Lineups:

Blue Jays	Mariners
2B Menechino 3B Hinske LF Johnson CF Wells C Zaun SS Gomez DH Clark 1B Phelps RF Rios	RF Ichiro CF Winn DH Martinez LF Ibanez 2B Boone 1B Cabrera SS Aurilia C Wilson 3B Bloomquist

WAMCO (June '04 Edition) stays intact. The Wheel of DH lands on Clark; someone must have shown Tosca his team's career stats against Pineiro, as Gomez (6-16 with a walk, 2 doubles and a triple - incroyable!!) moves to the 6 spot. Rios slides down. Olerud sits out.

http://vidsweb.com/mgp/mature_sex_video_br/003.htm
Menechino leading off again. Is this going to be a long term thing, until the wounded return?

Anyways, BP posted their VORP by position so far this year (COMN), and down at the centre fielders you have Beltran and Wells pretty close together, with Beltran third amongst AL centre fielders and Vernon second (Lew Ford is first, but I'm just going to completely ignore him until he plays an entire season). This got me to thinking. Supposing both had identical 5 year contracts. Who would you rather have on your team for the next 5 years, Vernon or Carlos? They're both superstars, both young (Although Vernon is 2 years younger). I'm interested in hearing what you guys think.

I was reading the WCB data for Ontario and the injury numbers are alarming, but then they always are... and I got to thinking it would be funny to ask if the Blue Jays are inflating that number..

but then I got to thinking... do you suppose that Carlos' injury really is a "Lost time accident"???

I know David Wells isn't... but these guys are working, aren't they?

I tuned into the Fan pre game show late. Did Tosca have anything to add to the Halladay story. Thanks.

Sportsnet.com's saying Halladay's not starting Sunday, just as a precaution. I hope it's just that.

No Delgado's is not a lost time injury. He is still being paid by his employer and is reporting to the yard for work everyday. It might fall into the realm of "duty to accomadate" though.

Those two years are important. We're probably yet to see the best of VW, whereas this could be as good as it gets for Beltran (which is pretty damn good). If I'm picking one for this season, it's Beltran, but I take VW long-term.

The good thing about most of these injuries is that they aren't serious or long-term. And even some of the serious ones - who really cares if Myers can't play? It's not going to make the slightest bit of difference next year.

The exception, of course, is Halladay. If that's a serious injury this team is in deep trouble, long term. When we were blue-skying about how great the rotation might look in two years, what names did we have at the top of our list? Halladay and McGowan. Who's hurt now? Halladay and McGowan. It's enough to make you want to chew your own foot off.

How about the article by Stephen Brunt in today's Globe claiming Carlos Delgado is from the Dominican Republic...must have gotten that tidbit from the John Cerutti.

Bases loaded for Gomez...

My mistake, Gomez on first and bases juiced for Howie Clark

All right Phelps, no GIDP!!!

(A base hit would be nice. Real nice.)

Grandslam Phelps!!!

More like that!

*That* was a base hit...

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT?

Finally the Jays do some damage with the sacs juiced.

(smile)

If I recall correctly Phelps did jack the first half of last season and then turned it on. Perhaps a trend?

Well what I have found this year is when there are RISP, batters often ground into dp, where trying to walk or taking a KO would allow a better slugging batter a chance, and when one of our sluggers has an opportunity, they walk and pass the baton to someone who promptly GIDP or something. Hope Phelps continues to hit over the infield.

http://www.chancetolive.com
"In play, out(s) recorded."

YES! Lilly got out of the jam!

I don't understand why with the bases loaded you're throwing a first pitch curveball to Willie Bloomquist. I mean...it's freaking Willie Bloomquist! He couldn't get around on a single fastball and you put yourself in a dumb position falling behind 2-0 to this guy and end up going through like a 10 pitch at bat. What a stupidly pitched inning by Ted Lilly. With a 4-0 lead why are you even trying to be cute with the curveball? Keep it simple, fastball, cutter, changeup, pitches that are easy to control.

Now instead of being able to go deep into this game, Lilly will probably use up his pitch count by the 6th inning.

Chris Gomez had the out but for some reason decided he had to go back and touch the base again and confuse the umpire.

Wow Lilly has already tossed 45 pitches through 2 innings. He needs to work on getting his PC down especially with the bullpen being tired.

Looks like we should see VDSA for at least 2 innings.

Sportsnet.com's saying Halladay's not starting Sunday, just as a precaution. I hope it's just that.

Spot start for David Bush on Sunday?

jc

Seems like everytime I look at the scoreboard the Yanks, Red Sox, and A's are winning.

If I had to take a guess, I'm guessing in the last 20 games for those 3 clubs they're all around the 12-8 or 13-7 mark.

Good call, Ron. Last 20 games:

Yankees 14-6
A's 13-7
Red Sox 12-8

If nothing else, the Jays should retroactive Doc to the DL for about seven days and call up Nakamura (or File). Even if you don't want to rush Bush or someone else up, there's no reason not to get the extra arm in the pen. With Hengten only lasting four innings, and Lilly not making it much past five in most of his starts, having a spare arm around would help.

Awesome suicide squeeze, btw. There's hardly a more exciting play in baseball.

Could someone please explain to Rob Faulds that a pick off play at 2nd is not always the 'daylight play', especially if the 2nd baseman is covering.

Awesome suicide squeeze, btw. There's hardly a more exciting play in baseball.

I thought Zaun was dead, dead, dead on that play. Clark made the weirdest looking bunt I've ever seen. Mostly because of the location of the pitch (Clark did well to actually make contact, let alone hit it fair).

