The Gazelle scampers off freely into the distance

As a self-styled "intelligent" Blue Jays fan, we can completely understand the rationale and the motivation for the Jays letting Alex Rios and the $60 million or so left on his long term contract just walk away, without any sort of compensation.

What the Jays get from allowing Rios and the entirety of his contract to be claimed by the Chicago White Sox is a significant amount of payroll flexibility in both the short term and down the road. It will allow the team to be a bit more dexterous in the free agent market, should they choose to indulge, and it will allow them to keep some of the young talent that they have emerging through their system.

(Don't forget that, if they are fortunate, the Jays are going to have to cough up a big contract for Travis Snider before the end of deals to which Rios and Wells were signed.)

So we get it. It makes sense. It's rational. It was probably the right thing to do.

Then there is the "fan" in us, who is totally irrational and has spent roughly about a thousand hours over the past couple of years irrationally feeding into the hopes and dreams and misery and agony of Jays fans through this very blog. And that part of us is really finding it difficult to root, root, root for the home team's corporate ownership's bottom line.

Fiscal forbearance and fiduciary diligence are commendable. We're certain that those who hold a financial stake in Rogers will greatly appreciate the fact that one of the divisions has found ways to cut costs going forward. We're also pretty sure that at year's end, Tony Viner and Nadir Mohammed and Phil Lind will all be compensated handsomely through bonuesses for their willingness to hack away at this particular division's overhead.

But for those of us who hold an emotional stake in the team, sending away a two-time All-Star for absolutely no return, even if he is underperforming, is awfully tough to swallow.

And maybe the brain trust can scoff at such sissy-boy emotionality around a big money decision like this, but it is those same emotions that make us do irrational things, like spend inordinate amounts of money on Blue Jays tickets, merchandise and paraphenalia, or stupid amounts of our summer watching three hours worth of sponsored programming on their television services.

If the Jays are able to outsmart the market and pull in players on more economical short term contracts in the next few years, then fine. But if the guys in the corporate suite are about to take this money off the field and tuck it away in their own coffers, then they have to know that the fanbase isn't going to stand for it.

Above all, sports franchises try to sell hope. But if what they're going to sell us in the forseeable future us hope for a miracle, we're not sure that we can buy in to that.

As for the Gazelle
Alex Rios got a raw deal from the fans in Toronto, and got shoehorned into roles that didn't fit his skillset. Here's hoping that a fresh start with a team in contention brings out the best in him.

Vaya con dios, El Gacela.

You shouldn't read too much into the Alex Rios waiver claim. But...

The news that Alex Rios was claimed on waivers last week probably shouldn't be as big a story as it has become. It's August, which means that just about every player with a big contract is getting put through waivers, if only to assess the possible interest in their services.

Moreover, there are probably a handful of other notable players who have been claimed over the past week, although the gentleman's agreement amongst front office types usually precludes their names from getting out to the media and the public. Which is why J.P. looked as though he was ready to strangle Barry Davis in the pregame Jays Connected broadcast on Friday night.

The Toronto sports media, who occasionally wander through baseball stories like tourists, love this story because it gives them one more chance to simultaneously excoriate Rios and Ricciardi for their perceived failings. Rios doesn't care enough, and Ricciardi should have already received Tim Lincecum for him, blah blah blah freaking blah.

While he's been a bit of a mess this season, Rios' recent numbers point to a level of performance that is a bit more in line with what we should have expected. Since the All Star break, he's OPSing .805 with 4 homers, 16 RBI and 5 steals, and has been as solid as ever in right field, in spite of the fact that he really belongs in centre.

Moreover, the remainder of Rios' deal is not that bad given the current state of the market. He's owed $10.2 million next year, $12.5 million the following two years and $13 million for 2013. Were it not for the massive numbers coming to Vernon Wells in the coming seasons, Rios' deal would likely make sense for the Jays going forward.

Of course, that Wells deal - which EVERYBODY loved when he signed it - isn't going anywhere, so we're thinking that there is a pretty good chance that the Jays either work out a deal with the White Sox between now and tomorrow afternoon, or they simply let Rios go.

Above all, the Jays are looking for payroll flexibility, and the opportunity to completely unload a contract such as Rios' might prove to be too attractive an opportunity to pass up.

Have we mentioned how much we hate James Deacon?
Fatuous pantload James Deacon, who no longer writes for AOL Canada but is still invited to sit in with the aging white dudes forum that is Prime Time Sports, went on at length on Friday's show about how ludicrous it was that the San Francisco Giants could have Rios for free if they claimed him on waivers without having to give up their prized pitcher, and hey, isn't that a kick in the pants.

Yeah, Jimmy. When you drum up absurd hypothetical situations based on the thinnest, most threadbare information, they will seem unbelievable. But that's got more to do with you and the bizarre scenarios that you dream up than reality. So stop sharing these things. Just shut up and go away already.

