No Cat? No Mouse? Just the Dog?

Watch out everyone. Joe West is behind home plate.

Take care... beware....the big green dragon...

No Cat? No Mouse? Just the Dog?

Si. Latino cat #4. Anglo cat #5.

Swear to God, the highlight of this dismal season for me was one midsummer game when Cat and O-Dog got back to back RBI hits, and the board lit up with, first

CAT! CAT! and then

DOG! DOG!

and, inevitably:

CAT! CAT! DOG! DOG!

That's been about it...

In late June, Ponson was on track to give up well over 300 hits. Now that number has fallen to 265. He still spins the occasional gem, but if there were ever a time for the Jays bats to come alive...

Earth to Carlos. The game has started. Even with this hitting streak, Delgado still looks lost at the plate. He struck on four pitches, three of them called strikes.

Where is sparky Reed?

Where is sparky Reed?

Gross' arrival has forced Johnson into the more appropriate role of platoon LF.

Geez, Jay Gibbons is having an awful season.

I wouldn't mind having him back, though.

Might as well be hacking. Everything Ponson throws is a strike anyway.

The Orioles' opening day OF was Bigbie/Matos/Gibbons. Today it's two converted infielders and Surhoff.

B/M/G had been doing so poorly that I often saw them in the 7/8/9 slots in the order, a pretty strange place for your outfielders.

http://www.chancetolive.net
Hinske with a base hit to the right side!

http://www.chancetolive.net
Question of the moment: if Greg Zaun and Sidney Ponson somehow managed to have babies then would they be attractive?

You're thinking much of the ugliness would somehow cancel itself out?

Ponzaunstien!

http://www.chancetolive.net
Nah, neither of those is the answer, guys. The answer is "hell no", as in "hell no, thems would be some damned ugly children." It was a rhetorical question... yeah... not funny... sorry... :(

I like patient hitting as much as the next guy, but this is a little extreme. I believe that's four strikeouts looking so far in the game. They haven't seemed like borderline pitches to me either.

Four strikeouts for Ponson, all looking. 10 of the 12 strikes in those ABs were called strikes.

Gonna have to start hacking, boys...

Sweet, the Expos are beating up on Clemens.

http://www.chancetolive.net
And Hudson gets rung-up too! Damn.

More goose eggs. At least they're on both sides...for now.

Not only that, but Jon Rauch has a no-hitter through four innings, and hit a homer off of Clemens.

The Expos are 16-10 since the All-Star break, the 4th best record in the NL. They're also 5th in the league in runs scored since the break - but are still last overall, which tells you all you need to know about their offense in the first half.

They're doing what we've been waiting for the Jays to do all year.

At this moment in the game (after the Hairston walk) both pitchers have thrown 37 strikes.

Of course, Ponson needed only 50 pitches for that, Batista needed 74.

Am I the only one concerned about Batista's horrifically bad K:BB ratio? He already has 70 walks, and god knows where he ends up with 6 or 7 starts to go. Is this a sign of potential decline next year? He'll be 34 when the season starts.

CAT! CAT!

I'm trying here...

Jeez, three double plays already.

Have the Jays hit a single ball in the air?

Rios leadoff single was a line drive.

Everything else... on the ground

I knew Batsita had some control issues, but I never realized that his K/BB numbers were quite this bad.

Although they're not that far off of his career numbers.

Last year they were much better, but in 2002 Miguel had a 5.46 K/9 and 1.60 K/BB. His numbers this year are worse than that, but not by a ton (5.17, 1.33 before this game.)

Meh.

Gross just getting his 2nd AB in the 6th ininng. Ponson one batter over the minimum.

"He has the countenance of someone about to be audited."

Not bad, Rob, not bad.

Ray (the Rabbit) Miller was a disaster in both his managing jobs, by the way.

Miguel is looking a little gassed after 109 pitches. Get 'em ready.

GET urgent, Kevin. He's done....

Batista threw 119 pitches, 61 strikes - but he looked exhausted after number 108, in the middle of the Hairston AB.

I thought he kept throwing to first during the Roberts AB to give the pen a chance to get ready.

Oh well...

http://me.woot.net
Posting from the SkyDome here. Batista looked good until the 5th, when he started getting tired. Strange bbut true: zero strikeouts for the Jays through 6.

Named For Hank and I were speculating: has there ever been a perfect game (or even a no-hitter) without a strikeout recorded?

Crowd sure sounds loud suddenly, and there's no pizza on the line!

VW hits it into the air!!!

There's a ball in the air...

...and is that a quick hook?

I miss the days of the 8-7 scores or 10-8 scores. Getting dominated by Chad Durbin and Sidney Ponson is not fun at all.

There's a ball in the air...

Reckon it's made of flubber?

C'mon Cat! Wait, Mouse!

http://me.woot.net
The wave was going around inexplicably. But the crowd seems to have woken up.

Magpie, aren't you supposed to be working? :)

I'm multi-tasking.

Our clutch Jays!

This season sucks.

Think Palmeiro has enough viagara to pass around the Jays' dugout?

Heyyy, a strikeout. Good job, Sean Douglass.

He should. I would think he gets a discount of some sort...

Lord knows, we need some wood that works :)

Its Sean "Wildthing" Douglass shuts down his former team while throwing more balls then strikes... Way to go Sean! That'll bring his ERA down into the Mid-7's!

Go Positivity!

Named For Hank and I were speculating: has there ever been a perfect game (or even a no-hitter) without a strikeout recorded?

