and hitting extra base hits, sans triples.

Here's to hoping we can see some singles tonight against Beckett and the 8-11 Red Sox.

The Weekend Edition

Starting with Sunday's game and going back to cover Friday's game.


Frasor's Steve Irwin Impression



Morrow was pretty good again today. Would have been a great outing if not for one glaring issue - walks. The thing about walks is they are like shots of tequila, not every one is going to ruin your day, but one at the wrong time will leave you fucked.

Okay, so two runs over 6 innings isn't that bad, and perhaps the Jays could have gotten around to scoring some runs, but even if the Jays had managed a homerun, Frasor got absolutely killed by the Rays (get it? too soon, or is that okay?). Frasor has a very disappointing ERA at this time, a whopping 9.35 after allowing 4 runs in 0.2 innings pitched.

The Jays at the plate failed to do much better than Frasor. This offense can at times be like watching paint dry and today was one of those days.

Which was weird, because Loverbay was on the pine.

As for player of the game... Morrow? I guess?

Slick Rick Still Slick



Ricky Romero, our POG for Satuday's game had another gem ruined by the Jays batter and bullpen. Downs (WTF?) and Janssen got knocked around, and have been assigned bitch duty to Romero for a week.

Hitters did bup-kiss again. Loverbay homerun, but I'm not sure I really care that much.

Welcome Back Aaron Hill!



Aaron Hill hit his first longball of the season on his first game back from a DL stint. Brett Cecil made his 2010 debut and had a pretty solid outing if not for one pitch in the seventh that Kapler took deep for 2 runs. God damn Dave Kapler of all people. I mean, all the people in the lineup that are awesome and he's the one to do it. Damn.

The bullpen decided to play "blow-the-lead," their favorite game this series, but thankfully Frasor only gave up one. Kevin "Gustavo Chacin" Gregg bailed him out, and after all the hate for Gregg, he gets my kudos.

However, my player of the game is Brett Cecil. 6.2 innings with 4 ER is not really good, but his 8 punchouts and 1 walk is terrific. And I'm giving him the mulligan of the Kapler HR, so his line actually reads 6.2, 2 ER, 8 K, and 1 BB. Well done Bretty Boy!

This Just In.. A-Roid Proves His Douchebagery Again



Don't know if anyone else saw the little happening between Dallas Braden (Oakland SP) and A-Roid. A-Roid walked across the mound after making an out, and Braden took exception.

It's no rule, so I guess A-Roid can fall back on that, but it's called being a professional, and a good sport. I mean, that little trick he pulled on Howie Clark a couple years back isn't technically illegal, but why doesn't anyone else do it? Cause it's a greaseball play.

So, for that Mr. Dallas, you receive a shout out from The View. Congratulations.

BREAKING NEWS

JAYS @ RAYS

Loverbay just hit a homerun.

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!

One Man's Misfortune...

While we here at The View would never wish ill upon anyone, we certainly would not for a Blue Jays. So, Tallet, we wish in all sincerity a speedy recovery, so you can rightfully claim what is yours: the bullpen long relief spot.

We know you like to start, but seeing as that isn't your strong point, if you do long relief, it'll be like starting except you won't have to "weather" through 6 inning of 6 run baseball - Cito can instead pull you before you fall apart!

And of course, one man's misfortune leads to opportunity for someone else. Bretty Cecil has been called up and will start Friday in Tampa. For the 51s in Las Vegas, Cecil was 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA, a 1.36 WHIP and 11 K in 11 innings. Obviously, we are all looking forward to Friday's game.

Another reason to get excited for Friday's game is a certain second basemen will start. Hill will make his return after missing time on the DL because of a hamstring. I don't think anyone will suggest anything other than Aaron will have a dramatic impact on the Jays offense.

Good News For Years To Come

Our AAA team, the Las Vegas 51s is full of players that are borderline Major League players, and that being the case they look like that video game team you used to stack.

Their stats are here, and I urge you to take a look, and get pumped up for future times!



Win Eludes Marcum, Again

Marcum surrendered a 3-run bomb in the first inning to Jose Guillen, and then settled in nicely to put up donuts for the next 6 innings. However, the Jays offense can be very selective of when they actually want to try (with the exception of Loverbay) and decided yesterday not to try until the 4th and 8th inning.

The Jays are managing to win more than they lose right now, and I still will say its only because of the homeruns. For example, yesterday's game they Jays got 4 measly hits along with 12 strikeouts.

My POG, once again, is Shaun Marcum. While he has had better outings, it was by no means bad, and when the offense wants to fuck it as badly as they did, what else can he do? Suggest a move to the NL so he can hit as well?

V-Dub Continues to Rake

Vernon Wells is hands down the POG for Tuesday's game. 3 for 4 with 2 R and 1 RBI. Oh yeah, did I mention his seventh home run? V-Dub is living proof that indeed three years can be forgotten in 15 games into a season.

15 games and they Jays are 9-6. Eveland got a ND and pitched not very well. For Eveland to be successful he has to be ahead of pitchers, and while only issuing 2 BB, he wasn't exactly pitching to strong hitters. That outing from Eveland could have gone very different against the Rays or Yankees.

Today's early morning game has a pair of aces in Marcum and Grienke, but things are not looking good early for the Jays. The Royals have put 3 runs on the board early courtesy of Jose Guillen and a fastball from Marcum.