Among his other gems on Friday, there was the bit about Milton Bradley (8 homers and 28 RBI) being a much more productive outfielder than Rios (14 homers and 61 RBI). And there was all of that talk about Rios and what other teams needed a "corner outfielder", when the truth is that every other team in baseball who would have any interest in Rios would look at him as a centrefielder.

Actually, Deacon likes to talk about "corner infielders" and "corner outfielders" a lot, as though he's just joined his first fantasy league with corner eligibility. We're guessing that he likes to rely on such axiomatic thinking because it helps reduce things down to the point where he can more easily pass spurious judgments upon them. Because James Deacon is unquestionably in the spurious judgment business.

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.

Scott Rolen will make you choke on your cheesesteak

Is there anything that Scott Rolen can't do?

Last night, the Greatest Blue Jay of All Time drove in the winning run (in the first inning), hit a laserbeam out to right and rounded the bases before it knocked a whole clear through the sternum of some Philly douche, and helped turn the first 1-5-4 inning-ending double play we've ever seen.

After the game, he fed the poor, healed the sick, and removed several ill-advised lower back tattoos from several young ladies before sending them home to South Jersey to reconnect with their estranged fathers.

Nice work for an evening, Hoss.

Repeating our Tweets here, for those not Twitter-inclined
So outstanding was Rolen's game last evening that it led us to make the following exclamatory tweet over on our Twitter thingy. (And if you're not following us, then...well, whatever. That's cool...your prerogative.)

"Scott Rolen es muy macho. He could BBQ and eat Troy Glaus' wife's showjumping horse, and still have room for bourbon."

(Mmmm. Tasty looking animal. Do you suppose that Rolen would go with a sweet barbecue sauce, or maybe something a little more smokey? A dry rub perhaps?)

Alex Rios is owning his moniker
We will make excuses for the Blissfully Oblivious Gazelle until we are powder blue in the face, and forgive him each and every one of his trespasses on the basepaths. But seriously: Two baserunning gaffes in as many days? It's almost as if he doesn't give a fuck.

Maybe Alex could use a day on the bench to ponder his baserunning choices, and reflect on why it is that he is prone to such mental midgetry.

Scott Richmond - The Strikeout King of Canada
Here's something fun: Take a look at ESPN's list of the top strikeout performances for this season so far, and savour the sight of Scott Richmond's name in the list alongside Roy Halladay, Justin Verlander, Jon Lester and David Price. Wicked.

Facing the Phillies lineup is a pretty scary proposition, and we worried about Richmond getting thrown to the wolves last night. But to his credit, he tossed a monster game game in the place of Halladay last night.

We're told that last night's game was on ESPN, but since Richmond is a good Canadian boy, he wouldn't be phased by such things, because we don't even know what ESPN is. But you know that Scotty gets the cold sweats every time he meets Rod Black.

Aggregating data is what we do
Almost forgot: We're going to be doing the Inside the Blue Jays posts over at Bart Given's Inside the Majors blog, and the first of them was posted yesterday.

In future posts, we'll supplement some of the data points with our trademark wit an whimsy to contextualize them. And if there's anything of obvious relevance that we're overlooking like the Gazelle running the bases, let us know.

Thanks to Bart for the opportunity to contribute. All it is going to cost him is a nice dinner at Lift with Jody. (You can tag along if you want, Bart...if you don't mind sitting at the bar. Sorry...were we not clear about that?)

Not every win is going to be pretty

Seriously, what is the point of bitching and moaning about the number of players left on base when you come from behind in the ninth and pull out an extra inning 8-3 win over the defending World Series champs and their ace pitcher?

Win pretty or win ugly...it's all pretty much the same in the end. Sure, the Jays loaded the bases a few times, only to have RR Cool Jay hacking like your drunken uncle at a family barbecue softball game. But we'll give Romero a pass given the stellar performance he put in on the mound (6 hits, 3 earned, 9 Ks and 2 walks over seven innings.)

Two hits, and now it's all sunshine and lollipops for Vernon
Okay, so Vernon Wells is still twitching in the batters box like he's auditioning for Breakin' 3: Digital Boogalee. But let's give credit where it is due: Vernon's infield hit in the ninth and some smartly aggressive baserunning were key to the Jays' comeback rally in the ninth and their go-ahead rally in the tenth.

One more thing on Wells. We were at the game in 2003 when Wells broke the Jays' single season record for hits, and it was on a swing very much like the one he took in the tenth last night: a line drive back up the middle. If Vernon is willing to back off on swinging for the fences and just look to make solid line-drive contact, we believe that he could regain some of the form that allowed him to hit more than 40 doubles and be the centerpiece of the offense again.

