The Second-Half Road To Respectability (tm) for the Blue Jays starts in sticky Arlington, Texas -- and Arlington's own Vernon Wells will return to the lineup tonight to provide some much-needed offensive and defensive help. The Jays' pitching staff, however, faces a minefield of danger in the formidable Texas order, which puts up particularly scary numbers at home. Expect some Texas-style shootin' matches, as the Rangers have offered up some struggling pitchers for Toronto's consumption on Friday and Sunday, and a young starter on Saturday that the ol' Scout isn't sold on just yet.

This week's Scout includes some smoking hot bats, some surprising journeymen in the 'pen, some love for Rocket Roger and some hate for A-Rod. Plus, you can read about some front-office confusion on two fronts: first, a foreordained transition may not necessarily occur on schedule. And second, the Rangers have their sights set on a Blue Jay that ought not to be on the block.

On to the Advance Scout!

Of our lives until somebody say
Forgive me if I seem out of line
Then she whipped out her gun
And tried to blow me away

Todays minor league report is short and not so sweet. The good guys were 0-3.

The All-Star Game is a fine event, vastly superior to the offerings of the other major professional sports. Conversely, baseball fans have plenty of sound reasons to disdain the All-Star break: no real games, soul-crushingly dull non-events like the Home Run Derby (part of the encroaching Super Bowlification of baseball), more air time for the lucid observations of John Kruk.

My problem with the All-Star break is deeper and purer. The Texas Rangers, my team of choice, currently lead the American League West with a two-game lead over Oakland. Unfortunately, the Rangers also have a long and squalid history of post-ASB collapses. For whatever reason, many of those collapses were partially at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays, as you'll read below.

James Strapp follows up last week's article on the debut teams of position players. Once again, his Excel spreadsheet (a 2 MB ZIP file) is available to be downloaded.

Must have been a snow day or something. All the teams had the day off except for those poor suckers in Dunedin and Auburn. Neither of those offensive powerhouses were really able to get things going as they only scored 4 runs apiece, but each still managed to win behind some solid pitching.

There is nothin' fair in this world
There is nothin' safe in this world
And there's nothin' sure in this world

We started this a few months ago with the All-February Team; last month we met the June Cleavers. Now it's time for the All-July team, a squad made up entirely of players born in the month named for good ol' "Lend Me Your Ears" Julius Caeser.

Incidentally,the best "Cesar" to play in the major leagues who was also a product of his namesake's month ...

Marty Pevey has been in professional baseball since 1982 when Marty was selected by the Twins in the 19th round of the 1982 draft. Marty's only big league time was spent with the Expos in 1989. Marty also spent two years playing for the Syracuse Skychiefs where he is now the manager. Marty has been a manager in the Blue Jays minor league system since 1996 and, in that time, has managed Blue Jay teams in Rookie ball, A ball, AA and now AAA. Marty also spent 1999 as the bullpen coach for the Blue Jays under Jim Fregosi. When Robert and I were in Buffalo we talked Skychiefs with Marty Pevey who kept us on our toes through our chat.

It looks like Jimy "one M" Williams has reached the end of the road in Houston. Speculation abounds that Jimy will not be the manager come Thursday. Houston has been a major disappointment this season after many pundits forecast the Astros to win the division. Houston sits 10 and a half games back at the all-star break.

Of a thousand rainy days since we first met
It's a big enough umbrella
But it's always me that ends up getting wet

They are under way in Houston, with a leadoff double by Ichiro off Clemens.

Syracuse rested while Pulaski romped. In close contests, New Hampshire won and Charleston lost. Dunedin couldn’t walk their way to victory, not with flammable pitching. Auburn finished up a thrashing, and then didn’t bother with offence, just to make it interesting in their regularly scheduled game.

In this guest column, Thomas takes a closer look at three notable events from around baseball last week.

Robert and I caught up with Gabe Gross when we were in Buffalo last week. We had a very enjoyable conversation as Gabe was very accomodating and actually looked happy to be answering our questions. We interviewed Gabe in a corridor outside the dressing room and the lighting was bad. Robert took an in-game picture, it's long distance, but it is the best we could get. The Chiefs did not take batting practice the day we were there.