Dropping links like Adam Lind crushes hanging breaking balls

We'll confess to being a bit spent by the two-game mindfuck that was the series against the Clevelanders, so to give ourselves a little respite today, we'll punt you off to the many other fascinating Blue Jays tidbits around the internet.

(Speaking of which: Did you know that you can get free breakfast and "internets" from Super 8? We may have heard that somewhere.)

Scott Richmond got his face in a frame
The Blue Jay Hunter tips their cap to the American League's New Employee of the Month, Scott Richmond.

Doc turns his stare from stun to grin
Hum and Chuck offers up a funny video of Roy Halladay being interviewed by Gerry Dee, the caucasian half of the Score's goofball reporter tandem. It's a riot to see the look on Doc's face as he suffers Dee gladly. Funny stuff, even without the allegations of litigious racism.

The Blue Jays' attendance woes, Part 28
In the comments yesterday, we promised a post on the Jays' early season attendance numbers, though we're not sure that we could do much better than this gem from Neate at Out of Left Field.

If you can't get 'em to the park, at least have 'em watching on the tube
The Star's Chris Zelkovich reports that the Jays' TV audiences on Sportsnet are up about six percent over last season. (Which begs the question: Even with half of the 'Net's "regions" airing games other than the Jays'?)

What do you do with a problem like Snidey?
It's a couple of days old now, but Drew/LtB at Ghostrunner on First made a very reasonable suggestion that the time might have come to send Travis Snider to Las Vegas for some fine tuning. This, of course, was before Snider discovered the impact that high socks could have on his performance. Problem solved!

Josh Barfield misremembers the good old days of the SkyDome
Jesse's kid regales the Cleveland Plain Dealer with tales of goofing around the SkyDome when it first opened and playing in the new facility with the Mosebys and Upshaws. There's just one problem: Willie Upshaw never played as a Blue Jay at the SkyDome. In fact, he never played at the SkyDome at all. In 1988, he made way for Cecil Fielder and Fred McGriff by moving on to Cleveland before retiring at the end of the season. The SkyDome didn't open until June of the next season.

Moreover, Jesse Barfield was traded from the Blue Jays on April 30, 1989 for Captain FingerBlister, Al Leiter, a month before the SkyDome opened. So clearly, we can expect to see an announcement coming from the Cleveland front office that Josh has been placed on the DL because of injuries sustained when his big liar pants were on fire.

The minutiae of MLB rules...explained at last!
We're digging Bart Given's Inside the Majors blog lately, especially when he digs into the particulars of the waiver or DL systems. We're just hopeful that Given doesn't go all soft on us after he moves to the West Coast.

There's something that happens to people when they get to the other side of the Rockies...we can't explain it, but we've lost too many friends to a life of performance art, yoga and Canucks apologism not to worry for Bart. (But congrats to Jody on the new gig.)

Ricky Romero backs his way into the big leagues

It says something about the current state of the Jays rotation that Ricky Romero seems to be the only viable option for the fifth spot in the rotation when the team heads north.

Romero hasn't exactly been the picture of perfection over the Spring slate of fake games, posting a 5.73 ERA in four games, striking out 14 and walking 11. And yet, with the tenderness of Casey Janssen's repaired shoulder and Matt Clement's inability to throw strikes, the Jays are left with precious few other options. One other option might have been to bring lefty Brian Burres north, given his K/BB rate (13/2), although Burres didn't take the hill to start in any of those appearances.

With the Jays rotation likely to include three lefties (Romero, Purcey and Mills), it raises the question as to how many southpaws are too many in the pitching staff. In addition to the starters, the Jays will likely also have Brian Tallet, Jesse Carlson, Scott Downs and B.J. Ryan in the bullpen, meaning more than half of the staff will be of the right-brained variety. If nothing else, it should mean lots of hijinks in the bullpen.

Bart Given Stirs the Pot
After having given the Jays' former AGM guff for his orthography on his newly-launched Inside the Majors blog, let us take a moment to credit him for some thought provoking content posted over the past few days.

In one post, Given raises the prospect (pardon the pun) of keeping Travis Snider in AAA until at least mid-May to keep his service time under 171 days, thus preserving one extra year of arbitration rights on The Great Big Giant Pasty White Hope^TM. Given argues, quite reasonably, that Snider will be of more use to the team in 2015 than he would be in 2009.

We'd argue, however, that if Snider proves to be everything that he promises, then the team should sign him to an extended deal like the one that the Rays gave to Evan Longoria that buys out a few of those possible free agent years after 2015. It's a bit of a gamble, especially given that Snider is a few years younger and his body type seems like one that is more likely to break down over time. But it's a gamble we'd be willing to take, if only because we're way too anxious to see him producing in Toronto and staying away from the Vegas buffets.

Given also offers some fascinating insight into a managerial move made by Jim Fregosi, when he sent his preferred dirt dog Dave Hollins to the plate in the place of super-instense DH Brad Fullmer. It turns out that Fullmer pulled some sort of disappearing act in the clubhouse, necessitating the bizarre in-game maneuver.

Fregosi...Fullmer...Dave Hollins! God almighty, that seems like a lifetime ago. We're crossing our fingers and hoping for a Mickey Morandini story on the Given blog before the year is out.

It's always sunny in Toronto

I don't know much about former Jays Assistant GM Bart Given, but I know he's probably had better days. A quick scan of the headlines this morning revealed that Given is no longer a member of the front office. If nothing else, it might be another notch in the power belt of potential-GM-in-waiting Alex Anthopoulos.

JP Ricciardi sent out this cheerful note via MLB's messaging system announcing his "departure":

"Please be advised that Bart Given is no longer an employee of the Toronto Blue Jays. Bart wishes to remain in baseball, and can be reached at this phone number. Thank you."

Hey JP, ease up on the superlatives, will ya?

Meanwhile
Our winter of discontent continues, as the pattern of no news is bad news carries on in an infinite loop. Oh sure, JP says the team might free up some money if the right veteran falls into their lap....though Wilner says it would probably have to be for less than a million bucks. Yay.

In other news, mlb.com's Jordan Bastian also reports that the Jays might just be talking to a Japanese pitcher right now. He must be a keeper if there's zero buzz anywhere about this. Hip hip (come on everybody......).