Accentuating the positive with Alex Rios
Before you all get your Agent Provocateurs in a twist over the Blissfully Oblivious Gazelle's baseruning gaffe by not tagging up last night on a fly ball in the eighth, can we all remember that he reached base four times last night, scored twice, drove in a run and made a nice sliding catch.

We know that people like to pile on the Gazelle because they think he's stupid or that he doesn't give a fuck, but he had a pretty great game overall last night. The Jays would not have won without his contributions, so don't piss and moan about the alternate universe where they lost last night because of him.

Scott Rolen - Still the Greatest Blue Jay of All Time
You know, whenever we watch Scott Rolen do anything, we just wanna call him "Hoss". Like, "Nice hittin' there last night, Hoss", or "Way to stick it to the douchebags with the seven-year grudge, Hoss".

A note to Scott Downs
Leave the bat on your shoulder. Thanks.

You know what rule we hate? Defensive indifference
We have no stake whatsoever in Chase Utley's numbers, but his moving to second on "defensive indifference" in the tenth last night reminded us of how much we hate that scoring quirk. Whether if he gets to second because the Jays let him or if he gets it because he beats a throw, shouldn't that still get scored a stolen base?

Intentional walks, unless we are mistaken, are still credited the same as unintentional walks, even if the other team is deliberately giving you the base and giving you everything short of an escort to the bag. If Utley took the initiative to take second because they were giving that shit away, so why shouldn't he get credited for swiping the extra bag?

The briefest of thoughts for a Monday off day

Into every Summer (of Tallet), there must come stormy days.

Alex Rios is not the problem with the offense, and he hasn't been for a month. Hitting him sixth isn't a stroke of genius.

Sometimes, when another team comes in and smokes the ball all over the yard like the Marlins did this weekend, you tip your cap and recognize. Because frankly, they looked really good.

(A more fulsome and lengthy diatribe is certain to come to us tomorrow, but we're in a celebratory mood on a personal level, and can't really delve into the aggravation caused by this weekend's sweep. But feel free to add your own freakouts in the comments. Or try to cheer up the Ack, because dude sounds like he needs it.)

Nine runs is good for what ails you

(If the above image isn't the enduring scene to date for the 2009 Toronto Blue Jays, then I don't know what is. Love it. And if you don't - learn to.)

When the Jays were winning games early this season (games they probably should have lost) on the back of Aaron "what a ballplayer!" Hill, I consoled my ever paranoid self by saying:

"Don't worry, self, when Hill eventually cools off, we'll have guys like Vernon Wells heating up to pick up the slack."

Well, it turns out that I was partially correct, if not fully crazy for carrying on such a conversation. I'm not going to pile on Vernon by pointing out his woefully inadequate numbers from the cleanup spot this year. Nope, I'm not going to go there. Not going to discuss it. What I will point out is the fantastic effort delivered by the team's forgotten man, Lyle Overbay.

Overbay delivered two crushing blows (homer, double) in big spots against Royals ace Zack "not Roy Halladay" Greinke. Mix in another big fly from Adam Lind, who is just fucking nailing the baseball these days, and a three double night from Marco (marco) Scutaro (scutaro) - who refuses to cool off, by the way - and voila - Jays win.

Oh, Ricky Romero looked pretty good, too. Dominant, if we can pretend the seventh inning never happened. Performances like those are exactly what the rotation needs. It looks like our guy Arnie must have had one of those "YOU'RE A BAD MAN RICKY. A REAL BAD MAN!!" pep talks with young Ricardo before tonight's game, because he was storming off the mound looking to punch someone in the mouth at the end of each inning (I miss Mencherson).

Yeah yeah, Arnsberg was off attending his daughter's graduation or something.....you've never heard of a cell phone?

Alex Rios mans up
Do we still need to talk about this? You know, the incident where the dickless poser calls out an athlete on the street with absolutely no fear of reprisal?

I mean, I get it.....Rios comes off as a major dick for (a) refusing the autograph request, and (b) dropping the f-bomb (how dare he!)...but seriously, the guy calling him out? What a douchebag. Unless you want to play the "well, Rios makes millions of dollars a year, it comes with the territory" card. Because then you're a jealous douchebag.

Aaaaanyway, team mandated or not, Rios confessed his sins and apologized for his improprieties to the ever attentive media before the game.

"I just want to apologize for the situation that happened yesterday at the gala," Rios said. "I just want to apologize to my fans, to the team, to my teammates, because it was something I should have never done. It was a bad reaction on my side."

"That's not the person that I am," he said. "You shouldn't act like that, even if there's sites like that or people following you, trying to make you say bad things, you shouldn't act like that."

Rios acknowledged that frustration with his poor performance Thursday led to the incident.

"It was a long day," Rios said. "I kicked myself, I couldn't help the team win. It was just bad."