Earl Hamilton in 1912, Sam Jones in 1923 and Ken Holtzman in 1969 all threw no-hitters without a K.

I believe every perfect game has featured a strikeout.

At what point will the madness end?

Are we going to have to "tip our caps" yet again to a pitcher with an era higher than 5.50 who just "pitched his butt off" or can we finally pronounce this Jays offense as one that stinks?

If Chad Durbin faced this offense 301 times, he'd be a 300 game winner!

**Rimshot**

Can someone please tell me where John Gibbons see's potential in Chris Woodward? I've been looking for it but for some reason it seems to elude me...

Mike, It's not like Chris Gomez was actually playing well...

Oh wait...

What's up with JT Snow? Is he using something of Bonds'? I wish they sent about 9 batters worth of that stuff over here because we could sure use it to rejuvenate our anemic offense. I wonder how much Bonds' bats would go for anyway. ; )

I think most hitters would not be able to deal with one of Barry's bats. Everybody these days gets a thin little handle, holds it right down at the end, and whales away with it.

Bonds has a thicker handle, an enormous knob at the end, and chokes up a couple of inches.

Something sounds a little off-colour there.

It's pretty disheartening when you go to Gleeman's site, read him rant about the Twins offense, laugh at how bad the Twins offense is, and then realize it's much better than the Jays'.

Despite the fact the Jays have dropped 9 out of the last 10 games and can't score to save their life I'm feeling good because my Lions are abusing the Tiger Cats. Printers to Simon .... way too easy

Crap, I forgot about the Lions game.

Thanks for the heads up.

Awww dammit, already 3rd quarter.

Can someone please tell me where John Gibbons see's potential in Chris Woodward? I've been looking for it but for some reason it seems to elude me...

Hopefully, he was just trying to make the best of a somewhat precarious situation (raise his trade value? ha) otherwise it's a poor reflection on his ability to judge talent.. then again he is a coach and not a GM, so assessing talent falls way down the list of his priorities behind the likes of supporting players through thick and thin, gaining their respect, loyalty, desire to play hard/win for him and the like. Because at this point even the biggest Woody backers who have erroneously overrated his potential whether it was due to 2 months of a good slugging % a couple of years back, the fact that injuries have actually helped him in disguising the inevitable valleys that follow his peaks and that Bordick and then Gomez beat him out in 2 successive years, or just the fact that SS, arguably the weakest position in the league (minus the stars) where the likes of A Gone can be seen as a viable starter has created an environment accepting of mediocrity.

One could argue that with our stars or more proven players performing as abysmally as they have why chastise Woodward of all players? Well that's exactly it, the others have actually had reasonable success for an extended period of time in the past which leads one to believe they can get back on track in the future, not to mention allowing them more time to do so. As for Woodward this isn't the case, for one reason or another he hasn't taken advantage of the opportunities. If you want to lay the blame on injuries, that's fine but realize that once it becomes a re-occurring pattern then it should count against a player just like any other weakness would (as cruel as it may sound); and ten fold against a marginal player like Woodward in comparison to say a proven commodity like Griffey Jr. I realize that the main reason he hasn't been replaced by now is because we had no one waiting in the wings to do so but hopefully that will soon change with one of Adams or Hill with probably a FA acquisition in between.

As for JT... he has another one. Unreal.

By the way that was a little innuendo of sorts but maybe I should've just went in another direction altogether with the age old 'somebody check that bat' line of jokes.

Our old friend did it again. With two out in the 12th inning, Alex Gonzalez hit a game-tying home run. Expos then rallied around a walk by Tony Batista to win a remarkable game.

Montreal now 17-10 since the break, and they're a game ahead of the Blue Jays in the standings.

I think the Cheer Club needs to start booing this "Lie down and take the beatin' Jays" team. Knock some sense into 'em.

Montreal now 17-10 since the break, and they're a game ahead of the Blue Jays in the standings.

This is what I'm talking about. Who wants the Jays to win when we have the possibility of a 4th or 3rd overall pick hanging in the balance if they can just keep sucking. I'm not "jumping off the bandwagon", just trying to be realistic. Is anyone going to care about 5 more wins 5 years from not if we end up with some amazing player?

I honestly think a 6th pick can be just as valuable as a top 2 pick.

Look at the Padres, and their pick. He wasnt even the best player. For a team like us, I am sure we will pay for talent, but if the best player at our draft position demands a 5 million signing bonus or a major league contract, that hurts as much as Delgados contract if the player doesnt pan out. But I would take that gamble on Mark Prior II or ARod Jr.

Does someone with some knowledge on the upcoming draft know what the projected top 5 (or 6) might look like? Is Justin Upton in next year's draft? I remember reading that, but I'm not sure.

Scott, I do not know a projected top 5 or top 10 for the upcoming draft, but I DO KNOW that Justin Upton is in the draft.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/columnists/askba04june.html
Scott - its a bit early but Baseball America has a list of the top college and high school players for the 2005 draft. COMN and scroll down to the bottom of the page...

Thanks a lot for the link.

I really hope we get Upton, but it is too early to tell at this point.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/040813cape.html
I have a feeling Upton will be one of the first couple players taken...I think it is more likely we get somebody like 3B Alex Gordon, RHP Mike Pelfrey, 1B/LHP Stephen Head, SS Tyler Greene, RHP Mark McCormick...

BA just came out with their rankings of Top 30 prospects in the Cape Code League. Jays usually draft a lot of guys that have played in this league...COMN.

C.

Too bad Matt Miller from UNC is only a soph.

He would look MIGHTY fine in the Jays organization