Hey Now! A "W"!

What's this? The Blue Jays outscored their opponent? Doesn't that mean....a win? Playoffs! Pennant! '92-'93-'09!

Well, not exactly, but the Jays did manage to end the slide, even if for a day. The first positive contribution from Dellucci (groundout RBI!), a great effort from Franchise Cecil (6 scoreless!), and a bullpen that just might be slotting back into effective form with the return of Downs in the closer role were all reasons to smile. Well, maybe not a smile. Call it a half-hearted grin.

It was a strange mix of emotions that I was feeling during Friday's 2-0 victory over the Orioles....content to win a game, but unable to shake the doom & gloom surrounding the club - or maybe more accurately, the fanbase.

No, these are not easy times for Blue Jay fans. A team falling out of contention. The face of the franchise on the block. Professional baseball player Scott Rolen now rumored to be joining him, and we've seen the end of his hit streak to boot.

There was this tidbit from SI's Jon Heyman, where he (half-heartedly) suggests that fan backlash just may have Jays' brass thinking twice about moving the Doc, but as much as I'd like to believe that making my personal grief public is assisting in stopping the machine, the rumour mill is sure to continue churning until July 31. For my own personal sanity, I think I'm just going to ignore it all for a few weeks.

(I'm such a fucking liar.)

Friday Rock Out - Rage Against the Machine

I had some Tom Petty all queued up for this week's rock out, but wasn't feeling it given my mood of late. What a week it's been for Blue Jay fans. And not in a good way.

Your weekend contributor will be by to....oh, wait. Still me. Worry not friends - only a few more days of my nonsense, then it's back to well-written baseball discourse with the Tao.

Enjoy the weekend. Give it your best shot, anyway.

Farewell to the Beej

Oh, B.J.

We all saw this coming when you signed on for five years, back at the Winter Meetings in '05. But those worries are for another time, we figured. We're building a winner here!

In 2006, you won our hearts by fucking nailing it in your first season as a Jay. 38 saves? 1.37 ERA? 10.7 K/9? Slipknot and terrifying fist pumps? Sign me up for four more years of that, dude. YES.

Very early on in 2007, we knew something wasn't right. Your back hurt, we were told, and your pitching suffered. Alas, the sore back magically morphed into full blown Tommy John surgery (familiar with the term, everyone?), so under the knife you went. "Better to happen now", we all said, "We have three more years on this deal."

In 2008, you took back the closer role (thanks for holding it down, Acorn), and though it didn't appear your stuff was all the way back, you gutted out 32 saves for the team. "That's OK", we all thought, "Everyone knows it takes two seasons after TJ to get it there."

Enter Spring training 2009. Fastballs in the low 80's. A slider that didn't want to slide. "Uh, he'll come around, right? He's a veteran, he knows how to get ready for the season." But it didn't come around. Not even close. "Oh, shit."

So now whatta we do? A closer who can't close, still on the books for this season and next at $10 million per, reduced to mop-up duty. Only the mop must have been saturated, because even that wasn't working. "Oh, shit."

I wish you well, B.J. I really do. You seem like a proud guy, and your struggles today surely aren't for lack of effort. Someone will pick you up - they always do - on Rogers' dime. Good luck old friend.

It's OK to get emotional about this

Didn't want to touch this subject, but it's not going to go away anytime soon. Admittedly, I am 100% emotionally invested in the situation, and my capacity for rational thought on the matter is virtually non-existent.

I don't know what I'll do if the Jays trade Doc.

Forgive me if it sounds like I'm repeating myself (because I am), but we aren't talking about just trading away the team's ace and best player. That shit happens all the time. The Twins know it. The Indians know it. Oakland fans live through it year after year.

We are talking about trading away the face of the franchise, maybe the best player the organization has ever seen, and more importantly, a man (cyborg) who wants nothing more than to make it work with the only big league team that he's ever known.

This shit is heartbreaking. Potentially.