So, there. Are you happy now, jealous douchebag? I don't know, maybe I don't care enough about these off-field transgressions, but yeah....Jays win. Dig it.

Alex Rios is the Windmill

If you could harness the energy of Alex Rios swinging and missing - as he did five times in five at bats in yesterday's 6-5 heartbreaker to the Angelenos - you could power the six blocks surrounding the Dome.

(And somewhere, Alex Gonzalez was rooting for the game to go into extra innings so that someone else could share the dubious honour of having struck out six times in a game. No such luck.)

Let's not be too quick to rip Rios to shreds, though. Over the past couple of weeks, he has likely been the Jays' best offensive player, so he's allowed to have a shittacular bed shitting game here and there.

Your new cleanup hitter (fingers crossed!)
Since Adam Lind went 5-for-5 in his stint as the cleanup hitter yesterday, can we possibly hope against hope that maybe he'll slide into that spot a little more permanently? Does it even matter? Are we just Vernon-hating to fill the void in our life?

The Dopeness and the Wackness of the Weekend that Was

As much as it sucked to watch the Red Sox saunter off with a win in the series closer with their douchiest duo cranking out homers and walking over Jays pitchers yesterday, this weekend provided some much needed relief for the lot of us fans who suffered through the past few weeks.

Let's break the weekend down into its component parts, shall we?

The Dopeness
Not only is it fun to watch Brian Tallet continue his winning ways in this Summer of Tallet, but it was kinda cool to see him with his blue bandana at the center of attention in the post game interviews afterwards. Tallet seems like a smart dude, and doesn't seem as though he's been media trained to the point of incoherency. Considering the lack of really compelling voices on this team, it's nice to hear someone speak frankly and incisively about his changing and developing role...

After a slow start, Alex Rios is on a roll. The Blisfully Oblivious Gazelle is on a six game hitting streak, and has extra base hits in his last four games, including two doubles in his 4-for-4 outing on Saturday. He's raised his OPS from .726 to .776 over those six games. Moreover, his swing looks more comapct and quieter over the past week or so, which augurs well for the Jays' offensive fortunes given his role as the number three hitter...

Vernon Wells got a hit to the opposite field. That's gotta be worth something...

The Wackness
The Jays bullpen continues to struggle, and no pitcher has struggled more mightily than Brian Wolfe. In his last two appearances, Wolfe has given up six runs and three homers, and his fastball has looked as straight and hittable as a batting practice soft toss. No one in the bullpen has looked great lately, but Wolfe's flat out lousy performance should earn his a trip back to Las Vegas, and soon...

Ricky Romero has shown some flashes of his early season form, but gets himself too deep into counts by picking and nibbling or just missing his spots. The five walks and two homers he gave up to the Red Sox on Sunday are certainly a cause for concern, although we hope that he'll be able to right himself with another couple of starts...

We're fans of José Bautista, maybe more than most Jays fans. And while we understand that JoBau came to Toronto last year as a guy who strikes out a lot, his eight whiffs in his last 17 plate appearances is sucking the life out of the bottom of the order...

Knives out

Our shtick around these parts has traditionally been to be the eternal optimist, talking people back off the ledge and putting the various dips and dives of outrageous fortune into some sort of rational light or perspective.

Somehow, we're just not feeling up to that task right now.

Maybe it's the mounting frustration at the fact that Cito Gaston has decided to chisel his lineup card into a granite tablet, thus ensuring that the tender feelings of the heart of the Jays' batting order are nurtured while they collectively suck the life out of the team's offense night in and night out.

Over the past six losses, Alex Rios, Vernon Wells and Adam Lind have combined for a grand total of ZERO runs batted in amongst them. ZERO. In 78 plate appearances. That shit just ain't funny.

And we understand that the past week represents a small sample size, but it's not as though this is a trend that appeared out of nowhere. Wells, your putative cleanup hitter for life, hasn't driven in a run since May 6 while Lind has posted a .645 OPS in the month of May. And while Rios has started to turn on the offense over the past month, his .786 OPS, four homers and nine RsBI are hardly enough to carry an offense on his own.

(As a side note to Vernon Wells: If you foul four pitches in one at bat off your foot and leg, do you suppose that you might want to stop chopping downwards on every slider and breaking ball that is thrown up there?)

We're not saying that this team needs a shake up just for the sake of shaking things up. But in the midst of an atrocious six game slide, we're finding it increasingly difficult to put our faith in the wise and sage Gaston's "Lose One, Win Two" philosophy. Do anybody really think that out of the charred remains of the past week, Cito's magical stubborn stoicism will earn us twelve wins?

Viva Las Vegas for the Pasty White Hope

We pretty much saw this coming a few weeks ago, but yesterday the Jays confirmed that they were sending Travis Snider to Triple-A Las Vegas to get his shit together.

