Friday, July 25, 2008

Let's try not to Denbo this thing up


Greetings, friends of the Tao. It's your new pal The Ack here, acting as your freshly-minted weekend editor. I know, I know - a bit of a head-scratching decision by ToS, isn't it? Seems to be a lot like the Brevin Mencherson experiment, while a perfectly healthy Adam Lind is killing the ball down on the farm. Pretty wild gamble, if you ask me. Reckless, even.

I have my theories.....perhaps the Tao wants you to appreciate his posts for the genius they are by bringing in a total rube for contrast. Or, perhaps the Tao was just sick of me shittying up his comments section on a daily basis. Either way, much like Brevin, who am I to say "no" to the opportunity? The hope here is that like "young Adam Lind" (to steal one of Campbell's patented descriptors), who after a sluggish start to the season now leads the team in CLUTCH, I'll round into form.

(You see what I just did there? I bought myself a month or two of terrible. See how I did that? Slick.)

Oh yeah, about the name....I really shouldn't have to go in-depth about the legend of famed middle reliever Jim Acker, should I? No, I didn't think so.


So, about Adam Lind
He's raking, big time. He probably should have been up weeks before he finally was recalled, and he should probably be hitting higher than the 7-spot right now. But I'm not going to get on JP/Gibby/Cito for either of those things, and here's why:

In his first stint up this season, Lind went 1 for 19, and not one of those Aaron-Hill-hitting-the-ball-hard-but-it's-just-not-dropping-for-him 1 for 19's.....he looked lost. Soft stuff down and away, strike 3. Let's face it, at the time of his demotion, the Jays were still in "we gotta win games now" mode, and a young player with declining confidence wasn't doing the team (or Lind) any good. So down he went - and yeah, maybe he was down too long - but the stay in central New York obviously didn't hurt him. To the contrary, maybe, just maybe, the extended stint in the 'Cuse did Lind more good than we are giving JP/Gibby credit for?

As far as hitting 7th, again - confidence. Give Cito props for giving Lind the everyday job in left and slowly moving him up the order. Baby steps, people. Remember, he started out hitting 9. If he continues at even a healthy fraction of this pace, I'm sure he'll settle in somewhere 2-6 by mid-August.


Weekend series against the sub-Mariners
If the Jays are to hit Cito's stated goal of 10 games over .500 by season's end, these are the types of home series you need to think about sweeping. Unfortunately, the big-2 of the rotation - Doc and a suddenly frisky AJ Burnett - won't see the mound, so I'll settle for a Meatloaf.

Looking to keep his rotation spot (although, who's going to replace him now? Davis Romero? Bill Murphy?), John Parrish (1-0) throws Friday with Miguel Batista (4-11) countering for Seattle. Let's hope the ex-Jay finds a spot at the end of the bench nice and early, allowing him time to work on his latest prose, "Ode to a Shitty Pitcher". Hey Miguel, there's no point in throwing 8 different pitches if they're all fat and juicy.

21 comments:

  1. Nicely done, Grasshopper.

    Thought provoking. Funny. Meatloaf. Who could ask for anything more.

    (Should we be bracing ourselves for a palace coup?)

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  2. The meatloaf I'm interested in is the kind Batista will be throwing over the plate.

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  3. I love that the Meatloaf reference seems to be the defining aspect of this post. I thought you cats would take me to the woodshed over it.

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  4. Nice job (h)Ack! (I kid!)

    Tao needed someone to spot him seeing as Shortwave Boy has been making like Snuffleupagus pretty much since day 1.

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  5. Fuck, I thought people would have left the comment thread bare. It would have been like a rookie hitting his first homerun and he comes into the bench and people ignore him.

    Way to blow it guys!

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  6. I am going to personally take umbrage with the post going up at 6:59am. There is no time for baseball at that ungodly hour.

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  7. You see what I just did there?

    YA Wilner AICMFP!

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  8. @ Priesty - the last time someone referred to me as a hack (in DJF comments section), he also called me an "Aspergers Syndrome retard", which I thought was pretty creative.

    @ graeme - actually, I kind of expected that.....

    @ ghostrunner - sorry dude. umbrage duly noted (and probably disregarded, if I'm being honest with you)

    @ cincinnatus c. - um, how can I put this....What in the fuck?

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  9. You could look it up.

    Just when Wilner announces he's not blogging 24/7 anymore, The Ack gets his own blogging gig? THAT'S NO MERE COINCIDENCE!

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  10. Of course, Lobby Lud. How did we not get that?

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  11. Seriously...Lobby Lud.

    We feel so stupid and out of it. How did we miss that we miss out on that 1920's Brittish tabloid newspaper reference?

    Apparently, we're not spending enough time on Usenet anymore. It just hasn't been the same on alt.fan.bluejays since Greyjay stopped posting that the Jays need to acquire Russ Branyan.

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  12. five pounds indeed, cincinnatus c.....five pounds indeed.

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  13. That reference made me feel like a right Lobby Ludite. Hiyo!

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  14. BTW...If the Ack's first post gets more than 20 comments, we will officially pass off our Aaron Rowand Raw Bacon Eating Duties over to him.

    (You're welcome, Ack!)

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  15. I have no Idea what the Bacon dealio means but I want to see it.

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  16. i'm late to the party, but great post Ack. i especially loved the title.

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