Let's lower the alarmist flag (thanks, Stoeten) and try to be reasonable here. Ricciardi hasn't said that Doc is on the block. He has only indicated that he wouldn't be doing his job if he didn't listen to offers. But why even make that statement, then? Other than to drive a media firestorm and ratchet up interest, of course. But where does that road lead?

Then comes Buster Olney's article which reveals that Ricciardi has prepped Doc for the possibility of approaching him with potential destinations. That sounds, to me, a lot more strategic than "hey, if people want to call, we'll listen."

The question I have is: why now? How does any trade involving Halladay make any sense right now? Will the heist be that much bigger at the July deadline than it would be at the Winter Meetings when the hotstove is in full blaze? What happened to the Beeston/Ricciardi/Gaston proclamation that 2010 is The Year? What happened to "waiting until the offseason to approach Doc about an extension." Fuck the fuck, fellas?

Again, those who know me, know that I'm typically a prepare for the worst/hope for the best kind of guy. I know that's how I'm coming across here. But the timing of all this reeks of something more than Jays management taking a "just doing our job by listening" approach.

Rip away, blogosphere and commenters. Tell me that I'm reading too much into things. Believe me, I want to be wrong on this.

I don't know what I'll do if the Jays trade Doc.

The Great Southpaw Hope, pt V: Marc Rzepczynski

First, they gave us David Purcey. The flame throwing ginger had his moments of dominance (notably against the Tampa Bay DEVIL Rays), but ultimately, had no clue where the ball was headed when it left his confused left hand. The verdict? Fail, for now.

Next, the much maligned Ricardo Romero joined the rotation. It doesn't take Judge Wapner (or maybe Judge Joe Brown for the kids out there) to decide that case. Win, boners, etc. You get the picture.

We've had a few (mostly sour) tastes of Franchise Cecil and the allegedly gutsy Brad Mills (who, coincidentally, has a mysterious case of bruised ribs after dominating in his last AAA start). It's far too early to render a decision on these kids - cases remanded.

Next up, Marc Rzepczyncrosbystillsnashandyoungczepczynski. Or Rzepczynski for short. Let's just go with R-Zep.

Full disclosure, I've had a minor-league man-crush on R-Zep for a few seasons - he's one of those guys who seems to put up good numbers as he advances through the system, but fails to garner the attention or respect he might possibly deserve for a variety of reasons:

Reason #1: "He's too old for the level he's pitching in."
As one of those notorious Ricciardi draft "polished college arms", this may have been true early in his pro career. But in 2009, we're talking about a 23 year old pitcher succeeding at the upper levels of the minor leagues. So fuck that reason.

Reason #2: "He lacks a true out pitch."
I'm not a professional baseball scout (can you tell?), but the following '09 numbers indicate to me that R-Zep is missing enough bats: 88IP, 104K. Get the hell out of town, Reason #2.

Reason #3: "His name is too difficult to spell in order to sustain a successful major league career."
OK, so I made that one up, but I said "variety of reasons", so I couldn't very well end with just two factors working against him. Besides, it's not that hard....R-Zep-czyn-ski. Dig it.

Turning serious for a minute, there are some warning signs, like 40BB in 88 minor league innings this season, so control could be an issue (please, not Purcey 2.0...). But offsetting that is the fact that R-Zep is an extreme ground ball pitcher, and playing behind the Jays' superior infield defense will be a huge benefit that he wouldn't have received in the minors. He's also not going to blow his high 80's/low 90's fastball past major league hitters, so he's going to have to spot the pitch accordingly (read: down in the zone) and throw his breaking stuff for strikes.

Baseball Prospectus (buy it - trust me on this) calls him a "lefty starter with a bowling-ball sinker, a good curve, and a decent change that also sinks, making it nearly impossible for hitters to get the ball in the air off him." Boners.

Bottom line - I'm excited about Marc Rzepczynski. And if Carlos Pena hits a Werthian blast off him in his debut....then free Fabio Castro, The Great Southpaw Hope, pt VI!

(...and Buck Coats. We must always work to free Buck Coats.)

Monday morning bright side

The briefest of posts following a shittacular weekend of Blue Jays baseball. Accept this as my attempt to lift your (our) spirits.....