This is likely for the best, given the fact that playing time had become increasingly sporadic for the phenom over the past few weeks. Getting three starts per week and hiding him away from lefthanders isn't any way to help Snider straighten himself out. Since his breakout series in Minnesota more than a month ago, Snider has posted a Johnny Mac-like .480 OPS, with two doubles and five RsBI. Here's hoping that with some regular plate appearances, he'll be back and better than ever.

(Side note: While no one wants to question the infinite wisdom of Cito Gaston, are we the only ones having flashbacks to the way that the skipper handled Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green in their early years?)

A final thought on the Boston series
Let's move on, shall we?

But before we move on, we'll take a moment to recall the fly ball that eluded the Blissfully Oblivious Gazelle in right field last night and bounced off the top of the towering four foot fence for a homer. And now we'll take a moment to smash our head against the corner of our desk.

There. All better. Moving on...

Tomahawk this
It's the Jays and the Braves this weekend, so dig out your 1992 upside-down Canada flag t-shirts and your Kelly Gruber Mullet Fluff Hair Spray and get ready to watch an old rivalry(?) rekindled. Roy Halladay starts tonight (not a moment too soon) versus the Braves' vaguely touted Japanese import Kenshin Kawakami.

We note that there's no local coverage (Hooray for junior hockey! Woooooo!). We will get to watch Turner's Peachtree TV broadcast tonight, which will hopefully scrub away the memory of three nights worth of Dennis Eckersley's brain farts being expelled over the air on the NESN feed.

A mother of a day for young Brett

It might be a touch presumptuous after just two starts, but we think that Brett Cecil is making a good case for the fact that we can't read too much into the pitching stats for Jays prospects in Las Vegas. After getting shelled in the high elevations and dry air of the Pacific Coast League (to the tune of a 8.31 ERA), Cecil has looked stellar in his first two starts with the Jays.

Yesterday's eight innings of five hit shut out ball (with six strikeouts versus two walks) in a 5-0 win over the A's likely complicated the Jays' decision-making process for what to do in the next week or two with the surprising surplus of arms in the rotation.

The conventional wisdom seemed to be that Robert Ray and Cecil would make their way back to Vegas to make room for Casey Janssen and Ricky Romero next week. But until Cecil demonstrates that he's not ready to pitch in the Big Leagues, we don't know how you can drop him from the roster.

Required Reading: Jon Hale's graphtacular breakdown of Cecil's first start over on the Mockingbird.

Alex Rios is a productive mess
So Cito comes out this weekend and tells the media that Alex Rios' swing is a mess. Well duuhh.

While Rios has been a bit more productive of late (including a homer and three RsBI yesterday), his swing is still all over the place, and he seems as though he's trying to pull everything. Elsewhere in the blogoweb, we've seen people suggest that the Rios doubters just STFU already about his performance. But in spite of some desirable returns from the Blissfully Oblivious Gazelle, we would make an argument along the same lines as Ghostrunner LtB's about Cito's decision making: Don't confuse the outcome with the process.

Sure, Rios is going to have good days at the plate, but if he doesn't address the problems with his swing, they will be few and far between in the long term.

Oh, yeah, about Tuesday's probable starters
Halladay versus A.J.. Are you freaking kidding me? We're going to spend the next two days in a girlish tizzy of anticipation.

Four seasons in one game

Not to over-egg the pudding here, but last night's walkoff 8-7 win over the Rangers was one of the most exciting, frustrating, demoralizing, reenergizing games we've seen the Blue Jays play in a long time. So much happened in the space of last night's game that you know they couldn't fit that shit all into nine innings.

Here's our quick breakdown, broken into its component parts:

The Dopeness
-The Jays winning their third walkoff of the year before they even open the lid on the Dome.

-Rod Barajas cranking out two homers, and having one of the best freakouts on the umpire after taking a called strike three that was three inches below his knees.

-Alex Rios going four for six with two RsBI and looking infinitely better (and as Alan Ashby pointed out, much more quiet) at the plate.

-José Bautista getting four hits and scoring twice. Jo-Bau!

-Jason Frasor, continuing to be awesome with his new changeup. Chalk up two more scoreless innings for the guy who was once the forgotten man in the pen.

-Cito working his seemingly dubious magic and leaving Kevin Millar in against Kason Gabbard Darren O'Day for the winning hit.

The Wackness
-The Beej. Oh, the Beej. Four appearances, two saves, two blown. Maybe it's not time to relax about him.

-Aaron Hill's error to extend the ninth, allowing the Rangers to come back.

-Seeing Travis Snider bunt. Every time Snider squares around to bunt, a little part of us dies inside.

-The empty park, apparently abandoned by fans who had better things to do on a Wednesday night than stick around for a walkoff win.

Don't look know, but it's time to start scoreboard watching
The Jays are still on top of the AL East, but the Red Sox (seven straight wins) and the Yankees (three straight) now sit a game and a half back.

