To put this whole Scott Downs contract in context

The White Sox just handed $11 million over two years to the perpetually injured and mostly ineffective Octavio Dotel, ostensibly because he has "closer stuff". Downs managed a 2.17 ERA in 81 appearances last year, while Dotel has pitched in 62 games since 2005, putting up a sparkling 5.63 ERA for Oakland, the Yankees, Kansas City and Atlanta.

So Downs is a relative steal at those numbers.

This is Kenny Williams' second high-priced middle relief signing this year (after Scott Linebrink's slightly more palatable 4-year $19 million deal), and we're rooting for this to blow up good in his face. (Our antipathy towards the South Side's GM hasn't diminished a bit in the years since the Sirotka heist deal. )

Hey, if nothing else, this is the sort of move that's surely going to result in Ozzie Guillen flipping his lid at least a few times this year. And who can put a price on that sort of entertainment value.

Jonesing for some ball

Last night, while staring at the ceiling, bored out of our frigging skull, our mind turned to Roy Halladay.

We pictured him striking some chump out, then walking coolly off the mound, as he's want wont to do. We pictured him swearing at himself into his glove, as he's also want wont to do.

God almighty, we're going through withdrawal. And it is still more than a month until pitchers and catchers report.

Occasionally, we'll tune into ESPN Classic to see if they might be showing a baseball game just to get us through the winter, but usually, they're running old episodes of Kiana's Flex Appeal. (Which is satisfying in its own way, but hardly a substitute.)

And seriously: Do we really need the "Pub Night" Fridays? Is there any such thing as "classic" darts?

We'd settle for Halladay throwing darts. Hmm...let's see what happens when we Google "Roy Halladay Darts".

TA-DAA!


Speaking of Pitchers and Belly Itchers
Belong to Rios basically wrote the post that we were going to write about the Jays' stockpiling of dubious bullpen arms. There's not much there to get excited about, but then again, guys like Scott Downs didn't have a ton of cachet as off-season signings, and they turned out to be pretty useful.

Battle of the Birds Take Two. Jays Win!

A week ago the Jays would have crumbled at the sight of Eric Bedard. Last night however, the Jays played the game like they had some confidence. Despite the fact that Tomo Ohka gave up 3 early runs on HRs to Jay Gibbons and Nick Markakis, the Jays battled back to tie it on RBIs from Jason Phillips and Troy Glaus. The game was put away in the eighth on Troy Glaus' 2 run blast.

Highlights of last night's game:

• Troy Glaus - The hobbling manboy was back in the lineup and made his presence felt. We have the feeling that his heel will continue to cause him trouble, but we'll take a missed game here and there if we can get clutch performaces like this a couple of times a week.
• The Bullpen - Downs, Jannsen, and Accardo pitched 4 innings combined allowing two hits, no walks, and no runs. Plus Accardo looked like a real closer last night. Bonus!
• Honourable Mention, Tomo Ohka - After giving up two early home runs, Ohka hung in there and shut the Orioles down long enough to give the bullpen a reasonable chance to get a win.

We haven't written a post like this in a long time. Kind of lacking in drama, but it feels good.