• Roy Halladay and Aaron Hill - All Stars!
• GBOAT hit streak - 22 games!
• Adam Lind - straight raker!
• Carlson and League - scoreless appearances yesterday! In the same game!
• Handsome Raul Chavez - on fire!
• Pitching staff escapes Sunday unscathed by injury!

Uh, yeah. These bullet points are degenerating rapidly. I'd better end it right here.

Go Jays?

Richmond to the DL? Sure, why not

In the least surprising (but still entirely depressing) development of late, Scott Richmond has hit the DL with tendinitis in his throwing arm (read: impending Tommy John or labrum surgery - heyo!). Rookie Brad Mills, coming off a spectacular start in Vegas (8IP, 2H, 0ER, 1BB, 7K), will take his spot on the roster. Let's just forget about that 850 foot Werth-bomb from his last big league effort, shall we? Go get 'em, kid.

Since we're already here, can anyone think of a starter or two who the Jays have DL'd in the last few seasons? Oh wait - I can:

Halladay
Burnett (barf)
Marcum
McGowan
Litsch
Janssen
Romero
Richmond
.
.
.....and that's just from memory. Feel free to bitch-slap me with glaring omissions in the comments section (no - guys like Vic Zambrano don't count). At least the arm woes haven't affected the bullpen though, right? Wait, nevermind.

Do you think Summer of Tallet and Franchise Cecil feel the guillotine staring down on them? It's only a matter of time, right? WRONG - FUCK OFF!

(Cue Arnsberg haters in 3, 2, 1.....)

Up today
Cecil vs Jabba. Please? Come on Jays. I need it. I can't do an 0-for the weekend. I just can't.

A two sentence post on....the 4th of July

A very happy 4th of July to all of our American friends and readers, and as our gift to you, we present Doc Halladay on your grandest of baseball stages for your afternoon viewing pleasure.

Bittersweet, isn't it?

Friday Rock Out - Neil Young & Pearl Jam

Eddie Vedder & Pearl Jam must have had the same feeling sharing the stage with Neil Young here as Travis Snider did the first time he stepped onto the diamond with Scott Rolen.

That Neil - always representin'. Boss.

Big four game set in New Yankee Stadium starts today. We know one game is a virtual lock (I'm not saying which - what am I, an idiot? Wait - don't answer that), so taking two of four from the skanks seems reasonable, right? RIGHT?!?

A cold beer on a hot day

After a solid month of shittacular bed shitting, that's what seeing the July 1 lineup (1 through 5) felt like. Lind hitting third and the GBOAT in the clean-up spot? Part-time first baseman Overbay sliding all the way up to the 5-hole? Whaaa? Cito? The Cito Gaston penciled this in?

Look, I'm not quite ready to throw dirt on the barely lukewarm corpses of Vernon Wells and Alex Rios yet (but probably only because I love the god damned Blue Jays too much), but I will admit to growing, um, weary (let's say, for the sake of being polite) of Cito's strategy of letting this season's two massive underachievers work their shit out in prominent lineup slots.

For example.....if I had told you on April 1 that in three months time, Adam Lind would be hitting over .300 with 39 extra base hits and 50 ribbies, you'd say "hit that goofy bastard in the 3 spot!". And if I had also mentioned that Scott Rolen would be raking to the tune of a .330 average and on pace for 40+ doubles, you'd say "well, obviously, because he is awesome.....but let's get him as many AB's as possible." Am I right? I won't recount the conversations we would have had involving Vernon, because, like I said, it hurts me to do it. For another time.

Today's lineup aside, I'm not on the best of terms with The Cito at the moment
Let's just say that the decision to push Doc back to Monday didn't go over well with the Ack and his traveling party of Jays fans, in town for the weekend set against the Phillies. To hell with what's "best for the team"!

And let's just say that showing up to the ballpark on Saturday to see the names Millar (who provided some of the worst swings in modern baseball history in the series, by the way), Bautista, Chavez, and McDonald ALL in the starting lineup (special late guest appearance - Rusty Adams!) - with shaky rookie Brad Mills on the mound - amounted to a full groin kick. Hey Cito, mail it in much?