Is it too early to fret about Alex Rios?

Back in January, we figured that the lynchpin of the Jays offense this year would be a certain corner outfielder who, at one point, was viewed as the future of the franchise. And while we couldn't be happier with the performances of Travis Snider and Adam Lind thus far, we're getting a bit antsy about the at bats of that other corner outfielder.

It's a given that it is way too early to freak out about Alex Rios, especially given that he's still managed to score six times and drive in another six so far. But there's something about the way Rios looks at the plate that has made us sit uncomfortably in the first week or so of the season.

Rios is a lanky and gangly assembly of appendages, and so far this year, it seems like all four of his limbs seem to be operating independently of one another. When compared to the economical swings of the players around him in the lineup (especially Rolen, Hill, Snider and Scutaro), Rios looks like a mess when coming through the hitting zone. His hands go up and down and everywhere, and his balance seems totally off. At times, it looks like he's falling backwards in his swing rather than coming to the ball.

In the field, we've said that Rios can at times look like a blisfully oblivious gazelle. At the plate this season, he looks like a gazelle on ice.

So with the standard caveats (small sample size, it's early, lots of baseball to play), we're hoping that is all stuff that can be worked out. We're certain that the magical mystical troika of hitting sages in the Jays staff are already hard at work showing Rios the way and the light, but it's just a little nerve wracking to see him try to figure things out while hitting in the three-hole.

And we know that Cito would never move him out of his spot in the lineup, because that might hurt his tender feelings.

What's 42 multiplied by inifinity?
We love that MLB celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, and that they go out of their way to single out his contribution to the game. But wasn't it overkill yesterday to see every single uniform festooned with Robinson's now-iconic number 42? We recognize that it might seem like a petty quibble, but in the three games that we watched yesterday, we were totally lost trying to figure out who was who.

We guess that the patchwork of the past few years wasn't exactly working with a few players on every team wearing 42. In addition, there was the uncomfortable issue that the initiative was at times serving to underscore the fact of how few African Americans are actually playing baseball when teams were scraping to find someone to wear the number on that day. On top of that, there's the whole issue of who "deserves" to wear the number, and whether if that runs down racial lines, which is totally counterproductive.

Our suggestion would be that one player on each team get the honour of wearing 42 on that day, and that the honour be bestowed on them by Robinson's family based on some criteria of social responsibility. Wouldn't that make the number special again?

Monday morning, running on fumes

Running a motor vehicle indoors is not such a super idea for those who aren't suicidal
The motorcross jamboree held on Saturday night under the Rogers Centre dome forced an evacuation of the hotel rooms and restaurants overlooking the stadium. Isn't this yet another argument for turning the former SkyDome into a baseball-only venue?

So long to all of our spring mancrushes
Jason Lane and Brad Emaus - the Mantle and Maris of Dunedin in 2009 - both got their walking papers and will make their way to the Jays' minor league camp for reassignment. Also taking the walk of shame is Dirk Hayhurst, whose sterling 13-to-0 strikeout-to-walk ratio in eight Spring innings was not enough to make up for the massive number of earned runs - one - that he gave up in those appearances.

Let's talk about Alex Rios to the Giants again, shall we?
Bleacher Report ponders who got the better of last spring's non-trade of Alex Rios to the Giants, although they weigh out the relative benefits of the swap with Matt Cain as the pitcher coming back to the Jays instead of Tim Lincecum. And while we have a certain roto-league weakness for Cain, we think we can speak for the majority of the Jays' fanbase when we say "thank god that trade never happened."

And while we smugly dump on starting pitchers we don't have...
Let us ponder the fact that Ricky Romero has become the front-runner for the fourth spot in the rotation, and that Dustin McGowan's return to good health may be delayed long enough that he'll have grey in his lambchops by the time he pitches again. Crap.

It's a blogger roundtable!
Mopup Duty has a Blue Jays Bloggers Roundtable of Death, featuring the best and brightest of the northern baseball blogosphere. There are some interesting thoughts in there, and the quality of the commenting is much improved by the fact that we didn't interject our weak-ass third-person piety into the mix. At least not this time.

The Ack will return once he is done parting the waters
For those of you who missed the inimitable weekend stylings of the Ack, know that he will be back just as soon as he turns back the Red River flood waters. No, seriously: he really spent the weekend helping to sandbag and secure the safety of his neighbours, and for that, he deserves our praise and adulation.

It's funny, though, that when the Ack takes a weekend off, people get up in arms, but we could blow off an entire week and no one would care. Suffice to say, we're not walking down any stairwells in front of the Ack any time soon...we saw Showgirls, and we're not about to make the same mistake as Cristal Connors.

Is it time for Wells and Rios to trade places in the field?