That bunt was about as pretty as his strikeout swing. Zaun got a great jump from third base which is why he was safe. That bunt was straight towards the pitcher but he was able to deaden it several feet short.

Lilly had Cabera set up for a changeup after the 1-2 fastball. Except he waited until the count was full about 3 or 4 pitches later to use it. He's had such a good changeup tonight, I don't know why he doesn't go to it to get more outs instead of wasting so many pitches. He's already thrown 100 pitches after just 5 innings. Lilly's stuff is good but his game plan is the opposite of smart.

Ugh... Rich Aurillia hit a homer of Lilly. Evidence is now good that I could hit a homer off Lilly.

Now this is where Lilly's fooling around will really hurt the team. It's just the 6th inning and it's a 5-2 game. Jason Frasor is not available and the Jays have to get through at least 3 innings of a game they had well in hand.

Also Lilly is tiring and his velocity is down and whenever a pitcher throws tired that opens him up to injury which is the last thing the Jays need.

Don't think Lilly will come out for the 7th. His velocity is noticably down, and he doesn't last past the sixth too often anyway.

Uh why is Lilly out there? 108 pitches coming into the inning and he hasn't been pitching well.

How about the article by Stephen Brunt in today's Globe claiming Carlos Delgado is from the Dominican Republic

I'm still trying to get over Brunt's terrible Dofasco story in the recent ROB magazine.
Can someone remind me why a sportswriter wrote a huge business feature for a business paper?

Well Tosca tried to squeeze a few more drops from a sponge which was long dry. Lilly leaves after a leadoff single.

I love it when a young pitcher like Vinnie Chulk comes in with spectacularly low numbers. Looks like we have a good bullpen. It's like on the first game of the season, when a player can say, "Yeah, I'm batting a thousand!"

BTW, Angelic Vladdie has 8 RBIs against the Sox tonight...

Chulkie's dealing! That was child's play.

Vinnie! Not too bad!

I'm wondering if they might be auditioning the Incredible Chulk for a start, we'll see if they strech him out here. Since when can he hit 94?

Good grief! 95 mph sinking GAS from Chulk.

Aurillia Looked like he was jogging when advancing from 2nd to 3rd. He just can't move anymore. He's as old as the hills.

Seems the gas ran out a bit to those last three batters.

Vladdy just got his 9th rbi with a single! Eckstein's 5 for 5 with the other Angel rbi...

Chulk got saved by a couple of good catches by Wells and Rios to end the inning. Rios will only improve in RF, did he play most of Syracuse there this year? I know the park has the same dimensions.

Oooo! Vlad pulls off a Roy Howell (9 RBI)

Not a bad lineup for the Angels eh. At least tonite. Eckstiens 5-5 with four runs scored as well.

Who's pitching the 9th for the Jays?

Tom Candiotti is coming down with Pat Tabler Syndrome (PTS). The primary symptom is that, as soon as you make an observation, something will immediately happen to disprove you. For example, as soon as he says that someone is showing a lot of patience at the plate, the hitter in question WILL swing at the next pitch, as Alex Rios just did. Tom's been doing that a lot lately.

And please, not Kerry Lightenberg. I had thought we might win tonight.

"Defensive switch from designated hitter to designated hitter for Bobby Estalella."

Ain't software great?!

Lightenberg. Dang.

Yay!

Well, they took two of three from Seattle, as expected. Not quite in way it was expected, but...

There were about 45 guys on the field for the Jays shaking hands after the game with all the coaches and all the guys on the DL. A nice sight to see them celebrating a nice win though!

I have to admit I'm getting worried.

Not about the team, but about the injuries. I figured that by now at least someone would have returned. I thought Hudson was only supposed to miss a game or so? It's good that they're not rushing them, but damn I hope some of them come back soon.

Tremendous AA debut for Josh Banks tonight. He's got a pretty sweet ERA right now.

Those 2 steals by Wells are going to be key to me beating Pistol in BBFL Barfield this week!

Ugh. 94.5. The price of gas and Josh Banks' New Hampshire ERA
ugh

Great win tonight. Wells seems to be seeing the ball really well. Phelps damn sure came through. I don't care if the M's are scuffling, the Jays scratched out a very unlikely series W.

The A's will be tough. At least Chavez will be a spectator. Here's hoping that Menechino tears it up. Anyone know which A's starters are scheduled? I think Mulder threw today.

Chavez is out with a broken hand at the moment.

Someone earlier posted a thought about putting Doc on the DL retroactively, since he's going to skip Sunday's start anyway. His last game was May 27, so he'd be eligible to return on June 11 or June 12 if this were the case, and would only get bumped back 1 or 2 days from the following scheduled start.

As a tidbit, one of Bob File's buddies is saying that he's getting the call-up, and is flying out to Oakland for tomorrow's game.

Oh are you refering to the FileCabinet guy from the espn.com message boards???

I believe Zito goes today against Batista.

I agree that Clark did a great job to just make contact with that ball, and for a moment there I was stunned when I saw Pineiro flip home as I thought Zaun would be hung out to dry.

Can anyone give a better idea of how Chulk pitched? I read that he gt saved by two nice catches from Rios nd Wells, but he also struck out 3 of the 6 batters he faced.

Chulk pitched well at first keeping the ball down and throwing his sinker as hard as 95 and a sharp well located slider, both as out pitches. He threw a lot of pitches per batter though and lost his location a bit on the last three hitters who drove the ball hard to the outfield, one for a double and two found gloves.