And let's just say that we may have met a few decent traveling Phillies phans (that's what they like to be called - honest) over the weekend, but for the most part, it was a tidal wave of douchebaggery that I imagine the Skydome (that's right) hasn't seen since "the Nation" last visited.

Oh wait, that last point has nothing to do with Cito. Still, it needed to be said.

Happy Canada Day to a depressed Blue Jay Nation

A couple of lifeless games against an AL East opponent has us wondering: How bad could this season get? The surprising hot start that saw the Blue Jays in contention in the first two months of the season is becoming increasingly faint in the rearview mirror, and the reality that the Jays are 10 games below .500 since May 19 has started to sink in.

Now, as we turn over the calendar page and look ahead to a brutal month of July, the prospects for the rest of the season are starting to look dire for the rest of the 2009 season. Moreover, we can't even remember the last "Pennant!!!1" or "Playoffs!!!1" in the comment section.

Nothing is ever easy in the AL East, and now that the Jays have squandered away their early season advantage, they'll have a rough time climbing back over that mountain.

Cripes. We need a vacation.

Say, that reminds us...
We're taking a vacation. We'll be off in the wilds of Northern Ontario for a few weeks without access to the interwebs or Twitter or (gasp!) television. So the most we can hope for is to catch some games on the radio, provided we can find a signal that reaches that far.

Otherwise, we'll be keeping abreast of Blue Jays news via the boxscores. Which could actually be fun.

This is actually the longest that we're going to be away from the blog since we started it, so we're not sure how long we'll be able to make it before running away from the in-laws and hitch hiking to the nearest internet café. We give ourselves at least a couple of hours.

The Ack, fresh off his recent trip to Toronto, will be stepping in to pick up the slack and keep the bloggage flowing until we're back on July 12. Treat him well, and enjoy the respite from our pedantic daily rantings, and we promise to come back refreshed and renewed and ready to face down the dog days of the season.

Cito's lineup madness continues...for the better?
The National Post's John Lott is reporting this morning that Vernon Wells will sport his spiffy Canada Day gear whilst riding the pines this afternoon. More impressively, Adam Lind in moving into the third spot in the order and Lyle Overbay will hit fifth. We wouldn't have guessed this in April, but Lind-Rolen-Overbay is the best looking heart of the order we've seen all year. Bring it on!

After hearing Jerry Crasnick note on the Drunk Jays Fans podcast that Wells got a shot in his wrist during spring training, it has us wondering if the struggling slugger is (for the second time in three years) playing like ten pound of shit in a five pound bag because he's trying to play through injuries.

If Vernon is hurt, then seriously, sit the man down. For a week. Or two. Whatever it takes.

On that subject, Fangraphs' Canadian connection Marc Hulet made the point yesterday that Cito is running his players into the ground, leading to diminished returns in recent weeks. While the numbers he presents most compellingly make the case that Marco Scutaro and Alex Rios might be wearing down, it's not totally clear that the same case can be made across the board.

But again: We defer to the guys who know the numbers, because we're much better with words. We were born to be a sophist.

Canada Day with the 1996 Blue Jays
Via Maclean's Jaime Weinman, here's a weird nugget: the Blue Jays lip-synching to a Canadianized version of "This Land is Your Land". Enjoy, and we'll see you back here soon.

The Rays are scary

Last night's game scared the crap out of us.

As much as we'd like to imagine that the Jays were underestimated coming into the season and that the Rays were going to turn back into pumpkins at any moment, the truth is that the Greater Tampa-St. Petersburg area squad is really good. And not just a flash in a moment type of good, but for the foreseeable future.

And aside from the notion of having to try to keep pace with the Rays in the AL East standings, the Jays still have a whole heap of games against them (and the Red Sox and the Yankees) between now and the end of the season. And while we wouldn't say that this is the case at present, it's entirely possible that the Jays could have assembled the fourth best team in all of baseball in the coming years and still finish fourth in their division.