It's almost as though Vernon Wells and his old running partner Shannon Stewart traded hammies at some point in their abbreviated reunion last year. Just a few wind sprints into Spring Training 2009, and already Vernon pulls up lame with a leg injury that is supposed to keep him out for four weeks. This morning, Wells spoke to the Twitter Twins - Blair and Bastian - who report via tweet that four weeks is the "max" and a "worst case scenario".

We think we may have heard that song and hobbling dance from Wells before. (How sad is it that we can vividly picture the facial expressions that Wells made when he pulled up?)

When and if Vernon Wells is healthy, he's still the Jays best offensive player by a fair margin. Last year, he produced at a 30 homer and 100 RsBI pace when he was in the lineup, although he spent the better part of two months on the shelf with a variety of ailments.

In Wells' time in the infirmary, Alex Rios acquitted himself very well as the Jays everyday centerfielder, showing the range, instincts, arm and speed necessary to play the position. We don't know nuthin' 'bout no defensive metrics in baseball - it all just looks like a jumble of numbers and acronyms to us, but from what we hear, Rios' performance in center was quantifiably better than Vernon's, in spite of the latter's Gold Glove bona fides.

So our question (as the title of this post vaguely suggests) is: Isn't it about time that Vernon and Lexi allemand left and allemand right and dos-si-do and trade spots in the outfield?

Obviously, playing center is a point of pride for a player, and Vernon would be unlikely to just cede the position without some amount of consternation. And if you recall, Wells pretty much had to pry the spot out of José Cruz Jr.'s talons when he first got to the major league level.

At the same time, the move to the right corner of the outfield would save Wells' gimpy legs a certain amount of strain and pounding over the run of the year, which may help him stay healthy and fresh, thus improving his offensive output.

We'd be surprised to see Cito upset the applecart to make such a move. Then again, looking into the future of the franchise, we don't see how Vernon can keep his spot up the middle for the duration of his contract unless he demonstrates that he can keep his legs in proper working order.

A Dunedin moment with Lyle, Lexi and Millar

Millar: So I guess I take the lefties, and you'll take the righties, right?

Lyle: Well...not all the lefties.

Millar: It's okay dude. You'll still get lots of AB's.

Lyle: But you'll play the outfield sometimes. Right? Right? Cito?

Lexi: If I'm playing center, then you just park that Cowboy Up shit right on the foul line and let me take the rest.

Millar: Don't you play right field?

Lexi: For now.

Lyle: Vernon looks good this year, dontcha think?

Lexi: Oh yeah...he looks all skinny and stuff. I'm sure he's diving for balls like Greg Louganis.

Millar: Nice one. High five.

Lyle: Seriously though, Kevin...if you need any pointers from me on your footwork at first base, I'd be...er...happy to help.

Millar: It ain't that hard to play first dude. Just run to the bag, hold up that giant trapper and catch the ball. Done and done. No worries.

Lyle: Well, sometimes you've got to start the 3-6-3 double play. That's not as easy as it looks.

Millar: Yeah, I guess you know a little somethin' about double plays.

(*Awkward silence*)

Lexi: Yo dudes...anyone wanna play with my helicopter?

Who is (or isn't) the lynchpin this year?

Our use of the term lynchpin in yesterday's post made us think back to a post from last year, where we asserted that Lyle Overbay's season was going to define the Jays' successes in 2008. It looks a pretty spooky in retrospect when we read this line: "If Lyle Overbay doesn't hit, we're screwed."

Not that we're passing ourselves off as Kreskin here. Now, if we had said "If Lyle hits into a million (or at least 24) double plays,we're screwed", then that would have been impressive.

We just looked back, and wouldn't you know, it was exactly one year ago that we made our bold assertion singling out the snaggle-toothed swatter of twin killing balls. So in the interest of symmetry, we're going to embark on our Second Annual January 28th Assessment of the Blue Jays' Offensive Lynchpin.

(And just for the record, you can spell it lynchpin or linchpin. We just prefer the "y". )

The Candidates Aren't: Marco Scutaro (because we doubt he plays more than 120 games this season); Rod Barajas (because he's not the kind of catcher that you depend on for offense); or Lyle Overbay (because there are no two-time winners in the Lynchpin Pageant).

The Candidates Could Be, But Likely Aren't: Travis Snider (because he's still 20 years old, and you don't depend on someone that young to carry your offense); Adam Lind (because he's going to have enough trouble keeping his head above water this year); Aaron Hill (because we're just going to go ahead and assume that his brains are still scrambled until he hits his 20th double of the season).

So, The Candidates (By Default) Are: Vernon Wells, Alex Rios, and Scott Rolen.

It might seem to be a bit of a stretch to include Rolen in this equation, except that his numbers in 25 games last September - after taking time off to get his shoulder right and adjusting his swing - were the best that we saw from the former All World third baseman. Rolen hit three homers, eight doubles, drove in 11 and slugged at a .523 clip. Accepting that 88 ABs make for a small sample size, we still think that an OPS in the mid .800's with 20 homers and 85 RsBI aren't beyond the realm of possibility. Numbers like that could really help spur the rest of the lineup.

As for Vernon Wells, we'd contend that he actually was the lynchpin last season. Playing in two-thirds of the team's games, he still managed 20 homers, 78 RsBI and an .840 OPS. But on a certain level, we wonder if looking to him as the offensive catalyst isn't a little too obvious. It would be like saying: "The Cardinals offense will do better if Albert Pujols has a good year." Well, no shit. Vernon is supposed to be the big bat for the Jays, and we don't think that's what we're talking about here.

Which leaves us with Alex Rios. In most categories, Rios slid back last year, seeing his numbers in homers, runs, hits, RsBI, on base and slugging fall behind his 2007 standards. (His numbers went up in stolen bases, but really, who gives a shit about stolen bases?) Looking forward to next season, we're hopeful that a full year under the tutelage of the Junta of Hitting (Cito, Gene Tenace and Dwayne Murphy) will result in better...er, results for Rios. Whatever the case, you can be pretty certain that Rios will spend the bulk of the season hitting in the top four spots of the order, so the Jays will absolutely be relying on him to get on and get in at a better clip than last year.

The way we figure it, the Jays will pretty much depend on a better season from Rios if they are going to have any shot at making miracles this year. So we guess that makes him the Miss Lynchpin 2009.

Either him, or Jason Lane.

(Or Manny. Oh shit. Did we just go there?)

This is why we should take the term "MVP" behind the barn and shoot it dead

In just about every North American team sport, the top individual award is annually given to the player judged most valuable to his team.

Which begs the question: what the fuck do you mean by "valuable"?

Of course, everybody has their own particular view on what valuable means to them, so the voting for these top awards ends up being imbued with all sorts of nonsense and bunk that ha come to be a regular part of the process: You need to play for a contender, but you can't have too many other good players on your team (otherwise, how valuabe are you really?); you can't be a DH; you shouldn't be a pitcher; you'd be a better bet if you play a "premium" position...

It's all bollocks. The only thing that maintaining this whole "MVP" meme does is keep corpulent intellectually lazy hacks in sports columnists jobs. And really, how much value do they add to your everyday life?

Nothing, though, quite takes the cake as much Robert McLeod's blog post espousing Marco Scutaro as the Jays' MVP. This is taking the whole concept of "valuable" to its most absurd extreme.

Was Scoots "valuable", in as much as he was able to step in and provide above-replacement-level offense and good-sometimes-great defense at multiple positions? No doubt. And way back in November of last year, when the Jays went out and snagged him from Oakland, we figured that his position flexibility would be his greatest asset.

But seriously. Come on. Be real. If you want to say that Scutaro was the team's Unsung Hero, who might not get the headlines but who was important to keeping the season afloat, then fine. But don't go telling me that he and his .695 OPS were the key to keeping the Jays in the race.

Don't even try to compare his offensive totals to Alex Rios. Or if you insist, allow us:

Rios: 46 2Bs, 15 HRs, 78 RsBI, 31 SBs and an .801 OPS in 150 games played.
Scutaro: 22 2Bs, 7 HRs, 58 RsBI, 7 SBs and the aforementioned .695 OPS in 140 games.

Moreover, if you want to look at defensive flexibility, don't overlook the "value" of Rios' moving to centrefield for 59 games this year, which was as important to the Jays' fortunes as Scutaro's forays at short, second and third.

It's not that we don't appreciate Scutaro. We just wish that people would stop trying to be so cute about this and float out these stupid theories.

Fuck the MVP. Let's just call it "Player of the Year", and be done with it.

(Mind you, if you want to discuss Rios vs. Halladay vs. Scott Downs for Player of the Year, we're listening.)

With Rios, you take the good and curse the bad

On Tuesday, Alex Rios swiped two bags to become the first Jay to steal 30 in a season since Raul Mondesi had 30 and José Cruz Jr. had 32 in 2001. This is good.

Last night, Rios got a slow jump on a ball in the ninth, and then tried to make a running basket catch only to drop the ball and give the Tigers an extra out with the heart of their order coming to the plate. This is not so good.

In spite of the miscue (which led to two unearned runs), the Jays went on to win 4-3. And while we don't want to pile on like so many of the chattering JaysTalk callers, Rios really needs to pull his head out of his ass.

Rios has so much talent, but these mental lapses on the basepaths and in the field are really starting to overshadow the good things that he does. We get that these are the dog days of a long season, but if Rios is feeling sleepy and goofy on the field, then he should pound back a couple of Red Bulls and wake the fuck up.