Cripes.

About last night
If we had to use one word to describe the Jays performance last night, it is "lifeless". It's the sort of game that you would imagine a team playing after getting back home after a long road trip, but the Jays had the benefit of sleeping in their own beds last night.

Roy Halladay didn't exactly look like vintage Doc over his six innings of work, which isn't to say he pitched poorly. He got deep into a few counts and walked a couple of batters, but still managed seven strikeouts. We're guessing that he didn't turn it up to 11 in his first start after his DL stint, and that he'll be even better next time out.

Not that anyone should be hanging last night's loss on Halladay. Jeff Niemann has been a serviceable pitcher this season and had a good game last night, but there were a handful of at bats - and not just by Vernon Wells - where the Jays kept their bats on their shoulders and let the young Tampa hurler take it to them.

We hope they felt some shame, got a good rest last night, and that they plan to bring some frickin' noise tonight.

A point of clarification on...baserunning blunders

So let's see if we've got this straight:

When Alex Rios goofs up on the basepaths, it's because he is stupid and lazy he doesn't care. ("Who gives a fuck!")

When John McDonald goofs up on the bases, it's because he is a super gritty hardworkin' manly man who just tried to make too many good things happen all at once, and the fates conspired against him.

So...The Gazelle doesn't care if the Jays win, and Johnny Mac cares too much.

Glad that we cleared that up.

Happy Mondays - A few pleasant thoughts to start your week

Aaron Hill is historically knocking the snot out of the ball
Noted racist and reluctant Parkes interview subject Aaron Hill is making up for the time he lost last year after getting brained by some scrappy infielder with more heart than brains. Hill cranked out two more homers in yesterday's 5-4 loss to the Phillies, moving him past his own previous best, and past Roberto Alomar for the single season Blue Jays record for homers by a second baseman.

Speaking of the new mark, the Globe's Jeff Blair blogged that Blue Jays fans showed an embarassing lack of excitement and decorum by failing to acknowledge the moment by calling for a curtain call. He snaps that Jays fans will lose their minds cheering for free pizza, but can't be bothered to acknowledge this new milestone. Which is fair enough, we suppose, though we don't know if there was a big deal made about this in the house as it happened.

Maybe the fans could have recognized this historic moment by doing the wave. Because you know you would have had buy-in for that.

Doc is back. And not a moment too soon
We're thanking our lucky stars that Roy Halladay will return to the lineup tonight, just as the Jays are about to dig into the most arduous part of their schedule. After spening the early part of the year playing just about everyone but their divisional rivals, the Jays will face off against AL East opponents in their next five series.

While some of the rotation replacements have performed admirably this year, any extended period without Halladay would be disastrous from here on out.

Rick Romero's rolling
There wasn't a lot to cheer about after Friday night's 6-1 win, what with Jayson Werth swatting balls into the 500 level on Saturday and Johnny Mac getting picked off to snuff out a ninth inning rally on Sunday. So thankfully, we have Ricky Romero's outstanding start on Friday on which we can reflect. After getting lit up in his first two starts back from his sneeze-induced DL stint, Romero has been nails this month.

ESPN's Buster Onley notes that Romero's killer changeup has baffled hitters thus far, with some wondering whether if it is actually a Valenzuela-like screwball, or even a forkball. Whatever it is, it seems to be working. For the month of June, Romero went 3-1 in five starts with a 2.36 ERA. Opponents have managed just a .599 OPS off Romero this month, and he has 33 Ks (versus 10 walks) in 34.1 innings.

Credit where credit is due
Future lawyer and Jays cheer squad dancing inferno Katy Unger speculated via tweet as to whether if any Jays would step to the plate with Michael Jackson playing in honour of the recently deceased King of Pop. While we poo-pooed the notion, Ms Katy nailed it when she figured that Vernon Wells would be the one to do it.

Wells walked to the plate on Friday with Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" playing, which is one of our favourite MJ songs and a fitting tribute. Nice call, Katy.

Friday Rock Out - Michael Jackson "Billie Jean" at Motown 25

What else could we play today?